Meet David, Private Investigator and Translator

David is a licensed private investigator with experience in corporate investigations, missing persons, background investigations, unlisted phone number investigations, and email investigations just to name a few. He has experience working in Japan and the USA. He has access to US and Canadian databases. Japan has no databases, but he has methods and connections with that country.

He is also an experienced translator who can speak, read, and write Japanese fluently. He has translated several different kinds of documents including but not limited to legal documents, a computer game, and manga. His college degrees are Japanese (scored the highest on Jouyou Kanji Test), Criminal Justice (awarded most valued student), and TESL/TEFL.

In short, he will work hard until your work is done. Learn more at privatedetectiveagency.us.

1. How did you first get started working as a private investigator?

My father worked many years as an FBI agent. There was a lot of influence there. I did look into the FBI and CIA as possible career choices. However, I was disappointed to find out just how politicized government agencies can sometimes get. Politicians make shady deals at times, and government agencies get caught in the middle. I decided to create my own agency so I didn't have worry about any of that. Therefore, I majored in Criminal Justice while earning private investigation hours as an apprentice. After I graduated, I worked in a private investigation agency in Tokyo, Japan. Those hours added up, and I was able to receive an agency license for my own company.

2. We've seen lots of "private eyes" on TV and in the movies, but how does the reality of private investigation differ from the image portrayed in the media?

The media often confuses private investigation with police work. This misunderstanding is especially seen in Sherlock Holmes movies where he is working side by side with the police. It is good to have friends in law enforcement, but private investigators do not partner up with law enforcement every day. They do their job, and we do ours. I sometimes report illegal activity to the police when I find evidence of criminal activity, but that is about all there is with any "partnership."

We don't arrest people and if we do any criminal act, our license can be revoked. Television dramas often have private investigators picking locks and committing home invasions. This is an illegal act and is not done by any private investigator that wants to keep his license. Jessica Jones even pulled a fire alarm in a hotel and unlawfully detained a suspect. She would be arrested and her licensed revoked in the real world.

Private investigators are in the information business. We investigate and give information to our clients.

3. For people who have never hired an investigator before, what's your advice in terms of knowing when hiring someone would be helpful or productive?

The first thing you need to know is if they are licensed. Illegal agencies do exist, and I wouldn't recommend using one. Then you need to find out if they specialize in whatever it is you need to find out. I specialize in corporate investigations, background checks, missing persons, unlisted phone numbers, and email investigations for both the USA and Japan.

4. Does your work as a translator sometimes intersect with your investigation work?

Yes, it does. In Japan, I also translated legal documents and emails for the agency I was working for. It also intersects when the client is American and the case is in Japan or vice versa because I need to translate all the findings for the client.

5. What else would you like readers to know about you and the services you have available online?

I have a history with some very difficult cases and will work in an effective manner to get your case solved. My website is privatedetectiveagency.us. The website for my partner in Japan is yaminotantei.org. This means I have investigators on site in both countries. Clients may contact either one of us.

Thanks, David!

Meet Costa Vasili, CEO of Sydney Translations

Costa Vasili is the CEO of Sydney Translations, a premium translation agency in Australia providing NAATI accredited and certified professional translation services in over 150 languages. The people at Sydney Translations believe that communication is at the very core of a well-functioning society and because of this, they work with the private and public sector to ensure communication can occur across linguistic barriers.

1. As a translation service based in Australia, what languages are you most commonly asked to translate?

At Sydney Translations, the languages that we get the most requests to complete translation projects in are largely influenced by the migrant populations that have moved to Australia over many decades. Our top ten languages that we work in are Malay, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Croatian, Thai, and Portuguese. These languages are in keeping with large migrant populations that have moved to Australia.

