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JAT Meeting on June 20
Richard Thieme
JAT Board Report for
May 1998 Kathy Taji
Membership Secretary's Report
Jeremy
Whipple
IJET-9 Report
Bill Lise
Interviews at IJET (part
1)
Leslie Tkach
翻訳の周辺―その４（最終回）George
Tokikuni
Interview with Harry Afu Watson Leslie Tkach
Working for an Agency Charles Reindle
4月号の「わけがわからない」を読んで Emily Shibata-Sato
Nothing to be Proud of Fred Uleman
Dismembering Patent
Translations Bill Lise
Patent Agency Qualifications for
Translators Tim Smith (from a recent posting to Honyaku)
Need
Help with 見積書 (estimate) and Emily Shibata-Sato 請求書
(invoice) Forms
Misako Niikura will be the speaker for JAT's monthly meeting on June 20, at the Shiba Seinen Kaikan. Ms. Niikura is both a 司法書士 and a 行政書士 and will give a brief presentation about her profession. 司法書士 in particular handle a lot of the nuts and bolts areas of law that those of us who are in small business find ourselves besieged with from time to time. Among their duties are filing documents for corporate establishments before the legal affairs bureau, executing estates and real estate conveyances. Ms. Niikura has considerable experiences in all of these areas, as well as in immigration. Those who want to know what a real legal practitioner does in Japan, as well as those with questions in any of these areas, are encouraged to attend.
Richard Thieme
Although there was no Directors' Meeting in May due to the IJET-9 Conference, several items of business have been discussed by e-mail among the directors during the month of May. A brief summary of the issues which were discussed and are still pending are presented below.
1. List of Late/Nonpaying Translation Clients
The issue of creating a page on the members-only section of the JAT Website that will enable members to post their comments about late/nonpaying translation companies was discussed, following a spate of such comments on JAT-List by members in May. Such a page would serve as a depository of comments, both favorable and unfavorable about clients, with the name of the person posting and the date of submission. Either a special form would be created on the website to enable direct postings or Leslie Tkach, Website Director, would be responsible for uploading e-mail sent in by members. The issue of monitoring the HONYAKU and JAT-List for such comments or limiting submissions to JAT members only is still pending. The legal risk and the need for disclaimers were also brought up.
2. Inquiry from the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), London
A request for free membership from ITI was received by Jeremy Whipple, Membership Secretary. The request of the ITI officer was to obtain access to on-line resources such as articles for its members. The directors were generally in agreement about setting up a system of information exchange. However, the majority consensus was that information exchange should be limited to access of the JAT Bulletin alone, in the form of a separate e-mailing of the Bulletin rather than free membership with unlimited access to all of JAT's resources, specifically the members-only section of the JAT Website.
3. ATA Accreditation/Workshop
Bill Lise was approached by Izumi Suzuki, an ATA director, at the IJET-9 Conference about the possibility of holding ATA accreditation tests in Japan, in addition to an accreditation workshop. The aims of the workshop would be to give participants information about the test and how it is marked. Although the directors do not wish to raise the hopes of the ATA that a workshop held at a JAT meeting would successfully recruit a large number of new members, they were interested in holding the workshop at one of JAT's monthly meetings, as a means of providing JAT members with a demonstration of what one translation organization thinks is important in certification testing. The workshop would perhaps be conducted by Susumu Ando who is involved with the ATA's testing program.
4. Upcoming FIT Regional Conference
In view of the 1997-1998 Board of Directors' decision to seek full-voting status in FIT as a language-pair organization rather than a "national" organization, the JAT Board needs to begin developing its communication with FIT. An opportune chance to develop such communication has presented itself - the FIT Asia Regional Conference will be held in Seoul, Korea from August 2 to 6. Judy Wakabayashi, JAT's newly appointed FIT Relations Director, is willing to relegate her participation to another director. The issue currently under discussion is whether to reimburse the director for his/her traveling expenses to Korea.
5. Tax Issue
The project on the tax withholding issue currently being followed up by Richard Thieme is still pending. He will be reporting the details of a meeting with the tax attorney at the JAT directors' meeting on June 20.
