Comments on: Fake It Till You Make It: How I Translate Professionally With Imperfect Japanese

By: purplewowies

purplewowies — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 00:39:00 +0000

This is precisely the issue I take with the article. I mean, its advice is solid… but the fact that she is getting paid for something she’s not qualified to do is not.
I know, like, 5 words in Japanese and some rudimentary word order/syntax knowledge (though “translate for fun” has actually helped me learn some), and I use many of the methods she’s listed in her post in my own Japanese to English translation (though my mainstays are Google Translate and, funnily enough, Wiktionary’s kanji list by radical/stroke/base stuff). And I can bring Google Translate to its knees in a variety of languages. But even then, I don’t trust the translations unless I’ve heavily vetted them (best case scenario, ask a fluent user “does this look good”), and I don’t even share the translations unless it’s the most casual situation ever and/or I’m reasonably sure I’ve gotten the translation right. Which means I’ve shared like one thing in a subject in which I am very learned and was able to extract a good general meaning from the garbled translator text (I shared a Japanese flyer for a movie I really love). And trying my hand at understanding Japanese in these ways actually got me to take a Japanese class next semester since I had the room in my schedule.
But I would never accept payment for a language I’d have to extensively use an online translator on. Heck, I’d never do an ASL interpreting job, even though I’m good enough there to do an adequate job (I’m going to become a teacher, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable interpreting unless I was straight-up RID certified).
The problem is not that she’s using these methods to extract a meaning. It’s that she’s getting paid for something she’s not qualified/licensed/certified to do. In situations where it’s likely important, no less (it’s a museum/curator, for crying out loud).

By: Loek van Kooten

Loek van Kooten — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 07:24:00 +0000

Did it really take you four months to come up with that masterpiece?

By: Robert Benesh

Robert Benesh — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 23:44:00 +0000

Before you attack people like Laura for attempting to translate, oh lord of language, you should have a native English speaker proofread your website for you so they can correct all those grammatical mistakes.

By: Deedee

Deedee — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 15:42:00 +0000

Yes, there are lots of things you don’t know because you didn’t grow up in Japan but one of the first things I learned when I studied Japanese was the word “honor” and how honor is the cornerstone of Japanese culture. Maybe your Japanese teacher just decided to leave this out as you obviously have never heard of it.

This is disgraceful. You did the equivalent of knowingly selling someone defective merchandise then you come online to brag about it and ridicule your client. There’s just so much that is wrong with this piece of crap you posted and on so many levels. Your actions are at best dishonest, unethical and shameful.

By: Nevin Thompson

Nevin Thompson — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 14:31:00 +0000

You do realize Peter Durfee explained 地 in this context above, don’t you? Man, talk about pissing off the very people in this industry who can help you start out.

By: Doodle

Doodle — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 16:42:00 +0000

Laura stop creating fake accounts you’re not credible