Teaching Japanese-into-English Translation -- Martie Jelinek
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- INTRODUCTION
- BEGINNERS
- STARTING OUT
- THE TRANSLATION PROCESS – A Five-Step Approach
- TEACHING UNSEEN TRANSLATION
- SELECTING TEXTS
- AIDS & REVISION
- ADVANCING
- TYPICAL STUDENT ERRORS
INTRODUCTION
This essay outlines some strategies for teaching Japanese-into-English translation to a class of Japanese learners with native or near-native English ability. Concentrating on beginners and intermediate students, it suggests a Five-Step Approach to translation and provides some Classroom Strategies you might like to use to teach each of these steps. This is followed by a few ideas for Teaching Unseen Translation, a note on Selecting Texts, and some examples of Typical Student Errors.
BEGINNERS
We can start teaching Japanese-into-English translation to students at the lower intermediate level of Japanese studies; that is, around the beginning of term two of the full-time diploma at SOAS. Before this, students do not have enough Japanese grammar or vocabulary to read translation texts – in fact even in the first few weeks of term two it is difficult to find suitably simple material for a translation class.
STARTING OUT
The very first time students are asked to translate from Japanese into English, the majority produce a very stiff literal translation, which does not sound like English. In some cases the ‘English’ is not even comprehensible! At this stage – lesson one - I explain to students that we aim to:
convey the same meaning as the original, in natural English.
I use any accessible text – not difficult – to do together as a group in class, asking students to give suggestions for the translation. Depending on the time you have, it might be good to do the translation aloud together, and then ask students to write it up in class time. The inevitable question that beginners ask is, ‘How closely should I stick to the original text?’ The answer is ‘Closely enough to convey all the meaning accurately.’
So, coaxing students to write natural English is a challenge at this stage. I suggest questions for them to ask themselves:
'How would I normally say this in English?'
'If an English reader, with no knowledge of Japanese, reads my text, would s/he understand it clearly?'
'Would s/he know it was a translation?' (obviously s/he shouldn't)
These questions enable students to criticize and improve their own work.
The standard teaching style I use, especially when students have written up their translations, is to ask them to comment on each other’s work. Having obtained a good answer, I usually ask for alternatives before moving on: ‘Did anyone translate that differently?’ ‘Any other suggestions?’ (See Classroom Strategies below).
The main principles that students learn at this stage are:
We don’t translate words; we translate meaning.
and
There are often several ways to translate something – there’s not just one correct English solution. ( See also Model Solutions below)
Finally, it is important that the texts are easy enough at this stage – if students are struggling to understand the Japanese, they won’t learn the lesson about English style. Also, easy texts in lessons 1 and 2 build confidence.
THE TRANSLATION PROCESS – A Five Step Approach
Some students produce an excellent translation without guidance, but for the rest I suggest the following 5 steps:
- Reading through the text to get the overall picture
- Looking up vocabulary
- Producing the rough draft
- Producing the smooth version
- The final check
Implementing the translation process
Step 1 Reading through the text to get the overall picture
Many students are tempted to skip this step and leap straight into their translation, but it is a very useful tool which aids the overall coherence of the finished work. This is vital at advanced level, but even beginners benefit. An interesting example is the elementary text from Japanese for Today, 日本の着物 . If students start translating without reading through first, they will want to translate 着物 as kimono from the start. However, reading the whole text shows that 着物 refers to Japanese clothing in general in the first part of the text, and only later comes to mean the kimono as we know it today, in contrast with Western dress ( 洋服 ).
To get students to practice Step 1, I sometimes give out a text and ask them to spend a short time answering a small number of questions on it. An example is the 練習文 text in Hibbett and Itasaka’s book (Hibbett and Itasaka, p.128) where I asked, ‘Briefly, what two incidents are described here? And what is the common thread that links them?’ (I think it is better that students do not use dictionaries for this, so that they are encouraged to extract essential information without poring over each word.) Another task might be to select a few key words from a passage.
