Is it worth for me as a freelance Russian translator in Manhattan to start my own translation company?

My husband told me the other day: "Instead of working for others, why don`t you start something of you own, where you are going to be the boss and where you can delegate most of work to others?" That`s a good question - why don`t I? At least at the first look it seems like not a big deal: register your domain, create a nice impressive website, work your SEO and be patient - the clients will start flooding in a month or two. Translator`s work has its own advantages, among which is the fact that we don`t need any special bulky equipment - no ladders, no sewing machines, no paints or hammers etc. Just a neat laptop & a couple of the latest translation software packages. Maybe some papers and a pen for making notes. But that`s pretty much it - omnia mea mecum porto so to say. (: But on the other side, the main disadvantage is that every second self-respecting linguist has already his own website, his own translation agency, which he/she is "pimping" around in the virtual universe. So, do I want to join the rat race of competing with hundreds of other linguists? Since unless you really stand out and have truly great testimonials and reliable clientele that trusts you, the obscurity for your business is guaranteed. Hence, for now, I am following the middle track - just working as a hired hand. But who knows, maybe in a month or a year, you will see the logo of my newly created company flashing in some Google ads.

I wonder if somebody created a Kickstarter for translators - how popular the site would be?

On the regular crowd-funding sites translation projects usually do not get a lot of attention and cannot boast the same popularity as for example underwear, organic toilet paper or computer game campaigns can. It is a shame in a way because interest in artistic translation projects equals education and a sophisticated view-point. Hence, the conclusion I can make is that most people backing other`s creative endeavours are not that sophisticated ): And yes, why would anybody want to back the fifth translation of Goethe`s Faust into English? Were the first four attempts to deliver him in Shakespeare`s language not good enough? It`s hard to explain to an average reader that perhaps a modern time translator would choose the phrases more understandable and popular among this generation. There are so many worthy contemporary authors worthy of being presented to foreign audiences, a lot of Russian writers among them. Hopefully some of them will get translated and if not by means of crowd funding, then at least by some grants given out by high-brow institutions such as European Union Cultural Heritage Fund etc.

Renata Litvinova in English Translation - Is She an Unreachable Goal for Russian Translators?

I finished reading Renata Litvinova`s collection of novels and scripts today. I was always an admirer of her quirky way of delivering the lines as well as presenting the written texts. I googled Renata Litvinova`s books but nothing came up. I guess no Russian translator until now took up the challenge of working with her whimsical prose. If I had more time I would probably dip my "translator`s toes" into her writing in spite of the fact that it is extremely poetic and melodic and a lot of sentences are edging on silence, are defined by the emphasizes that only a local native Russian speaker would understand. Her works are like an ever-changing color paint palette, like an asymmetrically built butterfly, like a resurrected God that never existed. Anyway, these lines of mine show perfectly well that I got my quote of inspiration for today. (:

Sometimes paperwork issues can be the biggest obstacle...

I`m dealing with this one company that I have been trying to get to accept my paperwork for at least four months now. The problem is that I cannot figure out how to fill out the PDF they sent me still in 2012. At first I printed out the pages and faxed them to the company but they notified me that they needed it in the original PDF format emailed back to them. So I filled it out. For some reason it looks perfectly fine when I fill it out on Mac laptop - I can see every typed phrase but then when I save and send it to them - the project manager tells me that my answers are not visible. I tried on a PC computer but the same old story. I went to Kinkos hoping that their computers in some mysterious way would grant me the desired visible answers but nope. Still invisible. Well, I gave up and admitted to the company manager that I was unable to produce the required answers in the PDF file and the response I got - the encouraging: please try again... (: Should I try again? ):

Weighted Word Count - How fair it is to us, translators?

This trick of the translation software industry really makes me feel like my skills are undervalued sometimes. Yes, I understand if half of the text is filled with 100% repetitions - then a discount is surely applicable but all these 95%, 85% matches. Should it be not at the discretion of the translator to give a discount for those? Why is the machine-calculated amount more fair? I prefer to give the estimates in the old fashioned way - counting every word at the same rate.

A legal term - to translate from English into Russian or just leave it in its Latin original form?

I was rather perplexed by an obscure legal term the other day during the deposition when the opposing parties were throwing verbal fireballs. I am used to interpreting at such events and the legal specialized vernacular does not sound foreign to me. But this particular term "contra-proferentem" got me stuck. I should admit I need to brush up my legal terminology originating in Latin. Well, I managed to look up the meaning on Wikipedia and here what it said: "Contra proferentem (Latin: "against [the] offeror"),[1] also known as "interpretation against the draftsman", is a doctrine of contractual interpretation providing that, where a promise, agreement or term is ambiguous, the preferred meaning should be the one that works against the interests of the party who provided the wording." I believe one could translate it as "толкование против составителя". At the deposition though, I just kept the Latin version, which sounded rather persuasive. (:

Am I stuck in my high rate treadmill?

When I get contacted by some translation companies based in New York enquiring about my quote on a certain project, I give my standard rate, which I know, is higher than the one that a larger half of translators` gang charges. And I am not talking about those disadvantaged linguists sitting somewhere in India, provincial areas of Russia, Ukraine or elsewhere - I am talking about those who inhabit the money-making capital of US, that is New York. Everybody is trying to win over the competitors and have an edge by cutting their rate. But what is the point of undervaluing your skills, your time, your energy? I prefer to miss out on those obscenely cheap gigs and pick up some supersize assignment that will pay according to my conditions. It is better not to disperse your creative spirit. So, sometimes I get a response - sorry but we already found somebody else or even this (in order not to be so bluntly insensitive): since we choose the translators on "first come - first serve basis", we had to pick somebody else. Never mind that I responded to their email the moment it got sent. (: What is that, the store give-away or the restaurant reward program? He-he - who knows maybe one day I will join the brotherhood of translators` rat-race but for now I stand my ground.

My dilemma being a bilingual Russian and Ukrainian translator and interpreter

At times when I fill out online questionnaires and translation companies` applications, I face the need to choose between claiming Russian or Ukrainian as my main "strong" language. In such cases I usually feel frustrated when the application does not give me the option of putting both of them as main working languages. I choose Russian most of the time because there is bigger demand for it in comparison to Ukrainian. But, on the second thought, maybe I should tick off Ukrainian because there are less Ukrainian language experts and I will automatically have higher hiring rate? Whichever language I pick and whichever I sacrifice at the bottom of the page, clicking "submit" does not make a difference - I invariably feel the translator`s "pangs of conscience" so to say... since I am a native speaker and a professional translator of both - Russian and Ukrainian and my command of them is identical.

The tricky Russian phrase & its translation into English

An interesting observation that I have made recently during the lesson with my Russian student whose background is Russian but who spent most of his life in US and therefore lost the language skills. He told me: In Russian you say "насыпать сахар", "насыпать немного соли", which does not have the exact equivalent in English, does it? And he is right - in English we actually say - "to pour sugar", "to pour salt" as well as "to pour sand". However, we can also surely use "put" instead of "pour". But in Russian we would definitely NOT use "pour" with "sand", "salt" or "sugar" - only water and other liquids can be poured in this language, which is actually the verb`s primary meaning and that is why it is completely justified. Anyhow, these are the subtle variations between the English and Russian way of perceiving the world and processes taking place around us. As you can see, I have some very observant students.