Ukrainian Translator
Spotlight: Danylo Kravchuk

Please describe your
cultural background (languages spoken, ethnicity etc.)

I grew up in the city of
Lviv in Western Ukraine, where the Ukrainian language is most commonly used in
everyday life. Therefore, this part of Ukraine is known as “the most Ukrainian”
part of the country. Lviv city is considered the cultural capital of Ukraine
integrating Austrian architecture, Polish Renaissance and, unique for Ukraine,
Gothic style. In spite of this, the Russian language is widely spoken here,
just like throughout the entire territory of Ukraine. This is related to the
impact of the Soviet Union. Until 1990, all the domestic schools had classes of
the Russian language mandatory for every student. That’s why the local
population over 30 years old has gotten a very good grasp of it.

After graduating from
school, I was lucky to be able to go study at a college in the USA,
specifically, in Stamford, CT. It was a vibrant four-year teenage period of my
life, on the verge of the Millennium. This is where I learned English and got
acquainted with the American culture.

What is something you have
translated that you are proud of?

The first thing that comes
to my mind is a huge project for the reconstruction of local roads funded by
the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. I had to work through all
those drawings of driveways, sidewalks, street railways, electric lines, and
communications, including getting into the road construction details. It was a
very painstaking job requiring a huge effort, but I felt proud of the
contribution I made to the development of the local infrastructure. Plus, I
acquired a profound knowledge in the field of civil engineering.

What is the biggest
challenge you have faced as a Ukrainian translator?

The biggest challenge was
to set up collaboration with translation agencies all over the world.

I sought to get into
linguist databases in as many different countries as possible. Challenging was
the fact that my primary working language was not as in demand as other popular
languages. Soon, I found that healthcare is the field where my language pair is
the most needed. So, I focused on this area.

Today, it is difficult to
count all the translation agencies I work with, but the number is over 20 in
more than 10 countries around the globe. Sometimes I’m nicely surprised by
service requests from agencies I forgot about a long time ago. I still remember
the agency from Canada, which I signed my first International Vendor Agreement
with back in 2009. Our cooperation continues to go on to this day.

What is a typical day in
the life of a translator look like?

I’m not sure about other
translators, but I’m a late riser. Usually, I start working at 11.00 AM and
finish around 8.00 PM. Throughout the day I have two or three breaks, which
besides coffee and lunch I try to use to get outside, take my mind off work and
get fresh air. At the end of the day, I run to the swimming pool several days a
week to keep myself in shape. I don’t work on weekends — that is my personal
rule, which I must admit is broken sometimes.

Describe your workflow as
you translate documents.

First, I try to get into
the subject as deep as possible. If it is, for example, a healthcare project, I
visit the provider’s web site, glance over the company’s history, products,
services, etc. If it is some product, I google it, look for its pictures and
videos to understand what it is intended for and what it actually looks like.
Then I look for terminology in the target language, which is most commonly used
in the particular field. As a rule of thumb, I always check for official
translations of the names of government bodies, institutions, organizations,
and companies, because very often you can find that they are translated
differently than you think they should be.

In my normal translation
process without a rush I translate up to 2500 words, depending on the subject.
This is the word count I use to plan my work and decide whether to take another
upcoming project or not. Usually I leave at least half a day before a scheduled
deadline for review as well as unexpected issues such as a disruption in
computer operation or emergencies. I had a situation once, when my translated
file just mysteriously disappeared from my computer. I was shocked. I still
don’t know how it happened. Luckily, the document was small, and thanks to this
reserved time I was able to translate it again and deliver on time.

Do you have any stories of
things lost in translation?

Yes. Once, I had a text of
a religious nature, where I had to translate Russian “воскресенье” (ENG.
Sunday) to English while getting into the essence of this word. In Russian,
this day of the weekend verbally implies the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and
the source context was targeted at people who do not believe in Christ, but
still celebrate Sunday by not working that day for example. However, Sunday in
English has nothing to do with Christ. It’s just “a sunny day”. After long
thinking, all I could come up with was Christmas, which did not fit the context
very well.

If you could change one
thing about the way Ukrainian translators are perceived today, what would that
be?

Very often Ukrainian
translators are mixed with Russian translators. I can’t tell how many times I received
service requests indicating Ukrainian as a source language with the document
actually in Russian. It is a common thing when Ukrainian is actually not a
native language for a translator from Ukraine but Russian, and vice versa –
Russian is not a native language for a translator from Ukraine. Use of Russian
terms and wordings in Ukrainian translations is a very common mistake for
Ukrainian translators, and it indicates poor knowledge of Ukrainian. Even
Ukrainian grammatical rules do not always match Russian. So, Ukrainian and
Russian translators should be differentiated.

What advice would you give
for people who are considering the career of a professional Ukrainian
translator?

I would suggest to be
versatile. Get into as many areas as possible, especially those that look
attractive and interesting to you. Don’t limit yourself by one or two
specializations. If you ride bikes, for example, study the field of
motorcycles. Read articles about bikes, get into the commonly used terminology
by visiting biker forums in a language you translate to, search for spare parts
for bikes in this language. Make yourself unique. If you know that beauty
products are something that you are curious about, why don’t you learn more
about them and start translating in this area? Thus, the translation process
will not be that boring for you, because you will enjoy learning new things
about subjects you like.

What’s your favorite
cultural dish?

I like Hungarian bogracs
(means “kettle for cooking outside” from Hungarian). This dish is adopted in
the Ukraine from our Hungarian cousin and commonly cooked in the mountain
region of the country. It is a stew from many different types of meat and vegetables,
flavored with paprika, which is known to be a national spice of Hungary. This
combination makes the meat incredibly tender, melting in the mouth. Very often
it is cooked in a pot over open fire, which adds a unique taste.