Japanese Input on Fedora 16 Linux (Gnome 3)

November 12th, 2011

Setting up Japanese input (IME) on Fedora 16 Linux is really easy and only takes a few minutes.

Fedora still uses the IBus keyboard input method system and uses the Anthy Japanese input method for the Japanese keyboard input, so it will be a familiar process to set up and use if you have done it on earlier Fedora Linux distributions.

For previous versions of Fedora, refer to:

Fedora 16 Japanese IME Setup Procedure

To start, open Activities from the Top Panel.

In the Search Box, type Input Method and select the Input Method Selector.

In the Input Method Selector screen, select Use IBus (recommended).

 

Press the Preference… link to the right of Use IBus (recommended) to open the IBus Preferences screen.

On the Input Method tab, check the Customize active input methods check box.

Press the Select an input method dropdown and select Show all input methods.

Press the Select an input method dropdown once again and now select Japanese → Anthy.

Press the Add button, and then press Close.

You must log out for the changes to take effect, so press the Log Out button on the Input Method Selector screen.

When you log back in you will now have the IBus input method framework button on the Gnome top panel (It looks like a small keyboard). This is the button to change input modes. Open a text editor such as gedit or some other application with a text input window.

Press the IBus input method framework button and select Japanese – Anthy.

The keyboard icon has now changed to Aち, which shows the letter A and the hiragana character chi, which probably is trying to get something close the the pronunciation of Anthy while indicating Japanese/English input modes.

You should now be able to type in Japanese.

Use the Anthy Aち button to toggle between Japanese, English, and other Japanese IME modes.

Note: I did not have to log out and log back in for the changes to take effect to allow me to type in Japanese in Firefox. However, there may be applications that cannot take advantage of the IME changes until after logging out.

Note: If you get the message No input window when you try to select Japanese Anthy, make sure you have the mouse cursor in an application with a text input box, such as a text editor or a Web browser.

That’s it. You should be able to type in Japanese now. Setting up Japanese IME input on Fedora Linux is simple and very similar to previous versions of Fedora.

Posted in Japanese, Linux | 5 Comments »

Localizing a CakePHP Application

November 10th, 2011

If you build a PHP application using the CakePHP framework, it is easy to localize the application into multiple languages, provided you have the proper translations for those languages. If you want to internationalize your application to a global market, it is important to localize it for each language and region you want to target.

Fortunately, CakePHP and PHP itself provide us with some easy mechanisms to provide translations and localize our code without much effort. You do not have to make copies of HTML or PHP files. Everything will be done with the PHP files you already have, and the translated text strings will dynamically be inserted at render time, ready for the user in their localized language and format.

In this example, we will localize a CakePHP application that was written in English into Japanese. Let’s assume we have a menu for e-mail functions that we want to localize. This example assumes CakePHP version 2.0 (But earlier and perhaps later versions of CakePHP will work in a similar manner).

Wrapping Translatable Text in __() Functions

The first step in the localization process is to identify the text strings that will need to be translated, and replace them with CakePHP’s localized string __() function. Supposing our menu looked like the following:

<ul>
   <li>Send</li>
   <li>Reply</li>
   <li>Forward</li>
   <li>Delete</li>
</ul>

We would wrap each text string inside the __() function like as follows:

<ul>
   <li><?php echo __('Send') ?></li>
   <li><?php echo __('Reply') ?></li>
   <li><?php echo __('Forward') ?></li>
   <li><?php echo __('Delete') ?></li>
</ul>

The __() function identifies these strings as translatable text that will differ by language locale and uses the text within the __() function as the message ID. If we define the translations for a certain language, those translations will appear in place of these functions. If we do not define the translations for that language, the text within the __() function will display instead by default.

Creating the Localized PO Files

The next step is to create the PO files which will contain the translations for each language to be dynamically inserted in each of the __() functions. CakePHP has two ways you can do this: automatically using the console shell; or manually.

Using the I18N Shell

CakePHP has some console shell programs that you can run on the command line, including one to generate the PO file to use as the original language source file for translations. In our case it will be a file with all the English text strings.

To run the i18n shell command, type the following on the Linux command line in your CakePHP application directory:

./Console/cake i18n extract

Then follow the onscreen menu.

The shell command will examine all of your application files for instances of the __() function and generate a PO file for the original source language that you can use to create the PO files for each of the translations you are going to use.

Creating the PO Files Manually

If you want to do this manually—for example you don’t have many translatable text strings like in our example—you can create the PO files by hand in a text editor.

First we will create the original source language English version here:

/app/Locale/eng/LC_MESSAGES/default.po

The default.po file will have this format:

msgid "ID"
msgstr "STRING"

Where msgid is the ID within the __() function; msgstr is the localized translation that should appear as output.

