Russian Birthday Poems, Toasts with English translation

When your Russian girlfriend or boyfriend has a birthday, you always want to surprise her/him. Here is a good way to show your creativity by learning or just sending a text message/sms on your friend's birth-day. Your attention is very important on this special day. These poems are specifically designed for birthdays. If you are at a birthday party, sometimes you forget words, in this case, you can take out your postcard with your birthday poem in Russian and read it out loud. The poems can also be used as a toast. It will impress your Russian speaking friend, for sure!

If your birthday wish is sincere, it will definitely come true!

1. Желаю радости всегда
И настроения бодрого,
Не знать печали никогда
И в жизни всего доброго.
Никогда не унывать,
Не видеть огорчения
И дни с улыбкой начинать,
Как в этот День Рождения!

Russian to English translation for this poem is:

I wish you to be always happy,
I wish you a great mood,
I wish you to never know sadness,
I wish you all the kindness in your life,
I wish you to never be sad,
I wish you to start your days with a smile,
Like on this Birth Day!

The pronunciation of the poems is:

Zhelayu radosti vsegda
I nastroenija bodrogo,
Ne znat' pechali nikogda
I v zhizni vsego dobrogo.
Nikogda ne unyvat',
Ne videt' ogorchenija
I dni s ulybkoi nachinat',
Kak v etot Den' Razhdenija!

What is the best Russian online translator out there?

Today our world has no boundaries. Internet has interconnected people from different places, with different cultures and speaking different languages. Many thanks to online translation websites which offer machine translations in numerous languages.  

Several years ago the quality output of online translators was decent. Simple sentences like "I want to go home" were easily translated in most cases by a great number of free translators. It was good enough for a person who does not know the language to snatch out several words, expressions and phrases out of a complex sentence. But the actual meaning of such sentence could be mistakenly perceived in a wrong manner.

Computer technologies develop in a great pace these days. One can see improvements in every aspect of computer/online world, including free text translators.

We decided to put to a test and compare several online translators by picking three most popular and biggest online translation websites. All of them offer translations free of charge. We chose:

-Google Translator (translate.google.com);
-Bing Translator (www.bing.com/translator‎);
-PROMT Translator (http://translation2.paralink.com/);

All three translation engines handled simple phrases and sentences with no issues and we gave them all an A!

But when it comes to more complex and linguistically rich sentences, all of the above translators had certain flaws.

We will demonstrate and let you decide the winner (if any) of this "translation competition". As a sample text we plugged in the following extract in Russian language:

"В конце ноября, в оттепель, часов в девять утра, поезд Петербургско-Варшавской железной дороги на всех парах подходил к Петербургу. Было так сыро и туманно, что насилу рассвело; в десяти шагах, вправо и влево от дороги, трудно было разглядеть хоть что-нибудь из окон вагона."

Every person who considers herself or himself a big admirer of Russian literature and culture overall would recognize this piece. The extract is the opening from Dostoevsky's one of the greatest novels - The Idiot.

You can see Google translator's work below:

In late November, a thaw, at nine o'clock in the morning, train Petersburg-Warsaw railway on all cylinders coming to Petersburg. It was so damp and foggy that hardly dawned, in ten steps, right and left of the road, it was hard to see anything out of the windows of the car.

Here is Bing's translation:

In late November, during the thaw, hours at 9 a.m., the train of the Petersburg-Warsaw railroad at all pairs came to Petersburg. It was so damp and foggy that nasilu at dawn; ten steps to the right and to the left of the road, it was difficult to make out anything from the Windows of the car.

The funny part of Bing's translator was that it translated windows as Windows into English (capitalizing the word like they were talking about their Windows operating systems).

And finally, PROMT (though it was difficult to choose PROMT's translation, because they offered four of them!):

In late November, in a thawing weather, hours per nine mornings, a train of the »ÑÔÑÓíÒÓú߬«-Warsaw railway at full speed approached to Petersburg. Was so humid and foggy, that насилу рассвело; in ten steps, to the right and to the left from road, it was difficult to make out though something from windows of the car.

We are not going to make a linguistic analysis of the translation results, but instead, we decided to post a professional Russian translation of Eva Martin. She translated the whole book. You can see for yourself if you like any of the translations above comparing to her translation.

Towards the end of November, during a thaw, at nine o'clock one morning, a train on the Warsaw and Petersburg railway was approaching the latter city at full speed. The morning was so damp and misty that it was only with great difficulty that the day succeeded in breaking; and it was impossible to distinguish anything more than a few yards away from the carriage windows.

