"Eric Takabayashi" <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message
news:40013FB4.56EC4B56@yahoo.co.jp...
> Ryan Ginstrom wrote:
>
> > My first translation gig was as a translator/interpreter at New United
> > Motors Inc. (NUMI), a joint venture between Toyota and GM in Fremont,
CA.
>

> So were you translating for the Americans into Japanese, or into English
for
> the Japanese, as it was the Americans' home country?

I translated and interpreted. When I interpreted, it was usually for some
Japanese engineer who wanted to bitch at an American worker for performing
shoddy work. When I translated, it was usually things like some process
chart in preparation for a meeting in which the Japanese would bitch at the
Americans for being behind schedule.

> Did the Japanese working
> in the US not have Japanese documents, or were they all expected to speak
and
> write English, as it was the Americans' home country in which the Japanese
were
> doing business and hoping to benefit?

But of course the situation is totally different. In the case of the
banpaku, the cost of entry into the bidding is the ability to do business in
Japanese. If you can't do that, then you don't get to play, sorry.

I would like you to please tell me how it would be in the interest of the
government of Aichi to allow bids to be submitted in English? When you are
going after a government contract, the burdens are on you. You are trying to
sell your services, the prospective buyers aren't going to do your work for
you.

When companies like Toyota go into joint ventures with foreign countries,
they would generally like their interfacing employees to learn English, or
even hope (but not very strongly expect) the foreigners to learn a bit of
Japanese. This would
a) save translator costs (a Toyota employee gets a massive hard on when he
thinks he can save 1,000 yen -- what do you think he would do to save a
$60,000-year translator's salary?)
b) speed the development process (a Toyota employee gets a massive hard on
when he thinks he can get from drawing board to mass production 0.25 days
sooner. How much time do you think is lost waiting to have documents
translated/looking for an interpreter/etc.)

But Toyota has other goals for its employees as well, so generally its
employees go overseas for a year or so, then head back to the hive. The ones
who stay behind long enough to learn English and American/local ways are
generally forlorn losers who have been cast out from the hive.

As a result, they need to use translators/interpreters. Not an ideal
situation, but it pays the salaries of budding translators.

> Guess which language they use in spoken and written communication?

Whichever is most expedient.

I got to speak with the president of Nokia Japan once. He told me he wanted
to do all business in Japan in English. He wanted his (Japanese) engineers
to read his company's English docs, and wanted internal communication to be
in English. Unfortunately, his engineers and other employees weren't up to
the task, so he was having to pay big bucks to get all Nokia documents
translated into Japanese. This was costing him money and time. But there was
no alternative. Had he had an alternative, everything would have been done
in English -- in Japan -- just like he had done during his prior assignment
in Thailand.

> And considering the history of Japan and education of post war Japanese,
it is
> not unreasonable to expect large Japanese companies or the government to
> communicate in English for the convenience or benefit of foreigners.

They will if it is expedient for them to do so. Most of the foreign ministry
boys speak decent English. The problem in their case is that they think
their English is better than it is, and they ensconce the shitty English of
their sempai as "teiyaku," but that's a different story.

> This does not mean that I support the prevalence or dominant position of
> English in the world. It is best to use the native language in each
market, and
> it is I who tell Japanese that they should not place so much importance on
> English and only English, particularly when dealing with people such as in
> China and South Korea.

That is not limited to Japan. When I was traveling in Chile, the Isrealis
used to get royally pissed when hotel staff couldn't speak English (which
was usually), while the sepponians and canuks would good-naturedly get by
with what Spanish they knew.

> > So basically, the impression I came away with after working with
American,
> > Japanese, and German auto engineers is that if you buy a German car, you
> > know you're getting a good car. You buy a Japanese car, you know you're
not
> > getting a lemon. You buy an American car, it's pretty much a crap shoot.
>
> Yes, that's the impression you got, and it is quite common among Japanese

Yes, that's the impression I got. And I would still buy a Mercedes instead
of aToyota if I could afford it and wasn't too damn cheap to pay for it.

-- 
Regards,
Ryan Ginstrom