AnimeSuki Forum - View Single Post - How to Become a Good Fan Translator

Rika-chama · 2011-08-15, 05:51

Disclaimer: Dammit, Jim, I'm an editor, not a translator!

This is a very good guide, 8thSin.

I think when you use the term "liberal", most people recoil in horror because "HOW DARE YOU CHANGE MY GLORIOUS NIHONGO INTO SOMETHING THAT ISN'T DIRECTLY WHAT IT'S SAYING" (in other words, "HOW DARE YOU JAMA-SURU MY NAKAMA-TACHI"). People need to realise that being "liberal" with the translation doesn't mean "taking liberties to re-write the script", it means retaining meaning while being as accurate as possible with what's being said. CR does a decent job of this with a lot of shows, however the biggest complaint I have against CR is that they need decent editors (no, I'm not pining for a job, CR, but if you wanna hire me, enough of your TL'ers know me to know where I hide -_^ ). There are just too many silly mistakes made. Now granted, CR is streamed continuously, so they can (and have, on occasion) corrected mistakes that are really orz.

A good translation can be made horrible by one single typo. For instance: "Don't leave me alone with hime!" is totally different than "Don't leave me alone with him!". Especially in a show that has a princess or somebody named "Hime". Anyway, (and obviously I'm biased) you need to have at least 2 people to create a REALLY good script: a good translator and a good editor. And yes, editors need to talk to translators before drastically changing their lines b/c sometimes the way a line is translated causes us to interpret it in a way that the character is not meaning to.

And yeah, 8thSin, hopefully, like you, I'd like to think: "Edited by Ichigo69/Rika-chama" actually means something decent to those who watch our stuff. ^__^

2011-08-15, 05:51	Link #14
Rika-chama Furude Shrine Miko Fansubber Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Somewhere where Rena can take me Home!	Disclaimer: Dammit, Jim, I'm an editor, not a translator! This is a very good guide, 8thSin. I think when you use the term "liberal", most people recoil in horror because "HOW DARE YOU CHANGE MY GLORIOUS NIHONGO INTO SOMETHING THAT ISN'T DIRECTLY WHAT IT'S SAYING" (in other words, "HOW DARE YOU JAMA-SURU MY NAKAMA-TACHI"). People need to realise that being "liberal" with the translation doesn't mean "taking liberties to re-write the script", it means retaining meaning while being as accurate as possible with what's being said. CR does a decent job of this with a lot of shows, however the biggest complaint I have against CR is that they need decent editors (no, I'm not pining for a job, CR, but if you wanna hire me, enough of your TL'ers know me to know where I hide -_^ ). There are just too many silly mistakes made. Now granted, CR is streamed continuously, so they can (and have, on occasion) corrected mistakes that are really orz. A good translation can be made horrible by one single typo. For instance: "Don't leave me alone with hime!" is totally different than "Don't leave me alone with him!". Especially in a show that has a princess or somebody named "Hime". Anyway, (and obviously I'm biased) you need to have at least 2 people to create a REALLY good script: a good translator and a good editor. And yes, editors need to talk to translators before drastically changing their lines b/c sometimes the way a line is translated causes us to interpret it in a way that the character is not meaning to. And yeah, 8thSin, hopefully, like you, I'd like to think: "Edited by Ichigo69/Rika-chama" actually means something decent to those who watch our stuff. ^__^ __________________ Nope. Not a thing.