Category: News & Thoughts
WayToJapan Translations blog – news, thoughts, tips and useful links
WayToJapan is moving! / 一時休業のお知らせ
After four years in the Netherlands (and three years in Japan before that), I am moving back to the UK at the end of January.
This means that WayToJapan Translations, a sole proprietorship registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, will cease to operate at the end of December.
I will be back in business when I'm settled in my new home office in London [...]
Revising translations – your thoughts?
Some (many, actually) call it proofreading, others call it (cross-)checking or reviewing, and larger agencies these days seem to prefer to call it QA... yes, I'm talking about revising someone else's translation. Do you accept revision work? I'm asking this because I get asked by agencies to do this fairly regularly, and some of them even seem to send me only revision jobs even though I'm registered with them as a translator, not a QA specialist.
Yet another thought on translation rates
According to a news report earlier this week, workers in the UK are enjoying a real pay rise — pay rise above the annual inflation rate — for the first time for four years.
I was quoting on a job that came in yesterday when it occurred to me that the "standard rate" I quote is the rate I set in 2001, when I became a qualified member of the ITI.
Yes, I've so far resisted the constant pressure from large translation agencies to lower my rates and ignored advice from them that my rates are way above the going rate.
But what does that really mean? According to the Office for National Statistics, the median full-time gross weekly earnings in the UK were
See you at IJET-25 Tokyo/英日・日英翻訳国際会議に行きます!
6月21〜22日に東京ビッグサイトで開催される第25回英日・日英翻訳国際会議「IJET-25」に行くことに決めました!来年のIJET-26は英国ヨークで開催することが決まっており、実行委員長なので下見・勉強と来年の宣伝も兼ねての参加になります。今回もできるだけたくさんの人と交流できればと思っていますのでよろしくお願いします。
I've registered to attend IJET-25, to be held on 21-22 June in Tokyo! The IJET is always a fantastic opportunity for networking and I'm looking forward to meeting and reconnecting with as many fellow translators as possible, but this time I'm also going as the chair of the organising committee of IJET-26 York, UK, reccying, shadowing the committee members and learning as well as promoting next year's sure-to-be amazing event! See you in Tokyo :-)
Machine translation: how not to do it
I was delving through the archives of a fellow translator's blog when I came across this piece of "Japanese translation":
So what? You may ask. We all know the internet is littered with gibberish churned out by Google Translate and other free MT services of that ilk - hardly anything new to shout about, is it?
Right. Except, this particular one comes from the website of a translation company.
Workshop report: ITI Scottish Network Summer Workshop in Aberdeen, 15 June 2013

Workshop report: J-Net Summer Workshop in Nottingham, 8 June 2013
