So you want to be a Japanese translator, eh? Is your dream to move to Japan and get a job translating video games/manga/anime – or, better yet, doing interpretation for businessmen? Then you should check the flowchart below to see if you can handle it.
Look, I’m going to be honest. The grim reality is that you will almost certainly never be a Japanese translator. For one, your Japanese isn’t good enough, and it probably won’t be. It requires a truly immense amount of studying, and you have to be nearly fluent both in terms of grammar and incredibly obscure vocabulary. And passing the JLPT doesn’t matter, unless you pass 2kyuu (actually, probably 1kyuu) or higher – and even then you’re probably not going to get it. The fact is that, unfortunately, being Japanese is really the main way to be a translator. There are nuances of Japanese culture that they don’t teach you in class, and having them be innate is a huge leg up.
I was at a talk tonight, and they had a Japanese interpreter. She did a really great job, in terms of speed, efficiency and accuracy. But – and here’s the thing – she was Japanese. I mean, my guess is that she was Japanese-American, and that basically puts her ahead of all the other non-Japanese vying for that position.
So… sorry. Maybe you can do translations for your manga group on the Internet, but that won’t help you in the real world. It’ll earn you some weeaboo credibility, but that’s about it.
There’s an essay online about learning Japanese and, in part, the people who take classes like that. It’s from the early ages of the Internet, but it’s still wholly relevant. I currently take Japanese classes here in New York (at a fairly advanced level) but there are still stereotypes, so I thought I’d write about them. Keep in mind that the average person in the class is somewhere between 20 and 35.
The recent repatriate. This is the person who just got back from spending somewhere between several months and one hundred years in Japan, so they know everything about everything in Japanese culture, both past and present. Their answers are always overly verbose and end up going on tangents about that one time they were in that one place and saw some really crazy thing. Also, despite having recently gotten back from Japan, they’re still not as fluent as they think.
The future expatriate. This person is ready to get out of the U.S. and go to Glorious Nippon, where they will undoubtedly immediately be given a job, a beautiful apartment, and a Japanese girlfriend. These classes are just a way for them to get up to the level where they’ll be perfectly fluent and can then go over.
Still Otaku. Despite easier classes usually weeding out the otaku who realize that they can’t take one session’s worth of classes and translate manga, some still manage to make it through, and their geekdom becomes concentrated at higher levels. They know all the weird aspects of Japanese subcultures and are not afraid to let you and everyone else know it. The Still Otaku archetype often spends half an hour describing the awkward subject they’ve brought up, and are immune to your facepalming.
The Engrish Master. Despite being in a class to learn Japanese, there are still people who insist on speaking English. These people often raise their hands to answer a question, but then go totally blank, get frustrated because they can’t really elucidate their point, and then have to ask in English for that one word that means something really obscure. Or they’ll try to speak some hybrid of Japanese and English, where most of the words that have actual meaning are English.
The Know-it-all. In earlier levels there are people who think they really have a grasp on the language but don’t; in the higher levels, there are people who really do know everything. When you pause to think of a word, they’ll jump right in and explain what you’re trying to say, much to your chagrin. These people also have a level of smugness where they know that they’re at the top of the class, having clearly understood the Japanese concept of humility.
Captain Overshare. We’re often asked to describe situations, and they can be personal stories. But Captain Overshare has no problem telling that one really awkward story about how they had a walk of shame back from the Upper East Side or something. There can be overlap between this group and the otaku guy class.
The deer in headlights. They’ve somehow made it (read: paid) through the levels, but they’re still lost in the discussions. “What are some examples where you feel rushed?” “Um, er, well.. yes. If you were… yes, that’s right.” This sort of person usually doesn’t speak up unless specifically called on, and then your class will drag while they putter around.
The old guy. Sort of a subclass of the recent repatriate, the old guy spent a bit of time in Japan some time ago and has more or less forgotten everything, but they’re trying to work their way back up. Admirable, maybe, but they can also end up being deer in headlights.
Now obviously there are regular people who took the language in school and want to maintain their comprehension, or maybe they use Japanese for work. But they’re usually few and far between.
Two reports came out today that I think need to be emphasized. I really do wish the Democrats would start fighting back harder rather than just rolling over and taking it, but what can you do.
The first is that 45 senators voted to block a bill that would promote less outsourcing. Now yes, five of them are Democrats (actually four, and whatever Joe Lieberman is) but still. These are people who are okay with taking jobs away from Americans. If that doesn’t scream “I’m paid off by big business” then I don’t know what does. There’s no way those senators are voting in the best interests of their constituents. And in those states where those senators are from, why can’t the Dems run ads saying “Senator X is okay with taking away your jobs and keeping unemployment high”? Just repeat that statement over and over ’til you win.
Number two – and this one is considerably more disturbing, I think – is that 112 78 of the GOP candidates running in November are against abortion at any time. That includes rape, incest, and cases when the pregnancy endangers the mother. One hundred and twelve. That is… absolutely staggering, and horrendously appalling. How you can be that cruel is beyond me. And don’t give me this “it’s God’s plan for us” bullshit – your Christian god isn’t nearly that cruel. I also find it hard to understand how the GOP/teabaggers’ claims of less government also translates to harsher laws, but whatever. Here’s another place where the Democrats should just spam an ad saying “Candidate Y is against abortion even if a person is raped”.
Just being louder about how far right these people are is bound to scare the moderates in the GOP. At best those people will vote Democrat, and at worst they’ll just not vote overall.
Seriously, Democratic Party, I really hope you’re reading this post. (Probably aren’t, though.) There is no reason why we should lose control to these people who have quite clearly gone off the deep end.
(update on oct 2: LGF originally reported 112, but rawstory looked into it and showed it was 78. so updated.)
Look, I don’t want to be the curmudgeon here, but I think I need to say what’s on my mind. I should first state that I agree with the general purpose of TwitChange. Raising money for a good cause? Great! Using Twitter for something other than inane bullshit? What a nice change of pace.
But come on, let’s face it: the general premise behind TwitChange is utterly depressing. Here’s the premise: you, a random Twitter user, place a bid on an eBay auction for a celebrity. If you win, you get all sorts of amazing things, like the celebrity “follow[ing] you on Twitter for a minimum of 90 days, will retweet one of your tweets and will send out a tweet including your @twitterhandle.” Whoa, man!! A celebrity will follow me for 90 days and echo my username out once!? For upwards of $500!? How is this not a bad deal for anyone involved?!?!!
I guess it just makes me sad that people feel the need to be validated by paying a bunch of cash to have a pseudo Twitter relationship with a celebrity. I love Nathan Fillion and Joel McHale and Felicia Day just as much as the next person, but I don’t go around with a handful of money asking them to be forced to interact with me. It’s a clever idea and a great way to generate money for a charity, but it’s predicated on exploiting people’s trite and awkward desires to be close to celebrities. And it’s totally artificial on top of it. Ryan Seacrest isn’t going to remember who you are the day after you win the bid.
