The thoroughness of specialty dictionaries can at times be surprising. For example, I recently found myself reading a dictionary on butchery, and reading it can make you marvel at how little we really know about the world. This book, for example, offers 48 synonyms to the word ‘meat’: “whole-meat product – heat-treated meat product made solely of meat that has been supplemented with water and additives; whole-meat products come in whole (e.g. pig’s heads) or the meat can be chopped, roughly minced, massaged or tumbled, the casing can be sprayed and heat-treated, and on the outside it resembles a piece of a meat product”. Just look at that information; even Slavka the Butcher can only read and marvel!

In working with professional terminology, we sometimes stumble upon forgotten terms. It can’t be helped – technology is constantly advancing and it’s not like we use abacuses and telephones with a rotary dial in our everyday life anymore, but dictionaries can sometimes help dig out a definition to some interesting historic word. For example, the Electrician’s Handbook (“Elektriku käsiraamat”) by Riho Randes includes the word ‘katsa’ (switching that connects terminals with wires that supply several storeys with electricity). Hard to say how common ‘katsa’ was among residents of apartment buildings in the ‘30s and ‘40s, but today, neither the Technical Dictionary of the Keeleveeb nor the usually so helpful ESTERM know the word. Even an electrician acquaintance of mine who I asked about ‘katsa’, just shrugged his shoulders and was surprised that it had been some sort of switching at one time or another.

But Estonian-language books aren’t always helpful. And if you don’t have access to English-language books, a good website to take a look at for information on, for example,
computers, electronics and the internet is Whatis.com. For some reason it seems that when it comes to electronics, internet is often more useful than some thick book.

Speaking of books – the Estonian-English Technical Dictionary that was first published in 2000 is a nice and thick book, but in large part it already has a historical value, because electronics has advanced quite a bit over the last few years and continues to advance every few months, but it won’t make it to the pages of a book anytime soon.

Estonian linguists have thought of very rare language books. What should you do if someone runs their finger across their throat in a very meaningful manner? You should, of course, grab for the Little Estonian-French Gesture Book by Eva Ingerpuu published this year. The thick book includes all international gestures. The author also says that only a small number of those are used in Estonia. So we’re not a particularly gesticulating people.

Because the book was published with support from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of France, it also includes the French translation of Estonian gestures. For example:

A THREAT. Description of the gestures: shakes a fist at the conversation partner. Meaning of the gesture: you’ll get beaten up (however, also used in a joking manner between friends). Frequency of use: used infrequently.

Verbal equivalents: “Tu veux la bagarre!” (You’re asking for trouble!), “Ça va faire mal!” (You’ll get hurt!), “Je vais te faire la peau!” (I’ll give you a pounding!). In this case, a French tourist facing someone threatening him on a street at night always has the option to dig out the Estonian-French gesture dictionary and thumb through it to find the correct place. The comment “also used between friends” should be calming, while the hint “used infrequently” causes a feeling of dread – used infrequently, but now on me. But a proper Frenchman wouldn’t be in any hot water in this night-time situation either.

Thanks to the gesture book, he could respond to the person threatening him with a gesture common among Estonians, in the case of which one hand is rubbing the top of the other arm. This gesture means “Je t´emmerde!” (Screw you!). In this awful situation, it might not be a bad idea to prove your superiority by using a gesture described even by the old folk as such:
only a fool is called with a finger. This gesture is “Viens ici!” (Come here!) – direct your hand toward the person and move just your index finger towards yourself, keeping the other fingers motionless in your palm. The warning in the book, however, says: it’s a familiar gesture that can in certain situations express superiority and be offensive.

The poor tourist may also use the gesture “T´es mort!” (You’re dead!). For this, you have to pull the side of your hand across your throat. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, some Caribbean Indian tribes used the gesture to express deep respect. Spaniards who dropped by to visit, however, saw it as a shockingly unambiguous.

Translators are people, too . And people have limits. So it’s not reasonable to demand a translation agency or translators to complete more than five translation pages (1,800 characters per page) a day. Most translation agencies also charge and additional fee for a speedier translation – usually as much as 30–50%. In principle, 15 pages per day is a limit in case of which adequate quality can still be achieved. It would be ideal to know such needs in advance – that way we can plan people and technical aids. But don’t request this too often .

Of extreme examples, translating 200 pages in a week is a good one. This, however, requires cooperation between translators, harmonising terms, an excellent project manager, editor and a coincidence of many good things. And to be honest, you cannot expect to get the best translation in such circumstances.

