The Translation Life by Ron Magallanes

Written by Helen on February 16th, 2010

I’ve been at Kurdyla and Associates for more than 20 years and a member of its translation department for most of that time after several years of teaching tech-writing classes and editing/checking technical papers. As a Japanese-to-English technical translator, I’m often asked what it takes to be a translator and how I entered the field—both very good questions.

Probably the prime requirement, in my opinion, for becoming a J-E translator is a healthy obsession with kanji (Chinese characters) and the Japanese written language in general. Without this love of the language, the frustrations that an aspiring translator is bound to encounter will be hard to deal with (a large number of kanji as well as vocabulary, grammar, and—probably most important of all—common usage must be learned). Learning to translate Japanese is slow-going for the first year if not the first two years, but the rewards are great as you will have acquired a skill that a relatively few people have and the ability to work from just about anywhere in the world. I can testify to the latter benefit: Walking across a misty Hyde Park in London in the early morning hours and sitting down to a latte and scone at a neighborhood Starbucks near Kensington High Street station and pulling out my laptop to do some work is one of my fondest “on-the-road translation memories.”

It also helps to work around other translators in an office when just starting out as a fledging translator. The feedback and encouragement that one can receive from others in the field are invaluable. In addition, translating documents in a field that one has expertise or great interest in can help a translator “fill in the blanks” when trying to translate vague or poorly written papers. My educational background in Physics and work experience in computer programming has been a great help to me in understanding the technical journal papers that I am asked to translate.

As for formal requirements, I suppose that some translation houses might require Japanese Language Proficiency certificates or formal education in the Japanese language, but most of the veteran translators that I know, including myself, are self-taught (I guess we are just old-school translators).

As for how I myself became a translator, I was very fortunate to have received an opportunity to translate a software manual that came into the company back in the late 80s just as the other translators who then worked at K&A were busy elsewhere. It took me a relatively long time to translate, but I met the deadline, and that was a great boost to my confidence and translation aspirations. Kurdyla and Associates has always been very good in supporting self-development within the company.

Of course, the above is just one person’s experiences in learning good translation skills and obtaining a good position with steady work, and every translator has his or her own story to tell. I hope to explore more about the world of translation in future blogs, and would be happy to answer any questions that readers might have on this challenging but fascinating field.

 

Posted in Translation, Uncategorized | No Responses »

Common mistakes in opening a presentation

Written by Helen on February 10th, 2010

This list was suggested by Joy Waller.

Can you spot the errors in these sentences? It took me a couple of reads to get one of them..

Mistake 1

‘Thank you all for coming to here today.’

Mistake 2

“In this talk, I will …”

Mistake 3

“I am welcoming you …”

Mistake 4

“I apologize for my horrible English!”

Here are the corrected forms….

1. “Thank you all for coming here today”

We say ‘come here’, ‘go there’ without the ‘to’.

2. You can often cut introductory phrases like ‘In this talk’… and ‘I will talk about…’. Once you’ve greeted the audience, get on with your main idea

3. ‘Welcome’ or ‘Welcome to the 150th meeting of X organization’.
Some phrases in English are really easy to learn!

4. Never apologize for your level of English, the content or length of your speech, your slides, the weather or anything else.

The audience wants to see you take control of the presentation. If – or rather – when you make a mistake, recover gracefully by stating what you mean to say. When I slip up in conversation or in a presentation, I usually say ‘Sorry, I mean X’ and then carry on.

I’ll leave you with a quote from the first female politicians in Canada, Agnes Mcphail.

‘Never apologize. Never explain. Just get the job done…’.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | No Responses »

Common mistakes ‘I’m not strong for…’ v. ‘I’m not good at…’

Written by Helen on January 29th, 2010

Common mistakes ‘I’m not strong for…’ v. ‘I’m not good at…’

To express the idea of skill, use the phrase ‘good at…’ and then add the verb in the ‘ing’ form. For example, ‘I’m not good at cooking, so I eat out every night’. Another example, ‘Even though I’m not very good at singing, my friends make me go to kareoke’.

