Cathy Hirano Reading

With the way that she talks about her job, I can tell she gets a lot of joy and fulfillment from it. She might be convincing me to switch prospective career paths haha. I think something I hadn't previously considered was how different languages have different levels of difficulty translating between. To some extent it does make sense, but I feel like she would have to be a translator of multiple languages other than English to be able to make a fair comparison between the job requirements of Japanese-English translators compared to others. I didn't really think about that difficulty when choosing to learn Japanese initially. I think everything she says regarding the difficulty in translating between the two are perfectly reasonable, though. I feel like tone is arguably the most difficult part, since the way of speaking can differ so greatly simply because of the country in which the author is native to. I didn't consider that this goes both ways, though. A direct English translation of a Japanese work (without adjusting by a translator) might be just as difficult to absorb as that of a Japanese work translated into English.

I think it's cool that Hirano says she actually rewrites some sections of text in things like academic resources meant for Western learners. I admire how much she prioritizes getting the author's point across, and not just translating word-for-word. Honestly, I'm constantly blown away by how dedicated and detail-oriented translators are. I also like the comparison she draws between translation and jigsaw puzzles. That's sort of exactly what it feels like to me, where it's bit and pieces that you're trying to put together to make one cohesive picture.

Also the part about immersing herself in American media while translating into English seems like a really cool idea, though.

Madison