Brain exercises

I have sort of put myself on a busy schedule this month as I accepted a translation job from the prefecture.  This is the third time that I have been asked to do translating and it is all very official and has a deadline.  I am working with a Japanese associate and we have til the middle of next month to translate a thirty page medical booklet for English speaking foreigners.

I really enjoy doing translation work though it holds a lot of responsibility as these things get published and heaven forbid there are any mistakes!  This is translation from Japanese to English and I feel that I'm pretty good with expressions and grammar and making things sound natural.  However, I could NEVER do translating from English to Japanese.  Too much unknown vocabulary, too many nuances and the Japanese language differs in vocabulary and expression depending on the formality of the situation. 

But from Japanese to English, with some thought and with time, I do a fair job.  My main handicap of course is being able to READ the Japanese (which consists of complicated Chinese characters) in order to translate but even that has become easier over the years...  I have my little Japanese-English dictionary... In a pinch (I haven't had to use him yet) I can ask Tetsu to READ me the sentence that needs to be translated if I can't figure out the character myself.

With nearly 40 years of living in Japan, I guess I've gained some literacy...  Maybe I can read things easily at Jr. high level...  With some brain exertion  I can manage more difficult text... thus the translation job I'm doing this month. 

The Japanese associate/friend is someone I've worked with before whose spoken English is nearly flawless.  She will be translating some pages of the medical booklet and I will be translating other pages and then weekly we will get together and go over each others' work.  Me, to make her English more natural, she, to make sure I haven't completely missed the point!

So I'm hard at work the next couple weeks translating things like doctors' office procedures and how to fill prescriptions.  Already I've had to take an aspirin this morning...  Too much work on the brain!  If my headache gets worse at least I've got the medical booklet (still in Japanese) at my fingertips!