Re: Manuals of Japanese Consumer Electronics Companies

[Laurie Rubin <lmr -at- SYL -dot- NJ -dot- NEC -dot- COM>]

Timely subject.  We develop software specifically for the Japanese market,
so our user interfaces and documentation are translated to Japanese.
Now our Japanese bosses are looking towards a global market. Just last week,
the director of my organization (through a directive from our Japanese bosses)
requested that I rewrite a user's manual that was translated to English from
Japanese!  It
seems the company recognizes that the current quality of the translation and
the presentation of the document do not meet American standards.
Laurie

> * Most Americans are, at one level or another, aware of the enormous
>   quantities involved in a production run of Japanese consumer products.
>   They are also aware that Japanese consumer electronics companies
>   know where to find native speakers of English -- they can find
>   America on a map.  They typically even have large staffs of Americans
>   in their U.S. divisions.  Thus, most Americans are aware, consciously
>   or unconsciously, that Japanese consumer electronics divisions just
>   plain don't give a damn about the American consumer, and are unwilling
>   to spend the pennies per product that would give them an excellent
>   manual, instead of an incoherent one.
>         -- Robert