Finished Business
A digital camera and accessories were purchased by Jeremy Whipple on behalf of JAT at a total cost of 85,740 yen.
The next director's meeting is scheduled for Saturday, June 20 at the Shiba Seinen Kaikan.
Compiled by Kathleen Taji JAT Recording Secretary
Here are some statistics for JAT membership as of the end of May 1998.
Membership 259* Overseas 107 (41%)
*Total includes pending renewals for April (2) and May (11).
JAT-LIST
subscribed 232
not 27
Open directory http://www.jat.org/opendir.html
listed 139
New members
April 5
May 14 (including 7 who signed up at IJET-9)
Non-renewals
February 4
March 9
I've sent off reminders to the overdue members, some of whom may simply have forgotten to renew. I've changed the wording of the reminder postcard, putting "請求書・Bill" at the top, and then listing the amount due and the payment options. It looks a bit more official than the previous version did, and I hope it will encourage people to pay up (presuming they want to remain members).
I will be in the United States from June 16 through July 9. In my absence Kathy Taji has kindly offered to mail out directories to new members. I expect to be able to keep up with my other duties as membership secretary by e-mail.
Jeremy Whipple mailto:membership@jat.org
IJET-9 Report by Bill Lise
Another successful IJET Conference is history. A recording-breaking 212 participants met in Yokohama to share their knowledge, make new friends, and meet with old friends.
This year's conference had some aspects that were new. We had no keynote speaker, but did have two panel discussions on Saturday, and your program coordinator hopes that these plenary sessions gave people more of a feel that a conference was starting that our the "hit-the-ground-running" approach of individual sessions that we had last year.
As expected, I met people I never expected to ever meet other than by email and, as expected, I missed people who I really wanted to get a chance to talk with face-to-face. We will just have to try to meet at IJET-10 in Austin, or back in Japan for IJET-11 in the year 2000.
As the program coordinator, I would like to thank our speakers, without whom the conference would have just been 212 translators roaming the halls of the Pacifico, our emcees, and the other members of the IJET Committee, including especially the IJET Chair, George Tokikuni.
At IJET-10, I was able to briefly speak with a number of translators regarding their opinions of IJET and the presentations offered, as well as past IJET experiences. We'll be presenting two inter- views this month and further interviews next month in the JAT Bulletin.
My first interview was with Yuko Bradshaw, a translator in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Q. Yuko, is this your first IJET?
My sixth.
Q. Your sixth? How are you finding this year's IJET compared to previous IJET conferences?
This year, the content is much better than the last one I went to in Yokohama. Sheffield's IJET was a little heavy on the interpreting from my point of view because I don't do interpreting, but I feel it was really enjoyable, and I had lots of fun. But this year, it is very good.
Q. What kinds of presentations are you attending this year?
Today I was in the legal translation workshop and yesterday . . . Gosh if I can remember . . . But actually I'm basically going to the translation workshops, mostly with English-language speakers.
Q. So you're interested in presentations like Tom Gally's?
Yes, they are relevant to my work. So were George Tokukuni's and Susumu Ando's presentations. I'm not too worried about the grammatical points of translating English. I have my own personal editor.
Q. That's good. Everyone should have one of those, I think. Do you have any other comments you'd like to make about IJET or JAT?
I'm just going to join JAT. I've done up my application and I will pay up today.
Thank you very much.
Although I have been a JAT member since it began, this was my first IJET. I went with two expectations: first, that I would get valuable information and direction for honing my translation and business skills, and second, that I would feel totally out of place. The first was dead on. In fact, the technical content and the opportunities to learn far exceeded my expectations.
Fortunately, my second expectation was dashed on arrival. Living in remote Takamatsu and being a secondary-breadwinner, primary- parent, I had perceived JAT, IJET, etc. as being dominated by urban-centered, primary-breadwinners who didn't have much understanding or patience for people in my situation. How wrong I was. Everyone I met was eager to learn and willing to share what they already knew. And many were in similar situations to mine, even, to my surprised delight, some men. I also gained a great deal of insight from the input of the many Japanese participants and presenters. I certainly plan to attend the next IJET in my price range (ie. in Japan). Hope to see you there.