Our full English source PO file will look like this:

msgid "Send"
msgstr "Send"

msgid "Reply"
msgstr "Reply"

msgid "Forward"
msgstr "Forward"

msgid "Delete"
msgstr "Delete"

To create the Japanese localized version, we copy the English PO file to the Japanese directory, and then replace the English strings in the msgstr field with the Japanese translations. (If you have a large application being localized into dozens of languages, it is at this point that you send the PO files to a language service provider to translate the localized strings.)

Our localized PO file with Japanese translations will go here:

/app/Locale/jpn/LC_MESSAGES/default.po

Our final localized Japanese PO file will look like this.

msgid "Send"
msgstr "送信"

msgid "Reply"
msgstr "返信"

msgid "Forward"
msgstr "転送"

msgid "Delete"
msgstr "削除"

That’s it. The translations for English and Japanese will display appropriately for the proper locale. If you want to add translations for other languages, you do the same process and put the new PO file in the directory that corresponds with that language code. CakePHP uses the ISO 639-2 standard for naming locales. Follow that standard for naming your localized directories. Make sure you save these files at UTF-8.

Detecting and Changing Languages and Locales

Having the translations ready is nice, but you still have to detect and change to the proper language in your PHP code to get the translations to appear. Detecting the user’s language is tricky. You could do it in JavaScript or try to use something like the following PECL function:

locale_accept_from_http($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']);

In either case, you have to trust the user agent to report back the right language.

Another option is to simply have a button or menu for the user to select their language. Flag icons usually work well for this. Then you can set the language manually. In CakePHP it is easy to do with the CakeSession class:

CakeSession::write('Config.language', 'jpn);

Finally, you also have to set the locale in PHP. Since you already know this from however you determined the language above, you can use PHP’s setlocale function to do this. This is important for localization of date, time, money, and numeric separator formats among others.

setlocale("LC_ALL", "ja_JP.utf8");

That’s all there is to localizing a CakePHP application with proper translations and other locale-specific customizations.

Posted in Localization, Programming | 7 Comments »

Japanese Input on Ubuntu Linux 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

October 16th, 2011

This tutorial will show you how to set up Japanese input (IME) on Ubuntu 11.10 from the Unity interface. The installation procedure is very similar to the previous Unity release of Ubuntu 11.04. In fact, it is a little bit easier on 11-10. For Ubuntu 10.04 under Gnome, refer to this post.

Setup Procedure

To start, select Dash home from the Unity Launcher.

From the Dash home, select More Apps.

From the Installed menu area, select See more results.

Scroll down and select Language Support.

On the Language tab of the Language Support screen, press Install / Remove Languages…

On the Installed Languages screen, scroll down to Japanese and check Installed, and then press Apply Changes.

Enter your password on the Authenticate screen.

It will take a few moments to download and install the Japanese IME packages.

Back on the Language Support screen, select ibus for the Keyboard input method system, and then press Close.

Once again select Dash home from the Unity Launcher.

From the Dash home, select More Apps.

From the Installed menu area, select See more results.

Scroll down and select Keyboard Input Methods.

You may get a pop up message saying Keyboard Input Methods (IBus Daemon) has not been started. Do you want to start it now? Select Yes.

On the Input Method tab of the Ibus Preferences screen, press Select an input method and select Japanese → Anthy.

Press Add and then press Close.

The Ibus keyboard icon will now display on the top panel.

Open up any application with a text box such as Tomboy Notes and place the cursor in the text box.

Press the Ibus keyboard icon on the tap panel and select Japanese-Anthy.

The Ibus keyboard icon will now change to the Anthy Aち icon.

That’s it. You can now type in Japanese in Ubuntu 11.10. 簡単にできますね。

Posted in Japanese, Linux | 18 Comments »

Special Concerns for Translating Japanese Using Translation Memory

October 6th, 2011

The use of translation memory, such as software products like SDL Trados, greatly increase the speed and efficiency of a translator. However, there are special concerns that must be taken into account when translating with a translation memory where Japanese is the source language. Japanese has some linguistic characteristics that are significantly different from English, and when using a Japanese to English translation memory, you can run into trouble if you are not careful.

The biggest benefit a translation memory can bring you is providing you with a 100% match and eliminating any translation work for that sentence. Best practices say you should always proofread your translations, even if it is from a 100% TM match—although it is hardly ever done. With Japanese, however, you check your 100% matches because the translations may not be accurate for reasons we will discuss.

Plurals

Japanese does not have different singular and plural forms of nouns the same way English does. There are specific instances where a plural-like form is used, but these are the exception rather than the norm. Let’s look at a simple example:

ねじを取り外す。

You could translate this sentence two different ways:

  • Remove the screw.
  • Remove the screws.

Which is correct? Well, that depends on how many screws there are. In Japanese, this one sentence covers both instances. Suppose your translation memory had only this translation pair in the database:

  • JA: ねじを取り外す。
  • EN: Remove the screw.

If the sentence you are currently translating matches the Japanese, but in this present context there are multiple screws, the matching 100% translation is not correct.

