Where to find some work as a translator?

[bruno321]

Hi. One little question.

My native tongue is Spanish. I am an orthography, and more generally language whore. I perfectly understand English and I think I could consider I'm quite good at expressing myself in this language (although it wouldn't be what I think I would be doing, anyway). I speak and write French since I'm 3 years old. I've been studying Japanese for almost 2 years now.

How could I "advertise" myself? I don't have any experience on the fansub scene, although I did translate two graphic adventures (King's Quest II and Eye of the Kraken, the latter with a friend) from English to Spanish (and there is a lot of text on a point 'n click adventure).

I'm also good at dealing with techy stuff and I learn quickly. For example, I don't know if modifying the softsub of some anime is difficult, but I can't think of (in theory) any problems, so how could it be difficult for a one person's work?

Anyhow, it's just that I love to translate (to my mother tongue: the other way around, it is two times more difficult and I think I'd rather pass) whatever work I like that isn't available on my language.

Cheers.

[jfs]

Various suggestions:
1. Look over the Fansub Help Wanted Classifieds thread here.
2. Approach some other group you want to help with TL or TL check (TC) to join an existing project.
3. Suggest an existing group doing some series you want to translate and ask if you can join them on that and have the group supply the rest of the crew.
4. Build your own crew and start a new group.
5. Learn all the tools of the trade and do some one-man subbing.

[Access]

His #3 above is the best. Just watch some raw anime, find a series you want to do that isn't being done otherwise, and start 'pitching' it to groups you like. You'll be surprised how receptive groups can be when you offer your skills as a translator -- provided of course you can prove your skills.

This is the best for you in that you define the terms and what you work on. You'll be happiest this way, and if not, if you end up not liking the group or show or whatever, then it's just wash, rinse, and repeat, until you are where you want to be and happy. If you do quality work as a translator, groups will do their best to court you and keep you happy.

[bruno321]

Well, I got a couple of offers. It's not what I wanted to do on the first place. I tried to translate Japanese-->English but I really can't do it. I'm not good enough yet. I'll keep on studying hard So I got in at some group as a translation checker.

Anyway, I still want to do some English or French --> Spanish translation. So I've been messing a little with MKVToolnix and I managed to extract the subtitles out of an episode. Why should I modify it with Aegissub (which would be a pain to compile) when I can do it with some simple notepad? What are the advantages?

Also, how can I put the updated .ssa on the mkv? With mkvmerge I guess, but what would the verbose be? It's full of options :P

Thanks a lot.

[jfs]

I don't see why you'd want to compile Aegisub yourself, unless you're on Linux, BSD or Mac. For Windows, just grab a pre-built version.
The only reason to use a dedicated subtitle editor over a plain text editor is the convenience, but use whatever tool you find yourself comfortable with.

Technically you don't need to re-mux in the subtitles to use them, you can just use them as external softsubs. (Give the subtitle file the same base file name as the video file and VSFilter will pick them up.) Otherwise, just drop the original MKV file into mkvmerge GUI, optionally disable the existing subtitle streams and then drop your new subtitle files onto mkvmerge GUI. Then specify a new output filename and go. When you use an MKV as source for muxing another MKV, as much information as possible is retained during the muxing.

[bruno321]

Ah, I hadn't thought of the GUI Seems easy.

Oh, and yes, I'm on linux, so I'd have to compile it. I'm not in the mood for it :P

[[darkfire]]

If your on a debian based system there is a deb package for it.