Updated 2000-07-01
JET-2000 Reports and Comments -2-
by Stewart Adamson
JAT Bulletin 183, June 2000
Hello everyone! My name is Stewart Adamson. I'm from the UK,
I'm thirty-one and I have worked in-house at a patent
attorney's office in Osaka for nearly six years. I've been a
JAT member for less than a year, and Kyoto was my first
IJET.
I thought the conference was very well organized and that the
expanse of greenery surrounding the conference center made it
an excellent choice of venue. For a first-timer like me, there
was a good variety in the choice of presentations, and the
overall standard of the sessions I attended was very high. The
most impressive aspect was the enthusiasm exhibited by the
speakers for their work and for language in general. As
examples, Professor Ogawa described at length the genuine
enjoyment he had gained from translating "Memoirs
of a Geisha", while Tom Gally almost irresistibly
enthused over his collection of dictionaries and their various
idiosyncrasies. I found this invigorating, and was reminded of
the excitement I had when I started learning Japanese. The
highly advanced linguistic skills on display by the other
attendants also made me feel I still have a lot to learn.
My original intention in attending the conference was simply
to meet up (do not read "network") with
other translators and to find out what life is like for them.
In this sense too, the conference was very educational, and all
I can say is that two days were not enough. As a relatively
inexperienced translator, I feel that I was able to learn a lot
from the people I met, and would like to thank them for their
words of advice. Unfortunately I took the socializing side of
the conference to excess and missed most of the second day,
though I must say I did enjoy the company of the gentlemen with
whom I spent the Saturday night.
Overall I am very pleased that I went to IJET and I intend to
participate in JAT more in the future. Yoroshiku everyone
!
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