Scott Reynolds <sar@gol.com> wrote in message news:<bed1nl$r4p$2@newsflood.tokyo.att.ne.jp>...
> On 7/8/2003 2:21 AM, John W. wrote:
> 
> > Or narrow. I would much prefer to have a native speaker in the end
> > language do the translating. Not that foreigners can't read/write just
> > as perfectly, but I've read and rewritten quite a few translations by
> > Japanese professionals, and the English was subpar. But, then, that
> > was my experience with English natives as well to some extent.
> 
> Indeed. Being a native speaker of the target language is no guarantee of 
> being a good writer.

Unfortunately, very few people seem to realize this. I've known many
Japanese businessmen that will hire an Eikaiwa teacher to edit
something, assuming that because they can 'teach' English they must be
able to write it. This is also a problem in US companies (and
elsewhere, I imagine); very few of my managers (outside of the one
agency I worked with) truly understand that writing is in fact 'work'
(as much as art).

John W.