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NEWSLETTER Issue 16: November 2009

Welcome to the autumn issue of the Crestec Europe Newsletter. First, we would like to give you an introduction of the Russian language. For our series about Crestec offices around the world, we turn the spotlight on Crestec Nagoya in Japan. After this, we present to you Mr. Maarten Lemmens, who is in charge of the Editing section at Crestec Europe.

Characteristics of the Russian Language The Russian language is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. It ranks fifth after Chinese, English, Hindi and Spanish as far as number of speakers is concerned. Among the Slavic languages, Russian is the most widespread. All Slavic languages show many similarities, but the languages closest to Russian are the Belarusian and the Ukrainian languages. Together these form the East Slavic subgroup, which belongs to the Slavic group of the Indo-European family of languages. In addition to the East Slavic subgroup, there are the West Slavic subgroup (e.g. Czech and Slovak) and the South Slavic subgroup (e.g. Serbian / Croatian and Bulgarian). The Common Slavic language is the language-ancestor of all Slavic languages. It had no written form and was, therefore, not recorded in writing. However, it can be restored by comparing the individual Slavic languages with one another, as well as by comparisons with other related languages from the Indo-European language family. Grammarians estimate that the unified spelling will affect 1.6% of the words in the European norm and 0.5% of the words used in Brazil and that 98% of the spelling discrepancies between the two countries will be eliminated once Portugal implements the agreement. One general source – the Common Slavic language - unites all Slavic languages, giving them many similar features, values, sounds, etc. Consciousness of the Slavic linguistic and ethnic unity is reflected in the ancient self-designation of all Slavic people – the Slavs (* slověne).

The language ancestor of the modern Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages is the ancient Russian (or East Slavic) language. Within its history there are two major epochs: the pre-literate language epoch (from the collapse of the Common Slavic language to the end of the 10th century) and the written language epoch. The disintegration of the ancient Russian language led to the formation of the Russian language, which is different from Ukrainian and Belarusian. This change occurred in the 14th century. The basis of the modern Russian language is built upon the northern and north-eastern dialects of Old Russia.

The most obvious features of the Russian language are: - The characters. The Russian language is written in the Cyrillic script. This alphabet is suitable

for reflecting Russian sounds which cannot be reflected with the Latin alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the 10th century from the Greek alphabet characters. The driving force behind the development of the new alphabet was that the people from the south of the Balkans wanted to make Bible translations into Slavic.

- The sound. It is characterized by numerous "noise sounds” such as sh, shch, and ch, among others, and by a much stronger word accent than in English.

The audio structure of the Russian language contains 43 phonemes: 6 vowels and 37 consonants, both soft and hard sounds. This differentiation appears between pairs of almost all consonants, and it is one of the most distinguishing features of the Russian language. Another significant point is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Stress, which is unpredictable is not normally indicated orthographically but according to the Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences. An optional acute accent should sometimes be used to mark stress when there is a need to distinguish between otherwise identical words or to indicate the proper pronunciation of unusual words or names. - The declension. The Russian language has six cases. That seems like a lot, but the individual

features of the cases are very clear, and there is a system behind the different types of declension.

- The conjugation. The Russian verbs are classified into three conjugations with a number of

divisions. - The so-called aspect. This is a grammatical category of the verb (like "number", "person", "time",

etc.) that in languages such as English is not shown at all or shown in a very different way. The aspect indicates whether actions are in progress or if they are already completed. In linguistics, the use of the aspect is very interesting, especially in combination with the tenses and moods of the verb (e.g. imperative). The existence of the gerund, a form of adverb, is important for the verb.

- The word order in Russian is more or less free, but not random, and creates interesting

theoretical problems. - The sentence intonation of the Russian language is rich and offers much inspiration for research

by linguistics In recent years, the interest in Russian linguistics overall has been large. Many students have started to study the Russian language and literature. One of the reasons for this is that Russia has changed significantly over the past decade. Russia is being transformed into a more open society, and together with economic growth, this opens up new possibilities and requires a good understanding of the Russian Language. Some Japanese words found in Russian language are samurai, karate, judo, ikebana, and karaoke.

