“Clear target language for easy comprehension of the text”

Written Japanese tends to be lengthier than written English. Translation of a Japanese sentence into English may result in lengthy, awkward sentences because of the Japanese syntax. An important part of your job is correction of unnatural-sounding target language. If you do not understand it, the client will not either.

Taking a reader-oriented approach is critical for good fluency. Your goal should be to ensure that the final document reads as if it has been written originally in the target language.

Role of Paraphrasing in fluency

In translation practice, paraphrasing is the restructuring of text to convey the essence of the source text. Paraphrasing adopts the sense-for-sense approach, rather than the word-for-word one, the goal being to produce the closest equivalent meaning of the original text for the reader. Note that this translation strategy does not alter the meaning of the source text and should not result in omission. Literal translation is inappropriate for translation between Japanese and English, two linguistically and culturally distinctive languages, except for very specialized fields like patents.

Note: Paraphrasing translation should be followed for all our assignments, unless we explicitly state otherwise.

Read Annexure 3 for more information on improving English text Language and Annexure 5 for Common Errors by Japanese Native Speakers.