Birth of a New Magazine, by Mary Ord

Mary Ord is a Seattle-based editor with decades of experience crafting consumer magazines. She shares lessons learned in the process of helping to launch [em]Kateigaho International[/em], where she is senior editor working long-distance with the staff in Tokyo and on occasional trips to Japan. The Japanese edition of [em]Kateigaho[/em] is today a large-format, richly illustrated lifestyle magazine first launched in 1958 featuring the finest in Japanese traditions and contemporary taste. See http://www.kateigaho.com

This is a tale of a life that was. Long-time SWET member Cheryl Meyers writes about her adventures as copy editor for the Asahi Shimbun’s “Weekend Beat” pages, which appear every Saturday at the back of the [em]International Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shimbun[/em]. Not long after this article was written, after working with this popular feature for three years, she was shifted to the news copy desk.

My Sort of Translating, by Edward Seidensticker

The transcript of the talk given by Professor Edward Seidensticker for SWET at Tokyo-Azabudai Seminar House on September 27, 2003 is abridged and edited here for the [em]Newsletter[/em]. Translator of numerous works by Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, Kawabata Yasunari, and other authors as well as [em]The Tale of Genji[/em], Seidensticker taught at Stanford University in the early 1960s, then at the University of Michigan, and later at Columbia University. He is also author of [em]Kafu the Scribbler[/em] (1965), [em] Low City, High[/em] (1983), [em]Tokyo Rising[/em] (1990), and other non-fiction works. His memoir, [em]Tokyo Central[/em], was published in 2003.

Ask Aunt Eva

The In-house Dogsbody, by Eva Hartupp

How far is an employer justified in changing or adding to the job description of a new employee? Our lovable old tabby is positively cross-eyed with benevolence, but lately she has been seeing some ominous extensions. We should be willing to try something new—who knows, this may be our next good career move—but how far are skills transferable from one job to another? And what are the underlying assumptions that can lead to misunderstandings.

Over Their Shoulders: Newsletter Workshop I

The OTS column invites translators to test their skills with a passage from a short essay by Kansai-based author Tanabe Seiko. Selected submissions will be published in SWET Newsletter No. 106 with comments from a panel of experienced translators. The translation project text may be obtained by writing to the editors via our Web form. This article also includes a full list of the OTS articles published 1987-2003.

Event Reports

Workshop in Kyoto, by Kay Vreeland
Translating Fiction between Japanese and English is a 101-member, six-month-old online discussion list at Yahoo! Groups. Steve Venti, who animates the list, held the first TFJE Workshop at Kyoto International Community House on September 14 for a small group of both Japanese and non-Japanese participants.

SWET Book Fair 2003, by Holly Ueda
Held October 25 at in the Temple University Japan building in Minami Azabu, the SWET Book Fair put on sale newly donated books for 2003 as well as books left over from 2002 and stored by the Temple University Library. Hardback books sold for ¥300 and paperbacks for ¥100. The proceeds of the fair were added to SWET coffers.

Doing Dictionaries, by Lynne E. Riggs
The Nov. 22, 2003 SWET on Saturdays was “Making Dictionaries: A Panel Discussion.” The panelists, Mary Althaus, Tom Gally, and Peter Sharpe, each with long experience collaborating in the compilation of Japanese-to-English as well as English-to-Japanese dictionaries, talked about their background and special interests, what they do, and the process of compiling some of the bilingual dictionaries published in Japan. Article touches on Approaches and Targets in Dictionary Making, Where Do the Words Come From?, Gender Sensitivity, Register, Dialect, Directions in Dictionaries.

An Appreciation: Barbara Curtis Adachi

Co-founder in 1980 of SWET, Barbara Adachi passed away February 9, 2004. Also co-founder Ruth Stevens, currently a resident of New York, recalls that founding moment and the woman who was friend and inspiration to many active in SWET over the years. A prolific writer on crafts and food, and an authority on bunraku theater, Adachi made an immeasurable contribution to writing on and understanding of Japan overseas.

Threads on SWET-L

Ubiquitous Questions, by Holly Ueda

Faithful participant of the SWET-L mailing list Holly Ueda sifts through the abundance of postings during the fall of 2003 for valuable and fascinating nuggets of word and language lore, conveniently summarized here for the off-list bystander and the printed record.

Steerage

The [em]SWET Newsletter[/em] 2004: Explains why this issue was two months late.