Ken Sakai
President |
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"Honyaku Kotohajime" (Beginnings of Translation) - No. 52
"About VATE"
This is my second article on the topic of Japanese website localization. In last month's issue, I discussed the ways in which Japanese localization can become a valid investment, or in other words, I introduced the concept of VATE (Value Added Trans-cultural Editing). Well-known global management consultant Mr. Shintaro Tominaga of Japan introduced VATE to us. I am only a student of Mr. Tominaga's work, and will not pretend to be able to explain his ideas as well as he can. However, I will do my best to introduce VATE because I believe that it is significant to the process of Japanese localization and its contribution to the validity the investment in a company's website translation.
At times when it is necessary to transfer technology from Japan to overseas, the first thing that needs to be done is to translate all the relevant documents, such as specifications for equipment or facilities manufactured in Japan, process manuals for standard operation (in English they are often referred to as SOP: Standard Operating Procedure), manuals for quality control and production, and inspection and operation or maintenance manuals. More than ten years ago while I was working for what was at that time known as Mitsubishi Silicon America (known today as SUMCO USA), there were various times where I translated documents that were sent from within the company from Japan. For example, equipment or facilities that were made in Japan couldn't be implemented right away in the US operations. Equipment and facilities that are introduced from Japan are supposed to be immediately usable without adjustment. However, they are not, because the standard operating procedure needs to be translated, and just translating the SOP simply from Japanese to English is out of the question.
A translated document has value unto itself as a tentative draft. However, for use in the US the process required three people, including an engineer from the QA department, technical writer, and myself, as we fine-tuned the English expressions and various details in the documents one by one. Let us say you have a certain piece of equipment, and that equipment will be used in different industries, for example, equipment for a water utility, such as piping. Then the usage for water, air or chemicals is going to be different in these different respective industries. This will affect the equipment in different ways, the environment will be different and thus the safety measures and environmental measures will be different too. For this reason, equipment from Japan will require changes in its standard operating procedures when it is introduced to the US. This kind of fine-tuning was thereby possible because of the presence of the three people working simultaneously stateside. In other words, I have experienced for myself the fact that no matter how skilled the translator who might be translating a document with great detailed accuracy, the equipment it covers is not necessarily going to be ready for use in the US right when it hits American shores.
Surely, VATE is similar to the process created by the technical writer, the QA person and myself as we spent time together in meetings and research. I think it is important for people to be present in order to inspect the situation for themselves, and it is important for the writer or editor to be able to record the contents of that inspection accurately. At that time, the technical writer was studying for an MBA at a local graduate school and was a temporary staff person who helped us out when we were creating SOPs for new production processes. The temporary (or contracted) technical writer needs to be able to bring an objective viewpoint to the VATE group process. The E in VATE means Editor, we do not require a writer necessarily, as we simply need someone who can edit the SOPs translated as that tentative draft more suited to the workplace.
For this important work the editor does not need to be able to understand Japanese. For the editor, skill in writing is what is required. The editor also must understand the work site and processes well, and faithfully reflect them into the translation. I think, VATE means that such skillful people need to be involved in the process. For a business organization, to find or train such a person may be a challenge. However, if they have the VATE concept down and introduce it into their system, their staff should be able to acquire the skill.
This time we used SOPs, not website localization, as our example but, you can see that the VATE method is applicable to Japanese website localization. We plan to start a new service that we help businesses to find and train staff to construct or execute VATE in their systems. To do so, I must fully understand VATE for myself, and make an effort to be best pupil of Mr. Tominaga's teachings. VATE is such a deep-rooted and well-grounded concept that is applicable to document processing within a company, technology transfer, and website construction.
Ken Sakai
President
E-mail: KenFSakai@pacificdreams.org |
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Follow-up to PDI Seminar Series
This month Pacific Dreams, Inc. hosted a series of seminars intended to help foster relations between Japanese and American business people. In the series there were both English-language workshops as well as workshops held in Japanese. Because of the positive reaction of the participants, PDI has decided to move forward with another seminar series in November. More details about this seminar will be released as speakers and schedules are confirmed.
Two of the English language facilitators were Eileen Foster-Sakai and Shintaro Tominaga. Mrs. Foster-Sakai presented the "Building Bridges Between the USA and Japan" workshop, and Mr. Tominaga gave his presentation entitled "Negotiation with Japanese Business People". Mr. Tominaga, who came in from Tokyo for this seminar series, also gave presentations in Japanese.
The "Building Bridges" seminar was made up of a relatively small group, which allowed for more focused discussion and questions. All of the participants were American business people working for Japanese-owned companies, so all had experiences of working under a Japanese boss. Mrs. Foster-Sakai was able to concentrate on the special questions and needs of this group of participants. The people that came in feeling frustrated by the communication styles and seemingly bizarre requests of their superiors were able to make sense of Japanese business culture practices. This participants left with not only a better understanding of what the Japanese business people were doing, but also gained new strategies in fostering better communication with their Japanese counterparts. Much of the "Building Bridges" seminar introduces business people to key cultural concepts they are sure to run into when working with Japanese people. The program goes from the very basic concepts, like seating arrangements, to the more complicated, like intricacies in the Japanese social, business and family relationships.
Mr. Tominaga's presentation was focused on negotiation with Japanese counterparts. This presentation was more directed toward individuals who work with Japanese companies and travel to Japan on business. Negotiation styles are very different in Japan compared to much of Asia and the rest of the world. According to Mr. Tominaga, it the lack of understanding of the Japanese system which often leads to failed business negotiations, or even failed attempts at getting a first meeting arranged. Much of Mr. Tominaga's presentation was on the concept of reading "kuuki". Kuuki literally means "air", or "atmosphere", but for these purposes it means understanding the subtle body language and communication that Japanese business negotiators engage in to convey important messages. These signals would be obvious to a Japanese counterpart, but may not be so easy for a non-Japanese negotiator. Mr. Tominaga also discussed the issues of conflict and debate in Japanese business negotiations, pointing out that debating should be avoided at all costs. Japanese find debate uncomfortable, and will tend to retreat if there seems to be, what Americans might consider, a healthy tension in a spirited discussion.
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New Employee Profile
We have two new employees we'd like to introduce you to this month. Tomoko Niina moved to Portland to work at PDI, and she has been with us just over three weeks. Tomoko graduated from Kanagawa University, and has worked in the translation industry in Japan before coming to Oregon. Tomoko has a variety of hobbies, from making pottery to scuba-diving. Tomoko hopes to hone her skills in translation during her time at PDI.
Jessica Stewart also joins us this month. Jessica lives in Vancouver and went to Portland State University to study Japanese language, history, drama, literature and film. Like Tomoko, Jessica has a variety of hobbies, from classic console gaming, to attending culture festivals to learning how to home-brew mead! Joining PDI as a proofreader and webmaster seemed to be a natural combination or her interests in English linguistics, Japan, computers, and the desire to help people communicate.
Please help us welcome both Tomoko and Jessica to the PDI team!
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