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While it is ideal for translators to translate into their native languages, this is not always how things are done. As we know, the quantity of Japanese to English translation far exceeds the quantity of experienced Japanese to English translators. The difficulty of reading Japanese due to long
sentences, vague writing, and thousands of characters that must be remembered make it likely that this situation will continue for some time. The situation has resulted in many Japanese translators, who are not native speakers of English, translating into English.
In this essay, we would like to present our list of non-native English speaker style errors. If you are able to avoid these errors, you can make your translations look better and read more smoothly.
- Avoid capitals
Native English speakers rarely write solely in CAPITALS. Such capitalization does not add MEANING to the TRANSLATION. Unnecessary capitals look STRANGE. Any native English speaker reading this would wonder what the capitals meant. Save your capitals for titles. Note the title of this essay is
sparing of capitals. Acronyms such as LDP should be in capitals. Otherwise, normally only the first letter of any word is capitalized. Capital letters are sometimes used in emails when someone wants to express a strong emotion. English speakers may interpret capital letters as an angry emotion.
- Stay away from quotation marks
Japanese documents use quotation marks more frequently than English ones. Your translations should not copy the style of the Japanese original. Quotation marks are used to quote people. They are not used to change the “meaning” of a word. Quotation marks are sometimes used to imply doubt, but
doing so is rather subtle and requires a very high command of English to do properly. We suggest being careful.
- Learn to paragraph
Japanese paragraph style is very different from English style. Current English uses block style. Look at this English essay and other writing. If your translated sentences finish on one line and you start the next sentence on the next line, you are trying to take a Japanese writing style and making
it into an English one. Such paragraphing is appropriate in Japanese but not in English.
- Study sentence patterns
Either of the following two sentence patterns is fine:
a) Your translations will read smoothly if you write them well.
b) If you write them well, your translations will read smoothly.
Many Japanese translators who translate into English will use one of these patterns and not the other. We are sure you can tell which one is commonly used. Try to use both.
- Transition words such as however, then, and moreover
While transition words are appropriate in some situations, they are not used in every sentence, every other sentence, or every third sentence. Words such as however, then, thus, and moreover are sometimes used for emphasis and clarity.
Look at this essay. You cannot see many such examples. Japanese to English translations written by Japanese translators overuse such words. It is better to avoid introductory words. In English such words are non-standard.
- It is said that
Avoid such expressions as It is said that. They do not give information. Tell the reader who said what is being mentioned. Avoid other numerous expressions that use many words but provide little information.
- Avoid numbers with circles around them
Numbers with circles around them are not standard English practice. Using numbers in the following ways are more appropriate.
1)
2.
(3)
- Keep your sentences at reasonable lengths
English writers normally do not write incredibly long sentences. Many Japanese writers do. Divide long Japanese sentences into two or more shorter English sentences. Dividing long sentences into shorter sentences will make your translations easier to understand.
- Avoid Japanese in the Roman alphabet
A number of Japanese to English translators do not translate Japanese terms. They simply use the alphabet to spell them out. Translations into English should use English. If you are not sure if a word is English or not, check an English-English dictionary. Check Google to see if the word is used in
English.
- Remember that English places the responsibility on the writer
This may be the most important rule. In Japanese, if a writer writes long incomprehensible statements, some people may think the writer is deep and thoughtful. In English, if a writer writes long incomprehensible statements, people think the writing is bad. It is the responsibility of writers to
make their writing understandable to readers. Similarly it is the responsibility of translators to make their translations understandable to readers.
The ten style errors are problems to avoid. They appear again and again in the translations of Japanese to English translators who are not native speakers of English. The first step to reducing such errors in your translations is to become aware of them.
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