|
|
AT members Ron Jones and Atsushi Tomii will be discussing the sights and sounds of this year's ATA Conference, which was held in Colorado Springs.
The meeting will be held at the Shiba Seinen Kaikan (芝青年会館: JAT's regular meeting site) near Hamamatsucho Station (JR 浜松町駅). It will begin promptly at 14:30 and finish shortly after 16:30. All JAT members, friends, and guests are encouraged to attend. There is no charge.
The meeting will be followed by an informal gathering
at a nearby restaurant. If you require a map of the
meeting site, please fax Bob Oliver at
045-832-2211.
Bob Oliver
Author Mark Schreiber spoke at the November 1996 JAT meeting about his experiences in writing his first book "Shocking Crimes of Postwar Japan." In a thoughtful and well-prepared presentation, Mark treated the audience to an in-depth examination of his writing process and the variety of background factors that figured in the research of his "true crime" book. Speaking from a detailed outline of roughly five main items (background, planning the structure, definition and selection, research and writing, and creating a new genre), Mark's presentation was insightful and full of useful hints for translators.
In the Beginning...
As a background to writing the book, Mark described his fascination with the crime genre, an interest that dates back to his childhood. An "in-country" Japanese speaker, he wrote a book review about the Teikoku bank robbery in 1986 which later developed into a 1994 Tokyo Journal article. His discovery of a Mainichi Shimbun book "The Big Accidents and Crimes after the Second World War in Japan," provided him with an invaluable reference source of thumbnail sketches and essential data on major crimes in Japan. After answering Tuttle's advertisement at the Foreign Press Club for authors (one to write about crime in Japan, the other, for a book of Japanese ghost stories), Mark submitted writing samples and contracted with Tuttle to write "Shocking Crimes of Postwar Japan" in six months.
Anatomy of a Famous Japanese Crime
Mark created his list of postwar crimes using source materials including a poll of readers' top 10 news stories of any particular year (Yomiuri Shimbun), as well as his person, "man-on-the-street" recollections of events in Japan since 1968. There was an advantage to the fact that his was the first English-language publication on the genre, yet this was balanced by not having a pre-determined formula to emulate and concerns about conveying sociocultural concepts such as genkan and kotatsu.
Selecting the crimes was a careful process. In terms of chronology, earlier crimes were easier to write about than recent events, as not only have they remained influential in the public psyche but also there were few new revelations. Given this, the Aum article, the most recent of the chosen events, was the most difficult to write (the publisher insisted on its inclusion). Mark tried to maintain a geographical balance as well as a true overview of the range of Japanese crimes to avoid concentrating on Tokyo/Osaka crimes and over-focusing on sex and violence. Most articles have an international angle (for example, Yoshinobu-chan), an incidental by-product of the selection process and one which might appeal to foreign readers. He aimed at "conveying a sense of human drama," presenting a warts-and-old, balanced image of the Japanese and avoiding what he calls "Madam Butterfly" and "Kill Me in Roppongi" sensationalism. Robert Whiting's "The Chrysanthemum and the Bat" was a major influence.
Do Your Research!
Mark employed a variety of resources to research the book. His application of thematic content analysis (judging the importance of a topic by the frequency with which it appears) was a valuable research technique. He hired a student to sift through back issues and copy newspapers articles, which freed his time for interviews and browsing through used bookstores. Mark noted that it is impossible to interview a person in a Japanese prison and cited the memoirs of journalists and retired police officers as key sources. A Korean language dictionary was essential to confirm names for the two chapters that dealt with Koreans. One favourite chapter concerning the Matsumoto shootout involved a journey to Shikoku. Expending such time, effort, and expense on research was not without its pitfalls: Mark emphasised the importance of being sure about his story selection before proceeding with the writing.
