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JULY 19TH JAT MEETING
A panel of JAT members who attended last month's IJET Conference in Sheffield, England will discuss their experiences at the conference.
The meeting will be held at the Shiba Seinen Kaikan near Hamamatsucho Station. 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
* September 20 - Mr. Hiro Tsuchiya of Yamary Language Services in Morton Grove, Illinois will give a presentation entitled "The World of U.S. Translation." Mr. Tsuchiya was introduced to JAT by JAT member Atsushi Tomii.
by John F. Bukacek
This year's ATA Conference will be held in San Francisco November 5-9. In celebration of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Japanese Language Division, we plan to sponsor a very ambitious program of Japanese language-related sessions.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE DIVISION SESSIONS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1997
8:30-9:15 pm Informal meeting of Japanese Language Division
Members
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1997
1:45-2:30 pm Ken Lunde: "More Adventures in Japanese
Typography"
2:30-3:15 pm Akihiro Omi: "The Use of Machine-Based
Translation Systems to Improve Japanese Translation
Throughput"
3:30-5:00 pm Panel: "Japanese Translation in the Field of
Telecommunications" (Gregor Hartmann, Donald Johnson, Alan
Siegrist)
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1997
10:15-11:00 am Mochizuki: "Some of the Difficulties
Encountered in English to Japanese Translation"
11:00-11:45 am Ohanian: "Making Sense in Japan: Translation
Quality for National Geographic Magazine"
1:45-3:15 pm Panel: "Getting Published as a Japanese-English
Translator" (Beth Cary, Laura Driussi, Alan Gleason, Peter
Goodman)
3:30-5:00 pm Panel: "In-House Japanese Translation and
Localization Projects" (Rikko Field, Tim Hussey, Akihiro Omi,
Marymoore Patterson, Joanne Stewart)
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1997
8:30-9:15am Hayasi: "Internet Resources for Translators of
Japanese"
9:15-11:00 am Panel: "Quality in Japanese-English Medical
Translation - The Importance of Knowing Your Field" (Lee
Seaman, Steve Sherman)
11:00-11:45 am Tomii: "Numerical Expressions in
Japanese-English and English-Japanese Translation"
1:45-3:15 pm Panel: "Continuing Education in Japanese/English
Translation and Interpretation" (James L. Davis, Miho Kite,
Shunsuke Obinata, Dana Russell, Tanya Sobieski, Hiro
Tsuchiya)
3:15-5:00 pm Japanese Language Division Annual Business
Meeting (Chaired by Miho Kite, Japanese Language Division
Administrator)
Bill LISE, President president@jat.org Michael HOUSE, Web
Publications macross@gol.com Bob OLIVER, Treasurer
treasurer@jat.org Adam RICE, JAT on the Internet
webmaster@jat.org Emily SHIBATA-SATO, Publications
editor@jat.org George TOKIKUNI, IJET Affairs
PFG01116@niftyserve.or.jp Jeremy WHIPPLE, Membership
Secretary membership@jat.org
To learn more about JAT, please visit our Web site at http://www.jat.org/.
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.
c) 1997 Japan Association of Translators, All rights reserved. Individual authors of articles in the Bulletin retain copyright to their articles, permitting them to use the articles as they see fit, including granting permission for reprinting in other media.
