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

#mt

Definition of MT - 30 Years Ago Back in 1993

Here is a copy of a vintage year-book dating back to 30 years ago: imidas published by Shueisha Inc. （集英社出版『イミダス』). Many Japanese publishers used to print a (hardcopy!) encyclopaedic anthology of the trend words of the year. It was fun t

Warning! Use a human translator to avoid unintended cannibalism

The above photo shows a menu in #Japanese at an Asian restaurant in the Netherlands, which offers “Tan-Tan males” (タンタンの男性) instead of Tan-Tan noodles 🍜, otherwise known as Tan-Tan Men (担々麺). #Japanese #translation #MT #LOL #machinetransl

Hierarchy in Good Omens

The Year of the Tiger 🐯, 2022, has begun! I hope you all had a good start into the new year, dreaming the right dream on January 1st. 😴 According to ancient Japanese traditions, the very first dream in the new year becomes a reality. Janua

Quick Gender Transition through Googling

♂ What an unjustified complaint! The client wrongly accused me of translating Ms XX as Mr XX. My translation was Smith-sama (様). On top of that, the client expressed her concern that the address in the translation differed from that in the

Hard Nut to Crack...「作家性」とは

My brain is in a state of vertigo! After weeks of translating scientific papers, I am now working on something creative for a change (Japanese → English). The original is written in abstract and figurative speech which made me scratch m

Free Online Course on Post-Editing

An associate sent me a few basic questions on post-editing (PE) after reading my last post on the Japanese translation market. Understandably, my associate seems to feel threatened by the growing use of machine translation (MT). But not al

Overview of Translation Industry in Japan (Trade Survey)

A quick report on the webinar on 9 June 2021 by the JTF (Japanese Translation Federation) on their survey of the translation and interpreting industry in Japan conducted in autumn of last year: The survey comes in two parts: LSPs and trans