We spend a lot of time talking about client education from the perspective of the translation and post-translation processes (e.g., editing, formatting, design, proofreading). The Global English Style Guide looks at the writing process for technical documentation before any translation takes place. It seeks to answer the following questions. How can we effectively use English to communicate...
Flashback to IJET-2
Panel Discussion on English-Japanese Translation (英日翻訳市場の現状、品質管理、翻訳のためのツール、翻訳の将来)
With just under ten weeks to go before IJET-30 in Cairns, this week we take a look back to IJET-2. The Second International Japanese-English Translation Conference was held in June 1991 in San Francisco. Many of the presentations were panel discussions, and we've chosen the report of a panel...
Translators and the Editing Tightrope
Dianne Kirk
Translators with a few years’ experience, reasonable writing skills in their native language and perhaps some expertise in a particular subject area are often asked to carry out work which may be variously described as “editing,” “revising,” “proofreading,” “native check,” “QC,” etc. Ideally, this occurs after the translation has first been...
The Very First IJET
It’s now just four months before IJET-30 in Cairns kicks off!
We owe an immense debt of gratitude to the 1989/90 JAT Board and band of volunteers for their foresight in organizing the First International Japanese-English Translation Conference, held in Hakone, Japan, on the weekend of May 26-27, 1990. IJET has since grown to become JAT’s flagship annual event, attracting...
Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style
Benjamin Dreyer
Random House, published January 29, 2019
ISBN-13: 978-0812995701
Hard cover, 320 pages, around USD15 from Amazon
After following Benjamin Dreyer on Twitter for six months or so, I pre-ordered his book in late 2018 and it made its eagerly-awaited arrival at my house in early February 2019.
Dreyer is a New...
Teaching Japanese-to-English Translation
by James L. Davis
In the Technical Japanese Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we teach Japanese-to-English translation in conjunction with Japanese language instruction. Separating translation skills from language skills is a tricky business, and completely separating the two tends to be impossible. However, as we move from the basic...
Writing Science in Plain English (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing).
Greene, Anne E.
University of Chicago Press.
ISBN 978-0-226-02637-4 (paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-02640-4 (e-book)
The advice in this concise and inexpensive book is similar to that you’ll find in other books on scientific writing, but it is written in a breezy, engaging style in plain English; the author...
医薬品開発-承認申請-市販後業務のための知っておきたい英単語・英語表現
Author: 内田たけみ
ISBN: 978-4840746342
Second Edition, published September 2014
Price: 3700 yen plus tax (as of December 2018)
医薬品開発-承認申請-市販後業務のための知っておきたい英単語・英語表現 is now in its second edition. Written by Takemi Uchida, formerly an in-house translator with pharma companies Upjohn and Pfizer before retiring to become a freelance translator, this book dovetails...
Mere Pebbles Along the Way
Charles De Wolf
It is said that while source texts are eternal, target languages are not, hence the enduring need for new translations of old works. And yet inasmuch as our perceptions too are subject to time’s vicissitudes, so in some sense are the seemingly unchanging texts themselves.
The perfectly “normal” dialogue in older films such as Ozu’s Banshun (Late...
Mini Book Review: 翻訳教室
Lectures on Literary Translation from English to Japanese
ISBN-13: 978-4022646644
Publication date: April 5, 2013
Price: 1,000 JPY plus tax
Author: 柴田 元幸
Inspired by Kevin Kirton’s 2001 review of 翻訳夜話 that was recently republished on the JAT blog, I decided to buy a copy for myself. At the same time, I also picked up 翻訳教室, by one of the book’s interlocutors, 柴田元幸. I...
I know we have many JAT members who also teach translation or work in agencies as coordinators, so you may be interested to hear about a product I saw demonstrated in a recent webinar.
Traditionally, the way we mark, revise, or evaluate student-submitted translation assignments is to open the documents in Word and use the Track Changes or Comment functions to identify, categorize, and correct...
技術翻訳のチェックポイント：技術英文の作成と評価
English title: Improving Translation Quality
Author: Kevin Morrissey
ISBN: 978-4621075654
Price: 2400 yen plus tax (as of December 2018)
First published in 2005, and available in bricks-and-mortar bookstores and online, this very useful book is now in its sixth printing. I thought I’d take a look at it after the recent publication of the JTF翻訳品質評価ガイドライン.
Improving...
I realized a long time ago that I didn’t have what it takes to be an interpreter. However, thinking that I still might learn something useful from a meeting aimed at interpreters, I attended the joint JATINT/TAC meeting held in Yoyogi on November 17, 2018. And so I did.
The first speaker was Izumi Suzuki, whose presentation was titled 通訳ビジネスの成功に向けて. Suzuki-san provided a comprehensive rundown...
On the heels of the JTF Translation Festival in Kyoto and the 7th medical translation seminar organized by International Medical Translation Service, Inc., a small group of JAT members specializing in medical and pharma held an informal meeting in Osaka on Sunday October 28. Each attendee was tasked with preparing an eight-minute presentation on a subject of their choice in Japanese or English,...
To be or not to be … productive? We will be now!
The Tokyo Activities Committee meeting of Saturday October 20 featured twenty-year veteran translator Cathy Eberst reprising and expanding her IJET-29 presentation on productivity.
Cathy began by asking the audience about whether they were productive and/or efficient, and whether there were any differences between these concepts. We were...
How Not to Lose It in Translation.....
by Emily Shibata-Sato and Cliff Bender
“I can't believe it. My hands are shaking from excitement as I type this message!” replied Mako Sato upon hearing that she had won first place in the English- to-Japanese division of the First Annual JAT Translation Contest for new and aspiring translators sponsored by the Japan Association of Translators...
The Sound of One Hand Clapping (Against Another): Murakami and Shibata Discuss Translation
Kevin KIRTON (ケビン・カートン)
If I had to offer a single compelling reason for translators to read 『翻訳夜話』(Hon’yaku Yawa) by Murakami Haruki 村上春樹 and Shibata Motoyuki 柴田元幸 (文春新書、2000 年、 ISBN コ－ド 4-16-660129-6), it would be this: it’s a very pleasurable way to find a renewed sense of wonderment for the...