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Post by melonkuma on Nov 7, 2022 9:28:59 GMT 9
Hello!
I just wanted to ask people what they do when they get asked to check text for articles, which are grammatically fine but super boring?
I always feel a bit disappointed when we get new articles written for our website which I don't think are realistically going to be read by anyone.
I'm not sure if it's something I should raise, or just let it pass since there isn't an actual problem with the English....
For reference, these are articles for a tourism website, so they're aimed at a foreign audience who are interested in visiting Hokkaido.
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Post by Tis the Season-jay on Nov 7, 2022 10:08:19 GMT 9
I've never pushed the issue but I also internally groan at the content these tourism places put out sometimes. Like, part of me wonders if even young Japanese people find those places interesting, yet alone foreigners... because sometimes they really do put out places/information that no average tourist is probably going to make the trek out to see
You could also maybe try a different approach; like if you found an interesting place in a Japanese article and forwarded it to the tourism people in a hulemdoly "look at this, I think foreign tourists would really enjoy this kind of place, maybe in the future we could make some EN information on it!" kind of way
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Post by melonkuma on Nov 7, 2022 11:50:19 GMT 9
I like that idea! When I have the time, I can also write some of my own articles to publish. This time, they're trying to introduce Sapporo which, as the capital city of Hokkaido is genuinely an interesting and exciting place, but the writing doesn't convey any of the energy of the destination. It also doesn't give any new and interesting information. It makes me feel sad that we put all of this money into creating a webpage which doesn't encourage people to visit, or even provide any useful information  |
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Post by Dee on Nov 7, 2022 14:04:54 GMT 9
I like that idea! When I have the time, I can also write some of my own articles to publish. This time, they're trying to introduce Sapporo which, as the capital city of Hokkaido is genuinely an interesting and exciting place, but the writing doesn't convey any of the energy of the destination. It also doesn't give any new and interesting information. It makes me feel sad that we put all of this money into creating a webpage which doesn't encourage people to visit, or even provide any useful information Yeah that sounds pretty lame. Do you feel comfortable enough in your workplace to state you opinion on the matter? If so, it couldn't hurt. |
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Post by Aya Raincoat on Nov 7, 2022 14:41:45 GMT 9
I feel like Japanese tourism is in love with too much info and details most people don't care about... especially in tiny places that don't have much going for them, but apparently in Sapporo too!
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Post by melonkuma on Nov 7, 2022 14:42:52 GMT 9
I like that idea! When I have the time, I can also write some of my own articles to publish. This time, they're trying to introduce Sapporo which, as the capital city of Hokkaido is genuinely an interesting and exciting place, but the writing doesn't convey any of the energy of the destination. It also doesn't give any new and interesting information. It makes me feel sad that we put all of this money into creating a webpage which doesn't encourage people to visit, or even provide any useful information Yeah that sounds pretty lame. Do you feel comfortable enough in your workplace to state you opinion on the matter? If so, it couldn't hurt. I feel comfortable enough to state my opinion, I'm just not quite sure how to do it. I'm a little worried that the 事業担当 won't be able to understand the problem, since he is more focused on producing a good quantity of articles rather than high quality articles. |
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Post by melonkuma on Nov 7, 2022 14:50:22 GMT 9
I feel like Japanese tourism is in love with too much info and details most people don't care about... especially in tiny places that don't have much going for them, but apparently in Sapporo too! I think this is why we need articles written by actual foreigners who know what does and doesn't appeal to foreign tourists. |
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Post by korokke on Nov 8, 2022 12:10:52 GMT 9
Yeah that sounds pretty lame. Do you feel comfortable enough in your workplace to state you opinion on the matter? If so, it couldn't hurt. I feel comfortable enough to state my opinion, I'm just not quite sure how to do it. I'm a little worried that the 事業担当 won't be able to understand the problem, since he is more focused on producing a good quantity of articles rather than high quality articles. I think this is gonna work against the result they want... what's the point of making a bunch of articles that no one is going to read? You could pose your thoughts in terms of cost-benefits maybe? Like focusing on the quantity will yield little benefits for the cost of time required while high quality articles will similarly take more time but yield a greater benefit through actual tourism |
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Post by usamaru on Nov 8, 2022 13:48:03 GMT 9
it depends on in what way the article is "boring", but i would rework it and improve the readability, within the lines of the original japanese text. and tell them your reasoning for the edits. i consider that a part of native checks
whether they decide to take on the edits or not is another matter though :/
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Post by melonkuma on Nov 9, 2022 15:23:12 GMT 9
I feel comfortable enough to state my opinion, I'm just not quite sure how to do it. I'm a little worried that the 事業担当 won't be able to understand the problem, since he is more focused on producing a good quantity of articles rather than high quality articles. I think this is gonna work against the result they want... what's the point of making a bunch of articles that no one is going to read? You could pose your thoughts in terms of cost-benefits maybe? Like focusing on the quantity will yield little benefits for the cost of time required while high quality articles will similarly take more time but yield a greater benefit through actual tourism That's a good point! I think it's that old mindset of "I'm not gonna be in charge of this 事業 for more than a year or two, so as long as there's no immediate problems it can blow up as soon as I leave"  |
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Post by melonkuma on Nov 9, 2022 15:33:58 GMT 9
it depends on in what way the article is "boring", but i would rework it and improve the readability, within the lines of the original japanese text. and tell them your reasoning for the edits. i consider that a part of native checks whether they decide to take on the edits or not is another matter though :/ This is what I decided to do! I'm checking the article for a company who we are paying to write these articles for us, so they will almost certainly take the edits. I just wish that they would take my comments on-board and find a way of getting the text translated into more readable language. When we first started working with this company their translations were all done via Gengo, and so pretty much unreadable. I guess this is an improvement, but I do wish that I could just do a simple spell and grammar check without having to go through and rewrite bits and pieces. |
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