A common mistake I hear in Japan is ‘strong for/not strong for’ when ‘good at/not good at’ should be used.

The phrase ‘strong for’ appears when we are talking about physical properties, and then it appears with the word ‘enough’. For example, ‘This bridge is not strong enough for a heavy load’ or ‘Paper is not strong enough to use as a rope’.

An interesting sidenote is for when we want to talk about our own skill. We often add a modifier, like ‘pretty’ or ‘quite’ to the phrase ‘good at’. This helps give an impression of modesty. For example, ‘After taking evening classes in Italian cookery, I got pretty good at making pizza’ or ‘I worked in Spain for ten years, so I got quite good at conversing in Spanish’.

 

Posted in Studying English, Writing | No Responses »

Three ways to review vocabulary

Written by Helen on January 22nd, 2010

Language learning experts all agree that reviewing vocabulary is just as important as learning new material. Here is a quick review of three tools that might help you.

Smart FM

Log on to this website and start using the lists of vocabulary or create your own. The platform is based on clever algorithms and research into the psychology of learning. I really like the interface and the fact that you can interact with other users. Its good for those who want a rigorously scientific approach to managing their learning. The basic principle is that you should review something just when you are about to forget it. Your speed and accuracy of recall is recorded and the system presents your weaker items to you more frequently.

Surusu

This has a simpler interface than Smart FM. Also, you add your own items rather than use ready-made vocabulary lists. The name, ‘Surusu’ reflects the fact that it was built by an inspiring self-taught American who taught himself to read and write Japanese in a year. There is no social networking side, but it is very easy to use.

Paper flashcards

Great for those who prefer analogue over digital. The top shows a question or a word to remember, and the underside is the target language. They are very easy to use and do not rely on an Internet connection. Tactile people, e.g., those who think best when they are touching something or moving, might enjoy making and using these cards.

A final hint! You should use these tools regularly, but if you get busy, at least making the lists and thinking about what vocabulary you need is a very good idea. You put yourself in charge of your learning, rather than relying on an instructor to tell you what to review. Your lesson time is then much more productive and you feel good because you have taken some initiative.

Good luck!

 

Posted in Studying English | No Responses »

Does English just sound like noise to you?

Written by Helen on December 8th, 2009

Japanese people doing business in English often find listening to spoken English very difficult. This is often hard for those who have not listened to English since high school. They need to work so hard in the beginning. Often they need to ‘retrain’ their ears; how a native English speaker pronounces English words is different to their Japanese teachers did ten years ago.

Moreover, there are fundamental differences between the different rhythms of English and Japanese. Unlike in Japanese, English stress in a sentence falls much more heavily on the key content, which is normally new information.

For example.

‘I’m Helen, nice to meet you’

Obviously, ‘Helen’ and ‘meet’ are stressed. All the other words, ‘I’m', ‘to’ and ‘you’ are more obvious from the situation, so they unstressed. However, I often hear this mistake: my student stresses the ‘you’, rather than their own name. They are trying to show interest and be polite, but unfortunately the heavy stress on ‘you’ can sound scary! A rough rule is to stress first the verbs and then nouns that carry new information.

Let’s look at the stress in the reply:

‘I’m Asami, nice to meet you, too‘.

As the name is also important information, ‘Asami’ should be stressed. There is new information, ‘you too’. The rule is ’stress new information’.

Therefore, ‘Asami’ and ‘you too’ is said with more emphasis.

When you are listening to English it can sometimes just sound like noise. Very fast noise! It’s frustrating to hear and not understand. I face this problem every time I listen to Japanese. The important thing? Pay attention to the sounds that jump out at you. Look them up in a dictionary or ask the speaker to repeat.

What do you do with the sounds that jump out at you? Expect that these sounds are either words for verbs or key nouns, e.g., new information. This new information gives you a ‘way in’ to understanding a little more. You may not get 100% and you may not get 50%, but you will get a little more, every time you stop saying to yourself ‘I don’t understand’ and say instead ‘What was that sound?’.
and ‘I wonder what it means’.

