Sometimes I'll come across a good catchy song in Japanese but when I use google translate to translate the lyrics one line at a time, it's much different then the translated lyrics you can find online.

What's a reliable accurate way to get a good translation?

learningkanji Wrote:Sometimes I'll come across a good catchy song in Japanese but when I use google translate to translate the lyrics one line at a time, it's much different then the translated lyrics you can find online.

What's a reliable accurate way to get a good translation?

What is the song? I may try to find the english version. If other language I am not able to.

Stay away from machine/computer translators. They don't work.

tripleaxe Wrote:

learningkanji Wrote:Sometimes I'll come across a good catchy song in Japanese but when I use google translate to translate the lyrics one line at a time, it's much different then the translated lyrics you can find online.

What's a reliable accurate way to get a good translation?

What is the song? I may try to find the english version. If other language I am not able to.

http://beautifulsonglyrics.blogspot.com/...if4wn9qMyA

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Honestly.... there is no good way to get a reliable translation of Japanese song lyrics. English versions of Japanese songs take tremendous liberties and are in the end just a song to the same tune on the same theme, but are not really a close translation... in many cases, 'translation' isn't even an appropriate term, more 'rewrite'.
Fan translations are terribly unreliable, and machine translations are hopeless.

Your best chance of a good translation is when your song is chosen to be the opening or closing theme of a subtitled anime that also subtitles the theme songs, but even then, it's going to be quite a liberal translation.

The only way to really know what a Japanese song is saying is to know enough Japanese to understand it, and unfortunately, that's quite a lot of Japanese as song lyrics are just about the most idiomatic and difficult to comprehend language there is in the world.

Also ... 'one line at a time' isn't how song lyrics work. Sentences take up multiple lines and sometimes end and begin in the middle of a line. Even if web translators were any good, feeding them snippets and fractions of sentences of course won't result in the right translation.

howtwosavealif3 Wrote:http://beautifulsonglyrics.blogspot.com/...if4wn9qMyA

there

Good job!

tripleaxe Wrote:

howtwosavealif3 Wrote:http://beautifulsonglyrics.blogspot.com/...if4wn9qMyA

there

Good job!

I've been translating many songs for awhile now, but when I do I use at least 2-3 resources to check, however their all fan subbed. I shouldn't take it so seriously, I do it because its a fun way to get some extra vocabulary. Also good to reinforce some of the grammar I already know, the songs I listen to is very poetic ;p

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learningkanji Wrote:Sometimes I'll come across a good catchy song in Japanese but when I use google translate to translate the lyrics one line at a time, it's much different then the translated lyrics you can find online.

What's a reliable accurate way to get a good translation?

Stay away from google translate, it's rather awful for Japanese! If you can't find a non-machine translated copy of the lyrics, then I would suggest using Rikaisama and try to read the lyrics.

yudantaiteki Wrote:Stay away from machine/computer translators. They don't work.

Adding more support for this statement: computers don't understand poetry.

I kept reading that songs might be a good way to have words stick in your head since it's catchy and wanted to add sentences to anki to give it a try. I'll probably pass on it now though since it's too advanced.

learningkanji Wrote:I kept reading that songs might be a good way to have words stick in your head since it's catchy and wanted to add sentences to anki to give it a try. I'll probably pass on it now though since it's too advanced.

I think your initial impulse was correct: songs are an excellent way to get words to stick in your head. I wouldn't be so quick to give up on it.

I find it useful to refer to a translation from one of the lyrics sites to get a general idea of what's happening in the song. Then I go through phrase by phrase and translate as much as I can. That alone is a valuable exercise. Sometimes I can do 100%, and sometimes there are pieces of the song that I can't puzzle out. Either way, I don't worry about it. There are certainly songs in English I can't understand 100% either.

But the really cool thing is that you're gaining familiarity with the sounds of the language, and the songs give you a way to keep the words in your head, even if you don't know what they mean. The unknown words are just place-holders. Then one day you'll encounter the same word or phrase elsewhere, understand it, and Pow, everything will just click and the song will make sense. It's kind of magical, actually.

I'd encourage you to keep going with learning through songs.

PS. I wouldn't Anki phrases from songs. That seems like taking something fun that provides natural repetition and making it into a chore. Instead, just listen to the song a couple of times every day.

learningkanji Wrote:I kept reading that songs might be a good way to have words stick in your head since it's catchy and wanted to add sentences to anki to give it a try. I'll probably pass on it now though since it's too advanced.

Songs are great for getting vocabulary to stick, and for having as part of your audio immersion (since if you like the song you probably -want- to hear it many times.)

Not so great for learning grammar or practicing beginning translation, and of course pronunciation is vastly different from normal speech.

Usually I just read songs through once looking up each word I don't know, maybe adding a few words that catch my interest to Anki (using example sentences from the dictionary, not taking the song lyric.) Songs that I really -really- like, I learn to sing word for word.

I don't try to understand. ("Do. Or do not. There is no try." -- Yoda) It's great if I can, and if not, it comes later. But there's simply too many ways a song lyric can be strange and difficult to be worth actually 'translating' as a learning experience.

(Translating because you're already at an advanced level, deeply in love with grappling with the depths of meaning in lyrics, and have desire to share those lyrics with other students of Japanese, well, that's another story.)

I rarely analyze English language songs either, although sometimes I find I'm singing along with some hit song only to suddenly stop and think 'I know every word but... what the heck does that -mean- anyway?'

SomeCallMeChris Wrote:I rarely analyze English language songs either, although sometimes I find I'm singing along with some hit song only to suddenly stop and think 'I know every word but... what the heck does that -mean- anyway?'

I think this is probably the most important point in the whole thread.

Just look at songs in your own language and you'll find a lot of them are just a jumble of words that fit nicely together and invoke a certain feeling.

As others have said, self-translating songs is good for extra vocab, but is pretty lousy for much else unless you're already at an advanced level.

Woodgar Wrote:

SomeCallMeChris Wrote:I rarely analyze English language songs either, although sometimes I find I'm singing along with some hit song only to suddenly stop and think 'I know every word but... what the heck does that -mean- anyway?'

I think this is probably the most important point in the whole thread.

Just look at songs in your own language and you'll find a lot of them are just a jumble of words that fit nicely together and invoke a certain feeling.

As others have said, self-translating songs is good for extra vocab, but is pretty lousy for much else unless you're already at an advanced level.

I wouldn't just disregard translating lyrics entirely. It's a good way to reinforce the grammar you already know. Besides, translating these songs make you think more critically also. I'm by no means an advanced learner, but by translating lyrics I believe my skill in the Japanese language as a whole (reading, speaking, listening) has increased.