Translator Tuesday March
These are casual virtual meet-ups to talk about translation, mainly between Japanese and English. We share experiences, questions, reading, strategies, tools, travails, and trivia, with different conversations every time. The hour-long sessions, moderated by Daniel Morales, start at 8:00 p.m. JST on the first Tuesday of the month. Participation is up and down. The December 3 session was a cozy 6, giving us a chance to discuss our daily routines and work rhythms and learn about our various niches in the industry. For brief reports of previous meetings, see here.
Here is what is coming up:
March 4: What are some of the visual elements of the Japanese language that are most difficult to translate into English? Japanese will often use words from English and other languages, for example, to create a specific effect. How do you recreate this in your translations? What about other elements, such as mathematical symbols, icons, and emoji (first created in Japan)? Does this make more of a difference with a literary text like poetry than with other genres of writing?
April 1: Translation rates are often difficult to discuss, but they are critical for translators. We’re not planning to talk about specific rates, but we would like to try to talk about the considerations surrounding rates. When is it okay to ask for a higher rate from a regular client? Are your rates calculated by source character or target word? Do you have a minimum charge for small projects? Is it by rate or volume? If you are willing to take a higher volume of work for a lower rate, where do you draw the line, and are such volume discounts viable for a translator in the long term?
Please note that advance registration is required for each session. Click on the link below, then select the desired date from the pull-down menu. If you are interested but not sure you can make it, feel free to sign up and attend if you can. Participants are also free to arrive or depart while the session is in progress. We encourage you to register now.