Blog in English

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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

#culturalunderstanding

Colour Names Can Be So Poetic

May is the season of fresh greens. A stroll through the woods at this time of year is bliss! You can bathe in the greenish sunlight that filters through the tender young leaves. (We have a special word for this in Japanese: 木洩れ日, Komorebi)

Good Old Provincial Names

Q. Can you tell which region/continent the following 州 refers to? Translating address fields on forms is a classic case of the importance of #localization. If you want to fill in your address on a form in Germany, you’ll find it consists

How kids spend their holiday in Japan Germany

☀️The summer #holidays are fast approaching! Having been raised in #Japan and having raised a child myself in #Germany, I have become aware of the great differences in education between the two countries. One particular thing that appalled

A Metaphor-Ridden Use of Brushes

Brushes were the main writing instrument in Japan for over 1,000 years. Only in last 120 years or so did brushes give way to fountain pens and other Western writing tools, before being taken over by so-called “word processors (ワープロ)” and PC

A Single Character Making a Big Difference of Three Months

It is the last day of the year in Japan – not the calendar year but the business/fiscal year (事業年度/会計年度). #年 means “year” but #年度 (Nendo) means business year. A single character 度can make a big difference – 3 months, in fact! If you want

A Day to Celebrate “A Place of Convenience”

Today is #WorldToiletDay! And here is my linguistic contribution towards raising awareness of the importance of public hygiene and sanitation. There are a variety of words to describe toilets in Japanese. Here, let me focus solely on thos