What Makes a Gal Tutor Special?

What Makes a Gal Tutor Special?I've just completed a three-week internship with the New York City office of Japanese translation company Mana Iizumi. Mana Iizumi is a translation, consultancy and training firm that specializes in creating Japanese-English dictionaries, editing content and ensuring high quality. In this article I'll outline some of the characteristics that make this business so unique.While it's obvious to all that Mai Sanon would not have created her own company, had she been self-employed, it's not so obvious that the number of companies that require highly trained translators is growing exponentially. This has a few implications for those wishing to employ one of these translators. The cost of learning Japanese is significantly lower than other languages; therefore the cost of translation is also much lower. In turn, translating into a second language is much cheaper than translating into English, since one can literally copy and paste text from English sources int o Japanese sources, converting them much more easily and economically.Firstly, the translation of the main dictionary - the Kanji Dictionary - is carried out by actual Japanese people, on actual documents. This means that the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the finished product are very high. Not only do Japanese people edit and proofread the dictionary, but they also make changes and additions based on their own experiences and personal opinions. They are also free to make changes as they see fit.Secondly, the dictionary is based on an English-Japanese dictionary that Japanese people have been studying for many years. Since the dictionary is based on the same dictionary, the process of translating between the two languages is completely different. People that would otherwise be unable to speak or write Japanese are able to.Finally, the process of translating the Kanji dictionary into English is also a very intensive process. By the time the dictionary is completed, it takes about four months to completely translate it. This means that each of the translators - myself included - will have to devote eight hours per day to researching and studying and translating. This way of translation requires much dedication and commitment, and those that do it well are truly amazing.These qualities are expressed in my company - the Mana Iizumi New York business - through its emphasis on dynamic languages and world cultures. It is easy to get too fixated on the particulars of technical terminologies and particularly the archaic terminology of a particular culture or country. More important is to first understand the cultures, to learn how to relate to and communicate with people, and then to translate and interpret.Translation has become an art form and the career of being able to speak a language and understand it is called 'Interpreting' in English. In Japan, I worked with a group of Japanese-English interpreters, a large percentage of whom did not speak English, and we worked very hard to understand each other, not only in the Japanese vernacular but also in English. This skill is something that is hard to learn and then forget once it's acquired.One might say that this career is closer to what the English word 'interpreting' actually means - understanding. It's a skill that's relatively easy to acquire, but it's one that requires a great deal of practice and dedication.