Re[2]: English for Asian readers

[Susan Gallagher <Susan_Gallagher_at_Enfin-SD -at- RELAY -dot- PROTEON -dot- COM>]

Steve Fouts writes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|}
|} >[Japanese] do not like books with a lot of white-space. In fact, the denser,
|} >the better. Text-density is desirable feature.


Steven Youra writes:
|}
|} It's been my impression that they [please excuse the generalization] favor
|} the visual over the verbal--icons over text.  What do others know about
|} this?

I attended a presentation by Yasushi Nakajima at the STC Conference in
Dallas this year. He is a documentation Manager at Fujitsu Limited in
Kawasaki, Japan. It was his considered opinion that the Japanese preference
for all inclusive figures and tables, and text-dense pages was due to the
more inductive reasoning methods used by the Japanese.

His extreme simplification of inductive reasoning was that you attempted
to gather as much information as possible before making a decision. I
have heard it better described as circular reasoning, rather than linear.
At any rate, a verbose page suits inductive reasoning better than it does
deductive reasoning. The result (and he showed some frightening examples)
is a tendency for Japanese documents to contain huge foldout illustrations
with massive quantities of information portrayed on a single page.

I don't claim to be an expert, but these were Yasushi-san's findings...
Now since we all know that communication is based on the shared world
view, differences in the world view can make for some sticky communication
issues, it seems to me. Issues that it may not be possible to fully
comprehend without a great deal of applied study.

----------------------end included message---------------------------------

          Inductive reasoning myAuntWhat's'ErName!!!  Does it occur to
          anyone that it's a cultural (environmental) kinda thing.  If
          you live on a small island with lots of other people and
          there aren't a lot of trees so paper's at as much of a
          premium as space, you smush things together.  Smush things
          together long enough and you begin to like it that way!

          Cowboys in Montana like things spread out 'cause that's what
          they're used to!  It's the way they live!

          I grew up on the eastern seaboard and get positively
          paranoid in the desert (or for that matter, when I'm more
          than 10 miles inland for extended periods of time)!

          The Japanese formality is another offshoot of the space (or
          lack of) problem.  They don't have room for rebels to go
          hide!

          You can't please everybody.  You're lucky if you can strike
          a happy medium!  (I have that poor but joyous fortune teller
          black and blue -- or at least a flinching neurotic by now!)
          It's all a matter of understanding your audience (where have
          I heard that before???  Is there an echo???  Would anyone
          care to hum along???)

          BTW -- Have a HappyMerryJoyousWhatEverYouCelebrate!

Sue Gallagher                                 |
Sr. Technical Writer                          |      "Updating a manual
Easel Corporation                             |     is like changing tires
Enfin Technology Lab                          |       on a moving car."
San Diego, CA                                 |        -- Edmond Weiss
Susan_Gallagher_at_Enfin-SD -at- relay -dot- proteon -dot- com |