ATA Conference Notes from a Buyer’s Perspective

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I saw and learned so much last week at my first American Translators Association conference that it will definitely take some time to process it all! But I had the unusual experience of attending for the first time both as a translation vendor and as a translation buyer, and there were definitely some things I noticed from a buyer perspective that I found fascinating.

So, all you freelance translators out there: here are four things that make you leave a good or bad impression on a potential client.

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The Sorrow of the Lost Examples

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**Update 7/5/2021: Unfortunately, the Sanseido web service has now been discontinued, leading to even more lost examples. Its service has thus been removed from the Kenkyusha Online Dictionary experience as well. For those continuing to look for a J-J (国語) dictionary, I now recommend the デジタル大辞泉 found here at goo辞書: https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/.   Today I bring … Read more

The Nameless Terror

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When is a personal name more terrifying than a word? I’m sure most teachers taking attendance on the first day of school have stories about name-terror… and so do translators, sometimes. For a Japanese-English translator, the terror can go beyond a simple “How do I pronounce this?” to “How do I spell this in the … Read more

The Curse of the Unfunny Joke

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“Children always know when company is in the living room—they can hear their mother laughing at their father’s jokes.”  —Source unknown1 One of the questions I get the most as a TV translator is, “Isn’t it hard to translate the jokes?” What they mean is, “Isn’t it hard to translate the jokes so that they’re … Read more

Wham, bam, pow! And Scarier Sounds in Translation

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“Hey guys, does anybody know what doom sounds like?” On Friday I came across a perfect example of a classic translation challenge in Japanese fiction. It all started when an editor reviewing a TV episode showed me some onscreen Japanese text that said “gogogogo.” Now, anyone who spends time watching or reading Japanese media is … Read more

On Translation vs. Interpretation (Repost)

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This is a repost of my essay “On Translation vs. Interpretation,” which first appeared on my site on 11/03/2006, and has been featured in a couple of other places since then.   On Translation vs. Interpretation Many people don’t realize there’s a difference between “translation” and “interpretation.” Even people who work with translators all the … Read more