Speaker (Japanese)
こんばんは。予約している田中です。
Добрый вечер. У меня забронирован номер, моя фамилия Танака.
こんにちは Привет
Live translation
Japanese ↔ Russian
through one pair of earbuds.
Share an earbud. Pick Japanese and Russian. Each of you hears the other in your own language, live.
A sample exchange
Three turns between Japanese and Russian, the way they'd actually go. Each card shows the original line above the translation.
Speaker (Russian)
Добро пожаловать, господин Танака. Ваш номер на пятом этаже, завтрак с семи часов.
田中様、ようこそお越しくださいました。お部屋は5階で、朝食は7時からです。
Speaker (Japanese)
ありがとうございます。Wi-Fiのパスワードも教えていただけますか？
Спасибо. Подскажите, пожалуйста, ещё пароль от вай-фая.
What metcha supports for this pair
| Japanese | Russian | |
|---|---|---|
| Apple on-device translation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deepgram cloud STT | ✓ | ✓ |
| iOS built-in voices | ✓ | ✓ |
| ElevenLabs premium voices (Plus) | 4 voices | 2 voices |
| Voice cloning (Plus, your voice) | ✓ | ✓ |
Why metcha for this pair
Japan and Russia are neighbors, and the pair sees steady if modest use: business contacts, tourism in both directions, and Russian-speaking residents and students in Japan. The languages share nothing structurally, Cyrillic versus kanji and kana, Russian case endings versus Japanese particles, so literal translation often reads stiff. Most tools treat this non-English pair as second-class; metcha's Better Translation path on metcha Plus translates directly between Japanese and Russian with conversational context, matching Russian вы to the right です／ます register.
Common phrases
Hand-picked phrases for everyday Russian-speaking situations. In metcha you don't need to memorize these — but they're useful to anchor what the app sounds like before you try it.
- Greeting
-
Japanese: こんにちは、はじめまして。
Russian: Здравствуйте, очень приятно.
- Thank you
-
Japanese: 本当にありがとうございます。
Russian: Большое спасибо.
- Apology
-
Japanese: すみません、わかりません。
Russian: Извините, я не понимаю.
- Directions
-
Japanese: 一番近い地下鉄の駅はどこですか？
Russian: Подскажите, где ближайшая станция метро?
- Ordering
-
Japanese: おすすめは何ですか？
Russian: Что вы посоветуете?
- Allergy
-
Japanese: ナッツアレルギーがあります。
Russian: У меня аллергия на орехи.
- Bill
-
Japanese: お会計をお願いします。
Russian: Счёт, пожалуйста.
- Hotel
-
Japanese: [名前]で予約しています。
Russian: У меня бронь на имя [имя].
- Pharmacy
-
Japanese: 頭痛の薬はありますか？
Russian: У вас есть что-нибудь от головной боли?
- Wifi
-
Japanese: Wi-Fiのパスワードを教えていただけますか？
Russian: Подскажите, пожалуйста, пароль от вай-фая.
Where you'd use it
- Hotel front desks in Japan serving Russian-speaking guests For hotels →
- Business meetings between Japanese and Russian-speaking partners
- Russian-speaking residents and students in Japan handling everyday errands
Common questions
- Does metcha translate Russian to Japanese as well as Japanese to Russian?
- Yes, both directions run in the same session. When someone speaks Japanese, the other person hears it in Russian; when they reply in Russian, you hear it in Japanese. There is no direction to configure and no turn-taking button. See how it works for the full walkthrough.
- Is Japanese ↔ Russian translation in metcha on-device or cloud?
- Both. metcha's free tier uses Apple's on-device Translation framework where supported (available for both Japanese and Russian). metcha Plus optionally routes through a Better Translation cloud path for more natural phrasing, with a quiet fallback to the on-device path when the network is slow.
- Do I need both AirPods to use metcha for Japanese and Russian?
- No. The simplest mode is one earbud each — you keep one, the other person keeps the other. metcha handles both directions through that single shared pair. If you'd rather both wear your own earbuds, you can pair a second phone in seconds via a QR code (still no app install for the other person).
- What about regional accents within Russian?
- metcha's Deepgram STT path handles major regional variants of Russian robustly. The on-device path is more sensitive to accent — if you find the free path missing words, switching to the metcha Plus cloud STT usually fixes it without changing anything else about the conversation.
- Does it work without internet?
- The free on-device path works fully offline once the relevant Apple Translation language packs are downloaded. metcha Plus features that depend on Deepgram, Better Translation, or ElevenLabs voices need a network connection.
- How many voices does metcha ship for Russian?
- 2 curated native-Russian voices on metcha Plus, plus all iOS built-in voices on the free tier (and any Enhanced or Premium voices you've installed in Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content).
- Are conversations private?
- metcha does not store conversations on our servers, and none of our providers retain audio for training. The free on-device path never sends audio off your phone at all. See the privacy policy for the full data-handling story.