by Hiro Sato
今年のＩＪＥＴはイギリスの北部の町、シェフィールドにて6月１９日から２ １日にわたって開催されました。会議の日程は次のとうりでした。 １９日： 受け付け、晩餐会、和太鼓披露 ２０日： 講演、バスツアー、地元の歌とフォークダンス ２１日： 講演、打ち上げパーティ
参加者は約１２０人。そのうち４割程度がイギリス以外からの参加者でした。 講演はパネルディスカッション３コマ、個別講演１８コマ、ランチタイム 講演２コマという構成でした。講演はおおまかに分類すると次のような内容 に分類できます。 ＋通訳と通訳養成 ＋技術翻訳 ＋機械翻訳 ＋翻訳者のライフスタイルと勤務形態 ＋他： ＰＣ、インターネット、特許翻訳、翻訳用語統一規格、沖縄語、漫画
講演内容の切り口も、アカデミックな視点や、実践から得た翻訳の原則 の紹介、現場でたたきあげのコツの伝授といった視点まで様々でした。すべてを聴 くことはできませんでしたので、聴いた講演５つほどその内容を紹介したいと思い ます。（なお、紹介する内容には、私個人の独断的見解も含まれてます。）
Sub-Plenary Chaired by Bill Lise The Future of Machine and Computer-Aided Translation
機械翻訳に関する見解。参加者は６人。３人は、機械翻訳の現状や将来、人工知能 などに対する見解を述べ、残り３人は自社で開発した翻訳ソフト、 Translation Memory の紹介と宣伝。機械翻訳が翻訳者の仕事を奪わないだろうかというような質問もで てきたが、それに関しては皆否定的で、むしろ翻訳の仕事は増えるというような意 見がスピーカーから出されていた。 −私見−： うーん！翻訳自体の需要が大きくならない限り、翻訳自体純粋な仕事は減るんじゃ ないかな。ただ、機械翻訳では、前校正と後校正が必要なので、翻訳者は校正者に なるんじゃなかろうか。あるいは、機械翻訳装置のオペレータに。
The Joys and Perils of In-House Translation Diane Burry
この講演では、In-House翻訳のメリットとデメリットを検討した。 メリット： 安定した収入、安定した労働時間、人とのコミュニケーションがはかれる、 資料室や図書館があるため調査に便利、自分で辞書やＰＣを一式そろえる必要がな い。 デメリット： 職場が遠いと通勤が大変、自分で時間を自由に決められない。 −私見−： In-House 翻訳者の状況がうまくまとめられたという感じである。特に、これだという 斬新な内容は見当たらなかった。
日本語と英語の非対応性 Atsushi Tomii
和英翻訳では次のプロセルをたどる。 Ｅ −−−−−−＞ ＪＥ −−＞ Ｊｅ −−＞Ｊ （ＪＥ： 翻訳臭さがぷんぷんする日本語、Ｊｅ： 翻訳臭さがやや残る日本語、Ｊ： 翻訳臭さがぬけた日本語） スピーカーの定義によると非対応性とは、Ｅ から Ｊ に至るまでの格差（角度）であると説明している。講演では、３０年に及ぶ 無生物主語構文の研究、英借文の薦め、それから、ある英語表現に対し等価的（水 平的）に対応している日本語の表現の重要性を述べた。 −私見−： いぶし銀のシブさを見たような講演だった。スピーカーの講演の裏に隠され た経験の豊富さと思考の明晰さがうかがえる。
An Introduction to Sight Translation Minako Rich and Yuki Sayeg
翻訳の現場で、通訳者が実施している方法を役に立てられないだろうかという前提 で、Sight Translationが紹介された。実際に聴衆に和文／英文の紙を配り、／、／／、Ｏ、＜ といった記号を使用し、Sight Translationの実際をデモンストレーションした。この方法で、特急の翻訳や要約を 作る場合に効果が出るはずと説明した。 −私見−： ウヒヒ！ ノウハウはもらった。８万円の飛行機代を出してイギリスまできた甲斐があった。
和英技術翻訳における難解な日本語表現 Tony Yoshimi
和英技術翻訳者がすべて直面する問題、「元の日本語が意味不明」について考察し た。日本語がもともとあいまいな言語であること、原稿を書く人が解りやすく書け るはずなのにあいまいに書くこと、敬語などが入ると主語がよく省略されること、 といった問題点が指摘された。講演で配布した、独自の四文字熟語集は好評であっ た。イメージが分からないものの翻訳では、とにかくそれを説明してる図を探して 手がかりにすることを薦めていた。 −私見−： 多くの和文英訳者がかかえる問題をうまくまとめていた。若干蛇足はあったものの 指摘している問題点は的を射ていた。
Hiro Sato
by Bill Lise
I was looking forward to my first trip to the UK, but found that the people and IJET-8 were more interesting that the rain outside. Being a chronic attender of parties, I arrived two days before the start of sessions for the pre-pre-conference gathering (sadly, of only 17 people) in London, arranged by John Zimet. We spent a few fun hours in a restaurant near Piccadilly Square, and traveled the next day by train to Sheffield, after which I can report that the sheep start very shortly outside of London.
