Master's degree to be a Japanese translator

Japanese Language Questions
#72

Kent State is where I received my Bachelor’s degree and it’s also where I took all of my Japanese classes. I spent three years learning Japanese there. I was only three classes shy from a minor in Japanese. The Japanese program is run by Eriko Tanaka who is the best Japanese professor I have ever had. She always made things very clear and easy to understand. She was also from Osaka originally, so it was fun to practice “Osaka-nese” every once in awhile.

Dr. Wakabayashi is the head of the Master’s in Translation program at Kent State. She’s actually Australian. Very nice woman, but her bar is set very high. She expects good results, and yes, a grasp on the language is almost a requirement before thinking about trying to apply. The students in the Master’s program also doubled as Teaching Assistants for the lower level Japanese classes. The people I had were really nice, and doubled as tutors if you wanted extra help, as well. Almost all of them were JLPT N2 level speakers. One of the girls had an N1 level. Most had worked in Japan for some amount of time (not saying that that’s a requirement). One studied Japanese at Rikkyo University for one year while also taking classes in Japanese at the same time.

Your friend is in very capable hands!

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#73

@Amimononohitsuji Yes, there is actually a thread about Kanken that I participated in with a question I had about studying yojijukugo.

On my way of preparing Kanken, since I have never taken the exam before, I feel that I’m not in a position to give much advice, but basically what I do is for each kanji, I try to remember a word or several for each reading, and then, I do a lot of preparation exercises like the ones you can find on this website:

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#74

If you have access to the Japanese Netflix library, I recommend しくじり先生. Chaotic, funny, with a bunch of big personality celebrities talking naturally. Fully subbed of course. :+1:

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#75

Thank you, that looks very useful.

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#76

@nat25 since I use the usually just listen to the talkshows and podcasts, so I have no idea about subtitles. for Vtubers, there are a lot of clip translation channels on youtube. Even then I usually listen to the livestreams without watching them. I find that having subtitles up makes it harder to work on my listening skills cause I am used to reading subtitles as if they are a natural thing. When I fist started working on my listening skills I was told to specifically avoid subtitles cause your brain will naturally focus on them instead of listening properly cause it is easier.

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#77

@Omun Thank you so much for your recommendation! I’ll take a look at it! :+1:

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#78

I don’t have any particular recommendations, and although I watch VTubers… let’s just say that while I think they probably speak more naturally (and with more slang) than anime characters, it’s still possible that some of them modify their speech to give a certain impression. I guess you just have to be aware of obvious speech tics? Most of those I watch don’t have them, but some do, and yet that doesn’t make them less entertaining or less worth watching. It’s more important to watch them while being conscious of what’s being said.

Generally though, I’d suggest you pick a fairly popular VTuber group (like Hololive or Nijisanji) because they’re more likely to have a following, and then, when you need subtitles, search for clips. 切り抜き are what you’re looking for in Japanese. English clips are OK too, and can be fun (some of the more advanced people on WK make them too), but be aware that a lot of EN translations are inaccurate or just can’t quite capture the feel of the Japanese because the languages are too different (despite the translators’ best efforts), so it’s usually better to study the 切り抜き (Japanese clips). 切り抜き usually have Japanese subs. Sometimes they’re not 100% accurate, but they’re usually tons better than whatever you can hear yourself, so even if there are mistakes, you can usually figure out the rest yourself, because the clippers are usually native speakers anyway. Clips are also a good way to get into the VTuber world because they’ll give you snapshots of what various VTubers are like and help you pick your favourites. I think that a lot of them speak quite naturally, but not all of them are easy to understand, so you might want to prioritise comprehension before moving on to more energetic VTubers who might not speak as clearly.

EDIT: if you want specific names, maybe you can try Okayu or Fubuki from Hololive JP? Or Botan and Ayame. I think they’re not too difficult to understand. You can try asking on the VTuber thread or doing a quick search there, because this was discussed recently. The others have been following them way longer than me anyway. I still think it’s best for you to pick someone you like according to your preferences though, because it’s much easier to learn when you’re engaged and really want to understand what the VTuber is saying.

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#79

@Jonapedia Thank you very much for explaining me about VTubers! The truth is that I’m practically unfamiliar with the world of VTubers, I only know Kizuna Ai, so thanks a lot for introducing me to more VTubers. Anyway, I’ll also look at the VTubers thread you mentioned to broaden my horizons.

Some time ago, when I watched some videos of Kizuna Ai, I remember that most of the videos used to have English, Chinese and sometimes Korean subtitles, but the Japanese subtitles were “generated automatically”, so they did not quite match with what was said. Let’s hope if looking for 切り抜き and the name of the VTuber on YouTube I can find videos with subtitles. It would definitely be great!

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#80

Usually you can as long as the thing that happened is popular enough. For example, with regard to a question on VTuber asked another about her pronunciation,

that was what you got in English, but if you tried something like 「みこち にぇ 切り抜き」, you got this:

And yeah, you can see the difference in quality even though neither is perfect. Some things got simplified/shortened in English because they would be easier to follow that way. (Edited because I initially thought there were translation errors, but now that I think about it – and after some searching to see how 落ちる is used on the web – I guess it’s close enough.)

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#81

@Jonapedia Oh, I see! Thanks a lot for the example clips! Definitely they seem quite useful for learning as well as having fun :laughing:

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#82

kizuna ai’s videos (her old ones at least) are different then most Vtubers cause they are pre recorded and use a script. Thats why most of them had subs, cause they could add them before posting the video. Now most Vtubers do livestreaming, which makes what they say more natural. While most of them do use a few non-traditional things to portray a character, the way most of them speak is still better then anime or dramas.

