2022 Year in Review
It’s time to sum up the results of the past year with all the challenges it brought. The year elucidated the role of interpreters and translators in promoting mutual understanding and bridging the communication gap between nations.
Never part with those you love. In 2022, we continued cooperation with our major customers. None of them went out of business or stopped looking for ways to continue working with foreign partners, to find and tap into new markets. As always, they could count on our full help and support.
Linchpin projects. Among the main projects of the year, we would point out the Russian to Chinese and Chinese to Russian interpretation services during the installation, running, testing and commissioning of the processing line. The project took three months, involving work at the sulfuric acid shop of the metallurgical plant. Another significant project of the year was a full cycle website localization into English for the power generating company; the work was done in close collaboration with the customer’s Marketing Department and website administrators. We faced the situations when we had to handle huge amounts of technical documents, complex desktop publishing and tight deadlines as well as had to provide translation of regulations implementing EU sanctions, to assist with consular legalization of high-volume documentation for China and the United Arab Emirates, to translate patents into English and Chinese for the patent organization. In addition, we continued translating books and texts on culture and art.
Rise of the machines. Keeping up with the times, we worked diligently to calculate and set prices for computer-assisted translation to help our customers save on our services when possible. We also kept working on systematization of quality control processes and their compliance with the ISO:17100 international standard establishing quality criteria for translation services.
Our employees are our greatest asset. Throughout the year, we continued to upgrade professional skills of our employees. Customer service managers took sales and marketing courses in translation services and webinars by the Transeller Company, being taught how to effectively handle customer complaints, as well as weekly inhouse courses addressing routine issues (work with projects, documents, etc.). Interpreters, translators, and editors attended online courses of the Summer and Winter on Translation and Interpreting at the Saint Petersburg State University and discussed them during inhouse training sessions. Traditionally, at the end of summer, four representatives of Translit took part in the Translation Forum Russia, which took place in our hometown Ekaterinburg.
Translit, a friend of young people. Another major milestone in the past year was development and launching of project-based training for linguistics students from the Ural Federal University (UFU) and running of three real-life translation projects with participation of student teams. It was a new experience for us, mega-useful both for students and for our company, as it helped us take a deeper look into the process and see flaws in our work on projects. Note that since 2021, Translit has been an official partner of UFU for providing practical training of students majoring in linguistics. In 2022, more than 20 UFU students majoring in linguistics and Middle Eastern Studies had their internships at our company.
Get a cup of coffee and a headset. Most of our employees work remotely, and we do our best to maintain positive team environment. In 2022, we continued our regular 15-minute coffee breaks, during which our employees could discuss their favorite movies, TV shows or any other interesting things, even artificial intelligence, while enjoying a cup of coffee or tea.
Social clubs. Throughout the past year, we continued our monthly meetings at The Conversation Club with our beloved teacher Alexandra. We also started a book club! During the year, we read and discussed such books as The Stacked Text by Maxim Ilyakhov, The Librarian by Mikhail Elizarov, Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, Who Would Have Thought! How the Brain Makes Us Do Stupid Things by Asya Kazantseva, Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko and other wonderful books. On Sundays, our office hosts The Stitch Club for employees and for all interested people; classes are conducted by a professional fashion designer and stylist — a teacher from the Institute of Architecture.
In the spring of 2022, we went on a fantastic trip to Nizhny Tagil where we visited the EVRAZ Nizhny Tagil Metallurgical Plant; in the summer, we went paddle boarding on the Volchikhinskoe storage pond; in the autumn, we, together with our freelancers, celebrated the International Translation Day; and during long winter evenings, we played board games.
This is our year of 2022 in a nutshell. We try not to be disheartened by turbulent news and events; on the opposite, we are becoming more integrated and stronger. We believe that the year of 2023 will bring positive changes, and we keep moving forward, knowing that only the sky is the limit. Stay in touch!
