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Lena's Translation Service
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Posted by: Red Hot Ryder

Has anybody used her translation service? Would your recommend it? I bought the ten page translation package. I sent the first letter for translation two and a half days ago, and I haven't received it back yet. I was wondering what everyone else's experience has been? Things move slow enough with communication as is, I don't know if I want to wait three days for each of my letters to get translated, then three more days for the responses. The advertisement said, "guaranteed in three days, but most translations are completed in 36 hours". The completed in 36 hours is what got my credit card out of my wallet. So I'm wondering, is this is normal turn around or if its just slow right now?

Thanks

Posted by: AkMike

Have you sent her a PM here? She is married to the owner of this site and I'd say she's on the up and up. Both of them have my respect.

Posted by: Lena

I didn't receive your translation. I do translation fast. I guess, the problem is that our e-mail address (translation@russianmeetingplace.com) gives us problems. So, please, send me your translation to lenausachova@yahoo.com and I will translate your letter as soon as possible.

Posted by: Raspberry

Thanks Lena, I may need your translation in the future myself.

Posted by: goforit

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Hot Ryder

Has anybody used her translation service? Would your recommend it? I bought the ten page translation package. I sent the first letter for translation two and a half days ago, and I haven't received it back yet. I was wondering what everyone else's experience has been? Things move slow enough with communication as is, I don't know if I want to wait three days for each of my letters to get translated, then three more days for the responses. The advertisement said, "guaranteed in three days, but most translations are completed in 36 hours". The completed in 36 hours is what got my credit card out of my wallet. So I'm wondering, is this is normal turn around or if its just slow right now?

Thanks

Hi Red,

I see Lena already answered your question but I had the same problem at first as well. As Lena said there must be a problem with that email address. Anyway, once we got started by all accounts she did a very nice job. I constantly got complimented on my beautiful russian.

There were several things that got me to whip out my credit card and purchase Lena's services. One was that I was frustrated with Elena's Model's translation service, which I used previously before Lena. Most of the time they did a very nice job, especially with my introduction letter (which was outstanding) but on several occasions the translator(s) made some serious errors.

The first time was that they translated the wrong letter. I uploaded and paid for a particular letter but they mistakenly translated another one which was in the system but marked as not paid. After a series of exchanges they refunded some of my money but I still ended up paying quite a bit more than I should have to get the right letter translated for a mistake they made. I wasn't happy about that but my overall experience on Elena's Model's has been quite good so I left it alone.

The second time a translator left out an entire paragraph of a letter I had written. That paragraph was very important and I could tell by the non-response I was getting that something was amiss in the translation. So I ran it through a free software translator and discovered the missing paragraph. They quickly fixed it once it was pointed out BUT I was disappointed they didn't offer me credit for getting it wrong in the first place.

Another time the translator left out a sentence. Doing so changed the entire meaning of the paragraph. I began to think the translator was deliberately doing this because she disagreed with what I was saying, since this sentence was dealing with the exact same subject as the missing paragraph mentioned above. Unfortunately Elena's employs a number of translators and they no longer tell you who is responsible for your translation, so I couldn't verify the strong hunch I had of a biased interpreter. But at this point I was fed up with what was happenning and didn't even bother to bring this to their attention.

Another time a translator simply mis-translated what I was saying, I mean badly missed it. Now admittedly it was a specialized area I was talking about, and one I'm sure the translator was not keen on, and having studied both Greek and Latin, I realize specialized fields can be tricky when it comes to translations, so I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But considered as a whole, I wasn't very happy.

Finally I was less than enthused with some of the translations from Russian to English. It was no better on some occasions than my software translator.

The second thing that caused me to switch to Lena was the time factor. 3 days is simply too long, and most of my translations came in at the 3 day limit. A couple of times they actually missed the three day guarantee. One time it took 10 days because somehow they had overlooked a translation I submitted. Fortunately, they did give me credit for this one.

