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Bob Oliver reported that we are getting very close to having an online dues payment system in place, which was confirmed by Adam Rice, who is working on the details of implementing this system. The Board has set the prices for dues for online payment at 42 and 50 dollars for Japan-originated and non-Japan-originated payments.
It appears our membership level is holding steady, according to reports from John Burton before the meeting.
Emily Shibata-Sato reported before the meeting that no articles had yet been received. Subsequent reports were better, hinting that this board report will not be the only article in our last paper Bulletin.
Following on our decision last month to place Bulletin content on the JAT website 3 months after it is distributed to members, Michael House reported that the November issue of the Bulletin has been marked up with HTML tags. That issue will be at the JAT website very shortly.
Jeremy Whipple reported that a separate mailing list for sending of the Bulletin and other JAT information to members (an "announcement" mailing list that is read only) has been created, and that he is working on getting it fully operational.
The IJET-7 committee was disbanded and, in accordance with the Board decision last month with regard to IJET, there will be a call for participation in a standing IJET committee.
The Board will prepare materials for inclusion in an IJET-9 package to be distributed to IJET 97 (Sheffield) participants. This should also include a call for speakers.
Bill Lise
President
Dear Mochizuki-san,
I enjoyed your short piece in the Feb. issue of the JAT Bulletin. Everyday as I check my e-mail, I come across a whole lot of comings and goings which the jat-list steadily provides me. Being a sloth and rather reclusive to boot, I usually read the mail but have never felt like responding. Well today, as I was laying around with my cats, reading the paper bulletin (one of its many assets - i.e., I don't have to sit up and get electronically hooked up to look at the thing), I came across your interesting essay.
おっしゃる通り、本当に何の為にドクターを必要とするのか考えさせられます。ついこの間、ロスの親友と email で同じたぐいの話しをした時に、彼は次のようなことを言いました：「以前あるパンクバンドをインタビューした時に、メンバーの一人がコーネルかなんかの博士過程にいることが話題になったら、アカデミズムはソーシャルミスフィットのサンクチュアリであるという発言がありました。それは確かにそうでしょうね。ただそれと日本的なかったるさが市場経済の現実とは離れたところで純粋培養（この純粋って概念自体が病気ですけどね、そもそも）されている組織の形態というのはまた別で、そりゃ、私だってgeekやnerdの世界はまだしも耐えられますよ、だけど自意識過剰の裸の王様の世界に付き合うほど（君みたいに）忍耐力は無いですよね。」
いやいやその通りです、と私は彼に答えるしかありませんでした。実は現在私はドクター論文をかねてとある日本の某大学で客員研究員みたいな、訳の解らないことをやっていますが、職種は何ですかと聞かれれば、通訳／翻訳者と答えるでしょう。じゃなぜ本職として仕事に専念しないのかと聞かれれば、私の本音は次のようになるのです：
「アカデミズムも一般社会もソーシャルミスフィットの次元でいえば、内容が多少違っても依然として問題があるには変わりません。だれがなにを正しい現実の解釈だと 断言できますか。臆説も信憑性も「事実」としていくらでも情報は誘導可能なものな のです。すなわち情報をにぎることが今日の社会では力に繋がると言われています。 その点日本に関して言えばこの国の政治も経済も教育も結局ある種の三位一体的な力 関係の中、社会の再生産の道具として互いを適当に利用しているように私にはみえます。そんな現状の中、個人にとってしょせん何をやってもより良い社会を目指すことは空想に近いものがあり、何かやったところで、そう世の中極端に良くなる訳でもな く。自分の生活のみを考慮するかぎり、そのつどできることから考えるということで しょう。受け身も積極的に捉えれば、それはそれで面白い世界がある場合もなきにし もあらず。これは私が日本にきてゆいつ確信をもって学んだ、と言えることでしょう 。どうでも良い問題だけど、勉強もあまり真面目にやられると、気味の悪い世界であ るのは確かです。結局なんだかんだ言っても、私にとっての学問は時間つぶしとして そうすてたものでもないですよ。」
So..., speaking as one of those nerds who actually finds sanctuary being cast as a social misfit, I agree with you that the glut of PhDs (not only in the US, but here in Japan as well) are simply wasting their time and money if their only aim is to acquire a title. There! I rest my case.
best regards,
mona
PS. By the way, it will be very sad to see the paper bulletin go. Perhaps the underlying motive for this letter was simply my guilty conscience wanting to add its two bits worth of "thank-yous" to everyone who devoted themselves to doing such a fine job with it all these years. Nothing can replace the feel of ink on paper, but I understand the choice for alternatives. With a final note of gratitude, I look forward to receiving our last issue next month, and sorry for this long and cumbersome letter.
Respectfully yours,
Thanks. (^.^)
by Bill Lise
The issue of the JAT Bulletin you are reading is the last paper Bulletin. Our Bulletin Editor, Emily Shibata-Sato, made a call for tributes and farewells to our paper Bulletin the other day, and it set me to thinking. Did I pay a tribute to my typewriter when I stopped using it for translation nearly two decades ago? Surely, it served me well, but I don't recall writing (and certainly not typing) a tribute. Nor can I imagine many circumstances under which I would consider dragging my Selectric (yes, I still have one) out from the closet.
If any tribute is in order, it is to the people who made the Bulletin what it was in spite of the hurdles to be leaped in doing the collection of articles, layout, and other tasks involved in getting the Bulletin to our members. And, of course, to the people who created the content of the Bulletin throughout the years.
As the editor (spelled: pasteup hand) of Bulletin No. 2 about 12 years ago, I can recall a time when the Bulletin was practically the only way for JATers to make themselves heard beyond our monthly meetings. Things have radically changed. The media used by translators to network have diversified, and our overseas membership has grown, placing a postally distributed paper Bulletin in rather the same position as my typewriter almost 20 years ago.
