I doubt that translators have trouble with honorifics. Did you read that animesuki post? According to him, N1 is barely enough to translate. And it does make sense. Even animes use complex language.

I did some manga scanlation translations a while back. The translators in our group included two native speakers and one native-level guy; I was the least experienced person. Some people do actually have some experience, though not all do.

nadiatims Wrote:Exactly, the translators don't know enough japanese. They're also not getting payed. Do you really think they have a lot of time to spend making well written literal translations or accurate liberal translations. For someone who doesn't have the time/knowledge skill to translate well, leaving certain parts untranslated may be a time saving way of keeping the translation more accurate, and the fans apparently understand and enjoy the honorifics and other common words left in so it's a win-win. The only other options for the fans are watching it unsubbed and understanding nothing or paying for quality.

My original comment that started this tangent was that fan subs/translations are not that good (nor are pro jobs for that matter), thus there is still a benefit to knowing Japanese if your only interest is manga/anime, even with the rapid turnaround of new releases.

The fact that fan subs are done by volunteers or learners thus it's excusable doesn't enter the equation.

Eikyu Wrote:In the case of fansubbed animes, the "clients" are the anime fans. So if they want to see honorifics, then why not?

I think an important point is made here, regardless of your opinions on whether honorifics should be left in or not.

Most people say that translators should translate according to their audience.

In this case, the audience is not the great subtitle-phobic xenophobic unwashed which requires the sanitation of anything remotely foreign.

Instead, the audience here are open-minded anime fans with varying degrees of interest in Japan and/or Japanese things.

When I was doing scanlations, I didn't translate for "clients". People weren't paying me. I honestly didn't care about the audience because most of them didn't participate in the IRC channel or forum except to yell at us for being slow or late. I mostly did it because I thought it was fun, and I enjoyed sharing the manga with the small group of people who helped edit the manga and who spent time in the forums and irc channel. Most of the people I knew (in my group and others) felt basically the same way. Even some people who didn't were driven into this position by what I mentioned earlier -- the amount of abuse we got was much greater than praise, from most "fans".

I was translating into English, not otaku, and I refused to put things in the translation that weren't English. I used translation notes sometimes, but I tried to keep that to a minimum.

I think there would be more 'action' in this forum if people posted nice friendly replies that engaged with other users without being total bullies about it. What could have been a nice thread where people calmly discuss the merits and draw backs of fan translations has basically become a game of tit for tat.

I feel sorry for the original poster who just wanted to chat and instead got 'told off' by a load of people who think their opinions matter more than his/hers.

That is all.

err, I don't think very many people replied to the OP post at all..

Actually, I think you're wrong, Jarvik. From books I've read translated from European languages into English, it seems fairly common to leave in gratuitous foreign words and expressions, including titles. The Three Musketeers is one in particular that comes to mind.

As for the honorifics thing, I think the whole debate has been beaten to death countless times and is completely stupid. And really, it doesn't matter. In the grand scheme of things, honorifics are a miniscule part of translation. It's not the end of the world if "san" or "sensei" is left in the translation, and it's certainly not the end of the world if they're taken out. To judge the quality of a translation simply by the presence of honorifics is about as bad as judging the quality of a fansub group by how much effort they put into the karaoke. Whoops, I said karaoke. I hope that didn't make my post too weeaboo for you.

To get back to the topic, yeah, I translate ero manga. It's pretty fun. I started with very little knowledge of Japanese. I'd imagine the mainstream scanlation groups are a bit stricter. Which is for the best, since I'm sure my earlier stuff is awful and full of errors. My Japanese skills still aren't that great, mainly because I've gotten very lazy about actively studying, but I've been gradually picking up more and more expressions, slang, dialects, and that sort of thing. Also, I think having to turn the Japanese into comprehensible English is a better way to make sure you understand what you're reading than just going by whether or not it makes sense in your head. Not that either is a great way to gauge whether or not you understand something.

I have no idea if you're being facetious with those questions or not, but here you go.

I've translated some all ages stuff, but not enough to give a good comparison. Probably the most commonly brought up difference is the lack of furigana. As for what you need to know to be able to read it, I'd say the sex terms are pretty easy to pick up. A lot of them are in dictionaries.

I think it's the same perspective deal as using 来る and 行く outside of sex.

I pick my projects arbitrarily. I have no idea. I like things that look interesting, and of course nice art is always a plus. A lot of people have certain fetishes or artists they like and stick with those.

I can't say what my favorite is, but Japanese Preteen Suite by Higashiyama Show is pretty awesome and is definitely up there, both in terms of art and story.

I think the nice covers is mainly a doujinshi thing. The cover is pretty much the only thing you have to go on for an unknown circle, so it can more or less make or break a sale.