September 11, 2024

Translator Tuesdays Reports

These quick reports (beginning with August) of the hour-long online meetups held starting in March 2024 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. See Upcoming Events on the SWET website top page for the topics of upcoming meetups.

December 3, 2024

Translation can be a surprisingly exhausting profession. Many translators work without consecutive days off, and deadlines are often the determining factor in when and how a translator works. This month we talked about the daily rhythms of translation, and these topics came up. There are benefits of being freelance, however. Some of us have leisurely mornings with meditation and coffee before we attack a text. Others prefer to start with related tasks such as email before an energizing meal that prepares us for the day. Freelancers also have the ability to break up the day with domestic chores, whereas those of us working in-house or more directly with a client are bound by specific hours to a location (but we also get weekends off). All of us agreed that winding down after a long day is important, whether with reading (which also helps us "replenish" our stock of natural English) or with podcasts; getting away from the screen is important. So be cautious when you say "Have a good weekend!" or "Enjoy your holiday” to a translator; a freelance wordsmith may not really have "weekends" or even "holidays"!
 

November 5, 2024

Translation becomes a skill many of us determinedly pursue without thinking too much about how to describe it, so finding writing that articulates its spirit and craft can be inspiring. In November we talked about the writers who inspire us, from the "Legends of Localization" who write on the translation of famous video games into English (and Japanese) to Yoko Hasegawa's legendary textbook, The Routledge Course in Japanese Translation. A full list of the texts we discussed is below, and most are focused on Japanese. There are a few that include other languages such as books from Umberto Eco who discusses Italian and Joan Boase-Beier who writes on German. Hasegawa's text above addresses translation in both directions, into English and into Japanese, but many are focused on one target language, in our case English. In addition to translation specific texts, we also discussed how important it is to keep your English sharp by reading well-written English texts as well as style guides such as Dreyer's English. Also critical is developing familiarity with 予備知識 (yobi chishiki, background knowledge) to inform translations; sometimes this just requires a translator to spend time in Japan or with material in Japanese.

Translation and Style, Jean Boase-Beier
Making Sense of Japanese, Jay Rubin
Dreyer's English, Benjamin Dreyer
Mouse or Rat? Translation as Negotiation, Umberto Eco
Japanese-English Translation: An Advanced Guide, Judy Wakabayashi
The Routledge Course in Japanese Translation, Yoko Hasegawa
Legends of Localization, various
J-En Translations, Jennifer O'Donnell
Translation Studies, Susan Bassnett

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. This includes everything from simple mistranslations of "false friends," misspellings in subtitles (fortunately spotted in the wild, not our own work), and the dreaded not being paid by a client. But some of the horror stories were more complex, such as clients who ask for too many edits or a translator who leaves comments that are too extensive. As Charles De Wolf put it, "A translator's got to learn his or her limitations." Overconfidence in a topic or not examining source material closely enough before accepting a job can also cause unwanted horror. There's also the subtle horror of the ticking of the clock as the promised arrival of work gets closer and closer, only to pass by without any actual work, despite having already blocked off the time in your calendar. Doubling up of work is an equal but opposite horror story: Sometimes an editing job can quickly turn into a re-translation if the original was not up to snuff. To avoid future horror, we also learned that translators should offer their prayers to St. Jerome, the patron saint of translators. Our U.K. representatives at Translator Tuesday have been very consistent, so there may be potential for U.K. SWET events, both virtual and in person.

September 3, 2024

Translator Tuesday for September 2024 was a great success. We discussed how we track translations, and whether it's even necessary to track some types of translation. From the most general perspective, we all agreed that you must know the volume of a translation request, whether it's counted in Japanese characters or 400-character pages, a method of counting that is perhaps used increasingly less frequently. Daniel Morales mentioned being inspired by a translator who is extremely detailed about tracking every aspect of translation, from source character and target word to time spent on each client. But it seems difficult to put into practice and maintain. Richard Sadowsky noted that he tracks "concentration time," the amount of time spent focused on a translation task, with the help of Tyme, an app that has many features and has moved to a subscription model online (https://www.tyme-app.com/en/). This allows him to confirm his more intuitive calculation of whether projects are long or short. Lynne Riggs made the important comment that not all translation can be done quickly, and that nonfiction/academic translation is a creative endeavor that takes time, not only in the translation process, but also in editing and checking. If possible, it can also be good to outsource this tracking process to someone else, if there are management resources available. Knowing what service you're offering and how much time that takes can also offer translators flexibility, for example if a client is more or less willing to allow for the use of machine translation aids. We also discussed some recently popular Japanese television shows that new translator Alyssa Cantrell has been watching, including the recently popular "Extremely Inappropriate!" and the shows of Bakarhythm, such as "Rebooting" and "Fictitious OL Diary."

August 6, 2024 

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Translator Tuesday yesterday, which centered around building and maintaining a client base from a rural location! Richard Sadowsky submitted some thoughts via email that we used to start the conversation: Face-to-face networking is critical and personal introductions generate a lot of work, making it important for those in the countryside to stay in touch. Jimmy Rion and I brought the other side of this coin, noting how you can build a presence online, through many different platforms, allowing potential clients to "get to know you" before you even meet. When pressed by Martie Jelinek, however, Jim and I both admitted that it can be difficult to pin down exactly how to "be yourself" online. My best recommendation is to try to have fun and inform people. We also talked about whether the transition from 様 salutations to さん salutations could potentially be a result of getting to know someone in person. Any thoughts?

Already looking forward to our September meeting where we'll center the conversation around how translators track their work.

(As posted on SWET Facebook; links are to FB pages)