Russian Interpreter & Translator Challenges

You will need to use a "Russian interpreter" if you travel to meet Russian and/or Ukrainian women who do not speak English. Here I'll describe some of the challenges involved with using interpreters (an "interpreter" is someone who translates spoken language whereas "translator" more often refers to someone who translates written language).

If you are going on a typical "individual tour" the simplest approach to this is to just use whatever Russian interpreter they assign you for your translated dates and pay the hourly rate. And if you are working with a really good agency that you really trust, that's probably the best route.

But when you do that you open yourself up to two significant problems.

First, you open yourself up to the possibility of getting stuck with a bad interpreter. Having been there a few times and used many different interpreters, I have made enough observations to be able to say that there is a WIDE range of quality among them.

Any Russian interpreter can basically convert English sentences to Russian and vice versa, but some need to stop you frequently and ask for clarification, some cannot translate humor to save their lives, and some just don't seem to give a crap about their job. Others are awesome, and they understand you perfectly, they even translate humor, they seem to like what they do, and some even go the extra mile to actually attempt to facilitate your dates and help them go better.

Second, if you are not really confident in the agency, or if you are just unsure about them, you open yourself up to the risk of being SCAMMED! Just as written translation have scams described elsewhere, scams are common with translated live dates as well. How so, you ask? Well, just as with the written scams, many agencies recruit HOT Russian women to their site who either do not speak English or who PRETEND to not speak English so that a Russian interpreter is required. Of course the agency provides the interpreter at an additional cost.

As with the written scams, do not believe that these kinds of things are rare. They aren't!

Well, as I say, if you are going on a tour with an agency you trust, just use their interpreters. AND, if/when you find a GOOD Russian interpreter in such an agency, request her every time, AND GIVE HER A BIG TIP! You want to reward the good ones.

But if you don't know whether to trust the agency, it's tricky. By the way... I'll say more about this in the "Scams" section , but EVERY AGENCY AND EVERY WEBSITE CLAIMS TO STAND STRONG AGAINST SCAMS. They ALL say this... the scammers and the honest agencies.

One solution is to simply bring your own interpreter! You can shop online for independent local interpreters who don't work directly with the agencies, and maybe don't even usually deal with translating dates.

Even if you don't know them, you immediately remove some risk of scams simply by virtue of the fact that (s)he (most interpreters will be women) doesn't know the girls or the agencies. And if you can get some good feel for her honesty, you reduce risk even more.

If you are traveling to Kiev or Poltava Ukraine, I can recommend Alexandra. Click here to contact read more about her services. The only downside is that I haven't tried it! I strongly suspect that if you go on an individual tour through an agency who runs translation scams (written and live), but attempt to use your own independent interpreter, they will declare that it is not permitted, and that only agency-supplied interpreters are allowed (like "No outside food or drinks in the movie theater...").

If you have ever done something like that and have some feedback, I'd love to hear from you!

I have plans in the near future to build a referral network of interpreters and guides that have been screened so that you can have an easy starting point for finding your own guide (Alexandra is the first).