Comments on: Leaving things out

By: Ryan Ginstrom

Ryan Ginstrom — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:20:28 +0000

@Noo

I’m usually up for a drink, especially when I can write it off as 交際費

My email is on my contact page if you want to get in touch.

By: Noo

Noo — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 06:24:56 +0000

Ryan,
Love your posts.
I too find myself in the same situations (I now live in Okinawa too – so we might have to catch up for a drink sometime) in this crazy JE translation world. It really is mind-boggling sometimes. But, as you say – “Such is the state of our industry.”

By: Ryan Ginstrom

Ryan Ginstrom — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:07:24 +0000

@Mameha

I wish the only thing I had to contend with when reading others’ translations was poor writing style.

Japanese-to-English translators are above the curve if they can get subject/verb agreement down. If they can use a/the/bare plurals correctly, they’re in the 90th percentile. Such is the state of our industry.

By: Mameha

Mameha — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:31:27 +0000

I think your post highlights two things:
- general disdain for translators (disregarding their input)
- some people ‘just want to get the job done’ regardless of quality, and do not like spanners being thrown at them from translators. If the boss is happy, who cares what the translator thinks?

I rarely translate but sometimes have to check a colleague’s English, only to find it completely devoid of logic or narrative. It often has to be completely re-written taking 2 hours or so. It shocks me that someone can work here and earn a decent wage without having high school level native language skills. I guess you must get that problem too doing JP->EN.