News and Media Translation

This course focuses on translating news articles, editorials, or opinion pieces from Japanese into English and vice versa. It aims to help participants gain a better understanding of how news stories are structured, how to write clearly and concisely in English and Japanese, and what role translation plays in the media landscape today. In this age of the internet and social networking, we increasingly face the need to write with brevity to get our meaning across to a broad spectrum of readers. This is true of writing skills for translators. The journalistic style of writing – simple and easy-to-read – is a good way to improve conciseness in your writing. As they say, there is no "correct" answer when it comes to translation. There are only "better" ways to render an idea expressed in one language into an equivalent in another. We will learn this basic tenet of translation through the lens of journalistic writing. The course is designed for those aspiring translators who hope to improve their overall writing skills and are interested in translation in journalism. The course involves a variety of translation and reading assignments inside and outside of the classroom and requires active participation of students in group discussions.

1. Understand news translation in Japanese and English.
2. Improve text analysis skill.
3. Build up translation and overall writing skills in both languages.

Those who has at least the intermediate to advanced levels of English language skills (for JP people) or equivalent levels of JP language skills (for those non-JP people); or have some translation experience (but not a must).

No required textbook

Naoto Okamura

Naoto Okamura is a freelance reporter-cum-translator. He earned a BA in intercultural communication from Dokkyo University and an MA from Waseda University with focus on journalism and international relations. For over two decades, he has worked as a translator in Tokyo and Hong Kong and has also had stints at English-language media outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Nikkei Asian Review, and Automotive News, covering various news about Japan in English. His motto is that translation is not about switching words from one language into another. It is a form of cross-cultural communication. As such, translators need to bridge different worlds of perception and therein lies the beauty and challenge of the trade. He hopes to help students to grasp an intended meaning or message behind words and develop their overall translation/writing skills in both Japanese and English.