Written translations: Danish / Japanese / English
There are only 5.5 million persons in the whole world who communicate in Danish language as their mother tongue. At the same time Danish is such a small language group, the majority of the Danes need to be, and in fact are good at English and feel at ease using English or some other languages. At the same time the Japanese language is so different both in its pronunciation as well as in structure from that of any other language. A complete written test translation may be needed in order to convey the exact meaning from one side to the other.
In order to be able to deliver a conscientious translation, I as a translator must be well oriented about the circumstances of the text.
Especially when a new translation is to be used as a part of already existing documents, reports etc., I must be consequent in the choice of vocabulary. There might have been involved different translators each with their preference. Some terminology may have been adjusted as the business developed.
Transcribing Danish or any other proper nouns into Japanese may be rather tricky. Should the name of the world famous pharmaceutical company NOVO be written and pronounced in Japanese as NOBO（ノボ）? The ruling convention in fact seems to be NOBO!
Oral communication: Danish / Japanese / English
Nowadays more and more Japanese manage themselves in English. English education at Japanese schools is solid with respect to reading and writing, but not yet so in listening and speaking. Therefore it has become more common that Danish-Japanese meetings openly involve English as a support language.
The material prepared for the meeting whether in print or in form of PPT presentation will be almost without exception in English. If the meeting itself is conducted by spoken Danish-Japanese, the supplied reference material will serve as concrete and common reference if the participants should wish to continue correspondence after the finished meeting. If the meeting language is English, the Japanese participants often still request the communication to be interpreted.
Therefore it is often required that I prepare myself not only in Danish – Japanese vocabularies, but also English as supplementary language.