I was assigned to review English translation hand-out of the permanent 
exhibition labels/captions and am interested to know how other museums are 
developing services for foreign visitors.

Since I am working for a museum in Japan, my institution's first attempt is 
to develop English translations of web pages, a general brochure, and 
exhibition labels.

It is possible to translate web, brochures, labels, audio guide scripts, 
videos, etc. into different languages. However literal translations may not 
be able to communicate meaning/concept to people with different cultural 
background.  Do you develop texts by additional/background information for 
visitors who are not familiar with your culture?  If so, who will be writing 
these texts (curators, educators) and how to decide what to include or omit 
(visitor evaluation?).

Also, how do other institutions design, train, and evaluate guided tours in 
other languages?  If inquiry methods are not common in one culture, does 
institution allow more didactic tour or try to incorporate inquires?  Do you 
hire multi-lingual person to evaluate these tours?

Any experiences/suggestions/thoughts will be helpful.  Thanks in advance.

Ayumu Ota
Shibusawa Memorial Museum
Tokyo, Japan
www.shibusawa.or.jp

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