Questions and Answers on Aliseo Japan's Translation and Interpreting Services

The aliseo, the 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 develop better business relationships between Italy and Japan through better commercial-related services.

Aliseo Japan's translators and interpreters are Taeko Kani (Japanese) and Mario Cerutti (Italian). We do not usually subcontract to other freelance professionals.

Please see the probably out-of-date page of our most significant translation experience and interpreting experience.

Absolutely not. Although automatic translation software has reached a certain level of accuracy and may be of some help where what counts is the broad 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 Japanese and Italian. While the Japanese is a rather irrational language, Italian is a very rhetorical one, hence results are largely imaginable. It is true that software technology is dramatically progressing, but for the time being we are absolutely certain that there is no replacement to human translations and will not be for at least several decades.

The count unit is one source word from English to Italian and Italian to Japanese and one source character from Japanese to Italian. When the automatic word/character count is not possible by using software, the target word/character count will be used. Please see our translation rates page. Please see here our interpreting rates page,

Yes, otherwise we would have to leave them out before preparing offers, and this would require much extra time indeed. If you do not like this approach, if practically feasible please omit them from the source text.

For translations made for clients in Japan a minimum fee has been set. For translations requested from outside Japan the minimum is the equivalent of 20,000 Yen (please view these rates in other currencies with XE.com).

The source text can be delivered in whatever way the Client likes, but we encourage to always use e-mail. Our translations are always delivered 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.

We must schedule all jobs very carefully. However, if a Client is 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.

If the translation work has already started, and unless you recognise that we have spent time for you, we require that you pay for what we have already done to 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.

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?

For English to Italian 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.

First of all, we are native speakers respectively in 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 viewpoint. However, it should also be said that even the best translator does not know everything. Of course we are no exception to this reality and therefore, 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 the Client 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, the Client is invited to have a further check made by another translator, although in this case we urge to make a distinction between grammatical improvements and style improvement. 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 said for translations applies to the interpreting service as well (question above). Within certain limits dictated by the experience of the interpreter, a particular set of specific words (only the words, not the topic itself) can be learned in a relatively short time frame, should sufficient documentation be provided by the Client in advance. Please download our resume here to learn more about us.