Jake Dunlap: Learner Stories

After much procrastination on my part (most of this interview was conducted at the end of last year) I have finally produced a new Learner Story interview. Every now and then I get an email asking about how one goes about becoming a translator. To those people I say "You are in luck!" -  today's guest is translator Jake Dunlap, who has kindly offered to reveal the secret to becoming proficient enough to translate highly technical documents and interpret for lawyers. Jake has not only reached a very high level of proficiency he has done it by the ripe old age of only 26. And for anyone who has every wondered what level of Japanese you need to become a CIR, and indeed, what a CIR does - read on (yes - another JET Programme alumnus!).

Name and occupation?
Jake Dunlap, translator.

What's your background? (How long have you been studying Japanese?)
I started formally studying Japanese when I entered high school at age 13, and continued on to major in Japanese Language and Literature in college, so my total experience with the language comes out to about 13 years.  Of course, I haven't really put much formal study in since I graduated from college, but my first post-grad job (Coordinator for International Relations on the JET Programme) and my current job both required a high level of Japanese ability, so I was forced to study in those capacities as well.

Why did you start learning Japanese (and not say, French)?
This is a funny question, because I actually had to choose between Japanese and French - they were the only two languages my high school offered. I had taken a bit of French in middle school and detested it, and something about Japanese - probably the writing system - seemed slightly mysterious and intriguing.  So, I opted for Japanese. I was actually quite horrible at first and nearly quit, but my teacher was wonderful, and thanks to him I found the motivation to continue.

Tell us about any classes/formal schooling you have had (if any)
Well, I studied for four years in high school; five 42-minute classes a week, with about two hours' worth of homework each day.  I studied a wide range of subjects within the major in college, including modern conversational Japanese, classical Japanese, translation, teaching Japanese as a second language, and so on.  I also did a year abroad at Tsukuba University during my third year of college, where I took about 15 class hours of intensive language courses each week.  As I mentioned above, I haven't taken any formal classes since graduating from college (although I did complete the JET Translation/Interpretation course during my last year of the program).

Could you describe your experience as a CIR - firstly, what level of Japanese did you need to be accepted into the JET Programme and how were you assessed? Once you started work what kind of responsibilities did you have, and how much Japanese did you use? How well did your study prepare you for the job?
Well, I think the level required can fluctuate a lot, but for a frame of reference, I had passed 2-kyu of the JLPT. I had, of course, studied Japanese for eight years before then, so I think I was on the higher end of the applicants in terms of Japanese ability (I think most had had four years of Japanese in college).  As far as I can remember, the actual application had no written Japanese requirement - they only asked what sort of background study I had done.  At the interview itself, they took about fifteen minutes to conduct a "sub-interview" in Japanese.  I had to skim a memo and answer some questions about that, and then answer some other general questions, and that was that.  It was a bit easier than I expected.

As a CIR, I was stationed in the Prefectural Office's International Division, as well as the local International Association.  Hence I was pretty much immersed in Japanese.  I think there was one fellow who insisted on using English, but aside from that, all communication was done in Japanese.  My initial work duties involved maybe 75% translation of a whole bunch of different materials, and 25% interpretation.  I did some public speaking as well.  Later, a local eikaiwa school was going through some serious immigration issues with its workers and I ended up doing a ton of legal interpretation, which was quite a tough task.

My studies prepared me incredibly well for the job, mostly because speaking was emphasized when I was in school.  While I did do a lot of translation, I would have been lost without the speaking abilities I had picked up.  I was certainly wishing I had picked up a lot more legalese-Japanese when I started the legal interpretation stuff, but I had no way of forecasting that. Of course, the old JET motto - "every situation is different" - applies in this case as well.  I knew CIRs who taught English and that was it, so any potential candidates should keep that in mind.

Tell us about your time at Tsukuba (Ed.: Tsukuba is a highly regarded national university located in Ibaraki) . Did your alma mater have a special relationship with Tsukuba? Did you live with a family, in a dorm or have your own place. Did you have a part time job perhaps?
Yes, the college I attended in the states had an exchange program with Tsukuba. There were no host family programs that I know of, though, so I ended up in the dorms.  It would have been nice to have a host family in terms of Japanese experience, but in the end, I managed to find a good circle of Japanese friends, so things evened out.  I actually worked a few different jobs:  my main job was kindergarten eikaiwa, but I also worked on a rice farm for a month or so, spent three weeks working for a moving company, and played gigs with my band for cash once or twice a month, too.

