Hey, ok, this graphic to the left has absolutely nothing to do with the topic, but here it is nonetheless. It is a little ink drawing I did a while back... I believe I used felt tip pens and brush pens...So, I just finished translating that academic paper about parks. What a wonderful picture it paints, albeit in stilted and sometimes difficult to understand wording. A whole city section of parks linked to pre-schools, other parks, factories, etc. I would love to visit that area and take a few days to walk around the park "matrix." In fact, it sounds like a dream come true to me.
Ah, the pre-schools. Anyone out there run up against this problem in translating Japanese to English? The Japanese word 幼稚園 (youchien) is, I feel, closest to the English word "pre-school." However, I admit, I am an American, and that could be why I feel that the most common translation I see for 幼稚園 is not to my taste... Somewhere along the line, someone decided that the appropriate equivalent is "kindergarten." Ok, now, when I was a kid, kindergartens were part of the elementary school building, and part of the elementary education system. Both 幼稚園 and pre-schools are not. You have to pay for 幼稚園 and pre-schools, but kindergarten is free (well, paid by taxes, actually). Ok, so, because the translation I worked on over the weekend had English language graphs to go along with it, and because I was limited to using the English in those graphs, I was forced to use "kindergarten." Well, sometimes that happens. Looking it up in Wikipedia, I see the claim that kindergartens are separate from elementary schools in most countries. Ok, I guess I have to stop assuming that the whole world calls everything the same names that I do!! Typical American? You bet!
On park terminology: I ran into several different kinds of parks... 街区公園, 近隣公園, and 地区公園. I translated them temporarily as block parks, neighborhood parks, and community parks, and am now awaiting confirmation by the mediating translation company.
So far I do not seem to have any readers for this blog, but if anyone interested in translation comes along, please tell me what sort of thing you would be interested in reading about!!
Ok, well, it is Monday early evening here in beautiful spring time Sapporo, home of the melting snow hills and pleasant days, and I have been working thru the weekend again... so, I am going to go downstairs and score some serious loafing time before I wake up for my Tuesday work load.
See you in translation land!
4 comments:
It takes some brass to promote your blog after just 2 posts!
That said, I'll bookmark you and check in - juts to keep you honest.
That ink drawing is really nice, by the way. Have you thought of illustrating kids books?
Hey! Congrats on the new blog. I think it's a cool idea to explore different concepts and how the actual signifiers/words for those concepts in respective languages pleasantly agree with, beat up or seemingly overlap with each other.
As a side-poke at ya', maybe an easier way to understand why 幼稚園 became kindergarten rather than pre-school (btw, my humble Michigan kindergarten was separated from my elementary school) is to accept that 小学校の一年生 must be a first-grader. Right? Those little tots before first-grade attend kindergarten (most times!). But as all of us translators know, it depends on the context. What do you think of 保育園? It has more of a preschool ring to me, because preschoolers sound REALLY young to me--kids that really need to be reared and protected, as the characters suggest. :-)
Looking forward to more cool stuff from you. I particularly enjoy "stuff" like the "Green Matrix."
Great to see someone writing for pleasure about the stuff we do for our bread!
I translate 9 to 5 here in Tokyo and, in between times, run a website, JapanVisitor.com, with some colleagues.
Would appreciate the chance to exchange links on our respective blogs. http://japanvisitor.blogspot.com/
You wrote 'I like contracts best'. You meant 'I like comics best'.
See, I am one of the few people in this universe who actually comprehend what they read.
No-one else is likely to notice and since I am totally uninterested in translating 'zap - pow bam' you have nothing to fear from me. See we genuine human beings always prefer life away from the smoking crowd.
Good luck and thanks for spamming me with the link to your blog! ^_^/
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