Stirlitz Translation Agency is a professional services organization consisting of experienced interpreters and translators working within Russia and Ukraine with the headquarters in Odessa, Ukraine.

Founded in 2004 initially as an American company, we have provided services to a number of Russian, Ukrainian, European, English and American individuals and corporations.

Our Clients

The following is a partial list of our clients who have approved listing on our site per our privacy policies.

• PS Softlab (software development, Ukraine) — software translation
• ComTek International (communication technologies, USA) — correspondence translation, phone & in-person interpretation
• Maxima Games (game development, Ukraine) — computer game translation
• NNC Limited (radiological consultants, UK) — translation of presentations and specifications on nuclear power plants

Why should I order translations with you?

• High Result Quality. All translations are spellchecked and cross-read to make sure there are no mistakes. We aim at full understanding of the text that we translate. Many years’ experience helps us to return our customer a full value document which reflects the finest details of the original text.
• Transparent Price Policy. We do not hide our prices, the cost of your translation does not depend on the translation direction (from or into Russian), but basically on the translated document length.
• Attention To Customer. Our agency treats each customer individually. We are always open for direct talk over instant messengers, telephone, electronic mail. We will answer any questions and make sure that the customer gets the best. Many of our clients have become our friends.
• Confidentiality. We stick to a strict privacy policy. Any information that you pass on to us remains within the limits of relationship with customers. Nothing of what we translate is ever divulged.
• No Delays. We are available 7 days a week. Thanks to e-mail forward to cellular phones we are notified of new e-mail instantly, even when we are out of office. Many years’ experience helps us to estimate the order quite accurately.

And why should I use a human translator instead of free translation software?

Every language is polysemantic. In plain words, nearly every word has more than one meaning. And it is not possible to set up a clear correspondence between one English word and just one Russian one. If you look up a word in a dictionary, you will notice that many have several meanings. Are you sure that the meanings of the (a?) corresponding Russian word coincide? Sometimes they do, but more often it is translated with different Russian words. That is a point where translation software is stuck. It has no brain, so it cannot choose the right option. What it does is more similar to guessing than thinking. Now it guesses right, now wrong.

Next, there is a worse thing. There are words in every language called homonyms. They are spelled exactly the same but their meaning is different, usually completely different. Do you think a computer program can tell which one is meant? As a human, you have clues which one is meant because there is the notion of context. Context is something that only humans can get for the time being. But, if you ask any translator for the translation of a short sentence which is not obvious, a professional will almost certainly ask you first to give the context. The fact that computers do not ask for it does not mean that they can get it automatically. No, they cannot. Translation software has no artificial intelligence. What it does is it replaces English words with Russian ones but without context it may be senseless.

Finally, you know that in the English language the order of words in a sentence is fixed by the following pattern: subject—verb—complement—modifier, and you tell what a word means by its position in the sentence. In Russian it is not, and after computer translation you get a mess. E.g.,  ‘A killed B’ might have meant the contrary in the Russian source sentence because while in English passive voice is used in such cases, in Russian it is the words’ endings that show who was the receiver of the action and who did it. It is just a tiny letter in the end of the first noun that makes it reverse.

The problem is when you read a text translated this way you are trying to guess what was meant. Unfortunately, when you do, you do not necessarily guess right though it seems to you that you got it. That’s a problem. Do not delude yourself.

You may think that it applies to serious texts like magazine articles, but in fact, even short sentences may get seriously distorted. Here are a few examples from our practice. If your Russian girlfriend asks you “Than you like to be engaged?” what would you think? That she is hinting that it is time for you two to get engaged? No, she just wanted to ask “What do you like to do”, that is what you are at, what your business/hobbies/etc. are. And, if she says that she is ‘bored by you’, she may have actually meant that she ‘misses you’ because the Russian word  ‘skuchat’ is translated by  ‘bored’ when you are bored on your own, and  ‘miss’ when you are bored with loneliness without somebody (that is what Russian means).

So, do not think please that you can easily get along just using translation software. It is like using a broken phone. You will get perhaps 50% of the real meaning let alone possible misunderstandings that can get quite serious. We are not here to offer you something that you would never need like viagra or weightloss programs. Make your choice.

Finally, just in case, please read this:

Top Ten Misconceptions about Translation and Translators

by Caitilin Walsh. Reprinted from the August 1994 ATA Chronicle

10. Anybody with two years of high school language (or a foreign-tongued grandmother) can translate.
9. A good translator does not need a dictionary.
8. There is no difference between translation and interpretation.
7. Translators do not mind working nights and weekends at no extra charge.
6. Translators do not need to understand what they are translating.
5. A good translator does not need proofing or editing.
4. Becoming a translator is an easy way to get rich quick.
3. Translation is just typing in a foreign language.
2. A translator costs $49.95 at Radio Shack and runs on two  AA batteries.

And the #1 misconception about translation and translators:
1. That marketing copy that took a team of 20 people two months to put together can be translated overnight by one person and still retain the same impact as the original.

We hope that now you have lost most of the wrong ideas that you had about translation and we look forward to working with you. Thank you for your time!