Is anyone here interested in forming a manga study/translation group as a means to improve our Japanese language skills? The way I envision it is that the group would choose a currently running manga, and then as each new chapter is released we'd carefully go through the text and discuss anything we didn't understand. Members can also submit complete translations for critique.

My personal choice of manga would be 名探偵コナン (Detective Conan)--it contains a lot of useful, everyday language and all the kanji have furigana. In addition, the story is broken up into small "cases" whose plots are mostly self contained, making it easy for anyone unfamiliar with the overall plot to jump right in and generally understand what's going on. And since it's not as popular a manga as Naruto or Bleach, it normally takes some time before a scanlation group comes out with their own translation (usually a week or more), forcing us to rely on our translating skills in the meantime. New chapters are normally available for download every week at mangahelpers.

Thoughts?

I like the idea. (I had a similar idea, at least as far as the method goes, but it takes me ages to get anything off the ground.)

I haven't read Detective Conan, but if it's not a continued story than that shouldn't be a problem, as you said.

Although I am reminded of the 'book group' idea that was on this forum awhile ago. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it doesn't seem to be going now.

Yeah, well I'm hoping that by choosing a currently running serial manga that we could inject a bit more 'fun' into the learning process. (Not that Akutagawa can't be a barrel full of monkeys at times, lol.) In fact, Japanese classes everywhere are filled with aspiring manga translators, while there probably aren't more than a handful who became inspired to learn Japanese after reading Rashomon in translation.

This is a great idea with a lot of potential but I think there's one main thing that would hold some people back (probably mainly the AJATT followers): it would give them too much extra English in their Japanese schedule. But for people not concerned with that, I think this is a fantastic idea. Count me in

Count me in. I read a couple of Conan issues when I was studying for the 2kyuu and just needed a break from the grammar books. I really enjoyed them and a few of the words I picked up from Conan actually appeared on the 2kyuu!

Is Conan about to start a new arc/case?

While I'm on questions (which probably don't have answers right now, just something to think about, I guess):

- Would we move to a different series after an arc of Conan?

- If so, just limited to new stuff? Older stuff is more likely to have translations, but would that be much of a problem, at least as far as understanding the original text goes?

- On the subject of translations, I assume that'll be optional if people don't want English in their Japanese studies? And since the main focus is Japanese study, I suppose it will not matter if they're not natural/fluent English? (Does that make sense? I mean the goal isn't to make a quality translation, but to show you've understood it?)

That sounds interesting. It'd be nice to be able to discuss things we couldn't understand and learn that way.

I used to read Conan (french translation) but it's been many years since I last read some. I'm a bit surprised it's still going on, there were so many volumes already.

I don't like the idea of reading it from scans so much, but I guess there would be no other way except for the lucky ones in Japan.

albion Wrote:Is Conan about to start a new arc/case?

Yes. It just finished up a case and a new one should be starting next week.

Quote:- Would we move to a different series after an arc of Conan?

No, we would try to stick to Conan (or whatever manga is chosen) for an extended period of time, the reason being that it would be too hard to get a group consensus for what to study next.

Quote:- If so, just limited to new stuff? Older stuff is more likely to have translations, but would that be much of a problem, at least as far as understanding the original text goes?

Older material, along with their translations, is better used for self study, IMO. If one gets really stuck on a particular passage then it can be brought up in the group. Otherwise I think it's better to use new material as it is released--it helps keep the group moving along at a steady pace and makes the decision of what to study next become automatic.

Quote:- On the subject of translations, I assume that'll be optional if people don't want English in their Japanese studies? And since the main focus is Japanese study, I suppose it will not matter if they're not natural/fluent English? (Does that make sense? I mean the goal isn't to make a quality translation, but to show you've understood it?)

Yes, the point is comprehension, not translation per se. However, in my experience, my comprehension of material is often greatly enhanced by writing out detailed translations.

I used to read Conan in English. But now that you are speaking I remember there were many cases that he solved Kanji riddles. Eh, I gotta read this manga.

I love kanji riddles. The dorama Puzzle (2008) has lots of them. It's a rather silly dorama but the riddles were fun.

I would totally be in for this. Whenever I try to read something I always end up with TONS of questions, and I feel bad if I have to ask every little question on a forum somewhere :p
With other people reading along that I can ask questions to, it would be just what I need.

