Found in Translation
- GG
- Dec 12, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: May 7
Post 1:
For those of us born in the English-speaking world, it is not at all difficult to forget that there are places where English is not in wide circulation. Particularly for ones such as myself born in Europe, it is typical for everyone you run into, no matter where on the continent they hail from, to be perfectly conversant in the Queen's (now King's) English.
Thus, when some of us natives of the Anglosphere venture a bit beyond our borders, to explore strange new worlds (such as Japan where I find myself now), it can come as a surprise at first to learn that English is not widely spoken or well understood. In fact, it wouldn't be terribly surprising to find that most English speakers assume out of hand that the Japanese are widely proficient in our language, and that travel there would be no more difficult than in say Spain or Italy – until they find themselves flummoxed in a Japanese train station trying to figure out which way to get to Minamimorimachi or what station to get off at to change to the Nagahori-Tsurumiryokuchi line.
As it turns out, English is not widely spoken in Japan, and in our increasingly globalised world where international cooperation is plentiful and business partnerships are being forged across ever wider divides, this brings about a similarly growing requirement to bridge the communication divide.
Which means that translation and interpretation are two fields which are in demand at every level - from the internal business dealings of companies with global footprints, all the way up to planning large-scale international events such as the 2025 Expo in Osaka.
Of course, naturally the question arises about the rise of AI and machine translation and whether or not our future techno-overlords will inevitably make human interpretation and translation redundant.
It's certainly a fair question and not an easy one to answer. It would be difficult to say with any certainty that this won't eventually be the case. However, if you have had the pleasure of dealing with an AI chatbot recently while trying to contact your mobile phone or electricity provider, you might stop and reflect on your experience for a moment.
AI: How may I be of service to you today? ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )
User: All my power is out and I need some help.
AI: I'm sorry to hear about your problem, however I need some more information to understand the nature of your issue.
Please choose from the following options:
1. Pay your bill
2. Ask a question about your last bill
3. Upgrade your service to a different package
4. Other query
User: → 4. Other query
AI: Thank you – please tell me more about your query (..◜ᴗ◝..)
User: My power is completely out!!
I'm sitting here in the dark and my laptop is down to 4% battery – I need some support with this right away!!!
AI: Sorry, I'm still not entirely sure what your request relates to. Please choose from the following options:
1. Return to menu
User: → 1. Return to menu
AI: How may I be of service to you today? ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )
User: ……………………………………
This example may be a little extreme (although for some companies it could be spot-on), and perhaps the underlying technology behind AI and machine translation is improving bit by bit, but I believe it will take a lot of confidence on the part of companies before they start trusting important client interactions to a software which typically drives people to make a beeline for the nearest window.
I'm sure there will be opportunities to look more closely at the specifics of modern AI and machine translation as we go along later, and this is something I’d certainly like to return to.
For now however, suffice it to say that Skynet hasn't fully taken over in the interpreting and translation space yet, and while it is relatively uncommon to see interpreters at work in Europe (in fact you may never do so in a day-to-day setting), if you spend a bit of time in Asia you are bound to come across a few naturally, and if you're anything like me, you might even find yourself getting a job as one.
In my case, I find myself working in interpreting and translation related to the building and construction industry, where there is a lot of international cooperation in the normal course, which grows even more ahead of big events such as the Tokyo Olympics in 2020/2021 and the upcoming Expo in 2025.
Building and construction is a curious industry to apply translation to, as in many ways there is more to translation than merely the words that people speak or write. With construction projects taking place collaboratively between different nations, this inevitably means differences not just in language and culture, but in local laws and regulations, building standards, safety codes, units of measurement and so on. Any misunderstandings which occur during a large-scale project due to any one of these various factors could lead to major problems down the line, so it is extremely important to ensure not only that the words are translated accurately, but that the meaning is conveyed adequately across the cultural or geographical divide.
For example, in Japan there is a unit of area called the tsubo, which equates to approximately 3.3㎡. If the Japanese side in a project are quoting areas in tsubo this can be explained to the non-Japanese side to make things go smoothly and avoid any unfortunate unit-based problems occurring (later we can look at some pretty disastrous examples of what can go wrong when people use the wrong units).
With that said, in future posts I'd like to look at various interesting and quirky things which can come up – linguistically, culturally and technically - over the course of working in interpreting and translation in general, and at times with a focus on the Japanese construction industry. Until next time!
by GG