This shows why context is important—even more so in Japanese. And if you use software like SDL Trados or some other CAT tool that only provides you with an XLIFF file, you may not have the surrounding images and context to know whether there is one or many screws.

How can we remedy this for the next person that uses our translation memory? We can definitely save a new translation for this sentence, and our TM now looks like this.

  • JA: ねじを取り外す。
  • EN: Remove the screw.
  • EN: Remove the screws.

This is fine for the translator—they can cycle through the multiple translations and select the best one, assuming they know the context to be able to pick the right one. On the other hand, this is not ideal for the person paying for the translation. Generally only 100% matches are done for free or at a greatly reduced price. When duplicate translations exists for a single source segment, SDL Trados and other software will flag this with some sort of penalty so it will be less than a 100% match, often a 99% match, which will cost more to translate.

The best way to deal with this, and the hardest to implement, is for the original Japanese language authors to write with context, knowing that their documents will be the source language for translation. Ideally, there should be multiple versions of the Japanese sentence. For example

  • JA: ねじ(１本)を取り外す。
  • EN: Remove the screw.
  • JA: ねじ(２本)を取り外す。
  • EN: Remove the two screws.
  • JA: ねじ(３本)を取り外す。
  • EN: Remove the three screws.

If the source Japanese text is written with specific contextual information, this solves the problem and there will not be any ambiguous 100% hits in the translation memory. Unfortunately, original source texts are hardly ever written with translation in mind.

Capital and Lowercase Letters

Japanese similarly does not have an equivalent of capital and lowercase letters. A hiragana is a hiragana and a kanji character is a kanji character. In English, usually only the first word of a sentence is capitalized. This is called sentence capitalization. However, titles, headings, etc. have all the major words capitalized. This is called heading capitalization.

Japanese will have the same exactly sentence whether it is a title/heading sentence or it is a normal sentence in the text body. English will have two variations. One with heading capitalization, and one with sentence capitalization. Similar to the ambiguity with plurals, we have ambiguity with capitalization. If we only have the heading capitalization style sentence in the translation memory, that will hit a 100% match when the same Japanese sentence appears in the text body, but the corresponding English 100% match will have the wrong capitalization.

Unlike the pluralization problem, there is no clear fix to avoid the capitalization problem. There is no simple and obvious way we could rewrite the original Japanese text to have multiple variations for heading and sentence style contexts. In these instances, it is important to verify all 100% matches in the translation memory for the proper context.

Sentences with No Subject or Object

This is something uniquely Japanese: sentences with no subject. This is completely normal in Japanese—and absolutely unheard of in English. Sentences can also have direct object verbs with no object whatsoever. There is nothing wrong with sentences without subjects or objects in Japanese. The problem, however, is when translating these sentences. It is difficult without proper context. Now, consider translating with a translation memory, and you can begin to understand the complexity of the situation.

Consider how you would translate this Japanese sentence:

終わったら、取り外す。

This sentence has no subject and no object. In context it is probably clear what the meaning is, but by itself it is all sorts of vague. Let’s imagine two completely different, but totally reasonable translations for this sentence:

  • When it’s done, remove it.
  • When you are finished, take apart the pieces

Both of these are reasonable translations in two completely different contexts. However if the first English translation is registered in the translation memory and it came up as a 100% match, it would be totally wrong if the context were the second sentence.

Context is everything when translating ambiguous Japanese sentences. But a translation memory does not preserve that context. Even if you know what came before and what comes afterwards, that still may not be enough to know the full context of the original Japanese meaning. Even though you are getting a 100% match in the translation memory, instead of being just a little wrong such as singular/plural or capitalization mistakes, it may be completely wrong in terms of meaning!

Same Words Written Differently

In English we have many words and expressions that have the same meaning, and therefore, we can say the same thing many different ways. But Japanese takes this a step further: you can write the same word many different ways!

For example, the word screw could be written: ねじ、ネジ、ﾈｼﾞ、螺子. That’s four different ways to write the same word.

Another example, the word install could be written: 取り付ける、取付ける、取りつける、とりつける. Again, that is four different ways to write the same word, and we didn’t even consider other forms such as です・ます調 or 敬語.

Now, take these two words and construct the same sentence, and look at the number of possibilities you have to say the same exact thing with the same exact words, only written differently.

  • ねじを取り付ける。
  • ねじを取付ける。
  • ねじを取りつける。
  • ねじをとりつける。
  • ネジを取り付ける。
  • ネジを取付ける。
  • ネジを取りつける。
  • ネジをとりつける。
  • ﾈｼﾞを取り付ける。
  • ﾈｼﾞを取付ける。
  • ﾈｼﾞを取りつける。
  • ﾈｼﾞをとりつける。
  • ﾈ螺子を取り付ける。
  • ﾈ螺子を取付ける。
  • ﾈ螺子を取りつける。
  • ﾈ螺子をとりつける。

That is 16 different possibilities! Now imagine your translation memory only has one of these variations registered in the database. When you come across the exact same sentence, but only written differently, you will not get a 100% match, even though you have basically the exact same sentence in one form or another right in front of you. And this sentence is so short, you might not even get any match at all if the hit percentage is set high.

