ASU Alumnus Told Young Colleagues about China and High-Tech in Translation

Maksim Morkovkin, an alumnus of Astrakhan State University, has participated in the project "Experience of the Generation", shared the history of his first professional steps with ASU graduates-to-be and gave valuable practical tips.

The meeting was initiated by the project authors — the Sector of Russian-Asian Cooperation and the Department of Asian Languages. In 2007, Maksim was enrolled at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Astrakhan State University. Being a fresher, Maksim already got a chance to study in China within an educational grant. He headed for Wuhan, where he studied at Central China Normal University for 4 years and successfully completed the BA study programme "Modern Chinese Language". Then he applied for another grant, won it and continued his studies at the same university, this time taking an MA programme. The student also started exploring the Chinese market and building up his first experience as a translator and interpreter.

The guest told the 2-4th-year Chinese students how they can keep studying at the university and at the same time register at translation and interpreting services and hone their T& I practical skills, as well as gain their first profit.

Now Maksim works in Smartcat — the company that created a famous same-name system of computer-aided translation. It was Astrakhan State University that helped Maksim nominate his candidacy and projects. Having come back to his hometown, he revived university contacts, and his former teachers invited him to participate in Translation Forum Russia, the largest European conference in the sphere of translation, interpreting and localization. This very event gave Maksim an opportunity to discuss his employment with Smartcat representatives. The project "Experience of the Generation" allowed Maksim to share his valuable practical findings with the young listeners who, in their turn, asked some questions to the guest and outlined for themselves new areas of development and advancement.