2. How do you find the best translators to work for your company?

The best translators that we work with are ordinarily found through our industry contacts and through recommendations. The best translators conduct themselves in a professional manner, meet their deadlines, and check for accuracy before submitting translation deliverables. Building a strong relationship with your translation team helps to build trust and mutual respect, leading to a long and successful partnership. For example, an Arabic translator in Sydney that we work with has never missed a deadline in over 100 assignments and has always received positive feedback from our clients.

3. What are some factors that keep your services so affordable?

Utilizing the latest in technology to drive process improvement and efficiency is absolutely essential to ensuring that we can provide an extremely affordable translation service. At Sydney Translations we operate an extremely lean delivery model to ensure that there are no unnecessary overheads being added to our clients' invoices.

4. When it comes to effective translations, what helps translators achieve speed in their work while also maintaining a high degree of accuracy?

There are a number of Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools that translators can use to improve translation accuracy and speed up work. CAT tools help to predict translations, remove repetition, and utilize glossaries to improve translation accuracy.

5. For people seeking translation services, what would your advice be in terms of how to find the best translators for their specific job?

To find the best translation service for your needs, ensure that you work exclusively with translation professionals (not bilingual friends or colleagues). Just because someone can speak two languages doesn't mean that they can effectively translate for you, particularly when it comes to technical subject matter. Seek out translation agencies that work with accredited translators and that are able to explain to you how their unique translation delivery model can help you maintain translation accuracy whilst meeting deadlines and working within your budget.

Thanks, Costa!

Document Translation: Finding the Right Words

The following is a guest post, courtesy of LanguageLine Solutions, a company which offers a range of translating and interpreting services.

With so much international communication these days, it is often necessary to use a document translation service. If you find yourself in this position, before clicking on the first online company you see, think about what your specific needs are. Choosing a company unsuited to your particular job can be both unsatisfactory and expensive, and in worst case scenarios can lead to serious misunderstandings with legal, health, or business consequences. It may be necessary to provide technical drawings or photographs along with the text so that the translator can fully understand the meaning of the words in context.

The first thing you should ask yourself is how long you can wait for the translation. Speed comes at a premium, so choosing a company that offers fast online document translation may cost you more. The other factor with regard to price is word count. This is generally based on your original document, whichever language it is written in. However, you might want to compare how different companies calculate the job: some simply charge for the overall number of words, while others discount not only repetitions of the same word but also common words and phrases which the translator knows by heart, rather than needs to spend time working out. This could be a big advantage.

What kind of document do you want translated? It is obviously a more straightforward task to translate documents in everyday English, for instance, rather than one which contains many technical terms, such as medical or legal. These generally require specialist translators and may cost more, unless the document is identical to one they have previously dealt with.

Most online document translation companies will offer a quote if you send them a copy of your document. You still need to ensure that they are trustworthy, however. A company that is used by many multinational corporations is likely to come well recommended. Other companies may state that their work is recognized by official bodies, such as the Foreign Office or other government department of the country to which you wish to send the translation. It is well worth doing a bit of research at this stage to ensure that you are choosing the best possible document translation service for your purpose. If you are dealing with foreign property, for instance, or have business abroad, you are sure to need an accurate translation of such official documents as wills, house deeds, licenses, and contracts.

After finding a fast online document translation service that seems to fit your needs, don't forget to read the small print. This outlines how soon they want to be paid, what they guarantee to do, and how they would recompense you if they either fail to deliver on time or do an inadequate job. Some companies offer to redo all, or part, of a translation if it is not to your satisfaction. Do not expect the translation to be different from the original, though. They will not turn your factual copy into a sales pitch, or love letter into a Valentine's Day poem! 

Meet Deborah Woodard, Poet and Translator

Deborah Woodard was born in New York City and grew up in Vermont. She currently lives in Seattle, where she earned a doctorate in English at the University of Washington, writing her dissertation on American women Early Modernist poets and the romance plot. A widely published poet and translator, Deborah's most recent book is Borrowed Tales, released by Stockport Flats in 2012. Currently, she's researching the Triangle Factory Fire of 1911 for a projected new collection of poems.

