Swet Columns

Translator Tuesdays Reports

These quick reports of the hour-long online meetups held on the first Tuesday of each month are contributed by Daniel Morales, moderator, following the close of each session. The reports appear with the most recent at the top.

October 1, 2024

This was one of our best attended sessions to date. We had nine participants sharing various "spooky" stories of translations gone wrong.... more

Latest SWET Financial Report (and earlier)

Financial Report for 2023

In 2023, the major expense for SWET was the long-awaited rebuild of the SWET website to be mobile responsive. Previously, the website used graphic images for colored headers, and on a smartphone the site would appear in tiny print that needed to be expanded and shifted around to read. Thanks to the programming skills of ResourceCode, now... more

Event Report: Fifth East Asian Translation Studies Conference

The fifth East Asian Translation Studies conference was held at the University of Queensland on June 26–28, with a mixture of on-site and online participants. The conference kicked off with a keynote speech by Professor Min-hua Liu from Hong Kong Baptist University titled “Is There an Aptitude for Interpreting beyond Bilingualism?” The second keynote was by Professor Clint... more

EVENT REPORT: Owning Your Personal Brand

By Monique Bae

Tucked in the back of the bustling Book House Cafe in Jinbocho on March 29 were 10 people enjoying a two-hour workshop held by Ruth P. Stevens, a founding member of SWET and a globally recognized marketing professional and adjunct professor at NYU Stern. In “Building Your Personal Brand as a Freelance Professional,” Stevens provided tips on how to... more

Highlights of 2023

While we have been busy crafting with words, learning about ChatGPT and the Japanese government’s new invoice system, keeping our equipment up to date, meeting deadlines, and keeping abreast of our email, now we find that another year is upon us.       SWET started 2023 in its usual laid-back fashion, but the questions arising and alarms sounding over large language... more

Navigating Gendered Language and Inclusivity in 2023

The SWET Talk Shop held as a Zoom session on May 13, 2023 focused on how linguistic practices in Japanese and English have evolved to become more gender inclusive. Linguistics professor Claire Maree of Melbourne, trans rights activist and neuroscience researcher Tanomi in Okinawa, and moderator Emily Balistrieri in Osaka, discussed the sobering real-life implications of not using inclusive language.... more