This article might be of interest to some people in the forum...

http://kotaku.com/5493934/how-to-break-i...n-business

面白かったです。ポストしてありがとうございます〜
翻訳は大変そうですね。（n＿n’「）

interesting. Maybe i can do this but first, fluency is needed......
yes alot of reading, that's what i want to do, get a lot of books and read them all day/subtitles for drama's,etc. Plus transcribing them/understand them will help a lot with these types of skills.
Hmmm i was thinking of other careers that i may be interested to do . My studies right now involve chemistry/biology which i'm not enjoying at the moment. Sure chemistry labs will get my alot of jobs. But unno, maybe i can fine something to do with japanese. Aside from teaching english in japan. But i guess i have to master this langauge before i even try to do anything else.

Floatingweed5 Wrote:This article might be of interest to some people in the forum...

http://kotaku.com/5493934/how-to-break-i...n-business

I've never felt the need to translate things for profit, but I've considered it for fun before. It doesn't surprise me that it's hard to break into, though.

Once I get the hang of them, I'll be reading books all day. Video game translation seems like a job I would hate, though. Or any kind of translation.

I've translated some short passages of text for friends and what not, but it's really not easy. Like they suggest in the article, writing natural English is the most important thing, but where do you draw the line? Natural English could mean lots of rephrasing, reshuffling of sentences, or the addition and deletion of words/phrases or even whole sentences. How do you change a text that much while still keeping the meaning that the original writer intended? If you're translating a talented writer's work, then you need to be able to match his expressiveness and eloquence in English, too. It's definitely a skill that goes way beyond being fluent in a second language.

The occasional bit of freelance would be interesting if it was possible to add onto a day job. Especially since it sounds like you can do it from home via e-mail. I can barely read a newspaper at the minute though...

I haven't read the article, but one thing to do to if you want to break into game translating (full time) is: prepare to live a life of poverty.

It pays nothing because there are plenty of people who will do it for peanuts just because they love games. I saw a job ad for one such position the other week that paid 1000Y/hr. For freelance work expect a below industry average rate-per-word/character.

Jarvik7 Wrote:I haven't read the article, but one thing to do to if you want to break into game translating (full time) is: prepare to live a life of poverty.

It pays nothing because there are plenty of people who will do it for peanuts just because they love games. I saw a job at for one such position the other week that paid 1000Y/hr. For freelance work expect a below industry average rate-per-word/character.

I think it depends where you work and what your job is.

If you work in the US, you get more money!

When I worked in game testing for localization (a fun job for me, but just a holdover until I could put my college degree to use), we had a couple of guys whose jobs were to translate bugs and instructions from us to them and vice versa. They also looked over the original Japanese script to make sure our suggested corrections were correct. We were paid $10/hr as contract workers, while they were full-time and presumably had benefits and better salaries. =)

I've been hearing that game programmers in Japan get paid like crap, but over here they're rolling in dough. How confusing...

Slightly OT, but... I can't help wondering why Japanese versions of game are more expensive than the English versions, especially if the programmers are paid less... When it comes to manga, the English versions cost a little more, assumably for the extra work put in(or because they can).

edit: typo :p

All forms of digital media in Japan are expensive.

[ファブリス]

kainzero Wrote:I've been hearing that game programmers in Japan get paid like crap, but over here they're rolling in dough. How confusing...

I worked 2 years in a game studio in UK. As for salary it can be anything really, you may earn a decent salary like a regular IT employee if you work for the big companies. With demonstrable experience (industry or personal projects), you could earn a comfortable salary. But if you are lucky, and you work for a smaller studio where they have more control on the contracts and the game is succesfull, you may earn royalties and literally double or triple an already comfortable salary. Royalties aren't paid until the game is released though, and you'll have to work saturdays and sometimes sundays through the infamous "crunch period". I don't want to think of what a "crunch time" may be like in Japan

yukamina Wrote:Slightly OT, but... I can help wondering why Japanese versions of game are more expensive than the English versions, especially if the programmers are paid less...