As a useful gist reading exercise, you could give students a text and ask them to answer the following questions:
a) What is the genre? - article? review? letter? report?
b) Who is the target reader? - tourist? businessman? customer?
c) What is the purpose of the text? - to entertain? to persuade? to inform?
d) What is the style of the text? - formal? informal?
Another interesting task for intermediate and advanced students is to ask them to read through a text and say what the translation difficulties will be. This serves a dual purpose: getting a general gist of the text and raising/discussing translation problems as a prelude to translating. I have found that this task works well in pairs; the thoughts of each pair can then be opened up for class discussion.
Step 2 Looking up vocabulary
Unless translating an unseen text (see Teaching Unseen Translation below), students will either be provided with a vocabulary list or will look up vocabulary they do not know. I think that looking up vocabulary is a poor use of class time unless we are specifically working on dictionary skills as part of a lesson. It usually forms part of translation homework/preparation. Some people feel that looking up vocabulary themselves helps them to remember it. And of course students can be encouraged to make their own glossaries independently.
In the case of SOAS full-time Japanese diploma students I usually provide vocabulary lists to accompany texts. These lists contain words not yet covered in the textbook. I am therefore able to say to students, 'New words are given in the vocabulary list; everything else you should know!'. (For deducing the meaning of vocabulary from context see Teaching Unseen Translation).
Step 3 Producing the rough draft
This is the stage where students actually work out what the text is saying, methodically & grammatically, to produce aliteral translation.The draft may be written down and amended later (Step 4), or may just be a process that students go through in their heads.Unfortunately, students often look at a sentence as a series of vocabulary items and combine them in any way they see fit! The point to ram home at this stage is BE GRAMMATICAL. This, for beginners, is the key stage of the translation process in which they learn the role of particles, verb forms, head nouns, embedded clauses, and so on. Beginners have to be stopped from starting their translation with the first word of a Japanese sentence, and forced instead to answer the questions: What is the topic? Where is the main verb? etc.
If a class has a lot of difficulty with Step 3, then a pre-translation task could be useful, for example ‘Go through the passage marking all the topics – where do we have a new topic?’ or ‘Pick out all head nouns’ or ‘Pick out the main verb in each sentence’. Students must be made to see the overall shape of a sentence before translating e.g. ‘Is there a quote, an embedded clause, several items waiting for the same particle?’
Where students have misunderstood the Japanese text (i.e. decoding errors) they need to go back and work it out grammatically.
Step 4 Producing the smooth translation
Some students combine Steps 3 and 4, whereas others do a separate draft followed by a smooth translation. Either method is fine, but Step 3 alone does not produce a finished piece of translation work! (some students think a rough draft is sufficient). It is at this stage that we look for natural, good English. Beginners need to get used to polishing their English, changing structures as necessary and making their text more fluent and expressive, whilst not losing the sense of the original. Some students go too far, producing a wonderful piece of literature which is miles from the original author’s intentions!
Step 4 is the crux of the translation process for upper intermediate and advanced students, who need to deal with issues of style, register, cultural differences, ‘untranslatable phenomena’, addressing the correct client/target readership, proper names and so on. {See ADVANCING }
SOME WAYS TO WORK ON STEPS (3) AND (4)
- Preparation before classes
Most frequently I ask students to prepare a translation at home. I then go through it with them as a group. This works best with a class size of between 5 and 10, as we usually have in the SOAS full-time diploma. I may dot around the class (never in order but apparently at random) asking students to read a section of text aloud, and then asking for their English translations. Where a student’s translation is very good it can inspire other class-members (much better than me providing a translation). Where there are problems I usually invite other class members, or the student him/herself, to identify and correct them. It is important that a student is not simply told ‘No, this should have been [correct version]’ but that we identify exactly where the process went wrong: a vocabulary error? a decoding error (Step 3)? or poor encoding (Step 4)? I prompt students to work this out for themselves and try another solution.
