Andrei Shmatkov

Orientation session at STIBC

admin — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 21:38:12 +0000

Attended the orientation session at the Society of Translators and Interpreters of British Columbia. Met a lot of fellow translators working in different language combinations and subject areas. If you ever need translations in language pairs other than English to Russian and English to Belarusian, please contact me and I will connect you to some of my colleagues. In general, session was very useful - got some useful tips and did a lot of networking. Still thinking and hesitating if it is worthwhile to get certified - I am not afraid of the certification exam (though many people say it is pretty tough), but I am not sure if the certification will bring me more clients...

Joined STIBC

admin — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:16:08 +0000

Recently joined the Society of Translators and Interpreters of British Columbia (STIBC). Hope it will help me both to increase my translation client base and network with my colleagues.

Russian translations in Vancouver BC Canada

admin — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:51:10 +0000

Now we are also present in Canada! Please contact us for your all Russian and Belarusian translation needs. All translations are handled by native speakers only.

Life as a Translator

admin — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:37:57 +0000

Come across an excellent article by Roger Chriss:
"Few people have any idea what it is that translators do. Some people argue that translators don't actually do anything because they are not creating anything new. Most people accept that what translators do is work, even if they don't understand how translators do what they do, or for that matter in what kind of environment a translator works."
Read more...

Low rates today in return of large volumes tomorrow

admin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:20:04 +0000

One of my potential clients (translation agency) asked me for a quote in the English-Belarusian pair. I sent them my quote. Their reply was more than expected – provide us a lower rate now and we will guarantee a large and stable workload for you in future. Well-well.. I have been around the block more than once, so I never agree to such "deals".

English-Russian translations in Limassol, Cyprus

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 09:34:22 +0000

A member of our Russian translation community (http://3rtranslations.com) has moved to Limassol, Cyprus. If you need translation or interpretation services in this location, please contact me for more details.

Translators/Interpreters in Minsk and other places in Belarus

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 10:07:54 +0000

A bit of advertisement self-promotion

Planning a business trip to Belarus? I can meet you in Minsk airport, take you to a hotel, arrange your meetings and interpret for you. If I am not available, I can recommend a colleague of mine. Please contact me for more details.

Client paid only a half of the contract amount

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:59:04 +0000

A colleague of mine (actually my wife ) did a translation for a German agency called "tsd Technik Sprachendienst GmbH". As the deadline for this project was pretty tight, the agency split the project between two translators. My wife submitted her part in time, the agency confirmed receipt. When the payment date came, the agency wrote a message saying that "the end client is not happy with the translation" and they wouldn't pay the PO amount in full. No explanations whatsoever! So the agency ended up with paying only 50% of the invoice amount, now they do not reply to any e-mails. I decided to publish this malpractice - let it be a warning for my colleagues!

P.S. I will post updates if there is any development...

Discounts for larger translation jobs

admin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:17:05 +0000

I am often approached by potential clients who offer me "bulk projects" at lower rates. Though I am always willing to provide discounts for larger translation jobs (with the word count of 10000 words and more), I cannot just "work more and get less". Anyway, I try to quote every project individually, so we usually find common ground with my clients.

Translations, CATs and discounts

admin — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 13:28:09 +0000

First of all, CATs have nothing to do with pets
This abbreviation stands for Computer Aided Translation tools. The majority of professional translators use these tools when working on the translations. CATs help to analyze the scope of work, provide consistency throughout different files and projects and save time (as there is no need to translate texts that have been translated before). Important note: working with CATs and translation memories has nothing to do with machine or automatic translations - all the work is still done by humans. However, all the results of this work are saved for future use.
As you see, these tools make the life of translators much easier. Well, not only for them - by saving time and efforts translators can provide good discounts to their clients, so it is beneficial for both parties involved