| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13] > | Off topic: In my craft or sullen art: JA-EN financial translation Thread poster: Dan Lucas
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Dan Lucas 
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER | Frustratingly tedious | Mar 21 |
Today I must complete roughly 6000 characters of a separate job for a different client
This has been maddeningly slow and fiddly going. The file is in the form of a three-column Word table, with the source in the second column and the target in the third column. So far so good. Unfortunately the client/s have made changes to both the source and the target, using a blizzard of highlights and colored fonts. I cannot really use my CAT tool, which makes it difficult to ensure that I'm maintaining consistency with the more than 100,000 characters I have already translated.
I'm also having to paste the translated text into Word, which is notoriously jumpy in combination with Dragon NaturallySpeaking - you see jerks in the cursor of half a page or so for no apparent reason. It's a well-known (and infuriating) problem, and nobody has a foolproof solution. One more reason for me to consider shifting away from Dragon to a different system.
I have had no further word from the Asian client for whom I did that trial for the recurring daily job earlier in the week. I imagine they are going through a few other candidates and seeing who suits them, and making a decision about whether to go ahead or not. Patience.
They have been in touch - apparently I got the project. We are thrashing out a few final details. As I said previously, not life-changing amounts of money, and who knows how long it will continue? But it will be a change from my bread-and-butter work of translating Japanese financial statements into English, and a chance to learn something new. My only concern is that the requirement to be at my desk every morning will end up being a millstone around my neck, but my concerns are assuaged somewhat by the simple fact that I normally am at my desk every morning...
Outside the office, the prunus family is gamely pushing up blossoms wherever you look. I mentioned blackthorn earlier, but this shot is of blossom on one of our damson trees, which bear a good quantity of fruit every year. We use them for jam and also for damson gin - excellent stuff.
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER
The fiddly additional job that I fiddled around with yesterday before submitting last night has come back with a few fiddly questions.
A couple of the points are reasonable and useful - thank you for that, anonymous checker - but one or two make me grimace. In one case I used "since" to represent a wording in the source that is equivalent to "up to the present day". The checker apparently isn't aware that this usage of "since" continues to the present moment (absent some indication ... See more The fiddly additional job that I fiddled around with yesterday before submitting last night has come back with a few fiddly questions.
A couple of the points are reasonable and useful - thank you for that, anonymous checker - but one or two make me grimace. In one case I used "since" to represent a wording in the source that is equivalent to "up to the present day". The checker apparently isn't aware that this usage of "since" continues to the present moment (absent some indication to the contrary) and asks me why I haven't explicitly included something that makes it clear that the process in question has been ongoing to 2024. Um, I did. It works fine in English, honestly.
To be fair, they are normally pretty good, and everybody has off days. Sometimes I can be quite terse with people who check the text if their objections are vague ("Is this right?") or if they show a basic lack of understanding of the language. It isn't my job to teach them how English works. Today I dismiss a couple of points, argue a few more, and concede with apologies on two. Overall it's made the translation a better piece of text.
So now I go back to the delightful task of translating Japanese securities reports into English... The remaining files are quarterly rather than annual, but the overall structure will be very similar to that of the one I delivered on Wednesday evening and I am not anticipating problems. Nevertheless, although they are smaller, it's a decent amount of work to complete before Wednesday next week so I will need to get a good chunk of it finished today.
I also have this "maybe/maybe not" project floating around in the background. The client hasn't got back to me to let me know whether it will be going ahead, let alone what sort of volume and deadline they need. I think I'll be getting an email over the next couple of hours telling me that the job has been canceled.
Onwards and upwards...
Dan ▲ Collapse
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER
Dan Lucas wrote:
The client hasn't got back to me to let me know whether it will be going ahead, let alone what sort of volume and deadline they need.
Well, this is going ahead after all with the expected fairly high volume.
Unfortunately I had forgotten that this coming Tuesday marks the first of my weekly sessions volunteering at a small local charity-type organization, which takes up the whole morning. So with that half-day knocked out, the Wednesday deadline has gone from tight to difficult. Serves me right for not being on top of my schedule.
Dan
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER | Tools: how do you store paper? | Mar 23 |
A chill wind and a dull morning after a sunny day yesterday, but things are still changing out in the woodland. This morning I notice a few willow catkins along the ride, and one tree in particular is so full of them that they look from a distance like leaves. Odd how some individuals of the same tree are so much earlier or later than others. These are male catkins, I think of Salix cinerea (Grey Willow), but I am not sure and the dodgy photography does not help.
While it is not directly connected to the business of translating Japanese financial documents into English, the matter of how you acquire and store documents in digital form is something that I hope will be of relevance to anybody reading this.
