Research with Russian-speaking respondents fails quietly when the language is wrong. A survey question translated too literally measures something other than what the client meant to measure; a focus group moderated through an awkward interpreter produces polite answers instead of honest ones. We have supported public opinion and market research agencies for years with the pieces that need a native ear: translation and back-translation of questionnaires and discussion guides, simultaneous interpretation of focus groups for the client team behind the glass, consecutive interpretation of in-depth interviews, and Russian-speaking moderators and telephone interviewers who conduct the sessions themselves.
Focus groups are the most demanding part of this work. The interpreter sits in the observation room and renders a lively, overlapping conversation of eight people in real time, keeping track of who said what, so that the researchers hear the group as it is rather than a tidy summary. Our interpreters have done this for consumer products, pharmaceuticals, political and social surveys and media testing, and they know the difference between a translation and a usable transcript.
We also transcribe and translate recorded sessions afterwards, which many clients find more useful than live interpretation when the analysis will be done later. Tell us the format, the number of sessions and the cities, and we will quote the project as a whole.
