Native Reader of English

Letter to Kelley Dupuis, 20 March 2009.

Kelley, I have no ear for languages like N., for example. But what sets me apart from her and almost everybody else is that I am a native reader of English without being a native speaker of it. I started reading in English while not yet in my teens and I have kept at it (though now it's mostly audio books). In fact, I haven't read a novel in Russian since my late teens. This is why my mind functions like that of a native writer of English: when I put pen to paper, I think in English and am more or less incapable of "writing like a foreigner". When I translate, I read a sentence in Russian, grasp the idea behind the wording, think of it as a "pure idea" and then render it into English, using whatever English clichés come to mind. Most other translators (and all computer programs) translate the words.
So there's no real merit in my achievements (unlike in your creative output, for example). In a way, I'm just an idiot savant.