In many cases, Mark was able to obtain not only direct interviews with the persons involved but also a variety of source materials (including a copy of the original police file for one case). Yet the secondary sources which were key factors in turn gave rise to concerns about plagiarism. To avoid this, he spent a lot of time consulting as many sources as possible and carefully writing his stories. He noted that no one has the rights to the generic parts of any story (announcements, etc. made for the public record). Being realistic about his own detective ability to crack the cases, Mark limited his reporting to "sifting through previously published materials and selecting the most plausible explanations."
Mark describes his book as a "resource-poor" project, the writing of which could be termed a "labour of love" that had to be balanced with more day-to day concerns such as making a living. In terms of writing style, he strove to avoid both the "exotic Japan" angle as well as generalisations about the Japanese ("the Japanese are..."). His original thoughts about his subject material are evident in his chapter headings and literary style, and he was able to pepper the material with updated information on the subject matter. As for readability and coping with various Japanese terms, he prepared a glossary which unfortunately was later cut from the final published edition. Important concerns about the target audience and genre--was it a book for Japanophiles or "true crimes" buffs?--had to be weighed.
Advice for Translators
Mark provided some valuable advice for translators throughout his presentation. In addition to those above, here are a few choice nuggets:
During the Q&A session, Mark fielded various questions from the audience about distribution, editor-author arguments, and specific translation problems. His book appears in a number of bookstores in Japan, and luckily, Tuttle usually keeps its titles in print for a long time. Mark described the biggest argument that he had with his editor as involving the omission of the phrase "Ah so" from one of the dialogue passages (the editor won, but Mark added that other, less contentious issues were resolved in his favour). Given the subject material, he noted than an author has to be careful about meishi distribution. Two areas were especially difficult to translate: the prisoners' poety and regional dialects. Finally, Mark cited the Teigin incident as the most difficult and enigmatic case to research and write about; as well, the as-yet unresolved saga of Aum necessitated extreme care in writing about the cult's activities. In conclusion, this was an excellent and entertaining presentation.
Reported by Leslie M. Tkach (wish I had brought my copy to get autographed!) Thanks to Mark Schreiber for his speaking notes and Joe Mann for his audio tape.
November saw a big load of items for discussion by the Board, this discussion being continued after the Board meeting on various electronic media (including the low-tech telephone). This report will attempt to cover the discussions and the decisions of the Board as reflected in all of those media.
Bob Oliver could not attend the Board meeting, but sent in a report which indicated that: (1) he is in contact with a company called KAGI, in an attempt to establish an easier way to receive payment from overseas, (2) he has made preliminary reservations for May 23-24, 1998 for IJET-9. (Bill Lise commented from another report from Bob that the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd weekends in May of that year were already reserved), and that he will complete the official paperwork with Mr. Ohmura of the Pacifico during the coming week, (3) he suggests that IJET stationery be prepared at the earliest possible convenience, and (4) he paid the room rent for the Seinen Kaikan (monthly JAT meeting site) has been paid through December 1997.
Bill Lise mentioned that at IJET-3 there was already talk of holding IJET-10 in Boston. Since it has been quite some time since any discussion of this, Bill said he will try to discover what the status of that plan is. (Post board meeting note: This is note necessarily that premature, since just the other day a draft of an article about JAT which will appear in the Japan Times mentioned the Boston venue, and Bill Lise told the author that perhaps that might be inaccurate, not having heard anything about this for more than four years.)
John Burton reported that we are sitting at around 139 members.
Emily reports that she is still working on trying to eliminate mojibake in the electronic version of the Bulletin, and that having Japanese capability on her machine is causing line-end spaces to be rendered as two-byte spaces, which are not renderable correctly on non-Japanese systems. She had no articles for the December Bulletin at the time of our Board meeting.
Bill mentioned that ultimately we would want to apply HTML tags to our Bulletin files. Michael House volunteered to do a test case with the current issue of the Bulletin.
Bill reported some progress in getting responses from people on the Bulletin freebie list, and will summarize the Board's disposition on this shortly; this will result in a number of people have moved away, or are otherwise not in line for a free Bulletin being removed from the list.
