English-Japanese / Japanese-English Dictionary of Computer and Data-Processing Terms

Winner, 1989, category of Computer Science, Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc. With 10,000 entries, this dictionary is the most complete of its kind. It is a major contribution to more accurate sharing of scientific and technological information. The dictionary is unique in providing a romanized transcription for each of the 10,000 Japanese terms. It promotes clear oral communication, whether one is using purely Japanese words or terms that have been borrowed from English but are pronounced somewhat differently by the Japanese. Professional translators of Japanese, English-speaking engineers and computer and dataprocessing professionals dealing with Japanese products or companies, marketing executives, and journalists are among those who will find this dictionary indispensable for such uses as translating an instruction manual, composing a telex message, ordering materials and parts, looking up a word during a face to face conversation, or interviewing executives in a technical field. The Japanese English section lists the romanized Japanese words (Romaji) according to the Roman rather than the Japanese alphabet, thus simplifying reference by Western speakers of Japanese as well as by native speakers of Japanese who are familiar with both Roman script and alphabetical order. The dictionary also aids Western recognition and reproduction of katakana characters (Japanese characters used to represent the sounds of borrowed foreign words) by providing the exact romanized transcriptions of words borrowed from English and expressed in katakana form instead of keeping such words in their original forms. The word "computer" for instance, may be translated indigenously as "keisanki," but the borrowed English "konpyuta" is also widely used. The dictionary gives the romanizations of both, to facilitate verbal communication; it also gives, for readers of Japanese, the ideogrammic representations of both words.

Gene Ferber majored in Japanese language and culture at London University and has served a number of clients including AT&T the Japan Travel Bureau, and Toshiba International as a translator and an interpreter.