Our Japanese translators at Kieffer International introduce some translation
tools that they use to produce their work. Feel free to offer your suggestions
or add your tools to this list. Send them to us at
Japanese
/ English Translation using Memory Tools
At Kieffer International, we DO NOT USE machine translation to produce
our translations in any step of the translation process be it
English-to-Japanese translation or Japanese-to-English translation . Machine translation
is not suitable for the high degree of accuracy required in technical
translation. For large translation projects, however, so-called translation
memory tools can be useful according to the specific conditions of the
job. These products store your translations in an ever expanding database
and offer you suggestions graded according to accuracy drawn from this
database. Usage of this software requires the source text in electronic
form.
More as an aid to the actual process of translation, this software helps
to ensure consistency of terminology and phraseology, and it helps to
improve speed in the input of identical or similar sections.
The most widely used translation memory tools are shown below. These products
cost from $500 to $1000, with the exception of newcomer WordFast which
is available for 180 euros.
This
is the most widely-used and comprehensive translation memory tool.
Currently, a freelance version (without the networking capabilities)
is available for a lower price. |
|
| This is a translation memory tool with excellent features and service. | |
This
translation memory tool is available for MS Word on the PC and Mac.
The unregistered version has some limitations, but is fully functional.
Moreover, support for Japanese has improved noticeably in recent
versions. |
An informative article by Danilo Nogueira in the Translation Journal presents a comprehensive, but subjective, overview of these three translation tools and also mentions some of the other newcomers to this growing field.
Dictation software
A growing number of translators are using dictation software to increase
the speed of text input. The bottlenecks here are the text itself (long
sentences, especially in Japanese translation) and the recognition accuracy
of this software. Generally, dictation software is less effective for
texts with considerable amounts of formatting. Incidentally, this is where
translation memory software can be the most useful since all formatting
remains intact.
File Search Tools
DT Search
This search tool allows you to search through gigabytes of text in seconds.
It can read WordPerfect, MS Office (Word, Excel, etc.), HTML, PDF, and
other formats. This tool also has a wide variety of search options and
a built-in file viewer.
Experienced translators who have a large database of reference materials
will find this tool particularly useful.
Internet Search Engines
Google
This search engine features an easy-to-use text interface and is capable
of searches in both English and Japanese. Don't you hate it when the link
sends you to a page that no longer exists? No problem -- Google stores
the archived page in a cache so that you can still view it.
Before using any search engine, be sure to familiarize yourself with the search instructions so that you can perform your searches with better accuracy.
Computer system
At Kieffer International, we use the Japanese version of Windows due to
its seamless bilingual capabilities. Recently, however, Microsoft's English
version of Windows XP features an enhanced bilingual (Japanese)
capability with the downloading of language packs that enables full
installation and usage of Japanese-native software.
CD-ROM dictionaries
Although translators tend to rely less and less on dictionaries as they
gain experience in a field, on-line lookup of terms can be much faster than lookup
from a paper dictionary. In addition to the field-specific CD-ROM dictionaries,
the following Japanese/English dictionaries are often mentioned by translators
as particularly useful.
- Interpress 1.3 million term dictionary (available at Kinokuniya) ISBN: 4871981304 : Since this dictionary does not list synonyms or examples, it is more like a glossary than a dictionary. You will have to look elsewhere to see how the terms are actually used.
- Fujitsu's Denjikai: This J-E/E-J dictionary has 320,000 terms complete with synonyms and examples.
- Japanese language dictionaries such as Kojien, Daijirin, and Kanji dictionaries are also used by our translators. They are available from Amazon Japan.
Books
Aimed more at the beginning translator and student of Japanese, we offer
a selection of recommended books for use in Japanese study/translation.
Electronic versions of some of these books are also available.
Mailing Lists
A wide and growing variety of mailing lists are available according to
your specific fields and languages at Yahoo
Groups (formerly eGroups). Be sure to follow the published etiquette
and posting rules when joining these mailing lists.
- Honyaku mailing list: This is a high-volume mailing list serving Japanese/English translators. It currently has about 800 members.
Of course, this
short list is by no means exhaustive. We are always looking for better
translation tools to streamline our work. Do you have any suggestions
or useful products that you use?
Send them to us here at
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Japanese English Translation without the help of Translation Tools.