Thank you, Cathy!
Please send your contributions for July/August JAT Bulletin to editor@jat.org by June 30 (Tue.). Submissions should be in simple text format.
Bill LISE, President president@jat.org 会長 W. A. リゼ
Bob
OLIVER, Treasurer treasurer@jat.org 会計担当
ロバート・オリバー
Emily SHIBATA-SATO, Publications
editor@jat.org 会報担当 佐藤 綾子
Kathleen TAJI, Recording
Secretary: ktaji@gol.com 記録担当 タジ・キャサリン
Richard
THIEME, Program rdthieme@gol.com 会合担当
リチャード・ティーマ
Leslie TKACH, Website tkach@gol.com
ホームページ担当 タック・レスリー
George TOKIKUNI, IJET and
Special Projects PFG01116@niftyserve.or.jp
IJET&特別プロジェクト担当 時國 滋夫
Judy WAKABAYASHI, FIT
Relations j.wakabayashi@mailbox.uq.edu.au.
FIT担当 若林ジュディー
Jeremy WHIPPLE, Membership Secretary
membership@jat.org 会員担当 ジェレミー・ウィップル
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) 1998 Japan Association of Translators, All rights reserved, including those of republishing in any media, including but not limited to printed and electronic media. 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.
まずは内容をよく掴みながらゆっくりと次の文章を読んでみてください。 上期が終了して2週間が経過した10月のある日に朝礼が行われ、営業部 長が決算内容を発表した。
営業部長：みなさんの努力により、上期はやっと増収増益になりました。あ りがとう。
まだまだ景気が冷え込んでおり先行き不透明ですが、上期同様、ひとりひと りの力を積み重ねて下期も売上げを伸ばしていきましょう。さて、上期の決 算ですが、売上げが328億4千エーと、山田君、いくらですか。 山田次長：はい、398万3158円です。
営業部長：そうです。398万3158円です。そして利益は2億3980万円です。
奥村君、この数字はすくなすぎるねぇ。計算はあっているかね。
奥村経理課長：私がご連絡した数字は23億9800万です。
営業部長：いや、すまん。写し間違えたようだ。というわけで今期もみんな
で力を合わせて行こう。
そこで問題です。上の文章を読み直さずに答えてください。この営業部の 売上げと利益はいくらだったでしょうか。
テクニカルライティングとは、情報を読者に分かりやすく伝えることであ るといってもよい。この例であれば数値は上2桁だけを連絡すれば十分であ る。売上げは約330億で利益は約24億である。細かい数字までは把握する 必要がない人に対して、その数値を伝えることは「分かりやすく」伝えるこ とにはならない。上記の例は理解しやすいと思うが、他人に何かを連絡する ときはその前に1分でいいから相手は何を知りたいか、それについてどの程 度知っているかを考えて、それに合わせて連絡内容を決めることである。口 頭で連絡するときも文章で伝えるときにもこれは当てはまる。そして簡単な 表現ではあるが、これがテクニカルライティングの真髄であると思う。相手 が望んでいる情報をその人が一番理解しやすい方法で伝えること。製品や内 容が複雑になれば、読者が誰かを調査し、ときには内容ごとに分冊形式を採 用したりして、情報を伝達することになる。何かを伝える文章を書くときは こういうことに気をつけなくてはならないし、翻訳するときにも根底にはそ の意識を持つことが大切である。
テクニカルライティング、技術翻訳の全般についてもうひとつ指摘したい。 ある文章やある主張があるときにそれに対して互いに意見を言う機会が少 なすぎるのではないだろうか。日本の教育制度の影響を受けているが、感情 的にならずに相手の文章を批評する場がないように思う。決して相手をけな すわけではなく、私はこう思うがあなたはどうか、という形での意見交換、 そして討論が互いの考えをさらに発展させ、誤りを訂正し、高めあえるので はないかと思う。これを私たちの分野で少しずつでも行っていきたいと思っ ている。
翻訳の実務をある程度続けたら、日本語にひきずられないようにすること が大切である。原文が論理的に書かれていないと各文がそれぞれ正しく訳さ れているとしても英文全体としては読んでも通じないものとなる。論理がお かしいときは筆者に問い合わせる必要がある。また、翻訳するときに原文と 必ずしも一対一対応の英文にする必要はない。英語では日本語とは表現が異 なることもあるし、同じことを二度述べているときにその必要がなければそ れを除いた方がよいこともある。「一対一の翻訳」を指定する顧客がいるが、 翻訳者をあまり信頼していないか、または英語のチェック方法がわかってい ないと思う。
電機会社に勤務して回路設計をしていたときに、翻訳に興味を持った。ど うすれば翻訳ができるようになるか、翻訳業界はどうなっているのか等の疑 問を持ったが、この業界に知り合いはいなかったし、学会がある話も聞いた ことがなく困ったものである。書店に行き、いろいろと書棚を見て回り、「工 業英語」（インタープレス、現在は廃刊）、 「翻訳の世界」（バベル、現在は女性向けを意識しているように感じる）、 「翻訳事典」（アルク、年刊）などを見つけた。翻訳者ごとに対象分野が異 なり製品（翻訳文）の再生産をしないためか業界が一つにまとまっているわ けではなく、業界誌もない。業界も小さい。したがって、新たにこの業界に 入ろうとしている方は総合的な情報を得る手段がなく、個人的につてを頼っ て話を聞くしかない。