Although I say this partly because I realized (perhaps too late) that I was participating in four of the eight time slots, meaning that I got to miss half of the conference. I personally feel that at least half the value of IJET conferences lies in meeting people--in many cases attaching faces to email addresses. Speaking of which, an interesting feature this time was the posting of photos of participants on a bulletin board near the registration area. I would think that photos might also be a nice touch in the proceedings or as an appendix thereto--sort of a photographic guide to the species known as J/E translator. The pre-conference dinner and the bar next door (within the dormitory in which we were housed) gave ample opportunity for meeting and speaking with new people, after which it was off to the conference.
Saturday night we were taken to an area having a castle but, being sane of mind, most of us vetoed walking around in the rain for the more attractive option of eating in a pub at the base of the hill on which the castle rests. Again, the best part of IJET conferences was allowed to happen in a non-contrived environment (lots of locals helped). After the conference, we were treated to music and clog dancing in the dormitory bar. I took pictures of a certain central IJET-8 committee member dancing, but can report (to that person's relief, I will venture), that the photos did not come out good enough for me to spread them all over the web.
With two or three sessions running simultaneously, it was hard for me to pick sessions in slots in which I was free. For someone who is purporting to be coordinating the program for IJET-9 in Yokohama next year, the content and arrangement of the programmed sessions gave food for thought. I will elaborate on this point and others at our July 19th meeting. See you there.
A while ago in the Jat-list discussion over 実務翻訳ガイド(jitsumu honyaku gaido) Pam Ikegami asked:
"This leads me to a question I have always wanted to ask. Where does everyone find information about translation agencies? I have found my good contacts through friends, Honyaku and the local phone book." To which I (Emily) responded:
"One reason that you don't hear from translation agencies maybe that you do not live in Tokyo (unless you are signed up at a local agency). " and asked for comments from people living outside Tokyo (or Tokyo Region).
Several people responded and then I have come to think that it might be worthwhile checking the merits of living outside Tokyo.
Now with the Internet, it is more possible than ever to live and work wherever you want to. And Tokyo has a number of disadvantages: high rent, congestion, summer heat caused by too many air conditioners, vulnerability to earthquake and other disasters, too many crows fed on garbage (Hitchkock-ish in my neighborhood !!) and so on (Whether these 'bad things' be offset by advantages or not may depend various factors though) .
So here are two essays contributed from Rick in Yamanashi and Pam in Kanazawa (Thank you so much to both of you !!).
