A translation teacher profile in the Russian context

The paper discusses the results of a survey of a translation teacher profile in the context of Russian academia. It reveals that there is no integral profile of a translation teacher in Russia today. Translation teachers can be categorized into certain groups according to their initial training, practical experience in translation and age. The survey shows that a significant number of translation teachers have had no translation training. Regardless of their initial training, almost all translation teachers are engaged in practical translation, however only few of them perform translation or interpreting on a regular basis. Among those who teach Translation Theory there are some who have never been taught it, thus they may be regarded as self-educated theorists. Virtually no translation trainers in Russian universities have ever been professionally educated in translation didactics. 75% of the total number of translation teachers have completed short-time advanced training courses, which does not seem to be sufficient to become an experienced translation teacher. A large number of those who do have initial translation training teach translation copying their own teachers. It is doubtful that all of them possess translation mode of thinking and are able to develop it in their students. The overall conclusion is that a comprehensive system for training and retraining translation teachers is required.