Bits of this and that ....

There is not a single magazine on science in the comfortable library of the school where I give a course in Tokyo. Science and technology are not part of the language romance.

Fearful time : this time of the world calls for serenity. My market is blank. The post Golden Week syndrome is in full swing, what with the crisis everywhere to see like the invisible man. The mort worrying part is that there have been trickling in, slightly more than I can remember. But they don't call back. The market is in for the cheapest interpreter around and they will find them anyway.

Don't invest time and resources into a speciality as a bet for the future needs of interpreting. Do it because it is an effective way to grow with a valid, marketable purpose. Nutraceutical and heavy dose of science and tech at large from now on, that is, now.

I am looking forward for this book : Deciphering the Rising Sun: Navy and Marine Corps Codebreakers, Translators and Interpreters in the Pacific War.

Fact is I have been looking forward for years for something about "the vital role played by Americans, not of Japanese ancestry, who served as Japanese language officers in World War II. Covering the period 1940-1945, it describes their selection, training, and service in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps during the war and their contributions toward maintaining good relations between America and Japan thereafter."

Language training for troublesome times. How did they do it? What is lacking that was there at the time? Most probably the sense of urgency, motivations, etc.