What books - textbooks or otherwise have you found useful?
I'm sure lots of people will disagree with this, but I think the Japanese, the Spoken Language series is very good for a number of reasons.  First of all, it is directed at native speakers of English and does not attempt to be an all-in-one solution.  I think the overall "flow" of the content - i.e. what sort of patterns and situations you learn first and how the books build on those patterns and situations - is very appropriate and logical.  I also think it is a book that really gives a student the strong fundamental basis on which to build true fluency (provided, of course, it is used in the manner intended - in other words, you have to listen to the tapes and do the drills!). The companion books to JSL, Japanese: The Written Language, are great for learning katakana and hiragana, but I found them to fall short in terms of kanji study (I do want to stress that JWL's approach of teaching katakana before hiragana is brilliant.  Many textbooks teach hiragana first simply because "that's the way Japanese people learn," but considering that native speakers of English can essentially read most katakana words as long as they can pronounce the symbols, the JWL approach is far more logical).  Overall though, the JSL/JWL series are very long-term approaches and may not be appropriate for the "Japanese for Busy People" types. For kanji, I would say the Basic Kanji 500 Volume 1 and Volume 2 and Intermediate Kanji - 漢字1000PLUS Volume 1 and Volume 2 are amazing.  The general method with which they advance your knowledge of kanji is, like JSL, very logical and easy to understand (even if the kanji do require a lot of work). I personally don't think integrated approaches (i.e. learning the written language from day one, along with the spoken language) are very effective for beginners.  I think they take some of the emphasis off speaking, which is in my opinion the most important skill. Integrated approaches seem much more effective for intermediate learners; I used An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese my freshman year of college and found it to be a very good book. In terms of paper dictionaries, the only one I really use now is The Kanji Dictionary by Spahn/Hadamitzky.  It's pretty exhaustive (I have never been unable to find a character in that dictionary) and it also gives you compounds that both start and end with the kanji in question - very useful.

What resources other than books have you found useful?
First and foremost, Japanese friends.   I improved in leaps and bounds when I was on exchange because I joined a club at the university where there were no English-speaking members.  I made a lot of foreign friends, too, but I sort of kept my Japanese and non-Japanese lives separate, which really allowed me to immerse myself in the language. Television was also a great resource.  I never watched TV when I lived in the US, but I was glued to the tube while I was on exchange. Granted, it is a passive method of study, but Japanese variety shows in particular have subtitles galore, which allows you to combine your reading/listening skills in a very natural setting. At present, since I spend most of my time in front of a computer, I use software dictionaries/Internet resources almost exclusively.  I have ten or so specialized dictionaries which I run through a great free program called DDWin, and I use the Space ALC homepage on a daily basis.  Although I don't use it anymore, I also found rikai.com to be an incredibly helpful resource when I was studying in college.

You mentioned that you kept your Japanese and non-Japanese lives separate - can you elaborate on this?
Well, I suppose this is more of a by-product of my foreign friends not speaking Japanese and vice versa, but I was very rarely in situations where I was hanging out with a mix of foreigners and Japanese people. The foreigners I met were some of the nicest people I have ever known, and I had great times with them, but I also understood that I needed to have my Japanese in pretty good shape by the time I left, so I made a conscious effort to be immersed in only Japanese as much as possible, too.

Where do you work and what exactly do you do?
I work at a patent firm.  Most of my time is spent translating patent specifications centered around electronics/communications from Japanese into English.  We also have to handle a lot of litigation, which involves English-Japanese translation, and also brings a legal aspect into the content.  I also interpret for our foreign representatives (attorneys and agents) when they come to give us lectures on patent law changes/updates (about once a month).  I'd say my duties are 75% J-E and 25% E-J.

For the benefit of people who are perhaps interested in the field of translation but have no idea what translation involves can you explain exactly what the process entails? I mean, you're not just substituting a set of words in Japanese into a set of words in English, right?
No, translation is not just putting somebody's words into new words - there is much more creative thought and variance involved, regardless of the subject matter.  Being a translator involves reading the source language, digesting it, and thoroughly understanding it, and then putting it into words in the target language that make sense to a native reader of that language.  If translation was simply language-to-language word conversion, Babelfish would have been able to do it flawlessly years ago.  Aside from the actual translation itself, many translators find themselves editing the documents they translate, marketing themselves if they are freelance, and learning entirely new fields of study to accommodate the work they are receiving.

For my part, I have to reformat, restructure, and generally rework everything I translate to make it patentable in whatever country/system it's going to be filed. Many Japanese engineers have no knowledge whatsoever about foreign patent systems, so I have to have some knowledge in that regard in order to produce something that will make it to grant wherever it goes. In addition to that, I have to sufficiently understand the technology behind whatever patent I am doing, which means a lot of study time.  If I were to simply put whatever was written into English vis-a-vis a dictionary, nothing would make it past the examiner's desk.

