Shaun McKenna is the Deputy Manager of the Life & Culture Division of the Japan Times. He came on the How to Japanese Podcast to talk about his experience studying Japanese while teaching on JET and the transition to journalism. He also has some great recommendations on how to pitch an editor at a publication like the JT:

• How has it been to edit the Bilingual page?
• Did you study Japanese before you visited? And was JET the first time you visited the country?
  • Japanese for Busy People
  • Genki
• Did you have success with Japanese for Busy People?
• After you finished the textbook, what self-study techniques were helpful?
• Looking back, is there anything you would do differently?
• Are a lot of Japan Times writers come to Japan without much training in the language?
• What language milestones were important for you?
• How did you find your Japanese teacher?
• Where did you find free Japanese lessons in Yokohama?
  • YOKE Japanese Classes
• After you returned to Canada, did you start job hunting in Japan?
• Was journalism a long-term goal for you coming out of college?
• What was your job hunting process in Japan?
  • “Spare a thought for the Western men trapped in Japan“
• How is the workplace culture at the Japan Times?
• What naming conventions are used in Japanese workplaces?
  • Néojaponisme
• Are you able to write for the Japan Times now that you’ve transitioned to editor?
• Are you taking pitches from new writers?
• Have you found new writers on Twitter?
  • Patrick St. Michel
• What’s an ideal pitch? And what kind of web presence do you need?
• Are you able to follow the music scene as much now that you’re not Music Editor?
• Are there any venues you’d recommend in Japan?
  • Forest Limit
  • WWW

At the top, I tell the story of crashing a car in Japan and discuss facing setbacks during language study.

Kristi Fernandez has translated a number of light novels, manga, and drama. She’s also the creator of the group Japanese Translators of New York and a champion for translators on Twitter. We talked Japanese study and light novel translation for the eighth episode of the How to Japanese Podcast:

• What inspired your Twitter thread on translator appreciation?
  • Jessica Chavez
  • Shawn Wylie
• What was your path to Japanese fluency?
  • Japan Society
  • Kodansha
  • Penguin Random House
  • Yen Press
  • Vertical, Inc.
• What self-study strategies were you using? Was anything particularly effective?
• What do you remember about your first encounter with Japanese in Japan?
• How did your college course present 敬語 (keigo, polite speech) versus more casual speech?
• When did you feel like you were making progress with the language?
• What was the first novel you read? And what reading strategies did you have?
  • 蹴りたい背中 (Keritai senaka), 綿矢りさ (Wataya Risa)
  • 金原ひとみ (Kanehara Hitomi)
  • Matt Treyvaud
  • 新恋愛講座―三島由紀夫のエッセイ (Shin-renai kōza), 三島由紀夫 (Mishima Yukio)
  • The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary
  • アルク (ALC)
  • The Green Goddess
  • 新和英辞典 (Kenkyusha’s New Japanese-English Dictionary)
• Are you finding time to read in addition to your translation work?
  • A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World
• How did you find a job using your Japanese skills when you returned from Japan?
  • Pasona
• How did you get your first translation job?
  • The Dark Maidens
• What is the marketing process for translation and what kind of work do you do to fill up your schedule?
• Creating an online presence
  • Japanese Translators of New York
• What’s the translation process like for you?
• Has anything changed with your translation process?
• Do you work from a digital or paper copy when translating?
• What are your thoughts on The Dark Maidens? Do you think it has anything to say about the Japanese high school experience?
  • Learning to Bow
• What has made the foreign market more receptive to light novels?

At the top, I talk briefly about some of the purchases I made on Amazon Japan during my time on JET and the strategy I used to make sure my package was delivered.

Tamara Latham-Sprinkle has been a full-time Japanese-English freelance translator for a year. She talks about breaking into the world of translation, different translation associations, getting a masters in translation, and working as an interpreter at a manufacturing company in the latest episode of the How to Japanese Podcast:

• What was your path to Japanese fluency?
• What self-study strategies were effective for you?
• Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
  • italki
  • Nihongo-Pro.com
• When you visited Japan for the first time how did you feel your Japanese level was?
• At what point did you feel like you were making progress with the language?
• Were you taking Japanese courses or courses in Japanese?
  • おくりびと (Departures) (Tamara refers to this as The Cellist)
• Did the university provide any support for writing projects in the Japanese courses?
• What were the college clubs like at a Japanese college and how did you find them?
• How did you make the decision to get a masters in translation?
  • Kent State University – Programs in Translation
  • Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey – Master of Arts in Translation
  • SOAS University of London – MA Translation
• What is the language requirement for these programs?
• Do these programs help place students in jobs or give you strategies to find work?
• Was there any advice you got that was particularly helpful or stuck in your mind?
• Which translation associations are you active in?
  • American Translators Assocation (ATA)
  • Chicago Area Translators and Interpreters Association (CHICATA)
• How was the transition into full-time freelance translation?
  • Japan Association of Translators (JAT)
  • Samurai Translators (translators.jp)
• What was it like to work as an interpreter/translator for a manufacturing company?
  • “Interpreting in the U.S. #1 – In-house Challenges“
• What are of the country were you in and how did the Japanese engineers respond to that part of the country?
• Would you recommend this kind of manufacturing interpretation work to people with some language skills?
• How much work are you doing to improve your Japanese in areas where you are doing translation?
  • NOLO
• What was it like interpreting in a courtroom setting?

At the top I talk about how Tamara and I first met (hint: over Twitter) and some of the organizations you can look to connect with if you’re interested in Japan-related events.

Brian Caster is a practicing attorney in Japan working in compliance. He’s also one of the most voracious readers I’ve ever met (90+ English books so far in 2019 and counting!). He took some time to tell me about how he learned Japanese, job hunting, and how he brought the goodest dog from Chicago to Tokyo.

• What are you reading right now?
  • From Here to Eternity
  • The Thin Red Line
  • 遠い太鼓 (Tōi taiko)
• How did you get to fluency with Japanese?
  • 江戸川乱歩 (Edogawa Ranpo)
  • 少年探偵団 (Shōnen tantei dan)
• Looking back, what study approaches would have been helpful? And is there anything you did that was particularly successful?
  • ビールの教科書 (Bīru no kyōkasho)
• How did you find your Japanese tutor?
• What other authors are you reading?
  • 柳広司 (Yanagi Kōji)
  • 池井戸潤 (Ikeido Jun)
  • 下町ロケット (Shitamachi roketto)
  • 三木谷浩史 (Mikitani Hiroshi)
• Which news apps are you using?
  • 全紙無料新聞
  • 秋元才加とJOYのWeekly Japan
• Did you know you wanted to apply to law school when you went on JET?
• At what point did you know you wanted to go back and work in Japan and how did that inform your application process and the choices you made during law school?
• Did you spend any summers in Japan during law school or take any classes about Japanese law?
• Other than the two years experience, is there anything else you need to be a practicing attorney in Japan?
• How was the job hunting process within Japan? How did it differ from job hunting while living in the U.S.?
• How does work as an in-house attorney differ from outside counsel work?
• How is Honeypie?! What is it like having a dog in Japan?
• What was the process of bringing a dog over to Japan?

At the top I made some translation recommendations, including 夜のくもざる (Yoru no kumozaru, The Spider Monkey Comes at Night) by Haruki Murakami. If you’re looking for public domain material you can publish online, here’s a list of some 随筆 (zuihitsu, miscellanea/essays) that look promising:

Title: 表現論随筆
Author: 豊島与志雄

Title: 押入れ随筆
Author: 吉川英治

Title: 物売りの声
Author: 寺田寅彦

Title: 備忘録
Author: 寺田寅彦

Title: 寺田先生と銀座
Author: 中谷宇吉郎

Title: 京都の朝市
Author: 柳宗悦

Title: 新茶
Author: 岡本かの子

Title: 小学生のとき与へられた教訓
Author: 岡本かの子

Also, I was in the Japan Times a couple weeks back with a look at the podcast and what I learned after talking with everyone: “A podcast that talks to bilingual people about studying Japanese and working in Japan.”

I met Arline Lyons in 2008-2010 when I was working as a translation project manager. I’ve always been really impressed with her professionalism as a translator, so I wanted to talk to her about her study experience and her translation practice. You can find her recent work on sake at Taste Translation and Discover Sake.