Although the paper Bulletin is gone, the Bulletin is alive (if not well), and has been distributed electronically since the July/August issue last year. And so, rather than issuing a farewell, I would like to bid a welcome to the new opportunities the Bulletin offers in its electronic form.
Without content, however, no new distribution method is going to make the Bulletin valuable to its readers. The coming months will show whether enough JATers will be willing to provide the content necessary to make the Bulletin a continuing success story. If you have been thinking about saying something about your profession, why stop at thinking about it?
... I think that JAT has to decide on how the BULLETIN should be used (or should function).
One idea I have is to teach/train each other on how to 'behave' on HONYAKU and train HONYAKU 'leaders'. In short two months, I discovered that there are all sorts of marvelous people on it and they are setting the tone of the listserve. I noticed that some people are particularly good at asking questions, explaining things, etc. However, some people on the listserve have to learn (or should I say 'have to be taught'). With many wonderful people to imitate, HONYAKU will flourish even further. Either directors vote on Best Inquirer, Best Answerer, etc., and ask them to write the how-to or ask JAT members to vote on such people and ask them/others to write the how-to. I will list what should be in and what should not be in.
In
1. How to ask a question. (context, background info, what
kind of research has already been done etc.)
2. How to read questions. (read carefully. Identify what the
inquirer is searching, etc.)
3. How to answer a question (or help). (don't quote/copy
without mentioning sources, whether it is a guess or not,
etc.)
4. When to send an answer and when not to.
5. How not to offend others. How to correct somebody else's
error without offending him/her.
6. When attacked (if you think that you are attacked), how to
avoid confrontations, etc. Whether it is a good idea to
mediate or not. etc.
Out
(Just make sure that those who are compulsive answerers won't
feel pressure to perform better by reading the how-to
articles, or that members won't start praising helpful people
to the sky--they will feel pressure too.)
Also avoid mentioning negative things. It is important to
focus on positive things. We don't want to criticize each
other.
JAT had 154 paid-up members as of February 27th, 1997.
New Members
Home Tel: 0423-36-2412
Home Fax: 0423-36-2412
e-mail: ji-shin@faz.so-net.or.jp
Languages: E-J
Description: Social and political issues
Home Tel: 03-3579-0512
Home Fax: 03-3592-1636
Office Address:
Office Info, Capitol Tokyu Hotel
2-10-3 Nagata-cho
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100
Office Tel: 03-3592-1631
Office Fax: 03-3592-1636
e-mail: PXP11745@niftyserve.or.jp
Languages: J-E
Description: Finance, economics and business
administration
5 years as a translator, and 20 years as a financial
analyst
BA from Hosei University, MBA from University of
Hartford
Equipment: Compaq Presario
Languages: E-J
Description: 6 years' general experience, including 3 years
as an agency in-house translator/editor/coordinator. Most
recently I've been doing a lot of chemical/photographic
translation.
Home Tel: 03-3370-9751
Home Fax: 03-3370-9752
e-mail: HQM03455@niftyserve.or.jp
Languages: J-E, E-J
Description: Automobiles, machinery, precision machinery,
electronics, etc.
Over 15 years' experience.
Equipment: Power Macintosh
Home Tel: 03-3554-4805
Home Fax: 03-3554-4805
e-mail: david_breckner@inJapan.net
Office Address:
ILCC
2-17-44 Akasaka
Minato-ku, Tokyo 107
Office Tel: 03-5562-3661
Office Fax: 03-5562-3666
Languages: J-E, E-J
Equipment: Mac
Home Tel: 0552-43-6813
Home Fax: 0552-43-6813
e-mail: pohare@yin.or.jp
Languages: J-E
Description: I am an Irish citizen and came to Japan in 1990.
I graduated with a First Class Honours in Mechanical
Engineering from University College Dublin in the same year.
I joined Mitsui Kinzoku in Nirasaki, Yamanashi, as a design
engineer also in the same year. My experience in the
translation of technical documents started there. During the
five years I spent there, I was awarded several patents, and
at the same time developed my translation skills. In 1995 I
quit to study and concentrate on Japanese to English
translation. At present I translate freelance for a Nagoya
based translation service. I receive documents by fax or
parcel delivery, and return the translation by email.
すばる文学賞受賞作。「京都に留学した西洋人の男性が主人公の恋愛小説である。会話などにややぎこちなさがあるものの、見事な日本語を駆使する若い外国人作家が登場したことにまず驚かされる。（ダカーポ第368号―1997年3月5日―より）」
Nobody seems to know the person I introduced in the January Bulletin (Iain Arthy) but how about this guy?
Emily Shibata-Sato
JAT sponsors a mailing list called honyaku. The list has a membership of nearly 600 (or more?) and a traffic level of up to 100 notes per day. Topics discussed in the past few days include plant/animal names, "de facto standard", 「プッシュホン」、「公園デビュー」、「非常勤講師」、「グランドホステス」and many, many others.
To join the HONYAKU mailing list first get your Internet e-mail address. Then send e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com (note: there is no "e" after listserv), and send the following text:
subscribe honyaku your name
If your name is John Smith, that would be "subscribe honyaku John Smith." You will be then sent a confirmation notice, and once that is returned you will be subscribed. Hope to see you on line!
Emily Shibata-Sato
Return to Table of Contents編集後記
何とか４×ページ（８，１２、１６…）に投稿記事を納める苦労もこれで終わりです。これからはオンラインで皆様とお目にかかる（？お話する）こととなります。新しい企画も考えておりますので、今後ともどうかよろしくお願いいたします。
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.