翻訳業界にはいくつかの団体がある。日本翻訳連盟(JTF)、日本翻訳協会 (JTA)が組織的に大きい団体であり、両者ともに翻訳に関連する会社が中心 になって活動している。個人の翻訳者としての活動をお考えの方には日本翻 訳者協会(JAT)をお勧めする。
私がよく使う辞書類について紹介する。これ以外にも分野別の辞書、参考 書を利用しているが、今回は個別には取り上げない。
「翻訳の周辺」について考えていることをほぼ述べたつもりです。何かお 尋ねになりたいことがあればPFG01116@niftyserve.or.jpへ電子メールを お送りください。どこかでみなさんとお会いして、翻訳の話ができればと期 待しています。ではそのときまで。
This month's "Translator on the Spot" interview is with Harry Afu Watson.
From his website: My name is Harry Gabriel Watson. I have chosen the pen name of Afu for my middle name. I belonged to a Shigin (Poetry Chanting) group in Albuquerque New Mexico. When one registers in this group, one has to pick a name, consisting of 2 Kanji. The last Kanji must be Fuu (long U) also read as KAZE. This means wind or spirit. I chose a Kanji read as A for the first ji, and this is the first ji in the phonetic spelling of America or Asia, when spelled in Chinese. Thus, when in America, it means Spirit from Asia, and when in Asia, it means spirit from America. Just for fun, I also belonged to a Chinese Choir for a while.
I was translating patents when Ron Shibata, a JSS/US Director, convinced me that there were a number of people who really, really wanted translations of sword related information. I had met Ron through the Japanese American Citizens League, a civil rights group, and I was the New Mexico Chapter President for that organization for 5 years. I translate books on Japanese swords into English, in order to make available to those who study, admire, collect, and deal in Japanese swords, information that would otherwise be locked in the intricacies of the Japanese language. I wish to make it clear from the very beginning that I do not appraise swords, and I am not an authority on swords. Also, I am not trying to buy your swords, nor am I trying to sell you my swords. not that there is anything wrong with doing these things, it is just not what I do. My principle goal, as was stated above, is to make information available to people who do engage in these activities. I have translated a number of books over the last few years, and still have a number to go in the set I am presently translating. I believe these books are unique in that, to the best of my knowledge, no one else has undertaken the task of translating a set of books of this magnitude. The question most often asked of me is "Where have you been these last 20 years." I also translate Japanese patents to English, especially those related to electronics and mechanics, since I have a working background in both of these fields.
