"Eight Ways to Say You: The Challenges of Translation," by Cathy Hirano.

 Hirano raises many points in the difficulty of translating Japanese to English. For one, the grammar structure between the languages are not the same. In English, you would use follow a sentence structure like subject -> verb -> object, where as Japanese you would follow subject -> object -> verb. If you decide to translate a text literally from Japanese to English, you would end up with a sentence that just read awkwardly or maybe you were trying to write in a way that just wants to confuse a reader (which if that is what you are going for, by all means). When sentences are short, you can just easily switch around the verb and object without much problem, but when the sentences get longer, you will have to get crafty with how you place things together. From what Hirano said "When the sentences are embellished with extra clauses, this is rather like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle" which is would be a pretty good description. Another point I really liked was how writing styles are differ. Hirano says that English is supposed to flow in a linear fashion, while Japanese appears circular. I think this is more of a cultural difference, because stereotypically Japanese culture don't really do confrontation and stereotypically American culture is a lot more straightforward and blunt. I believe this is more of a generalization rather a complete fact. Readings like "Korokke" was pretty straightforward in what it wanted to present, but there are readings in English that go in the opposite direction. Hirano also talks about cultural differences like translations that don't have a concrete equivalent in English. For this example, she talks about juku and how it is easily understood by someone in Japan but not easily understood by someone outside of Japan. She talks about her strategy where she inserts key information woven naturally into the text. I feel like this is a really smart decision although it might create awkwardness if done incorrectly. This is a better decision compared to just finding a place to stop the story and just insert a whole section just to explain which would break the flow of the story. On another note, the title says eight ways to say you but we only got to see one way. 

Brian