A foreign-language-speaking suspect is interviewed by a police officer through an interpreter. The officer later testifies in court to what the suspect said. In common-law courts, this is where a difficult “hearsay” issue has always arisen. The officer testifies to what the interpreter said as to what the suspect had said, and the defendant is unable to cross-examine and confront the interpreter unless the interpreter testifies in court. Although most U.S. courts have dealt with this issue by ruling that because an interpreter is the suspect’s “agent” and/or “conduit,” no “hearsay” exists, an inter-circuit split is re-emerging. While originally a legal “hearsay” issue, the ultimate question it poses is whether requiring the interpreter’s testimony is the best way to ensure translation accuracy. Based on the data from approximately 300 U.S. appellate cases (from 1850 to August, 2018), this paper contends that such in-court testimonies would not help ensure translation accuracy unless, at least, accompanied by mandatory digital recording.

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This study analyzes Vietnamese interpreters’ awareness of professional norms in Japanese-Vietnamese business interpreting from interview data within the framework of Andrew Chesterman’s theory of translation norms. The informants in this study were twelve interpreters with more than five years of experience in business interpreting. The findings demonstrate that Japanese-Vietnamese business interpreters conform to the following accountability norms: (1) carries out assignments with thoroughness, (2) restrains the exercising of power, (3) adopts a position not to betray the client; communication norms: (4) facilitates the flow of communication, (5) promotes mutual understanding, (6) builds and maintains good interpersonal relationships; and relation norms: (7) puts a high priority on semantic similarity. When there are circumstances in which norms contradict each other, the interpreter will decide which norms to prioritize and which norms to break.

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This article analyzes how the “Japanese Role Language” is translated from Japanese to Brazilian Portuguese, taking the “Foreigner Role Language” present in two Japanese comics as the object of research. First, this article draws attention to the concept of “Role Language” and its importance in the translation of fictional works. The first comic analyzed presents the use of the “Foreigner Role Language” applied to Western characters, while the second one presents the use of the same concept applied to Oriental characters. It is noticed that not only the “Foreigner Role Language” is translated from Japanese into Brazilian Portuguese, but the methods utilized in the translation of both works are similar. The methods utilized in the translations are: “variation of formal writing to simulate accents”; “no gender agreement between determinant and determinate terms”; “no agreement of number and person between verbs and subjects” and the “non-use of articles”.

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In this paper, which concerns an interpretation training course for undergraduate students, the interpretation training from a perspective of social education is explored; that is, how to equip them with an ability to use suitable vocabulary depending on particular situations, as well as how to boost the students’ self-efficacy in their interpretation skills. It can be seen that through their training, the students came to be more fluent than prior to the training in choosing appropriate words and phrases for each interpretation situation presented on the training course. It is also evident during the training, that the students showed enhanced self-efficacy in their interpretation skills, based on their enactive mastery and vicarious experience, in addition to the instructor`s verbal persuasion

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As Japan faces a sharp increase in foreign residents and foreign visitors, demand for qualified medical interpreters has been rapidly rising. Efforts are under way to standardize medical interpreters’ services across the nation through the creation of a national certification system and government-accredited training programs. A code of ethics is an essential part of medical interpreter training, but a nationwide, unified code has yet to be developed for medical or most other types of interpreters for that matter. The paper looks at a US code of ethics for medical interpreters, developed by the National Council on Interpreters in Health Care (the NCIHC), and the NCIHC’s efforts to establish a national certification system for medical interpreters and compare those with codes of ethics developed by different parties, and ongoing efforts toward standardization in Japan.

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This paper will report on a series of TILT (Translation in Language Teaching) activities, using Japanese-subtitled videos, that were conducted in a Japanese university classroom by the author. A total of 57 learners majoring in a foreign language (mostly English) formed the participating group for these activities, which included certain EFL-based exercises, such as vocabulary building, listening (dictation), and writing (J-E translation). In addition, a learner-teacher collaborative translation activity was used that employed an EXCEL database as a simplified version of translation memory, a professional translation aid tool. Overall, the main purpose of this classroom-based research was to explore the potential for the use of TILT, with a strong focus on L2 production. The author contends that good results can be achieved by introducing new and original activities in this way, along with subsequent reporting on the work and responses of the participants who actually experienced them.

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Many Japanese universities offer interpreting courses and sufficient resources are available for interpreting training. It seems, however, that there is no so-called standard or definitive textbook encompassing the curriculum of an introductory interpreting course. Thus, it is the responsibility of the instructors to select their own pedagogical materials and methodology in each class. Traditional language learning materials are edited textbooks with CDs, but the format presents certain deficiencies: unavailability of renewed content, issues of authenticity, and a lack of portability. Novice learners using this edited format may also find it problematic to visualize the situation in which professional interpreters perform their actual duties. This study uses an Internet press conference to investigate learner perceptions and clarify the advantages and disadvantages of teaching and learning through the traditional textbook/CD vis-a-vis available online resources.

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