wa1lbp@n3dmc.svr.md.us (David Cowhig) (03/13/91)
Summary Guide to Japanese Technical Information
Contains:
Japanese Technical Information Sources
Japanese Translation Sources
Learning Japanese -- Texts and Reference Books
Review of MOKE Japanese Language Text Editor for the IBM PC
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Japanese Technical Information Sources
Directory of Japanese Technical Resources in the United States
Published by US Dept. of Commerce, National Technical Information
Service, Office of International Affairs. Lists commercial services
including translation agencies and freelance translators,
university programs, libraries, directories, government-funded
translations, Cost about $36 + $3 shipping.
Write NTIS, 5285 Port Royal Rd., Springfield, VA 22161
TEL: (703) 487-4819
NTIS Foreign Technology
"An abstract newsletter" reporting news of overseas research
efforts and listing technical reports in the original foreign
language and sometimes in English translation available on
microfiche or hardcopy from NTIS at the address above. One NTIS
best-seller "Survey of Supply/Demand Relationships for Japanese
Technical Information in the United States" (PB88-210943/ABW)
examines why demand for Japanese technical information in the USA
remains low despite the innovative scientific and technical work
now coming out of Japan. NTIS Foreign Technology costs about $125
per year.
SCAN C2C abstracts more than 500 Japanese scientific, technical and
business journals. It maintains a database of over 140,000 article
abstracts and adds 4000 new abstracts every month. SCAN C2C can
alert you to important information in your field within a month of
its appearance in the Japanese literature.
Contact: SCAN C2C, 500 E St., Suite 800, Washington, DC 20077-1106
TEL: (202) 863-3850 FAX (202) 863-3855
Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS) translates some
technical Japanese articles on topics such as digital networks.
JPRS reports can be purchased through NTIS.
National Translations Center at the Library of Congress The NTC holds
400,000 full-text translations into English and information on the
whereabouts of 1,000,000 translations. These translations have been
deposited at the Center by government agencies and private companies
to avoid duplication of translation efforts. The NTC gathers, indexes
and announces unpublished scientific and technical translations. For
information write to the
National Translations Center
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540
FAX (202) 707-6147
TEL (202) 707-0100
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Japanese Translation Sources
American Translators Association Japanese Language Division
Membership Directory
Ed. by John Bukacek, Division Administrator
Second Edition with specialty index, geographical index, fax
listing for individuals, and description of translator's equipment
(fax, modem, etc.)
Any of the 170 members of the Japanese Language Division may
request to be listed. If ATA accredited, this is usually listed in
the entry. Published August, 1989. Available for $15 from
Japanese Language Division Administrator John Bukacek,
10000 South Claremont, Chicago, Ill.
Tel: (312) 779-3009 FAX: (312) 779-9843
American Translators Association Translation Services Directory
Listing by language for European languages and Japanese.
Only those ATA members who have passed an ATA accreditation
examination are listed for their language.
Published by the American Translators Association
109 Crofton Avenue
Ossining, NY
Tel: (914) 941-1500 FAX: (914) 941-1330
ATArashi
Japanese translators' newsletter
Information on translation profession and terminology
$36 annually six issues/yr
Published by Ron Granich FAX: (206) 621-1786 TEL: (206) 343-3965
Japan Communications COMPUSERVE: 76662,351
419 Occidental Ave. S, Suite 509
Seattle, WA 98104
NCATA Professional Services Directory 1989-1990
A guide to foreign language services provided by members of the
National Capital Area Chapter of the American Translators'
Association
Available from NCATA Tel: (703) 243-4743
PO Box 65200
Washington, DC 20035-5200
Translation in Technical Communication
An information kit from the Society for Technical Communication on
the translation field, choosing a translator, translation and
technical writing, multilingual word processing etc. 137 pages
with index. A collection of reprints selected by Fred Klein
published 1988. Available from Society for Technical Communication
815 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 737-0035
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Learning Japanese - Texts and Reference Books
For home study, I recommend these books (I started with them,
others may violently disagree)
Japanese for Today (a text for beginning written Japanese)
Japanese for Beginners (a text for spoken Japanese - I suggest you
get this as well to get a basic grasp of sentence structure even
if you don't need to learn how to speak)
Both these books are published by Gakken and edited by Yasuo Yasuda
of the Osaka University of Foreign Studies. Both texts come with
cassette tapes.
