This is how ALL instructions were for a Japanese-made products in the 1960s. They got someone there in Japan who claimed he could speak English to translate the instructions and/or manual. Stereo equipment would have a 20-word long sentence with no verb.
Later on, someone must've had the bright idea to have someone whose native language was American English to translate, or at least check the translation.
lol. Translations tended to be pretty bad, to this day getting translations of technical material can be extremely difficult.
It went both ways though, the American translations to or from Japanese or other languages could and still often can be pretty bad too.
What happens a lot is that the manual isn’t really even translated anymore. Much if the time they just end up having a localization team with engineers or perhaps writers etc. with the domestic branch of a company create local instructions in country and if anything they may reference the original manual or documentation to do so.
Nintendo products are one example that well into the 2000’s the Japanese/non US manuals could be quite hilarious and included pictures that were often incomprehensible as to what they were conveying without context of words, and often just absurdly funny. The US manuals for the same products were totally different with the pictures changed or gone completely and many warnings removed or added..
.. compared to the original. You don’t see this sort of language issue as much anymore with Japanese products intended for sale in the US or foreign countries, but you see it from time to time in translations from various countries or products.
Nowadays it’s usually because a smaller company or a company not particularly concerned with that aspect of their product has basically copy pasted something into a translated which gives very direct word for word translations. In the early days, a person may have went word by word using a translation dictionary to accomplish much the same thing.
It’s also worth noting that while Japan does tend to teach English in schools, most of the time the quality and proficiency goals aren’t really even to a conversational level and often structure is emphasized over vocabulary. Not so different than the way many American schools offer foreign language classes which most attendees leave with little or no ability immediately or within a few years of…
.. leaving the class and not using what they learned or building on it. Much of the time the teachers are not themselves fluent in the language either and so there is often not much of an immersion component and more just memorization.
Later on, someone must've had the bright idea to have someone whose native language was American English to translate, or at least check the translation.
It went both ways though, the American translations to or from Japanese or other languages could and still often can be pretty bad too.
What happens a lot is that the manual isn’t really even translated anymore. Much if the time they just end up having a localization team with engineers or perhaps writers etc. with the domestic branch of a company create local instructions in country and if anything they may reference the original manual or documentation to do so.
Nintendo products are one example that well into the 2000’s the Japanese/non US manuals could be quite hilarious and included pictures that were often incomprehensible as to what they were conveying without context of words, and often just absurdly funny. The US manuals for the same products were totally different with the pictures changed or gone completely and many warnings removed or added..
Nowadays it’s usually because a smaller company or a company not particularly concerned with that aspect of their product has basically copy pasted something into a translated which gives very direct word for word translations. In the early days, a person may have went word by word using a translation dictionary to accomplish much the same thing.
It’s also worth noting that while Japan does tend to teach English in schools, most of the time the quality and proficiency goals aren’t really even to a conversational level and often structure is emphasized over vocabulary. Not so different than the way many American schools offer foreign language classes which most attendees leave with little or no ability immediately or within a few years of…