7/28/2012

It's HOT ... too hot for the equipment ...

Weather
Weather (Photo credit: Jen SFO-BCN)
Recently it is very hot in Japan. During the summer it is always hot, but we are having a stretch of VERY hot weather. That means outside temperatures of over 35 degrees celsius at a relative humidity of around 80%. Hundreds of people througout the country are taken to hospitals with symptoms of heat stroke. (there have been a not insignificant number of deaths already)

Personally I ride my bicycle for excercise even in this weather.

However, when I cam home last night and wanted to continue my translation work, the monitor shortly lit up and then simply faded out. By that time temperature was already down to I guess 29 to 30 degrees.

So I had no choice and used my note PC to do some work and came to the conclusion, that the monitor has finally reached its life span.
However, I also noticed, that TWO digital clockes showed missing digits in their display.

This morning I tried (with little hope) and switched my monitor on  --- and it worked.

Apparently the weather was too hot for my equipment!
The monitor yesterday had suffered a heat stroke.
I also noticed, that the ventilation fan of my computer seems to be working VERY hard.

I have to finish one translation today.
It seems I have no choice to turn on the air conditioning to keep my equipment online. And that in the face of the current insufficient electricity supply.
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7/20/2012

日本人のアイデンティティ - それとも分裂症?

English: The Japanese table, written by Hiraga...
English: The Japanese table, written by Hiragana, Katakana and Romanization of Japanese. 平仮名(ひらがな, Hiragana)、片仮名(カタカナ, Katakana)、ローマ字(ろーまじ, Rōmaji)の日本語一覧表。 This version fixes the katakana for i (イ). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Mangetsuji in Otsu, Shiga prefecture,...
English: Mangetsuji in Otsu, Shiga prefecture, Japan. 日本語: 満月寺の浮御堂, 滋賀県大津市 Camera: Sony NEX-5 Lens: Sony SEL1855 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Todaiji in Nara, Nara prefecture, Jap...
English: Todaiji in Nara, Nara prefecture, Japan 日本語: 東大寺 金堂, 奈良県奈良市 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
NASA Satellite Image of Japan Captured March 1...
NASA Satellite Image of Japan Captured March 11, 2011 (Photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video)
日本は長い歴史(アメリカより遥かに長い、ローマより北の文化圏よりも長い)を持っている。日本人は島国に住んでいるため特殊的な立地条件でそれこそ長い間然程「外国」との接触は例えばヨーロッパ中心部より遥かに少なかったため、限定的な意味では「単一民族」である。
その背景の前で外から余り邪魔されない、じっくり大変古い伝統が育まれてきた。例えその元は日本のものではないにしても - ここ私は職としている鍼を挙げられる - 数百年から千数百年の間極めて特殊の技術、考え方などが発達して来た。大和心 →
まと‐ごころ【大和心】(1)「やまとだましい」1に同じ。大鏡道隆「大弐殿、弓矢の本末(もとすえ)も知り給はねば、いかがとおぼしけれど、―かしこくおはする人にて」 ⇔漢心(からごころ)。(2)日本人の持つ、やさしく、やわらいだ心情。石上稿(本居宣長)「しきしまの―を人問はば朝日に匂ふ山桜花」(広辞苑より)
その伝統的技術や独特の考え方は世界に披露して大変誇らしめられると思う。

こんなに輝かしい起源(今風で言えばルーツ=roots= 根っこ =origin) があるのに、私は日頃何時も、そして過去30年を通してますます強く感じてきたのは:日本人自身は自分のアイデンティティを放棄し始めている(してしまった!)のではないか。医学的で毎日目の当たりにして、ニュースで見る、新聞で読む「国民の症状」は人格障害(昔風で言えば分裂症)と称せざるを得ない。
妙な横文字言葉アイデンティティは辞書によると:

【名-1】〔人やものの〕正体、身元◆その人が誰で、そのものが何であるかということを表す性質や条件。
例文:"A man who doesn't have a recognizable identity is called John Doe." 身元不明の[どこの誰か分からない]男性はジョン・ドウと呼ばれる。
【名-2】〔ある人やものが持つ他と異なる〕独自性、固有性、アイデンティティー
【名-3】《心理学》自我同一性
【名-4】同一性◆どのような状況にあっても、ほかのものと同一であるという事実や、同一であるための条件。

例えば、今日治めた翻訳の仕事(結婚証明書のドイツ語訳)の中に当然日本の住所が出てきた。私は(独断で何時もそうしている)日本語で表示された順番に翻訳する。そうしたら翻訳会社から問い合わせが来た:「日本語の住所の順番でよいでしょうか?2-Chome xx Sh***ki, N***-ku, Tokio ??」参考までその翻訳会社に以下の返事をした:

「はい、よくそのような形で記載されるが、私はそれが良くないと思います。
日本の住所の日本のルールの則って作られた。海外向けそのルールを全て破棄してしまうのは可笑しい。
ドイツ国内の住所を外国向けに逆さまに書くことは見た事ありません。

そして、もし例の日本の住所宛に何か郵送された場合、それを配達する人も又日本人です。その日本人がなれた形で表すべきだと私は信じています!