- Pairwork
Students can be asked to review their homework in pairs or groups of three. I have found that this works well for all levels of translation class. First I ask students to highlight which sections of the text – usually an expression, phrase or sentence – caused them trouble. I ask them to mark, for example, between 2 and 6 problems. Then I pair them up and ask them to compare results with their partner. Where the problems are different, students can learn from each other. Where the same issue is highlighted, I ask them whether they have resolved it in the same way or differently. What exactly is causing the problem? Grammar? Vocabulary? Style? Finding good English to fit? Often a lively & productive discussion emerges. (I recently used this method with a challenging text for 3 rd term SOAS students, 遊びの役割 , summer 2004 translation exam.)
One can follow this up by going through the whole text with the group or focusing on the trouble spots common to most pairs.
Here is a sheet I gave to advanced students to facilitate pairwork on a prepared text:
i. Form pairs, or groups of 3 or 4
ii. Tell your partner/s what caused you problems in this text (vocab items, names, grammar (in SL or TL), style (in SL or TL), etc
iii.Compare solutions to these problems.
iv. Decide, as a group/pair, on the best solution to each problem.
v. Where your partner/s resolved a problem well, what enabled them to do so? e.g. good dictionaries, use of the internet, knowledge of specialist subject matter, mastery of style, etc…
Note: SL = Source language (Japanese)
TL = Target language (English)
- Criticizing an existing translation
Hand out an existing translation of a text, either one that the students have already worked on or a new text. This may contain encoding or decoding errors, mistranslated vocabulary and names, poor choices of style or register, inconsistencies, or any combination of the above. (However, for beginners it is better that we deal with one type of error at a time, whether it is encoding or decoding.)
Students are asked to identify and correct the errors. This may be tackled as homework or classwork, alone or in pairs. It can be a good strategy to adopt when
i) students keep making the same type of translation error, or
ii) you have a group of students who are shy about correcting each other’s mistakes – they might feel freer to criticize an anonymous text.
An interesting exercise for intermediate students is to rewrite a formal or polite Japanese text which has been translated into over-colloquial English, or vice-versa. [Note also a story like 五人の男 from プールサイド小景・静物 , 庄野潤三 , which requires careful prose, interspersed with very colloquial dialogue]
Step 5 The final check
OVERALL TONE & READABILITY: It is at this stage that students should read through their translation at normal speed and stand back from it. Perhaps the English is too repetitive, or is inconsistent? Often, with advanced texts, it is also best to translate the title at this final stage.
CHECKING DETAILS: Students need to go back over their work and check particularly for:
- omissions – everyone misses out a sentence, or even a paragraph(!) from time to time;
- are proper names correctly Romanised, including long vowels where necessary?
- check figures, particularly where Chinese characters are used;
- check the English for spelling and punctuation mistakes.
I have not found a good method to ‘teach’ the final check, although when advanced exam students discover that just a single serious error, for example １ ０ 万 translated as 10,000 instead of 100,000 could result in a fail at professional level examinations, most are persuaded to check their work!
TEACHING UNSEEN TRANSLATION
Unseen translation is where students are asked to translate a text without dictionaries. It is an extremely useful exercise which develops deduction skills using context and common sense – what I refer to as intelligent guesswork. Unseen translation also encourages a grammatical approach to decoding, i.e. it is a really good way to practise the skills in Step 3 above. And it helps students to realise that they do not need to know every single word in a passage – they learn to maximise the knowledge they have.
I usually practise unseen translation as a group, encouraging students to volunteer ideas and suggestions. This can be a great confidence builder but is problematic in a class of very mixed ability or where the learning atmosphere is poor. I have found unseen work very useful with SOAS diploma students, with the proviso that the quickest students sometimes need to be kept in check to give others a chance.