We live in an increasingly digital age, and many documents are created in digital form and never exist as hard copy, and that's probably a good thing. Nevertheless, there's still an awful lot of non-digital data out there (the world in which we live, for example, is irrepressibly analog). I retain original documents for anything official that relates to the business, but take a digital copy of nearly everything that is significant.
Two days ago I got a notice from HM Revenue & Customs to deliver a corporate tax return, for example. I scanned it, filed the paper in the hanging file, and filed the digital version in its hierarchical folder. Now I can forget about it until it's time to pay my taxes.
I have long been a fan of digital document storage, and I actually had a copy of LaserFiche way back in the 1990s when it was more of a desktop application than an enterprise solution, and when scanners were still hugely expensive. I have tried various other combinations over the years (I think I used Paperport for a while), but the best solution I have found is the ScanSnap series of scanners and software.
I believe I bought the tiny S1300 when it first came out in 2010 and I used it successfully for 10 years, but without good driver support for the scanner under Windows 10 it became increasingly unreliable in operation and was officially retired by the manufacturer in 2017. In 2021 I gritted my teeth and bought a new version, the ScanSnap iX1600. It was the process of installing the drivers for this scanner on my new laptop PC that led to this train of thought.
The thing I like about the ScanSnap models is that once you set them up all you have to do is open the scanner cover, put in a sheet or two of A4 in the feeder, and hit a button. A few seconds later a searchable (i.e. OCR'd) PDF file will appear on your PC desktop. There are many options to play with if you want different output file formats, but essentially that's what it does. It's easy and simple, especially compared to trying to get scans out of the flatbed scanner that is built into my Kyocera printer.
What about non-European languages? Since Japanese to English financial translation is what I do, it would be nice if it could handle that kind of text, but to be honest it had never occurred to me until today to try it.
Let's see how it goes. So. I print out a page of the 有価証券報告書 securities report that I am currently translating, and send it through the scanner. Okay, it doesn't OCR anything, perhaps unsurprisingly. I investigate the preferences and there is a setting for languages, which allows me to install an "OCR Pack (Asia)". It's a large file (two, actually) but the Starlink connection is speedy and it doesn't take long to download.
Let's try again. I change a few settings but it doesn't OCR the text. However much I mess with it, it doesn't seem possible to get it done automatically. Eventually I try using the ScanSnap Home software that comes with the scanner, and after some fiddling I managed to get it to OCR the scan. It's okay but is not going to give specialist software for OCRing Japanese text much competition. Works well with English though.
Slightly dubious Japanese OCR output notwithstanding, if you're looking for a compact, convenient, and quick scanner that produces high-quality output (it also claims to handle OCR of non-English European languages) the ScanSnap iX1600 has been working well for me, just as its predecessor did for a decade.
The only downside is that it isn't cheap, but if it lasts me 10 years like the previous model then I will have paid £40 a year for it. A fiver a month isn't bad for the ability to scan any piece of paper I want in seconds.
Dan
[Edited at 2024-03-23 13:47 GMT]
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Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER | Winning on the swings, losing on the roundabouts | Mar 24 |
I submitted the first and largest file of the four-file project a few days ago, and the second has gone much more smoothly than I expected, so that's good. It is basically done.
On the other hand, the slightly urgent job I accepted on Friday, which consists of 20,000+ characters, is not going well. It is a presentation, so I don't expect flowing text, but I'm really struggling with the names of positions and people. Slow as molasses.
I'm going to focus only on this for ... See more I submitted the first and largest file of the four-file project a few days ago, and the second has gone much more smoothly than I expected, so that's good. It is basically done.
On the other hand, the slightly urgent job I accepted on Friday, which consists of 20,000+ characters, is not going well. It is a presentation, so I don't expect flowing text, but I'm really struggling with the names of positions and people. Slow as molasses.
I'm going to focus only on this for the day, which will likely be a long one.
Yesterday I commented about the tree in the woodland that was full of male catkins. I went past again this morning and found that a good third of them have already fallen and the tree is looking distinctly ragged. Things change quickly.
Dan
PS Easter approaches - more hot cross buns for the teens and their visiting friend...
[Edited at 2024-03-24 08:00 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER
I am making slow but steady progress with the project, but being distracted by the good weather outside. The cherry trees in the garden have a good number of blossoms now. One of the flowers sheltering a small but benign visitor... Can you spot it?
Two-spot ladybird, I think.
 ... See more I am making slow but steady progress with the project, but being distracted by the good weather outside. The cherry trees in the garden have a good number of blossoms now. One of the flowers sheltering a small but benign visitor... Can you spot it?