Q. What is your education and experience background? How did it lead to translating?
I formally finished the 10th grade. I spent 20 years in the U.S. Marines, was an electronics technician, small arms marksmanship instructor, member of a rifle and pistol team, and went to Japanese Language School. I never used the language training for the Marines, because I was "needed" as an electronics technician. After retiring from the Marines, I went to college for a while, studying mechanical engineering, with an emphasis on metallurgy. I bought an indoor plant shop and dropped out of college. I have worked in a lumber mill, been a lapidarist, owned a rock shop, dug a well with jackhammer and dynamite 60 feet deep in blue granite, overhauled automobile engines, worked as a "headhunter", and repaired office machinery (bursters and de-collators) It was 20 years from the time I learned some Japanese, until, due to a broken back, I had to leave my job as an office machine repairman, and started translating. The language just would not go away.
Q. How long have you been a translator?
Full time, about 12 years
Q. What was your first translation job?
I do not remember. I first started doing abstracts from technical magazines.
Q. Do you live in Japan?
No. Because of my life path.
Q. How many languages are you familiar with? Do you translate into or from those languages?
English and Japanese. Just a smattering of Korean and Chinese, due to lack of time. Maybe in my dotage I can learn them.
Q. How did you learn Japanese?
I went to the Foreign Service Far Eastern Department Language Institute for 40 weeks in 1964, and studied Japanese.
Q. What are some of the challenges you face as a translator with regards to Japanese (or English)? For example, translating keigo or slang…
Translating books related to Japanese swords. The personal and place names form their own hell. I cannot read newspapers or magazines, since I have not lived in Japan and my vocabulary is not broad enough.
Q. How do you get your clients?
I have been working for the same agency for about 12 years. I addition, I translate sword books which are self published.
Q. What are your fields of specialization? Why? How do you keep up with new developments?
Japanese swords and related items because I like them. I translate electronics, computers, mechanics, a tiny bit of chemical as related to semiconductor manufacture, and the like because this is the world I know. I also translate whatever odds and ends the agency sends me. I did one on chewing gum that changes its color, paperless toilets, and I even did some on sanitary napkins. I have translated manuals for industrial safety systems in a freon plant, and general manuals for a plant making disposable diapers. Each patent I do is a new development.
Q. Is your translation style "loose" or "literal"?
I try to stay as close to the Japanese as I can within the bounds of English syntax, and the agency wants everything, warts and all, translated. I do not think that translation is creative writing.
Q. Do you read other books or magazines written in the source language in your spare time?
Define spare time.
Q. What are some of your favourite reference materials? (What's on your bookshelf within easy reach right now?)
The Nelson Character Dictionary, Daijiten, the two volume name dictionary set by NICHIGAI Association, Kenkyusha's large Wa-Ei dictionary, Denjikai Electronic dictionary (WIndows 95J), Interpress Scientific Dictionary, and whatever specific technical dictionaries relating to the job at hand. In particular, when doing sword related translations, I use a Chimei Jiten, Jinmei Jiten, Nihon To Meikan, and Nihon To Hyakka Daijiten by Fukunaga Suiken, plus other various and sundry research sources.
Q. What is the singular (or more if you can think of any!) most important piece of advice you can give to people just starting out in translation?
Find a steady source of work, and find a specialized area, apart from your regular work, that you really like, and can go to once in a while.
Q. What do you think are the most important elements or skills necessary in translation? Will these change in 5 or 10 years?
Perseverance, curiosity, sense of humor, and if you are doing patents, the ability to read fly paper in summer camps to enable reading of the reduced copy written with a felt pen on tissue paper. These will not change.
Q. Are you still going to be translating 5 or 10 years from now? Do you think the profession will change and how?
If I am alive. I don't think the sphere I work in will change much.
Q. How much time per day do you spend translating (and editing and related activities) versus doing administrative work, clients relations, and other "running-the-business" type of activities?
Six to ten hours translating. I don't spend much time on administrative things. I use an accountant, since I have an S Corporation.
Q. Please describe your work area.
Picture a tornado. No, really, it is an upstairs room of my house that has no door. I am surrounded by desk area with reference books close at hand. I do get distractions from goings on downstairs. There are no children at home any more, but the parrots get me to chuckling. Once in a while they have carried on a short conversation between them (One and African Grey, the other a Patagonian Conure). The African Grey whistles "Koko ni Sachi Ari".