• What was your overall path to fluency in Japanese?
  • JET Program
• The importance of immersion in learning Japanese
• What kind of language study did you do while working on JET?
• What does it take to keep your language skills “alive”?
• When and how did you become literate in Japanese?
  • Go, Kaneshiro Kazuki
• How did you decide to get your masters?
• The world of patent translation
  • WIPO
• What is translation memory and how does it work?
  • Translation memory (TM)
  • SDL Trados
• Translation groups
  • Institute of Translation and Interpreting
  • French group
  • German group
  • ITI’s JNET
• How and how much time do freelance translators market themselves?
• What do translators need to pay attention to when adding a new client?
  • Ask a Manager
• What strategies should new translators take when looking for clients?
  • Chris Durbin?
• Subcontracting, direct clients, and machine translation
• When and how did you decide to become more specialized as a translator?
  • Udemy
  • The Open University
  • Wine and Spirit Education Trust
  • International Kikizake-shi
  • John Gauntner’s Sake Professional Course
• When you study specialized terminology, do you study the Japanese terms concurrently with the English?

And at the top I talked about some Google search strategies, which I wrote about for the Japan Times back in April 2018.

On the podcast this week I talk with Paula Curtis. I learned about Paula through her writing over at What can I do with a B.A. in Japanese Studies? (aka 心配でしょう), which helped me find a Japan-adjacent job after grad school. We talked about language study, grad school, and how to “do” history:

• Thank you for getting Daniel a job!
  • The Job Hunt – Getting Started
  • Interviewing for a Position in a Japanese work environment
  • Working in a Japanese Work Place
• How did you start the website and what inspired it?
• What is a postdoctoral associate position and what is the work like?
• How did you learn Japanese and which textbooks did you use?
  • Ohio State SPEAC Program
  • Yokoso textbooks
  • Japanese: The Spoken Language
  • 上級への扉
  • Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies
• What were the first major texts you read in Japanese?
  • Sasamoto Shoji – Early modern historian addressing  Sengoku Daimyo and Artisan history
• What is fluency, how do you make progress toward it?
• What older forms of Japanese have you studied?
  • Historiographical Institute University of Tokyo
• How did you decide to go into academia and how do you afford to pay for it?
• Does your research topic need to be fully formed when you apply to graduate school?
• What writing and study techniques have been valuable for you?
  • Scrivener
  • Evernote
  • Trello
  • Todoist
  • Asana
• Paula’s Oral History Project
  • Carving Community: The Landis-Hiroi Collection
  • Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens
• How did you develop your teaching skills?
  • University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching
• Are there any teaching/classroom approaches that have been particularly effective?
• What kind of funding opportunities are there for language study?

And at the top of the pod I talked about how I learned the phrase なんかの縁. I blogged about 縁 way back in 2008.

You can find Brian MacDuckston of Ramen Adventures crushing bowls of ramen on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and now you can find him on the How to Japanese Podcast:

• How was your trip to Hokkaido? How is Hokkaido different from the rest of Japan?
• How long have you been in Japan and what have you done so far?
• How much time are you doing ramen/journalism work versus English teaching?
• What strategies would you recommend to diversify your income as an English conversation teacher?
  • Gaijinpot
• What is it like teaching private students?
• The Collabo-Ramen videos were great!
• How has ramen changed in the last nine years? What trends are you seeing? Is ramen a trend-driven industry?
  • Watering Hole
  • B級グルメ
  • ぐるナイ
• Why are Japanese so obsessed with/interested in food?
• When did you start studying Japanese and what strategies have been helpful?
  • Genki Japanese textbooks
  • Anki
• What ramen vocabulary has been helpful for you?
• Mapple maps were amazing, and are sadly now not necessary because of smartphones
  • Mapple
  • Touring Mapple
  • Thomas Guides
• What has it been like being a creator in Japan?
• When did you start to feel Ramen Adventures taking off?

At the top of the pod, I talk about set phrases used for condolences, which I wrote about in the Japan Times back in April 2016. Here is he set of telegram phrases I found, some usage recommendations for telegrams from a digital telegram service, and the cost breakdown for messages from NTT.

You can also subscribe to the How to Japanese Podcast on Apple, Google, or Spotify.

