Facebook も人種差別している

Facebook も人種差別している。今日は子どもに進められて Facebook のアカウントをセットアップした。

だが、先日ＮＨＫで「問い合わせる」際に発生した同じ問題ここに出た！！！
私の名前（本来アルファベットですが、Facebook account setting　の所で「日本語名を入力」場所ある/薦められる）の「正しい」カタカタ　＝トーマス　ブラーゼイェーヴィッツ　を入力すると：

「あなたの日本語名の変更は、弊社の自動承認システムによって却下されました。」
と出てくる。

唯一認められる「カタカナ」は：
「ブラゼイェヴィッツトマス」

つまり：伸ばす「ぼう」なし

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/thoacu/62924327.html
NHKに「それはどういうつもりか。外人を付き合わない事を表現しているか」と言う内容でＮＨＫで問い合わせた所で、NHK から次の返事（抜粋）が来た：
「ご指摘の趣旨がわかりかねますが、ご記入いただいた文字列は、
実際のお名前と異なるのでしょうか。

こちらのメールシステムに特定の対象を拒否するような設定はありません。
ただし絵文字、特殊記号など使用されると文字化けすることがあります。」

しかし：「カタカナ」で入力せよと要求されたら、自分の名前の正しいカタカナ表記：トーマス　ブラーゼイェーヴィッツが受け付けない。
「「のばし」やスペース」などは受け付けない！だが「トマスブラゼイェヴィッツ」と言うのは私の名前ではない！

コンピュータ技術が発達した今の時代ではこれが少なくとも失礼だと思います。

それでは
スーパー
ペーパー
マーカー
コピー
コーヒー
等も皆「間違ったカタカナ表記」なのか？？？？？？？？？？？？？？？？？？

日本人なら例えば「佐藤」は「サトウ」とかけるが、Baker, Tayler etc. の横文字の名前はどうしても伸ばすカタカナの棒が必要。

結局 Facebook 多数の人間/人種等を相手にするはずですが、その人達の名前を日本語風に表現する事を***差別***している。
How wonderful!

心のバランス

「心のバランスはサプリで癒せます」

先日あるDMを貰った。何かのサプリメントを売りたいものだった。凄く豪華なプリントで。それはそれで結構です。
しかし、私にとって何より先先ず日本語に違和感を覚えた。
「・・・バランスは癒せます・・・」とは可笑しい。
バランスは「連れ合い、方程式の左右が同じ事、収支など。何かの左右に多いか少ないかは「癒せないはず」
癒せるのは心や人など。
だが、編集者などの人を聞いても「この類のキャッチコピーは皆可笑しい。まともな日本語を求めるのは無理だ。」

まっ、NHKのアナウンサーでさえ番組に「でれれる」のは「全然いい」と思う人がいる時代ですので、煩い外人がまともの日本語を求めるのは矢張り世間知らずの馬鹿者だらう。

Translator as "Bookfinder"

English: Štefan Konzul, croatian translator. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Translator as "Bookfinder"
(This article has been published in Japanese in the March 2003 issue of "e-Trans" and posted as a "contribution" at "www.gotranslators.com")

           Not to far in the past there was time, when the military used scouts, sometimes also called "pathfinders" (Merriam Webster: path.find.er n (1840): one that discovers a way; esp: one that explores untraversed regions to mark out a new route -- path.find.ing n or adj.), to find their way through unknown country. Literally, these were people that could find a path not visible to anybody else. During a recent conference on translation, a certain question appeared in several different sessions: what actually is the job and/or function of a translator?

           The answer to this question appears on first sight very simple and obvious, but many of the attending translators and agencies presented widely varying definitions and concepts. This motivated me to write this little article and express an idea, I did have for quite a while now, but that so far failed to find any resonance. I.e., translators should also (or maybe predominantly) be "bookfinders" in analogy to the above mentioned pathfinders. Below I will try to explain why.

                                                                                                             

           I have been a translator for about 18 years and during this time spent nearly 100% of my time with activities, involving rendition of a certain meaning in one language into another. At times, in particular when the source text is of rather poor quality and/or ambiguous, this also involves a more less significant portion of re-writing or copy writing. Nevertheless, the basic idea is always the same: change A into B. In my memory very few, if any, people I happened to work with have ever questioned or even challenged this view. This is simply the job and function of a translator.

           Yet, if you are a translator in any specialized field, show a professional interest in extending your horizons, or conduct a little research in your own or other fields of expertise, then you will certainly do some reading.

           This puts the translator in a unique position. He or she is not only capable of professionally handle and evaluate two or more languages, but will be reading reference books on certain topics in these languages. Sometimes there are equivalents or even translations of certain valuable references, but most often not. Under these circumstances the translator is put in a position where he or she can evaluate several books that might be worth translating from both a linguistic and a technical point of view.

           I believe that a look at the currently available selection of translated books shows clearly, that the choices are certainly not always professional. They are made by publishers based on information and recommendations of not always certain origin. This provides the general population with a selection of translated books influenced by a possibly one-sided and - naturally - profit orientated choice made by the publishers. But this could also mean, that the average man has access only to a distorted view of the world.

           Today, the internet provides the so-called information highway, which offers users so much information with an incredibly short turnover time that nobody can ever handle. Yet, fast access to a terrifying amount of information could also block the view for the more distinct, practical, comprehensive and interesting information a book can provide. After all, reading should also be fun.

           Often access to the information highway is highly appreciated, but who would like to live in a house with the front door opening right onto the highway? I would prefer a little distance from it and like the quiet small back roads. This is, where books come in. It takes much longer to publish a book than to publish and then update a web site. Naturally this means, that books are always somewhat "behind their time", but that does not reduce their value.

