Where are the growth markets

A reader of another source of information about interpretation I collaborate to contacted me asking questions about schools teaching Japanese-French interpretation in Japan. 23 years old, bilingual, enamored with Japan. A growing set of characteristics bound to grow further with bi-national weddings. But what about the markets to ...

we interrupt our broadcast due to a small but sensible earthquake in Tokyo ...

Back to work. The players in the market this young person is dreaming about are mute like clams. Even tighter in the small JP-FR pair. There are three schools I am aware of offering some courses in JP-FR interpretation. I teach in one of these. One of the other, Simul, is the black hole of interpretation in Japan. It sucks out large amount of money from students, on the premise that if they get through, they will be part of the Simul Inc. agency rooster and by back their financial and intellectual efforts. I have heard from several channels that teachers at Simul are reluctant to talk about market realities. After all, they are paid to lure in students, and are politely despising each others, unless they are tiny enough a group to understand that there's no need to fight internally. They do train the next generation, despite the fact that at conference level at least, JP-FR is said to be replaced by JP-ENG-FR. 

In consec, the market is massively of the liaison type. It's partially a try-your-luck market, partially a organized market where embassies and chambers of commerce attract demand and offer.

There is the open wild market : be present on the Internet and wait to catch a bird. Or rather, get caught.

This market is untapped in my sense, although JP-FR is and will be always be marginal. JP-ENG-FR is a better combination. I believe that partnership and common visibility over the Internet are one of the combined untapped strategy. This strategy doesn't appeal to people I have approached. They are all deeply buried in the lone wolf scenario of independence. They do have professional friendship circles, small groups of same job people, but they don't think to transform this dynamism into visibility. Rodents meet rodents. I think this is lame.

As training is scarce, most have had few if no training at all. In liaison, it is my belief now that training is 50% dialog with practitioners to understand the ecosystem, the dynamics at stake when aiming at this job.  I know for sure that in other schools, trainers don't talk about practicalities. You will learn on the job, is the mantra. I believe that part of this on the job experience can be padded with prior theoretical knowledge of what empiricism will teach.

Many interpreters in JP-FR I have met also do translation. Interpretation alone won't feed them.

This does not answer the title question, "Where are the growth markets". I am not about answering it, but when I see with many clients how bad communication, half-cooked English, cultural gaps have left trails and trials often meaning loss of time = $$$, in the SMEs category at least, I believe that growth markets are the one stemmed by some different approaches and attitudes of liaison interpreters being proactive.

Miscellanea

Don't bring billions in speech when the client is an English speaker from Europe, outside the UK. Translating figures between Japanese and English (and French too), when bigger than 10K and reaching for the sky is a torture. I have my chart ready but billions were a mystery to my clients. Now I have revised it starting for 1,000 millions, and more.

"I have to inform you that the Japanese party will come with an additional 4 people." Do you have to worry more because more people are coming to that meeting?

What do you do when the opposite side spends way too much time talking to each other? My clients rightly asked me what they were talking about, when at least 4 people were talking among each other. on the other side I knew I could not manage the mess. I requested the opposite side to talk to my client in priority rather than speak among themselves for so long time "as I am supposed to translate anything". My being a Westerner, that is a cheeky lad, allowed me to do so. You know what? It did miracle and greased the meeting's dynamics.

Sometimes, you are a stand-by interpreter, listening intently, taking notes, but leaving the exchange happen in English. But you are ready to jump to the rescue whenever something get wrong, or weird, and intervene when you think, or better, plainly see that they are no longer on the same bandwidth. These situations are getting familiar these days. Why then would the client hire me? Exactly for the above mentioned. Being ready to jump in when things get awry.

I know someone in some embassy who is bored with excellent but mechanical interpreters. Good news.

Keep your language lean

I wrote some times ago about how the Westerner presenter should avoid flowery language. There are deeper meanings and consequences in business. Assessing that keeping the discourse lean and flowerless is for the sake of the interpreter's work load reduction is too easy an explanation, at least between Japanese and French or English. When one is able to read technical Japanese, which includes business Japanese, there is quickly an impression that the Japanese used in articles as well as business presentation is clearer than equivalents in the opposite languages. It is often not an impression but reality. In business, in technology, Japanese presenters would avoid flowery language. Not that the language does not allow for jingle and catch-phrases like formula, but "faire de l'esprit" is fairly inappropriate when presenting companies, stuffs and things.

At school, when working from Japanese using recordings of real corporate presentations, the only trouble that may arise is when the speaker evokes corporate "philosophy". Those airy flowers tend to be thorny. But besides working for a better world, descriptions of services are straightforward, leaning on dullness as is often the case as seen form a Westerner's point of view with formalistic Japanese.

