Hello readers! This is Editorial Committee member Audra Lincoln. Today, the JLD team is bringing you the third installment of our “Interview with Educators” series. Our guest this time is Yuka Matsudaira-san. Yuka Matsudaira is a MIIS (Middlebury Institute of International Studies) trained conference interpreter in addition to being a court registered Japanese Interpreter in Washington State and English-Japanese translator. She teaches interpreting training at the Continuing Education center at Seattle Central College and serves as a staff member for the Northwest Translators & Interpreters Society (a regional chapter of the ATA). Click here for more information. Please enjoy!
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JLD: Please tell me about your linguistic background.
Yuka Matsudaira-san: I grew up in Japan and learned English in high school. I went to college as a French literature student, but I still took one or two years of English as my foreign language. Then, around 1998, I decided I wanted to become a psychotherapist, so I took the TOEFL test and attended a small, private graduate school in California. At the time, there were virtually no exchange students. Everything was in English. All my classmates were American. It was really tough to keep up that first semester, so I ended up asking the professors if I could record the classes and then wrote everything down.
As a translation/interpreting (T&I) professional, I typically work into Japanese. There are some occasions where work into English, especially if a document that has been handwritten in Japanese needs to be translated. When I first got started, I would translate first drafts that would later be revised or polished by someone who works into English.
JLD: How did you get involved in T&I?
YM: I actually started teaching when an instructor at Bellevue College reached out to me about teaching. This was back in 2017. I didn’t give it a lot of thought but it sounded like it would be fun, so I gave it a try. As it turned out, teaching has been a lot of fun.
YM: I used to do a lot of business/engineering T&I work. After a while, the assignments just came one after the other and it felt a lot like an assembly line. What appeals to me about teaching is that it’s much more broad-ranging and a lot more communicative. There’s interaction with the students and we cover more topics. Teaching is a way of building relationships and I enjoy seeing the students build on their skills.
JLD: Where do you teach and what are your courses like?
YM: I also teach at Seattle Central College (SCC) in the translation and interpreting department. I have both interpreting and translation classes. SCC offers language-neutral coursework called T&I Basics for people interested in becoming professional translators and/or interpreters. It consists of four classes all in English. I teach the “Business and Ethics” class and the other three classes are covered by three or four instructors. I also teach Japanese translation and interpreting classes for Japanese-speaking students who completed the T&I Basics classes.
JLD: Your profile on SCC mentions a “focus on the positive” when it comes to feedback. Please tell me more about your approach.
YM: Every student is different so I first try to identify each student’s strengths. Sometimes, the student doesn’t know what these are. At the same time, if I only focus on what they’re good at, then it’s easy to gloss over what they need to work on. I have to balance focusing on what they’re good at while also consistently supporting them in improving their weaknesses. Of course, there are some students who can get everything right the first time, be it punctuation or grammar or what have you. And there are students who need each error corrected, even if it’s a bit of a shock for them to see so many red markings on their assignments. Getting this kind of feedback is why students are paying for translation classes. If someone says they want to be a translator, I think it’s important to help them see what they’re good at and what needs work.
JLD: Do you think training is a requirement to become a translator?
YM: When I first got my start some 20 years ago, I was doing draft translations and consecutive interpreting for business negotiations in Japan. Back then, people could get a foot in the door as an escort interpreter interpreting for tourists. Now with ChatGPT, AI, and other language tools, there’s less of a language barrier. Consequently, some fields today have less opportunity for human translators and interpreters because AI options are more convenient. That said, there are still some fields where AI is simply not an option. Some jobs are difficult and you need to have a person in the field to handle those assignments. If you already have experience, then you can step up and take those kinds of difficult assignments. But for new or inexperienced people, I think the way the situation is now makes it more difficult for them.
There is also this misconception that being bilingual means you’ll be a good translator. I haven’t noticed this among students, but I find that this is true with the general public and I feel like it’s getting more pronounced. To be an English to Japanese translator, for example, you need more than an impeccable understanding of English. You have to be able to write well in Japanese as well. A translator must be able to render the message and reflect the proper nuance of the source language into the target language. You can’t do that if you don’t have solid writing skills. With apps like Grammarly so widely available and younger generations reading less and less, I think writing skills are suffering.
JLD: What are some of the benefits and drawbacks to formal training?
YM: Training provides future translators with a plethora of information and that helps you prepare for offering translation services as a professional. Feedback on assignments is part of the information you get out of training. An instructor is a professional that looks at a student’s output and provides feedback. My classes are probably about 70% giving feedback to students. That said, training in translation and interpreting is not going to be an effective way to improve your second language skills.
JLD: Any final words for our readers?
YM: Translation and interpreting is difficult but worthwhile work. I think it’s my calling. I think this field will be around for years to come, so if you are interested in being a translator or interpreter, please give it a try! Do your best, find your way, and live your dream!
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