1. What languages do you speak?
What languages do you speak?
2. How and why did you become a translator?
Before becoming a freelance translator, I worked in a domestic Japanese advertising company. As an editor of a Japanese magazine, my routine was interviewing, writing, translating, advertising, etc. Being exposed to the translation industry through my work in the advertising company, I have always felt that translation is a very interesting and meaningful job. It can connect people, cultures, and countries. Therefore, I chose the job of translation.
3. What do you like most about being a part of the EC Innovations’ Community? / What do you enjoy most about working with EC Innovations?
ECI is very cooperative with clients in communication, data provision, deadline adjustment, etc. If translators have any questions during the translation, they can contact PMs and get a reply in time. In addition, there is an online Master Sheet with comprehensive information about the works for each project. It’s easy for translators to check the project’s Query log, Style Guide, world view, people’s settings, etc., so that we can quickly get started on new projects.
4. How has your localization project manager helped you to do your best work?
Being very cooperative with the translation, the PMs of ECI can be said to be the confidants of projects. We think together, plan together, and deal with the project together to offer better and perfect works. Translators can thereby concentrate on the project and their own translations more smoothly.
5. What’s the most interesting content you’ve translated?
I am currently a game localization translator. The most interesting thing about game projects is of course the plot. All kinds of characters with different world views and charms open a brand-new beginning every time we come into contact with a new project. As translators, we are faced with a great adventure in a different world every time, sometimes as a scientist to study the world, other times as a brave man to save mankind, and still other times as a saint to help brave soldiers. Although we can only live one life in the real world, there are countless lives in the works of games. The role of translators is to provide players with a brand-new fantasy world, making it a very interesting job.
6. What skills do you find critical to be an excellent translator?
What a translator needs to understand is not the simple meaning of the words in the source, but the meaning of the whole article and the intention of the author. What we need to do is to consider the logic of the target language, rather than translate it directly and rigidly according to the grammatical order of the source. The goal of translation is to output what conforms to the culture, habits, customs, and logic of the target language country.
7. What is your favorite non-English word and why is it your favorite?
“唯一无二 (unique)”
I think all translations are unique. When writing a translation, we are not simply replacing words. The translation is based on everyone’s background, culture, experiences, and experience.
8. What do you like to do outside of work? How do you achieve work-life balance?
My hobbies are writing, painting, and making nendoroids.
In fact, there is no spare time during busy periods, but I will still make time for some hobbies. For example, I have drawn comics with other translators, and the theme is our daily life of translation. I have also made YouTube videos about translation. I set my own workload for a day, and when it’s finished, the rest of the time is my spare time. This is how I arrange my work at present.
9. What are things that visitors to your area should not miss?
I am currently living in Tochigi, Japan, a rural area in the Guanzhong region, Japan. The famous scenic spot in Tochigi is Kinugawa and Nasu in Nikko. You can taste delicious yuba in Nikko, not dried yuba but raw yuba prepared on the spot, which has a very soft taste. Tochigi’s Wagyu and strawberries are also very famous. You must have a taste of Tochigi’s Wagyu and white strawberries if given the chance. Besides, the Edo theme park in Nikko, Edo Wonderland, “Nikko Edomura” is worth a visit.
10. What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received? / What advice would you give to translators who are just starting out?
Objective suggestions for translation are very valuable. It is difficult for translators including myself to look at our own translations from an objective perspective. Newcomers should read more of the source and their own translations. If you feel any sense of contradiction and incongruity when reading your own translation, it proves that there is something wrong with it. Mistakes in grammar, words, or understanding are all possible. In this case, you should take a look at the source to get a deeper understanding to offer a more appropriate translation. For the translation of game localization, I suggest that you can be bolder in free translation and create new words. But here, it should be noted that free translation ≠ scribbling. There is quite a difference between the two, so translators cannot use their own subjectivity to create words casually. We need to have a deep understanding of the author’s intention and translate based on the logic, culture, and habits of the target language.