Introducing Crestec Nagoya Office Welcome to Nagoya, the Centre of Japan! Nagoya will celebrate the 400-year anniversary of its birth next year in 2010. The town was established when Ieyasu Tokugawa, who won the Battle of Sekigahara, chose to locate his strategic base from which to rule over the whole country here in Nagoya. Taking maximum advantage of its vantage ground, Nagoya has been developing its own culture since then and thriving as one of the most important economic centres of Japan. Nagoya is proud of three great historical figures in its past: Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. There are many more things that Nagoya is famous for though, including Nagoya Castle and Atsuta Shrine. Having recently opened Central Japan International Airport (Centrair) and the skyscrapers built in front of the railway station, Nagoya demands attention as a still expanding metropolis. Nagoya is proud to have its own unique food culture as well,, for example, Kishimen (flat noodle in clear broth), Miso-Nikomi Udon (udon noodle in miso broth served in a small piping hot pot), Tebasaki (deep-fried spicy chicken wings), and Hitsumabushi (chopped grilled eel on cooked rice in a wooden tub called ‘hitsu’). Nagoya is also the birthplace of Pachinko, the king of amusement games.

Nagoya’s attractions are very diverse, as described above, but we would like to introduce yet another charm of Nagoya—the Nagoya dialect (‘Nagoya-ben’). The most prominent sound characteristic of the Nagoya dialect is adding the ‘ya-a’ sound at the end of a word, for example, ‘iko-mya-a’ (‘ikima-shou’ in common Japanese = let’s go) and ‘tabe-yomya-a’ (tabe-mashou = let’s eat), both of which are used for inviting people to do something together with the speaker. Other examples include ‘do-erya-a’ (monosugoi = extraordinary), ‘erya-a’ (tsukareta =tired) and ‘Torokuseya-a’ (bakabakashii = silly). These expressions appear very often in everyday conversations. Although the sound is something

between ‘a’ and ‘e’, it might be difficult to pronounce accurately unless you are a native of Nagoya and of the older generation. The sound is gentle on the ear, which gives the listeners a sense of comfort. We strongly recommend that you hear these sounds in person. Profile of Nagoya Office The Crestec Nagoya Office was set up in Nagoya in 1995, and we are celebrating the fourteenth anniversary of the office this year. The office is near Hushimi underground station, which is just one stop from the JR Nagoya station, or ‘Mei-eki’ as the locals call it with affection. It is conveniently accessible even from distant places. Although the office is located in the middle of blocks of office buildings, the biggest shopping and amusement district in Nagoya, Sakae, is within walking distance. It is always easy to enjoy ourselves after office hours. Since it is home to some large companies, including those in the automobile industry, Nagoya is also suffering from the severe economic situation and has not been excluded from the world-wide recession. Nevertheless, our office has been steadily developing in scale and variety of business. Our products range from manuals, hundreds of pages in length, and full-colour items such as cartons, leaflets, and catalogues to promotional and educational videos and web sites. We are able to handle a wide range of projects which require writing or designing. This office alone has handled projects requiring up to forty different languages. Well-balanced and organised system Nagoya office has all the elements required to form a well-balanced organisation: a sales team, an editing coordination team, a DTP team, a translation team and writing team.

