NoFakie 45 Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 I get the impression that a good number people out there earn at least part of their crust by producing documents written in English. We've got the other thread about the funny English that Japanese people come up with, the harmless stuff you can laugh at. I was wondering if any writers out there get to deal with the negative side of the coin, "Eigoya". This is a disparaging term translators use for Japanese people who are supposed to be good at English but who add mistakes and replace good with bad when checking English documents, often those produced by native speakers. For translators, dealing or putting up with Eigoya can be difficult part of the job. I'm lucky in that I have to deal with only one such fellow, incredibly condescending though he is. I was wondering whether other writers have to deal with them too. PS I did go "snowboading" this morning Link to post Share on other sites
jambo-gyoza 0 Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 Why on earth do they do that then? Link to post Share on other sites
miteyak 0 Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 Where I work, there are a large number of Japanese with a phenomenal understanding of English, but they always run everything past us, very antieigoya here, I guess. Some of the advertising that doesn't get 'native proofed' and ends up as an A1 poster in the middle of town, however... (oh, we dont need help in advertising, we have professional writers working for us... that must be the eigiyas you're talking about...) Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 I find I have more problem getting Japanese that's FUBAR. You say 'WTF does this mean?' and they say it means 'This, that and the other', and then you say 'Well, WTF doesn't it say that then??' And then there are the katakana English words that mean nothing in any language and the misspelt English words that crop up all over the place. Eigoya have not been much of a curse in my life, but lousy Japanese writers are a constant irritant. NoFakie, your pet Eigoya must be really getting to you to make you mention him on here... Link to post Share on other sites
mogski 0 Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 What you describe there NoF is what my company was until we got taken over by "foreigners" Now major part of my job is transalation of English to English. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted February 19, 2003 Author Share Posted February 19, 2003 Why do they do it indeed. In the case of Japanese advertising used in Japan, there is the issue of audience (Japanese) and how they will interpret what is written. I'm sure Osaka's Hankyu Department Store used to call their annual campaign "Hot Mind Christmas" because they know Japanese people read that as "atatakai+omoi+kurisumasu" or something similar. What English speakers read it as is neither here nor there, because they are not the target audience. The reason the message is being given in English not Japanese is because English is trendy. The people I am talking about are people who check English documents and in changing them to make them better, make them worse. If a company requests a translation, what can happen is that the original document becomes sacrosanct and any changes in word order, omissions of redundant words, replacement of idioms etc. all get rejected because the person making the changes does not have sufficient knowledge of English to know what natural prose is. In bad cases, grammatical mistakes and misspellings are also added. The translation, which may be a reflection of the document in natural English, is changed to a collection of words that one-to-one correspond to the original, often without making any sense. The crucial difference with "Hot Mind Christmas" above is that the translation is intended for the English reader. It should make sense in English. I like feedback on my work and most of it is very educational. Most translators love working with skilled checkers. Its just when people change "each of them is" to "each of them are" and write GRAMMAR MISTAKE!!! because they think they know better than you (and Fowler's "Modern English Usage"), it can really wind you up. I wondered if anyone else producing written work here had the same problem. I got an e from my man earlier today, but it's something I've been wondering about for a while. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 transalation eh mogs? Is that translating salacious sayings into English? How you say "H"? Link to post Share on other sites
batty 0 Posted February 21, 2003 Share Posted February 21, 2003 Try explaining all that to someone who has nothing to do with Japan! Link to post Share on other sites
klingon 10 Posted May 23, 2003 Share Posted May 23, 2003 Like the signature, batty Link to post Share on other sites
kintaro 0 Posted May 23, 2003 Share Posted May 23, 2003 I can't help but laugh at misspelled labels of things here in Japan. I saw a plastic bag with rice in it that said...and I'm not kidding or being sarcastic...Dericious Lice. There are more examples out there! I've seen many in my years. I'm sure some of you have seen them too. Now, any of you who have seen my posts...you know I don't take the effort to spell correctly. Its a forum and I don't care. But if I was trying to sell you something...or engaged in business in any way..I think I'd consult a dictionary and/or native English speaker. So why does this happen? Is it a mistake or on purpose b/c consumers generally can't read EngRish and can more easilly read and understand it this way? Whenever I'm shopping and see these things it blows my mind. Chotto related...ever read the tire covers on SUV's? They crack me up to. Link to post Share on other sites
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