Challenges in the Field of Japanese Medical Translation
Challenges in the field of Japanese medical translation
Japanese medical translation poses challenges different from translation of other types of texts from Japanese to English. Why is this form of translation so difficult for most translators, and why is it so difficult to find a good-quality translator to translate medical Japanese?
The answers to both of these questions are the same, namely that the people who are experts in the field, which is to say medical doctors, do not work in translation because they are too busy. With the rapidly ageing population and baby boomers starting to retire this year, there is little spare capacity in the Japanese medical system overall, including nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, and other staff, let alone amongst doctors themselves.
Therefore, how is medical translation done? Although some translation companies will tell you that they have medical doctors translating texts for them, this is almost certainly not true - if it were true, then an average translation speed of 4000 characters per day would make translation of an average medical paper cost many thousands of dollars to the company, and would cost you close to ten thousand dollars.
The truth is that companies making this sort of claim do not actually know where their translators are and have not really checked their qualifications seriously. The reason for this is that they outsource with minimal quality control to ensure that there are no obvious blunders. However, most medical translators do not even have backgrounds in science, or perhaps did a degree in science but have not worked in a science-related field.
The other source of difficulty for this type of translation is that people who know the specialist terminology in Japanese generally do not speak English very well, while people who are bilingual are very rarely specialists.
The solution to this problem is actually taking a completely different view from the approach adopted by the industry at present. Instead of keeping translators at arm's-length, and not knowing who they are, it is essential to cultivate long-term relationships with specialists, and then improve their English, or make them work together with people who speak good English. Another way to solve this problem is to not overpromise to your customers in terms of delivery times. The best medical translators have many options for what to do with their time, and being able to provide them with flexibility will ensure a long-term working relationship.
However, this leads us to a further problem which is how is the customer to distinguish between a company offering genuine specialist translation in the field of medicine, from one which claims it has specialists, but is just an outsourcing shell?
The approach is to ask questions to check whether the translation company knows what they are talking about. For example, if you would like a paper translated about several cases of epigastric cancer resection, you may ask the potential translation company whether they have translated any documents related to epigastric cancer. Although it is unlikely that any given translation company will have on hand some examples related to such a specific niche, they should at least be able to explain the reasons why their translator is qualified to do the translation, and should be able to provide examples of work carried out in the past, even if parts of it are blacked out for confidentiality reasons.
There are two broad categories of problems which translation clients can run into when ordering medical translation from companies without track records. The first is that the translator understands the text, but cannot express it insufficiently good English. The reviewer is then likely to misunderstand parts of the text and change it incorrectly. The other type of problem is that the translator has good English, but has difficulty in understanding some of the text. In such cases, many translators will just write their best guess, but it is good practice to point out areas which are unclear. This is especially true for Japanese, which is an exceptionally ambiguous language.
In conclusion, in selecting a provider of Japanese medical translation, it is necessary to ensure that they have an appropriate translator with a sufficient track record.
Japanese medical translation poses challenges different from translation of other types of texts from Japanese to English. Why is this form of translation so difficult for most translators, and why is it so difficult to find a good-quality translator to translate medical Japanese?
The answers to both of these questions are the same, namely that the people who are experts in the field, which is to say medical doctors, do not work in translation because they are too busy. With the rapidly ageing population and baby boomers starting to retire this year, there is little spare capacity in the Japanese medical system overall, including nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, and other staff, let alone amongst doctors themselves.
Therefore, how is medical translation done? Although some translation companies will tell you that they have medical doctors translating texts for them, this is almost certainly not true - if it were true, then an average translation speed of 4000 characters per day would make translation of an average medical paper cost many thousands of dollars to the company, and would cost you close to ten thousand dollars.
The truth is that companies making this sort of claim do not actually know where their translators are and have not really checked their qualifications seriously. The reason for this is that they outsource with minimal quality control to ensure that there are no obvious blunders. However, most medical translators do not even have backgrounds in science, or perhaps did a degree in science but have not worked in a science-related field.
The other source of difficulty for this type of translation is that people who know the specialist terminology in Japanese generally do not speak English very well, while people who are bilingual are very rarely specialists.
The solution to this problem is actually taking a completely different view from the approach adopted by the industry at present. Instead of keeping translators at arm's-length, and not knowing who they are, it is essential to cultivate long-term relationships with specialists, and then improve their English, or make them work together with people who speak good English. Another way to solve this problem is to not overpromise to your customers in terms of delivery times. The best medical translators have many options for what to do with their time, and being able to provide them with flexibility will ensure a long-term working relationship.
However, this leads us to a further problem which is how is the customer to distinguish between a company offering genuine specialist translation in the field of medicine, from one which claims it has specialists, but is just an outsourcing shell?
The approach is to ask questions to check whether the translation company knows what they are talking about. For example, if you would like a paper translated about several cases of epigastric cancer resection, you may ask the potential translation company whether they have translated any documents related to epigastric cancer. Although it is unlikely that any given translation company will have on hand some examples related to such a specific niche, they should at least be able to explain the reasons why their translator is qualified to do the translation, and should be able to provide examples of work carried out in the past, even if parts of it are blacked out for confidentiality reasons.
There are two broad categories of problems which translation clients can run into when ordering medical translation from companies without track records. The first is that the translator understands the text, but cannot express it insufficiently good English. The reviewer is then likely to misunderstand parts of the text and change it incorrectly. The other type of problem is that the translator has good English, but has difficulty in understanding some of the text. In such cases, many translators will just write their best guess, but it is good practice to point out areas which are unclear. This is especially true for Japanese, which is an exceptionally ambiguous language.
In conclusion, in selecting a provider of Japanese medical translation, it is necessary to ensure that they have an appropriate translator with a sufficient track record.