The other side is usually more challenging, loaded with catchy bits of trendy expressions, the getting traction shunning at the now miserable momentum. French too can be awfully complicated by presenters getting enthusiastic. For fairly high level students of French, the challenge is tremendous. Tongue in cheek means the interpreter may stall. There is an extra layer of deciphering the language, that is turning it into duller stuff when going Japanese. Adding spices on the reverse is usually welcome, otherwise, the listeners may think the interpreter, not the speaker, is oversimplifying.

The consequence of growing flowers into speech can have inappropriate effects on the business, by generating a haze of permanent misunderstanding. This issue deserves more than a single entry.

Fees and the world are not flat

The world is not flat. Fees as well are not flat. Let me put things straight here. The inquiries usually come from East-Asian countries. Some must be shocked by the fees requested. But you are wrong and blind. Fees are within the market, that is within a scale of reality. The world is not flat, otherwise, you would not consider hiring an interpreter. It is because the world is not flat that interpreters are required at times and in some situations. My guess is that in Japan at least, they are required more times and in many more situations than, let's say, Europe and wherever English or advanced Globish suffice. They are underused.

Cost of living still differs among countries, and your surprise, usually translated into silence, is just the proof that you are blind to the fact that the world is not flat.  Too much Starbucks frappucino and shots of CNN news are blurring you basic facts. That the world and fees are not flat. An inquirer from Sri Lanka had the courtesy to answer back that he would have to report to his board. That's the most blind spot in the whole company and I wish him well. In a sense, Japan is for sale, and thank to the internet, inquiries are growing, with a slew of assumptions pumped by the media into the soft spot of globalization. But you are wrong, that's the simplest thing about it. There is no room for discussion. You don't own the knowledge of my market reality. Your assumption of being right is wrong. Eventually, the market may offer you acceptable conditions, because the market offer is not flat either. It doesn't contradict the least that your perception is blurred by globalization's haze.

Illusions of serenity

Most business interpretation settings are bathed in an atmosphere of goodwill. It does not mean that conflicting situations do not happen. They do and put additional stress and challenge to the interpreter who must manage detachment. But most of the time, there is that glow of goodwill, courtesy and at the beginning at least, a little gentle confusion with the "steps of business card exchange" where many clients fear ahead of time to make a "faux pas". A little awkwardness - on both sides - is expected and approved.

In the social theater of encountering the other, the interpreter has a strange position. She is actor and witness. She is supposed to be as invisible as the props' carriers in Kabuki theater, clad in black, and supposedly invisible to the spectators. Only, props's carriers do not much interfere, and especially do not participate with the setting on stage. They are not part of the narrative now being delivered. Interpreters are, because of constant presence, and major impact on the communication flow. Without an interpreter, things would be totally different, maybe faster, maybe snappy. But it would suppose that the cultural divide between both sides is small enough that (usually) globish or better English would suffice. On average, the Japanese side is much more at ease basking in the gentle glow of courteous communication because they have that strong "gaman" habit, the bearing with current things habit, that the other side usually cannot cope with on a longer term.

In long sessions, when the talk shifts to business at stake, the divide and tensions set in, whatever the situation. That's where the tension is actually stronger on the shoulders of the interpreter. The first part of the play usually follows well known, mostly invariable patterns. You want to have command of the stiffed expressions of politeness, be ready to deliver clear and fast, with courteous authority. It may be more challenging as a beginner than what comes next.

What comes next is mostly unpredictable. No amount of preparation will alleviate the unpredictable. It is seldom related to matters of vocabulary you may not know, but more to issues of lacking perfect understanding of context.

Next week, in the advanced business consecutive course, we will try a new and challenging exercise to raise awareness of anticipation, inferring and  business "culture générale". I have found a set of short video in French where real CEOs simply present in less than 2 minutes what their corporations do. It is very challenging at times, even for a native. The purpose is to make the students feel that serenity is an illusion, even in the most glowing setting. Something, a flutter of a wing in the course of discourse, may suddenly unsettle the interpreter in major ways. In the classroom, we do not much train than raise awareness about so many issues. Courses are course in awareness.

An open letter

Thank you very much for your inquiry. Although you are the first person to request an exchange of link, I am not against the idea. However, I have conditions that are not met.

You seemingly are an interpretation agency whereas I am an individual interpreter.

But more than that, I could consider an exchange of link with an individual interpreter with whom I have had an exchange of thought and discussion about our business and thus create a minimal reciprocal trust and respect. I am in the market for professional human intellectual  bonding with colleagues (that's a tough word to dare and use but read more) as a key factor for considering even minimal collaboration. Not that I am against collaboration. Quite the opposite. I am totally for collaboration.

But it is a challenge as interpreters are notoriously shunning at professional discussions and fiercely despising each others for the meek reason of competition. At least it is the case in Japan and seemingly the case elsewhere as far as I know.

