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> スミスさんは日本語が出来ないから、日本へ行ったら誰か正しい通訳をしてくれる人が必要だろう
>

>> Book translation: since Mr. Smith doesn't speak Japanese, he will need
**someone in Japan** who can do accurate interpreting for him.

My translation:

> Because Mr. Smith doesn't speak Japanese, **when he goes to Japan** , he'll
> need somebody who can do accurate interpreting for him.

My parsing:

日本へ行ったら | tara clause

誰か正しい通訳をしてくれる人が必要だろう | main clause

The subject of the tara-clause must be Smith because 誰か is mentioned
afterwards.
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2021-12-16T17:29:58.103
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2021-12-17T19:38:48.857
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question
grammar
Why 'someone in Japan' and not 'when he goes to Japan'?
Your translation is of course correct. The issue here is the translation given
in the book you are reading appears to be done by non-native speakers of
English. For my money, the book's author(s) is/are likely (a) native Japanese
speaker(s).

What happens here is a misplaced locative adverbial phrase in the process of
translating that sentence. Conceivably, the author(s) meant to say it like
this, with the adverbial "in Japan" modifying Smith rather than someone:

> [he will need someone] (when he is) in Japan

So if we want to hew close to the original translation, we can phrase the
clause better:

> Since Mr. Smith doesn't speak Japanese, when in Japan he will need someone
> who can translate for him accurately.
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2021-12-16T18:05:24.413
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answer
As Eddie Kal says, your translation is correct and the one in the book may
have the adverbial phrase “in Japan” in a less-than-ideal position.

However, “when he goes to Japan” has its own weakness as it could also be
understood as meaning 日本へ行く時. The Japanese sentence, with たら, is saying Mr.
Smith will need an interpreter when he has completed the action of 日本へ行く, not
on his way. So, he is already in Japan when the event of the main clause
happens. A translation with “(when he is) in Japan” is unambiguous in this
respect.

I don’t know how to accurately translate 日本へ行ったら using the verb “to go.”
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2021-12-17T08:17:40.520
92628
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answer
It depends on the context. The reason is because 〜たら does not translate
directly to English; it sometimes takes the meaning "if" and sometimes takes
the meaning "when".

Without context, simply reading the sentence as stated, it is assumed that Mr.
Smith is not in Japan, nor is he planning to go to Japan. Given that Mr. Smith
is neither in Japan nor going to Japan, there is no context as to why Mr.
Smith needs a Japanese translator at all. Therefore, 〜たら would take the
meaning of "if", and the translation would be "Since Mr. Smith doesn't speak
Japanese, he will need someone to do accurate translation for him if he goes
to Japan", which is close to your translation.

Now, add to that the context that it is highly likely that Mr. Smith will
someday go to Japan for a business meeting. This changes the meaning of the
sentence. In this case, 〜たら takes the meaning of "when", since it is
determined that Mr. Smith is indeed likely going to Japan (although perhaps at
some indeterminate point in the future). In this case, since Mr. Smith will be
in Japan, and he will have a need to use Japanese while in Japan (in a
business meeting with a Japanese person), the translation changes to "Since
Mr. Smith doesn't speak Japanese, he will need someone in Japan to do accurate
translation for him (when he goes there for his business meeting)".

So, depending on context, both translations can be correct. Of course, in
examples from Japanese-learner textbooks, every non-Japanese person is always
planning imminent business trips to Japan, which is why they chose the latter
case to use, without context; the context is implied since it's a Japanese-
learner textbook (I say this tongue-in-cheek, but it's also pretty close to
true).
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answer