Author variation and style guides conformance are very important in the original source language to prevent these kinds of problems. This is big issue in itself that I’ll take up in another article.

Japanese is very different from English, and when translating, you have to take into greater account the textual context and other issues. And this becomes even more so when dealing with a translation memory containing Japanese as a source language.

Translation memory software such as SDL Trados is very useful, and can be used to great benefit even in Japanese. However, you must be aware of these kinds of issues and double check all of your translations, especially your 100% matches.

Posted in Japanese, Localization, Trados, Translation | 1 Comment »

Japanese Input on OpenSUSE Linux 11.4 (KDE 4.6)

October 3rd, 2011

Setting up Japanese input on OpenSUSE Linux is not difficult, but it requires knowing what to install and when to restart the Linux system. It only takes a few minutes to download all the files and get it set up. Once installed and configured, you will be able to input Japanese characters and type Japanese and English whenever you want.

Prerequisites

  • YaST software repositories are configured properly.

Setup Procedure

Click on the Kickoff Application Launcher.

On the Computer tab, click Install/Remove Software.

On the Search tab, search for anthy.

In the search results window showing the matching packages, select the anthy and ibus-anthy packages.

Press the Accept button on the bottom right of the window.

YaST will now download, install, and configure the anthy packages.

Do the same for ibus. Open Install/Remove Software, search for ibus, and select the package for ibus. Press Accept to install.

Click on the Kickoff Application Launcher, and from the Leave tab, click Restart to restart openSUSE with the new configuration.

 

After restarting, log back in.

You will now have the IBus input method framework icon in the bottom panel.

Right click the IBus input method framework icon and click on Preferences.

On the Input Method tab, select Japanese → Anthy from the dropdown menu.

Press the Add button to add Japanese Anthy input method, and then press Close.

Open up a text editor or any application with a text input window, and click on the IBus input method framework icon and select Japanese – Anthy.

You can now type in Japanese.

Click the Anthy crown icon to select between the various Japanese input modes.

That’s it. Setting up Japanese input on openSUSE 11.4 is not very difficult. When you try to type Japanese, make sure the cursor is in a text box in an application, or you may get an error saying No input window. Now enjoy your international Linux distribution.

Posted in Japanese, Linux | 1 Comment »

Japanese Related Jobs

September 5th, 2011

If you speak Japanese, or are learning Japanese in college and want to find a job when you graduate where you can use your Japanese language skills, there are lots of options out there. Here are some industries and strategies for a Japanese-related career.

Local Japanese Companies

Assuming you don’t live in Japan, you can try to find a Japanese company that does business where you live. Many large Japanese companies are multinational and have offices all around the globe. For example, the top Japanese auto manufacturers: Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, etc; High tech companies: Fujitsu, Toshiba, Tokyo Electron, Sony, Hitachi, Canon, NEC, Sharp, Sanyo, Fujifilm; Airlines: JAL, ANA; Video game companies: Square-Enix, Capcom, Nintendo; and the list goes on.

Japanese companies outside of Japan will always need Japanese speakers for everything from translation to supply chain operations to human resources for expats. Some positions could make full-time use of your Japanese skill, while for others, your main duty is something else, but merely having Japanese ability will be a huge plus to helping the work go smoother.

You don’t have to move to Japan to get a job where you use Japanese—you might have a Japanese company in your town that needs Japanese language skills.

Local Companies Doing Business in Japan

Non-Japanese companies are probably the most overlooked sources of Japanese-related jobs for Japanese speakers. Most large companies and multinationals all do business abroad. Some have direct operations in other countries, and some work through more indirect methods. In either case, there is often a need for people with language ability for those markets.

If a company has any sort of documentation, manuals, Web sites, etc., they have a need for product localization. Some may do it all in-house, while others contract it out to language service providers. For larger companies that do a lot of business in Japan, they may have on-staff language resources for product localization, testing, translation, etc. And even if they contract the translation work out to a vendor, they will need a localization manager to handle this work. Being bilingual is almost always a requirement for handling the translation vendor relations. Even if Japanese isn’t the most used language, it still helps that you have experience with a second language in order to be familiar with some of the issues that come up with translation and localization.

In addition to translation and localization related jobs, there are many opportunities on the business side for a Japanese speaker: supply chain management, import and export, making business arrangements, product marketing, etc. For any role that is needed to make business operations successful, having language ability for the target market can only improve your ability to handle the business matters even more smoothly.

Working in Japan

If you already live in Japan, then you have an advantage if your goal is to find a Japanese-related job. For everybody else, this will be a little more difficult. You can always apply directly to companies you are interested in, and there are also Web sites and organizations that can help.