You can order them from Kinokuniya in New York City or
through your local bookstore.
Kinokuniya
10 West 49th St.
New York, NY
The book, "Basic Technical Japanese," written by Edward E.
Daub, R. Byron Bird, and Nobuo Inoue will be published mid-
October [1990] by University of Wisconsin Press. The book will be
hard-bound cloth cover, 8.5" by 11" format, 664 pages, and
costs $35.00. It can be ordered by phone at (608)262-8782 or
by mail at
University of Wisconsin Press
114 North Murray Street
Madison, WI 53715-1199
-- Ken R. Lunde
vms.macc.wisc.edu (copied from USENET sci.lang.japan)
"Basic Technical Japanese" is a good book for people who have had
a one-year course in Japanese.
Reference Books--
Kanji and Kana by Wolfgang Hadamitzsky and Mark Spahn
Publisher: Charles E. Tuttle
Japanese-English Dictionary by Andrew N. Nelson
Publisher: Charles E. Tuttle
[Order directly from the publisher Charles E. Tuttle Company,
Rutland, Vt.] (Rutland is a small town, so that address if fine.
Ask for their nice catalog of Japan-related books)
Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary
ed. by Koh Masuda
For computer related Japanese-English translations an
excellent is [despite the title]
Japanese-English Dictionary of Computer
Nichigai Associates, 1989 ISBN 4-8169-0830-7
My copy cost 10,000 yen.
These reference books are the standard works owned by nearly every
Japanese-English translator.
David Cowhig, freelance Japanese-English translator
N3DMC.SVR.MD.US
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MOKE Japanese Language Text Editor for IBM PC
Mark Edwards wrote MOKE 1.1, a freeware Japanese text editor for
the IBM PC. MOKE, unlike most other Japanese word processors, is
designed to meet the needs of non-native speakers of Japanese who
are learning the language. Features include looking up the
pronunciation of kanji characters you have marked in the file you
are working on. Here is a review of MOKE 2.0 by David Cowhig.
Mark Edwards wrote Mark's Own Kanji Editor (MOKE) to open up
inexpensive Japanese language text editing to the many
nipponoliterates working on IBM PCs. Use MOKE to write
Japanese letters to your friends, print them on an Epson dot
matrix or HP LaserJet printer, or create JIS text files for
electronic mail. JIS codes, analogous to ASCII codes, were
developed in Japan to make Japanese language word processing
possible. JIS codes represent kanji, kana, Greek, Russian and
English characters within a computer. MOKE 1.1 is a free
distribution package. Order it from KiCompware for $15 and
then make copies for your friends. MOKE 2.0, an improved version
which makes kanji and kana input more convenient, costs
US$49.95 plus $5.00 postage ($10 postage overseas). Don't copy
MOKE 2.0. Mark Edwards deserves our support as he improves
this seven month-old program at an astounding rate. MOKE 2.0
was released on August 24 1990.
MOKE 2.0 feels much more like the English language word
processors we are used to than does MOKE 1.1. MOKE 2.0
converts romaji into the corresponding kana automatically. In
some cases where there is an ambiguity, such as the romaji n
and na, MOKE waits until the next key input. If the next key
input is not a, i, e, o or u, MOKE puts the kana 'n' on the
screen. Enter kanji by pressing Alt-M to tell MOKE you are
entering the romaji for a kanji or kanji compound and then
press return for the kanji. Help screens are more detailed
than in MOKE 1.1.
Students of Japanese will find the kanji pronunciation look-up
and English - kanji look-up features helpful. You first mark a
kanji or kanji compound on the screen and then ask MOKE to
give you the pronunciation. MOKE doesn't give the
pronunciation of many longer kanji compounds, but I found that
it could give me the pronunciation of many of the kanji
compounds I typed in to test it. MOKE is probably unique as a
foreign language text editor with its extensive help screens
and features conceived with the non-native speaker in mind.