* しかし、日本人は自分の住所を横文字にするとどうしても逆さまにしたがる、
それが「正しい」と見なされることが多いですので、「安全」のためご指摘通り
逆さま表現にして下さい。*

(私は個人的にこれが日本人が自分の同一性を失われていないにしても、お粗末
にしていると思 います。
広辞苑より:
「イデンティティー【identity】人格における同一性。ある人の一貫性が成り立
ち、それが 時間的・空間的に他者や共同体にも認められていること。
自己同一性。同一性。主体性。」

このような発言をすると嫌われるのは承知しています。
追加:
無論***日本語の記載***はその順番になっています。
こちらの権限で公式の証明書の記載を変更する資格/許可ありません。

如何でしょうか。日本人は自分の住所を日本人向けと外人向け二通りを使いたがるのは「分裂症」ではないですか???

別の話。
日本人の殆ど(!)は英文を読めるか(例えば鍼治療に関する参考文献を薦めたい時)や英語を話せるかと聞くと、いっぱい皺をよる顔をして、まるで毒蛇を差し出されてしまったような反応をする。
しかし(!!!)商品名、用語、ファション等には必要ないのにどうして横文字擬きやそ
の横文字「日本語化」=カタカナを使いたがっている。
例えば:私は知っている限り日本製の車に***日本語***の名前(横文字で書いても)を付いている物は一台もない。
政治家の馬鹿ども自分が意味不明な戯言で空想話しをしている事を「隠す」ために先ず一定の年齢を超えている人たちは先ず理解出来ない横文字言葉をカタカナで書いて、自分(政治家)は偉いと見せたがる。例えば「マニフェスト」(例は幾ら(!!!)でもある。)

T-シャツにファション=模様として何かを書きたがる。漢字は滅多に見かけない。どうしても横文字でないといけないらしい。何と書いてある事は - お言葉ですが - くそ食らえ。おまけに書いてある「英語」は大半の場合間違っている。それも「興味ねー」

店の看板も同様。近くの薬局の看板には "drag store" と書いてある。
drag  → 
【名-1】妨げ、障害、足手まとい
【名-2】〈話〉〔仕事や人などが〕退屈なもの、うんざりさせるもの、面倒なもの
【名-3】引きずる[引っ張る]こと[動作・音]
【名-5】ゆっくりした[苦しそうな]動作
【名-12】〈話〉〔たばこなどの〕ひと吹き
【名-13】〈俗〉〔男性の〕女装
【名-14】〈米俗〉ドラッグレース
【名-15】〈俗〉通り、道路◆【参考】main drag

看板を作るのお金が掛かる。ならばこの単語一個ぐらいは辞書で確認すればいいのに・・・

最悪、日本を世界の前に笑いものにしたのは先日ここで見た:
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2012/01/18/wtf-is-a-fuckin-sale/
それに対して私は日本人をかばって弁解をして(英文):
http://nyuwa.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/fuckin-sale/

fucking → (発音を反映させるため時々 fuckin' と言う形で書くこともある。
【形・副-1】〈卑〉〔強意語の〕ひどい、とんでもない、いまいましい◆怒り、苛ち、軽蔑などの気持ちを表す。◆【同】damn
【形・副-2】〈卑〉〔強意語の〕全くの、すごく、すごい◆程度が並外れていることを表す。


このような形でお話しは永遠続けられる(ブログ上で関連する愚痴は所々にある)。鍼灸に関しても20年以上まえから、「日本人よ! - もっと誇りを持て、自分の伝統と良さを認識して世界に示して下さい。」といい続けているが、どちらかと言えば嫌われる。
だが、他の分野にも日本人の「日本(人)らしさ」をどんどん放棄してしまうのを痛感している。いいもの沢山あるのに何でそんなにお粗末しなければならないのだろうか。

自分達の知的/歴史的財産に振り返って見て下さい。今の国の「指導者」、識者、エリートに付いて行けば地獄に導かれると予想する。
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6/29/2012

Trials ... again, stuborn shortsightedness

Japanese language
Japanese language (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yesterday I received a response to a mail I sent to company with which I had contact several years ago, trying to refresh the memory of me. I copy the correspondence, not giving any names. To my mind the other party (company located in India) is asking rather unreasonable things.
Or is it me, who is off the mark???????