by Rick Davis
I'm sure there are advantages to living in or near The Big Mikan when it comes to translation. No doubt a lot of the *umai shiru* is available only to those who are close to the action. But to those of us who want to live in the inaka but enjoy a city income, having the best of both worlds (to an extent) is tempting enough to give up sophisticated urban lifestyles and convenience stores, and head for the sticks. If you're like me, you want to have the freedom to arrange your work schedule around concerns that -- in terms of enjoying life -- sometimes outweigh even the pleasure of turning in a well-crafted translation. To me those concerns are my 100 percent organic garden plots and rice paddies, as well as clean air and water for my children, which we could not have in the city. I also rent a very spacious old school house for mere beer money, while the shekels that I would spend on renting a tiny, exorbitantly priced apartment in the city, not to mention the food bill, flow instead into my bank account. So while my income is no doubt lower than those of big-city translators who are there to press the flesh with high-rolling corporate executives and government bureaucrats with translation budgets, there are certainly mitigating circumstances. Starting out as a freelancer in the inaka has its problems, of course. Where does one go for work? In my case, I had no direct clients, no experience in commercial translation, and no agency hookups. So I took some samples of work, which included a translation that had been published in a highly respected academic journal, and approached two small agencies, one in Tokyo and one in Osaka. I paid them each a visit, making myself look presentable (no suit and tie, mind you -- just trimmed my beard, combed my hair, and wore clean clothes; I also looked as businesslike and intellectual as possible, which is hard for me). A trickle of jobs from each started, and hard work led to more. But one shouldn't put all one's eggs in one basket, or even two. The door was opened to a long string of direct clients when I *GASP* did a translation for free. I had noticed in the newspaper that a Tokyo-based organization had released a statement on the environment -- the field I was determined to establish myself in. So I called, got a copy, and translated it. This I sent to the organization, saying that I had translated it for my own purposes (true), but they may make free use of it. It wasn't long when that organization -- which had been sending translation requests to agencies before (I had been ignorant of that) -- started paying me to do similar work, and their word of mouth advertising led to more and more clients among their associates. Although I now depend mainly on direct clients, quite a number of agencies and other companies, such as conference organizing firms, have come to me with requests. It turns out that people in the original two agencies passed my name on to other people and agencies. And this suggests to me something that is important for translators to keep in mind whether they live in the city or the country: People tend to choose translators who have been recommended by satisfied clients, not an unknown name from a list or directory. That is no doubt why they go to the expense of calling someone outside of the Tokyo area. Work from local sources is of course nearly nonexistent. If you do find something, that's great, but don't count on it. The only local work I've ever done was for a friend's very small company, and that was more a favor than anything else. Since you want to spend less time on work and more time enjoying your Woody Life (which is why one goes to the country in the first place, right?), aim for better paying work from the big city. Since I visit Tokyo as little as possible, I can't be running around looking for work. After all, that would take up my time for weeding the garden. So one has to think of ways to keep the work coming in from a distance. One way of doing that is spending a little time on a translation. Sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people don't do it. An illustrative example: One time an agency for which I do occasional jobs called and said that they'd like me to redo a job that another translator had botched. After going through just the first couple of paragraphs, I could see the problem: While the translator might actually have been skilled, he or she had obviously not taken the time to read the text carefully. And that was the reason the translation didn't make sense (it's true an original sometimes doesn't make sense, but that can easily become a crutch). In that instance the agency called a translator in the boonies to fix something that had been botched by a translator who, I was told, lived in Tokyo. Thus, a little extra effort directed at *getting it right* -- and those three words should sum up the "philosophy" of our profession, if there is a philosophy -- is of vital importance in keeping work flowing from the city to your rural abode. If you make it worth your clients' higher telephone and fax bills, they will gladly spend that extra money on sending you work. What about your own telephone bill? Of course it'll cost more to call your city clients, but you can do a lot to minimize telephone use. Since it's natural to jabber on about unrelated things when on the telephone, or to be put on hold, use fax as much as possible. Writing and sending only what's essential to the business at hand will save time and money. When there's no hurry, I save up my fax messages until the end of the day and send them all at night, after the rates have gone down. I have an agreement with several direct clients that, unless I say otherwise, I'm always available, and so they hardly ever use the telephone, either. These days I also use email a lot. Because you can find a local or very nearby provider no matter where you live, sending your files and exchanging messages by email is cheap even during the day. Thanks to these simple economy measures, my telephone bill averages only 10,000 a month, which includes telephone, fax, email, web site maintenance, and Internet use. One problem here in the country is that the post office closes at five, and is not open at all on weekends. Furthermore, mail and takuhaibin pickups are between two and three, so anything taken in after that waits until the next day. Thanks to email, however, I now use these services little for translation needs. Over the past year, for example, I had to drive to the Kofu central post office only once with some rush copy. A few times a year is not asking a lot. Of course, not everyone wants to live in the hills. Some people prefer the city, or at least they want to be where the action is, and that's fine. But if you are fed up with concrete and pollution, and would rather see trees when you look out your window and listen to bird songs instead of cars, there are ways to achieve that. I expended at least as much effort finding the right place to live as on guaranteeing my income, and I suspect that most other country translators feel the same. So with some common sense, effort, and genuine attention to what your clients want, you too can be a country translator. Remember: In essence you need only electricity and a telephone line to make a living; let that be the key that unlocks the door to the country for you.