Finally, I really recommend that you start to listen to English outside your work. Listen to movies, listen to radio, listen to podcasts, listen to music. Anything that gets you used to English conversation, vocabulary, rhythm and helps your brain to process sounds into meaning. I promise that English will start to sound like a language you understand and enjoy.

 

Posted in Studying English | No Responses »

Avoid labels that carry no meaning

Written by Helen on December 7th, 2009

This post comes our list of “red flag” words and expressions, i.e., the ones we should think twice about to ensure correct usage.

“problem” Is the item being described clearly a problem? If so, is it necessary to label it a problem?

For example, “Increasing the size caused a problem of increasing the cost” can be stated more directly as, “Increasing the size increased the cost.”

The part that sounds wrong is

‘caused a problem of increasing the cost’

As we know that something more expensive is undesirable, the words ‘caused a problem’ sound unnatural. It’s thus better to simply say what happened,

‘Increasing the size increased the cost’

and cut any reference to ‘problem’.

So, is there any time when you might want to use the word ‘problem’? Not in a well-written piece of technical writing.

However, there is a famous exchange using this word, the one between astronauts Jack Swigert and Jim Lovell on Apollo 13 and ground control. It went like this:

Swigert: ‘Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.’
GC: ‘This is Houston. Say again please.’
Lovell: ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem. We’ve had a main B bus undervolt.’

In this case, there was a life-threatening problem, and the astronauts needed to make ground control immediately aware of the problem situation. They did this by using the word ‘problem’.

 

Posted in Writing | No Responses »

Common mistakes: Making someone disappear

Written by Helen on November 25th, 2009

As this error came up in a class with an advanced student, I thought I should give you a quick reminder of how to use the indirect object.

What’s an indirect object? Imagine a table with a large bottle of beer in the middle. Seated at that table are Stanley and Tim. Stanley cannot reach the beer, and he’d like a refill. He says

‘Tim, pass the beer!’

That is, Stanley asked Tim to pass the beer.

Who is asking whom? Stanley is asking Tim. What does Stanley want to happen? Stanley wants Tim to pass him the beer. This situation involves two players and two actions.

Now let’s see what happens if we make Tim disappear.

‘Stanley asked to pass the beer’.

Well, now the sentence has a completely new meaning. If you take out poor Tim, then the story behind this sentence is

‘Stanley wants permission to pick up the bottle and to pass it to someone else’.

This sentence is grammatically correctly, but pretty unlikely! (The real Stanley would keep the bottle near his glass!)

Let’s look at this again:

‘Stanley asked to pass the beer’ = ‘Stanley wants permission to pick up the bottle and to pass it to someone else’.

The moral of the story is that you need to be careful with verbs describing requests. It’s especially tricky when there are two verbs and there are two or more players.

Some other examples:

‘Stanley asked his lawyer to transfer the ownership of his house to his daughter.’

Who asks? Stanley. Who transfers the ownership? The lawyer.

Contrast this to

‘Stanley asked to transfer the ownership of his house to his daughter’.

Here, we have the same problem. Stanley now seems to be asking permission, not giving an instruction to anyone.

‘Stanley asked to transfer’ = ‘Stanley wants permission to transfer’.

So once again, we have two verbs (asking and transferring) and two players (Stanley and the lawyer). Because the subject or subjects are often assumed from the context in the Japanese language, native speakers of Japanese tend to forget that, in English, subjects and verbs are like beer and edamame. They have to be presented together in the right combination.

 

Posted in Writing | No Responses »

What is ‘the curse of knowledge’ and how do I get over it?

Written by Helen on November 6th, 2009

I’m going to start this post with an exercise I sometimes do with my students.

Ever tried to get someone to ‘hear’ a tune by humming it? This almost always works okay because there’s enough information about he tune, rhythm, and pitch. However, if you try tapping out the beat with a pencil, its another story entirely. It almost never works. The tapper focuses only on the beat, and cannot convey anything about the melody, pitch, and atmosphere. The listeners are confused and almost never guess the tune being tapped.

When the tapper hums the tune, the listener suddenly hears the connection between the tapping and the melody. They cannot believe that it was ever difficult to hear.

