Come celebrate Keizai Society's 23rd anniversary at our Shinnenkai on Friday, January 25th! Register Now! Friday, January 25th, 2013 Program: 6:00 - 10:00 PM Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club 3000 Alexis Drive Palo Alto, CA 94304 This year Keizai Society will be honoring Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, Hiroshi Inomata, the Consul General of Japan, will lead the tradition of Kagamiwari (sake barrel "breaking") ceremony; and Mike Inouye from NBC Bay Area is the master of ceremony. Keizai Society's 2013 theme, "Redesigning US-Japan Business for the Next Generation," underscores the new relationship structures and modes of commerce evolving today... Continue reading

Date: Thursday, July 19th, 2012 from 6:00 PM - 8:15 PM New Location: Oshman Family JCC (Jewish Community Center) Taube Koret Campus, F-401, 4th Floor, Freidenrich Conference Center 3921 Fabian Way Palo Alto, CA 94303 Keizai Society's theme for 2012 is "Japan in Transformation" - It encompasses commercial entrepreneurship and new venture formation as well as social entrepreneurship, new patterns of employment, corporate reform and many other critical priorities that are already breathing new life into Japan's business community and its other institutions. _____________________________________________________________________ Keizai Society is a Silicon Valley based business and professional networking organization. Their primary purpose is... Continue reading

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Amya Miller continues to chronicle the day to day struggles of the people and relief efforts in the earthquake and tsunami ravaged areas in Japan... I have been in Ofunato and Rikuzentakata for a week now and have found myself numb driving past and walking through the immense devastation. I have been told by the relief workers I am working with that shutting down my emotions is a necessary part of doing my job and while I have struggled with the idea of having to go “robotic” in order to function, I’ve done just that. Until yesterday. This, I believe,... Continue reading

I arrived in Tokyo last night. It’s changed. The streets are darker, lights are out all over the place (rolling blackouts). Food is available but on my morning walk to the local Lawson to pick up water and milk tea, I noticed maybe a third of the shelves were still empty. There are also significantly fewer gaijins. More on that some other day. I’m finding myself facing a whole new kind of interpreting experience. I’m heading up north to Ohfunato today for two months. What am I doing? I can’t honestly say. I have been told relief/disaster work is very... Continue reading

Dear All, The Interpreter’s Corner will not be featured on its regular weekly schedule for the next two and a half months. Amya Miller has volunteered with a Boston based relief organization and left yesterday to go to the earthquake and tsunami ravaged area in Japan. She will try to chronicle what she is seeing and doing if she is able to but her primary goal is to be as of much help as she can to the people in these devastated towns in Japan in their time of need. Please keep Japan and her in your thoughts. Below is... Continue reading

I have sat by the phone for boyfriends to call. I have sat by the phone waiting to hear about my nieces' births. I have sat and waited for many reasons. You would think by now I would be used to it. I'm not. I hate it. This past week has been a waiting game. A call comes in and says "we'll know more tomorrow." Tomorrow arrives and no one calls. I feel like I'm seventeen again. The boy I like didn't call me. I mope. I pout. I get angry at the people I love. When the phone finally... Continue reading

The earthquake in Japan, the subsequent tsunamis and aftershocks that never seem to cease has me reeling. I go back and forth between being glued to the television and walking away, emotionally drained. Then I made a decision. I’m an interpreter. I can be of use the most in Japan. I’m going. Fast-forward, I am on standby with multiple organizations, federal, private and non-profit. I have told all of them I am prepared to leave as early as March 22nd. I went to my doctor and stocked up on medication so I can stay long term. I’m mentally packing, trying... Continue reading

As interpreters we carry dictionaries, stay up to date on current events, understand cultural nuance... Continue reading

I extend my heartfelt condolences to everyone in the affected areas of Japan due to these earthquakes. I lived in Osaka at the time of the Great Hanshin earthquake (Kobe earthquake) and this just devastates me for what I know people will be going through over the course of the coming days, weeks, and the months and years of recovery. Yvonne Burton of Japan-US Business News Continue reading

We’re all human. We all make mistakes. How we deal with them and what we do with them defines our professionalism and how we are perceived. Here are two examples of interpreters making mistakes. One is about me. It’s one of my more painful stories. I’m still embarrassed thinking about it. I claim it, though. It was my mistake. Mine alone and while I couldn’t undo my words, I fixed it on the spot the best I could. The other story is about how I watched an interpreter implode over several days after she refused to acknowledge a mistake. Tell... Continue reading

