{"id":2280,"date":"2020-05-08T14:01:24","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T12:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/blog\/how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms\/"},"modified":"2024-01-23T12:25:13","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T11:25:13","slug":"how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms\/","title":{"rendered":"How to translate Japanese ideograms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Japanese ideograms<\/strong> belong to a writing system that is entirely different from the alphabetic one used by almost all other languages around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Given its distance from western languages, <a href=\"\/en\/japanese-translation-services\/\">translating Japanese<\/a> is one of the most complex (and therefore expensive) tasks you can ask a professional translator to undertake.<\/p>\n<h2>The main characteristics of Japanese ideograms<\/h2>\n<p>The <strong>Japanese writing system<\/strong> derives directly from the Chinese system due to the geographical proximity of the two countries. The Chinese \u201cimported\u201d their writing system into Japan in 552 (or 538) AD to be precise. Japanese characters \u2013 or kanji \u2013 weren\u2019t initially used to write in Japanese, but simply to convey the Chinese language, which was considered a language of excellence and was mainly spoken by intellectuals.<\/p>\n<p>Somewhat surprisingly, the Japanese slowly started to integrate the use of <strong>Chinese kanji<\/strong> into their language over the centuries. As a result, four different writing systems have evolved, which include kanji, two syllabic writing systems (hiragana and katakana) and the Latin alphabet. Syllabic characters and the Latin alphabet are used more and more often in written Japanese, as they help to integrate<strong> foreign nouns and onomatopoeia<\/strong> (such as animal sounds) into the language.<\/p>\n<p>Despite all this, kanji are still widely used as an effective way to distinguish between homophonic words, i.e., words that have the same sound but different meanings. Finally, kanji allow speakers to express <strong>complex concepts<\/strong> in a very concise manner, which is both a joy and a curse for translators around the world.<\/p>\n<h2>The complexity of the Japanese writing system<\/h2>\n<p>The Japanese school system teaches children 1,945 different kanji characters. The difficulty memorising kanji is owed both to the huge number of existing kanji characters, and their <strong>graphic complexity<\/strong>. Fortunately, only half of kanji characters are used in common language.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unique kanji<\/strong> are reserved exclusively for surnames, thereby increasing the potential to run into unknown characters.<\/p>\n<h2>Using software to translate Japanese ideograms<\/h2>\n<p>In recent years, a number of <strong>automatic translators of Japanese kanj<\/strong>i have appeared online, which allow users to quickly translate the Latin alphabet into ideograms. In addition, smartphone apps have developed image recognition systems that allow them to identify and recognise kanji without users needing to type them out. Instead, the apps make use of camera functionality. Of course, it\u2019s worth remembering that this type of ideogram translation app is effective for limited purposes only, such as translating individual words or very short phrases.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the <strong>effective translation of complex Japanese<\/strong> texts into other languages can only be guaranteed by expert translators who are able to polish and correct inevitable errors committed by automatic software. What\u2019s more, nuance and tone are extremely important in Japanese society, which is very hierarchical and abides by a strict set of social norms. Translating dialogue between two characters in a novel using a tone that is either too formal or informal would be an unforgivable mistake!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japanese ideograms belong to a writing system that is entirely different from the alphabetic one used by almost all other languages around the world. Given its distance from western languages, translating Japanese is one of the most complex (and therefore expensive) tasks you can ask a professional translator to undertake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Japanese ideograms translation: how to do it | Eurotrad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Translating Japanese ideograms is one of the most complex tasks for a professional translator. Here are some of the characteristics of this language.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japanese ideograms translation: how to do it | Eurotrad\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Translating Japanese ideograms is one of the most complex tasks for a professional translator. Here are some of the characteristics of this language.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eurotrad: Agenzia di Traduzioni\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-08T12:01:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-23T11:25:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ideogrammi_in.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Redazione Eurotrad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Redazione Eurotrad\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Redazione Eurotrad\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4bf8140ef38680af40179d65fae3d143\"},\"headline\":\"How to translate Japanese ideograms\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-08T12:01:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-23T11:25:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms\/\"},\"wordCount\":486,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ideogrammi_in.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Curiosities\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms\/\",\"name\":\"Japanese ideograms translation: how to do it | Eurotrad\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/how-to-translate-japanese-ideograms\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ideogrammi_in.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-08T12:01:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-23T11:25:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"Translating Japanese ideograms is one of the most complex tasks for a professional translator. 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