I signed up for the monthly account with Lena because I wanted a 24 hour turnaround. Once we got started Lena did an excellent job and I would highly recommend her. I don't recommend the monthly account unless you know for sure you will be writing every day. I didn't do that which made the per page cost expensive but still the 24 hour turnaround was worth it. I may sign up again if 36 hours is the normal turnaround for the smaller accounts since that is not so bad either, although I am currently considering someone who does a 24-48 hour turnaround on a per letter basis (1 page 24 hours - 2 or more pages 48 hours), rather than have you sign up for a monthly account

I don't mean to be negative about Elena's Models translation service, as for the most part they did a pretty good job, and I have been very happy with my experience on her website otherwise. But I think the timing is too long, mistakes aren't corrected properly with credits, you can potentially have a biased interpreter, and I think the adequate Russian versus literary Russian distinction is bogus, and unnecessarily raises the cost of translation.

So I would highly recommend Lena, who I used for the last month, and think you will get more than adequate Russian for a very reasonable price.

Posted by: Red Hot Ryder

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lena

I didn't receive your translation. I do translation fast. I guess, the problem is that our e-mail address (translation@russianmeetingplace.com) gives us problems. So, please, send me your translation to lenausachova@yahoo.com and I will translate your letter as soon as possible.

Lena, thanks for your response. I just sent the email to the address you provided.

And thanks everybody for your input. I'm new on here and appreciate the help.

Posted by: Raspberry

Go for it, did you use the "basic" translation? At Elena's Models you have the option of two different kinds of translations......one is just simple and basic, and the other is more complex and direct. Of course, the complex one costs twice as much.

Posted by: goforit

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raspberry

Go for it, did you use the "basic" translation? At Elena's Models you have the option of two different kinds of translations......one is just simple and basic, and the other is more complex and direct. Of course, the complex one costs twice as much.

Hi Rasberry,

Yes I used both and yes the creative translation is twice as expensive. I think it ends up being $20 a page for the creative (2000 characters) and $10 for the adequate translation.

I was unhappy with the adequate translation as it was in most instances little better than using some of the online translators. I think the distinction is particularly misleading when having something translated from Russian into English. Once I had the same letter translated both "creatively" and "adequately" from Russian and it was identical.

In my opinion you can get more value for your money by finding someone who simply translates "creatively" - i.e. well - all the time.

Posted by: scotch

Both Khash and Lena have my respect for giving us this great forum. And cheers to Lena for offering a terrific translation service.

But seriously guys, if you can't be eff'd learning her language (pardon my aussie

) and if she can't be eff'd learning yours, then how are you going to communicate?

Hand signals and dictionary look-ups die in the popka (a$$) after a few weeks. Sure, certified translation services are great for official documents when you have to provide evidence for something or other, but for meet and greet letters .. the novelty will wear off after your first $10000

(lol you think Im joking

)

My best advice is look for a girl who can speak pretty good english!! (unless you're fluent in russian ... which I can almost certainly guarantee you're not .. unless you're 'too tall'

I don't mean to be harsh...just wanna set the newbies up for good experiences. Of course there are exceptions .. if two people really wanna make it work they will .. but from what Ive seen, language helps a lot. Use an electronic translator like PROMT for the minor things... if you need more than that you're probably out of your depth.

have fun!

scotch.

Posted by: goforit

Absolutely disagree. While you are learning the language it is helpful to be able to write and say important things in her native language, thus both written and phone translation (which can be cheaper than written by the way) is important. And for me, all the important non-negotiable stuff is said in the early stages so I'm not chasing my tail with a woman where it won't work out anyway.

Even if your gal is fluent in English using translation services can be of help. One gal said although she is fluent in English (and she is) she was very thankful that I often wrote her in Russian and allowed her to write me in Russian as it was much easier for her to really express herself that way. Another woman told me that she could never really get deep with all the guys who wanted to just communicate in English or use their limited Russian skills, so she had pretty much given up on the idea of finding a foreign husband until I came along.

Anyway, I'm perfectly happy with guys limiting themselves to English speaking Russian gals. Less competition!