Tackling UNSEEN TRANSLATION
Tell students:
i) When you see a long sentence and/or can’t grasp the meaning immediately, don’t panic!
ii) Take one step at a time – don’t guess. (‘Intelligent guesswork’ comes later, when we’ve worked out everything we can)
iii) Look at the shape of each sentence: find the topic, main verb and other verbs, embedded clauses, quotes, subjects, objects and the roles of all particles.
I try to encourage students along these lines and hopefully they understand a lot more of the text than they first thought they would. A typical exchange might go as follows:
Student: Oh no! This sentence goes on forever! What does [unknown item] mean?
Teacher: Let’s work it out. Just ignore [unknown item]. Is there a place you could split this sentence? (e.g. が、けれども ).
Student: Is this sentence saying wild guess ?
Teacher: Don’t try to translate the whole sentence yet. Where is the topic?…. And the main verb? …..Great. Now what about particle ‘x’ and particle ‘y’ - what do they tell you?… etc
The beginner’s greatest fear is unknown vocabulary
- I ask students to identify what part of speech an unknown item is: a noun, a verb, a proper name, an adverb? It is worth pointing out that an adverb will not affect the grammar of a sentence.
- Provisionally, I suggest they just think of that unknown noun or verb as ‘X’ or ‘did/does X’.
- Often an unknown item in a title is explained within the text (so don’t panic – read on!). Good examples are 「 単身赴任」 or 「総会屋」 (NHK 「ニュースのキーワード」、 NHK 国際放送局 ) where the text deals with a Japanese phenomena for which there is no direct English equivalent, and texts like 「 方向音痴」（ Japanese for Busy People III, Workbook） which introduce the reader to a Japanese term.
- Is the unknown item a kanji compound? Do students know one of the kanji? If so, they should go with it. Students often panic because they do not know a compound, when knowledge of one kanji will get them a long way, e.g. 基金、洗濯、色彩、木材 .
- Does the radical provide any clues? Or is it possible to combine meanings of the kanji to work out meaning? 森林、火災、大雨、生物学 .
- Draw students’ attention to any prefixes and suffixes. I provide 3 rd term SOAS students with a list of these: 再 -- 来 -- 無 -- 最 --- ; --- 歳 --- 高 --- 後 --- 学 etc.
- Remind students that it is not necessary to know the kanji reading to translate.
- If all of these strategies fail, I encourage students to fill in the gaps using good guesses and common sense. ‘What could it be ？ The possibilities are not endless!’
SELECTING TEXTS
Beginners need to use textbook material for translation. The full-time diploma course file contains materials; most are taken from standard current textbooks like Japanese for Busy People, 文化中級日本語 and so on. I also find some older books like Japanese for Today and Hibbett and Itasaka useful, and have occasionally used 日本語ジャーナル . The challenge is to provide interesting and varied texts which are not over-demanding in terms of vocabulary, and whose grammar fits with the rest of the course syllabus.
The more students progress the easier it is to find translation texts; by upper intermediate level almost any text can be used. I find Nipponia to be a useful bridge between textbooks and authentic materials, although beware that some texts are surprisingly difficult, for example the haiku series (Nipponia 1998-9). A couple of these proved very challenging for an advanced class! Nipponia’s nice large print with furigana can be misleading!
It is not possible, in my experience, to give beginners a choice of translation material, but I usually give advanced classes a questionnaire asking them to let me know which subject areas interest them. This enables classes to be tailored to suit students’ interests, and involves them more. However, I do make all classes try at least some translation in different subject areas. For example, a class which expressed most interest in literature and history is still confronted by at least one science and one business text per term. The students may groan initially but most tackle the challenge better than they expected, and one or two even admit to enjoying it! Variety is important: variety of style, subject matter, length and type of text.
Last but not least, it helps to bring some fun into the classroom. I am always looking for more ideas and suggestions about how to do this.
Where classroom dynamic is good students laugh at their own mistakes, and that alone provides us with light relief!
