Japanese English-to-Japanese interpreters are reported as finding translation of U.S. President Trump’s remarks particularly nightmarish.
According to the Japan Times, one interpreter who routinely covers Trump-related news as an interpreter for CNN, ABC and CBS. said, “He rarely speaks logically, and he only emphasizes one side of things as if it were the absolute truth. There are lots of moments when I suspected his assertions were factually dubious.”
Dumbstruck by Trump’s disregard for logic and facts as well as his unabashed use of a litany of sexist and racist remarks, translators say they make themselves look stupid translating him.
Though his phraseology, which they call “Trumpese,” is by and large repetitive and simple and his vocabulary at an elementary level, his tendency to jump from one topic to another and use insults and vulgarities and his lack of logic leaves interpreters scratching their heads.
For example, it was only after long after she’d translated the word “secretariat” that a translator figured out he was talking about a racehorse.