The JET program is well known for bringing English teachers to Japan, but they also have a lesser known program called CIR (Coordinator for International Relations). Unlike a JET English teacher, a JET CIR works in a local Japanese city office or something similar and works on international projects and organizes cultural activities. Also unlike the JET English teacher position, the CIR position requires Japanese language ability because you will be working among Japanese coworkers.

If the JET CIR if not what you are looking for, you can always try to find a job from abroad through job posting sites. One site in particular that specializes in jobs in Japan is DaiJob.com (Work in Japan). DaiJob has a full range of listings. What I find very useful is each listing will list what level of Japanese proficiency is required. For example, some jobs might only required a casual conversational level, whereas others may require a level 2 or level 1 proficiency in the JLPT. This can really help you gauge what jobs are appropriate for your language ability level. There is also the business focused Japanese certification test, the BJT (Business Japanese Proficiency Test).

Language Service Providers

Language service providers, or LSPs, are companies that provide translation and other linguistic services. These are big, and often multinational companies that work with companies to provide translation, localization, and even product marketing services to take their products into new markets. Some companies, like SimulTrans for example, concentrate on the translation, localization, and globalization of your products/documentation. Other LSPs, like Sajan and SDL offer those services and much more. They have their own specialized software and managed services they offer in addition to the traditional translation services.

You can definitely work for an LSP as a translator, but that is not the limit of what they offer. Translation also requires proofreaders, reviews by subject matter experts, graphic designers and desktop publishing experts, audio and visual engineers, programmers, and quality assurance people. Additionally, project managers are there in every step to handle the business aspects as well as the translation resources. I imagine it is a requirement at most LSPs to be bilingual to even be a project manager. You can work in the translation industry and put your Japanese skill to use even if you aren’t doing translation work directly. A good project manager makes a big difference in the quality of the translations.

Translation

If you can speak, read and write Japanese proficiently as well as another language, then you can work as a translator. Translation jobs vary greatly by subject matter, location, job arrangement, etc. In other words, there are many ways to get into and go about being a translator.

Language Service Providers

One common option is to work for one of the previously mentioned language service providers. Most LSPs require you to translate into your native language. So for example, if your native language is English and you also speak Japanese, you would translate Japanese texts into English.

While it is probably possible to work at an actual LSP office as a translator, you would most likely work from home. You can set your own hours as long as you meet deadlines and commitments. Contracting with an LSP is similar to freelance translation work, except that the LSP takes care of all the business arrangements and provides you with the work for projects. As a translator, you can focus more on the translation task without worrying about trying to find, line up, and manage clients. The downside to this is you may have to accept their word rate and use whatever translation tools they require or provide. However, the upside is they handle the business arrangements and are more likely to be able to continually supply you with steady work.

LSPs generally contract with translators in any country that there is need. If you live in the U.S.A., Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, and most European countries, it should be easy to find work doing Japanese translation work. While general translation work is always in need, specialized translation is also very common. As a translator, it is helpful to have experience or expertise in a certain field. Common areas that might require experience or expertise to get the translation job are: Legal, IT/computers, patents, medical, manufacturing, marketing/advertising, and so on. If you have a background or past experience in a certain field, that can be the advantage you have over other translators to being an LSP’s go-to person for those types of translations.

Translation is a big part of what LSPs do, but it isn’t the only job you can do for them as a contractor working at home. Every translation will need reviewers and proofreaders. Proofreaders may just check translations for language, and subject matter experts may check the translation for technical accuracy. They also need people with language skills who can work with graphics and page layout software.

To work for an LSP, you will most likely need to be familiar with how translation memory software works. The most used software is SDL Trados, although it is certainly not the only translation memory software out there. Learning translation memory software, multilingual glossary software, and learning what other dictionaries and translation tools are out there is definitely worth doing.

Freelance Translation

If you prefer even more freedom than is offered from an LSP, you can go into business for yourself as a freelance translator. You find your own clients, set your own prices, and determine how you will get the work done. For some people, this is a more attractive option than directly contracting with an LSP, especially if you are more business minded. For others, the freedom you have is the key point. For instance, many LSPs will require that you use specific translation software, such as SDL Trados. If you don’t like Trados, find it prohibitively expensive, or just prefer other software, then freelancing usually affords you that freedom.

The downside to freelancing of course is that you are on your own to find work. For any job posted to a job site, you may be competing with any number of other people for the job. There is also an element of risk when always working with different clients. Method of payment, details of work, required software, expectations, and attitudes vary greatly from client to client. However, if you find a good client and do good work, you have the potential to be their go-to person and receive steady work. Also, when you work directly for the client, you have a better chance of getting direct answers to questions that may come up during a job, whereas with an LSP you may have to ask questions indirectly through the LSP’s project manager.

