News from the front

Not my front door, but K. who is a veteran Japanese-English simultaneous interpreter here in Tokyo spoke more freely than usual about the state of the market and the new trends she has observed over the past, and especially this year.

Overall, there is less work in simultaneous and what is left tends to be assignments on very difficult subjects. The assumption is that for standard, daily subjects, corporations of some size tend to use in-house interpreters, or agree with an agent to use B level or less interpreters to save money. Young interpreters can accept to be paid JPY30,000 or less for a full day assignment and work all alone 5 hours in a row in simul. Talk about deflation and hard-work.

Half-day assignment now fits her better as it means less stress and less preparation for the same money. She can fill a single day with two short assignments and earn more than a full intensive day.

The school where she teaches consecutive is crowded with students. On average, 1 out of 15 students are showing potential competences at interpreting. There is a growing number of bilingual students who speak better English than she does herself. However, they are no better than non-bilingual, the key competence being a superior speaker of Japanese.

As a Japanese interpreter, you can be average in English but you must be brilliant in Japanese. Japanese clients complain more and more about details with the interpreter's performance. Veteran interpreters get less work from agencies as a result, the opinion of the client being top priority.

Japanese clients do not appreciate to see the interpreter chat with the Western clients. Chatting is so easy with Westerners as opposed with the straight jackets stultified Japanese clad in formalism. This upsets her more than anything.

She no longer works in French and has lost her competence for interpretation, but not for daily discussion. She wants to retire in five years time.