I was talking to a friend the other day who happens to be a skilled photoshop editor - although he doesn't work on H. I told him about how scanlations work, and he brought up an interesting question: What's harder to find - good translators or good editors?
I was further reminded about this question when I read a post in the TV blog discussing a problem regarding editors. I also looked at my own situation and wondered if it could be possible to find a buddy translator for gTeam, but Tech told me that "fluent Japanese-to-English translators are hunted to extinction".
Now, I don't want people turning this into a ninja versus pirates thing between editors and translators... I'm just REALLY curious to know what the demographics of the whole scene is like. I can't generalize the scanlating scene as a whole, either, because I know H-scanlators aren't as commonplace as non-H ones.
So that said, I'd like to hear your opinions. Feel free to click your vote up on the poll placed on the gadget bar to the right of the blog. :)
On my side I we find it hard to find people who can read and translate moonrunes :0
ReplyDeleteI can still remember all the blaming and chaos back where I was working with.
I think Little White Butterflies has an excess of projects and not enough editors. Lol.
ReplyDeleteTranslators, hands down. It's relatively easy to Clean and Typeset most doujins (what Editors do), but knowing Japanese is a rare skill.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, some doujins are firggin' hard to Edit (NiseMIDI comes to mind).
And even with knowing Japanese, it's even more rare to have a translator who does things a certain way that you like (localizing to a degree, not being overly literal or boring, word choice, etc.)
ReplyDeleteI think it's a looking for a needle in a haystack deal for both.
ReplyDeleteTrue, it may be easier to find someone that tells himself he'll tinker a bit with photoshop and then be a pro at it, but it's a fallacy to think just because something's easier to learn, it's also easier to be good at it.
And I agree with Blu, knowing Japanese is no guarantee you're also a good translator. Though you can usually learn how to make your shit better, but it requires an open mind.
Hmm... I would think that some people can get away with "questionable" translations, because even if it's literal, some people will argue that "a translation is a translation", followed by "it's just porn" and "who cares anyone, it's fappable" *runs and hides from Nash*
ReplyDeleteBut my point is that I've seen quite a number of translations that are... well... meh... so I figured translators are there... just not good ones.
As for editors, it's more of an internal issue. Because with a translator, if the editor doesn't understand Japanese, he/she will just look at the script and say, "oh? That sounds a bit weird, but wth." But if an editor does something weird, it's pretty blatant, and anyone with a good eye can shoot them down.
So in a way, translators have it easy if they even know just a lick of Japanese - because who are others to criticize them other than fellow skilled translators (which are few, as is being brought up)? Editors - really GOOD editors that is - are therefore kinda hard to find if the standards can be easily scrutinized by anyone under the sun.
At least that's what I've been thinking. :P
>>So in a way, translators have it easy if they even know just a lick of Japanese - because who are others to criticize them other than fellow skilled translators?
ReplyDeleteThe real question is, does it actually happen?
Besides some in-jokes and trash talking, nobody ever really speaks up. The only people that ever graced us with their questionable opinion were weeaboos that demanded we translate shit more literally. Which pisses me off.
Some random schmucks talking shit aside, I have never seen anyone say ANYTHING about translation quality. Or about quality of cleaning and typesetting, though I've seen some people talk highly about Nemesis, which he fully deserves.
I guess the problem comes down to the problem of what is and what's not a "good" translation. It's a highly subjective matter, but fuck me if people have ever pointed out any glaring fuck-ups like they regularly happen for a special translator guy that shall remain anonymous. The derps only come out if your links are broken and shit, then suddenly any random guy and their mothers are willing to point out that shit is broken.
By the way, I find that poll to be fallacious - how do you expect your average Joe to know what is harder to find if they presumably don't know Jack?
ReplyDelete@nashrakh
ReplyDeleteTrue... I kinda thought about that myself whether the result would reflect well - but I was hoping it would reflect a subjective understanding of what's going on, based on personal observation.
But yeah... It is kinda weird when you think about it.
Quality-wise...
ReplyDeleteTranslators would be hardest. Not everyone learns Japanese AND is willing to translate for others.
Good editors would not be as hard to find as it doesn't 'require' cleaning.
"What's harder to find - good translators or good editors?"
ReplyDeleteReliable editors are harder to find than good editors.
Good translators are probably harder to find for some, but I think it's mostly project co-ordinators' fault.
I rarely admit I'm British Japanese on English-language manga boards because scanlation groups have an annoying tendency to pester me to volunteer. I stumbled to their pleas twice. It was shite each time.
There are some that just don't exist in English. I'm not always good with making it work. When I talk to my mom, it's English all the way. When to my dad, it's Japanese all the way. I can't alternate that easily.
Project co-ordinators got impatient when I was stuck with a phrase that I didn't know how to make it work in English. Their reactions were so off-putting that I hide my bilingual background. I think I'm not the only one who feels this way.
From what I can see, there are more bad translators than good ones, but I don't think readers care. Not as long as chapters are delivered regularly and on time.
"The only people that ever graced us with their questionable opinion were weeaboos that demanded we translate shit more literally. Which pisses me off."
I have had people insisting I should "retain" popular Romaji terms (like bentou, baka and sensei) to make it "authentic". Read it in Japanese if you want authenticity that bad, idiots.