Saved by Google Translation!
English is a fairly universal language when it comes to the travel business. Even when it comes to making bookings at rural ryokans in Japan, I've managed with emails in English. Finally, I hit the limits of English being the universal business language when I tried to get a confirmation for a hotel booking in Sendai, Japan (home to Toyo Ito's Sendai Mediatheque). And Sendai is a city, not the countryside!
For this particular trip that I was planning for a client, I had corresponded in English with Saryo Souen, a ryokan in the nearby onsen town of Akiu as well as a hotel in Matsushima, all without problems. But when it came to booking Sendai Kokusai Hotel, my emails went unanswered. So I resorted to calling. All seemed to go well in English until I asked for a confirmation by email. That did not happen. So I got FS, one of our Japanese-conversant partners to make the call to no avail. Finally, I caved and turned to online translation tools. I normally use online translation tools to read emails that come in in a different language (for example, the one in Spanish from Ecuador confirming that a transfer had been made). But up to now, I've shied away from using them to send translated versions of my correspondences. Because reading what I see translated for me in English, I figure the recipient at best would be laughing out loud, and at worst would be absolutely puzzled. But I was at my wits' end with Sendai Kokusai so I decided to give Google's Language Tools a whirl (Normally, I use Alta Vista's Babel Fish, but for some strange reason, I decided to give Google a try).
The first email I shot off got a reply within an hour. The reply, oddly enough, came back in English. But the reply had misundertood my request (to change a current booking to a different date. Instead, they thought i wanted to extend the booking to the new date.). So I simplified my email to read (of course, I have no idea what the Japanese really says. I was simply going on blind faith that it said I wanted to book a double room for the night of 19 December):
仙台貴重なKokusaiのホテル、
私は2006年12月19日に1夜の氏のためにXXX 1つの二人部屋を確保することを望む。 電子メールによって確認しなさい。
本当にありがとう、Winnie
The reply came back promptly:
Finally! Success after a week of unanswered emails and long-distance phone calls (thankfully, there's Skype). So two useful lessons learnt:
1. A poorly-translated request in the recipient's language is appreciated and therefore worth the effort.
2. Be careful how the original text is phrased before translation. Keep ideas and sentance structure as simple as possible. Otherwise, meaning can get lost in translation if not totally warped.
For this particular trip that I was planning for a client, I had corresponded in English with Saryo Souen, a ryokan in the nearby onsen town of Akiu as well as a hotel in Matsushima, all without problems. But when it came to booking Sendai Kokusai Hotel, my emails went unanswered. So I resorted to calling. All seemed to go well in English until I asked for a confirmation by email. That did not happen. So I got FS, one of our Japanese-conversant partners to make the call to no avail. Finally, I caved and turned to online translation tools. I normally use online translation tools to read emails that come in in a different language (for example, the one in Spanish from Ecuador confirming that a transfer had been made). But up to now, I've shied away from using them to send translated versions of my correspondences. Because reading what I see translated for me in English, I figure the recipient at best would be laughing out loud, and at worst would be absolutely puzzled. But I was at my wits' end with Sendai Kokusai so I decided to give Google's Language Tools a whirl (Normally, I use Alta Vista's Babel Fish, but for some strange reason, I decided to give Google a try).
The first email I shot off got a reply within an hour. The reply, oddly enough, came back in English. But the reply had misundertood my request (to change a current booking to a different date. Instead, they thought i wanted to extend the booking to the new date.). So I simplified my email to read (of course, I have no idea what the Japanese really says. I was simply going on blind faith that it said I wanted to book a double room for the night of 19 December):
Subject: 緊急: 2006年の12月19日予約
私は2006年12月19日に1夜の氏のためにXXX 1つの二人部屋を確保することを望む。 電子メールによって確認しなさい。
本当にありがとう、Winnie
The reply came back promptly:
Dear XXX
Thank you for your E-mail.
Your reservation is completion.
On 19,December 2006.
For 1 night,1double room 2people.
Room charge \21945(tax included)
Thank you
Sendai Kokusai Hotel
Reservation Desk
Finally! Success after a week of unanswered emails and long-distance phone calls (thankfully, there's Skype). So two useful lessons learnt:
1. A poorly-translated request in the recipient's language is appreciated and therefore worth the effort.
2. Be careful how the original text is phrased before translation. Keep ideas and sentance structure as simple as possible. Otherwise, meaning can get lost in translation if not totally warped.
posted by 10000miles at 16:46
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