This glossary is intended for English and Russian speakers who work on international cooperation programmes and deal with the international business environment. In this kind of setting, very much depends on communication effectiveness. One of the tools in achieving it is to prevent interference processes through setting up glossaries, because misunderstanding can be avoided when language awareness is taken into account and proper choice of vocabulary is made.

Our experience shows that when preparing for a conference, every experienced interpreter studies the specific vocabulary of the given field, its terminology, jargon and general business expressions.

Elaboration of the European Union’s new terminological system, which is widely used in the official and business circles of modern Europe, presented a real challenge to Russian linguists who were compelled to speedily create a Russian version of the EU terminology equivalents and start teaching it to students of translation in foreign language departments (see: ESP Russia, 1997, NN 6,7).

The Russian equivalents of the English terminology were checked in “Бизнес. Оксфордский толковый словарь” (Business. Oxford Defining Dictionary). Most of the equivalents were found either in “Англо-русский экономический словарь” by Жданова И.Ф., Вартунян Э.Л. (English-Russian Economic Dictionary by I.F. Zhdanova and E.L Vartunian, M.1995) or in “Русско-английский экономический словарь” by Жданова И.Ф. (Russian-English Economic Dictionary by I.F.Zhdanova, М. 1999). Other sources used were Eurospeak: A User’s Guide by Conrad Francois, A Dictionary of the Single Market (Nicholas Breadley Publishing, 1992), “Новый большой англо-русский словарь” by Aпресян Ю.Д. (New Big English-Russian Dictionary by Y.D. Apresian) and Tacis Glossary. This set of dictionaries helped to clarify the meaning of words whose denotations in Russian and European terminology are very similar, though they do not entirely coincide. What is especially significant is that a number of equivalents are presented here for the first time.

Furthermore, it is necessary to emphasize that the given glossary has been set up thanks to the support of Western experts and Russian co-ordinators of the European Union Tacis programme, nd project “Synergy”. Tacis being a European Union programme, we stick to British English here.

One can single out 5 groups of entries:

1. preferred words:
Motorway to highway
Official to civil servant
Ring road to beltway
Non-governmental organizations to non-profit organizations

2. words whose denotations are very similar but do not entirely coincide, or the corresponding Russian terminology is only at the stage of formation:
steering committee – управляющий комитет
memorandum of understanding – меморандум о намерениях
terms of reference – техническое задание
stakeholder – ведущие руководители
NGO Non-Governmental Organizations – общественные и некоммерческие организации
Inflow/outflow tourism – въездной/выездной туризм
Independent tourism – cамодеятельный туризм (спортивный, приключенческий)
Off-season tourism – туризм в несезонное время
Institutional – институциональный
SME small and medium sized enterprises – малые и средние предприятия

3. complete absence of the denotation for a word in Russian culture:
PPP public private partnership – частно-общественное партнерство
SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis – SWOT анализ (сильных сторон, слабых сторон, возможностей и риска)
Logframe approach – логико-структурный подход (введен Агенством международного развития США)

4. complete absence of the denotation for a word in Western culture:
datcha – дача
Oblast – область (when it is a subject of the Federation)

5. words whose meanings are often misinterpreted by Russian speakers:
issue – проблема (на уровне вопроса) vs problem – проблема (серьезная) – question – вопрос (может носить проблемный характер)
economic – экономический vs economical – эконономичный efficiency – эффективность, действенность, производительность vs effectiveness – эффективность, действенность (the result that was wanted or intended, impressive or interesting enough to be noticed)
stable – cтабильный (steady) vs sustainable (continued or lasting for long) – cтабильный (неуклонный, неизменный): sustainable economic growth
legal (allowed or approved by law or concerned with or connected with law) – законный
judicial (connected with a court of law, judges, or their decisions) – судебный
juridical (connected with judges or law) – юридический, правовой
wasteland – заброшенные земли vs dump site – свалка
fresh water – пресная вода
water supply – водопровод
hazardous – вредный vs detrimental – приносящий ущерб vs deteriorative –разрушительный

The names of administrative structures and structural units, which fairly often occur in business card translations, can also cause misunderstanding:
Сommittee - комитет
Board – cовет директоров
Division – отделение, раздел, сектор организации (часто полицейской или военной)
Department - департамент, управление, служба, группа людей, входящих в большую организацию, может быть на уровне министерства (the Department of Transport)
Section – one of the parts of an institution, department, organization – отдел, секция