To get started in the world of freelance translation, I would recommend checking out Proz.com. This is an excellent Web site for translators. They have job postings and client ratings, and also an active BBS for a wide range of translation-related discussions.

To get a leg up over other freelance translators, you may also consider improving your qualifications. A language-related certification could be the thing that a client uses to pick you over another translator. For Japanese, the gold standard in language skills is the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). For practical translation skills, there are translation certifications as well. Once such qualification is from the American Translators Association.

Translator at a Company

Large companies that do business in Japan, especially if they have local documentation, product localization, and Web operations teams, may have a need for local language experts. For example, a company like Apple Inc., which has the majority of its operations in the United States, probably has Japanese speakers at the local U.S. operations to manage the Japanese localization of products, Web sites, and online help bulletin boards. There are probably many companies in the same situation that sell globally, but operate locally.

Interpretation

Interpreters are needed whenever people with different language backgrounds need to communicate. There are two types of interpretation: simultaneous and consecutive. Simultaneous interpretation is when the interpreter is speaking at the same time as the speaker. The people listening to the interpreter usually have a headset on. This is common for the United Nations, and big, generally assembly type meetings or conferences. Simultaneous interpreters need to be exceptionally proficient in both languages and be trained to translate in real time. Simultaneous interpreters usually command a high hourly rate and are used only at high profile events.

Consecutive interpretation is when one party speaks, and then you translate what they said. And then the other party speaks, and you translate what they said. This type of interpretation is often needed for business meetings, training conferences, business telephone calls, court rooms, hospitals, and any place where people of different language backgrounds will be working together. A business meeting may last all day and provide a nice hourly rate. In contrast, an insurance company may only need to communicate with someone involved in a car accident over the phone for 10 minutes. And then, legal matters that end up going to court could potentially last for weeks. This type of interpretation is less demanding than simultaneous interpretation, but you still may need expertise in a certain field.

You can definitely freelance as an interpreter. In fact, some people supplement their normal translation jobs with interpretation jobs. However, the need for interpretation can some times come up without notice, and many businesses may need to keep on file a language service provider that can accommodate these types of requests. It is very common to work for an LSP and be dispatched to local businesses or take phone calls as the need for interpretation comes up.

Airlines

If you fly to or from Japan, half of the passengers will likely be Japanese. In turn, the airlines will need bilingual Japanese speakers to be flight attendants and gate personnel and other roles. American carriers like American, Continental, Delta, etc., and overseas carriers like JAL and ANA all fly internationally to and from Japan, and need people who speak Japanese. And from my experience flying, a high level of fluency isn’t required. You just need enough conversational skills to serve meals, take requests, and see that the flight goes smoothly.

Japanese Jobs Summary

Japanese related jobs are out there, and often available in places you may not even considered looking. While Japanese translators will always be needed, it is not the only field where Japanese language skills are required. Be business minded and think about what the company needs might be, be it locally or globally. And even if a business does not do business in Japan, you might be the person with Japanese language skills they were waiting for to initiate their global entry into Japan.

Good luck in your Japanese related job searches.

Posted in Japanese, Localization, Translation | 2 Comments »

Japanese Input on Fedora 15 Linux Gnome 3

June 12th, 2011

Setting up Japanese input (IME) on Fedora 15 is easy and only takes a few minutes. However, it is a little different from previous versions because of the new Gnome 3 Shell user interface.

Fedora still uses the IBus keyboard input method system and uses the Anthy Japanese input method for the Japanese keyboard input, so it will be a familiar process to set up and use if you have done it on earlier Fedora Linux distributions. For Fedora 14 under Gnome 2, refer to this post.

This tutorial will get you up and running with Japanese input (IME) in just a few short minutes.

To start, open Activities from the Top Panel.

In the Search Box, type Input Method and select the Input Method Selector.

In the Input Method Selector screen, select Use IBus (recommended).

Press the Input Method Preferences button to open the IBus Preferences screen.

On the Input Method tab, check the Customize active input methods check box.

Press the Select an input method dropdown and select Show all input methods.

Press the Select an input method dropdown once again and now select Japanese → Anthy.

Press the Add button, and then press Close.

You must log out for the changes to take effect, so press the Log Out button on the Input Method Selector screen.

When you log back in you will now have the IBus input method framework button on the Gnome top panel (It looks like a small keyboard). This is the button to change input modes. Open a text editor such as gedit or some other application with a text input window.

Press the IBus input method framework button and select Japanese – Anthy.

The keyboard icon has now changed to Aち, which shows the letter A and the hiragana character chi, which probably is trying to get something close the the pronunciation of Anthy while indicating Japanese/English input modes.

You should now be able to type in Japanese.

Use the Anthy Aち button to toggle between Japanese, English, and other Japanese IME modes.

Note: When  I did this on Fedora 15 on my PC, after logging back in after changing the input mode, the display language was randomly changed to a different language. If this happens to you, just go to Region and Language from the System Settings and change it back to English or Japanese or whatever you prefer.

