RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted October 27, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 27, 2016 Good evening Am seeking a fluent speaker of Estonian for help with a short but private and personal translation Is there anyone on here perchance who might be able to help? Heres hoping.... Phil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted October 27, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 27, 2016 The Embassy will certainly have a list of translators. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold adb968008 Posted October 27, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 27, 2016 have you tried google translate it can translate words between languages but it also has a voice option to.. to listen and to speak. https://translate.google.co.uk it's pretty good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted October 27, 2016 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted October 27, 2016 Thank you for the suggestions so far gentlemen I prefer to use a person if possible so the Embassy may be an option - copying and pasting the translation from English to Estonian back in to the Google translator to convert it back in to English comes up with some rather strange phraseology which makes me a little suspicious of its grammatical skills! Its for a short speech at my sons wedding and I really want to be able to say it in Estonian if possible and be confident of the exact and very personal meaning Kind regards Phil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium phil-b259 Posted October 27, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 27, 2016 Thank you for the suggestions so far gentlemen I prefer to use a person if possible so the Embassy may be an option - copying and pasting the translation from English to Estonian back in to the Google translator to convert it back in to English comes up with some rather strange phraseology which makes me a little suspicious of its grammatical skills! Its for a short speech at my sons wedding and I really want to be able to say it in Estonian if possible and be confident of the exact and very personal meaning Kind regards Phil Well done for looking to attempt this, particularly at such a happy occasion. As a general rule the British don't make enough of an attempt with other nations home languages so I'm sure what you say will go down well (even if it doesn't come out quite right). However I would be vary wary of relying on an translation software as, when it comes to language, how you say something is just as important as translating the words or sentences. Estonian itself is also interesting because during the Communist period I believe serious efforts were made in suppressing it, a tactic (along with the encouragement of Russians to move to the state) which was designed to bind it ever more firmly into Russia. As such it remains something of a minority language in the west so finding an official translator is perhaps not so straight forward as with other languages. As an aside it would be interesting to know of how Estonian wedding customs differ from our own. My Polish friend says that in her country the celebrations traditionally go on for days and the ones I have been fortunate enough to attend certainly attest to how enjoyable this could be. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 ....Its for a short speech at my sons wedding and I really want to be able to say it in Estonian if possible and be confident of the exact and very personal meaning.... If you're going to make the effort, I'd also suggest that you give it a bit of soul by speaking as an Estonian would. Don't read it out in an English tone of voice. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted October 28, 2016 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted October 28, 2016 Thanks folks And yes spot on Phil...my thoughts too. Not sure I'll be able to live up to Horsetan's suggestion of linguistic perfection, agreeable though that would be. I do always try and make the effort with language, much to the embarrassment of my children when they were small... Recently had a works trip to Ausburg - the party was taken out to dinner at the Ratzenkeller, a 200 seater beer hall. I gave my after dinner speech for translation to their secretary and fortified with beer stood up after dinner to reinforce Anglo-German relationships with my german speech. By the time I had finished there was a hushed silence throughout the whole hall...what is this crazy Englishman trying to say! The sentiment is absolutely right though - we should make the effort and we are not good at it! Auf wiedersehen... Phil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 Quick plug for the Chartered Institute of Linguists "find a linguist" service: http://www.ciol.org.uk/translator?from=31&to=35 won't necessarily be cheap though. And the same from the Institute of Translation & Interpreting http://www.iti.org.uk/component/itisearch/?view=translators Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 I wouldn't say it was hugely difficult. There must be examples of spoken Estonian on YouTube, for example. Listen to those if they're there - get a feel for the sound, rhythms and cadences. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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