I have been working as a full-time translator for the last year, and for most of this time I have been working with two Moscow-based translation agencies on the 2014 Russian Winter Olympics project. I have translated everything so far from fairly simple press releases to construction blueprints for the ice hockey stadium. Six years of language training in the Russian department has afforded me my competency in Russian, but Professor Phillips' advanced grammar classes were particularly invaluable. Granted, at the time when I was a student I had no idea that I would be earning money through freelance translation. I thought perhaps I would go on to become a Russian literature professor, and that may still happen yet. But in light of the work I am doing now, I can say that all the vocabulary drills, extensive and intensive reading exercises and translation that we did in RSSS 415/515 was great preparation for becoming a translator. For example, on an almost hourly basis I need to be able to distinguish between the different types of participles and correctly translate aspectual differences in verb usage. These are just two of the grammatical hallmarks of Professor Phillips' classes, but they are very relevant to the bureaucratic and technical Russian that I mostly work with.