Not everyone is likeable. Sadly, this is a fact. Certainly life is more fun and flows smoother when we are able to work with those whose company we enjoy. It helps if they’re nice. Add competence to that and you’ve hit gold. How does this concept affect interpreters? Let me give you an example. On a particular day several years ago, I find myself working with a sociopath. The guy is cruel. I hate him. I really do. This is a job I’m doing purely for money and I tell my husband I’m blowing this cash when all is said... Continue reading

I prefer the word augmentation to retraction. What am I referring to? Two weeks ago I discussed the ... Continue reading

All clients are important. All meetings are important. This is not to say all meetings are equal in their importance. Discussing the best way to put together an air condition does not hold the same social/political implications as a bilateral meeting. This story is about the latter. It’s Monday morning at 8:35. Both parties are sitting in a large room in downtown Tokyo. The Japanese have greeted and welcomed their American counterparts. After a few words are spoken about the importance of this meeting, the host says the Director of the department, his superior, will come in for a few... Continue reading

Picture this. You’re working as a team. The person you’re working with is younger and less experienc... Continue reading

The last story about Mr. S. is the most serious and problematic. Complaining about too much lobster and using rude gestures in a passive-aggressive way is annoying, yes. Sexual harassment is an entirely different story. Add alcohol to the mix and this was an explosive situation. Here’s what happened. I knew Mr. S. really liked his liquor and got drunk every time he was taken out. What I did not realize until too late was the fact he probably had a serious alcohol problem. I have heard of those who cannot process and break down alcohol in their bodies and... Continue reading

In an attempt to teach and instill good manners in me, my parents read me two books (repeatedly) as a child. One was What Do You Say Dear, by Maurice Sendak and the other was Manners Make People Nice To Know. The latter, a much older book contained drawings of well-behaved children showed the perks that came with being good. Evidently the manners I was taught through these books stuck. I always knew to thank my host who paid for expensive lunches and dinners. I was polite. I smiled a lot. My parents would be proud. Mr. S., our temperamental... Continue reading

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We’ve all had one, I’m sure. A client who pays well, offers steady work, pays on time but is truly a horrific person—nasty, mean, offends all who cross his path and yet is so brilliant his presence continues to be requested. You cringe when the phone rings and it’s his number. You dread the assignments when you interpret for him. You still go though. It pays and you need the work. Is it possible you consider the assignments with him a challenge? Is it a slightly twisted personal quest where you promise yourself “this time I won’t let him get... Continue reading

Let me borrow a line from Mick Jagger and the boys - Please allow me to introduce myself. Simply put, I am one of those interpreters who should never have been hired. A small Japanese company in the Midwest hired me right out of college. I was no interpreter. I was only bilingual. With no training as an interpreter, they thrust me into meetings and conferences. I could sink or swim. I swam. Fast-forward 18 months. I married and had a child during this time. After much teeth gnashing, I left the full-time position and became a freelance interpreter. I... Continue reading

Part 2 of our interview with Kimberly Wiefling, President of Wiefling Consulting, and Executive Editor of the Scrappy GuidesTM and Author of “Scrappy Project Management: The 12 Predictable and Avoidable Pitfalls Every Project Faces”, continues below. Japan-US Business News: What are the most demanding conflicts you face? Kimberly Wiefling: Conservatism mainly. Some companies are too conservative to overcome their resistance to change. On the individual level—fear of failure, shame, and aversion to making mistakes hampers the professional growth of global business leaders. My teaching definitely involves a ‘reframing’ of the Japanese way of thinking to encourage people to embrace mistakes... Continue reading

We continue our "Women in Japan-US Business" profile series today with Kimberly Wiefling - Founder and President of Wiefling Consulting, and Executive Editor of the Scrappy GuidesTM and Author of “Scrappy Project Management: The 12 Predictable and Avoidable Pitfalls Every Project Faces”, growing in popularity around the world and published in Japanese by Nikkei Business Press. "Scrappy Women in Business: Living Proof That Bending the Rules Isn’t Breaking the Law", a compilation of a dozen women’s stories, was published this past summer. Read Part 1 of Kimberly's interview below. Part 2 will appear tomorrow. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Japan-US Business News: What was... Continue reading

Japan-US Business News is starting a new weekly column on Thursday, Dec. 16th. 'The Interpreter’s Corner’ weekly post will feature Amya Miller, a Japanese-English interpreter with 20 years of experience. She will be writing about the Interpreting field and the Japanese interpreting industry specifically. Join Japan-US Business News and Amya Miller every Thursday for The Interpreter's Corner . Continue reading