Content for Japanese-to-English TranslatorsAdvice that is perhaps not useful to any but a tiny group of translators
Business Survival as a TranslatorIt's a jungle out there. Will you make it through?
With almost all freelance translators dependent on agencies for work and agencies quickly shifting to machine translation business model, in which they don't order translation, but rather just low-paid post-editing from translators, survival demands more than just being able to translate well. Translators will need to up their game to survive for a while longer.
- Aspirational Delusions and Myths about AI Translation (June 26, 2024)
- It's time to discard the myths and look at the real world.
- Successful Survivor Candidates Will ... (January 1, 2024)
Widespread use of AI by agencies is cutting humans out of their translation process. Just what is required of a translator to survive as a translator?
- Dinosaurs, Slide Rules, and Human Translators: Some Thoughts on Extinctions (November 20, 2023)
Not all extinctions are created equal. The dinosaurs couldn't have known what was coming. Slide rule manufacturers knew much more.
- Acquiring Street Smarts 101 for Japanese-to-English Translators (November 5, 2023)
It's always been a jungle; now it's getting more difficult to negotiate.
- Some Dos and Don't Bothers in the Post-MTPE World of Japanese-to-English Translation (October 30, 2023)
Some inherited wisdom should be disgarded.
- AI, the Desktop Publishing of the 21st Century (October 25, 2023)
- Perhaps rushing to adopt isn't the silver bullet.
Presentations & Publications
The Covid pandemic put a crimp in plans to make presentatons, so most of what you will find here is material from recent history. Hopefully the world will soon recover even to the point at which presentations return to their former frequency.
- Getting from Tier Two to Tier One in Japanese-to-English Translation (June 30, 2019)
- With the agency MTPE business model, these suggestions are even more valid than they were in 2019.
- J-E Patent Translation" Conference Proceedings, Nineteenth International Japanese/English Translation Conference (IJET-19) (April 12-13, 2008)
- Presentation made in Okinawa, Japan at a conference held by Japan Association of translators.
- "Symbols, Abbreviations and Layout Issues in JA-EN Translation" (June 20, 1997)
- Eighth International Conference on Japanese/English Translation and Interpreting (IJET 97) held in Sheffield, UK, June 19-21, 1997. Japan Association of Translators.
- Chapter 5 of Morita, Y. ed. Japanese Patent Translation Handbook. (1997; revised October 14, 2022)
This 1997 American Translators Association publication is currently out-of-print, and we have now made available a recently (October 14, 2022) revised version of the content.
- "An Investigation of Terminology and Syntax in Japanese and US Patents and the Implications for the Patent Translator". (May, 1994)
- From the Proceedings of the Fifth International Japanese-English Translation Conference (IJET-5) held in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan