Wednesday, November 30, 2011

SWET Newsletter, No. 129

More details . . .

Japanese to English Translation
• Slave to the Word, by Michael Karpa

In an efficiency-first, high-tech world, will human translators soon be transformed into skilled slaves? We bring to the task of translation understanding and consciousness, exactly what both rule-based and statistically based MT translation lack, and the completeness of our understanding becomes the measure of what we do. Karpa recalls the history of reading text when there were no spaces between words (scriptura continua), a laborious task sometimes assigned to slaves. He cites studies illuminating how different parts of the brain are mobilized for reading ideographic characters and alphabetic characters. He discusses the processes involved in reading and understanding, mobilizing complex components and functions of the brain. By understanding how we understand, we can transcend the slave. Author of Translating in the Deep End (The ATA Chronicle, American Translators Association, Alexandria VA, Jan 2011), Michael Karpa is a long-time Japanese-to-English translator based in San Francisco, California.

March 11, 2011: Continuing Stories
• After March 11: A Magazine and Local Newspaper Respond to the Disaster, by Terri Nii

Terri Hogue (Nii) arrived in Kokura (Kyushu) from California in 1980 on a one-year teaching contract, where she saw notices of SWET meetings in the Japan Times (which arrived in “overseas” Kyushu one day late). After study, marriage, relocation, and incorporation, she joined the industry, and has been engaged in writing, editing, and translation activities for the past 15 years, based in Fujisawa. Currently editor of Eye-Ai magazine and a Shonan-based freelance writer, Nii recounts how two different publications that she is involved with decided to present information related to the March 11 disaster.

• The Silent Citadel: Poetry for 9/11 and 3/11, by Higashizono Tadatoshi

“Unbelievable” was the apt and ubiquitous word following the disaster now called “3/11.” Two unexpected and heartening things happened, one was the waves of compassion that rolled from around the world; the other was the outpouring of poetry in the 31-syllable (5-7-5-7-7) waka (tanka) and 17-syllable (5-7-5) haiku forms, which continues, even now. Translator Higashizono Tadatoshi draws our attention to the way human sentiment takes flight at times of crisis. 

SWET Events
• Orchards: Holly Thompson on Japan in Fiction for Teens, by Ann Slater

Holly Thompson’s first novel, Ash, was set in the shadows of Mt. Sakurajima in Kagoshima, and her most recent work, Orchards, is a young adult novel that traces the experiences of a half-Japanese girl in a coastal mikan-growing community in Shizuoka. How does Thompson write convincingly and sensitively about life in a culture not her own? And how—in the case of Orchards—does she interweave cross-cultural issues with difficult teen themes such as suicide and bullying? Through untiring research, collaboration, and revision, is the answer she gave at her June 10, 2011 talk for SWET at the Wesley Center in Minami Aoyama.

• Joan Ericson on Japanese Children’s Literature, by Lynne E. Riggs

The earliest literature identified as having been expressly written for Japanese children dates from the 1870s and 1880s. One thread was played out in the textbooks, reading material, and songs used in the modern schools established after 1872. Another emerged from the ideals and the pens of Japan’s modern writers—inspired by the romanticism and naturalism of the worlds of literature and art in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century—who went on to write the stories now considered “truly modern" Japanese children’s literature. In her July 9, 2011 talk in Kyoto, Joan Ericson, professor of Japanese literature at Colorado College, wove a tale of the “discovery of the child,” the idea of the “pure and innocent” child, and the role of women in the shift to a more realistic conception of the child. Joan Ericson is translator of Hayashi Fumiko’s Hōrōki (as Diary of a Vagabond), and the author of Be a Woman: Hayashi Fumiko and Modern Japanese Women’s Literature (1997).

From the Steerage
• SWET Business Update: Looking Ahead

The SWET Newsletter in its present form will be published through No. 130 (March 2012). The SWET Web Design Committee is in the process of having the SWET website redesigned with a view to opening the new site in early 2012. SWET thanks Naomi Otani (general secretary), Bob Poulson (treasurer), and Neil Ramsay (membership secretary), for the long years of faithful service to SWET and welcomes their successors to these positions: Lynne Riggs, Chikako Imoto, and Kevin Cleary, respectively. This column includes a list of SWET Events in 2011.

Book Review
• Tidbits among the Triumphalism, by Charles De Wolf

Globish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language, by Robert McCrum. (New York: Penguin Books, 2010). ISBN 978-0-141-02719-4. Price ¥1,944.

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

SWET Newsletter, No. 128

Remembering March 11, 2011: Stories

   March 11 and Its Aftermath: A Study in (Mis)perceptions by Bob Gavey
   3.11 – 4.11 (9.11) by Anna Husson Isozaki
   Spring 2011 by William Wetherall
   Mud by David Gilman-Frederick
   Lost in Information by Asakura Kazuko

The powerful earthquake and its aftershocks, the tsunami that hit the northern coast of Honshu, and then the manmade nuclear power plant disaster on March 11 have jolted everyone out of routines and circumstances that we had come to take for granted. The impact has been different for each one of us, but few would say our lives and our attitudes have been quite the same since. To mark and remember that impact, the SWET Newsletter asked several members to write about what happened to them and how it resonates in their lives. These stories are a beginning. We hope this series can continue, giving our community a chance to share our experiences and reflect on our lives and the work we do.

SWET Events

Editing for Better Nonfiction Translation, by Lynne E. Riggs

The SWET workshop “Editing Translation for Better Communication,” led by translator/editor Lynne E. Riggs, was held in Kobe on February 19, 2011. Sixteen participants attended from Shiga prefecture, Shikoku, Awaji, Osaka, and other parts of the Kansai area. See also the related articles Translation and Editing and Editing in Japan.

David Moreton on Publishing the Diaries of an English P.O.W., by David Gilman-Frederick

David Moreton is an English teacher at Tokushima Bunri University. He holds an M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia. On Sunday, March 27, 2011, he spoke about his most recent work, Surviving the War: The Secret Diaries of an English P.O.W. along the Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942–1945 (Tokushima, Japan: Education Publishing Center, 2010).

From the Trenches

Newsletter News: Toward a New Phase, by the SWET Newsletter Editorial Team

Even without a natural disaster of epic proportions, 2011 seemed slated to be a turning-point year for SWET. With our 30th anniversary behind us, generation change rapidly taking place within our membership, and the rise of new technologies, values, and tastes, it seems time for something fresh. The SWET Newsletter in its present form is ready to be superseded.

The current editorial team that has supported the newsletter in its present guise will carry on in this format for two more issues, No. 129 and No. 130, taking us to the beginning of 2012. We look forward to input and contributions to fill our pages for these issues so that we can go out with our sails filled right up to our self-proposed finish line. Please help make the next two issues rich and full through our “mutual exchange of professional wisdom.”

So there is plenty of time to think: What will come next? Who will be its architects and coordinators? What are the potentials and possibilities? We hope that all those who value the society and sharing of wordsmiths will think about how to answer such questions and contribute to implementation of the answers arrived at. Those of us who now work on the Newsletter hope there will be plenty of ideas, discussion, and mulling of options.

There is much to be learned from other organizations. Even though a cross-professional society like SWET seems to be one of a kind in the world, models of similar feather may be found in the Editors’ Association of Canada (another organization with a 30-year history), the American Copy Editors Society, the Editorial Freelancers Association in the United States, the Society of Editors (New South Wales, Australia), the Society for Editors and Proofreaders in the United Kingdom, the American Translators Association, and so on, all of which are a few mouse clicks away even for the most remotely located professional.

So, don’t sit back and wait to see what someone else will do! Remember, SWET is you!

SWET Newsletter Committee
newsletter [at] swet.jp

Book Review

Awa Naoko in Translation

Reviewed by Misa Dikengil Lindberg

A Fox’s Window and Other Stories, by Awa Naoko. Translated by Toshiya Kamei. New Orleans: UNO Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1-60801-006-6, $22.95.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

SWET Newsletter, No. 127

Translating from Japanese to English

Translation as a Teaching and Learning Tool, by Ann Cary

English Writing in Japan

Japan Writers Conference 2010: Highlights, by John Gribble

SWET Events

How the Heck Do You Write About Japan? by Alice Gordenker

Journalist Alice Gordenker spoke to SWET on September 16, 2010 in Tokyo, providing a behind-the-scenes account of how she crafts her popular “So, What the Heck Is That?” column for the Japan Times. In this monthly column, now in its fifth year, Gordenker has achieved a balance of humor and respect in meticulously researched yet decidedly offbeat reports on everything from traditional talismans to industrial safety. This article is based on her lecture, in which she covered topics ranging from the genesis of the column to translation challenges and how she met them.

Thinking Forward: SWET Starts Its Fourth Decade, by Lynne E. Riggs

Only a few blocks away from the apartment building in Aoyama where, in November 1980, 100 writers, editors, translators, and others of their kind had gathered and founded SWET, 33 SWETers—young, not-so-young, and 30 years older—gathered at Wesley Center to celebrate the beginning of SWET’s fourth decade. Remarks by James Baxter, Janine Beichman, Juliet Winters Carpenter, Andrew Horvat, Lynne Riggs, Mark Schreiber, and Fred Uleman noted the strengths of the organization and made suggestions for the future. Messages were also received from Anne Bergasse, Torkil Christensen, and Leza Lowitz.

SWET Cyber Matters

Stonewalling Clients and Timely Usage, by Torkil Christensen
Rounding out 2010, SWET-L, our ever-reliable source of helpful and timely advice, keeps listers abreast of new crinkles in English.

From the Trenches

A Writer’s Look at the iPad, by Lem Fugitt

Lem Fugitt is a Tokyo-based geek-about-town, using his experience in technology and business to write regularly on items of technical interest. He writes here about his recent conversion to a new way of putting thoughts into written words.

Book Reviews

A Pair of Fun, Passionate, Self-Published Thrillers
Reviewed by Bob Poulson

Beneath Grey Skies, by Hugh Ashton. J-views, 2010. Hardcover. ISBN 978-4-990-5165-2-9, $29.99.

Reviewed by Jens Wilkinson
At the Sharpe End, by Hugh Ashton. J-views, 2010. Paperback. ISBN 978-4990516536, $18.50.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

SWET Open Forum 2009: Wordsmithing in Japan

In a drenching rain on an April evening, 28 people made their way to the Shōkō Kaikan in Shibuya to take part in the SWET Open Forum on Wordsmithing in Japan. A quick round of self-introductions revealed a large contingent of translators (11), along with four translator/editors, four editors, one editor/writer, and eight writers. Translator/editor Lynne Riggs and translator Fred Uleman, both long-time SWET stalwarts, moderated the meeting.

Not unexpectedly, the first question to be asked in the forum was “What are good resources for translators?” Two were mentioned immediately, the first being the Japan Association of Translators (JAT). According to the JAT website (http://jat.org), JAT exists “as a means for individual translators to exchange information and insight, thereby helping each other not just to do a better job for their clients but a more rewarding one for themselves as well.” (More than a few of those present at the forum turned out to be JAT members; when it was established in the mid-1980s, JAT was actually originally part of SWET.) The other recommended resource was the Honyaku mailing list, an open mailing list for translators (found at http://groups.google.com/group/honyaku). Established in 1994 by Dan Kanagy, the list gives access to the know-how of over 500 members, and also sends out job postings. A complementary website developed by Adam Rice at http://honyakuhome.org offers some useful links for translators ranging from industry-specific terminology resources to dictionaries to online tools for translators. These resources would likely be particularly useful to the several medical translators and editors who were present at the forum.
 
Technical Assistance
The discussion moved on to the subject of technical difficulties for editors. The editors present expressed varying levels of comfort with computers and software, but even for the most tech-savvy among us, there are always new tools on the horizon! First, we learned about some useful software for editors needing to work in both Japanese and English. One recommended method for inputting characters is JustSystems’ ATOK, which apparently used to mean “Automatic Transfer of Kana-kanji” but is now officially spelled out as “Applied Text of Kana-kanji.” Acronymics aside, ATOK has a number of functions, depending on your platform, including searching for kanji using phonetic input, or by radical, or by using a graphics tablet. It also will do reverse retrieval of phonetic input, both to kun yomi and on yomi. It has text templates for standard phrases, address labels, and Japanese emoticons, and offers real-time text auto-completion in both Japanese and English. Also useful is the Japanese-English popup dictionary Rikaichan (an add-on for Mozilla Firefox) which displays kanji, hiragana, and/or katakana readings for any Japanese word online with a quick mouse-over. Great for quickly scanning e-mails in Japanese if you are not a translator!

Some writers and editors struggle to bridge the gap in word processing between Mac and PC platforms. Microsoft Word is often the application of choice for editors and clients, and the compatibility of MS Word files between Mac and Windows makes it unbeatable for word work involving many people using different work set-ups. A vocal few seem to find it hard to use, overly complicated, and worthy of only the strongest expletives. Those who have used Word as it has gone through its more than 10 versions are not uncritical, but find they can “tame the beast” where necessary and get on with the work. On the other hand, many wordsmiths who use MS Word are unhappy with the most recent versions because they have a number of unnecessary new features, some of which also limit cross-platform collaboration. MS Word 2004 has nearly everything a wordsmith really needs for most workaday editing/rewriting/translating, though the geeks will probably never stop coming up with new ways to be “helpful.”

If you find MS Word to be overly complex or expensive, there are alternatives available that may suit your needs. An overall computer-savvy editor/writer veteran energetically recommends (for Mac users only) Pages, which is Apple’s word processor and document layout application (part of the iWork productivity suite) and costs substantially less than the Microsoft offering. Pages has word processing functions comparable to Word’s, including a number of useful templates, and can in fact import Microsoft Word documents (including Word 2007’s XML format). The application can also export edited documents in a number of formats, including RTF, PDF, and Word’s own .doc file formats (the last comes complete with tracked changes and comments). However, the range of import and export options is more limited than in Word. On the freeware side, wordsmiths can download the open-source application OpenOffice.org (informally known as OpenOffice) for free; it offers a more-or-less seamless way to work on Microsoft Office documents if you don’t have the Microsoft software or prefer not to use it. In fact, some claim that it can open damaged files or those made with older versions of Office that the latest “official” Office versions cannot. OpenOffice includes not only a word processor, but also a spreadsheet program, a presentation program, a database management program, a graphics editor, and a tool for creating and editing mathematical formulae.
 
On Marketing Ourselves
A question that concerns writers, editors, and translators alike is how to effectively market and promote oneself, particularly using the Internet. We were told about author and entrepreneur Seth Godin’s popular and thought-provoking blog oriented toward marketing (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/). You can subscribe to it via RSS feed and get a whole new perspective on marketing by following Godin’s daily posts. Forum participants also recommended posting comments on other peoples’ blogs (especially if they are in a field similar to yours)—you can even sign your comments with a link to your own website for extra impact. Visibility is the key to getting noticed, and if people consistently see your name appended to incisive commentary on relevant issues, good things are likely to come your way.

For those who prefer a more traditional approach, making a distinctive meishi, letting it be known that you are in the market for work, and participating in events attended by the kind of people you want to work for can get your foot in the door. Having a face-to-face acquaintance with a client can be reassuring if you are just starting out; the more established you become, the easier it is to work with clients entirely online. Working for people you know in person is always more congenial and harmonious, however; and going to the trouble of visiting a new client and introducing yourself just once can make a big difference in how much confidence they will have in your work. At the very least, making voice contact—no matter how busy you and they are—will improve trust and help nurture a good professional relationship.

Though we are all concerned with finding work, in Tokyo it is generally not difficult to find some kind of work in writing, editing, or translation, with the right skills and by building on whatever connections you might have. In less central areas, the search may take a little more perseverance. Several attendees had made their way to the forum from distant cities (including one stouthearted translator from Kyushu!) and wanted to know how to find work outside the big city. Treasure your local connections, they were told—find out who else in your area does the work you want to do, and establish a relationship.

To build your business, it may be helpful to develop more than one specialization; e.g., a translator might decide to focus on medical translation as well as, say, legal or patent work. Translators can also establish their credentials by participating in (and, one hopes, winning) translation competitions. Writers wishing to become known should submit work to as many magazines and anthologies as possible. (In days of yore, it was not acceptable to submit the same piece to multiple publications, but this practice is now encouraged—as long as you are clear up-front that you have also sent your work elsewhere and that you may withdraw it from consideration if it is accepted by another publication.)

If you are a writer, it pays to be aware of the style requirements specified by the publisher and fully investigate the types of articles in the publication: magazines and academic journals will refuse submissions without further consideration if the content does not suit their publication and its style does not follow their guidelines. Most publications now explain their style and submission requirements on their websites.

Finally, mention was made of Peter Matthews’s Academic Research Cooperative (http://cooperative.ning.com), a kind of clearinghouse where researchers, research editors, science writers, translators, and publishers can come together to find work or someone to do work. This site may be a useful resource for academic writers and translators, especially those with a scientific focus.
 
Getting into Print
Discussion of the question, “How can one find a publisher or get something published, especially when it caters to several niche or limited markets rather than one obvious mass market?” led to a substantial discussion on publishing, including the pros and cons of self-publishing. Various Tokyo publishers, including Kodansha International and Charles E. Tuttle, were mentioned, as was the possibility of finding an agent. University presses tend to pay low royalties, but may be an avenue for publication if you have written or translated a work that is scholarly or of interest to scholars. Two participants in the forum had recently gone the self-publishing route, and they offered a wealth of information and suggestions. Their insights can best be shared by referring to accounts of their experiences already published in the SWET Newsletter and on the SWET Weblog:
•    Fred Uleman’s article on self-publishing a translated collection of essays on the Japanese Constitution appeared in SWET Newsletter Number 121 (November 2008). It can also be read on the SWET website (http://www.swet.jp/index.php/newsletter/content/self-publishing_a_self-initiated_translation).
•    Hugh Ashton has written several entries for the SWET Weblog detailing his efforts to self-publish and self-market his novel Beneath Gray Skies; his entry at http://www.swet.jp/index.php/weblog/comments/is_this_the_future_of_fiction_publishing/ tells the story of how he finally ended up self-publishing through a company called Lulu (http://www.Lulu.com).
 

Unfortunately, although several participants still had questions, the tyranny of the clock forced the discussion to a close. We adjourned for a 15-minute session of mingling, chatting, and passing out name cards before venturing back out into the rainy night, at least marginally wiser than we had been before we came, and comforted by the knowledge that though our work brings endless questions, at least we are in good company.

(Originally published in the SWET Newsletter, No. 123, October 2009)

Thursday, January 05, 2012

From the Steerage

The future of the SWET Newsletter

The SWET Newsletter is going to change. As announced in No. 128, the present Newsletter will continue through No. 130, to come probably in February or March. After that, the new incarnation of the Newsletter will appear sometime in 2012, as part of our redesigned website (details on which see below).

Preparations for these changes have been going on for more than a year. At an October 8, 2011 meeting of a small group of SWET members, it was proposed that the Newsletter should become more bulletin-like and that it should be published primarily on the website instead of in print. Most of the online material would be in brief form (short articles, notices, reviews, event announcements, reports, etc.), with the general information made openly available and some longer pieces or details reserved for dues-paying members. The content would be authored by any interested SWET member or even non-member, and edited and proofread by editors volunteering on a rotating basis.

At the same time, we agreed we did not want to totally abandon the substantive articles and event reports that we have been publishing especially since 2004. That original and distinctively SWET content is probably the biggest benefit of being a SWET member for many in our scattered group.  Our solution: why not publish such articles online, and then collect those of enduring value for publication in a print annual to be sold for profit? Subsequent discussion on the Steering Committee and Newsletter Committee mailing lists essentially brought consensus.

Although we now agree on where we want the Newsletter to go, we still need your help to make things happen. The exact form of the new publication (e-zine, printable, searchable PDFs, etc.) has yet to be determined, and those interested are invited to contribute to the discussion by joining the Newsletter Committee (SWET-NC).

The Newsletter is also looking for a new name. Suggestions so far include Transactions of the Society of Editors, Writers, and Translators (TSWET), SWET Journal, Proceedings of SWET, and SWET Offline, but we are still looking for better ideas.

Finally, we welcome contributions of all kinds to the final print issue of the Newsletter. Help us commemorate this landmark with your story, insights, and your professional experience.  SWET, after all, is only what its members make it.

New SWET website

In September 2011, the Web Design Committee asked a professional designer to redesign the SWET website. The Steering Committee has delegated decisions about the redesign to the “active team” for web design and maintenance, which is led by webmaster Sako Eaton; his assistant for the redesign, Richard Sadowsky; and manager of updates and new content, George Bourdaniotis. Other members of the WDC including Hugh Ashton, Neil Ramsay, Lynne Riggs, and Fred Uleman have also volunteered to support the effort.

The main objectives of the website redesign are to:

• improve the look and function of the site
• make it easy to find by wordsmiths of the SWETerly kind
• make it easy to use by wordsmiths, with separate sections for editing, writing, and translating, and a good search function
• facilitate the public sharing of SWET expertise
• provide a blog-like news page for event notices, topics of interest, and brief reports
• make selected articles and guidelines provided by SWET easily available to interested professionals (both members and non-members)
• offer longer “proceedings of SWET” articles as they are generated, and archive past SWET Newsletter issues in PDF format for dues-paying members
• maintain SWET administrative data, such as membership information, to facilitate dues payment and serve members

The site map has been discussed and revised several times and is now in its final form. The WDC reviewed the design proposals in January and the new site will open by early spring 2012.

Once this happens, volunteers will be needed to help prepare material, populate the SWET blogosphere, and otherwise enrich the site. We hope all SWET members will consider participating in building up the site as a new means of networking and accessing information for their professional needs.

Volunteers in charge of core SWET functions change hands

SWET is run by a group of core volunteers who oversee the vital tasks of the organization. The posts of general secretary, treasurer, and membership secretary have rotated several times during SWET’s 30-year history, and this year they changed for the first time in a decade. The new volunteers are as follows:

Membership secretary: Kevin Cleary (membership[at]swet.jp)
Treasurer: Imoto Chikako
General secretary: Lynne Riggs (info[at]swet.jp)

A special thanks to our old officers, Neil Ramsay, Bob Poulson, and Naomi Otani, for ten years of dedicated and efficient service!

In the wake of the March 11 disaster in the Tohoku region, many of us have wondered whether SWET is still needed and relevant. But as long as there are professional wordsmiths working with or related to Japan, the benefits of networking with other professionals and tapping the accumulated resources built up by members over the past several decades will be important reasons for keeping our society alive. We look forward to your involvement and support.

SWET Steering Committee and Newsletter Committee

SWET Calendar

SWET Events in 2011

Originally published in the SWET Newsletter, No. 129, November 2011.

Updated for web publication January 5, 2012.

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