If you are looking for someone having a good command of Russian and English and German and having a good education background, then you could try me for your job. I graduated from a University twice, 1991 in Latvia an 2005 in Germany. I studied English and Literature first in Latvia and General Linguistics/ English/ Economics for my master's degree in Germany, thus having successfully filled the period of time during which young people from Eastern Europe could only study and acquire competence in the West, but not work.

In order to convince you of my being an utterly suitable applicant for many jobs, not only for literary translations, I can say that I worked as a translator for a Technical Information Division of a R & D department at a big electrotechnical plant in Estonia during my first studies and two years after having graduated from the University in Latvia. There I had to attend to translation as a routine business, and I got to learn and love this job. My translator skills rendered themselves useful during my studies in Germany also, where I managed to use translations as a gainful employment, mostly translating/ interpreting from German into Russian. Years of studies also left their mark on me - I work with scrupulous care on my texts. My husband, who is a certified mathematician, provides help concerning technical terminology, he also acts as a proof reader for me, thus contributing greatly to the creation of well worded, polished texts.

It goes almost without saying that I am truly passionate about business development in Eastern Europe, therefore I studied Economics as a minor discipline and have a keen interest in assisting in the settlement of joint ventures; I have the ability and social competence necessary to relate and communicate with people on all levels. I have the ambition and drive to achieve a lot in the translation area, and thus I need new challenges and would be very glad to hear from you.

My favorite working language is German since I've spent the last twenty years in Germany and acquired a good command of it first studying at the University, then jobbing now and then during my studies and afterwards, communicating with friends, colleagues and sometimes even with my child in it. Since 2006 I work as a German lecturer in Hamburg, Germany (providing training in the so-called 'integration courses' and also training for illiterate adults or immigrants who are not able to learn the language themselves or find a job in Germany because of their poor linguistic performance). I gained my teaching certificate after having attended a professional training course (German as a foreign language) myself and I am still attending another course at present, so I do not escape the so-called 'life-long learning' lot of so many immigrants in Europe either.

My best rates are negotiable and subject to economic laws (like the law of supply and demand), so one may profit from the demand being low sometimes - even 0,05 €/word would be enough for some kinds of texts - and on the opposite I would like to have more than that for texts in Estonian because there are not so many dictionaries in this language.

Available on weekends, in the afternoon, in the evening; ready and able to work under pressure to tight deadlines.

No (personal) agency yet, still a freelancer with an excellent knowledge of Russian to the extent necessary for the performance of many duties; translate equally well from either English or German; computer literate, work mostly in TRADOS, possess a shared copy of Trados 6.0 Freelancer and Trados 7.1., QuarkXPress 6.5., in difficult cases can enlist the assistance of Layout and Technical Support provided by an acquaintance of mine (Technical Translations Agency in Kiel, for an extra fee which I negotiate myself, commensurate with the difficulties that may occur); have an intermediate to advanced knowledge of Microsoft packages (Power Point, Excel are no problem); well acquainted with LaTeX (a kind of desktop publishing tool under Linux widely used for University publications in Germany); and surely I enjoy having Flat Rate access to the Internet at home!

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Translators' wisdom: as the Russian saying goes, 'Перевод - как женщина. Если красив, то неверен, если верен, то некрасив'!
= A fair translation is as untrue as a woman, and if it is true, then it is ugly.
= Eine Übersetzung gleicht einer Frau: eine treue Übersetzung ist immer hässlich, und wenn sie schön ist, dann ist sie untreu. = Eins-zu-ein-Äquivalenzen sind nicht immer möglich, statt dessen müsste man Adäquatheit, Gleichwertigkeit, Angemessenheit der Übersetzung anstreben - wer dies bezweifelt, könnte versuchen, den folgenden Text in eine andere Sprache wortwörtlich zu übersetzen:

Tierischer Ernst

Auch auf einem Weg,
der für die Katz ist,
kann man auf den Hund kommen,
wenn man nicht Schwein hat.
(Erich Fried)

Und zum Schluss:

Ein Wort zum Wert . . .

„Es ist unklug, zu viel zu bezahlen, aber es ist noch schlechter, zu wenig zu bezahlen. Wenn Sie zu viel bezahlten, verlieren Sie etwas Geld, das ist alles. Wenn Sie dagegen zu wenig bezahlten, verlieren Sie manchmal alles, da der gekaufte Gegenstand die ihm zugedachte Aufgabe nicht erfüllen kann.
Das Gesetz der Wirtschaft verbietet es, für wenig Geld viel Wert zu erhalten. Nehmen Sie das niedrigste Angebot an, müssen Sie für das Risiko, das Sie eingehen, etwas hinzurechnen. Und wenn Sie das tun, dann haben Sie auch Geld genug, um für etwas Besseres zu zahlen.“

John Ruskin (1819-1900)

Value . . .

It's unwise to pay too much, but it's unwise to pay too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money, that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing you bought it to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it's well to add something for the risk you run.
And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.

John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)