Questions and Answers

What does Aliseo Japan mean?

Aliseo, or trade wind in English, is a regular and constant wind that is characteristic of the tropical areas; it blows from N-E and SO in the northern hemisphere and from SE and NO in the southern hemisphere. At the time of the sailing ships it was very important particularly for merchant vessels, for thanks to this wind speedier and safer oceanic crossings were possible to the joy of the ship-owners and the crews alike. We have therefore decided to name our company after this wind, for our aim is to provide good linguistics services to small and medium-size companies.

Who are the Aliseo Japan's translators and interpreters?

Aliseo Japan's translators and interpreters are Taeko Kani (Japanese) and Mario Cerutti (Italian), the owners. We work autonomously without subcontract other freelance professionals.

What experience do you have?

Listing all translation and interpreting services carried out so far would require much space and frequent updates; moreover it would be a rather futile exercise. Please see the probably out-of-date page of our most significant translation experience and interpreting experience. Should you like to ask clarifications on sectors not included in the two lists please contact us.

Do you use automatic translation software?

Absolutely not. Although automatic translation software has reached a certain level of accuracy and may be of some help where what counts is the approximate understanding of a relatively simple text, we believe that it is not suitable when accuracy and quality are a must. In any case, automatic translation software is proving to be of very little use, or even dangerous, when translating between very different languages such as, for instance, Italian and Japanese. While the Japanese is a rather irrational language, and the Italian language is a very rhetorical one, results are largely imaginable. It is true that software technology is steadily advancing, but in our opinion and according to language-related scholars there will be no replacement to human translators for at least some more decades, if ever.

How do you set translation and interpretation rates?

The count unit is one source word for English to Italian, English to Japanese and Italian to Japanese translations, and one source character from Japanese to Italian translations. When the automatic word/character count is not possible by using writing or special software, the target word/character count will be used. Please see our translation rates page. Interpreting rates are set based on 8-hour days of service (but a discount may be given for up to half-day services) and extra hours beyond the standard 8 hours. These are our interpreting rates.

Do you include personal names and numbers in your translation word count?

Normally yes, unless the particular ratio between text and nouns/numbers suggest a different approach. Ignoring these nouns and numbers in the quotation stage might require a long time and therefore if you don't wish to at least recognize the burden we would have to bear for copy-pasting and checking them in the target tex, if possible please omit them from the source text. However please also bear in mind that in such case other types of problem could arise.

What is your minimum charge?

For translations made for clients in Japan a minimum fee of 3,000 yen applies. For translations requested from outside Japan the minimum charge is 5,000 yen (or a different amount we might decided on a case by case basis) with any banking and/or handling fee born by the client (please view these rates in other currencies with XE.com).

How should I deliver the source text? How will you deliver your translation?

The source text can be delivered in whatever way you like, but we encourage to always use e-mail. We always deliver translations by e-mail, but while in Japan we can also send them via fax at no charge, for transmissions abroad via fax or hard copy we would charge a fee; please inquire if you have any special need.

What happens if I don't send the source text on time?

We must schedule all jobs very carefully. However, if you are unable to send the source text on time, that is likely to be time (and money) lost for us; in this case we would have to make a new planning but this might (not always, though) determine a delay in the initially promised delivery time by even many days.

Can I cancel a translation or interpretation order?

This would be a problem for us. If the translation work has already started we would charge for what we have already done until that point. As far as the interpreting service is concerned, the order cancellation is possible though at certain conditions as explained in the interpreting rate page.

Is it so important that the source text be written by a native speaker?

Most of the times yes. Sometimes it happens that the Client himself writes the source text in a language he is not native of, or it is written by a non-native translator of the source language, and this may result in an incomprehensible or equivocal text for us. In a case like this how could we guarantee a good translation into Japanese or Italian? To what extent should we be made responsible for possible misinterpretations?

What else do you need besides the source text?

For English to Italian or Japanese translations there are no particular needs, provided that the source text is clear. However, for translations from Japanese to Italian, on the contrary, a different type of difficulty arises. For instance, it is important to know how to read personal names and addresses, but also the reading of certain foreign nouns written in katakana, the particular alphabet the Japanese use to write foreign names and nouns. As a matter of fact it is often very difficult to understand from what language these words come, or what they refer to when it's not understandable from the context; in addition, very often it occurs that the same pronunciation in katakana corresponds to very different words in the other language. Therefore, for want of clear and unequivocal indications on the reading of certain words, we translators cannot guarantee a correct translation.

What is your guarantee that the delivered translation is of good quality?

First of all, we are native speakers respectively of Italian and Japanese; this means that we understand perfectly the source text and write perfectly the corresponding text in the target language, this resulting in a translation that is always correct from a native speaker viewpoint. However we don't know everything and apart from specialised topics we have never handled before and that we cannot reasonably learn in a very short time frame, there will always be topics we should take the initiative of studying by ourselves. This is not always possible, though. For this reason we invite you to provide us with as much information as possible about the requested job, and possibly even a post-translation feedback, if any. However, should the translation be of extremely high importance, you are invited to have a further check made by another translator, although in this case we would urge you to make a distinction between grammatical improvements and style improvements. Actually, if the same source text is given to three different translators, as a result three different translations will be obtained, very similar or exact in content but slightly or even very different in style. Should you like it, you can get from us a sample page translated in order to determine whether our style of writing is suitable to your needs.

What is your guarantee that your interpreting ability is good?

What said for translation applies to interpretation alike (question above). Within certain limits dictated by our experience, a particular set of specific words (only the words, not the topic itself) can be learned in a relatively short time frame, should you provide sufficient documentation in advance. Please download our combined resume here to learn more about us.