I know that there are different readings for Kanjis.. So What about if it's a name? How do Japanese people know that this kanji name reads like this if he doesn't know who the person is? Like in the case of important papers like renewing some documents?

Simple: they don't know. Names are really difficult in Japanese.

More often than not a name will have a reading that is by far the most popular, and people will assume that reading and usually be right. But sometimes there will be more than one popular reading, and then people will say they aren't sure if you ask them. Then there are even some names that seem to completely confuse people.

Hence why official forms have a space to write your name in kana too.

(One I can think of is 坂田, which could be　さかた,　さかだ,　ばんだ,　or さかぐち. A lot of them are just sound changes--is 前島 まえしま or まえじま? You gotta ask.)

Thanks for the help.. So you mean, if there is some text that to be translated into English and there is a kanji name, you would really need to ask that person of what the name is? This is rather troublesome in the side of the translator.. Though, is there a way of knowing this other than asking the person itself of how his/her name is pronounce?

pauro02 Wrote:Thanks for the help.. So you mean, if there is some text that to be translated into English and there is a kanji name, you would really need to ask that person of what the name is? This is rather troublesome in the side of the translator..

Yes.

Quote:Though, is there a way of knowing this other than asking the person itself of how his/her name is pronounce?

Well, obviously you can try other things like looking at their job website or a book they've written, wikipedia, whatever. But you cannot be 100% certain just by looking at the kanji.

yudantaiteki Wrote:

pauro02 Wrote:Thanks for the help.. So you mean, if there is some text that to be translated into English and there is a kanji name, you would really need to ask that person of what the name is? This is rather troublesome in the side of the translator..

Yes.

Quote:Though, is there a way of knowing this other than asking the person itself of how his/her name is pronounce?

Well, obviously you can try other things like looking at their job website or a book they've written, wikipedia, whatever. But you cannot be 100% certain just by looking at the kanji.

Then that's explains why professional translators earns much... I've realized it's not that easy to be a translator.. xD

pauro02 Wrote:Then that's explains why professional translators earns much... I've realized it's not that easy to be a translator.. xD

Professional translators don't earn much. It's not easy to be a GOOD translator, that's true.

buonaparte Wrote:

pauro02 Wrote:Then that's explains why professional translators earns much... I've realized it's not that easy to be a translator.. xD

Professional translators don't earn much. It's not easy to be a GOOD translator, that's true.

Here in our place, translators will bill up to 50 dollars per page.. I guess that's one great value for a page of translation, isn't it?

[Zgarbas]

LEGAL translators charge (and make) a fortune. The rest, not so much. Literary translators, almost nothing.

You can make okay money off of translation, if you know what you're doing. There are professional translation programs that make the process much faster, and you can get a lot done and make good money freelancing. Some in-house jobs also pay a good amount.

I believe the upper-end is around 70,000 USD a year, or at least that's what I've heard in Japan.

So it's rather difficulty of where to get a job rather than the stuffs to be translated, isn't it?