Welcome to the East Asia Translators Forum, your source for day-to-day insights, tools, and workflows for professionals in English-to-CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) translation.
This journal is a light content platform focused on concise, relevant articles. We build a knowledge base from curated research on the translation and localization industries in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. Then, we use that knowledge to explore topics and draft articles. Our goal is to provide consistent, thoughtful posts without any clickbait or calls to action.
We are thrilled to welcome Vivian Zito as our new editor. Vivian is an archivist and historian with a Master of Archives and Records Management from University College London. She grew up immersed in London’s underground music scenes, including punk, dub, and post-punk, where she began collecting and cataloging artifacts like gig flyers and zines. This early, “accidental curation” evolved into her professional archival practice, which focuses on preserving the atmosphere and sensory details of music scenes through tangible ephemera. Her experience includes time in Boston’s underground rock scene, bringing a transatlantic perspective to her work. Vivian’s unique background as both an insider in subcultural communities and a formally trained archivist allows her to transform ephemeral cultural memory into enduring narratives, balancing passionate care with rigorous preservation standards.
We aim to reflect the experiences and perspectives of freelance translators and industry contributors, offering a look at the real-world challenges and strategies that go beyond agency brochures. From navigating late payments and machine translation post-editing (MTPE) pressures to understanding agency dynamics and the value of specialization, we cover the topics that matter most to professionals on the ground.
Please note that the content on this site is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute professional, legal, or financial advice. The information shared here is based on the reported experiences of translators and does not represent a guarantee or a professional recommendation.
At our core, we follow a simple guiding principle: “No fuss. No kodawari. All tekitou.”