Need for accurate information

Information: a subject brought to the world's attention with painful
urgency through the recent Japanese nuclear accident.
Everybody is looking for clear, accurate, timely and honest information.
Yet neither the Japanese government nor TEPCO provides this information.
That makes just about everybody on the planet mad.
The difference between the nuclear disaster and oriental medicine: there
is no NEED to provide any such information pertaining to oriental medicine.
Yet the lack thereof may nevertheless cause long-lasting damage. (I refrain here from giving examples related to oriental medicine in a desperate attempt at NOT offending certain people (and I believe, I do not have to discuss the attitude of the Chinese towards information!), but …)

A general example.
In Germany many (most) people are familiar with "Fujiyama" (Mt. Fuji),
but nobody knows "Fujisan" (which is the proper way the Japanese call
this mountain).
One of THE representative Japanese-German dictionaries available lists
also "Fujiyama".
(Even the American government has it:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/Historical/LewisClark/Info/summary_mount_st_helens.html)

A mistake introduced many decades ago by someone apparently not familiar
with Japanese (characters). Again, the "san" in "Fujisan" stems from the
character for mountain, but here again somebody with VERY incomplete
knowledge of Japanese interpreted this as meaning "Mr. or Mrs.", which
is also read "san" in Japanese.)

When even general information (which should maybe considered common
sense (?)) is full of mistakes, misunderstandings etc., imagine the
situation in a field as complex as oriental medicine.

"one body"

This morning again there were lots of news about the earthquake.
Somewhere (I think it was CNN) it said, "the Japanese call their mutual cooperation in efforts to overcome the disaster 「一体」 which was translated as "one body".

That sounds very strange to me.

How about "unity" .....

lack of tact!

* Somebody said, I should not bash Proz. since this was probably an automated message.
Well, I did have direct communication with the lady in question several times. So, when I received the below cited message, "signed" by that lady, I DID assume, that this messages DID come from that lady and not some computer ... Or am I again too stupid to look out of the window?
******

The other day I issued a Proz "support ticket", because I got one of their promotion messages.
Probably I am crazy, uneducated and do not see, what is really important. but that message really did upset me.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
astonishing lack of tact!
Today, again, I get a "reminder" of special deals for a membership fee. The person sending me this KNOWS that I live in Japan. I find this an act of unbelievable lack of tact!
How about GIVING some money for the people in need, instead of ASKING people living next door to a TRIPPLE disaster area for money!!!!!!
Henry DID live in Japan before. I would like to know what he thinks of this kind of "promotion".
******************************************************************************
original message (partial)
Dear Thomas Blasejewicz,
This is a courtesy reminder to let you know that the special membership offer sent to you on 10 March will expire today, Wednesday, March 16th.
1. A full year of membership at ProZ.com, the world's largest community of language professionals and the number one source of new clients for translators and interpreters, at a specially discounted price. ........
Happy translating,
Florencia Vita

My response:
Good evening from Japan
I assume you do not watch the news.
Living "next door" to the place(s) you see on the news, this is NOT the time and place to think about some fancy membership.
I find your mail insulting, to put it midly.

Instead of asking for money - how Proz donates some to the thousands of people who spend the night today too on the floor of
very "make shift" shelters in a region where it currently snows, if lucky with one blanket, no fuel for stoves, no electricy, no water,
very little if any food, no medication ...

Or is this all of no concern to you as long as Proz can harvest its slave market?

Thomas Blasejewicz

***************************************************************************
The response from Proz.

Mar 17 00:37 (3 hours, 8 mins since ticket submitted)
A membership is a working tool
Dear Mr. Blasejewicz,
A membership is a working tool, and the terrible tragedy affecting Japan would not be a valid reason for keeping working tools and opportunities away from local translators.

Regards,
Alejandro Cavalitto
ProZ.com Staff

***************************************************************************

I guess that means: I am complaining to much.
Thank you Proz.

(a previous investment in this "working tool" brought exactly 0% return profit)

Proz slave market activities

Today I got a "job offer" through Proz.com  --  a site which I cannot help but consider to be a sort of slave market, where people offer jobs at unbelievably low rates - and some people actually respond to those job offers working for those rates:

"This job is from engineering/industrial domain.
Job Title: Surface Drilling Equipments
Number of Files to translate: 1 (Bilingual table, in .doc format)
Word Count: Total - 37741;
Translatable -29231 (rest is numerical values)
Estimated Deadline: 10 days from the day of handover.
Job cost: 600$US
Translators/Agencies may quote for translation/DTP separately or jointly."

That means 0.02 USD per word.


If I were to work for that company, the work itself would contribute to me and my family starving to death (in Japan!).


But I suppose there ARE people, who can work for that ...