Discussion turned to issues concerning JAT's web site. Digital Building "feels" good and they seem helpful, but they admittedly have only 50 clients. Digiweb is reported to be a good candidate by Adam (and looks good from what Bill has seen on their website), but is in the US. This should not be a problem, however, since the site can be managed by ftp "putting" of files from anywhere.
Bill Lise voiced the idea that the JAT web page should be divorced from association with any particular individual. This is one reason why he wanted to get the JAT web site files off of his disk area. The pages should have a webmaster without a name, in addition to a jat.org domain. E-mail should be sendable to a webmaster (or even to "jat") without the person sending it realizing who it is going to (an email alias function should provide this capability). A number of people might be designated to get this mail (the other day we verified that e-mail from a web page to multiple recipients works) to ensure that the mail got read even if one or more of the people were busy or out-of-connection with their computers at the time. Additionally, broad participation (perhaps a committee of three people) is desirable in building the web site. One or more of these people do not really even need to be directors, although nobody at the table could come up with specific names. (Jeremy sounded like he was not opposed to being one of these people.) There was no disagreement with the above-expressed policies. We would like to get therelationship with the server in place as quickly as possible. Bill agreed to liaison with Adam to make this happen. The directors agreed that the cost involved was so small that he/Adam should just go ahead with this without further head-holding about the expense. (Post-meeting update: the JAT domain of "jat.org" was approved in a surprisingly short time, and the JAT web site was transferred to its new home as soon as that became possible. See report elsewhere.)
On the issue of the logo, most people seemed to like a "dropshadow logo" that Adam made, and the idea of showing the logo(s) to someone with more than an amateur standing came up. But even before that, perhaps there might be someone else out there who would be willing to try their hand at a logo, thereby giving us one or more extra candidates to show to this supposed non-amateur reviewer. Bill agreed to post a note on honyaku and jat-list, stating that we would entertain suggestions from people who thought they could come up with a logo within a week, so that we are not sitting on this forever waiting for volunteers who don't materialize. After that effort comes to an end (with or without additional logos) we might show the logos to a colleague having more "design savvy" than the directors. (Post-meeting note: no volunteers raised their hand, and it looks like we will go with one of Adam's designs or a variation thereof or thereof or a number of variations thereof.)
Since the issue of JAT stationery is tied in with the logo issue, we agreed to wait until we settle the logo issue before making stationery.
The fact that a JAT member had been writing up meeting reports before was mentioned, and Joe Mann said he would contact that person to see if this could be resumed. This month, however, Leslie Tkach volunteered from the meeting floor and will be writing up Mark Schreiber's talk.
We need to get an election committee in place and announce the opening of nominations. As a current director who will not be running for re-election John Burton volunteered to be a director member of that committee.
Unless called off or changed, we will have a JAT Board meeting on 21 December, even though we are not having a regular monthly meeting. (Important post-meeting note: At the nijikai, two members not only voiced a bit of disappointment that we are not having a December meeting, but also indicated they could do a meeting on 21 December; thus, as reported elsewhere, we will have a meeting on 21 December.
by Bill Lise
JAT has had its new domain name "jat.org" registered, and has moved its website, formerly hosted in Japan, to a server in the US.
Since we now have a domain of our own, our URL has been considerably shortened; to reach our site, just point your browser to the following URL.http://www.jat.org/
With the added capabilities of our new server, the site's content and "feel" are likely to improve rapidly in coming days.
If you visit this site, you will note that there is the perhaps unexpected appearance of a JAT monthly meeting report, Mark Schreiber's talk on the 16th, the text of which (without the photos that are part of the JAT web site version) appears in this issue of the Bulletin. This would not normally appear in "public," being reserved for the JAT Bulletin, but is available at the JAT web site now, if for no other reason than we haven't worked out how to implement passwords for JAT members yet. When that feature is in place, it is planned that there will be two parts to the site, one part open to anyone, and one part for JAT members. So right now such normally "members only" items might be appearing as what could be considered limited time "demos."