If it were me, I would go with Google's translator, because for one- it translated ALL the words. All in all, I think all three translations were OK. If you have something that really matters and needs to be translated as close to a professional translation as possible, my advice would be to translate it by three online translators. Each translation will compensate one another. 

How Russians are named by other nations

Names for Russians by other nations

Let's hear how people around the world name or used to name Russians.

We will start with the closest Russian friend and neighbor - Ukraine. Ukrainians (and Polish people) call Russians KATSAPs. This word is usually used in a negative tone. They say that there are two possible ways of the origins of the word. The first is that the word originated from Ukrainian for goat. Russians with their beards looked like goats to shaved Ukrainians. Another possible etymology of the word is Turkic language; Kasap translates as a bandit.

Another commonly used name for Russians among Ukrainians is Moskal.

In return Russians called Polish people psheki and Ukrainians - khokhly.

Koreans and Chinese called Russians mauchzhe which also reffered to the beard Russians liked to wear.

Germans called Russians Ivans, because Ivan was the most "truly Russian", and the most popular name. Even these days if you want to point out that a person is a simpleton, you can call him Vanya (Vanya is a diminutive for Ivan). 

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.

     

Russian privet in First 2012 Google Doodle

The first Google's Doodle of this 2012 year is an image of small letters trying to decide (or fulfill) their New Year's resolutions.

The first letter which is "G" listens to a language program and learns how to say "Hello" or "Hi" in 9 different languages. Among these languages you can find a Russian word for "Hi".

Hi in Russian is "PRIVET", in Cyrillic it's written as ПРИВЕТ. It's a really easy word to learn, pronounce and remember. Pronounce it as PREEVE'T - put a stress on the last syllable, but don't push it too much.

Happy New 2012 Year!!! And Privet to you all!!!

Russian Translation of Winter Wonderland Song

Probably almost everyone remembers and knows the song -  Winter Wonderland. You can check out this youtube video of the song if you are not sure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkFP0VwpPRY

We found a very nice translation into Russian of the beginning of the song done by one of the workers of some Russian translation company.

So, in the original it goes like this:


Sleigh bells ring, are you listening,
In the lane, snow is glistening
A beautiful sight,
We're happy tonight.
Walking in a winter wonderland.

And here is English to Russian translation of the song:


Слышишь, колокольчик в санях звенит,
На дороге снег блестит,
Красота - не передам!
Cчастливы сегодня вечером,
Гуляя в зимней сказке.

I think the translation was made pretty-pretty well.

And for those of you who wants to try to sing it in Russian, here is the transliteration (Russian phonetic translation):


Slishish', kalakol'chik v sanyah zvinit,
Na darogi sneg blestit,
Krasata - ni peredam!
Shastlivi segodnya vecheram,
Gulaya v zimnei skazke.

The 250th Hermitage Anniversary

Hermitage or the State Hermitage is one of the largest museums in the world is almost ready to celebrate its 250th anniversary. The museum will turn 250 years on the 7th of December of 2014. The museum is well-known around the world for a large collection of art and culture pieces. Hermitage is located in Saint-Petersburg.  It was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great or Catherine II as her private collection. Historians don't know the actual birthday of the museum, but everybody celebrate its birthday on the 7th because of the day of Saint Catherine - the protectress (patroness) of the museum. It was opened to the public in 1852. Right now the museum has at its disposition nearly 3 million items. The place holds the Guinness World Record for its painting collection. If you are interested in Russian Art - this is the best place to learn about it.

So, what will the museum get as a birthday gift?

Russian government discussed some plans about changing the face of the museum by donating 15.7 billions rubles (about 573,809,880 US dollars.) By 2014 they want to equip the Palace Square, the building of the General Staff, the Defense Ministry transferred to the museum, as well as the building of the Small Hermitage museum. They will also have to renovate the interiors of the Winter Palace and build a brand new Repository which will be available to public. 

No Winter Time in Russia - Finish for Daylight Saving Time

Russian President - Dmitry Medvedev has decided to cancel the shift to winter time, so no more daylight saving time for Russian people. And most of Russians support this decision - more than 60% of the population. Russian government believes that people will benefit from this change, especially their health.
Scientists calculated that the country saves only 0,1–0,3% by implementing the daylight saving time. And there is no need to change the time in northern countries like Russia.
This spring, on the 27th of March, will be the last time Russia changes the time. Microsoft has already adapted to this, all Windows based computers will reflect this change after Windows update.
Dmitry Medvedev ordered the government to prepare all the documents regarding this change along with the Russian to English translation of the documents.
Ukraine and Belarus will most probably follow Russian decision as it is a hot topic in the Ukraine and Belarus governments.
Time difference between Moscow and New York is 8 hours in summer and winter times, but it will be 9 hours in winter from now on.