Q. What do you like about translating?
It is challenging, and not everybody can or wants to do it. Also, in translating sword books, I am filling a need, and leaving something of value for posterity. Also it keeps me off the street. Lastly, it keeps my mind from rotting.
Q. What do you dislike about translating? Dislike?
I get tired, but I don't dislike it. Sometimes the patents get boring, with their sometimes mindless repetition or reciting of redundant inane details.
Q. What was your most interesting or unique translation job?
Translating a 10 volume set of books on Japanese swords, six of which I have completed. I do not think any one else has taken on a job of this magnitude single-handedly. I have a number of customers in Australia. Actually, I have customers in about 17 countries. Unfortunately, their number is small.
For further information, visit my web site. Ganbatte! Afu afu@afuresearch.com http://www.afuresearch.com
I had just left a major manufacturer as an in-house translator with plans to start a new life as a freelance translator. I answered an ad in the Japan Times from an agency in Nagoya looking for freelance translators. Went through the usual send resume, translate trial test, and sign contract process, and began receiving work from them on a regular basis. About the third time I went to this agency to pick up my work, the president invited me to a cup of coffee at the coffee shop and that was all she wrote. From then on, he bent over backwards to get me to work for him. The pay was OK, and so were the benefits (Unemployment insurance, company insurance and a pension), and he seemed like a really friendly guy. Besides, I might even learn a thing or two. So I delayed my plans to go freelance and joined this agency.
When I first started working at this agency, I was translating newsletters, research reports, presentations, company standards, and instruction manuals. I want to talk about the instruction manuals in detail, since the staff have devoted a tremendous amount of time towards creating an in-house glossary.
One of our clients is a major manufacturer of automobile components with more than 55,000 employees. Their instruction manuals are written by their engineers. The reader will be an engineer at an affiliated overseas company. In other words, the process is totally in-house. This in-house movement of the manual from writer to reader results in the creation of in-house vocabulary. So my boss spent 5 years on creating a 24,000 word glossary as an attempt to standardize the vocabulary. On a daily basis we are inputting new vocabulary to our on-line glossary. In addition, each new entry also displays the initials of the individual making the input. There's also space for comments, such as a short explanation of the meaning. Needless to say, a glossary is a must for turning out acceptable translations.
After a few months, my responsibilities began to grow, and I started going with the staff to visit clients to drum up more business. I wrote estimations (all in Japanese). I talked to clients on the phone when there was a claim. I was doing the same things as the Japanese staff, but at a much slower pace. However, there is one responsibility that saw me turn to the Honyaku Mailing List for help.
One day the president asked me to post a job offer on the internet. Immediately, I thought of the Honyaku Mailing List. I thought great, this should be interesting. But my excitement turned to the jitters when he told me how to do it. Basically, his instructions went as follows: For people that answer the job offer, tell them our rate. If they agree with the rate, then have them contact us saying that they agree, then we will send a contract. If they don't agree with the rate, no reply is required. Now don't misjudge him, the president is a very humanistic individual. I think he was nervous giving me this responsibility, after all, he knew I was a translator by heart and not the business type of person. Nevertheless, he was still kind enough to give me this chance to improve what few business skills I had.
However, I was thinking about how this job offer approach was not going to go well with JATers. It was a moment of the Nagoya businessman and American translator, two individuals from very different cultures, trying to work together and not cause the other to lose face. Well, I posted the job offer and figured this would seal my fate with the JAT community. Just as I had expected, there were a few JATers that weren't satisfied with my instructions and requested more information. Basically, I'm a nice guy and I wasn't about to slam the door in their face. So I took it upon myself to answer their request for more info by devoting as much time as necessary towards giving a complete answer to every question. To make a long story short, 2 out of 17 signed a contract. That's all I needed, just a few to show the president I had a little bit of the businessman spirit. And during the entire time, the president left me totally alone so that I could handle the situation my way.
