Russia

["Tom Johnson" <johnsont -at- starcutter -dot- com>]

 I can't quite speak for Russia, but I was in Ukraine two 
 years ago. I had the hardest time trying to explain what I do 
 for a living. There was no translation for "technical 
 writer." If I remember correctly, TW falls into the hands of 
 the engineers and programmers. STC's Intercom had an article 
 about TW in Russia just a few months ago. You would benefit 
 from reading that article.
 
 You might want to be careful what business you get into over 
 there. If you haven't been following the story, a Russian 
 programmer was arrested for giving a talk about the 
 weaknesses of the Adobe Acrobat security features. In the 
 past week or so he was allowed to leave the country under an 
 agreement that he would testify against the Russian company 
 he worked for. I have nothing against the Russians, but they 
 have a different set of rules over there. What they may 
 consider a legitimate business in Russia could be considered 
 a threat to our security. You could end up working on 
 something that might be disagreeable with most Americans. 
 
 Have fun in Russia! My visit to Ukraine was a wonderful 
 experience. My host families, from the churches I visited, 
 were extremely gracious and friendly. Outside of that, there 
 were a few unnerving episodes. In the interest of technical 
 communication, I'll share one. A small group of us were 
 walking down a dark street. We were talking in English and 
 heard footsteps approach us from behind. Once the people 
 caught up to us, they hung back just a few feet behind us. 
 That was kind of unusual because we were carrying our bags 
 and walking slowly. I very quietly said to the other two, "I 
 don't like these people walking behind us." Immediately, they 
 passed us and then stopped in front of us. Uh-oh. It turned 
 out that they had heard me say, "I don't like them" instead 
 of "I don't like them being behind us." It goes to show how 
 dangerous it can be to partially understand what someone is 
 saying. They understood the words, but they didn't understand 
 the meaning. How often do we do that with our SME's? Andrew 
 Plato is right, we do need to become experts in the subject matter.
 
 Tom Johnson
 231-264-5661 voice
 231-264-5663 fax
 
 Work       johnsont -at- starcutter -dot- com
 Personal  tjohnson -at- i2k -dot- com
 
 -----Original Message-----
Harry Thompson wrote

> > Time for the next family move and I'm wondering where my 
> > career prospects
> > will fit in (other than becoming a househusband). There is a 
> > very strong
> > possibility that I may have to follow my significant other to 
> > Moscow at the
> > end of next year for a three-year posting. I'd like to know 
> > if any of you
> > have any info on the tech writing possibilities available 
> > (obviously I'm not
> > asking to get the crystal ball out here). Although I pick 
> up languages
> > quickly and am beginning lessons, I don't speak Russian yet.
> > I've been working in software documentation for the last two 
> > years and think
> > it would be a shame to go back to teaching English just 
> > because it's the
> > only thing available. I was so happy when I finally got out 
> > of it. TEFL work
> > is white slavery in my book and I'd rather coax info out of 
> > programmers with
> > a well-placed pain au raisin any day!
> > I appreciate any insights you may have to offer.
> > Harry


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