If you have any comments about the site, please direct them by e-mail to webmaster@jat.org.
Elections for JAT Directors will be held early in the new year. If you would like to put your name forward as a candidate, please send a note to John Burton, of the Elections Committee, by January 20th, 1997.
John Burton
Tokiwa-cho 6-71 Chigasaki-shi
Kanagawa-ken 253
Fax: 0467-86-9152
E-mail: selwyn@shonan-inet-or.jp
技術関連の文書において、日本語と英語ではその様式が異なっていることが多い。ここで 様式というのはその文書全体から受ける感じと言い換えてもいいかもしれない。英語でかかれた文書は一般的に文章がたくさん続いていて、ページ全体が文字で覆われている感じがする。それに比べて日本語の文書では図や表が多用され、また、文章に項目番号を振ることが多く、整理されて書かれている印象を受けることが多い。（英語を母国語とする翻訳者の方々はどう感じているか知りたいと思う。）ここで述べているのはぱっと見たときの印象であって、内容についてではない。内容は逆に英語の文章の方が論理的に記述されており、わかりやすいことが多い。文章を書いて、ある事柄を他人に正確に伝えることを意識している日本人がまだ少ないし、そのような文章の書き方について指導を受けたこともない人が多いからであろうと推察する。
日本語の技術関連文書では箇条書きの文章が多い。いつも番号が振ってある。その中の一つの項目について、後から説明したり電話で話をするときに便利である。ただし、記載されている内容が一つしかないときに番号を１と振ることについては、英語を母国語とする翻訳者の方々はおかしいと感じていると思う。番号を１と振るのは、後から項目を追加するかもしれないから取りあえず番号を１とする、ほかの文書で項目番号を使用しているので番号がないと統一がとれないなどの理由があると思う。これは英語ではおかしいから、翻訳するときに項目番号を打たずに訳して顧客から番号を入れてくれないと困ると言われたことのある翻訳者も多いと思う。私が英訳するときには、類似した文書が多数発行されているときには番号を入れて訳し、単独の文書であると考えられるときはその様式は英語では馴染まないと連絡して番号をはぶいている。 番号でもうひとつ困るのは?、?、?などの丸付き番号である。私は前後の文章を見て統一が取れるように(1)や1.1に変更することが多い。
表の中にいろいろな記号を使うのも日本語の技術文書の特徴と言える。〇、×、＊、☆、●、◎、◇、□、△、※などであるが、一目見ただけでは何を意味するかわからないことが多い。〇は一般的にaffirmativeであることを示し、acceptable, available, applicableなどを表す。×はその反対でnegativeなことを表す。すぐに意味が分からない記号をなぜ使用するかという疑問に対しては明確な回答ができないが、文章を書くことを煩わしく考えている日本人の性格によるのではないかと推察している。
また、英語の表は横の罫線しかないことが多いし、罫線が全くなくスペースで区切ってあるものもある。日本語の表では縦と横の罫線がすべて引かれている場合がふつうである。表の作成もしている翻訳者の場合、顧客からこの点を指摘されることもあると思う。そのときは日本人にも知られている権威ある書物を見せて（日本人は権威に弱い<g>）英語ではこの表は普通ですと説得すればわかってもらえると思う。細かいことではなるべく議論を避けた方が賢明であろう。
項目の頭にチェック欄（□）があるような様式は日本には昔なかったと思う。これは英米からの影響をうけている。したがって、いまでこそ、その欄（□）にチェックマーク（ ）を記入する人が増えてきているが、その欄に○を書き入れる人はまだたくさんいる。これは単にそのような様式に慣れているかどうかであるが、チェック欄の入った文章を翻訳するときには、記号の変更について顧客に一言連絡したほうがよいこともあるだろう。
記号や番号について今までの翻訳で気づいたことを述べたが、米国で暮らしている日本人の方が関連する内容について記事を書いていたのでここに引用して皆さんの参考としたい。日本人でコンピュータに興味のある方はたいていはこの筆者をご存じだと思うが、IBMでパソコン部隊を率いて活躍し、いまは米セガソフト会長である。
道案内の表現法 三井信雄
先週末、ワインで有名なナパ地方へドライブに出かけた。秘書に、家からサンフランシスコの市街を抜けて一番行きやすい道順を聞いたら、案の定、道順をひとつひとつ文章で記述したガイドを用意してくれた。 米国で道を尋ねた経験のある人は気付いたと思うが、早い英語でまくし立てられ、申し訳ないが紙に書いてくれと頼むと、相手が警察官であろうと、ガス・スタンドのひとであろうと、地図を描いてくれることはほとんどない。