The editing coordination team is divided into three parts: the group which uses XML tools and other tools which we have developed to produce bulk manuals, the group that specialises in a particular area, and the group that deals with the many different customer requests while pioneering a new area. Our staff members are assigned to an area according to their aptitude, and they are then trained to become an expert in their area. The fact that the Nagoya office has a translation team is another one of its advantages. Although there are only four translators and only one of them is non-Japanese, all of the Japanese translators are fluent in English. We used to have a staff member from Crestec Europe B.V in our group. (Crestec Europe B. V. is the main base for translation business within the Crestec Group.) We have meanwhile inherited her translation ‘genes’ and become an orthodox translation team on our own. Our translations include a wide range of products, from manual translation and technical translation using Trados, to sales copy and essays. Paying attention to detail when receiving the orders and having a refined sense when finishing them makes a huge difference in the final product. Our translation team supports the entire office by producing such high-quality translations. Another asset of Nagoya Office Another distinctive feature of the Nagoya office is that each staff member has a unique personality. And yet the team works well together, full of good team spirit. As soon as you step into the office, you are struck by the noise of lively conversations and discussions. Regardless of our positions in the company, we exchange our opinions, listen sincerely to the others and enjoy a friendly atmosphere, which in return inspires us with new ideas and ways to communicate. As a result of these exchanges, someone might come up with an innovative way to make production more efficient. Others might set up a new project, and skills can be transferred from seniors to juniors. We are flexible and free from the conventional patterns of communication. We are young and full of fresh ideas, and we accept new methods willingly. All of these qualities result in enhanced creativity and the ability to offer valuable suggestions, which, by the way, is the source of our power. With the office move, new determination

As a result of our excellent team efforts, Nagoya office moved to a new location in March. We are now even more determined to contribute to high-quality services for our customers as a unified team in a new and more comfortable environment. Our new address： Orix Fushimi Building 3F, 13-30, Nishiki 2 - chome, Naka – ku, Nagoya Post code 460-0003 The Nagoya office will keep on developing and expanding. When you have a clear goal in mind, or even when you have only a vague idea such as ‘I would like to have something like this…’, we are here to help you. Our experienced staff will guide you through the entire process from planning and designing to the final product. Through our business we would also like to contribute to revitalising Nagoya and the surrounding Central Japan area. That is the common goal of the members of the Crestec Nagoya office.

New Crestec Nagoya Office

Team profile: Maarten Lemmens Maarten was born 31 years ago in the beautiful hills in the south of the Netherlands. Together with his wife and children he now lives near the Amsterdam International Airport. Maarten earned his master’s degree in German and Portuguese interpretation and translation at Brussels University. He also studied German translation in Lisbon, Portugal where he also found time to practice his Portuguese. Maarten joined the Editing Section in 2003. After holding the position of Assistant Section Leader, he was promoted to Leader of the Editing Section two years ago. How has your work evolved over the last six years? “When I started, translation software and quality assurance tools were not as advanced as they are now. There has been enormous progress since then. Nowadays, the various types of translation software and quality assurance tools give us endless possibilities to ensure the linguistic quality of our translations. In addition to the actual proofreading of translations, Crestec uses a range of advanced quality-assurance tools. This way, we guarantee not only the linguistic quality, but also the quality of all the other aspects of our translations. The Editing Section has grown along with the company. Currently, we have seven permanent members and a number of freelance proofreaders. All editors are qualified linguists.” Why does Crestec Europe have its own Editing Section? “Unlike many other translation companies, Crestec has its own editors in-house. Crestec is known in the marketplace for its high quality and service level. Having our own Editing Section gives us maximum quality control and workflow flexibility. It also allows us to closely monitor the quality of our translation suppliers. Over the past years, Crestec has invested a lot in the Editing Section in order to reach the high level of quality that our clients expect from us. From experience, we know that many of our quality-oriented clients greatly appreciate the benefits of having their materials edited by Crestec’s linguistic professionals.” What challenges does the Editing section face in the near future? “The quality assurance market is advancing rapidly. Together with our Japanese development team, we are developing a new terminology checking system, and of course, we keep a close eye on the developments in the market. Novelties, those which can be beneficial to us or to our clients, are implemented into our workflow. All of this to be able to offer the highest possible quality and service level to our clients!” CRESTEC EUROPE B.V. Teleportboulevard 110, 1043 EJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 20 585 4640. Fax: +31 20 585 4646. Note For Crestec Europe B.V., please refer to our English website (www.ceu.crestec.com). For Crestec Japan, see the Japanese site (www.crestec.co.jp). If you have any comments or enquiries regarding Crestec Europe B.V., please contact your account manager or e-mail sales@crestec.nl . This newsletter is distributed to the Crestec mailing list. To unsubscribe, please e-mail us at news@crestec.nl.