I am providing interpretation services but I am not, thankfully, part of the ecosystem of mistrust and despise of so many interpreters I have met over the years. That's why I am writing a blog and sharing whereas the pro interpreters I have met are commonly sharing despise and arrogance when they agree to meet and have a gentleman (gentlewoman commonly) discussion. In most cases, they don't want to meet and don't answer to inquiries for meeting - fearing and sometimes justifying the hiding for reasons of "competition", as if competition was a transmissible disease like flu. But most of the time, they simply don't answer to mere mortals.

Having been through the failed tentative to create a professional gathering of Japanese-French interpreters in Tokyo - they would no want to communicate among peers - and failed equivalent approaches to many interpreters advertising their wares online, my requisite for effective link exchanges are set high, at the level of having direct communication (sounds like a four letter word).

There is a limit to the concept of competition, as competition is not a feature specific to interpreters. There are butchers in the same street and they are competing, and at the same time they belong to the same federation of butchers where they trade ideas and opinions about meat. And at times, they collaborate, sending the client looking for T-bone steak to the next door shop when they have no more stock, In another life, I will be a butcher. In the current life, I am an interpreter (among other activities) not belonging to the lonely world of professional interpreting. That is why although I appreciate your contact, conditions are not met to exchange links just because you happened to bump onto my blog. We have to build a bridge of minimal professional bonding and trust first. I invite you to dare and reach out.

Do not stare at your interpreter with suspicion

How to start a day with a good laugh? Read this piece : How to succeed when doing business in Japan, over Smart Business.

Japanese language has several levels of honorary expressions. As described by the common saying ‘Treat your customers like god,’ people will use a very high level of honorary language with their business counterparts. The higher the level of respect, the longer the expression may become. For example, after a long, long greeting speech made by a Japanese business partner, the interpreter may simply say, ‘Welcome to our company.’ Do not stare at your interpreter with suspicion. She is not hiding anything from you or trying to trick you. Instead, slightly bow (nod your head) with a nice smile and show your appreciation to such a polite and respectful greeting.

And this snippet too : "Although Japan does not have laws that allow gender discrimination ...", gender discrimination is the norm, unless you are an interpreter, a massively female occupation. 


The key point to remember for business people is indeed to keep a tamed attitude, in voice tone and body language. The rest is largely the competence of the interpreter to usher you in the communication loop.

How not be a part of the encounter

Tracking press articles with Googles News and keywords like "interpreting" or "interpreter" allows at times for thought provoking encounters. What about for instance this article from the battlecreekenquirer.com, on a program that teaches community interpreting.

Here are bits of though provoking stuff:

"in the class, students learn "how to not be a part of the encounter as the interpreter ... Really all they are is a pipeline for language".

"They learn the importance of translating exactly what is said, Varricchio said, without allowing emotions to play a role. They learn skills to usher relationships between the two parties almost as if the interpreter didn't exist."

Doesn't this exist in a vacuum where speeches were perfect, that is perfectly articulated and meaningful? In court interpreting at least, I perceive the issues at stake. In medical settings too, to some extend. But why deny the presence of the interpreter as a major disturbing factor of the communication dynamics? Checking emotions that may upturn the interpreter even in business settings comes as the most valuable suggestion here I wish one day to dig deeper into.

Flowery and conceptual discourse should be kept at bay

And add to this marketing feel good latest jargon. In business settings, there are several reasons why the client should keep in mind to stay with a simple speech to be effective. Flowery language, catch-phrase laden enthusiastic presentations of products or corporations benefit simplicity and allows the interpreter to adequately decorate the core meaning with a locally well understood business jargon, tone and manner that fit local understanding. The same applies at least very much here in Japan with conceptual stances. In business at least, the less conceptual bones to munch on, the better.

Is the interpreter entitled to suggest the client to control her speech blooming? Yes, granted the interpreter stresses with enough authority that the scheme is to get the message through, and that business flowers are the equivalent of literary citations and good jokes. They only put useless stress on the interpreter and do not benefit the speaker. Without authority when suggesting to keep things simple,  the interpreter takes the risk to be perceived as inadequate to the job. Whereas the client has authority on her corporation and product's content and context, the interpreter must suggest that authority in the knowledge of what works and what doesn't is her own turf. I don't suggest that this should apply to any situations. There are official, formal situations where the speaker will be expected to show off culture and expose her wits with "bon mots". But the meeting room is not an adequate place to do so, all the more that flowery and witty speeches - usually coming with cultural hints and bits - may actually be totally foreign to the listener's cultural context.

Keeping things simple does not mean talking to children but sticking to the fact. Being factual, rather than theoretical is a requisite, at least in Japan's business settings.