この話をしたら、米国の友人は文章の形で「Ａ街道を西に５マイル行って、Ｙ道路を右折して、２ブロック先の右側１５番目の家」と書く方が早くて簡単だと言い、日本の友人はこの国は地番がよく整理されて、道路の名前、行き先表示がよく出来ているからだと推論した。しかし、私は後者の説には素直に賛成できない。「Ｂ通りのたばこ屋の角を曲がって、その先のクリーニング屋の先」という、地番に無関係の表現もよく使われるからだ。
こんな議論をしていると、米国人はデジタル型で、日本人はアナログ型だとか、いや右脳を使うとか左脳を使うとか、面白い話に発展した。 しかし、この相違は、本質的には学校教育によるものだとする説がどうも正しいように思える。９年間の義務教育期間、米国では徹底的に正確でわかりやすい文章を書くことを教えるし、半ば強制的に事象を文章で表現することを訓練する。
グラフや図式の形で物事を表現する手段は、高校に進んで初めて学んだという人が多い。したがって、一般の人は地図を使うことは出来ても、自分で地図を書いて道順を教えるより文章で表現する方が自然なのかもしれない。日常生活でも、米国人は文章を書くことにあまりためらいがなく、手紙に始まって長文の詳細なメモやリポートをいとも簡単に書いてくれる。私の推定では、日本人の20倍は書いているのではないだろうか。
（『あすへの話題』 日本経済新聞11月11日夕刊）
翻訳ソフトまだまだか?（朝日新聞記事より）
朝日新聞11月22日夕刊の第6面「ウィークエンド経済」に、「翻訳ソフトまだまだ - 購入前に自分で試して」という記事が、主な英文和訳翻訳ソフト（多くはインターネット対応型）7本（翻訳サーフィンV2.0、翻訳アダプタII、ASTERANSAC for Internet、インターネットザ・国際人EJ Ver.3.1、E to J INTERNET PLUS、NetSurfer/ej Ver.2、WorldNet/EJ95）の比較表つきで、そして「それなりの和訳を期待するのは現時点では難しいようだ」との結論付きで掲載されていました。興味のある方はどうぞ。この記事についてはFウレマンさんが教えて下さいました。（うちは日経しか取っていないので）。
by Bill Lise
With only four more issues of the paper Bulletin (including the one you are reading) to be distributed, it is time to think about JAT members joining JAT-LIST. There are about 70 JATers who have already done this, but that is far from the full membership. Some discussion has gone on among the directors on how this should be done, one of the approaches being to sign everybody up to JAT-LIST when they first join JAT. That would work fine, were everyone to give us their e-mail address when they join, but such is not the case. Add to this the considerable number current JAT members whose e-mail addresses we do not know, and it spells a sad farewell to some members when March arrives, because after that time (with the exception of written meeting notices--probably postcards--until September) all JAT communication with its members will be electronic. Members can avoid being "left outside the mosquito net" very simply, by either informing JAT (specifically, John Burton) of their e-mail addresses (so that we can make them members of JAT-LIST), or joining JAT-LIST themselves.
Joining JAT-LIST is extremely easy. Simply send an e-mail message with the text
subscribe jat-list
to the e-mail address listserv@netcom.com.
