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Jennifer O'Donnell – Japanese-English Translator and Localization Director

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Literary Translation

Writing Tools for Translators – Book Review

Writing Tools for Translators – Book Review

Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark   If there’s one book all translators working with English should read, it’s Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark. Most translators are not taught how to write and

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Jennifer O'Donnell August 15, 2023August 18, 2023 Improve Translation Skills, Literary Translation, Localization No Comments Read more

Japanese – English Translation Competitions 2023

Japanese – English Translation Competitions 2023

A list of translation competitions for Japanese to English translators in 2023. I’ve also posted a list of articles at the bottom which should help!   Japanese – English Translation Competitions 2022 Materials Provided I’ve been keeping an eye on

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Jennifer O'Donnell January 5, 2023April 24, 2023 Improve Translation Skills, Literary Translation No Comments Read more

Translated Books I Read in 2022

Translated Books I Read in 2022

One of my goals this year was to read more translated books, so in April I decided to start a reading challenge. Each month had a different theme which acts as a reading prompt to help select books. I only

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Jennifer O'Donnell December 21, 2022December 17, 2022 Literary Translation, Translation Review No Comments Read more

The 2022 Translated Literature Challenge

The 2022 Translated Literature Challenge

I want to read more and a wider variety of translated literature and so I started the Translated Literature Reading Challenge! Whether anyone joins or not, I will try and read at least one translated book a month based on

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Jennifer O'Donnell April 22, 2022April 22, 2022 Literary Translation, Personal No Comments Read more

Japanese – English Translation Competitions 2022

Japanese – English Translation Competitions 2022

A list of translation competitions for Japanese to English translators in 2022. I’ve also posted a list of articles at the bottom which should help! Japanese – English Translation Competitions 2022 Materials Provided I’ve been keeping an eye on Japanese to

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Jennifer O'Donnell February 24, 2022September 16, 2022 Link Roundup, Literary Translation No Comments Read more

How to Make Entertainment Translation Entertaining!

How to Make Entertainment Translation Entertaining!

What makes a good translation depends entirely on the type of text and medium. Technical translations should be fairly direct with wording, formatting, and style appropriate to the type of technical document. Marketing translations often involve complete transcreation, the wording

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Jennifer O'Donnell December 3, 2021December 16, 2021 Improve Translation Skills, Literary Translation, Localization No Comments Read more

Literary Translation Link Roundup [Spring 2021]

Literary Translation Link Roundup [Spring 2021]

The World of Literary Translation Why Should We Read More Translated Literature? A discussion on why translated literature is important and how we benefit from reading more of it. There’s a lot you can gain through translated literature! “Reading translated

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Jennifer O'Donnell May 28, 2021May 28, 2021 Link Roundup, Literary Translation No Comments Read more

How Do Judges Judge a Good Translation?

How Do Judges Judge a Good Translation?

Every year I post a list of upcoming Japanese to English translation competitions. A lot of these competitions are really great for aspiring and experienced translators to practice their skills. But it’s often hard to know what the judges are

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Jennifer O'Donnell March 13, 2021September 19, 2021 Improve Translation Skills, Literary Translation, Localization No Comments Read more

Japanese – English Translation Competitions 2021

Japanese – English Translation Competitions 2021

It is a new year and a new round of translation competitions is upon us! At least I hope they will be! Last year was a bit of an odd one with everything that could possibly going wrong, going wrong.