Note: If you get the message No input window when you try to select Japanese Anthy, make sure you have the mouse cursor in an application with a text input box, such as a text editor or a Web browser.

That’s it. You should be able to type in Japanese now. Even though the Gnome 3  Shell interface is new, you still set up and use Japanese input in a very similar manner.

Posted in Japanese, Linux | 3 Comments »

Japanese Input on Ubuntu Linux 11.04 Natty Narwhal

May 7th, 2011

This tutorial will show you how to set up Japanese input (IME) on Ubuntu 11.04 from the Unity interface. For Ubuntu 10.04 under Gnome, refer to this post.

To start, select Applications from the Unity Launcher.

From the Applications menu, select Language Support.

On the Language tab of the Language Support screen, press Install / Remove Languages…

On the Installed Languages screen, scroll down to Japanese and check Input methods and Extra fonts, then press Apply Changes.

Enter your password on the Authenticate screen.

It will take a few moments to download and install the Japanese IME packages.

Back on the Language Support screen, select ibus for the Keyboard input method system, and then press Close.

Once again select Applications from the Unity Launcher.

From the Applications menu, select Keyboard Input Method.

You may get a pop up message saying Keyboard Input Methods (IBus Daemon) has not been started. Do you want to start it now? Select Yes.

On the Input Method tab of the Ibus Preferences screen, press Select an input method and select Japanese → Anthy.

Press Add and then press Close.

The Ibus keyboard icon will now display on the top panel.

Open up any application with a text box such as Tomboy Notes and place the cursor in the text box.

Press the Ibus keyboard icon on the tap panel and select Japanese-Anthy.

The Ibus keyboard icon will now change to the Anthy Aち icon.

That’s it. You can now type in Japanese in Ubuntu 11.04. できましたでしょうか。

 

 

Posted in Japanese, Linux | 36 Comments »

Japanese Subtitles on Videos

May 4th, 2011

If you are studying Japanese and you have an interest in Japanese anime, dramas, or movies, I highly recommend watching them in Japanese with Japanese language subtitles. This is really helpful for listening comprehension, and is a great way to practice Japanese in an enjoyable way.

The view Japanese videos with Japanese subtitles, you will need:

* VLC media player
* Japanese videos (Dramas, anime, movies, etc.)
* Japanese subtitle files

VLC Media Player

VLC media player is available on all operation systems (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux), and more importantly, it plays all of the subtitle file formats. It also plays just about every movie file format there is as well. Windows Media Player and Quicktime only work with a limited number of subtitle formats and media file types. Just use VLC and you will not have to worry if your media player can load the subtitles.

Download VLC here.

Once you have VLC, there are some minor settings you need to adjust.
Open Tools → Preferences.
Go to the Subtitles & On Screen Display Settings
For the Default encoding, change this to Universal (UTF-8) if it ins’t already set to that.
Save the settings and VLC is ready to go.

Japanese Subtitle Files

Subtitle files are plain text files with a transcript of all the spoken dialog timestamped to when it should appear on the screen to align with the audio. Subtitles are usually “ripped” from a digital broadcast, but sometimes they are transcribed by hand.

The two main subtitle file formats you will run across are .srt and .ass files.

SubRip (.srt) subtitles are very basic. Because of this, they load very quickly and work with a lot of media players (but you are using VLC so this is not a concern). SRT subtitles just display text. These files are good for dialog and a lot of dramas use these types of files.

Here is an example of the plain text srt subtitles (Japanese):

Advanced Substation Alpha (.ass) subtitles are more advanced than .srt files. These subtitles can display a wide variety of type-faces and fonts, and can position and style text in very dynamic ways. This file format is also plain text, but because of the the fonts and positions are more complicated than standard subtitles, the video will take a few moments to prerender these before the video starts.

These subtitles are often used in anime and historical dramas. Historical dramas often need translation notes to explain signs and names that might appear on the screen, as well as supplemental information about historical figures, places, and events. Anime also has these as well as karaoke lyrics highlighted in real time for theme songs.

Here is an example of the more advanced .ass subtitles (English):

To play a video with subtitles, the subtitle file name must be the same as the video file name, with the exception of the file extension. For example:
Video file: SchoolDrama.mp4
Subtitle file: SchoolDrama.srt

Something you might see is an extra language file extension. A video might have subtitle files for multiple languages. In this case it will look something like this, assuming Japanese.
Video file: SamuraiAnime.mkv
Subtitle file: SamuraiAnime.jp.ass

As long as you only have the Japanese subtitle file, it will play automatically with the video. On the other hand, if you have multiple subtitle language files, you will need to manually select what language subtitles you want to display in VLC, or set the default subtitles to be Japanese.

Here are a few sites that provide Japanese language subtitles to a variety of shows:

Dramas: D-Addicts.com

Anime: Kitsunekko.net

As long as you use VLC and name the subtitle file correctly, it is really easy to watch Japanese videos with Japanese subtitles.

