Tomorrow Is Another Day

Translators are great profession to bridge the gap between different cultures. My profession is not exactly a translator. As a cross-cultural exchange promoter, however, I use techniques of translation and interpretation. There is an opinion that computer software will be able to translate any language, soon or later. It is remarkable to see rapid growth and development of translation software. However, a machine will never be able to replace human translators. There are 3 barriers for a machine to do translations.

1. It does not take the background of translation into consideration. Therefore, it has no way knowing the purpose of translation.

2. It does not assess emotional factors of expression given in a different language.

3. It is difficult to go over and bridge cultural difference of expression.

What software can do for translation is take a word, an expression, or a sentence and replace it with another language. It is, in this sense, a process of coding and encoding. This method is not enough for proper translation. For example, if one uses translation software for English words "execute this agreement", he would get Japanese meaning "give death sentence to this agreement". His translation software does not provide Japanese words meaning "put this agreement in effect". This is an example of the above item 1.

Let us examine item 2. A translator mentioned that she needed to read the entire book in original language to translate the contents effectively. She explained that she could make a serious mistake, if she did not understand the whole story. She could not understand the meaning of each sentence, otherwise. This translator said that she needed to be emotionally synchronized with the author on the author's opinion, emotion, and intention of his writing. It will take a long time for a device to be able to do it even if it will, some day.

3rd item is the issue of cultural difference. Japanese language put emphasis on processes, while English tends to go straight to the conclusion. Usually, an English proverb "Haste makes waste" has its Japanese version. The fact is, however, that the Japanese version is "Detour when you are in a hurry". Another example is "Tomorrow is another day." The literal translation version of this saying in Japanese is "Tomorrow another wind will blow." English likes direct expression, while Japanese tends to be indirect. There is another example of culture affecting languages. When a Japanese says it is hard, it means either it is impossible or he cannot do for a reason. When native English speaker says it is hard. He does not refer to its feasibility or his desire to do.

These are factors a machine with today's technology level cannot overcome. Human beings must wait until cybernetics or artificial intelligence is born to enable machines to do proper translation. Until then, PC software will continue to be a useful tool for translators to get their job done.




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Managers, Be Aware

People are anxious to get a managerial position. Is it so good to be a manager as people think? One day my colleague shared his own story, however. He said that he had been glad when he had become the department manager. His company is big. There are more than 300 employees working in the region. Being a department head is a status position. About half a year had passed. He did not like to be the department manager any more. He needed to travel all over the world. He could not have enough time to spend with his family. He was responsible for 25 people working with him. It was extremely difficult for him to keep his eyes on what his people are doing. Still, he was responsible for the mistakes his people had made.

He could not have his own time and could not think enough even on his work. He could not stand it any more. He thought he had enough. He resigned. He got a new job as a lower position staff. He is happy now because he can have his own schedule and time. He can manage his own schedule to share time with his family or friends. It is not easy to be in a high position, at the same time, having own personal life. Sometimes, a manager must make a priority decision, which comes first, his job or his family.

There is one factor making management position difficult. He needs to work as the leader of his team. As above, it is not easy to know what is happening with his team. Another difficulty is how the leader keeps his eyes on his team members. Even the manager understood 100% of what is happening in his team, he would not be able to understand how his team members would think and feel. Some might be happy. Another ones might not be satisfied. Others might not be thrilled, but they would do whatever their supervisor tell them to do.

When a manager was busy and do not know what is going on, he should be aware that his team members were busier and more confused than he was. His supervisor might give him a lot of works to do. He might be busy enough to do his own. When confusion was dominant, team members would be unhappy. The manager would not be able to supervise his people, simply because the manager himself was busy. All of his team member would be unhappy.

If members were unhappy, their works would not go well. He would need to take own time to consider how he should fix his team. He should ask himself if he had given the team members works, which he, himself, would not be happy to do. If a manager asks his member to do works, which made them unhappy, his team would go nowhere. A manager would consider if he asked his team too much of unhappy works. If more than 50% of his business order were unfavorable to his members, the manager should give the second thought how to distribute works among his team members, no matter how busy he is.





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City Life and Nature

Tokyo is always compared to New York. There are some similarities between Tokyo and New York. They are always crowded, days and nights. People walk real fast. People are walking staring a point 10 feet front and ground. They always keep serious faces. They do not seem to be friendly. Interesting is that they all keep almost identical appearance in walking in downtown. They all are frowned. They look they worry something. They appear as they believe smiling is a crime. If they found someone smiling, they wondered what they were happy about. People speak unusually fast. They talk fast both in the street talking, office talking, or over a phone. 20 - 30% of people are using cell phone walking so fast.

