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Here are some thoughts to share from the daily life of a translator...

運営しているクリエイター: Translation Service S. Arai

Kononaka vs. Koronaka / このなか vs. コロナ禍

A new jargon on Japanese TV news is “korona ka-de” which means something like “amidst the Corona peril”. But this sounds much like “kono naka-de“ (=“under these circumstances) that it confuses me every time. Background: The Japanese histo

On 21 August 1689...

On 21 August 1689 (a lunar calendar date), Matsuo Basho reached his final destination Ogaki as he later described in his travelogue “Okuno Hosomichi” (The Narrow Road to Oku). The poet began his journey around 150 days earlier starting at h

Misprint – only for this year

(Posted on 12 August 2021) Yesterday was Mountain Day, a public holiday in Japan. Or so I thought. At least, my Japanese wall calendar tells me so (see the photo). Hence, I was surprised to get a reply from my business associate in Japan y

A daring attempt to redefine Japanese grammar

Do you know what an Oxford comma is? E.g. in "We had toast, ham and egg, and milk". Here, the last item (milk) should be separated from the preceding ones (ham and egg) by a so-called Oxford comma. The reason being that the entry after the

Fruitful cooperation - a new business approach in the absence of trade shows

The pandemic has led to a huge shift in how businesses are conducted without events and trade shows. Still, there are ways to reach Germany, ways in which mums in Japan can continue to dish out babyfoods from Germany, “FruchtBar” successful

Fortune Cookies with a Linguistic Twist

I found a witty souvenir during my holidays on the North Sea coast last week: Fortune cookies with wise words written in Low and High German. The cookie box comes with a small linguistic guide on Low German. Looking at a general rule of cor