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Jennifer O'Donnell February 6, 2021February 22, 2022 Link Roundup, Literary Translation No Comments Read more

10 Japanese to English MANGA Professionals – Women in Translation Month

10 Japanese to English MANGA Professionals – Women in Translation Month

The other week I talked about Japanese to English female literary translators for Women in Translation Month, 2020. But as a counterpart to this, I wanted to shed light on some of the amazing female manga professionals. They aren’t just

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Jennifer O'Donnell August 23, 2020April 2, 2021 Manga Translation No Comments Read more

10 Must Read Japanese to English Literary Translators – Women in Translation Month

10 Must Read Japanese to English Literary Translators – Women in Translation Month

It’s Women in Translation Month! This event, that began in 2014, spans the entirety of August. It brings awareness to the gender imbalance of writers from other languages that are translated into English. But I also saw someone say that it

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Jennifer O'Donnell August 11, 2020August 23, 2020 Literary Translation No Comments Read more

10 Modern Japanese Authors That Aren’t Murakami

10 Modern Japanese Authors That Aren’t Murakami

I often get the impression that people interested in Japan and literature only know of Haruki Murakami. Of course this isn’t actually true (at least I hope not), but if you search for “Japanese literature recommendations”, every single one of

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Jennifer O'Donnell July 18, 2020August 11, 2020 Link Roundup, Literary Translation No Comments Read more

My Manga Translation Process

My Manga Translation Process

I’ve been thinking a lot about how people go about translating lately. Everyone’s different, we all find our own ways to approach translation. Not just how we translate something but how we translate it; the process from being given a

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Jennifer O'Donnell March 28, 2020September 24, 2022 Manga Translation 1 Comment Read more

Japanese – English Translation Competitions 2020

Japanese – English Translation Competitions 2020

Japanese – English translation competitions are a great way to improve your translation skills and get your name out there. They can be particularly great for people new to the industry for putting on resumes. If you win one you’re

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Jennifer O'Donnell January 12, 2020October 5, 2020 Literary Translation, Localization No Comments Read more

Manga Translation Pitfalls

Manga Translation Pitfalls

A manga translation can vary drastically when handled by different people. Not just the translator, but editors, adapters, and of course companies, have their own approaches and preferences (hence why styles guides are a thing). I (Jennifer) teamed up with

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Jennifer O'Donnell November 16, 2019August 20, 2022 Improve Translation Skills, Literary Translation, Localization, Manga Translation No Comments Read more

Never Assume – The Importance of Research in Translation

Never Assume – The Importance of Research in Translation

One of the best pieces of advice I received as a beginner translator was “never assume”. Never assume a kanji reading or a word meaning. Never assume you know what someone said. Basically, never assume the Japanese and never assume that’s

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Jennifer O'Donnell May 2, 2019May 4, 2019 Literary Translation, Localization 1 Comment Read more

8 Exercises To Teach Yourself Japanese-English Translation

8 Exercises To Teach Yourself Japanese-English Translation

Novice and aspiring translators are often hit with this seemingly impassable wall when they start. You may think Japanese-English translation is doable as long as you know Japanese, but it’s not that simple… Translation is a skill separate from Japanese

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Jennifer O'Donnell February 23, 2019 Further Education, Literary Translation, Localization No Comments Read more

Japanese – English Translation Competitions 2019

Japanese - English translation competitions

[Updated: 14-Oct-2019] Japanese – English translation competitions are a great way to improve your translation skills and get your name out there. They can be particularly great for people new to the industry for putting on resumes. If you win

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Jennifer O'Donnell February 8, 2019October 13, 2019 Freelance Business Advice, Link Roundup, Literary Translation, Localization No Comments Read more

Kansai Cats Manga – Being the Straight Man – Chapter 5

Kansai Cats Manga – Being the Straight Man – Chapter 5

Kansai Cats Manga – Being the Straight Man – Chapter 5           Artist: MakiART @ccmakiart Translator: J-EN Translations Editor: WaterFlame Original 関西弁にゃんこ Manga

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Jennifer O'Donnell September 9, 2018 Kansai Kittens, Manga Translation No Comments Read more

Kansai Cats Manga – Leave it to Chiro! – Chapter 4

Kansai Cats Manga – Leave it to Chiro! – Chapter 4

Kansai Cats Manga – Leave it to Chiro! – Chapter 4         Artist: MakiART @ccmakiart Translator: J-EN Translations Editor: WaterBlogs.net Original 関西弁にゃんこ Manga Chapter 3 Chapter 5  