My mail specified what I am doing:
Japanese -> German
Japanese -> English
English <-> German translations.
medicine / pharmaceutics / chemistry / science / engineering
patents / manuals / etc.

Upon which I got the response:
Thanks for your mail,we would like to see your translation quality,is it possible for you to do 2 page sample from Japanese to English ?

Me again ->
Trial: I have done that so many times over the past three decades, that I got sick of it.
As a result I picked up some "trials" in various language pairs, fields
and put them on my website:
http://www.einklang.com/Translation%20samples.htm
Please have a look there. I am convinced you will find more than enough material there to judge my capabilities. (naturally, all translations are made by me)

I do understand but as per our company policy we have to evaluate the new translator by giving our sample. Let me know if you are interested or not ?
We request you to deliver it tomorrow EOD. 

Thank you, but ...
this text has 1149 characters, which represents approximately 3.2 pages of translation.
I do not do "trials" of this size any more.
AND, this is about business (financial orientation). That is a subject matter I usually do not handle.
In my original mail I indicated roughly, what I am usually working with.


Fine or else do the first 2 pages if you don't wish to do sample we regret to say that we can't add you in our database


Any proper translator is a specialist in some fields but not in others.
If an employer assigns work lying outside the translator's
specialization, it cannot expect proper results.

A barber does not do carpenter work.
Since you are apparently unwilling to recognize this universal truth,
I believe it is indeed safer for me not to be a part of your team.

Sorry for stealing your time.
Thomas Blasejewicz
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6/28/2012

(翻訳の)トライアル



私はこの仕事をもう27年間をやっているから今更トライアルをやる必要ないと思う。自分のウェッブサイトにサンプルが沢山ある。
それでも会社がどうしてもある特定の文章でないといけないならば、暇の時何とかするが、私も日頃時々仕事として「判定」が頼まれる。そうすると、私は提出された文章を見て、判断しなければならないし、仕事ですから数時間、長ければ1-2日内に結果が欲しい(依頼する会社)。
なのに、私はトライアルをしなければならない時ある特定の文章でないといけないし、トライアル結果を提出してしまえば、決まり文句のメールが帰って来る:

「現状、翻訳登録希望者が多数の為、トライアルチェックに時間がかかっております。
お時間をいただく予定でございますが、(約1ヶ月~1ヶ月半お時間を頂く場合がござ
います)」
私は提出したのはたった一頁しかない。私は仕事としてそれを見るならば、原文と訳文を比べて「判定」してしまうのは15分程度。依頼する会社もそのような計算で行くらしい。

ならば、判定する側ではある特定の文章でしか判断出来なく、しかもに約1ヶ月~1ヶ月半掛かるようであれば判定する側に大いに問題あると逆にこちらで判断しなければならない。私の能力を判定する側の能力を疑わなければならない。

又は此方を無料で仕事をさせた後、一言もない(例えば「今回は残念でした」など)のは少なくとも昔の古き良き挨拶の好きな日本では通常の礼儀に反するものであった。

こう言う事は今風のディジタル時代で頻繁に起こるからこそ(PRECISELY because of this situation)「トライアル」をやりたくない。

6/26/2012

Rates ... fees ...

English: title page of the catholic bible tran...
English: title page of the catholic bible translation into German from Hieronymus Emser, an opponent of Martin Luther; published 1527 in Dresden, Saxony Español: pagina principal de la traducción católica de la biblia en alemán de Hieronymus Emser, un adversario de Martin Luther, publicado 1527 en Dresden, Saxonia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Saint Jerome in his Study, fresco by Domenico ...
Saint Jerome in his Study, fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1480 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don't know about everybody else, but whereever I look, whoever I ask - it is always "lower your rates", "sell your product (=translation) cheaper", "give us your "best" = cheapest rate" .......

Well, maybe nobody has noticed, but the costs for our daily living has and is constantly INCREASING. Right now, they decided in Japan to raise taxes. One of those taxes that applies to everything -> thus making EVERYTHING more expensive.
If somebody asked me to name a product or service that has actually become cheaper over the last 10 years ..... I would have a really(!!) hard time to think of something.

The funny thing is, that the market(s) for cheap translation labor (like Proz.com) are INCREASING their fees too.

