A tough translation job

Chiharu and Seiya came and I met Mamoru, her boyfriend. He is in the Self-Defence Forces, and had been ordered by a colonel to do a translation. He was having a little trouble with it, so he asked Chiharu to help, and she asked me. I read the piece - and oh my god, alright here is the link: http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1121/mr1121.sum.pdf

I could barely understand it on my first glance, and English is my native language! It's a projection of what China will do in the near future on the international stage and how the US should react.

I spent the morning totally blahhing, doing loads of online puzzles. When they arrived at about 3pm, we got down to it, fuelled by coffee, and worked at it until 6pm. My job was to re-phrase the English, provide English-English translations (ie, to easier words), break down the essay structurally and chop up the sentences into more manageable bits. Chiharu acted as the bridge, making sure she understood properly by re-phrasing it in English or Japanese. Then Mamoru's job was to get all that written down in appropriate Japanese. Phew. But it was good work, nice and challenging mental work. Often my lessons are too easy for me!