In San Francisco, New York, and Beijing, inside of cities is not so different from Tokyo. In Beijing or San Francisco, people look more relaxed, however. There are more smiling faces and happy looking people on corners in these cities. People in these cities are less tensed than Tokyo or New York. All the cities are full of concrete and steel. They are all built in the same way, but Tokyo is the worst. Tokyo is the worst among cities, because it has less nature than others. It has parks. These parks look artificial. The concrete buildings are surrounding these parks. One cannot feel the nature in parks, in Tokyo. To feel a bit of nature, one needs to travel, either by train or car, for more than 2 hours from downtown, Tokyo. It is the worst part.

There is great nature in Japan. Mountains cover 60% of Japanese land. Many of them are beautiful. Mount Fuji is the most beautiful one. It is an island country. Oceans surround Japan Island. There are so many beaches and seacoasts providing stunning views to the people visiting. The problem is it takes more than 2 hours to reach these natures. If one takes his family to these natures, he and his family need to keep standing in a stuffed train for at least 2 hours. If they decide to drive, it will take them for more than 3 hours to reach their destination in a traffic jam.

If one drives from downtown New York to the forest in North Jersey, the drive will be less than one hour. Someone living in San Francisco is close to coast side of San Francisco Bay. Either in New York or San Francisco, squirrels are everywhere. If one drives 20 - 30 minutes to West, he will reach Pacific Ocean side, whereas there is a long trail for people to enjoy walking, jogging, bicycle riding. He may meet a family deer's in walking on the trail. At night, people would see raccoons and skunks are walking across the road. One can experience these nature's wonder lands without giving up convenient and exciting city life.

In downtown Tokyo, or at least in the area of 2 hours from the center of it, one will never be able to experience the nature. This is the reason why living in San Francisco Bay Area is lovely.





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About Japanese Women

Japan is famous for male chauvinistic society. Men will go out, work, make money, and support their family. Therefore, they are primary in society and family. Women will stay home, give birth to their babies, and sustain their family. So they are secondary. When a woman became an executive, everybody was shocked. Some men were upset. Those were the days not so long time ago.

Japanese men are strong, aggressive, and outgoing. Japanese women are obedient, quiet, and holding. These were the Japanese typical stereotype. Only Japanese men should not be blamed for this tendency. Until quite recently, it was not so usual to meet a woman who was seriously seeking a business career. Even women became executives in their company, they changed their mind, married, had a baby, and became housewife and mother.

This traumatic Japanese mind-set initially came from "Bushido", Samurai Spirits. Especially the textbook of "Bushido" categorizes people in social groups, age groups, and genders. The textbook gave detail definitions of "dos and don'ts" to the people in certain social group, age group, and gender. For example, Samurai families' sons, by age 13, must be trained for martial arts and educated for ethics. They must be self-propelled and motivated to fight and protect their families. Another example is that Samurai's daughter, age 20 - 25 should be highly skilled on household affairs, such as cooking, cleaning, and baby-sitting. They should not go out with young men without engagement for marriage. They should marry by 26.

Please wait a minute, here. Although this textbook of Samurai spirits is the foundation of Japanese male chauvinism, Japanese history has not just been dominated by Samurai doctrines. It was 1192 when the first Samurai government started ruling. It lasted until 1868 when the last Shogun stepped down from its position of power. Its history of governance is less than half of Japanese history.

The very first ruler of Japan appeared in history was the queen Himiko (175 - 248). Himiko was a female shaman and spirit medium, who could convey messages and orders from God to people. She was powerful queen who established diplomatic relationship with China as equal partners. She also appears in an ancient Chinese history book.

After Himiko, in Japanese history between the Sixty Century and the Eighth Century, there were eight Empresses regnant. They were six female emperors including two ruled twice. There were two more female imperial reigned in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. Ten Empresses regnant in its history is noteworthy, comparing to the Chinese history having only one ruling empress in three thousand years of their history.

Women in Japan had played crucial roles in history. They played an important role in transition and hard times. There was a female writer who wrote; "In the early period of history, women were Sun in Japan" in 1910's. Today, facing evolution of social values, the role for women is also changing. As they sensed the change, there appears so many women entrepreneur in Japanese society, carrying different messages and different business styles from conventional types of business. Hopefully, they regain the energy of "Sun". They survive, grow, and bring in new development of Japanese society and economy. Japanese men and society should not define them using old social value of chauvinism. Japanese men should protect them and grow with them.


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