Translation English to Russian » Russian Translation http://www.smart-translation.net High Quality and affordable translation English to Russian Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:09:21 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.smart-translation.net http://www.smart-translation.net/wp-content/mbp-favicon/animated_favicon.gif Translation English to Russian Need A Translator? http://www.smart-translation.net/translation-english-to-russian/need-a-translator/ http://www.smart-translation.net/translation-english-to-russian/need-a-translator/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:46:40 +0000 admin http://www.smart-translation.net/?p=121 I watch the developments of the situation on the translation scene. From one side, there is a growing demand in professional translators, especially Russian translators; from the other side, the rates are growing down. The reason partially is in possibility to grab a student from the street to cut expenses. I wonder where the boundaries are? And what happens to a professional translation?

In Scotland recently translation companies have undercut market rates to win the contracts to supply interpreters to Scottish courts and other government services. A court interpreter said the new conditions meant interpreters were effectively being forced to work for less than the minimum wage. It takes many years of practice and training to get to a level that is sufficiantly competent to carry out intricate work in a high pressured environment like court. A lot of interpreters and translators are forced out of the profession because of the low rates of pay.

For better value for money and greater efficiency a professional translator should be engaged.

I, as a professional English Russian translator, am supposed to provide a high quality translation, carry out all the stages of translation myself and as a result to receive less than a minimum payment. I think, OK, at least I have an experience and I am in demand. But I would rather take part in projects for non-profit organisations for free. At least I have a feeling of fulfillment and commitment. And I do what I personally love – translating from English to Russion and from Russian to English.

]]> http://www.smart-translation.net/translation-english-to-russian/need-a-translator/feed/ 0 LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION http://www.smart-translation.net/translation-english-to-russian/literature-in-translation/ http://www.smart-translation.net/translation-english-to-russian/literature-in-translation/#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:36:32 +0000 admin http://www.smart-translation.net/?p=97 There are few interesting tendencies to observe in today’s post.

Everybody is following the collisions in the web. Two media: internet and publishing business are watching each other and waiting for any blunder from each other’s side to grasp the situation and act immediately. If there is an article missing in a magazine; there is an immediate campaign on internet to publish the notorious article in translation, so that the readers can still read it.

So you can see the words ‘Russian translation’ everywhere nowadays. Russia achieved the pick of its popularity; I mean there is a lot of interest in what happens in Russia. It arouses many questions. So I guess, that Russian translators, like myself, are facing a new era.

And another tendency.

As the world gets smaller, readers are turning toward foreign fiction to understand other viewpoints. Far from being just the province of small independent publishing houses, literature in translation has become a mainstream phenomenon, with books that inspire huge bidding wars and literary debates.

There are very talented works of today’s young Russian writers, who speak modern Russian life to the world. And their stories are not lost in translation. Smart translation.

It is nice to believe, that people’s interest in Russian modern literature is growing. So the question is: can a philosophical novel, exploring the question of whether good can exist without evil, like “The Master and Margarita” be translated in such a way that it reads smoothly and fluidly like a bestseller?

Can we talk about a new translation, when, each phrase used in it appeared easily accessible and had a good rhythm. The characters are readily distinguishable from one another.

And the last but not the least. The top 10 countries ranked by Common Sense Advisory’s report “Countries That Matter Most Online in 2009″: U.S., Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, China and Australia. The top 10 languages that provide the biggest bang for a business’ buck are: English, Japanese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, Russian and Swedish.

Even in far New Zealand there is a growing interest in the Russian phenomenon. I happened to be one of the first readers of the science fiction novel where the author tries to penetrate the Russian psyche in order to understand the modern history of the western mankind. The translation of this talented book would become a highlight of my carrier as a translator.

]]> http://www.smart-translation.net/translation-english-to-russian/literature-in-translation/feed/ 0 Translating machines or native speakers? http://www.smart-translation.net/russian-translation/translating-machines-or-native-speakers/ http://www.smart-translation.net/russian-translation/translating-machines-or-native-speakers/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:32:53 +0000 admin http://www.smart-translation.net/?p=85 One of the tendencies in translation business is putting too much faith in translating machines and too little faith in the best reference resource, native language speakers. That the best translation programs may still mangle 20 to 30 percent of a text is no reason to abandon machines altogether. Take advantage of what they’re good at: translating obscure terms and speedily producing rough-draft renditions of sentences, paragraphs and bigger chunks of text. The tricky part comes once the machine is through, of course: you have to separate the wheat from the chaff – that is, отделить пшеницу от мякины, according to the Russian translation quickly found using Yahoo’s free Babel Fish translator.

As a well-known phrase with Biblical roots, “wheat from chaff” wasn’t much of a challenge for the program – and was easy  to back-check. But what about the Russian-to-English rendering of an everyday, highly idiomatic phrase, the kind a machine might easily mess up – like “Как ты меня достал!”, for example, which should come out “I’ve had it with you!”, “Enough already!” or something similar?

Babel Fish renders it “As you reached me!”, alas – but how can a Russian speaker quickly determine that this is off base? In this case apply another “program”: native English speakers or bilingual translators.

Cross-checking must be done judiciously, of course, as many cases are quite subtle or tricky.

All right, machines can do wonders for your translation powers if you check your expectations and back-check your results.

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