Japanese simplified basics

Q:  Possible to get a bit of guidance on Japanese - general guidance?

English to Japanese language services are best performed in Tokyo, and Japanese to English are best translated in the United States or London then reviewed in Tokyo. Written translation provided for documents, technical papers, human resources and marketing are quite different than the style for voice recording (scripts). Although there are other Japanese dialects that have different spoken accents, such as Kyoto Japanese, there is one clear, undisputed Japanese language for use worldwide. For expatriates (persons living in the United States or other English-speaking countries), a Japanese document or project may have English words scattered periodically throughout, particularly for words and items that are used in daily living, technology or banking and therefore are more recognizable in the English language form.

Japanese grammar is completely backward from English grammar. And there are 9 completely different number sets in Japanese. The Japanese grammar structure and number sets strongly affect computer applications such as XML web sites, telephone applications, software and other.

For voice recordings, there is a breathtaking difference between the quality of voices recorded directly in Tokyo compared to those recorded outside of Japan. Tokyo voices and studios are some of the finest in the world. Talents are fully versed in narration, lip sync, advertising and recordings for DVDs, videos, telecom and web.

Japanese characters are becoming quite computer-friendly as computer operating systems around the world prepare for localization. Japanese is what is called a “2-byte” language. That means, that each Japanese character uses two letter-spaces (example: takes the space for “ab” rather than just “a”). To create new text in Japanese requires special operating system and Japanese-compatible software, although most computers can read-only if they have certain elements installed that are found on the user’s system installation CD. @International Services assists clients to become Japanese-compatible, or delivers documents and translations as PDF files that can be read on any computer or used by any professional printing company without Japanese fonts or 2-byte capability.

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