Winter 2018 Meeting Report
The winter meeting of the Ohio Honyaku Group was held on Saturday, January 20, 2018, at JASCO (Japan America Society of Central Ohio) headquarters in Dublin, Ohio. Ten members attended, including two new members.
The meeting started with a brief explanation of upcoming JASCO events by executive director Ben Pachter. These include a kimono portrait photograph session with a Japanese photographer and a career fair for Japanese-English bilingual job seekers, which still has some spaces available for company exhibitors. Registration is required for both events. Further information is available from the JASCO website.
After short introductions, the Group’s organizing committee presented an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of becoming affiliated with JAT (Japan Association of Translators). Advantages include greater exposure for bringing in new members and financial support for covering the costs of the website and refreshments, but there were concerns about loss of independence and autonomy.
We also discussed the direction of the Group and content of meetings, including seminar style training using a preselected text, and reverting back to our old format of having a single presenter at a meeting.
After this presentation, we followed our usual practice of having 5-minute presentations followed by open discussion. The content of the presentations was as follows.
(1) Translation of Trump phase by Japanese new media
Two presenters examined Trump’s recent use of a vulgarity to describe undesirable source countries for immigration and how it was translated by the media in Japan and other countries. These translations ranged from extremely benign to overly literal, and this was partly affected by the constraints on the media itself. We discussed how these and other culturally-charged terms often present difficulties in translation and are often conveyed inaccurately for reasons of space or brevity.
(2) Viability of post editing work for machine translation
One translator mentioned how a regular translation client had begun asking its regular translators about their availability for post-editing work of machine translation (MT). We talked about this trend overall, MT ratings for accuracy, and expected rates for this type of work.
(3) Houfu and its nuances
This presentation examined New Year’s resolutions and the Japanese word houfu (抱負) and its wide range of meanings. We talked about how shinnen no houfu was close to the English “New Year’s resolution” and discussed whether it also encompassed the same nuances.
(4) Japanese young adult fiction
This presentation provided an overview of Japanese light novels (ライトノベル or ラノベ), their target audience, and the topics they cover. A number of books were brought for users to browse through. The presenter also provided some resources for accessing these novels online and mentioned their impact on popular culture recently as adaptations are made into TV dramas and movies.
The Ohio Honyaku Group meets quarterly to discuss issues of importance to translators and interpreters of Japanese, and we welcome all current and future Japanese language professionals. The meetings are lightly structured and new topics for discussion tend to arise spontaneously as we chat. If you live in Ohio or a nearby state, or if you happen to be visiting the area when we are meeting, please join us.
The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for April 21, 2018 at JASCO headquarters.
For more information, please visit our website at http://www.ohiohonyaku.com/.
Contact us at inquiries@ohiohonyaku.com.
Report prepared by C. K.