If the text itself is amusing or is, for example, a narrative with a twist in the tail, students enjoy it and gain motivation. A simple and fun narrative for beginners is 百足のお使い (JBP III) , and a nice story for intermediate/advanced classes is The Deluxe Safe by Hoshi Shin’ichi ( デラックスな金庫、星新一 ) . In term 3 at SOAS I ask students to do a survey about their eating habits ( 文化中級日本語 II) with a partner in class. Reading the Japanese and questioning their partner in English ensures that students are still practising translation skills. This short task has proved popular, especially at a time when students are overwhelmed by new kanji and worrying about exams. At intermediate and advanced levels I have asked students to translate very short Buddhist sayings or tricky phrases, for example from 「日本らしさ」を英語にできますか？ ( 松本道弘・ Boy é Lafayette De Mente). These are not amusing as such, but their compactness changes mood and class dynamic – they can provide a change after studying a long and difficult newspaper article. I have also tested students on a list of famous Japanese figures, both historical and contemporary. The class is divided into two teams and has to fill in as many of the names as they can. This is not only fun but informative, as advanced students do need good general knowledge of important Japanese personalities. I also ask students to translate a short article about Japanese people’s knowledge of basic science ( 朝日新聞、天声人語、２００２年０１月２７日 ), followed by a short quiz about science. They enjoy translating the article and doing the quiz!
AIDS & REVISION
The following is a very brief guide I gave to beginners before the first translation exam of the diploma course. It summarises the approach described above.
SOAS diploma term 2, Translation Guidelines:
What is expected?
A clear and accurate English version of the text. Make sure that your work is legible, that the English is grammatical, and that it is spelt correctly.
How to tackle the translation
i) Read through the text for meaning. Do not panic at unknown vocabulary or tricky sentences.
ii) Make a draft translation. Work in pencil or use wide spacing to allow for changes later. Where the text is not making sense, look again at the original grammatically. Identify the main verb, topic, head nouns, the function of particles, the form of the verb (e.g. passive, causative etc).
When you meet unknown vocabulary, ask yourself, ‘What part of speech is it? i.e. a verb, noun, adjective, adverb, proper name? Can I work it out or derive it from vocabulary/kanji I already know?’ If not, simply write ‘X’ or leave a gap initially, and fill it in later.
iv) Improve & polish up your translation. Make sure your English is correct and natural. Check that you have not missed any of the Japanese (people often omit a phrase or sentence of the original!). Check any figures. Fill in any gaps with a good guess
● SOAS students have welcomed a list of particles and conjunctions with illustrative examples. This provides a reference point and is useful for exam revision. If time, instead of providing a list, one could ask students to make their own, selecting examples from texts used in class. However if students are preparing their own reference materials like this (great for retention!) the teacher has to be very careful to check that these are accurate.
● Model translations – to give or not to give?
I have found model translations useful for several groups of students:
a) for non-English speakers, i.e. those translating from Japanese into English as a second language;
b) for advanced classes;
c) for those studying by correspondence.
It can be interesting for advanced groups to see two or more model translations of a literature text, so that they can see how translators have made very different but valid choices. A good example is a story by Shōno Junzō, about the boy who couldn’t read ` 愛媛 ` (from 五人の男、プールサイド小景・静物、庄野潤三 ).
When it comes to beginners, I am doubtful about the utility of model translations. Some students ask for them and say that they are useful. However, I think there are pitfalls for beginners:
(1) The main risk is that students assume that this is the ‘right answer’ – the ‘one perfect solution’. There is no such thing – there are of course innumerable ways to translate any text – and beginners need to gain confidence in their own unique translation. [However many times this is stated, I have seen students crossing out their own work and writing in the model translation when their version may have been just as good].
(2) The second problem is that model translations can encourage absenteeism or at the very least, diminished attention in class. This is because some students think ‘I can always pick up the answer and study it later – so I don’t need to go through it in class’. This is highly detrimental, as no amount of time reading a model will equip them with translation skills.
