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Paper short abstract:

This presentation proposes a service learning project for Japanese language learners to translate the AJE newsletter using machine translation, analyzes post-editing challenges, and characterizes necessary skills to contribute to timely multilingualization for communities in need of translation.

Paper long abstract:

Machine translation has advanced dramatically with deep learning. This machine translation has already been put to practical use in situations where immediacy is required, such as municipal announcement during the Corona pandemic. On the other hand, it has been reported (Yamada 2021) that less than 1% of the content requiring translation worldwide has been translated. In order to coexist in a multilingual society, it is desirable to establish a "sustainable translation" method that enables rapid information transfer by using machine translation for content that cannot be handled by human translation. However, machine translation based on deep learning still causes "translation omissions," where part of the content of the source text is not reflected in the translated text, and mistranslations due to a lack of understanding of the context. Therefore, post-editing by human translators is considered indispensable.

On the other hand, there are many educational institutions in Europe that offer translation studies and Japanese language education classes in which students learn to translate Japanese into the local language. A learning approach, in which students participate in a community service project and enhance their academic learning, is called service learning (Kurokawa 2012). Incorporating service-learning into the classroom would allow for timely multilingualization for communities in need of translation, and for Japanese language learners to contribute to society by making use of their Japanese language skills.

Therefore, using the Japanese-English translation of the AJE newsletter as an example, this presentation will analyze what problems exist in the post-editing process of machine translation and what skills are needed to solve them, explore the conditions and work processes that should be considered if it were to be done in a classroom setting, and propose the establishment of an AJE newsletter translation project.

Kurokawa, M. (2012) ‘Service Learning in an Advanced Japanese Language Course ’ in Journal of Japanese language education153: 96-110, Association for Japanese Language Education.

Yamada, M.(2021) ‘Post-editing and a Sustainable Future for Translators’ in Journal of foreign language studies 24: 83-105, Kansai University.