Well, to make this long story even shorter, I did a lot of overtime to finish my translations, check the translations by the new translators and give feedback. I think I made them happy, because they're still working for us. As a matter of fact, I had one translator say it was almost the most feedback she has ever received. So basically I felt this recruitment project was a total success.
Two years have passed since that fateful day I had coffee with the president. At the moment, I have no idea how long I'll be working for this agency. As someone on the Honyaku Mailing List once said, we all have to find our niche in the translation world. I still don't know if this is a temporary or permanent niche. I guess for some of us, we have to go through a lot of niches before finding the right one. Wonder what my next niche will be?
In April JAT Bulletin Rick Davis wrote about illegitimate or excessive use of わけ in everyday conversation. I can think of another example かたち which is used as follows:
My feeling is that this かたち is used in interviews to, or speeches made by しろうと trying to make what they sound reasonable or justifiable even though the subject may be 'shape'-less.
--- Emily Shibata-Sato
I have long considered the Ministry of Education a major reason why so many Japanese have trouble with English -- trouble that slops over into translation not only with less-than-adequate J-> E translations but also with less-than-adequate customer supervision and checking of J-> E translations.
The May 25 朝日 unwittingly carried a case in point. In an article entitled 有森選手「自分をほめた」メダル物語、教科書に, the newspaper mentioned that the high-school _Aurora II_ English text put out by 中 教出版 next spring will include the Arimori story. This is in itself laudable, since it gets at least one of the sections into the realm of modern reality. (For those of you who might have forgotten, Arimori won a bronze in the women's marathon at the Atlanta Olympics. Asked afterward how she felt, she said, 自分をほめたい.)
Yet the textbook translates this as "This time I want to praise myself." Okay, native speakers, how many of you would say "I want to praise myself" in the sort of situation where Arimori said 自分をほめたい? Probably none. The more natural translation for ほめる in this sort of context is to "be proud of." This is the same "proud of" that is used (e.g., "I'm proud of you.") to praise children who do well at something. And it would be more natural to translate Arimori's statement as "I'm proud of me" or "I'm proud of myself."
But I assume "proud" has negative connotations in the Ministry of Education's dictionary -- or is not scheduled to be taught at that level -- and so cannot be used when it would be natural. (I assume this from personal experience _many_ years ago when I was helping with the New Prince readers [remember them?] and I wanted to have someone say he gets to school at 8:00 in the morning. No going, said the MoE. "Get" is not in the curriculum with that usage yet. It has to be that he "arrives at" school at 8:00 in the morning. [Now you know why I'm a translator and not an English teacher.])
While I would not want someone studying to be a J/E translator to just read the Naganuma texts of old (How many of you remember _them_?), I suspect one of the best pieces of advice we could give any Japanese wanting to learn English (even if not to be a translator) is to read more than the MoE-approved textbooks.
PS: When I pointed this out to the MoE, the person I talked to promised to pass the message along to the textbook inspectors, so there is an off chance this particular passage might be corrected.
-- Fred Uleman (fmu@gol.com)
PS Both "praise" and "proud" are 中学基本語（約850語）which _can_ be taught at junior highs. Those that _must_ be taught are designated as 学習指導要領の指定語（507語）. - ES2 -
By Tim Smith (from a recent posting to Honyaku)
A few months ago, I posted a message on Honyaku List, asking for suggestions about why there were so few translators who decided to become patent agents. I said if I found out anything interesting, I would report on my findings.Here now, are the results of the ensuing discussions.
I. Why so few translator/patent agents?
II. Questions and
answers about patent agents
If anybody has any comments on what I've written, I'd love to hear them. Comments can be sent to sj.biglobe.ne.jp.
I. Why so few translator/patent agents?
Quite a few people wrote me e-mail, almost all asking me for more information about becoming a patent agent. Judging from the questions asked,I believe the reasons there are so few translator/patent agents are as follows:
Reading the following question and answer section will throw some light on points A and B (including information on how to get qualified for the patent bar), but unfortunately, I really don't have enough concrete information on C. In my case, the firm I work for provided the incentive by offering a 資格 手当て (shikaku teate), but I'm not sure of the benefits for other people, like free lance translators. I imagine that being a patent agent will at least make it easier to get a foot in the door when looking for more or better paying clients. But whether the translator can keep the new clients will depend mostly on the quality of his or her translations.
