How To Speak Japanese

A couple I know have a great love for Japan. They’ve traveled there twice, taught English there together, and even got engaged there. They are American and English is their first language. But the idea of speaking some of their wedding vows in Japanese is extremely appealing, and fits in with the design theme of their wedding.

They have no worries about finding a translator. They know they will need help with both document translation and spoken translation. Neither of them speaks Japanese, so they may need some coaching, too. The bride is Jewish and wants to say a few words in Hebrew, so they are looking for a translation company that can help with both Japanese translation and hebrew translation.

Since multilingual weddings are increasingly common, they can choose from many services. Besides finding translation help for their vows, they can order multilingual wedding invitations with just a few clicks of the computer mouse. Multilingual wedding services are a growing online market. With cultures meshing more than ever in a global marketplace, many couples are choosing to represent their heritages by going 50-50 on their native languages. A multilingual wedding has the ability to touch families in a deep way, helping the families to bond with one another. However, multilingual weddings also have the potential for serious confusion and embarrassing insults.

For the couple who is choosing to have a multilingual wedding as a novelty, rather than to represent heritage or first languages, many companies specialize in just that. Want little placemats with printed Hebrew and Japanese poems? How about bilingual choral music with phonetic explanations for your audience? There are those who specialize just in translating wedding music. You can find a translator who specializes in wedding vows, poems or dedications. Hawaii has become a hotbed for Japanese-English bilingual wedding planners, photographers, officiators and caterers. Fluidly switching from Japanese to English, these wedding professionals do not have to be certified Japanese translators to supply your needs. But you don’t have to go to Hawaii for a Japanese-English ceremony. Every major city has translation companies that can help with your multilingual wedding dreams.

Many services can be cheaply obtained online. Ordering your invitations, placemats and doodads may be best with a verified online company. Since most of these companies exist only online, and you can’t go consult with them in person, make sure you verify their quality before placing a big order. Many of these companies will send you samples of their work.

One thing to watch out for is document translation. You don’t want errors here. Having spoken bloopers is understandable, but when your Grandma tells you that the wedding invitations were misspelled, that’s a tad embarrassing. The thing is, it’s quite easy for even experienced translators to make a mistake in document translation. If they are not using software localization , a tool for honing in on dialect, mistakes or misunderstandings may slip by. Ask your translator what software or methods they use to ensure accuracy. Also, specify if you would like your translation to specialize in a certain region of the relative country. For instance, if the translation is Japanese, do you want to include colloquialisms of Hokkaido, the northern region of Japan?

Lastly, if you can afford it, you may be safest putting all your translation needs into the hands of not wedding professionals, but language professionals. Although there are many wedding companies that cater to multi-lingual needs, the most accurate translation work is found in translation companies that work with a variety of international clients.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 27th, 2008 at 7:14 am and is filed under Ask An Expert. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.