I assume since less Japanese copies are being sold than English copies. There's a much wider audience being tapped into with the English versions.

RisuMiso Wrote:All forms of digital media in Japan are expensive.

Yes. My theory is that because for all these things (CDs, DVDs, games) the actual per-unit reproduction cost is so low, the main thing setting price points is "what the consumer can be persuaded is the 'normal' cost". That's specific to individual markets (because most people don't go around comparing album costs in France and Mexico, for instance); by accident of history the norms got set rather higher in Japan than most other places. (Armchair rather than academic theory, so could be complete rubbish.)

i hear translators in the UN get paid well. But that requires mastery of the language in all 4 skills and translating degree before even trying to get in.

pm215 Wrote:Yes. My theory is that because for all these things (CDs, DVDs, games) the actual per-unit reproduction cost is so low, the main thing setting price points is "what the consumer can be persuaded is the 'normal' cost". That's specific to individual markets (because most people don't go around comparing album costs in France and Mexico, for instance); by accident of history the norms got set rather higher in Japan than most other places. (Armchair rather than academic theory, so could be complete rubbish.)

Sounds like a good theory to me. All I know is that I'm glad I still have a Canadian itunes account.

pm215 Wrote:

RisuMiso Wrote:All forms of digital media in Japan are expensive.

Yes. My theory is that because for all these things (CDs, DVDs, games) the actual per-unit reproduction cost is so low, the main thing setting price points is "what the consumer can be persuaded is the 'normal' cost". That's specific to individual markets (because most people don't go around comparing album costs in France and Mexico, for instance); by accident of history the norms got set rather higher in Japan than most other places. (Armchair rather than academic theory, so could be complete rubbish.)

I've debated this with my friend over and over, because it baffles us both. He's got a thing for business and finds it unbelievable that if there aren't actual extra costs involved, how the Japanese tolerate those prices. Free market ideology would suggest that prices on goods will eventually be pushed to their bare minimum for profit. I think the Japanese are probably accepting it as "normal cost" as you say, but based on how I see Japanese business's work, I highly doubt the high cost on stuff is due to greedy corps trying to pocket a ton of money. I never hear of game, movie, anime, etc. companies cutting huge profits on the stuff they produce. So what I suspect is there's just a ton of waste going on in these businesses. The kind of situation where you could consolidate a task that currently uses 4 people into something 1 person could do. As a result you have to pay 4 people, which causes production and selling costs to rise. Being Japan, I think most businesses would much rather take a higher cost then cut their staff down. Consumers might know this and accept it as matter of course, once again, because its Japan we're talking about. Of course you also have some consumer markets which take the high price as a sort of elitist feature as well I think (*cough*Otaku*cough*).

vix86All forms of digital media in Japan are expensive.[/quote Wrote:Free market ideology would suggest that prices on goods will eventually be pushed to their bare minimum for profit.

That's only true in a sector where competing products are mostly equivalent and the price is the main factor behind a consumer's decision to purchase. That's not the case in the entertainment sector.

For example, if I want to buy my favorite anime on DVD, it doesn't matter that there is an "equivalent" product at 10% of the price. They are not the same and I'll still buy the one I wanted.

Basically, there is a point where lowering the price further will not result in an increase of sales large enough to compensate the loss of profit per unit. That point is the ideal price that brings the largest profits and can vary in different markets depending on many factors.

For example, it's possible there is simply less demand. Japanese people are notorious for spending a lot of time at work, I'd be surprised if that didn't have a negative impact on demand for things like DVD and video games.

Codexus Wrote:That's only true in a sector where competing products are mostly equivalent and the price is the main factor behind a consumer's decision to purchase. That's not the case in the entertainment sector.

For example, if I want to buy my favorite anime on DVD, it doesn't matter that there is an "equivalent" product at 10% of the price. They are not the same and I'll still buy the one I wanted.

Basically, there is a point where lowering the price further will not result in an increase of sales large enough to compensate the loss of profit per unit. That point is the ideal price that brings the largest profits and can vary in different markets depending on many factors.