Anyone can get a basic idea of what translation involves simply by translating something him/herself. Grab a Japanese short story, a short academic article, or something like that and try translating it into a well-written piece of English. if possible, have an experienced translator comment on the results. That will give you some good insight into what the basic process involves.

How much Japanese do you use at work?
Speaking?  100%.  I primarily translate from Japanese into English, but the only English I ever use in the office is what I type in MS Word.  All non-verbal communications (emails and whatnot) are also carried out in Japanese. Being one of only two native English speakers in an office with 50-plus employees, I very rarely get the chance to use English.

In the average work day how much time would be spent speaking/listening versus reading/writing?
5-10% speaking/listening, 90-95% reading/writing.  Such is a translator's life!

How did you go about getting your job? How did the firm judge your Japanese - interview, test etc?
I basically narrowed down what I wanted to do to either translation/interpretation or human resource work, and just did the normal job hunting route from there - I sent out maybe ten resumes and did three interviews before I got to the final interview at the patent firm.  The interview was conducted all in Japanese, and there was a translation test as well, but later my boss told me that the decision was pretty much made based on my cover letter and resume (both in Japanese).

Do you have a personal routine for studying?
To be honest, I really don't study anymore, and the only real set routine I ever had was for kanji:  when learning new kanji, I would just write them over and over and over again.  The only way I could remember how to write them was through sheer repetition.  Aside from that, I would pretty much follow the style of whatever textbook I was using at the time.

Major achievement in Japanese?
This is going to sound silly, but one night a few years ago I was coming home from a party and spotted a lizard of some sort of my front step.  Instead of saying, "hey, it's a lizard," the first words out of my mouth were "a, tokage da" I had not tried to speak Japanese per se - the Japanese just came out instead of English.  It was the first time that I felt as if Japanese had truly become second nature for me, and I realized I was actually thinking in Japanese.

Most embarrassing Japanese faux pas?
Oh, wow, too many to count.  The most common is kanji conversion mistakes in work-related emails I'm rushing to send off.  Having mistakenly converted the kanji for clients' names into rather insulting words and phrases a couple of times, I have learned to re-read all my emails several times before sending them.

What advice do you have for people starting out learning Japanese?
Well, I would say that actually taking classes taught by an accomplished and professional teacher is the best way to start.  Using an established and well-researched textbook system under the instruction of a teacher who is familiar with that system seems to make things run much more smoothly.  I personally think that self-study should be avoided until one has reached an intermediate level of proficiency; internalizing the basic grammar patterns correctly is essential and having guidance in that respect is very important, in my opinion.  Of course, as this site shows, self-study can be effective; I just feel that having a solid foundation is important.

If you were starting out starting studying Japanese from zero again what would you do differently?
Three things:  first, I would be much more vigilant about listening to/practicing with the tapes/CDs that came with whatever textbook I was using.  Second, I would make more of an effort to study kanji. Third, I would have made a serious effort to go on a long-term exchange program at a much earlier age.  I had the chance to spend six months in Japan when I was 16 but I passed it up - I would jump at the chance if I could do it all over again.

What advice to people who want to move from intermediate to higher-level proficiency?
I'd say getting a job in which you use Japanese is where you make the most growth, so finding a sort of "bilingual" job is a good idea. Giving, say, a presentation to a room full of people who don't understand English - stuff like that will really force you to bring your Japanese to the next level.  For college or high-school students, a semester or preferably a year abroad is obviously one of the best things you can do.  The earlier you immerse yourself in the language, the better.

Top 5 tips for studying Japanese.
Scheduling - have a fixed schedule you study by.
Self-discipline - force yourself to stick to that schedule.
Immersion - immerse yourself in the language to the greatest extent possible.
Set concrete goals -- this is what the Japanese Language Proficiency Test is for, in my opinion.
Focus on speaking -- writing is of course important, but fluid speaking skills are what people will notice first when they meet you.

What other languages do you speak?
Sadly, none.  I would love to work on German but unfortunately I don't have the time.

Any final words for students of Japanese?
Have fun!

Thanks for your time Jake.

If people have queries for Jake about translating or becoming a translator just leave a comment and I'll make sure Jake sees it. If you are too shy to comment you can contact Jake here.

Comments

[Chris]

Excellent interview! They never fail to deliver. Will is most excellent at choosing his victi--er, interviewees!

Lots of great advice from Jake!

[jayme]

jake,

i am in awe of your ridiculously sugoi nihongo.

hehe.

rock on, dude.

jayme.