Will becoming a patent agent improve the quality of a person's patent translation? If you want to translate patents for filing (which pays better than translation for information), then some knowledge of patent law is imperative. However, most of what you learn to pass the patent bar you will never ever use when preparing applications. Further, a great deal of what you need to know to translate for filing, like claim drafting, can only be learned by experience. The greatest learning experience for me has been dealing with Office Actions issued against application I have prepared. Having claims that I thought were perfectly clear be rejected as "vague and indefinite" by an Examiner has not been pleasant, but has greatly helped me improve my claim drafting. Comments of the Examiner have also helped me improve the specification and drawing parts of the application.
I also have a hunch that Japanese clients are going to start working more and more directly with U.S. patent firms, rather than going through a Japanese Benrishi firm. If this trend continues, the role of the translator will increase. Some patent attorneys in Seattle, Washington told me that presently the going rate in Seattle for an in-house translator is $40,000/year and for a patent agent is $50,000/year. (An attorney fresh out of law school gets around $75,000.) Assuming the same technical background, I imagine that a translator/patent agent who can prepare applications for filing would probably get something higher than all of these, especially from firms near Washington DC that do more direct filing of applications from Japan. But I have yet to find evidence of such an animal in the U.S. so all this is speculation.
II. Questions and answers about patent agents
Patricia M. Jordan Office of Enrollment and Discipline Office of the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Box OED Washington, DC 20231
The following two qualifications will be of particular interest to members of Honyaku List. These two reasons are probably why there are not more translator/patent agents.
The April 1998 issue of Patent (the official journal of the弁理士会) carried an article about J-E patent translation for filing by James Barlow, a US patent attorney currently working in a patent office in Japan. Barlow addressed a number of issues and provided what I think is good advice to translators doing this type of work. I have summarized some of the points made in the article.
Keep Sentences Short
There is no need to use long sentences
in English just because long sentences are used in Japanese,
and there is nothing wrong breaking sentences up when
translating (with the obvious exception, of course, of the
claims).
Use Simple Language
This might seem strange to translators
used to wading through unbelievably arcane terminology in
patents. Barlow cites the reason for this as the need to
consider the most important reader of a US patent
specification--which is likely to be a judge or a jury
member.
Don't Overuse "Member"
This word, often seen in J-E patent
translations in which the Japanese uses the term部材, is
often redundant, resulting in expressions that do not sound
natural to a native reader. Thus, "piston member"
(fromピストン部材）is better shortened to piston, as the term
member adds no information.
Avoid Redundant Expressions
If the Japanese has already
introduced an element called, for example, "widget 5 that is
connected to bar 4." there is no need to refer to this
element upon every appearance as "widget 5 that is connected
to bar 4," even if this redundancy appears in the Japanese,
as long as the name of the element and reference numeral
uniquely identify it. Naturally, application of this advice
requires the translator to pay attention, but all patent
translators do that anyway, right?
Barlow gives other advice, covering such issues as
I highly recommend this article to anybody translating Japanese patents for filing overseas.
Recently, one of my clients (an international organization's regional office in Japan) asked me to send estimate&invoice forms in English. They have a non-Japanese and very picky boss who would want to know all the payment details, I was told.
I never had to prepare these forms in English (either they were provided and I just had to sign them or Nihongo version was accepted) so I'm still in the process of preparing professional-looking forms and I'm not good at designing them.
Forms in Japanese typically include the following items:
A sample in English (estimate in this case) I've obtained includes:
Would appreciate any suggestions and layout hints.
Any other items that might be useful ?
In my experience, ordinary Japanese companies request only 請求書 or 見積書＆請求書 for ordinary jobs. 見積書and請求書 are often sent together 'after' the job is done (without including the date, i.e.日付はシロで) indicating that 見積書 is only required out of formalities. Government agencies or their affiliates tend to ask for 請書 and 納品書 in addition. Bigger jobs may require more forms. If you are running your own company you may have different stories.