Somehow this does not match.
We (translators) as service providers are forced to constantly lower our rates, while the agencies (I am rather sure they do) and the websites all raise their prices / fees.

This will very soon lead to translators falling below the "break even" point, where they just cannot to "afford" working as translators any longer.
What remains in the translation industry? Google translate??????
I pity the customers ........

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6/17/2012

Transperfect - "only" 40 USD ......

This just will not end.

The other day I was asked by mail, whether I could do a small (700 word) job, upon which I answered:

"Well, considering that I will be fined (TP calls that "handling fee") about 20 USD AND the bank will charge me 15 USD for putting the money into my account AND another fee for converting the funny printed paper called USD into YEN ... amounting to something like 40 USD ... I do not think there is much incentive for me to do your work."

Response from TP:
"I understand, I can give you 60 USD if you can make it now. It is a short file, is it fine?"

My response:
"YOU give me 60 USD and I have to pay you+Bank = 40 USD.
That leaves me with 20 USD.
For - calculate generously - 3.5 pages. That is 5.7 USD per page.
Would/could YOU work for that kind of money and still pay your rent???????"

Response from TP:
"Ah, sorry, I misunderstood that.
It is fine, I understand now.
Anyway, you don´t have to invoice every PO individually.
In other words, the best thing to do, in my opinion, is to get several POs, and when the amount is high enough you invoice all of them together, so you only lose 20 or 40 dollars for all of them together."


Isn't that wonderful! If I work for a Japanese company - they too are impertinent enough to bill me for the bank transfer! - I have to pay something between 1 and 5 USD. If I work for Transperfect I have to pay ***** ONLY ***** 10 times as much -> about 40 USD. Since they have a minimum for bank transfer of about 100 USD, that is I have to PAY them 40% of what should be the money I get for my work.
The percentage would change, if I would get let's say 10,000 USD (VERY!! unlikely), but even then would the bank fees be still 10 times as high as in Japan. Or when working for other companies anywhere in the world for that matter.
This strikes me as odd.
Is it only me?

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6/11/2012

To be a professional ... you have to pay.

Benjamin Franklin 1767
Benjamin Franklin 1767 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Recently my (paid -> I got 6 month of paid membership for participating in a group buy) Proz membership has lapsed. With it (naturally?) my statue as "certified Pro" has be revoked too. That is, if you want to be a professional, you have to pay for it. Sounds like a bribe to a mafia gang to me. Well, anyway, I am back into the minors - just another no-name amateur ...
But I cannot afford to give donations to people who most likely already have a 100 times more than I do. And since there is practically 0% "return on investment", spending money to get NOTHING = is to my mind a donation.

The regular, automated mail inevitably coming from Proz at theses times reads (partially) :
"Thank you for being a member of ProZ.com. As a full member of the web's largest translator community, you are part of the network of translators that is changing the industry.
Your ProZ.com membership subscription is also a personal investment that provides powerful ways to meet new clients and expand your business, to improve your work, to network and to have fun."


Well ... I have been a Proz member for something like +12 years. This includes a total of about 20 months paid membership AND recently even a few months as a "Certified Pro". Here I checked my "peers" -> apparently I was the one and only such Pro on the entire network in the language pair Japanese-German.

BUT ... during this entire time I got exactly ONE job = worth about 36.2 Euro.
If I would have paid the membership fee all the time, I would have PAID 1,440 USD in order to get 36 USD back.
Not counting all the time (there is this very strange notion that "time is money" -> The phrase was coined by Benjamin Franklin in his Advice to a Young Tradesman (1748)) and effort invested, which did not produce any results either.

According to a personal communication I had several years ago with the founder of Proz, the membership is supposed to pay for itself very soon. Appears like wishful thinking to me.
I take the liberty of quoting:
"Japanese translators enjoy the most favorable ratio between clients and translators at ProZ.com. For 90 dollars (today it is 120 USD and scheduled to be increase on July 1) -- 10,000 yen! -- we offer preferential exposure. A single client was worth thousands of dollars to me as a translator. If I were to meet one client per year, or one client every ten years per ProZ.com, the membership would pay for itself several times over.
I am surprised that you see it differently."

Probably my calculation showing a 36 USD return on investment on 1,400 USD is wrong (I was never good at mathematics) and I am too stupid to market myself properly = so this is all my fault ...

still, I have the greatest difficulties in seeing that "membership subscription is also a personal investment that provides powerful ways to meet new clients and expand your business"


Naturally - at least in my experience - the same thing also applies to all other major "translator sites" I have tried over the past 15 years ......

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