Kanji riddles! I'm for Conan for sure!

I'm not that much of a Conan fan, but I guess I'll go along if that's what everyone likes. The idea is good, but now that we have some people we need to organize this somehow. It would be better if we had our own forum(not this one). Also we would need a way to get the manga to everyone(I'm assuming not everyone lives in japan). And then after that, we just need a somewhat standard format. We don't need a standard format, but it's better than having one person insert English onto the manga page, another writing it in the form of a play, the next person doing a narration of the events, ect. Anyway let's get that sorted out and get to work.

I'd be very interested in following along.

I think it might be pretty cool, to cut out pictures. So anki might ask you a pic and the answer would be a translation/comment/definition.
I can not participate due to other obligations, but I will watch and see what comes of it.

I'm interested, I was just thinking what manga I should read in addition to Death Note. I can't stand school or fighting manga so that rules out a lot. This sounds interesting- let me know when the next issue comes out and I'll head to the local bookstore and pick it up. Perhaps I'll check out some older issues at the used book store on the way home too.

I really want to read 20th Century Boys but it doesn't have Furigana

I'm interested too. I agree with Chandler though, a forum for this project would be best. It would keep it organized, especially if we expand into following more than one manga.

So how are we gonna do it? I'm thinking: one person does a cursory translation and then other people fill in the blanks. Meanwhile people ask questions about the parts they personally couldn't understand.

Not sure if it's the best idea, but maybe going to http://www.mangahelpers.com and setting up a project there can be best.

Link or update useful finding here that can relate to kanji or Japanese studies.

I don't think our goal is to become a scanlating team which is what the projects there seem to be. We're a 漫画研究会

We may not be trying to be a scanlating team but I think we still could benefit from being a part of the MangaHelpers community and its pool of experienced translators. They have an "Academy" section where beginner translators can submit their efforts for critique. What we could do is create a new thread each week and specially label it to indicate that the translation is a collaborative effort of the manga study group. For instance, for the next issue of Conan (chapter 690), we'd start a new thread and call it, "MSG Detective Conan 690."

I like the idea of somebody creating a general outline of the chapter and then others fleshing it out as needed. Translating can be very time consuming, particular with a dialog intensive manga like Conan, and this would really help spread the work around.

By the way, this week's chapter, which is indeed the beginning of a new case, is available on the aforementioned website. I'll read that later today.

Codexus Wrote:We're a 漫画研究会

Reminded me of げんしけん.
The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture 現代視覚文化研究会.

I remember now I made an account at Mangahelpers ages ago now but never used it.

Should we work out a stardardised introduction to put on the start of each post, to let people know what the goal behind it is?

Anyway, I had a go typing up the first page. How is this for the layout of the transcripts? I only included furigana for stuff that seemed to need it (names, uncommon readings, basically stuff you couldn't find from looking it up in a dictionary).

#Caption
新シリーズ！！　帝丹小（ていたんしょう）へやって来た白鳥（しらとり）警部のお目当ては、もちろん…

#1
え？　盗難事件？

#2
もしかして、今日もニュースでやってたあれですか？

#3
ええ…　戸締りには気をつけてください…

#4
この界隈の宝石店や古美術店（アンティークショップ）を荒らし回っている窃盗犯で、今月に入ってもう5件目ですので…

#5
でも、ここは小学校、盗られる（とられる）物なんて…

#6
いやいや、用心に越した事はありません！

#7
何かあればすぐに僕に連絡を！

#8
飛んでいますから！

#9
あ、はい！

i'd like to participate, but my japanese and kanji understanding are still very basic.. everyone else is probably pretty distant I assume.

Good work, Albion. As for format we can just use the MH standard. Each bubble is given its own line started by the speaker's name. Each frame is separated by a space.

EXAMPLE:

Pg 01
Ichigo: This is the first bubble.
This is the second bubble.
Rukia: This is the third bubble.

- This is a different panel spoken by a character with no name. And I have a lot to say in this bubble so it just goes on and on and on. But, it's still in the same bubble.

SFX: WHAAAAAAAM!!!
Ichigo: What the hell was that!?

Text in Box: Two hours later...

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So would we just have somebody (or maybe a few people) type out the entire transcript, and then slowly fill in the translation over time?

cerulean, even if you can't translate, just follow along and learn.