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Studying foreign languages/ language barriers

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Michael, 63 y.o.

United States

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Recommended Translation Services

Hello, does anyone have a translation service they can recommend? Looking for translation of emails by a human, not machine translation. We have been using the website translation as well as other online services and are still having much confusion and misunderstandings. It’s very frustrating. Also, what is a fair price to expect for such service? Languages to be translated are Russian and English. Thanks for any suggestions.


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Ben


It depends on several factors:
1) what subject matter? (commodities / technical / business...)
2) what is a "fair price"? Do you intend to pay a package fee? Per hour? Per page? Per line? Per word?
How many languages do you need?
By when do you need what? (Tight deadlines cost more than when there's ample time).

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Michael, 63 y.o.

United States

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Reply to Ben on View the commented comment

Thanks for your reply Ben. In my immediate case it is only ordinary emails so a business level or certified translation is probably overkill. Overnight service should be adequate for now. I have realized very quickly that a lot of subtle nuances are lost by the machine translator, ending up with a sentence or paragraph that means nothing to the other person even though the literal meaning of the individual words were correct. I’m about to try a service for the price of six cents per word. Does that price seem reasonable ? I will see very quickly if the extra quality is worth paying for vs struggling to phrase things for the machine translator.

I have seen references on the forum to couples using translators so I thought that an inexpensive service that most people were happy with using might exist.

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Michael, 63 y.o.

United States

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Reply to Ben on View the commented comment

The problem I’m having using the machine translation is with the words and phrases we use in ordinary conversation that mean more than the literal translation of each word. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” if you will.
There is so much of our daily communication that heavily depends on having a common cultural knowledge of the context. For example, in one letter, the lady used words that literally translated as “stand up with my girlfriend “ , in the US, that phrase is commonly used if you are supporting a friend such as being a bridesmaid. So I asked if her girlfriend was getting married, of course she wasn’t, apparently that phrase in Russian as she used it means something more like “hanging out with my girlfriend”. These misunderstandings are amusing between pen pals but when you are trying to determine if there’s enough connection to meet, then it’s a hindrance.
It’s hard to decide if the benefits of less confusion will be worth the cost. Both parties struggling together with the machine translator creates a bond of its own I suppose.


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Gerd


Das Übersetzen ist sehr teuer, ich habe einen Translator der neusten Art der sehr zuverlässig ist und den ich nur empfehlen kann .
Alles andere, bis auf einen Dolmetzscher-Service in Berlin ist noch empfehlenswert ! (Botschaftsviertel> Unter den Linden < 

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Irina, 40 y.o.

Russia

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Reply to Ben on View the commented comment

почему нельзя бесплатно помогать ?





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