Even if a Russian woman speaks and writes English, she prefers answering letters written in Russian first. Why? Due to simple psychological factor that it is much easier and more convenient to communicate in our native language, whether we listen to, write or speak.

Think about yourself. Suppose you receive a few letters from Russian ladies; some of them are in English, others and in Russian and require of you to sit a couple of hours with the dictionary in your hands. What letters will you read first? Those written in English, simply because it is your native language, the language that is plain in all nuances and shades of meaning. Russian girl will act the same way and it may happen that your letter in English won’t be read at all! Perhaps, the only case, when it is more convenient for Russian woman to read and answer letters in English, is when she professionally works with the language using it in her daily correspondence (translator, interpreter, etc.). But the choice of a future spouse can hardly be based on job preferences or occupation. The succeeding correspondence can be either English, Russian or mixed as to respect both parts, but it is highly recommended to translate your first letters to Russian. And the reason is not only psychological factor that makes us initially consider things that are more familiar and native. 

• A letter in Russian will be read and understood 100%;
•  A letter in Russian can be an enjoyable and indulgent reading instead of working on English idioms with the dictionary;
• A letter in Russian reveal genuine care about the person you are writing to.

Of course, the quality of letter translation is far more than significant. Letter translation quality can either

• Produce good impression or completely disappoint
• Make clear sense and reveal your actual intentions or oppositely reverse all meanings
• Make your letter be answered or not.

Who can help you with translating you correspondence? The Internet, as always. If you are so enterprising with online dating, why not be the same active in finding good translation service or agency? The average price for translation is $5 to $10 for 1,000 characters and there is a great choice of agencies offering correspondence translations.

Of course, there are translation services that are more reliable and less reliable. However, due to high competitiveness among online dating agencies and with the common strive of each agency to be placed atop, the quality of all services has highly improved in the recent years. Most often, the agencies that specialize in dating also deal with translation.

It is a surprise that people still use software and online translators. They think that in our fast-paced world, the machine can do everything and substitute an expertise of a man (who has created this machine after all). Believe it or not, software and online translators can be used for familiarization with the text only; software translators could never produce not only literate but also readable texts! And they should never be used for translation of personal correspondence! Herein, if you are serious about the future of your relationship and decide on translating your letter to Russian, better use a live translator.

You may have so many arguments showing your positive attitude toward online and automated translation that it would be hard to impose a different opinion on you. Online translating is free of charge, online translating takes a couple of minutes, online translating does not transfer your message, letter or whatever to the third person…
However, look through the facts that prove that live translation surpasses automated one in more than one criterion:

• Scientifically, translation has been and is human activity. Although attempts are made to automate and computerize the translation of natural-language texts and, today, enhance the quality of computerized translation, this quality is still incomparable to translation made by live translator;
• The goal of translation is to establish a relation of equivalence of intent between the source and target texts (that is to say, to ensure that both texts communicate the same message), while taking into account a number of constraints. These constraints include context, the rules of grammar of both languages, their writing conventions, their idioms, and the like. Computerized translation is not capable of interpreting right all these constraints; 
  No firmly defined one-to-one correlation exists between the words and phrases in different languages which can make translations fixed or automated.

Suppose, these arguments are strong enough to persuade you use live translator. However, if the necessity of using online translation service still exists, choose www.translate.ru that offers online translation of texts, websites, and e-mail-messages.

Irina Abolentseva