Language Barrier

We knew the language barrier would be difficult. We had no idea it would be as difficult as it has been. Using our experience in Doha, and information received from current colleagues before we arrived, we knew that getting around, and shopping and general life in the city would be a challenge. But, Mark expected life in the office to be a little easier, as the organizing committee is a bilingual environment.

However, Mark quickly learned that the office environment is primarily in Russian. Meetings, presentations and email communication are almost all in Russian. He uses Google Translate constantly. He has to copy and paste them into the program to translate them from Russian to English. If there is not a colleague nearby who can translate for him in meetings, he sits there and tries to figure out what is going on. He can request a translator from language services, but in the environment he’s in, meetings sometime happen quickly and he has yet to settle into a routine that would allow him to request the translator 24 hours in advance, as required.

So, why is it so much harder than we expected? Well, a number of things contribute to this. In Doha, nearly every server, cashier, attendant or any other service oriented individual was an expat. Usually, they were from the Philippines, India or Nepal. They went out of their way to do their best to learn and speak English to expats, because we stood out. We didn’t dress like local Qataris and we didn’t look like them. So, when we entered a store or restaurant, they immediately knew we didn’t speak Arabic, and the English conversation ensued. In the office in Doha, expats were the norm. Whether from the US, Australia, the UK, Italy or Greece, we all spoke English, not Arabic. As a guess, maybe only ten percent of the organizing committee in Doha was local. In Moscow, however, of the 600+ employees of the organizing committee, 18 of us are expats. Many of Mark’s Russian colleagues speak very good English. Yet, understandably, when the audience is predominantly Russian speaking, it is easier and natural to speak in Russian. All presentations are in Russian because the time and cost of having it officially translated is not efficient. Cyrillic does not translate to English directly. Even using Google, often times words are left out or added and the message is not clear. Thus, an official translation is necessary to be sure the correct message is sent; and as already mentioned, this is not possible for each and every PowerPoint or timeline produced. So, Mark is left to spend A LOT of time asking questions of his bilingual colleagues in Logistics and translating emails, documents and presentations. Mark has spent the majority of his first three weeks reading policies and operating plans; mostly through translating the documents. Some things are bilingual, but the majority is not. As far as getting around the city, we fit in very well…until we open our mouths. People approach us in stores and speak Russian to us because we look just like two of the 142 million+ Muscovites who call Moscow home!

It is completely understandable that many locals do not speak English. The only problem is we were given the impression that many in Moscow would speak at least some English and few would speak English in Sochi, or anywhere else outside of Moscow. The reality is few speak English in Moscow, or they are unwilling to speak English and expect us to speak Russian. This has made getting around difficult. Shopping has been an adventure. We use apps on our phones constantly. We enter words into the app so we can see the Russian translation to make sure what we’re looking to buy is milk; not yogurt, cream or some other dairy product. Also, we make sure the meat we’re buying at the shop is beef; not horse! Yeah, we figure we’ll try horse eventually. But, we want it prepared right and the horse that is in the canned meat section is certainly not going to be the first horse meat we try! Many in the shops do not speak English and getting assistance has been difficult. We do our best with our phrase books and translators, but it is not enough to bridge the gap.

Ultimately, we need to learn Russian. We are getting by, but every day is a struggle. The office environment is taxing due to the communication barrier. Life in the city is trying for the same reason. We started our first Russian language course TODAY, 13 June. Hopefully, things will get much easier as we begin to assimilate into the community. But, up to now, every day has been challenging. As always though, there have been many, many individuals that have gone out of their way to help us. We have found that many locals speak very good English, but they are self-conscious of their ability and feel uncomfortable speaking it. We have had people, young and old come to our aid when there was a problem or disagreement with things. Danielle had a woman help her order at a restaurant when Danielle's broken Russian from the phrase book just wasn’t cutting it. Another time, an older gentleman who we see almost every night (we'll call him our friend), helped us when another man was unhappy about us being in the park with the girls. In fact, when we saw "our friend" a couple of nights later, we tried to thank him for his help. All he could say was "I don't speak English. I am a communist." This one statement helped us realize that people are not giving us grief because we're Americans and they are Russian. They are giving us grief because they are assholes! It has nothing to do with Nationality, communism or capitalism. Some people are nice and helpful. Others, are not.


The point is that there are countless people who have gone out of their way to help us. The majority of individuals we have dealt with are great. Mark’s coworkers are also great. It is just difficult to communicate with them at times. We have only been here for three weeks and things are already getting better. However, more work is required on our part to make sure we are putting forth the effort to communicate in Russian. Our classes will help with that. So, if you’re looking to come and visit for an extended period of time, do yourself a favor and learn a few basic words or phrases. Это не так сложно. просто нужно время!