Email your novia in Colombia

I was looking for a way to email a lady in Colombia with translation, at an economical rate. I found "www.sectorcali.com" form this board. On sector Cali I found Nohemy Kattan on the sectorcali site. Her email is "nohemykattan@hotmail.com"

She seems very professional in the few emails I hve exchanged with her to ask questions. Her charge is $5.00 per email letter. I have not tried her service out yet, but I soon will and then I will post my perceptions of the service.
JB

JB

Why pay someone when you can translate it yourself with translation software. You can download free from the net. Take Minn. Fats advice and do it yourself.

[Bill123]

Are you talking about translation or both translation AND getting it to her if she doesn't have email.

I have often thought that a plain ol re-mailing service would be a good one. Where she would simply print off your email and put it in the local mail. It would be much faster than us mailing it. Also, less likely to be opened. She could charge around a buck, which is the cost we would pay if we mailed it ourself. I'm not sure how she would get her money, but I can;t think of everything!!!

Thanks for suggestions! I will practice with the translation programs on the net.

I am talking about translation both ways and getting it to her, the whole package. Here is a responce Nohemy sent me today.

Hello James: The price of US$ 5.oo is for translation English to Spanish or Spanish into English. The price to mail a letter within Colombia by courier is US$ 2.00 or by normal mail US$ 1.oo ( but it takes between 3 to 5 days to arrive). I have an account in Fla at the Washington Mutual. I could give you the ABA so that you would send the deposit there from time to time. With best regards, Nohemy

Will post more when I find out and when I try the service.
jb

[Bill123]

Sounds like it's $5.00 each way for translation. Try the translation program before sending it. Then pay her to just print it out, put it in an envelope and mail it the regular way. But then it gets complicated on how she answers you and translation back, etc.

An easier, better, faster and probably cheaper way to do this is to find an internet cafe close to her work or home. Somehow make arrangements to pay them for her time there. About 2000 pesos an hour, billed in quarter hour segments.

I think it is much better to use a human translator. I have never found a good translation program, and I havge tried many. If you dont believe it, translate a message to spanish, and then back to english and you will see how bad it is. I have heard good things about sector cali. I know LWC had a translation service, but I am not sure of the cost or how it works. If your friend understands english than u can email, and she can go to the mall for a very small fee and open it. If not spend the $5 and have a human translate.

[desertdan]

I have searched everywhere for a good electronic translator, they all are very limited. as previously posted by czhv18a , if you wite something in english and let it translate to spanish for you than take the same text and try to have it translate back to english its terrible ! My "friend" from Cali. Emails me and I use a translator to get close to what she says but I always have a Mexican Girl I know translate it for me and what a difference ! the translators (electronic) suck ! When My "friend write there are at least 1 out of every ten words the translators don't know and I have bookmarks for a half dozen of them and 2 programs I have bought, they all are very limited ! find someone that can help you that you trust, Mexican girls love to read the letters ! they get to where they look forward to the Emails more than you, its a soap oprea to them and they enjoy it ! If someone knows of a (electronic)translator that WORKS and WORKS well I would like to know the name of it.

For a year and a half, I've been trying to tell you guys that electronic translators & software programs suck.

Ya gotta learn Spanish. No pain, no gain.

Sign up for Spanish at your local community college. Buy the American Heritage Spanish/English hardcover dictionary. Park your butts for hour after hour in front of the scantily-clad Latinas of Univision until your eyes glaze over.

Jeff

Those electronic pocket translators can be good on the fly if you need to look up a word and don't care to lug a dictionary around. I prefer to carry a dictionary around. Dictionaries are my playground.

It's been awhile since I've surveyed the translation software that you can install on your PC. I use Power Translator Pro. It translates 6 languages: Spanish, French, Italian, German, Brazilian Portugese, and Japanese. My lovely Colombian wife uses it on occasion when she really wants to tell me off. Oh well. Ces't la vie !! The web page link for that program is:
http://www.lhsl.com/powertranslator/

Sector International used to use Nohemy Kattan for translating legal documents like birth certificates and divorce decrees. She is an excellent translator. But she started working overseas, (Germany I believe) and the translations via email became a problem for our clients. So Gonzalo switched to someone else in Cali who has been working out just fine for the last 4 months or so.

Plus Nohemy started adding a lot of "white space" meaning triple spacing and big margins on top, bottom, and both sides on her translations to increase her page count. She charges per page. We thought this was kind of "cheesy" (one of Gonzalo's favorite words, him being a cheesehead from Wisconsin) so we decided to move on and find someone else.

Patricia Jenkins (nee Velez) formerly of LWC joined our ranks this summer and she is anxious to get some clients. I spoke with her yesterday about this particular thread from GringoTalk.

Patricia will offer to do these email translations both ways for 5 bucks. Usually emails don't go more than a page. So she'll translate your email and your fiancee's reply for 5 bucks. If your fiancee doesn't have access to a PC and she lives in the Cali vicinity she can go to Gonzalo's in Cali with her letter and Gonzalo will send/fax/email it to Patricia.

Contact Patricia at sectorflorida@yahoo.com to set this up. Also this is an extremely low price and is only available to registered members of GringoTalk so when you contact Patricia make sure you identify yourself from GringoTalk.

Finally, as my friend Biave suggests, it would be a good idea for you and your fiancee to begin taking classes or engage in self study to learn each other's language.

And don't forget us at Sector International because "WE'RE JUST GOOD PEOPLE TO KNOW"

That's my plug. Contact Patricia at sectorflorida@yahoo.com. She knows her ****.

[Chao]

I'm with biave on this one. Bite the bullet. Learn some Spanish.

chao