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1. Culture and translation
Words that mean the same thing in both English and Japanese are easy to translate. There are not any differences between the meaning of the word car in English and the meaning of the word 車 in Japanese. They both have four wheels, brakes, and engines. True, different cars drive at different speeds and cost different prices, but the concept is the same.
What happens though when you have to translate a word like kotatsu? If you look it up in the dictionary, you may find Japanese foot-warmer or foot-warmer. What images might that give native-English speakers? Is it like a hot water bottle used to warm your feet? The dictionary may also say with a quilt over it. Is the quilt for the bottle or for your feet?
Now, as anybody who has ever seen a kotatsu knows that it is nothing like a hot water bottle. It is fairly easy to explain what a kotatsu is.
A kotatsu is a table in Japan that has some kind of heating unit under it. There is a quilt that goes over the table, which traps the heat under the table. People stick their legs under the quilt and keep warm in the winter.
Still, the original may simply read, “Koichi sat at his kotatsu.” Do you want to add a three-sentence explanation so the reader can understand? Or should the readers know what a kotatsu is. Or do you want to use a footnote? Or do you want to ask the client what they want?
There are a variety of different ways to handle this, but it is important to find a way that pleases the client and communicates effectively with the reader.
Good luck!
2. Consistency in writing
Good writing is consistent. A good writer decides what to do and then continues the same pattern all the way through the text. Have you noticed anything awkward and inconsistent in this paragraph? You probably have. All of the paragraphs up until now have used block paragraphing, not indentations. This paragraph suddenly indented. It looks awkward doesn’t it?
So, let’s go back to block paragraphing. Other important things for consistency are to select whether to write in the first person or the third person. Some companies, for example, start out writing about ABC Company. They write ABC Company makes good products and ABC Company has a recycling program. Finally, on the third page, they write, “At ABC Company, we…” Readers look in amazement and realize that they are reading a text written by the company. The document should have made clear at the beginning that ABC Company had written the text. ABC should have followed the same pattern throughout the text.
All writing should be as consistent as possible.
3. PC (Political correctness)
Today, you may think of PC as the abbreviation for personal computer, but in America PC also often refers to politically correct. America is a nation that tries to be sensitive to the needs of everyone. We often fail, but we do try, or at least some of us do.
We don’t want to discriminate against people, so we try not to use insensitive terms. It is obvious that we should not call people racist terms according to their ethnicity. At some point, however, other issues became politically sensitive. People with physical handicaps decided that handicapped was not a sensitive word. It was a negative word; it showed that people with such problems were less than other people. It was referred to as not being politically correct to use such a word.
In place of handicapped the word challenged came into use. People were no longer physically handicapped. Instead, they were physically challenged. The advantages and disadvantages of political correctness may be debated, but the original intent was sensitivity and kindness toward other people.
If you are interested in political correctness, you can find many articles about it. When this newsletter was written there were approximately 436,000 hits at Google for “politically correct.” Watch out when you read about political correctness. Is PC trying to be sensitive toward someone or not? There are many things going on in America that use and perhaps sometimes abuse the term politically correct.
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