Swet Columns

July 15, 2003

No More than Necessary

by Doreen Simmons

Aunt Eva shows us how to work around the pitfalls of working with someone who seems bent on giving you more than you need.

Dear Aunt Eva,

There’s this translator our agency uses. He’s been with the agency a long time, since before I joined several years ago. He translates accurately, but his writing style is... more

May 16, 2003

Unwarranted Confidence

by Doreen Simmons

It may seem amazing that some people think a casual hunt in a pocket-size Japanese-English dictionary will produce the same result as informed knowledge, but they do.

Dear Aunt Eva,

I specialize in producing art catalogues. Important clients think so, anyway. I have, however, had an adverse experience: I worked on an art catalogue with a... more

May 2, 2003

Kanji Core Meanings, Software Lexicons

by Lynne E. Riggs

Launching “SWET on Saturdays,” Jack Halpern told how one student of Japanese wound up creating a Japanese-English character dictionary and massive Chinese, Japanese, and Korean lexical databases now used to aid Internet search engines.

Starting with an encounter with a Japanese language textbook on an Israeli kibbutz, the story of how one man’s fascination... more

May 2, 2003

Reading Japanese Advertising

by John L. McCreery

What does it mean to understand an ad? And what specifically does it mean to understand a Japanese ad? The ads we examine are more than an opportunity to learn about Japanese advertising; they are also an opportunity to learn something about the society in which those ads were produced.

When asked if I... more

May 1, 2003

Yes, We Can Learn from Experience

by John L. McCreery

Report of January 11 meeting, Larry Brouhard presentation. Lessons from a long career in technical documentation: Omit unnecessary words. Follow William K. Zinsser’s advice in On Writing Well, “There is no sentence too short in the eyes of God.”

Like all great teachers, Larry Brouhard is also a great performer, with a gift for... more