March 2017
Bōnenkai Year-End Party with Our Translators
At the end of 2016, we organized a bōnenkai - a Japanese-style year-end party that literally means "forgetting the year party" - with some of our translators. It was an opportunity to both express our feelings of gratitude and have a rare chance of meeting.
Most of our work-related exchanges with translators are made through e-mails or over the phone, which is why we really value opportunities of speaking face-to-face. It's always a great pleasure when they drop by the office while visiting Tokyo.
Still, in spite of the limited chances of meeting face-to-face, we strive to provide them with frequent feedback. This includes the opinions of customers and the checkers as well as our own.
In a way, we might be a bit of an "annoying" translation company.
Then we suddenly realized that, in the current situation and being so busy, we hadn't seen our translators in a long while. So we immediately decided to put together a bōnenkai year-end party.
As a matter of fact, the word "bōnenkai" brought a great response from many of our non-Japanese translators.
Naturally, they were attracted by this chance to mingle, but it also appears that the big draw for many of them was experiencing bōnenkai, this typical aspect of the Japanese culture. (Laughs)
Indeed, the Japanese word "bōnenkai" has an extremely beautiful ring to it. A beauty that I don't find in "year-end party."
When everybody introduced themselves, a translator said, "the things I like most are my family; my hobby, baseball; and Arc Communications." This was so heartwarming for all our present staff.
And this made me realize anew that we should always express the fondness and gratitude we have for our translators.
Finally, for the eleventh time since our foundation, Arc Communications has awarded the Translator of the Year award to our most active translators of the year. During the nomination process, we look back at all the translators we worked with over the course of the year. And remembering the difficult projects is a way to reassess the bond that connects us to our customers and, it goes without saying, to our translators.
I wish you all a splendid 2017!
Mariko Ohsato
President & CEO
CEO’s Message Index
