Projekt Einklang
CONFESSION
Welcome to my site.
I AM a freelance translator, but
I am NOT the best.
Not the best translator on the web.
Not the best educated person around.
Not the most experienced in my field.
Not the best equipped specialist.
But
I made our living (with FOUR children) in Japan
(one of the most expensive countries in world)
on translation for over 30 years now.
I take pride in my work (German “Meister” spirit)
I have NEVER been late with ANY of my assignments.
Translation / interpretation service – also offered directly to potential clients
Apart from being an acupuncturist I have been working for over 30 years as a freelance translator. Translation used to be the basis of my family’s livelihood, whereas I consider acupuncture my “calling”. Since I could make our living on translation, I was blessed with the possibility of pursuing acupuncture treatment policies I view as idealistic.
However, the growing influence of the internet now drains most work into countries, where people can afford to work for a fraction of the usual rates in Japan, thus driving my “ideal acupuncture treatment” into a struggle for existence.
* From now on I am offering my translation/interpretation services directly to clients
Close to 100% of the translation work I did in the past I received through translation agencies. Naturally, those agencies retain their share/margin of the money charged. On top of that, those agencies sometimes have VERY strange concepts relating to translation work.
For these reasons I have chosen to offer my translation/interpretation services from now on directly to clients.
Thus, if anybody has any
* documents related to medicine/pharmacology
* documents related to technical subjects
* patent specifications
* documents related to ORIENTAL MEDICINE (a field, where qualified personal is probably rather rare!)
please … feel free to give me a call.
Translations are done usually at home
Regarding your interpretation needs: please call me with the relevant condition (time, place, subject matter, transportation etc.). Hopefully we can work something out.
(in the past I have been called as an interpreter to places as far away as Kyushu!)
Looking forward to your call
Thomas Blasejewicz
090-4846-6985
Also, I did set up two blogs for entries pertaining to translation:
PERSONAL HISTORY
| NAME: | Thomas Blasejewicz |
| NATIONALITY: | German |
| BIRTHDAY: | July 13, 1956 |
| BORN IN: | Kiel, northern Germany |
| AGE: | 66 (as of July 2022) |
| MARITAL STATUS: | Married to Japanese wife, 4 children |
| ADDRESS: | 240-0116, Kanagawa-Ken, Miura-Gun, Hayama-Machi, Shimoyamaguchi 956-5, JAPAN |
| TEL/FAX: | +81-46-875-9946 |
| EMAIL: | thomas@orange.ocn.ne.jp |
| EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND | |
| 1974 | Graduation from high school. Major subjects: chemistry, music |
| 1979 | Relocation to Japan |
| 1984 | Graduation from a Japanese vocational school for oriental, medicine, obtaining Japanese licenses for acupuncture, oriental medicine |
| OCCUPATIONAL BACKGROUND | |
| 1979-83 | Teaching German and English; some translation work (chemistry) |
| 1984-89 | Employment at the NISSAN KOHSEIKAI TAMAGAWA HOSPITAL, TOKYO (research, oriental medicine); started translation during this period |
| 1989 ~ | Freelance translation; by now about 27 years experience interpretation |
| Translation | Freelance, J/E, J/G, E-G.(G/J) |
| Specialization | medicine, chemistry, engineering, translation into native language (German: medical texts, dissertations, manuals (engineering, equipment), public relations materials, brochures, etc…, confidential biochemical research materials |
| Samples | A page with (rather old translation samples will be set up here: “Samples“ |
| Type of materials | (technical) research papers, technical materials, instruction manuals, letters, general texts; sometimes even philosophy |
| Interpretation | I receive mostly technical assignments, including presentations by engineers, factory visits, assisting foreign supervisors on-site, technical negotiations etc. These included traveling to Kyushu or Hokkaido. Twice I was asked to accompany people abroach (to Germany) Being a practicing acupuncturis in Japan also led to assignmens requiring special knowledge pertaining to oriental medicine. |
“Trials” –
I am always asked for “trials”, but after +30 years in the business I am now tired of doing constantly unpaid work. Unless a specific client wants to check the capabilities of a translator for a specific, large-volume job … I prefer NOT to do trials any more.
