Waste that cannot be eliminated––The hassle of kanji conversion––
- 弓長金参
- May 27, 2024
- 2 min read
You might think : "Translators have mastered the foreign language, so there is no need for a DICTIONARY", but it's not true.
Translators are always looking up WORDS.

Medical books are full of SPECIALIZED TERMS, even if it is written in Japanese, it is difficult to understand.
The same goes for the manuscript to be translated. In parallel with the translation work, it is also necessary to RESEARCH THE LANGUAGE.
In most cases, at least A FEW PERCENT OF THE TIME will be spent on RESEARCH.
Many translators use various favorite dictionaries, but the most effective one is probably "Google SEARCH."

When researching, I enter Chinese in THE SEARCH FIELD, but Chinese-specific problems often arise here.
As you know, Chinese uses "KANJI". On the other hand, Japanese also uses KANJI.
I will explain this using "Zhongshan PARK," which is located throughout China and commemorates Sun Yat-sen who he the father of modern China, as an example.
Enter Zhongshan PARK in the search field and search. "NAKAYAMA PARK" in Japan will be searched.
Therefore, you will be able to search for things like "Zhongshan PARK CHINA" or "Zhongshan PARK Beijing," searching often involves adding words, which can be time consuming.

It also takes time to translate Chinese NAMES OF PEOPLE AND PLACES into Japanese.
MAJOR place names such as Beijing and Shanghai are OK, but If not, you have a problem.

For example, when entering "Fuchengmen(阜成門)" in Beijing, I typed in "FUSEIMON" and even when I converted it to kanji, the kanji did not come out.
You must CONVERT THE KANJI for "阜", "成" and "門" individually. The same goes for Chinese NAMES. This will take quite some time.
If it is a frequently occurring word, it will be REGISTERED, but unfortunately, if the word only appears once or twice, since word registration itself takes time, that is not possible.
This WASTE arises from the linguistic characteristics of both Japan and China, which use kanji, there is no way.