For example, it's possible there is simply less demand. Japanese people are notorious for spending a lot of time at work, I'd be surprised if that didn't have a negative impact on demand for things like DVD and video games.

Ah I see, I guess in that case it gives much support for the region locking in DVD, Bluray, and video games. Because in that case you sometimes do have basically the same product (ie: US Anime has JP Dubs) at a better price. Without the region locking a distributor would basically be competing with the same product, just from a different region.

But one question, from your example, don't second hand (or third or fourth) resales constitute competition with the original product though? I can defiantly vouch that "second hand" (中古) anime sells for about the same price in the States. Isn't this particularly why there's been a strong push in DRM with video games these days? In order to quash second hand resales and eliminate that secondary competition.

Thanks

Codexus Wrote:That's only true in a sector where competing products are mostly equivalent and the price is the main factor behind a consumer's decision to purchase. That's not the case in the entertainment sector.

This is faulty logic. It assumes that people only buy entertainment products that they are willing to obtain at any price.
People with limited sources of cash are forced to choose between competing entertainment products and price will be a factor there. People will also decide whether or not to buy an entertainment product based on the price. I recently purchased The Terminal starring Tom Hanks for ¥1000, but I wouldn't have paid ¥1500 for it.

Your post also ignores the idea of stores with the same product competing against each other.

JimmySeal Wrote:People with limited sources of cash are forced to choose between competing entertainment products and price will be a factor there.

That's assuming money is the only limiting factor. That is sometimes the case but not always. If somehow the price of DVDs was cut by 90% do you really think that most people would buy 10 times as many? You need to have the time to watch them and after a while wouldn't you just get tired of watching too many movies? At some point lowering the price does not result in increased sales, even if you take into consideration any temporary advantage of selling cheaper than a competing company it's just not worth it.

Prices in Japan are most likely correct for that market. No, Japanese companies are not incredibly inefficient and they know how to maximize profits too.

@vix86: well, I've always assumed that was the main reason for region locking and the second hand market is now seen as such a threat by the video game industry that they try to kill it with things like DLC.

Sorry to add so late to this topic but I thought I might just knock it back on track. I'm living in England and trying to move away from patent translation and into videogame translation. I have already got some idea of what I need to do. It was interesting to hear what ファブリス had to say about working in the UK for two years in house. If you don't mind me asking where did you work? Also if you have any specific places you recommend someone to try with limited videogames translation experience but a reasonable amount of transaltion experience that would be great.

Patent to videogame translation? Unless you are currently massively underpaid, expect your salary to drop about 75%.

Is there much work in the entertainment sector in general? Films/Manga/Anime/Games. It seems there's a constant supply of people willing to sub it free (fansubs) while not official, many people torrent asian stuff anyway due to the really long wait times otherwise, it seems the pay scale would be fairly low due to this.

Gingerninja Wrote:Is there much work in the entertainment sector in general? Films/Manga/Anime/Games. It seems there's a constant supply of people willing to sub it free (fansubs) while not official, many people torrent asian stuff anyway due to the really long wait times otherwise, it seems the pay scale would be fairly low due to this.

yea I noticed for this industry, so much people are doing and the demand is high usual but the pay is terrible. Makes me want to get technical or literal.

Gingerninja Wrote:Is there much work in the entertainment sector in general? Films/Manga/Anime/Games. It seems there's a constant supply of people willing to sub it free (fansubs) while not official, many people torrent asian stuff anyway due to the really long wait times otherwise, it seems the pay scale would be fairly low due to this.

not sure about anime/manga (iirc, tokyopop went bankrupt, and that whole industry is definitely on the decline in the US).

not sure about films either.

games, however... depends on the budget of the game. if it's a high profile game you'll have localization from the beginning of development to make sure they capture all the little nuances; a little more involved than normal translation.

if it's not, japanese companies will usually outsource their translation to some other small japanese company after the game is done, then work with 1 or 2 translators in the US and a small bug testing team.

however, a lot of japanese games are on the decline in the US, and even the testers i know are struggling to find work, so i'm sure translators are in an equally tough pinch.