言語の崩壊

先日医薬品に関する質問表を翻訳している間に色々「行政用語」にもであった。
その中に文献の所で「基発」と言う妙な言葉があった。多数の辞書やリソースを調べても、妻に聞いても分からなかった。翻訳会社に問い合わせた所：
「基発」とは
「厚生労働省労働基準局長から各都道府県労働局長宛の通達」
と言うそうだ。

たった二文字から上記の何と26文字分は私の能力ではどうにも導き出せない。
私は言葉はAとBが互いに理解出来る通信手段（ひつとの大事な役割）だと思う。
上記の「省略」は言葉＝通信手段を破壊しているような気がする。

The disintegration of language

The disintegration of language - demonstrated by a project manager of a translation agency.

* Forget about capitalization at sentence begin of of proper nouns.
* Forget about complete sentences.
* Speak "abbrevi-English" = gibberish.
* Not to speak of properly addressing the people spoken to or naming/signing by the author.
* Please - anybody - explain to me what exactly is gained by this disintegration of the language. Does it "look cool"? Not to me.
Does/did it save the author time because of all the missing things?
If it did so, what did the author do with that time?

Erich From put this into the wonderful following words:
Modern man thinks he loses something - time - when he does not do things quickly.
Yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains -- except kill it.




cited from a mail received:
>> hello!
I hope you are having a nice friday!
can you help with a new EN>DE translation job? this is about 2k words. could you finish by 8am est 1.30 SUN?

LMK if you can take this and I will send the files! if you need some extra time to finish I will try to accommodate.
best,<<

「白衣」と言う単語について：

先日 和英訳した所で「白衣」の言葉に関して質問がされました。
私は "white coat (robe)" を使ったが、アメリカ人がそれはアメリカでは普通（？）/頻繁に "lab coat" と称するそうだ。それはあるかもしれないが、私は（飽くまでも***個人的に***）その表現が好まない。それを切っ掛けにして「白衣」に関して一言を言いたい。

下記の参考サイトで記載されている事も念頭にして、通常白衣、或いはさらに広い意味で「作業服」は作業している人を色々な意味で「守る」役割を果たしてしまう。白衣などの場合それを着る人の普段着の「汚れ」を防ぐ事が多い。患者への感染防止の役割は然程考えなくても良いと思います。手術に使うもの意外には白衣は別に滅菌済みでもないし、一日何人の患者を付き合う間に気が遠くなるほどの「汚れ」が付着し、そのまま患者に移ると想像できる。ならば、医療従事者を守る。患者から！「あなた（患者）は私（医療従事者）を汚すから白衣を着ます。」
そのような場面は確かにありますが、ここでは「内科」や「鍼灸」の仕事を考えてそれは通常では起きにくいしょう。

私はもう昔から原則として白衣を着ない。病院内で動く必用がある場合のみ。患者と治療者を意図的同レベルで接触出来る環境を提供したいからです。

まして、上記の "lab coat" の場合は状況更に悪化する。"lab" = laboratory = 研究室/実験室の事だ。患者を出会える場所は実験室ではない！もし「治療室」にいる患者を実験室にいるハムスターと取り違える人がいましたら、今一度反省して欲しい。

上記の訳で私は通常の辞書にも使われる、常識と信念にあった "white coat/robe" をお勧めするし、"lab coat" を使う人に再度考えて頂く事を促したい・・・
（「常識」に付いて後日に触れたい）

申し訳ない。


参考サイト/記述
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%99%BD%E8%A1%A3
白衣（はくい、White Coat）は、業務等において着用する主に白色または淡色の外衣のことである。
主に医療従事者、衛生・調理従事者、実験従事者等が着用する。学校の給食の配膳などの場面では児童・生徒も着用する。白衣の着用には、衛生、災害予防、制服としての機能があり、薬品に耐えるよう綿で作られているものもある。
ドイツ語では「Laborkittel」英語でも「Lab. coat」と呼ばれる。また、黒い白衣(Schwarzes Laborkittel)はドイツにおける伝統的な死刑執行人の服装である。
see also the English entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_coat

http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E7%99%BD%E8%A1%A3
はくい 白衣 = a white robe [dress]
〈医者などの〉 a white coat [apron]
白衣の天使 = an angel in white, a nurse.
白衣高血圧 = white coat hypertension

http://www.websaru.info/%E7%99%BD%E8%A1%A3.html
白衣 = white robe, (doctor's) white gown

http://smart.fm/items/922493-lab-coat
lab coat - 実験用白衣
英語 → 日本語

http://www.dict.cc/?s=lab+coat
lab coat    Laborkittel {m} [mantelartig]    
cloth. lab coat [coll.]    Labormantel {m}
medical scrubs [coll.]    Arztkittel {m}    
cloth. (doctor's) white coat    Arztkittel {m}

http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende&lang=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed&sectHdr=on&spellToler=&search=lab+coat
Substantive (5 of 5)
      lab coat [coll.]         der Arztkittel   
      lab coat [coll.]          der Kittel [ugs.]   - Laborkittel   
      lab coat [coll.]         der Kittel   - fuer Aerzte, Schwestern etc.   
      lab coat [coll.]         der Laborkittel   
      lab coat [coll.]          der Labormantel
（つまり：lab coat [coll.]　⇒　それは口語であって、更に上品の言葉は優先的に使われる（べき）でしょう。