All in all: plan things in advance (easy to say, right ), give us enough time and you’ll get a much better translation if we don’t rush.

You can ask these questions from a translation agency, but it would be better to direct your question to someone that we sometimes have confirm things to us. The Institute of the Estonian Language even has a section dedicated to writing words as one or several words http://keeleabi.eki.ee/index.php?leht=4&act=2&vld=19. Happy spelling correctly! :)

First send us the contract as quickly as possible. Fifteen pages doesn’t always mean fifteen pages of translation volume. If the actual translation volume is smaller, it makes everything simpler. We also have to take the price into account. Because the usual translation speed is five translation pages per day, such speed will come with a higher price – usually up to 30%. But if you need it, then you need it. The most important thing is to know what the translation is used for. If the document has to be translated only for understanding (or used subsequently just for discussion purposes), translating with such a speed could be an option. But if the contract has to be ready for signing the next day, we wouldn’t recommend doing so. Why? Do you know what happens when you hire someone in hurry? Or complete building something while rushing? Or speed excessively in traffic? In this sense, translating isn’t an exception. All in all: there is time to translate, but special circumstances have to be accounted for. Actually, the maximum recommended speed for translating such important documents is up to 10 pages a day. And sometimes it would be very helpful to submit the translation in the morning. That way there’s a whole extra night .

The price of a translation is calculated on the basis of translation volume. In Estonia, we generally use the price of a page. One page includes 1,800 characters with spaces. In Finland, by the way, a page is considered to be 1,560 characters, and in Europe, the price of a word or a line is also sometimes used to calculate translation volume. But additionally, consideration is also given to the level of difficulty of the text, the topic, repetitions in the text, the size of the entire job, etc. At the end of the day, even whether the client just needs to understand the text or if it is used as a promotional text in some marketing materials is also important. Sounds complicated? Agreed. So we can always agree on the price for a specific translation, but for this you would have to send us the material that requires translation. For example here.

Our mistake, Liivo. Well, at least a little . We usually ask what the translation is used for and give recommendations accordingly. In this case we knew that the translation would be printed, but the potential increase in the text volume was left out. If the text is a regular instruction manual where everything isn’t set out exactly, every designer can handle such changes to the text. If your designer isn’t able to do so, send the material to us. We also do design work, and fitting translated texts into the original file is something we do every day. If we know before commencing with the translation that the translated material has to have the same volume as the original, we can do that as well .

The definition of a (translation) page sometimes raises questions. We are all used to consider a page to be a regular A4. People in a translation agency can also consider 1,800 characters with spaces to be a page. At least that’s how the majority of translation agencies estimate translation volume. Here is a example of how different the same text volume (1,952 characters) can appear on an A4 page.

Valid question, Tarmo. We will soon include a video in the blog that explains how to estimate text volume (in our speech, translation volume). If we look at your material, we see that it’s written in three columns per page and in a font size 6. As such, these three pages have more than 11,000 characters in total. Translation volume is calculated on the basis of standard pages (also called translation pages). Standard page is 1,800 characters, inclusive of spaces. That’s where this six pages comes from. It’s a good thing that we will always give you a specific price quote before commencing with a translation. It would probably be much harder to explain it afterwards.

The price of a translation usually starts at 12.5 euros per page. The price of translating more complicated or uncommon language pairs or translating a foreign language into another foreign language, however, starts at 15.5 euros per page. The price per page of the latter may also be as high as over 22.5 euros. At the same time, we have also completed simpler but very voluminous projects with a price of 9.5 euros per page. If you want to know the exact price for your translation, we recommend sending your wishes and the translation file(s) to us for a price quote.

The price of a translation usually starts at 12.5 euros per page. The price of translating more complicated or uncommon language pairs or translating a foreign language into another foreign language, however, starts at 15.5 euros per page. The price per page of the latter may also be as high as over 22.5 euros. At the same time, we have also completed simpler but very voluminous projects with a price of 9.5 euros per page. If you want to know the exact price for your translation, we recommend sending your wishes and the translation file(s) to us for a price quote.

Value added tax will be added to the price. 1 page comprises 1,800 characters with spaces.

The price of a translation usually starts at 12.5 euros per page. The price of translating more complicated or uncommon language pairs or translating a foreign language into another foreign language, however, starts at 15.5 euros per page. The price per page of the latter may also be as high as over 22.5 euros. At the same time, we have also completed simpler but very voluminous projects with a price of 9.5 euros per page. If you want to know the exact price for your translation, we recommend sending your wishes and the translation file(s) to us for a price quote.