[Realitybytes]

I was wondering at what points did Jake take JLP tests? When did he achieve 1 kyu and what was the difference between 1 and 2?

[Jake]

Realitybytes:

I took level 2 during my senior year of college (2001) and level 1 while on JET (2003). There was quite a gap between the two -- I got 97% on the level 2 test but only passed level 1 with 74%. The kanji section was the toughest part of level 1; I hadn't done any particular kanji study for a couple of years and was very unprepared. Also, the format of the questions was much more difficult in level 1. For example, rather than a multiple-choice question where you choose just a single right answer, I seem to remember some questions where any number of the answers could be right, and leaving one of them out cost you the question (even if you chose a couple of other right answers). So yeah, there was a big difference between level 1 and 2.

[Chris]

I thought I was the only one who passed 1kyu by the skin of my teeth.

280 points (70% of the maximum 400) is required to pass. I got 281 points. *_*

I wonder what score I'd get today, though...

[Harvey]

Would anyone be willing to share a list of names of patent companies in Japan who hire foreign translators?

One I know of is SHIGA PATENT OFFICE, but I am not familiar with others.

This list would be helpful for people thinking of trying to line up an interview!

[Jake]

Harvey:

I don't think many patent offices would turn their noses up at a qualified foreign translator. While I don't know of a list of companies per se, just Googling 特許事務所　翻訳 or something like that gives tons of hits. Check the 求人 sections and more often than not there are places looking for translators.

[Will]

Harvey

ARC publishes an annual 翻訳辞典　which has pages and pages of translation companies and agencies, listing their specialised fields etc. I picked up a 2006 copy on Amazon for not very much but the ARC site is also retailing them. ARC also has a less comprehensive but still very helpful list of those companies at:
http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/sq_agt_list2

Good hunting!

Will

[Harvey]

Thanks!

Also I have few other questions for Jake.

Do you also do random freelance jobs in addition to your full time gig? If so, how does that work out for you? If not, why not?

Another question regarding freelance work.

Do you think it would be much harder to do freelance work, or continue freelance translation work for Japanese agencies from overseas? Say, back in the States? I have heard that due to the timezone difference causing delays in communication, many translation agencies in Japan do not like to work with translators located overseas...

Thanks! This was a great interview.

-Harvey

[Jake]

Harvey:

I don't anymore. (To avoid confusion, when this interview was originally done, I was working at an actual patent firm, whereas I have since moved on to work full-time for a patent translation company. The work itself is basically the same, though.) I had a couple of contacts who sent me random jobs while I worked at the patent firm. As I was a salaried employee at that time, I received a set paycheck, so doing freelance stuff now and then was a nice little extra bit of cash. Currently, though, I get paid a decent per-word rate, so it makes more sense to do extra work through my current company rather than take on stuff on the side. Of course, work on the side goes against my contract, and it also tends to eat away at my free time, so I don't bother anymore.

As for the second question, I'm not a freelancer so I can't answer in too much detail, but from what I gather it can be a tough regimen. You will most likely get better pay, but there is no real guarantee that the work will flow in. All the self-employment issues come into play, and that gets particularly sticky for American citizens living in Japan. I think there are a lot of successful translators spread across many time zones, though, so I suppose it depends on the agency. In fact, the main problem I have heard arising is the actual payment -- who foots the bill for changing the money, what banks to use, what method of payment is used, inability to use Paypal, and so on.

[Will]

Harvey

I know a lot of translators working from the States - it is very possible. You can acquire a lot of clients or get established with a lot of agencies whilst in Japan and then just maintain those relationships when you move. Of course time differences may mean you are not always easy to contact RIGHT NOW! but if you are a good translator agencies/clients will want to keep working with you. On the other hand starting out in the States might be tricky, but then again, if you put in the time to develop the relationships it would not be impossible. As Jake points out, payment and tax will become issues but these too are not insurmountable.

cheers

Will

[Durf]

From a simple financial perspective, I'd say it's better to get work in person at first. If you're in close contact with your clients and they are comfortable that they can call you into the office for a discussion of some new project you're likely to be able to ask for, and get, more money than a person who's only hanging on by that email thread.

Once you get those clients confident in you and your abilities you can go live on the beach in Fiji, or the cabin in Vail, of course. :-)

[Durf]

Addendum: I meant to note also that time-zone differences can work in your favor. When my company gets a rush job in the evening it's nice to be able to send it to one of our freelancers in London or Washington DC just as they're waking up for the day's work; they can do the job and send it back to us just in time for us to come into the Tokyo office the next morning, edit it, and send it off to the client.