by Pam Ikegami
In the age of the internet does location make a difference to translators? In terms of work-- maybe. In terms of quality of life-- definitely. I live and work in Kanazawa, in a quiet neighborhood ten minutes drive from Kenrokuen. The commute to my day job at an engineering college is a ten-minute walk past rice paddies, vegetable gardens and a river. On those nights when I'm up working late, the view from my home office window is of the sleeping neighborhood and two concrete pandas in the yard in front of our apartment building. I never ride the train or get stuck in traffic. Half the time I forget I'm in Japan. When I decided to get serious about translation last year, after settling into a new teaching job and deciding it was time to start looking for a new career, the local market seemed a likely place to start. The phone book revealed the names and numbers of four local translation agencies, to which I faxed out copies of my resume. The next week I got a call from an agency located literally down the street. They just happened to need a proofreader for an academic paper on medieval Japanese literature, which coincidentally was my specialization in grad school. I went for an interview, took a trial test for both translation and proofreading, and took home a fifteen-page paper written by a local university professor. That's where my "getting serious" started. Of course, to keep up with other translators and to stay motivated, I read the Honyaku mailing list and participate when I can. I have made great contacts from Honyaku and have subsequently built up nice working relationships with both agencies and direct clients I met there. In fact, the majority of my translating income comes from non-local sources. The nature of translating tends to make it a lonely pursuit no matter where you may be located. My local clients add a social side to translating. Sometimes I drop by the agency down the street for a cup of coffee and a chat and I go out for dinner and drinks every once in a while with a few clients and fellow translators. (OK, it's not the raucous affair of, say, a Friday night in Osaka, but I got over that a few years ago anyway.) I have picked up new clients by referral from my local sources and even from people I met at the gym. For the past eight months I have worked with my local agency as both a proofreader and a translator. I don't mean to belittle those who have proved to be my inspiration, but when I saw what they were selling as a professional product I was convinced I could make some money on the side doing translations myself. At first I was a little put off by proof-reading boring manuals with some very basic English mistakes, but as our relationship has evolved I find they also send me some interesting translation jobs, from copy writing to social sciences articles to home pages. The owner once told me, as a small local agency she can't afford to turn down any work. The fun jobs don't come around that often, but they tend to be long, well paying and have longer-than-average deadlines counted in weeks rather than days. I plan to move back to the US and translate full time when my teaching contract expires in a couple of years. My only foreseeable regret is that my local clients most likely won't continue to send me work after I leave. Bigger, more professional sources will probably take the relocation in stride, but my local clients like to work with me because I'm here in town. Even the clients with whom I only have contact via phone, fax and e-mail feel more secure knowing that I'm close by. Although it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, they are customers, and even when they're wrong, you know the customer is always right.
