Japanese-Italian Translation Flow

Apart from the grammar, which is certainly simpler than, let's say, the Italian grammar, the Japanese written language poses unique difficulties not only because of the usage of thousands of Chinese characters (kanji) that similarly to the Chinese makes it a rather respectable undertaking to master, but also because of the socio-cultural differences that are rooted in the language itself and, above all, because the Japanese is a profoundly irrational language, the ability to fully understand the least nuances requires a very long study - several decades according to some, not in an entire life according to others. Or, alternatively, it should be left to a Japanese mother tongue, certainly a linguist or the like. And what adds up to this is the difficulty to correctly understand - and interpret - the most intricate and less used Chinese characters, let alone the even more obscure explanations given by the most authoritative dictionaries. In other words, the key to the complete, precise and unequivocal comprehension of the Japanese written language is first and foremost the just as good comprehension of the cultural differences between Japan and the other countries. This is a gigantic undertaking, often not without frustrating experiences. Difficulties further widen in certain specialized domains such as legal documents, contracts, patents and socioeconomic studies and translators who already work in these fields know what we mean. Therefore, any inability to perfectly understand the written Japanese language must somewhat be concealed behind a word-for-word translation, which results are largely imaginable.

To reassure you on our ability to correctly understand even difficult Japanese texts when we translate into Italian or English we have outlined in the following steps our way to proceed. Needless to say that we apply the same method in the opposite direction, i.e. when translating from Italian to Japanese. In fact, if the Japanese written language may be very difficult for a foreigner, the same goes for Japanese translators. The Italian written language is very rhetorical, often filled with particularly complex expressions besides idiomatic expressions and this makes it a likewise formidable undertaking for Japanese translators. Hence the sometime necessity to work in team with a professional Italian translator.