Posted in Japanese | 21 Comments »

Double Clicking Japanese Text

April 5th, 2011

Double clicking text in Asian languages, especially Japanese, is something that has been overlooked in the localization of pretty much every operating system and application. If you want to copy a word into the clipboard, it is convenient to double click somewhere over the word and have the system automatically highlight the entire word for you.

Double clicking text in English and other European languages works like you expect it to. Double click on any word and the entire word is highlighted, like this: “DoubleClickMe.”

The reason why this works in English is because there are spaces on each side of the word. Japanese on the other hand has no spaces between each word. This makes the problem very difficult. Next, add in the multiple character types that Japanese has (Hiragana, katakana, and kanji), and now you have an extremely difficult problem.

Let’s look at some examples and see what happens.

今日は楽しかったです。

Double click on 「今日」 and it highlights the entire word.
Double click on 「は」 and it highlights the 「は」 particle.
So far so good.

Double click on the kanji of 「楽しかった」 and it highlights only 「楽」.
Double click on the okurigana (hiragana) after 楽 and it highlights 「しかったです」.

It is pretty obvious what is going on. Double clicking on Japanese text will highlight an entire string of one kind of character type.
In other words,

  • If you click on a katakana character, it will highlight the entire katakana string.
  • If you click on a hiragana character, it will highlight the entire hiragana string.
  • If you click on a kanji character, it will highlight the entire kanji string.

This is obviously not what we want it to do, but it makes sense why it does this. The OS or application that you are using doesn’t have any intelligence to be able to parse Japanese into individual, complete words. Therefore, by default, double clicking will highlight the longest string of similar character types.

Let’s look at a couple of interesting examples that really illustrate this behavior.

First, a complete sentence all in hiragana.
わたしはすしがきらいです。

Clicking anywhere on this sentence highlights the entire sentence. There is no way to highlight individual words by double clicking.

Next, a sentence with a lot of random kanji together.
寿司酒刺身河豚鮪日本米国東京横浜は、ランダムな漢字の文字列です。

Clicking anywhere on the initial long string of random kanji words will highlight the entire string. Without any intelligence, the system does not recognize that there are nine different words there, and a result, highlights the entire string.

Double clicking Japanese text does not work. It will highlight stuff, but it does not highlight anything meaningful most of the time. This behavior is universally wrong across all operating systems (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, etc.) and applications.

Is this a Solvable Problem?

The answer is yes. What we need is an OS or application level intelligence about Japanese. One way to achieve this intelligence is to match text against a Japanese dictionary. When you double click Japanese text, the OS should match against the longest hit in the dictionary.

For example:
寿司食べ放題

If you click on 「寿」, it will hit 寿 (ことぶき) as a valid word in the dictionary, but it should continue on and recognize 寿司 (すし) as the longer and correct word, and highlight 「寿司」. It should not highlight the 「食」 character. If you click on 「食」, it should continue on in the dictionary search to highlight 「食べ放題 」. The kanji/hiragana mix should not play a role as a boundary character like it currently does.

For example:
わたしはすしが好きです。

If you click on 「好」, it will hit 好 (こう) as a valid word in the dictionary, but it should not stop there. It should also hit 好き (すき) as the longer, and correct word to parse in this case.

This should give us much better results when double clicking, but a dictionary compare is not enough to give us consistently correct results most of the time. The problem is a dictionary is only going to have the root words/conjugations/inflections etc. Therefore, we also need intelligence to understand parts of speech and conjugations and how they relate to the root words in the dictionary.

For example, the previous sentence:
今日は楽しかったです。

If you click on 「楽」, it will hit 楽 (らく) as a valid word in the dictionary, but it should not stop there. It should also hit 楽しかった even though it is not in the dictionary, because it is the past tense of the word 楽しい, which is in the dictionary. 「楽しかった」 should be completely highlighted, and it should not continue on and highlight です because that is not part of the word 楽しい.

Conclusion

There are no operating systems that properly parse and highlight the correct words when double clicking. This is definitely not an easy problem to solve, but it is possible and should be done on Japanese systems.

There are two software applications that I know of that can parse Japanese properly most of the time: Rikaichan and NJStar. Rikaichan is an add-on to the Firefox browser, and NJStar is a Japanese word processing application. They both have a mouse-over hover function that parses complete Japanese words. You can also double click and get the expected result as well. These two applications both use a Japanese dictionary back end and have enough Japanese language intelligence to parse conjugations and inflections of words to get the expected match most of the time.

There are times when Rikaichan does not parse the expected result. I will cover those exceptions in a future article about parsing Japanese. However, Rikaichan is right about 99% of the time, which is great considering that your OS is usually wrong 90-95% of the time when it comes to double clicking Japanese text.

Posted in Japanese, Localization | 3 Comments »

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