ADVANCING
The following are some of the translation issues that arise as students advance.
All of these are raised and discussed in translation classes. Those at the end of the list only apply to advanced students but (i) (ii) and (iii) are relevant to all. I do not theorise about these – they are all dealt with in context, as and when the task demands.
(i) Dealing with Japanese terms 単身赴任、着物、総会屋、わび･さび、物の哀れ、甘え which do not have an English equivalent.
(ii) Style: headlines & newspapers; literature - various genres; personal correspondence; speeches; commercials; science & technology; business; history and humanities; and for the very advanced: poetry, law & medicine (may require a specialist teacher).
(iii) Addressing the target audience, including adding to or subtracting from the text to meet the needs of the reader; using footnotes
(iv) Proper names – Japanese, Chinese & Korean, and those in katakana. How and where to look them up. What to do in an exam.
(v) Research for translation, using the internet and reference books to supplement knowledge.
(vi) Resources for translation, general and specialised dictionaries, online resources.
(vii) Translation theory, not normally covered in class but some references may be relevant at advanced level.
(viii) The translation business. What is it really like to work as a translator?
TYPICAL STUDENT ERRORS (beginners & intermediates)
Decoding:
アメリカの作家ロバートフルガムは「人生に必要な知恵は全て幼稚園で学んだ」という本を書いて、 [ 、、、、 ].
"The American author Robert Fulghum wrote a book saying that he learnt everything he needed to know about life at the kindergarten…."
This student misunderstood という本 . It can be helpful to take students back to basics and remind them of a simple sentence like 私は Treasure Island という本を読んだ｡
以前は、地方から都会に出て、有名な会社に就職して自分の家を持てることがいいと考えられていたが、、、、
"Previously, people who moved from the countryside to the city thought that it was good to get a job at a famous company and own their own house, but…."
This student has probably been thrown off by the comma.
[ 萩尾富美子さんはロイターの日本支局で …..]主に秘書として通訳や経営管理の仕事に携わった｡ 北方領土問題などを取材する 海外のフリーライターと根室に行ったことも。
"[…clip…] …she even went to Nemuro as a foreign journalist."
Students panic when they see longer sentences or a lot of new vocabulary, even where vocabulary lists are provided. Having had として in the previous sentence, they read now と as として . Again, it helps to take students back to basics, e.g. 友達と買物に行きました｡
ストラップは携帯電話を売る店や雑貨店で売られているが、 多い店ではその数は１００種類を超す｡
Error: [Straps are sold…….] and many shops sell more than 100 types.
An easy mistake to make – overlooking the grammatical position of 多い . In this case it is useful to contrast this sentence with what the Japanese would have been, had the author wanted to say "many shops sell more than 100 types".
Encoding errors:
地方から都会に出る人々
"people who go out from local areas to the city"
The first meaning students might learn for 出る is ‘go out’. Students must learn to translate meaning, not words. Also 地方 should be translated as ‘county’ or countryside’ in contrast with ‘the city’. The lesson is: don’t take equivalents straight out of dictionaries.
聖徳太子は留学生を中国へ送った。
"Shōtoku Taishi sent foreign students to China."
Too literal. Obviously the 留学生 were Japanese (not 'foreign') - they’re 留学生 because they studied abroad. Should say 'Shōtoku Taishi sent scholars to China'.
日本の携帯電話の普及率は高い。 (Nipponia)"The distribution ratio of Japanese mobile phones is high.”
Too literal. This sounds very stiff & awkward. Normal English would sound more like 'Mobile phones are widespread in Japan'.
A title: 「電話機のシッポが個性を主張する」 (Nipponia)
Student’s translation: "The mobile phone’s tail stresses individuality"
Problem: This is too literal, so not comprehensible in English. Mobile phones don’t have tails! シッポ is a jokey way to refer to individualised straps on phones. So we need to find a more appropriate title in English, humorous if possible.
Martie Jelinek, Language Centre, SOAS, November 2005