As a side note: It is pretty common for countryside villages (that are a ways from major cities) to have distinct sentence enders (verbel tics). Apparently adding “nyaa” to the end of a sentence is actually a speech pattern from a village in northern japan.

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#83

In case you’re interested, the Tofugu team did a couple of interviews with some translators or interpreters. Feel free to check out their podcast:

  • Tofugu - What Makes a Good Japanese Translator? feat. Alexander O. Smith

  • Tofugu - Translating Historical Texts (That Have Never Been Translated Before) feat. Matt Alt

  • Tofugu - Interpreting for Osamu Tezuka feat. Frederik Schodt

  • Tofugu - Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Freelance Japanese Translator? feat. Nora Stevens Heath

  • Tofugu - Stories from Translating Final Fantasy X feat. Alex O. Smith

  • Tofugu - How to Get a Job at a Japanese Video Game Company feat. Ben Judd

  • Tofugu - Learning Japanese and Secret Ways to Visit Japan: Advice from Loretta “Kemushichan” <= technically not a translator but might be still interesting as she seems to be very popular

The different book clubs here in the forums have been mentioned already, I think. Definitely would like to second them :slight_smile:

Also, I’d like to propose to have a look into Becks’s intensive reading/study log. They are not a translator but they tackle native material step by step. Maybe you can find some ideas or techniques to get you started.

Another one I’d like to throw in is JSTOR. They are not limited to literature so you can find a lot of different articles, journals and so on in there.

As for Japanese literature: in case you want to get an overview and are not sure where to start Donald L. Keene has published a couple of well known works in this field. It might give you a good background in canonical classical and modern Japanese Literature.

Also, you can have a look into 国際芥川龍之介学会 (International Society for Akutagawa [Ryunosuke] Studies). Their work of field is very specific though :sweat_smile:

Something I noticed after taking two semesters in Japanese Literature is that ~ like probably everything ~ it is the entrance of a rabbit hole. After this I took classes In Japanese History… and then politics and then I wanted to learn about some modern Japanese thinkers… So, you might not be limited to Literature. And I think it was Nora Stevens Heath who, during the podcast with the Tofugu team, elaborated a little bit on her specialty ~ not being specialized.

I’m sure, which ever road you take, getting some basics in these topics will help you to understand why certain topics are addressed from certain angles. Or it will help you to catch references and so on.

Good luck with your further studies and as others already mentioned feel free to keep us posted :four_leaf_clover:

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#84

Hey @nat25, congrats on completing your degree! I also was a foreign language major and graduated almost 10 years ago. After college, I became and ESL teacher for several years and I :+1: the other suggestions here for the JET program before diving into graduate school. Since then my career has taken all sorts of directions I couldn’t have foreseen. I imagine the same will be true for you, too. TBD with the lockdowns, but JET is a great fit for you. Speaking from experience, I would not lose sleep over speaking and listening ability as that will dramatically increase after living abroad even for a short time. Good luck!

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#85

In this case, the にぇ we hear is apparently due to a congenital defect in Miko’s tongue. (Miko is the VTuber with the pink hair.) People who’ve followed her longer than I have say that she’s mentioned it on stream before, and I did hear her saying the other day that she thinks ね is probably the hardest syllable for her to pronounce in the standard fashion.

It’s interesting to know about regional variations though. :slight_smile:

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#86

I’m not a historian or anything, but my guess is that regional sentence enders are a form of forced accent. Probably a way that people could tell which village someone was from without asking. Which sounds like a very Japanese way to approach knowing where someone is from. Asking people personal questions seems like it would be rude in Japan.

But yeah thats just my take on it and probably not the real reason for it.

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#87

Oh, I didn’t know that! I thought that in the case of “nyaa”, only the cat characters used it, how curious!

#88

@tls Thank you very much for your answer! It has been quite informative and useful. I’ll take a look at all the resources you mentioned as well as the interviews :slight_smile:

Out of curiosity,

did you do these studies in your country or in a Japanese university? Something like that, that allows me, for example, what you say, understand references and so on would be a good idea.

Thanks a lot also for your encouragement!

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#89

You’re very welcome.

No, I did not study at a Japanese university. Do you feel it would be beneficial or even necessary to study at a Japanese university? (<- I’m just curious. You don’t have to answer though :slight_smile: )

Personally, for getting the basics under my belt I should read a lot of different sources, I think. Some of them ideally are the original sources (depending on my level of language knowledge though). And I’d like to have a study group / community specialized in the topic to discuss with. Discussion can be done in any language that is available, I think. … And “discussion” in this case may include writing papers or giving talks.

So in your case, I think it will be helpful to read some of the original texts eventually so you can recognize wording, topics or other types of references. But the discussion about the material can be done in any language, I think. Probably, it might be beneficial if it is done in English because you’ll have access to a large community interested in Japanese / East Asian Studies.

To be more precise, the introductory classes in Japanese literature and Japanese history I was talking about relied on secondary and sometimes tertiary resources only. The first time I was confronted with Japanese sources was during bungo / kobun class and later during some more advanced history classes. And I’m pretty sure I would not have survived any of the classes without the help of my study buddies :sweat_smile:

Does this answer your question? I admit, I am trying the keep everything kind of generic so far. Feel free to ask, in case you have some more questions or anything :slight_smile:

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#90

Yes, thanks a lot for your answer! :slight_smile:

Yes, I think it would be the best for me, taking into account that in my country there are hardly any studies related to Japan and Japanese, and the level of the very few that there are leaves a lot to be desired. Therefore, I think Japan would be a good place to continue growing academically, to learn Japanese in all its facets, and to experience a cultural immersion that I think is necessary for me.

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#91

Thanks for sharing. And I hope some interesting opportunities will come up for you :four_leaf_clover:

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