Elena Tereshchenkova / Uncategorized

11 Myths about Translation and Translators

22.09.2015 Uncategorized 24

lThere's a lot of myths about translation and translators. Sometimes they seem to contradict each other. In this post I'm going to debunk some of these myths.   1 Anyone who speaks two languages can be a translator   Translation is a skill. That means that you've got to spend some time on deliberate practice before you become good at it. It's also important to have good writing skills in the target language, know the terminology, be able to do research and use CAT-tools. Are you sure that your friend who studied French at the University 10 years ago is a good choice for translating your website?   2...

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Low translation rates: why working for peanuts is BAD for you

15.09.2015 Uncategorized 9

I often come across great posts written by fellow translators on the subject of low translation rates. Here's a couple of more recent examples for you. The first one is a story shared by Marie Bortnov, a Nl>En medical translator. The second one was published last week by Dmitry Kornyukhov, also known as the Best Russian Translator, on his blog. These two posts made me think of my own reasons to start breaking out of the bulk translations market earlier this year and in this post I want to share them with you.   I won't write about the obvious fact that...

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What I learned during three months of marketing translation business

01.09.2015 Uncategorized 4

I have a confession to make: in spite of the fact that I've been a freelance translator for the past 10 years (virtually my whole career), I'm new at marketing my services. These past three months have opened a whole new world for me and today I wan't to share, what I have learned during this time. This won't be anything ground-breaking, but it might strike a chord with someone like me a little over three months ago.   1 Connect with colleagues   If I had to choose one piece of advice, this would be my absolute favorite. I can't stress enough the...

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You’re genius, what are you doing

25.08.2015 Uncategorized 1

That's a strange title for a post, don't you think? This is the back translation of a phrase I got after translating my site with the help of this service that uses machine translation. This is what Russian-speaking visitors of my website would see on the main page instead of 'You are brilliant at what you do'.   I consider myself to be someone who appreciates innovation. I'm not exactly geeky, but I do enjoy many things our highly technological world has to offer. I believe that we're living at an exciting time.   Remember the moment in Interstellar when Donald says to Cooper:...

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Website Localization: 6 simple tips for startups

18.08.2015 Uncategorized 0

Today I was tweeted at by someone who sent me a link. I clicked it and I had conflicting emotions about what I saw.   It was a landing page for a new service connected with travel and I love travel and everything that has to do with it.   The site had nice design. I’m not a designer, but as an ordinary user I found it appealing. Sleek font, bright colours, nice pictures.   However, there was a couple of things that were ruining the impression for me. They were language related. So I decided to take some time and write this post with a list of...

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Blogging Inspiration

21.07.2015 Uncategorized 0

I knew, I would have a blog from the moment I decided to set up a site. Firstly, it's good to have one for SEO purposes. Secondly, I've always liked Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City and the way she sat in her stylish apartment in front of a small table writing some witty article on her laptop.   One thing that was kind of stopping me was the fear that I won't have enough ideas to write the posts consistently. I guess, many bloggers-to-be have the same doubts. This is why I decided to share my sources of information and inspiration. I deliberately tried to be...

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How much for a page?

17.07.2015 Uncategorized 0

Today's post has been inspired by this article, written by Damian Winkowsky. Damian works at a Polish software house DeSmart. DeSmart does a number of things, including UX design, project management and app development.   By now you might be wondering what all of this has to do with translation rates. Well, it turns out that software development companies and freelance translators face at least one common problem: they're having a hard time trying to get their customers to understand, that what they offer, is not a commodity.   This lack of understanding leads to the situation when the price becomes the most significant factor that influences the...

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Practical tips for translating your hotel website

14.07.2015 Uncategorized 0

Last week I came across this interesting article on managing multi-language hotel web-sites. This is a summary of the points made by Niklas Schlappkohl, senior director of eCommerce at The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, during a recent webinar organized by Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International Europe. His advice is based on the vast experience of the Group in localizing their sites for different markets across the world.   It might be an interesting read both for hotel owners thinking of offering a version of their website in another language, and translators, who like me specialize in this type of translation. For me it was a...

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