Re[2]: Examination for Japanese tech communicators

[ELLEN SLAVITZ <ELLEN_SLAVITZ_at_PO -dot- JADE -at- SMTPLINK -dot- INFORES -dot- COM>]

Dear Margaret Penman:

Regarding your questions on technical writing in Japan, which were:

>- Is the majority of technical writing in Japan, written in Japanese for
>  Japanese people?
>- Is it predominately for software or hardware?
>- Would a significant amount of work be translated into foreign languages? If
   so, which languages? Who would normally translate the work - a
   multi-lingual tech writer or a translator?

I worked in Japan as a technical writer, so I thought I'd offer a few of my
own observations, and hopefully address your questions.

From what I observed and learned from Japanese writers, technical writing in
Japan is where it was in the U.S. about 15-20 years ago. Manuals are written
primarily by engineers and are not really taken seriously as product
components that must be of high quality. (What? You say it's still like that
at your company?)  However, I believe this is changing, as it has in other parts
of the world.

I heard that, today, people are sometimes "assigned" to technical writing
without any specialized training, or any particular interest, for that matter.
(There's also a trend for women with engineering backgrounds to become
technical writers because they can't get hired as engineers.)

Translation is often done by professional Japanese translators. Unfortunately,
many have learned English in school the "Japanese" way, which is to memorize
obscure vocabulary and grammatical constructions without ever hearing the
language spoken by a native speaker. Thus, the translation problems with
which we are all too familiar. (Translation tends to be better if the target
language is the translator's native language.) Translation companies often hire
"rewriters" to rewrite Japanese-English translations. However, I did meet
several excellent, truly bilingual, Japanese translators.  Good translation
is expensive and tedious, and some Japanese companies are only beginning to
see it as a priority. (What? You say your company is also only beginning to
consider translation/internationalization a priority?)

I did know one technical writer who studied in the U.S. and could write
manuals in English, but I think this is rare.

Some companies are hiring native English technical writers (such as myself)
to write original manuals in English. Sometimes a company's foreign
subsidiaries will write the documentation aimed at non-Japanese audiences.

Obviously, there are many Japanese users of their own stuff, so documentation
is not produced solely for foreign markets. However, I have a theory related to
documentation in Japan. I think the Japanese have a strong tradition of learning
from one another -- from masters, senior colleagues, etc. -- particularly in the
workplace, whereas we Americans (apologies to all you non-American subscribers),
rugged individualists that we are, expect to be able to pick things up
completely on our own. Thus, it would make sense that the Japanese might lag
behind in the creation and expectation of explicit instructions. Not to mention
the ambiguity inherent in the Japanese language itself.

Feedback welcome.  Thanks.

Ellen Slavitz
IRI Software, Inc.
Waltham, MA