Pam
Pamela Ikegami Kanazawa. Japan pam@neptune.kanazawa-it.ac.jp
Most, if not all, of us have at some time or other been sent a "proofreading" (rewriting?) job. I almost always turn these down, but sometimes take on short ones more as a favor to good clients than with the idea of making money. Judging by the quality, most seem to be busy-work done by 窓際族, and are larded with the usual 直訳 gibberish. This the rewriter is supposed to transform into presentable English, which is sometimes possible. When taking on a job like this, for whatever reason, there is one thing to watch out for: The attempt to get translation done at "proofreading" rates. "Here is the text," they say, "and we're including the original for your reference." For MY reference? If it is a rewrite job, the original is unnecessary. If the rewriter actually looks at the original to see what is intended, and then rewrites the translation to reflect that, it is no longer rewriting -- it is translation, and should be paid at translation rates. My advice: If they send the original, toss it off to the side or file it in the round barrel before setting to work. You are not being paid to read Japanese, and therefore you should not. If rewriting is what the client needs, the job should be sent to a rewriter, not someone who has invested years of hard work in learning Japanese. Beware the "proofreading" ploy! Not only will it unjustly diminish your income, it will also cheapen the work of all translators.
(Rick Davis)
We all know the translation of a particular term all depends on the context. At least we tell ourselves that. We keep reminding other people, too. But the fact we have to keep reminding ourselves can also be seen as an indication of how commonly this precept is ignored. So I want very briefly to remind us again with two examples.
The first is 落ち. I am not going to talk about the 落 in 落語 and compare that to some obscure(?) 落 such as in 落花生. That would not be fair. No, I am going to take two examples from the same field, both discussing basically the same situation, and having to be translated differently. Some time ago, the 読売 baseball team, having lots of money to spend and looking for yet another big name to keep the advertisers' attention, picked up a contract on 清原 from the 西武 Lions. 清原 had put in his ten years' well-paid indentured service with 西武 and wanted to go where the bigger money (and, he thought, bigger glory) was. 読売 was anxious to get him for his home-run potential. So a deal was struck.
However, 清原 did not do well in his first few months with 読売. He was brought in as a power hitter but proved -- for reasons you do not want to read about even if I could write about them -- to be a power failure. As a result, the sports newspapers, which still think talking about the 読売 team sells better than writing about real baseball, were all over his case. In the space of just a few days, one of them had a big headline about 清原's pending 二軍落ち and another had an equally big headline about his pending スタメン落ち. Same term (落ち) in the same baseball situation, but you would have to translate it differently. In the first, it is talking about how he will be sent down to the farm club, while the second says he is going to be dropped from the starting line-up. Even if you use the same "dropped," one is "dropped to" and the other is "dropped from."
The other example is one I mentioned to a few people at IJET 97 (and apologies to those people for the repetition). We usually translate 環境 as climate or environment -- as in global environmental problems and even the business climate. But "landscape"? That's not one that comes readily to mind if we are just asked how to translate 環境. Yet in a passage I did recently about the need for business to adapt strategically even as it remains true to its core principles, landscape was an acceptable rendering: 激動の時代である。消費構造の変化は様々な業界で過去の常識を塗り変えた。環境 が変われば戦略も変わる。多くの業界で老舗といわれる企業が、創業以来の変革を 追られている。 This is an age of upheaval and change. Changing patterns of consumption are affecting all industries and obsoleting many traditional norms. As the landscape changes, companies being forced to adapt their strategiess. In industry after industry, established companies are being forced to fundamentally reexamine the way they do business.
These are not profound examples. But they are examples from real life, and I hope they can help the next time you need to explain to a client (or yourself) that how a term is translated depends on what the equivalent would be given the context in the other language.
-- Fred Uleman (fmu@gol.com)
by Bill Lise
After dealing with direct translation clients in Japan for more than two decades, I have come up with a number of rules for breaking out of the "I am just a poor translator at the mercy of my client" syndrome.
1. Acquire the three basic abilities required of a translator. With (1) a deep understanding of the source text, (2) convincing field-specific knowledge, and (3) a facility with the target-language, both in terms of expression and style, that is expected by the intended readership, you might have enough confidence to make it unnecessary to read further, but I suggest that you glance over the other items as well.