Emily Balistrieri is a Russian translator in another universe. Fortunately for us, she’s a Japanese translator in this one. On the second episode of the How to Japanese Podcast, learn about Emily’s translation projects past and present, study experience, and how Japanese beat out Russian in the end:

• What is your translation workload like right now?
  • JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World
  • The Saga of Tanya the Evil
• How much content do you try to translate each day and how do you measure it?
• Do you translate from a paper copy or digital copy?
• Are you in touch with any of the authors you translate?
  • “The Saga of Tanya the Evil Author Carlo Zen and English Translator Emily Balistrieri“
  • “The Vast Light Novel Universe“
• Do any light novels take inspiration from the Harry Potter universe?
  • isekai
  • The Vision of Escaflowne
  • Magic Knight Rayearth
  • Fushigi Yugi
• Were you reading light novels before you started translating them?
  • Overlord
  • Overlord Wiki
• What is J Novel and what has working with them been like?
• The translation of light novel titles
• What was your path to fluency?
• What was it like to go from courses to using Japanese in Japan?
• What was the first novel you read and what reading strategies did you have to get through the work?
  • 坊ちゃん (Botchan)
• When did you start translating?
• What advice would you give to students who are interested in translation?
  • 森見登美彦 (Morimi Tomihiko), ペンギン・ハイウェイ (Penguin Highway), 夜は短し歩けよ乙女 (The Night is Short, Walk on Girl)
• What was it like working at Twitter in Japan?

For the top of the podcast, I talked about learning how to cook in Japan and how it made me want to go back to Japan.

You can also subscribe to the How to Japanese Podcast on Apple, Google, or Spotify.

I’ve always been impressed with the breadth of Daniel McCalla‘s Japanese culture consumption, judging from his Twitter feed, and I’m even more impressed after talking to him for the first episode of the How to Japanese Podcast. Listen to our conversation here:

• What are your Japanese culture consumption habits like?
  • Famitsu
• What authors or series do you follow?
  • 森博嗣  (Mori Hiroshi)
  • 住野よる (Sumino Yoru), 君の膵臓を食べたい (I Want to Eat Your Pancreas)
  • 河野裕 (Kono Yutaka), サクラダリセット, 階段島
  • Kodansha Comics
  • Kadokawa
  • BookOFF
  • 読書メーター (Book Meter)
    • Find Daniel here and here!
• How long are the books you’re reading?
  • Murakami considering writing another volume of 1Q84
• Do you read physical books or digital versions?
• When did you read your first novel and how long did it take to get to that point?
  • Tadoku graded readers (books Daniel used)
  • すべてがFになる
• The difficulty of the first few pages of works of Japanese literature
• What kind of study approaches did you take?
  • Pimsleur
  • Michel Thomas
  • All Japanese All The Time
  • James Heisig, Remembering the Kanji
  • Anki
  • koohii
  • iknow
  • Crunchyroll
• What was it like to visit Japan and use Japanese after having studied a little?
• How did the reading group you joined help your language study?
  • Kyoto International Community House
• How was the transition to full-time translation?
• What’s your balance between translation work and work to market yourself?
• What advice would you give to students who are interested in translation?
• Why did you get interested in Japanese?

At the top of the podcast I reminisced about the brief, awesome ten weeks when I watched football along with thousands of Japanese fans on Twitter.

You can also subscribe to the How to Japanese Podcast on Apple, Google, or Spotify.

For me, podcasts are inextricably linked with Japan. I started listening to them while I was living there, way back when I had to manually drag episodes from iTunes over to my big, fat iPod.

I listened to them as I drove around Fukushima Prefecture to the elementary school where I taught and on the weekends to see friends and to travel around Tohoku. My mainstays back then were Bill Simmons’ BS Report, the Penny Arcade guys (even though I wasn’t really playing video games), Car Talk, and the NPR Sunday Puzzle.

It took me a while, but How to Japanese now has a serious podcast! Check out the trailer (S01E00).

I had a podcast misfire back when I was in grad school (and desperate to make something…anything), and I hope you don’t spend too much time tracking it down because it was shite.

I’ve put more work into this (real) one. I’m planning to release the podcast in 10-episode seasons with the first season starting next week. The goal is much the same as this blog—be helpful. Help readers/listeners get used to Japanese and learn how others have had success living and working in Japan and with Japanese. I found 10 incredibly interesting guests who were very generous with their time and shared how they started translating, writing, editing, teaching English, studying, researching, lawyering, ramening, and making video games in Japan. I’m very excited to share their stories and advice.

So please subscribe and share! And if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch at howtojapanese at gmail dot com. I’d be glad to take language questions and any other Japan-related concerns.

All music in the podcast comes from the excellent おとわび.

You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, and Spotify.