Note: Live translation for meetings or telephone calls is available near Washington, D.C. for $20/hour. Please check for scheduling conflicts (weekends/evenings are generally best, especially for conferences or seminars). However, translation for conferences and seminars is widely understood to be by far the most challenging translation work, and normally commands more, and we charge $40/hour, plus any unusual travel costs. To ensure a good presentation of your information, it is important for you to go over the subject matter and any unsual terms or jargon with the translator before the event. She has often gone on "cold," and is a true professional, but the quality of your event will be maximized by planning for time before the event for her to be familiarized with your subject.

If your translation will be for business, there are many important issues and questions that most people fail to think about. There is a world of difference between different documents and different translation jobs. Some people want translation simply for general understanding (e.g., to be able to read a letter). In fact nearly all translation is for this basic purpose. Translating for general undestanding does not require the tremendous polishing sometimes needed.

On the other hand, some translation jobs are planned to create a very polished and very professional and serious document in the other language, such as a legal contract, business proposal, advertisement, or marketing brochure. Even when you write in your native English, you would spend 10 times more time and energy to "polish" an advertising brochure, legal contract, or proposal than you would spend in just writing a letter. So, even in your own native language, there is a large degree of variety in how much work you invest into writing different types of documents. This is equally true when a document is translated into another language.

So, it is meaningless to talk about "translation" without considering what the final document needs to be. Will an executive simply scan the translation to be kept informed? Or will you present a formal proposal to a government Ministry in Russian that needs to be in perfect form, and phrased and worded in the most sophisticated and professional style? You would edit and re-edit, proofread and polish such a document in your own native English.

So, ask yourself if you want a translated document that will be read only once and understood (and then thrown in the trash bin). Or will this be an advertising brochure that is used many times, over and over? Will this be a proposal that will win you a contract or not? Does it need to sound like it was originally written by an experienced professional in that subject area? If every word must be chosen with care, to exactly and precisely convey tiny nuances, then this is a VERY different task than simply translating for basic understanding.

Similarly, every language has idioms and sayings that we don't normally stop to think about -- that can cause enormous problems in translation.

Television news on CNBC might report "AT&T is getting into bed with Microsoft, in a joint venture deal announced today." However, if we translate that literally into Russian, the Russian reader will think you are a sexual pervert, or there is a sexual orgy among the executives of the companies. Russians do not use this idiom of businessmen "getting into bed" with each other. There are thousands of such examples in our everyday speech. However, if these are translated literally, they will sound strange or worse. Therefore, to make your translation sound natural, it is important for our translator to understand perfectly what you are saying in English, before trying to say it in Russian (or vice versa). It is also 10 times more work than you imagine.

It is impossible for any translator to be an expert in every profession, industry, or business field What would you think of an English-speaking person who knew all the jargon from all the professions and industries? Such a person would be a genius, earning millions of dollars per year. Therefore, every translator will need to become familiar with your specific jargon and exactly what you are trying to say in order to translate properly.

Every profession, industry, and field of business has its own specialized jargon and terminology. To a financial investor, a "butterfly spread" refers to a combination of stock options (as does a "straddle"). To a biologist, it could be a display of specimen butterflies preserved, and spread out on boards with pins. We use the same words to say totally different things in different subjects and areas of discussion.

Actually, a large part of the work to translate a business proposal, advertising brochure or legal contract is mainly the need to understand the intricate details of the document being translated, to precisely convey every detail. Because you probably cannot read the translated version, it is very important for the translator to spend extra time to know exactly what you want to say, in every detail. Such polished translation takes far more time than a basic translation only for general understanding.

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