           For example, I am a native German living in Japan. I know of literally "uncountable" translations of German literature, science etc. available in Japanese bookstores. Yet, conversely, whenever I visit Germany and look through large bookstores, I can find at best a handful translations of Japanese books. A very illustrative little episode happened, when I visited the annual Tokyo International Book Fair a few years ago. There I asked a German publisher if they might be interested in the publication of translated Japanese books. The representative at that booth said: "No, why? Publisher XXX already has published two books." Of course, this is hardly any kind of representation of a nation that publishes several tens of thousands of new books every year!

           Thus, in spite of the information highway and Japan being an economic superpower with a major impact on the entire world, it still remains largely uncharted territory (a sort of a black hole), because there is so little real information about it available.

 

           Now, here is a field, in which the translator can offer a real contribution to international understanding: by selecting and recommending books worth of translation. The translator who recommends certain books might even do the entire translation. In many cases this would be not only be good for the translator, but also the translation itself and the final reader.

Related articles

• On Reviewing Translations
• Beijing stores suspend sales of Japanese books

Information - Japan

The Great Wave off Kanagawa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Information - Japan

On every trip abroad I cannot help to notice one peculiar thing.
Japan imports and domestically spreads a wealth of information from all over the world. Every small town bookstore is filled with Japanese translations of valuable foreign literature.
Yet, "ALIENS", as foreigners are called in Japan, in their own countries usually have very little if any information about Japan. In (large) bookstores I recently visited in Germany I probably could have counted German translations of Japanese books with one hand! And those books, materials acutally present did not really appear to me as representative and informative examples of Japanese culture and concepts.
As an ACUPUNCTURIST I am probably best able to judge the situation in relation to my special field, oriental medicine. Some of the available translations rather bring shame on the more than 1000-year long tradition of oriental medicine in Japan.
I really wonder why in the face of the booming popularity of so-called "alternative therapies" so few of the many GOOD books (here I speak for Japan and Japanese books) are translated.
Recently I participated in a national conference on acupuncture in Japan. A guest speaker representing the NIH held a lecture detailing the establishment of guidelines regarding research into and application of acupuncture in the United States. This lecture revealed, that the incentive to start studies of acupuncture are already more than 20 years old. Yet, the consensus conference supposed to provide the relevant answers for the issues at hand could not reach any conclusions until the mid-ninties, because there were "too few data/usable research". The persons in charge had been looking in China and throughout the world - except in Japan. Here the kind of research had been conducted since the mid-sixties.
Thus, because other countries are not really looking, and Japan itself not actively providing this information, Japan has been and apparently still is
a sort of "undiscovered island"
along the so-called information highway!

If publishers should be interested in providing such materials, I would be glad to offer my services. Maybe this would also help a large portion of the world population to get finally access to a large body of valuable information on Japan.

"Speed translation"

This came in the other day on 23:30 Japan time. The company is located in New York and I would have to check the time difference:

"I have a potentially crazy question to ask you...would you be able to turn around 2 Japanese patent applications, one of 4597 words and the other of 2255 words, by 7:45AM tomorrow?  More feasibly, would you be able to turn around at least the larger patent application by 7:45AM tomorrow?"

My first response:
Good morning (3 am!) from Japan
Thank you for your job offer, but ...
with all due respect - the requested due date is very unrealistic!

Having a short look showed approximately 23 + 12 pages of translation.
Together that would be 35 pages of PATENT SPECIFICATION, which is a lot more difficult than ordinary text.
In a few hours???
Maybe even asking for a discount rate?

I am not capable of working that fast (being busy with other work anyway).
I would like to meet the person who actually CAN do that.
Even if somebody says s/he CAN produce that much patent translation in such a short time ... I would not trust that person/translation.
Please ask ANYBODY working in ANY patent office about the feasibility, and more importantly the trustworthiness of the produced translation.

Sorry, but I cannot help you, even if I wanted to.
And my professional pride demands that I DO NOT accept work, when I cannot take responsibility for the results.

When the other party agreed, I added a little metaphor:
No problem and no harm done.
It is simply amazing how little the people who are asking for this kind of work actually KNOW about what is involved in translation -- or else CARE about it.

To put it in a little (distorted, sorry) perspective:
Let's say someone asks a construction firm to something like the Empire State Building - in two weeks with a budget of 8.75 USD.
I can see the exhilarated president of the construction company ...
And naturally everybody would agree that this absolutely normal ....

*************************
One of my grandfather's favorite sayings was“Use the right tool for the job”
―common-sense advice that applies to a wide range of situations.
Unfortunately, as Mark Twain observed, common sense isn't very common!

Relevant information

Today on a translator site a job posting read:

"One of our client is having requirement for technical English to German Translation.
Domain: Technical.
File Type: Word (pdf converted)
Words around 1500
Please mention your best rates for this job."

Its technical. OK.
What kind of "technical"? Subject matter?
No indication at all.
How are you then supposed to provide your "best rates" (meaning "peanuts"!) for this job.

If you ask a construction firm:
"Let's build something. Give me a price."

What kind of answer would you expect???

Attention ... Scam

Good evening
The other day I got a phone call and was asked to do a Japanese-German translation (patent specification).
Stupid as I am I did that over the weekend and finished it ahead of time.

Yet, after I delivered the translation there is no more response from that "company".
Faxing (address says France) etc. shows that there is no such place/phone/person.

Naturally, I am not getting paid at all.

BEWARE of:

International Patent-Translation Bureau (IPTB)
Italian - Spanish - Portuguese - German - French - English - Russian -- Chinese - Japanese - etc.
100 rue Royale
F 78000  Versailles
Tel: 00 33 9 51 40 92 36
Fax 00 33 9 56 40 92 36

Dipl. Ing. W. LOPO

bppui1@aol.com

This is a scammer = criminal