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JAT Bulletin 175, October 1999, First JAT KAC Meeting Report, by Steve Venti
The first meeting of the JAT Kansai Activities Committee was
held this past September 26, 1999 at the International House,
Osaka near the Kintetsu Uehon-machi Station from 2:30 to 5:00
p.m.. Altogether, about two dozen people attended the meeting
and enjoyed a very informative and animated panel discussion
on the topic "How to Get the Most out of Your
Translations."
The panel comprised three veteran translators, all of whom
are well-known to their JAT colleagues -- Bill Lise, Mayumi
Nishioka and George Tokikuni -- and the discussion itself was
moderated by Steve Venti.
Bill spoke first, addressing the issue of how to get more
from your present customers as well as how to find new and
better-paying ones. Although Bill mentioned that he felt his
comments might possibly be more relevant to non-native
Japanese speakers than to native ones, he presented a clear
and detailed picture of what it is like to work with direct
clients at the high-end of the translation pay scale.
One basic point that came up immediately was that when
working with direct clients, it is very difficult to raise
substantially the fees for what is an already-established
level of service. Thus, the best way to get better rates is
to walk away from old clients and find new ones who are
willing to pay more. To this end, Bill offered several maxims
intended to help the translator successfully negotiate better
rates.
Take control - Don't let a client or agency dictate terms.
You can get much better rates when working with clients who
have agreed to your terms.
Take "no" for an answer - Related to the above. State your
terms, and if the client won't agree to them, don't be afraid
to refuse work or to walk away from old clients who don't pay
well.
Take stock of your own market value - This involves
developing an awareness of how much value the client places
on translation services in general. In the US,
Japanese-to-English translation is "reader-driven," which is
to say that the client is often someone who wants to know
what is contained in a particular document and who will often
have a relatively low limit to what they are willing to spend
on translation. In Japan, however, Japanese-to-English
translation is "writer-driven," and the client is often more
willing to spend on quality translation because he is
producing materials that must be read by
other people in order for the client to succeed.
Freelance vs. In-house -- In-house translators rarely get
beyond the 部長 level of the corporate pay scale, so an
experienced translator who wants to make the most of his or
her earning potential often needs to go freelance to
succeed.
In summarizing his presentation, Bill mentioned that it is
important for
freelance translators to work hard on their spoken Japanese
in order to
develop trust with clients. Since non-native Japanese
translators rarely do "footwork," those that do go hunting
for direct clients can often strike it big. Direct clients
are no longer as easy to find as they once were, and
searching for them is hard yet rewarding work.
Mayumi spoke next on the benefits of networking with other
translators. Knowing a lot of translators and maintaining
cordial relationships with your colleagues is an important
way to help gauge your own ability and status as a
translator. Meeting other translators also helps give you a
feel for the different types of translation markets that
exist -- for example, technical, advertising or
literary.
There are any number of places to start networking with
other translators. For example, attending a translation
school is a good way for "wanna-bes" to build a body of
acquaintances -- not just fellow students, but also teachers
and other staff members who are knowledgeable about the
translation business. Mayumi mentioned her own experiences,
both as a student and later as an instructor, in emphasizing
this point. Working in-house is another good way for
young
translators not only to meet other translators, but also to
gain experience working under the tutelage of experienced
translators. The Internet is also an excellent place to
search for people with common interests, and translation is
no exception. In addition to exchanging information online,
it is also often possible to learn of and to attend offline
meetings. Participating in mailing lists is another way of
establishing a presence in the translation community, and
Mayumi mentioned a comment by the author Douglas Robinson in
his book "How to Become a Translator", where he says that
learning how to communicate on mailing lists helps you learn
how to present yourself as a professional. It also helps you
to gain awareness both of the extent of your own capabilities
and of what area of translation you are interested in.
In summary, Mayumi mentioned that networking with other
translators affords the opportunity to learn about
translation fields outside your own expertise, to gain
insights into running a translation business, to learn which
agencies and clients are reputable (especially regarding
payment practices), and to find help when you have work
overflow.
Last, but not least, George spoke on the topic of whether or
not to specialize in a particular field of translation. He
began his talk by mentioning that when he first began working
as a translator, he felt it was necessary to specialize in
one field or the other, but he has recently begun to
re-evaluate that stance. George also presented his listeners
with a series of questions intended to demonstrate that the
answer to this question for a particular individual will
depend upon a number of factors, including that person's
interests, attitudes towards translation per se, and length
of experience as a professional translator.
For the purpose of this talk, George divided translation
into two main
categories: literary/general translation and technical
translation. He further mentioned that in order to translate,
a person must develop three abilities: in English, in
Japanese and in a specific field. Although literary/general
translators may not have any extensive field-specific
knowledge, they must have the ability to perform research
thoroughly.
He also presented some interesting examples of expressions
that are difficult to translate because they evoke to native
speakers very specific images that do not necessarily have a
corresponding element in the target language. Two examples
mentioned were the Japanese expression 入浴随時 [nyuuyoku
zuiji] ,with its corresponding image of entering a steaming
hot-spring at the end of a day's journey, and the English
expression 'balsa wood', which in Japanese does not
necessarily carry the connotation of a lightweight material
used for model airplanes. Given the idiomatic nature of such
expressions, a translator doing literary/general translation
must be a very skilled writer indeed.
In contrast, a technical translator needs to convey
information both concisely and with great precision,
something made all the more difficult by the extensive use of
specialized terminology, abbreviation and ellipsis in
technical writing, so that just as much as a literary/general
translator, technical translators must also be able to "read
between the lines."
The meeting itself was followed by a very pleasant nijikai,
held at a Chinese restaurant near Uehon-machi station. Nearly
everyone who attended the meeting also came to the nijikai,
and a good time was had by all.
The next JAT Kansai Activities Committee meeting is being
planned for sometime in spring next year.