Japanese translation projects have earned quite a reputation in the
translation and localization industry. It is too time intensive, say
some. It is far costlier than other language projects, say others. And
Japanese clients are notoriously fussy about that ever-moving-goal
called “quality.”
But this relatively small island alone is the third largest in the
world’s economy and the amount of content that gets localized to or from
Japanese is enormous. So it makes sense to learn what it takes to be
successful at Japanese localization.
Rules? Which Rules?
Language is a living thing — actor and subject, evolving and dying, a
nearly inaudible whisper and a forceful storm. Efforts at structuring
and containing it, while noble, quickly come up against its everyday
realities.
That doesn’t mean that these efforts are never undertaken. Quite the
opposite. In France, for example, the 379-year old Académie Française
strives to police, protect, and preserve the French language. When you
consider its very public fight last year against the
efforts of the French government to open up higher education to English,
you can see that is no easy goal. But these efforts at linguistic
purism are the passion of similar language academies around the globe.
Except in Japan. Japan does not have a centralized regulatory body to
fulfill the “officiate and prescribe” role that these other nations do.
So how then do translators ensure that they are properly translating from or into a language that has three writing systems?
The answer: It depends.
The Quality Question
Across all language projects, the notion of linguistic quality
remains largely a relative one. The variables are based on factors as
diverse as audience, deliverables, locale, generational differences, and
even mere preferences.
Stating that the linguistic quality of Japanese
translation is highly subjective is a gross understatement. It has
multiple writing systems (kanji, which is ideographic; hiragana and
katakana, which is collectively known as kana and is phonetic; and
romaji, which is used in specific situations for writing Japanese with
the Latin alphabet), two computer input methods (direct kana or keyboard
romaji), no centralized authority’s take to fall back on, and the
variables mentioned above to contend with.
The choice of words/writing systems is often driven by cultural
differences, context, target audience, or company policy. Kana words are
used ever more frequently, because kana is more likely to be used for
foreign concepts and terminology. Software or online content are one
such area. Much is also generation specific. While the younger
generations may prefer katakana to kanji, older generations may
sometimes not understand modern katakana.
Add to this the distinctive grammatical structure of Japanese. It is an
agglutinative language,
having more in common with Native American languages than with
neighboring China’s. Unlike English, its word order is
subject-object-verb not subject-verb-object. The differences are so
stark that translators often have to restructure sentences, reorder
words, add words or omit words altogether to arrive at the proper
translation.
Japanese reading comprehension is also highly context dependent. This
means, for instance, that when sorting in Japanese, one may have to
manually index characters by considering their reading in order to
arrive at the correct table of contents, index, or sorted lists.
No surprise then that Japanese localization is plagued with high error rates, longer project cycles, and budget-breaking costs.
Customer Care Conundrum
As if these challenges were not enough, Japanese localization
projects generally call for greater attention to the customer service
experience. Like Japanese characters themselves, translations are
expected to be aesthetically driven. Business relationships, too, are
expected to show attention to style, presentation, and visual coherence.
Our own experience with Japanese localization, for example, has revealed
- low tolerance for design errors
- preference for the visual over the textual (often calling for re-design of original source materials)
- presentation valued more than substance
This may be, too, why Japanese business relationships place greater
emphasis on harmony rather than confrontation, constructive or
otherwise. According to Robert Whiting, the author of
You Gotta Have Wa, the concept
wa, or peace, is a core Japanese value and critical to succeeding in its market. For an unprepared non-Japanese,
wa may prevent them from discovering the root cause of a problem or an issue.
Learn more about this topic? Please go to Libor Safar's
blog.
A case of taking the mickey? Or
just a prudent attempt to remain anonymous? Anyway the winner of
Shandong’s lottery turned up at a press conference in a Mickey Mouse
mask, to collect his cheque for Rmb497 million ($80 million) – the third
largest win in Chinese lottery history. All that is known of the winner
is that he owns a shoe shop, and post-tax will have Rmb398 million to
spend. Or to be more exact Rmb378 million. In what Apple Daily punned
was a “Disney ending” the individual in question donated Rmb20 million
of his haul to a charity fund to help people in the community.
Shandong’s Sports Lottery described the act as voluntary and said it
showed he had “a good heart”.