Once we verify that you are indeed a member, you will be signed up. When this is done, you will be sent a welcome file explaining the nature of the list, which will also tell you how to unsubscribe should you choose to do so. You may want to save this file for future reference.
All JAT Bulletins since the July/August issue have been distributed via JAT-LIST, and unless the list is replaced by some other electronic means, this will continue after the last paper Bulletin goes out in March. In addition to JAT Bulletins, JAT-LIST is a place for JATers to discuss JAT business, activities, and even things that might not be strictly JAT, but are of interest to J/E translators who are members of JAT.
If you have any questions about how to join JAT-LIST,
or about how to acquire e-mail capability, Mac users
Michael House, Adam Rice, and I (contact information
at the end of this issue) and PC user Mayumi Nishioka
(tel/fax: 0738-32-9563, e-mail: PXN04277@niftyserve.or.jp)
will be happy to provide whatever help we can.
Registration papers are ready so please contact Susie Tranter, IJET-97 Administrator, School of East Asian Studies, The University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2UJ, U.K.
Tel.: 0114 282 4384
Fax: 0114 272 9479
Email: JAA93SHT@Sheffield.ac.uk
Bill Lise
The IJET-7 Proceedings have been printed, and a limited number of copies of that and other Proceedings are available at the following prices.
Payment can be made in the following ways.
(1) International postal money order denominated in yen, payable to Japan Association of Translators, and sent to:
Robert Oliver
Hino Minami 1-13-21
Konan-ku Yokohama 234
Japan
(2) Bank transfer in yen only (from either overseas or from within Japan (furikomi) to the following bank account.
東京三菱銀行溜池支店
(普通) 0092271
Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank Tameike Branch
(Futsuu) 0092271
(3) Postal transfer the following postal account.
東京6-184391 (Tokyo 6-184391)
Send your order to Bob Oliver (roliver@gol.com). Orders can also be mailed or faxed.
IMPORTANT (especially for people paying from within Japan):
JAT's name is 日本翻訳者協会 for both of the accounts mentioned in payment methods (2) and (3).
The IJET-4 Proceedings are available from the University of Queensland. The cost (in Australian dollars) from outside of Australia: $50 by seamail; $60 by airmail. Cost within Australia: $35 by surface mail; $40 by airmail. Payment may also be made in US dollars (an equivalent amount calculated using the exchange rate at the time of purchase, then rounded up).
Payment should be made to The Key Centre for Asian Languages & Studies, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia. (fax: 61-7-3365-6811).
For details, please contact Judy Wakabayashi(J.Wakabayashi@mailbox.uq.oz.au).
The tables of contents of the Proceedings from IJET-1 through IJET-7 (with the exception of the IJET-6 Proceedings, which have not been published) are available at JAT's web site, at the URL http://www.jat.org/.
January 18th - A "Meet the Candidates" meeting will be held to allow the general JAT membership to discuss JAT business with the JAT director candidates.
February and March - We are still looking for speakers for these two months. If you have any ideas, please contact me at roliver@gol.com. I'll do all the work required to set things up.
Bob Oliver
今年は私にとってもインターネット元年、本当にめまぐるしい1年でした。メーリングリストとWWWは、確かに接続できるようになるまでが大変でした。でも今ではもう、仕事に欠かせません。世界中の翻訳者と空間を越えて、お互いのペースを乱すことなく、しかもすばやくコミュニケートできる点で、Eメールはすごい媒体です。質問を発すれば早ければ数分後には答えが返ってくるのですから。そしてインターネットには仕事に役立つ「知的資源」があふれています。
来年は JATもサイバースペース化します。
では皆様、よい年を 迎えられますよう。
Emily SS
The Japan Association of Translators (JAT) is a nonprofit association dedicated to serving the interests of individual translators. Unless otherwise stated, opinions expressed in JAT Bulletin articles are solely those of individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Japan Association of Translators.