The word for “Constitutionally” in Japanese is 憲法上, which takes up half as much space. Japanese is usually a space-efficient language. That doesn’t mean it’s easier when we interpret, though!
Tomoko Yokoshima and Ayaka Kumazawa will be the Japanese interpreters for Fall Forum 2014.
The linguistic distance between Japanese and English sets a extremely high bar for interpreters.
Having developed on islands at the eastern and western ends of Eurasia, Japanese and English are probably two of the least similar languages in the world.
This leads to challenges on multiple levels for interpreters and students of interpretation. These challenges include:
- On a basic level, it is a huge challenge to be proficient in both Japanese and English.
- Number conversion is ridiculously difficult. 1 billion becomes 10×100 million in Japanese. What the heck!
- Sentence structure and order is quite different between the two languages. In fact, simultaneous interpretation between Japanese and English was considered to be impossible 60 years ago when the Tokyo Tribunal was held.
See who’s coming to the Fall Forum here.