Who are you? OK, good bye! Ty Kto takoi? Davai, do svidania! Russian-Azerbaijan Rap-Song.

We had to write about this 'work of art', because since the end of May 2012 this Youtube video received more than 7 million views. The two singers were invited to Moscow to a popular TV show.

We also would like to put a little note here: a Russian transliteration of the song is Ty kto takoi? Davai, do svidania.

For those of you who don't speak Russian language - these people are singing with a big accent in Russian. But I guess it makes it even more fun. This gathering of mostly men resembles to a wedding or some big event. They start by singing 'Who are you? OK, good bye!' And then they mix Russian, Azerbaijan and Talysh languages.

We asked for a professional Russian translation of one youtube description for this song:

So, it is a wedding in a settlement called Tangerud of Astary district of Talysh region located on the South Eastern part of Azerbaijan. There are two groups of people competing in a verse form (like rap battle). People are making jokes about nothing. They also call this Meykhana - (information from wikipedia) - Meykhana (Azerbaijani: meyxana) is a distinctive Azerbaijani literary and folk rap tradition, consisting of an unaccompanied song performed by one or more people improvising on a particular subject.

And now you can enjoy this video below.

Mission Statement for a Translation Company - Things to Include

            In this post we decided to explain our view on a mission statement for a translation/ interpretation company. 

Let's imagine there is some translation company called T-translations Inc. The company provides translation and interpretation services around the world. The company works with over 1000 of translators. This translation agency  interprets and translates from over 65 official languages. Some of the additional services that the company provides are proofreading, audio/visual transcriptions, and software localization. T-translations claims that it is open 24 hours a day, has emergency fast service option, and 3% price-beat guarantee. It is also a member of American Translation Association. 

        First of all, a mission statement shouldn't be too long. Though, a long mission statement can give a lot of information about the company, and what it provides. However, a mission statement should explain what the company is trying to accomplish. The description of the company and the services it provides is not the place for it. The information provided in the mission statement should be matching the information on the company's website. 

In addition, it shouldn't look like people behind T-translations think that the company reached its top in customer service, number of subcontractors, areas of operation, and they are not trying to improve anything. The mission statement shouldn't be like a hybrid of an advertisement and summary of the company.

In my opinion, a professional translation company needs to keep its mission statement short and clear. However, the most important thing to do is to show to the public and the employees (subcontractors mainly) what the main goals are for the company. In other words, they need to show how they are going to improve their business.

Lastly, a well-written mission statement for a translation company should be something like this (we chose Russian Translation Pros as an example): "Russian Translation Pros’ mission is to deliver the highest quality and variety of translation and interpretation services to businesses as well as individuals while constantly improving quality of the customer service and keeping the costs to a minimum". 

How to Translate Russian Birth Certificate

We needed to make a translation of a Russian birth certificate into English. I tried to find a sample of a well translated Russian birth certificate and I did find some useful resources online. And here is a little summary about the main things to look for when making the translation yourself. And I have attached an example of the translated document.

If you are a bilingual person, then it's not a problem at all. All you have to do is just to translate names, geographical locations, such as city, district, region, country, place of registration of a child, etc. The most important thing when translating a birth certificate is to make sure that all the names are spelled (or transliterated) the same way they appear in all other official documents. This can be a big problem for the immigration service if this rule is not followed. For example, the name Aleksandr can be spelled in several ways, like Alexander, Aleksander, Aleksandr - you got an idea. If you do not have your name transliterated yet, chose one spelling and go with it in every document.

If you are not sure how to translate your place of birth, wikipedia is a good source of geographical information. Let's say your birth certificate states that you were born in город Винница, Винницкой области, УССР. There are several options you can chose from - city of Vinnytsia, Vinnitsa, Vinnica. It all depends on how the city was recorded in your other documents. Then goes the region which should be the same - Vinnytsia, and finally, Ukrainian SSR should do it for the republic you were born in. Please don't be confused about district and region: район - district, and область stands for region, or it can be translated as oblast.

For the USCIS purposes, all the stamps should be translated also. If the original document is old and the stamps are not readable, you can put a note at the bottom of your translation that the text in the stamp is not legible.

I think I covered the most important parts when it comes to a Russian to English translation of a birth certificate.

Though most of the time, Immigration office requests a certified translation, that means that the translation has to be signed by a professional translator. If this is the case, you can always go with a Russian certified translation performed by a professional company. If you decide to use a translation agency, make sure you let them know the spelling of your names.

Below you can see a translation of a Russian birth certificate.