MOKE 2.0 will support the Hewlett Packard LaserJet laser
printer. Other laser printers will be supported later. Mark
Edwards is working on 36 bit and 48 bit fonts for laser
printers. These fonts could be a problem where disk space is
limited however. The 36 bit and 48 bit fonts are 800 kilobytes
and 900 kilobytes compressed and double to triple that size in
the uncompressed format in which MOKE uses them.
The hardcopy manual accompanying MOKE 2.0 will be twice
as long as the MOKE 1.1 disk file documentation and
will be printed on a laser printer.
Mark Edwards explained in an e-mail message why he had to
charge for MOKE 2.0:
"MOKE 2.0 will be $49.95 + $5.00 postage and handling
(check or money order). Outside of US and Canada should add
$5.00 US. MOKE 2.0 is sold with a single User license. I
want to continue to improve it, add more printer drivers,
etc. But this can not be done without making some sort of
profit to buy the equipment. Without profit I can't spend
all my time working on it....
Mark Edwards now charges $15 for getting MOKE 1.1 from him
directly in order to recover his costs. He now sends it out on
four 5.25" 360 K disks or 3.5" disks. MOKE 1.1 is a freely
distributed, although copyrighted product, so please copy for
your friends.
Send $15 for MOKE 1.1 (specify 5.25" or 3.5" disks) or $49.95
plus $5 postage for MOKE 2.0 to this address:
KiCompWare
Attn: J. J.
1812 N. Erb St.
Appleton, WI 54911
MOKE 2.0 is a great boon to Japanese-English translators who
work on the IBM PC. As an isolated translator working in my
home office with few chances to speak Japanese, I find that
writing letters to Japanese friends helps keep my command of
Japanese more active. I use MOKE to read articles on the JUNET
electronic conferences sent to me from Japan through the UNIX
computer networks. MOKE can easily make up a JIS text file for
any article I might submit to the JUNET network for relay to
thousands of computers in Japan or a personal message I might
send in Japanese to someone else on the network.
JUNET conferences are sent as Japanese language e-mail to
interested persons outside Japan on what is loosely called the
Internet, a collection of academic and government data
communications networks. COMPUSERVE, the WELL and other
commercial telecommunications services have connections to the
Internet. You may be able to subscribe to JUNET, Japan's
answer to USENET, by sending a message from COMPUSERVE to
Hisao Nojima at the following electronic mail address:
nttlab.ntt.jp Be careful! There is a very high
message volume on these conferences. Read the article by Ken
Lunde on JIS codes, Japanese language electronic mail and
JUNET communications. Ask for only one or two conferences --
perhaps fj.books. If you are charged for receiving messages on
your telecommunication service, you will want to be especially
careful. Limits on the length of messages received through
your service may be a problem. Translators interested in
computers and japanese language computers (including the
Macintosh) will find JUNET especially interesting.
Check recent issues of BYTE for articles by David Fiedler on
UNIX communications for more information on how the UNIX
operating system supports e-mail on vast worldwide
interconnected networks. Unix Communications by Bart Anderson
et al. and published by Howard W. Sams is a good general
introduction to electronic mail. To read e-mail using MOKE you
must first download the JIS text file using your
communications program and then run MOKE to read the file. Use
Kanji Driver (KD) by Izumi Ohzawa with the MS-KERMIT
telecommunications program to read Japanese JIS text files
online, although KD does not support kanji and kana text
input. Both KD and MS-KERMIT are free distribution programs
for the IBM-PC.
This latest wave of Japanese language programs for the IBM-PC
opens up many new possibilites for computer communications for
translators. Japanese translators can also use MOKE to make
Japanese language messages and then exchange JIS text files
with each other on COMPUSERVE and other telecommunications
services.
N3DMC.SVR.MD.US
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For entertaining insights into Japanese culture, try
MANGAJIN, an eighty page monthly magazine of translations of
Japanese comic books (the Japanese have comics on every subject
which are read by adults as well as children) and articles on
Japanese society. Beginning students of the Japanese language will find
MANGAJIN is full of insights on Japanese life and on aspects of spoken
Japanese which often don't get into textbooks.
A one year, ten issue subscription to MANGAJIN is $30 from
MANGAJIN
PO Box 10443
Atlanta, GA 30319