Blog Archive

Before 2022, most video games were localized into Ukrainian by amateurs, so Ukrainian gamers could only dream of playing AAA games in their language. This seemed especially unfair, considering that Ukraine is a nation of 40 million people, at least half of whom would prefer a Ukrainian interface. It took a war to change this. For many […]

Many Westerners tend to think that Ukrainian and Russian are very similar and even mutually intelligible. This misconception partly arises from a commonly used classification of language families: On this picture, you see Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian on the same branch, and Ukrainian is put aside from Slovak and Polish. But this picture is closer […]

While attending conferences and talking to different language service providers (LSPs) in the U.S., we noticed that some translation agencies have a policy of working only with freelancers and do not consider subcontracting to an LSP from the country where the target language is spoken—for example, outsourcing translation into Ukrainian to a translation agency in […]

Since 2022, we have seen numerous cases of Western companies searching for Ukrainian translators but insisting that they MUST NOT be located in Ukraine. Often, Ukrainian suppliers are excluded from contracts due to so-called “safety considerations.” Let me explain why this approach is misguided. We understand where these fears come from. Every day, you see […]

With the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, translation industry in Ukraine has faced new ethical constraints and dilemmas, which have become a near-daily challenge. A Straight-out “No” to Orders from Government and Businesses of Russian Federation The rationale behind this approach is clear: it is immoral to work for those involved in attempting […]

As this article is being written, the war in Ukraine has been raging for almost three years. How is it influencing Ukrainian business, particularly the translation and localization industry? Translation companies facilitate international relations and trade, making them fully dependent on the volume of these activities. In Ukraine’s case, while trade volumes have fallen, international […]

At least half of the more or less prominent Ukrainian translation agencies claim to be “the leaders,” “the largest ones,” or “the first ones” on their websites and social media pages. Most often this is just a marketing ploy, and the written words do not match the reality. We will try to find some objective […]

Many might think that Ukrainian translation is unnecessary because all Ukrainians understand Russian. Well, we do. But delivering products only in Russian is not acceptable, even though we all understand it, and many of us still speak it. Let me explain why. First, it’s a legal requirement. All product documentation must be in Ukrainian. The […]

Being a translator is a difficult profession, although it is not considered so by the wider public. In addition to technical difficulties, human issues often arise in translation projects, such as frustrated expectations, misunderstandings, and omissions. Every agency has its own stories, some funny, some sad. Usually, they are recounted in an informal setting, without naming […]

Our production manager answered several questions from the students of Summer Translation School 2020, Diana Savostina and Viktoriia Pushina, and shared some ideas on the translation industry’s future: How do you get new clients? How do you stand out from other translation companies? The conventional answer to this question is that we stand out for the quality […]