2. Know the value of your work. The economy of Japan depends heavily on translation. Unlike oil and other resources, which can be stockpiled and can be spoken of as being stockpiled for N months, there is no stockpile of "translation," save for the assumed willingness of translators to provide services. Stated in reverse, it is fairly clear that the Japanese economy would have problems of emergency proportions if even a small number of the core of (perhaps as many as) 8000 translators decided to take a vacation. But do the dynamics of the marketplace reflect this situation? Seldom, I am afraid. Few clients and few translators seem aware of the value of translation. But that is no reason why an individual translator cannot teach the client the value of his/her work to the client's operations. Being busy when work comes in is approach to consider.
3. Take control of your product. While the customer is paying the bill, that does not necessarily mean that the translator needs to allow the customer to control the product. If you are to remain on top of the relationship (or even on an equal grounding), you must demonstrate that you know the field you are working in and further that you are capable of producing the target-language messages required. It is much easier to demonstrate this if your interface with the customer is via good spoken Japanese, since the customer might not trust his/her ability to evaluate you when you are speaking English.
4. Don't deal with weak clients. A weak client might seem to be an excellent target for your high translation rates, but in the case of an agency in particular, remember that this weakness might also affect the client's relationship with their clients. Bad water flows downhill, and you can guess where the translator working through an agency is positioned in the chain of complaints and contortions to pay less money.
5. Learn the art of walking away. This is a matter of convincing yourself that, relative to your small capacity to provide translation as an individual, the market is essentially infinitely large.
6. Acquire spoken Japanese good enough to be used in sales situations. This is a painful point for some translators, but it needs addressing. The big (or at least bigger) money is available from direct clients, who will not be as generous in overlooking your lack of spoken Japanese ability as will agencies, who will in fact hide that lack of ability from their clients, thereby providing you with a service (for which they take money, of course). People will be heard to say that they do fine with poor Japanese. Yes, perhaps. But we all can't count on finding clients who are interested in giving work out to translators who are not functional to the level they would expect from other people coming to them with translation services.
7. Be in the business that your client is in, and act like it. With most translation agencies using salespersons with very little knowledge of the industries of their clients, as an individual who can select clients and study their business, you are in a very good position to develop an edge. Knowing your client's business, by the way, means reading the industry papers they read, knowing their subsidiaries and/or parent companies, knowing who their competitors are (both in Japan and overseas), and knowing a range of other things that normally only someone in the business would know. This costs money (spelled: time), but it makes it easier for the client to believe you are real.
There are many reasons why some translators always seem to be complaining of being screwed by their clients, while others, although they might not have turned the tables, at least are on a level playing field with their income sources. Some of those reasons are related to natural ability, but others are a matter of attitude, and I hope the above suggestions might point the way to an approach to your customers that results in more control, more peace of mind, and of course, more money.
by Emily Shibata-Sato
１．ダカーポ7月16日号 （7月15日までは売ってます）
この雑誌がときどき掲載する外国ネタがまた登場しました。 特集「日本人の誤解、外国人の誤解」です。 そのほか、１２６ページの「素朴な疑問：電車の中の広告 (i.e. hanging ads)」、１３５ページの「会社の歴史：ＳＯＮＹのロゴとカタカナ 社名は最大の発明のひとつ」なども参考になります。
２．翻訳の方法 （河本皓嗣・井上健一編、東京大学出版会、￥２０００） ISBN4-13-083024-4
「英語を通じて翻訳を考え、翻訳を通じて英語を考える本」だそうです。 2〜3日前に購入してこれから読むところですが、吉本ばななや村上春樹の英訳例な どが載っています。
３．現代＜死語＞ノート （小林信彦著、岩波新書、￥６５０） ISBN4-00-430484-9
1956年から1976年の間に日本にいなかった人、もしくはまだ生まれてなかった人に お勧めです。「もはや戦後ではない」とか、「レジャー」、「金脈」など、もはや あまり使われていない言葉やフレーズの背景（プラス著者の個人的見解）がわかり ます。
以上の本と ’９８実務翻訳ガイドは、次回のJAT MEETING（7月19日）に持っていきます。