1. Do you remember hearing/reading/writing poetry as a child, and can you identify a point in your life when you started to think of yourself as a poet?

I have a vague memory of my mother reading a poem by John Keats to me. It was probably "Ode to a Nightingale," or perhaps "The Eve of St. Agnes." I didn't write poetry as a child. I wrote strange little stories once a year or so. In the back of my mind, I worried that that rate of production felt like enough to me, psychically. Now, I have finally written a whole book of strange little stories, Borrowed Tales.

2. As someone who has studied with great poets such as Charles Simic and someone who has taught poetry for many years, what do you find to be some of the most effective methods of teaching the art/craft of poetry writing?

It all comes down to encouragement and stimulation. For the last several years, I've taught "writing alongside" hybrid reading and writing classes at The Richard Hugo House, a literary and performance center in Seattle. I teach authors who I want to read, or reread, myself: Emily Dickinson, William Blake, Allen Ginsberg, and so on. This winter, I offered "Reading alongside Local Poets," and that really seemed to galvanize the group. The local poets visited the class, and we used their books as texts. Although, here in Seattle, we're inundated with poetry events and "opportunities," somehow sitting down with the poets for a candid exchange in a small group made a difference. In the last class session, I had students do individual timelines--in pictures--of how they saw the next stretch of their writerly lives proceeding. The results were amazing!

3. What first inspired you to study Italian, when did you become interested in doing translations, and how did your interest evolve into publishing the work of Amelia Rosselli?

Since I never learned to speak any of the languages I studied in school, it took me a long time to end up in an Italian class, I confess. I went to Italy after college, and, as I was a poor traveler, did not get out of Italy, except for a couple of brief forays. After completing my doctorate in English at the University of Washington, I studied Italian "properly," with Giuseppe Leporace, with whom I began translating Rosselli. (As for translating poetry, I'd done a bit, here and there.) Rosselli's first book, Martial Variations, was in a bundle of books a friend of mine in Rome discarded from her library and sent to me for reading practice. I stowed the books in a sideboard, and eventually, pulled out Rosselli, translated a few poems, and got Giuseppe on board. We always intended to publish her, I think, but we worked without publishing rights for many years. Eventually, Chelsea Editions invited us to submit a manuscript, and The Dragonfly: A Selection of Poems, 1953-1981 was the result.

4. Who are some of the individuals that readers will recognize in your book, Borrowed Tales, and do the poems speak in the characters' first-person voices or...?

Hamlet, who opens the collection, and then perhaps McGuffey, who compiled the primers of the same name. I adapted his stories in poems like "Anna's Nettle" and "The Little Violet Merchant." Those poems are fun to perform, almost like little plays. Also, there is a "Deborah" section. Some characters speak in first person, and some do not.

5. In seeking publication for your work, how do you find the best publisher for each unique project?

Small steps can lead to compatible publishers. I republished my little riddle chapbook with Bear Star Press after I was a finalist in their contest. This led to a longer chapbook publication with them, and, eventually, to my first full-length collection, Plato's Bad Horse. The Rosselli translation was picked up by Alfredo de Palchi of Chelsea Editions after Giuseppe and I brought out ten poems in de Palchi's journal, Chelsea. Most recently, Borrowed Tales was picked up by Stockport Flats for their new Confluence Series after I published several poems in an anthology of theirs, American Ghost: Poets on Life after Industry. I liked the look of Stockport Flats' books, and I could visualize my long-lined borrowed tales in their format. Artist Heide Hinrichs designed the cover, basing it on an image from her "Borrowed Tails" show at the Seattle Art Museum. I was then given the better part of a year to revise my manuscript, for which I was most grateful. By the way, Heide and I had previously collaborated on a self-published chapbook, Hunter Mnemonics. One thing leads to another! (Not necessarily quickly, of course; as writers we have to be patient.)

Thanks, Deborah!

And thanks to Kayt Hoch for the photo of Deborah's books!