Why podcasts?

This post continues a series of posts suggesting resources specifically for Russian language interpreters. The first post listed some books in Russian that I think will be helpful for healthcare interpreters. In this article, we`ll turn our attention to Russian-language podcasts.

As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, when people live abroad, it can be difficult to find opportunities to maintain their native language. Personally, I was alarmed to discover that, despite my recent trip to Russia and the fact that I keep in touch with friends and family back in Russia, I was completely unaware of a new trend in the Russian language: feminization of certain job names. For example, it is suggested that a female blogger should be called блогерка (blogerka) and a female author авторка (avtorka). I actually heard my good friend Yana use these words, but since I’d never heard them before I blithely assumed that my dear friend was using Ukrainian words, as she often does (and thus helps me learn Ukranian without trying). To my surprise, I heard the very same words in a new podcast about the Russsian language and linguistics. The moral of the story that podcasts are a very handy tool in an interpreter’s arsenal and a good way to keep your ear to the ground when it comes to new trends in the Russian language. And if you need more convincing, here are a few other reasons to listen to podcasts:

If you’re anything like me, you spend a lot of time on your phone. In addition, as an interpreter, you probably spend a lot of time driving, commuting or walking between appointments and waiting for the patient to show up. In addition, you might get easily bored when doing chores or walking your dog or going for a morning run. For all these times, podcasts are the answer.
When listening to medical podcasts, you’re actively developing your personal medical glossary and furthering your knowledge of all things medicine.
When listening to non-medical podcasts, you are maintaining your Russian language, keeping up to date with modern Russian words and expressions as well as the Russian culture, attitudes, and mentality. All of the above are important things for an interpreter to know.

Continue reading “Resources for Russian Medical Interpreters Part 2: Podcasts” →

If like me, you are living in the US and working as a medical interpreter (or planning to become one), you are surrounded by the English language – and the endless opportunities to improve your knowledge of all things medicine through watching TV, reading books and listening to podcasts. – or picking up brochures on various diseases and procedures every time you are in a medical office. Indeed, when I first started preparing for my interpreter exam, I realized that, despite being a native speaker of Russian, it was my Russian language I needed to work on more. After all, my husband and I speak English at home, the majority of my friends are English speakers and my work at the time (teaching English) involved, as you can guess, mostly speaking English. So I set about improving my Russian – in particular, medical terminology and language for speaking about healthcare in general. I used a wide variety of resources to help me in this endeavor. For example, there are medical dialogues and bilingual patient handouts that you can use to build up your terminology and interpreting skills (check out this post on general healthcare resources and this one on interpreting for cancer care). But because I believe that stimulating input is a key factor in learning, I also leaned heavily on books and podcasts, which I read and listen to when waiting in between interpreting assignments, doing housework, walking my dog, hiking etc. In this post, I`ll share a list of Russian-language books about doctors and medicine. In the following posts, I`ll share some recommendations for Russian-language podcasts and some other healthcare-related resources.

Continue reading “Resources for Russian Medical Interpreters Part 1: Books” →