Two-spot ladybird, I think.
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| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER
A long and tiring two days lie ahead of me (and behind me, for that matter). I have to complete an infeasible number of characters by Tuesday midnight or I will turn into a pumpkin* or something.
The Asian client is moving with ferocious speed. We have been through KYC/KYS procedures, and the final subcontractor document is ready for me to sign. You get the feeling this was how Japanese companies behaved during the high-speed growth era of the 1950s and 1960s before they got weighed down by internal bureaucracy and lost their appetite for risk. Maybe the Japanese were the original proponents of the "move fast and break things" approach?
I have an offer from a client, who has recently been rather quiet, for a notice of convocation for the annual meeting of shareholders (株主総会招集通知) to be translated early next month, about 15,000 characters. The timing is odd, but then I realize it is a retail company, which has a February year-end instead of a March year-end. The AGM is therefore in May rather than in June. I say yes.
And now to work.
Dan
*One of the things that surprised me when I lived out there was that the Japanese have to an extent acquired the American love of pumpkins and make things like pumpkin pie - I must admit I never developed a taste for it ▲ Collapse
| | | | MollyRose
United States
Local time: 06:28
English to Spanish
+ ...
I've noticed a few posts where you mention a picture, but for some reason I don't see one. Did something go wrong with the technology? Here's the latest:
"One of the flowers sheltering a small but benign visitor... Can you spot it?"
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 13:28
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
MollyRose wrote:
I've noticed a few posts where you mention a picture, but for some reason I don't see one. Did something go wrong with the technology? Here's the latest:
"One of the flowers sheltering a small but benign visitor... Can you spot it?"
I can see all the pictures. Clean your cookies, update the browser & Windows, maybe? Are you on the phone (I’m not)?
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER | Can't see anything obvious | Mar 25 |
MollyRose wrote:
Did something go wrong with the technology? Here's the latest:
Some images are stored on imgur.com, but they should still be visible. I'm baffled.
Dan
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER
Desperately busy. First job of the day already submitted. Out of the office for four hours in the morning, which is going to wreak havoc on my timetable. Client has sent a long list of jobs for April; will scrutinize and respond tomorrow. Different client has asked me to change a job booked for May. Timing looks difficult.
Once today's project is finished no work booked for a week, so a chance for some rest.
Dan
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER | Of sardines and miscalculations | Mar 27 |
This is how the problem came about. Last week, when I accepted a project with a tight deadline of Wednesday morning JST, I had forgotten that yesterday (Tuesday) I would be doing my first session of the year at my local volunteer organization. That was one miscalculation.
I was out of the office between half past nine and half past one yesterday. While I enjoyed catching up with various people, the four-hour gap meant that instead of finishing the project at or before 10 p.m. as I had expected, many hours before the 10 a.m. JST deadline, I had to work right up to the line.
Never buy a pig in a poke
The other miscalculation that contributed to my suffering was that I didn't check closely enough when the PM said "20,000 new characters." Instead I simply assumed that the remaining 4,000 characters would be easy fuzzy matches. In fact there was little traction from the TM for most of them, and while this obviously generated more money, it also required more time.
It was the combination of these two factors that meant that I didn't get to bed until a little before two o'clock in the morning today. About once a year I end up doing something silly like this (inadvertently) and having to scramble to make everything work. My mistake, my responsibility to fix. I think my client was a little surprised to receive an email at that time, but all's well that ends well, sort of.
Anyway, both this project manager and the other one to whom I submitted the final tranche of the long-term project yesterday were grateful for the safe completion of their respective projects. I am by no means the perfect Japanese to English translator, but I am reliable even on high-pressure jobs like this. One consisted of 94K for four securities reports, often referred to as "yuho" (有報) in Japanese, and the other was 24K, and was basically presentation materials (説明会資料) although not for an earnings briefing. Together they will have pushed up March revenue quite nicely.
Release the pressure
Yesterday, I formally began tackling the daily job for my new and fast-moving Asian client. It coincides with one of my interests, is educational, and also fits neatly into a clearly defined (albeit rather early) morning slot during which I am normally at my desk but not otherwise working. I do wonder how long it will continue, but I'm making the most of it while I can. Again, it requires a certain amount of discipline.
Daily job aside I have absolutely nothing in my schedule for the next seven days, which is a liberating release of pressure.
I'm going to catch up with some admin and possibly attempt some gardening if the weather permits but at the moment it raining, as it has been for the past several days, and the ground is saturated with water. There has therefore been nothing much to enjoy on our morning walks. Yesterday morning something bright caught my eye as we came onto the long straight part of the track, which turned out to be an empty sardine can.