But I have listed (and made some comments on) a number of trials etc. on the “sample” page. Please have a look there.
Please see also my comments about “Trial translations”.
LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS (PROBLEMS)
- I have been working as a freelance translator in Japan for over 30 years. During that time I noticed many inappropriate concepts among Japanese clients.
- One of the worst and least welcome is the notion, that clients must always change the work of language professionals and thus create “Japanese” style language solutions.
- In the beginning, I went along with the relevant requests, but over the years took more and more the liberty of adding a varying but considerable amount of “rewriting” to my work to achieve more intelligible results.
- Most translation agencies (over the years there have been more than 120 agencies in Japan, but many of these are no longer in business …) pass my German translations on to the customer without any editing at all – yet, naturally charge their margins.
- This would warrant direct contact (which I do not pursue myself, but would be delighted to respond to) to save possible client costs.
- I would love especially to work on whole books, in particular books o oriental medicine.
- For requests, inquiries on particular jobs, quotations etc., send me an E-mail.
- Thank you.
FEES / CHARGES
Vary with the complexity of the material, but the following list shows the basic rates Japanese companies have been paying me for over 25 years now. That means: in effect my rates have dropped significantly over time.
Usually I do not do layout work. Japanese companies have their own staff for that.
Japanese companies pay me the following rates:
- Prices per page Japanese / German translation: 3500 Yen (for approx. 160 words target language) / or 10 Yen per source character (equals about 3,500 Yen/page).
- Prices per page Japanese / English: between 3000 and 3500 Yen (for approx. 180 words target language) / or 9 Yen per source character.
- Prices per page English / German: between 3000 and 4000 Yen for approx. 160 words target language).
- Interpretation: the “market price in Japan is approximately 40,000 Yen per 8-hour day
- http://www.translator.jp/fee.html -> on the site of the Japan Translators Federation is a list of common prices.
- I am obviously not exceedingly expensive!
Articles
In time I will move / recreate articles pertaining to translation under “Posts”. Give me a minute please.
Japanese Quality for the world
The article describes how traditional Japanese crafts serves the “workmen” in the field – to bring out the best of their skills.
I believe too, that it is the Japanese SKILLS maybe even more than their products, which appeal to the world.
And in order to promote some of these skills = values, it is necessary, that the people (of the world) know about them. This is currently not exactly the case, since there is comparatively little information material in English or other languages. Japan continues to be a sort of “black box”.
I am experiencing this in my native craft (acupuncture) for years and try to help people find “their way around”.
Maybe I could be of help to people who want to promote their craft/skills in that I could help to translate information material.
After 30 years in the trade, I think I can do that – and NOT going through translation agencies could save the client also a substantial amount of money!
Call me, and we can discuss the matter.
Thomas Blasejewicz
Spread the word:
tell the world that you endorse the No Peanuts! Movement.
Join the No Peanuts! Movement.
Living wages for translators and interpreters!
All our thanks from No Peanuts!
http://nopeanuts.wordpress.com/
A quick word:
The recession that dominated the economy here in Japan for a while and now the “Corona pandemic” like everywhere on the world “naturally” has also its consequences on the translation business. Yet, the budget cuts certainly do not always serve to improve things. The “patchwork” manual – a result of the “computer aided translation (CAT) tools -, comprising old parts and new translations or edited passages that have been contributed by many different people (applications), is certainly not something customers enjoy to read. I know, that I DO NOT enjoy reading them.
Books and other information:
I am often wondering who in the world decides “what is worth being translated”. In the past I once DID translate a whole book on shiatsu, but in my opinion the contents of that particular book is a shame for the 1,500-year tradition of this fine art. Then again, those books that might really deserve to be translated … well, they are mostly drowned by all the purely money-oriented schemes. It is a pity.
A number of years ago I wrote a little article about the function of a translator as a “bookfinder” – in analogy to a ‘pathfinder’ = scout. The Japanese version was published in a Japanese magazine. I do not remember whether the English version was also published, but you can find it under the link above.
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