One topic that resonated with me is how as a translator, you often run into many untranslatable elements and no translation is perfect. Often times, it's easy for me to look down on my translations especially for the more complex ones, but I have to remember that Japanese and English as so far from each other typologically that there's no way a translation could be perfect. Translation in this case is about getting the point across in a way that sounds good in English (or any other language). Another point about changing details that are less loyal to the original appeals to me more than it did in the past. As I've been going through assignments, I've been happier with myself when I translate in a way that favors style over loyalty and in the past I felt the exact opposite.
One thing I never thought about that I found interesting was choosing something to translate that falls within your style. This had me thinking about what my own style as a writer is and what I prefer to translate. So far, my favorite pieces to translate were the more casual stories and magazine articles.
-Ariel
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