As you gain more knowledge about a subject your ability to communicate goes down. This concept is important for anyone involved in doing a specialized presentation. There is an important balancing act here – you need enough content to be credible but too much might turn the audience off. How do you get a good balance?

A strategy that I use with students on the presentation training course is conversation. The presenter puts up their key slide and get their peers to ask them questions on it. I encourage students to ask any questions – even ones that even feel a little stupid. Often concepts get explained much more clearly than during the presentation run.

I then ask ‘Were you surprised by any of the questions?’ and ‘Did you expect the audience to know more?’. Usually students say that they overestimated how much background knowledge the audience hard in relation to their subject.

Secondly, I always remind students to explain what a graph is showing. For example, ‘One the x axis is the day of the week and on the y axis is how much I sleep’. The line shows how much I sleep over the course of a week.’. I found that so many student did not say what the graph shows before discussing what they think the results mean.

Finally, see if you can find a way to personalize the content. You can tell a short story, ask the audience a question, and even use an interesting image. I’ll post more about these strategies in later!
For more information on ‘the curse of knowledge’ check out

The curse of knowledge

 

Posted in Technical Presentations | No Responses »
Tags: ,

Don’t fake sincerity

Written by Helen on October 21st, 2009

Can you pretend to be enthusiastic?

A recent technical presentation training session with a group of university students recently made me realize the gap between the theory I teach and getting students to demonstrate it. We always tell people is to ‘be enthusiastic’ and ‘relate to your audience’, but getting someone to do that is extremely difficult. You cannot make someone be enthusiastic about their subject because enthusiasm is an emotion and cannot be faked.

The energy and connection that seems to show when a speaker makes eye contact, gestures naturally, and smiles is what makes a presentation great. However, you cannot fake the feeling!

This time I did the training I spent less time talking about the importance of eye contact, gesture, and smiling. Instead, I gave the students some questions:

What got you interested in this subject?
What do you know now that you did not know before?
Where might your work lead in the future?
What aspect of your work are you proud of?

Students who take the time to reflect on and connect with what interests them can share their enthusiasm more effectively. This is because they are speaking personally. I also commented that successful presenters often show a quiet confidence. You do not need to be an extrovert or entertainer to do a good presentation. However, you do need to be able to explain why you are interested in your subject. It could be a dramatic trigger from a specific day. A friend who changed his major from Oceanography to Soil Science said that he was lying in a field one day and started to be filled with interest in what made the soil its unique color. Other people have a slower steadier interest in a subject; I heard from one student that a question about their subject bugged them during their undergraduate course, so she decided to pursue it at post-graduate level. One person from Hokkaido University said that when he was a child he used to walk past fields filled with machines picking grapes. He thought they were too slow, so he decided to design and build a robot to do the job faster.

The story of your interest is not incidental, it’s a major part of your intellectual journey. You need to be aware of what makes you tick and sustains your interest. Once you connect to the source of your interest, you’ll bring a kind of confidence to your presentation that cannot be faked. You’ll have something that allows you to be yourself and connect to the audience really effectively.

 

Posted in Business Communication, Cross cultural communication, Technical Presentations | No Responses »

‘In case of’ v. ‘in the case of’

Written by Helen on October 21st, 2009

Here having ‘the’ changes the meaning completely. The second phrase ‘in case of…’ is used to refer to an emergency or some unexpected plan. For example,

‘In case of fire, exit from this door’.

and

‘I’ll take an umbrella in case it rains’.

On the other hand, ‘in the case of’ is usually used to refer to a situation that the writer has already mentioned. For example,

‘In the case of a customer complaining, we would take action immediately’.

Another example is in reference to a legal case.

‘In the case of Kramer v. Jones, the judge ruled in favor of Jones’.

A common mistake that I see is people using ‘in case of…’ when they mean ‘in the case of’. Once again, ‘in case of’ refers to an unexpected or undesired situation, like rain or an earthquake, and ‘in the case of’ is used to refer back to a previously mentioned situation.

 

Posted in Studying English, Writing | No Responses »
Tags:

« Older Entries