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Jennifer O'Donnell September 9, 2018September 9, 2018 Kansai Kittens, Manga Translation No Comments Read more

A Short Exercise in Accents

A Short Exercise in Accents

In an attempt to push my own translation capabilities I want to try translating the same information into multiple accents. Neutral American (more direct translation) Southern American British (upper class) British (lower class) The challenge with this exercise is to

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Jennifer O'Donnell June 19, 2018 Literary Translation, Localization, My Translations No Comments Read more

Kansai Cats Manga – Lazy Tora – Chapter 3

Kansai Cats Manga – Lazy Tora – Chapter 3

Kansai Cats Manga – Lazy Tora – Chapter 3   Artist: MakiART @ccmakiart Translator: J-EN Translations Editor: WaterFlame Original 関西弁にゃんこ Manga Chapter 2 Chapter 4  

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Jennifer O'Donnell May 28, 2018September 9, 2018 Kansai Kittens No Comments Read more

“The Professor of Magic” by Edogawa Ranpo

“The Professor of Magic” by Edogawa Ranpo

I recently won 2nd place in a literary translators competition! The person who held the competition was kind enough to give feedback. Taking his advice on I went through my writing and tweaked it slightly. Here is my translation for

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Jennifer O'Donnell May 4, 2018May 22, 2018 Literary Translation, My Translations No Comments Read more

Read Well to Translate Well

Read Well to Translate Well

Translators are constantly honing their skills. Both in their source and target languages. As such, it is important for any translator to read a lot. Reading can expose us to new ways of thinking, new information, new language in multiple

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Jennifer O'Donnell April 29, 2018April 29, 2018 Literary Translation No Comments Read more

I got 2nd Place in a Literary Translation Competition!

I got 2nd Place in a Literary Translation Competition!

On March 12th 2018 J. D. Wisgo of Self Taught Japanese announced a literary translation competition for promising translators. (Japanese Translation Contest Announced: Promising Translators 2018.) This competition was for novice translators who are unpublished to translate a short literary

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Jennifer O'Donnell April 25, 2018April 30, 2018 Literary Translation, Personal No Comments Read more

TED Talks On Translation

TED Talks On Translation

TED Talks are always great resources for various information and new insights. But sometimes it can be hard to find subjects that interest you. I love watching TED Talks about science, computing, new ideas, learning and, of course, translating. Here

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Jennifer O'Donnell March 7, 2018 Freelance Business Advice, Literary Translation, Localization No Comments Read more

Termbases for Manga Translation

Termbases for Manga Translation

Manga translation is an interesting job. It involves a lot of creativity as you create discourse which reflects the individual characters in the appropriate setting. One great example of this is YenPress’ publication of the popular manga Black Butler. Set

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Jennifer O'Donnell January 12, 2018January 13, 2018 Manga Translation No Comments Read more

“Deaimon” – Manga Translation

“Deaimon” – Manga Translation

    In September 2017 entries opened for the 6th Manga Translation Battle, where anyone can enter at least one of three manga translations. The winners for each manga may get a chance to translate the final manga officially. So

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Jennifer O'Donnell January 1, 2018January 3, 2018 Manga Translation, My Translations 2 Comments Read more

“Flying Grandpa” – Short Story Translation

Flying Grandpa

A while ago in Translate Like No One’s Watching I mentioned how I was translating a short story. Specifically for the 2017 Kurodahan Press Translation Competition. I had a fantastic time translating this story. And although I didn’t win, I’m still incredibly

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Jennifer O'Donnell December 13, 2017May 22, 2018 Literary Translation, My Translations 1 Comment Read more

Education for Literary Translators

Education for Literary Translators

I attended a round table discussion on education for literary translators organized by NOTIS last night, and it was fantastic! I wanted to write my own thoughts regarding education for literary translators with resources and points that were discussed. A

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Jennifer O'Donnell November 9, 2017January 21, 2018 Freelance Business Advice, Literary Translation 1 Comment Read more
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