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| Meeting Details | |
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| Subject | A Workshop on Legal Writing for the Translator: Keeping it Plain and Simple. |
| Speaker | Kyal Hill |
| Date/Time | Sunday, July 24, 2005 |
| Meeting Place |
Forum 8 Room 774 |
| Cost | JAT members: 500 yen, Non-JAT members: 1000 yen |
| R.S.V.P. | tac@jat.org |
Most Japanese-to-English legal translators, at least before they become complacent with or inured to archaic, stuffy language, have asked themselves the same squirmy question: "Do I really have to say it this way, or can I just say it in ordinary English?" And it is the truly professional legal translators who are always asking, "Is there a better way to say this?"
The simple answer to these questions is that you can, and there is. And this workshop aims to show you how.
We will look at how to edit a legal translation as an educated modern lawyer would for a sophisticated client, to make it the most effective, precise, and clear translation it can be. You will leave with the courage to approach legal translation with a more discerning eye, and the ability to shed any tendencies you might have, consciously or not, of blindly accepting the many myths that pervade this field of English and translation. After going through example translations, identifying and correcting their faults, we'll incorporate the knowledge and suggestions of leading commentators in the field of legal English to see how the translations can be improved.
You will leave knowing, for example, why defined terms in legal documents do not need to be introduced with 'hereinafter referred to as'; why 'such,' 'said,' and 'aforesaid' are not any better than 'the'; and why there is never a need for, among other things, using archaisms such as "date first above written" and writing figures out in both words and numbers. You will come out understanding not only the difference between the loose and strict American styles of legal English, but also the refreshing ABC (Australia, Britain, Canada) style. And perhaps most importantly, you will be enlightened on how to use 'shall' precisely, if after the workshop you choose to use it at all; on how to translate 'tadashi' correctly, and not as a 'provided that' mutation; and on how to make a legal translation easy to read without making it any less legal.
Being a translator, as being a lawyer, does not automatically make you a good writer, because good writing does not come so easily. It is easy writing that makes for hard reading, and it is hard writing that makes for easy reading. This workshop will help make the hard writing a little easier.
Speaker Introduction:
Kyal Hill is a Kiwi-Australian translating in-house at Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, one of Japan's top commercial Japanese law firms (though his opinions are his alone and not necessarily shared by the firm). He has a master's degree in translation and interpreting and is professionally accredited as a translator in Australia, where he freelanced for 18 months before coming to Tokyo. Kyal is the Japan representative for Clarity, an international association promoting plain legal language.