It is too far from any house for a wild animal to have stolen it from a rubbish bag and brought it to such a location, so I can only think that a walker dropped it by accident (there was no other waste). I gingerly picked it up and carried it back to the house to put in the recycling. Did the person who left or dropped the can eat the contents as they were, without any kind of heating? That doesn't seem very appetizing to me.
Dan
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Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER | Slightly menacing watch message | Mar 27 |
Um, maybe because there wasn't much sleep?!
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER | Years and quarters | Mar 28 |
This morning as we left the house the moon was floating behind my left shoulder above the hill in the field, a slightly flattened vertical oval, not quite full and tinged with a very pale shade of yellow. After a quick walk round our usual circuit we came back for coffee and breakfast respectively.
After a quick chat I head to my desk to tackle the morning job, coffee in hand. This morning I have to wrestle with an economic indicator that the client has described as being an annual ... See more This morning as we left the house the moon was floating behind my left shoulder above the hill in the field, a slightly flattened vertical oval, not quite full and tinged with a very pale shade of yellow. After a quick walk round our usual circuit we came back for coffee and breakfast respectively.
After a quick chat I head to my desk to tackle the morning job, coffee in hand. This morning I have to wrestle with an economic indicator that the client has described as being an annual figure while simultaneously labelling it a quarter-on-quarter change. They can't both be true, but there are subtleties involved, and explaining the issue takes some time on what is already a time-sensitive job.
Clients are still bringing me inquiries about earning season. Yesterday one of my regular clients cunningly inquired about several end clients for which I have never done work, which she knew would get my attention. I accepted five out of the six she offered me, and today she has come back with additional requests for my "regular" end clients, which she knows I will almost certainly accept. The result is the typical rather crowded schedule for April and May, with over forty projects now booked. These cover the entire spectrum from actual kessan tanshin, to earnings briefings materials, to annual securities reports.
One of my regular clients has yet to contact me about their needs for earning season, which is likely to result in disappointment for them in terms of capacity made available. Or, if I accept the jobs, disappointment for me in terms of personal time made available, as Chris might prefer to express it.
No translation work today, but I have some admin stuff related to the annual accounts that I need to get done.
Dan ▲ Collapse
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:28
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
TOPIC STARTER
Today marks a bit of a milestone for me, in that I managed to complete an entire job, albeit a small one, using the Talon speech recognition system. As I have mentioned a couple of times previously, I am attempting to slowly make the transition from the Dragon voice recognition system to a competing system called Talon.
Although it builds on work from other people, Talon is interesting becaus... See more Today marks a bit of a milestone for me, in that I managed to complete an entire job, albeit a small one, using the Talon speech recognition system. As I have mentioned a couple of times previously, I am attempting to slowly make the transition from the Dragon voice recognition system to a competing system called Talon.
Although it builds on work from other people, Talon is interesting because it was developed by one person. I have signed up for the beta version, which is paid, and I am finding that the dictation is actually significantly better than that of Dragon. To put it another way, I am seeing far fewer mistakes in dictated text that need to be corrected after or during the process.
That doesn't mean that there aren't some important and initially quite confusing differences. For one thing, Talon is a modal system, which means that it has two modes as opposed to the one undifferentiated mode of Dragon. With Dragon, you can speak a series of commands and text and the software will interpret them more or less correctly. With Talon, if you want to dictate normal text then you need to be in "dictation mode" and if you want to issue commands then you need to be in "command mode".
This can be incredibly frustrating at times, but then again the software is far more responsive and customizable than Dragon. I have made considerable progress in my use of the software over the past 24 hours, but there are still lot of things that I am struggling with, and that I need to get my head around. It doesn't help that the documentation is frankly poor, although this is something of which the developer is keenly aware.
One of the things that has been helpful in this transition is that a good deal of the things I do are achieved through the use of AutoHotkey (AHK) scripts. For example, if I say "bish bish" in Dragon, then Dragon calls an AHK script that switches to Notepad and clears all the text from the file on which I am working. (That's because I actually dictate into Notepad and then copy the resulting text into the CAT tool using a different AHK script.)
Because all the functionality is actually in AHK, rather than in Dragon, all I have to do is add an entry to Talon so that when I say "bish bish" it runs that same AHK script that Dragon used to run. Easy.
Still, this is very much a work in progress, and I am not sure whether I will be competent to use Talon for a real project by the end of next week.
I have no translation projects underway at the moment.
More admin work and general tiding up for me today, plus a bit of study.
Dan
PS Yes, this was all dictated using Talon ▲ Collapse
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