Discussion Bad translation ruined novels, what to do?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by Dino Translation, Aug 18, 2017.

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  1. UnGrave

    UnGrave ななひ~^^

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    I feel like someone should make a thread later on possible ways we could change the rating system. We all know it needs to be done, but have no compiled list of good ideas.
     
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  2. SoShy

    SoShy Well-Known Member

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    This second option... ugh! There must be more people here who knows of other languages than we think.. right? Moderators has to know at least Chinese or Japanese (main stream NU novels).. right? Is it?
    While the first and third options seems acceptable, second is just a waste of time in my opinion. It's better to add an acceptable translated original review from a well-known critic than making copies of the same novel, which is just uselessly adding more to Moderaters work load.
     
  3. Asf

    Asf 《《The aria of souls》》

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    Im not that picky with the quality.
    I meen, did you see how people read hundreds of chapters in LNMTL like it was nothing?
    The art of mtl reading is steep.
    I cant read from that site that well..
    So Im not complaining as long as the translation can atleast make proper sentencess better than LNMTL.
     
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  4. Roslolian

    Roslolian Active Member

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    Well the problem is translations are FAN made, you didn't pay anything so why are you expecting top quality work? What can you do about it? How about not reading the work then if you hate it so much? Posts like these trigger me a lot because you are getting free shit and still badmouthing it.

    If the novel is pretty good then even if the translator has horrible translation ability it should still be good, I mean even MNTL lns can still be readable what more an actual translator doing the translation? Just stfu and thank the translator who donated his own valuable time so total strangers can benefit.
     
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  5. Dino Translation

    Dino Translation Active Member

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    Those people who read at LNMTL will gonna get brain damage before long. Well, I can't exactly say anything since I did something similar before.
    I could say the same to you. STFU and thank me now, since I'm a translator as well. If you didn't notice, I wrote this from my perspective as a translator, not as a reader. The point here is there isn't an option to get a fresh start in a series when you started translating from chapter 1.
    When you translate afresh, there should be an option for fresh evaluation.
     
  6. k1nk4

    k1nk4 Sage Verdurous Sea Turtle

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    there are amazing novels, with quality translated, but ppl even so dont read because dont know about it or are too busy reading others series.

    dont know about the novel you are talking about, but right now most ppl who are reading CN/KR/JP novels more than two years got way tired of the overused tropes, it may be the answer to you question.

    ppl are not dumb, they will know if translation is bad, if the novel is really so great someone will pick it up sooner or later.

    even if the translation is bad, be it mtl or not, the translator spend hours and hours to do that, so give him a chance and wait one month or two if the translation get better, there are many translator who started this way.
    however, if you think you can do a better job, go ahead.
     
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  7. AurionLute

    AurionLute Actively Inactive Nonmember

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    Do a forceful takeover. It's all about who have the bigger fist.
    Readers will judge anyway...
     
  8. Shiraori_

    Shiraori_ Heh, nothing personnel, kid.

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    Yeah, I've had this same sentiment honestly. I personally end up skipping novels that have really bad MTLs, and I never come back to them, even if they're re-translated because I wouldn't know if it was, since I've stopped following them and they've long since disappeared off the latest releases page.

    Honestly though I really strongly feel that bad MTLs should be banned and removed entirely. I know that's harsh but it's an issue that bothers me: MTLs killing good translation because nobody wants to go back and re-translate something. They typically want to pick up where the original translator left off, leaving the first however many chapters badly translated with awful English/sentences that didn't translate properly for God knows how long. Possibly forever.

    Banning that kind of thing is unrealistic though, and I doubt something like that would ever be implemented because I honestly feel like the only one who feels this way on this website sometimes.

    On a more realistic note, can there maybe could there be a feature to at least, organize the releases by TL group? If somebody is going back and re-translating everything, like the case with Blastr0n with Kumo Desu Ga, then it'd make it easier to see releases from a specific group, or maybe exclude them from the releases if you're up to date. It'd make the novel pages a lot more clean. If I hypothetically wanted to start Kumo then I could switch the TL group to Blastron and it'd all be listed neatly with no releases from other TL groups from different points in the novel interspersed.
     
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  9. Amplify

    Amplify Well-Known Member

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    I love IET's novels and I hear that Lord Xue Ying is his best one, but after 5 volumes of the main translators for it having poor quality literal translations with as much as 20 noticeable errors per chapter, I don't think there's any way I'll ever bother reading it again even if RXW himself were to redo it from the start. I've wasted enough time on it.

    Honestly, I've become something of a translation snob. Even with good noves I enjoyed reading and the translator took on a second translator to "help" but their translations are a noticeable dip in quality? Ended up dropping them as soon as it became clear the second translator wasn't going to improve to the standards of the first one any time soon, I've found myself only reading from Wuaxiaworld nowadays with only a few exceptions.
     
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  10. Kami.samaaa

    Kami.samaaa Active Member

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    Whelps I can't remember the the novels I disliked due to poor translation quality so if I encounter it again in the future and see that it has a relatively good rating and reviews, I'll definitely give it a try
     
  11. TheDefend

    TheDefend Public Dental Support

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    we diddnt expect perfect grammar, but expecting a translation to be UNDERSTANDABLE, if the quality is ultra obvious google translate quality, then that just plain insulting.
    What should be needed is not the translation ability, its the translator english that is needed for mtl.
     
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  12. Alyuna

    Alyuna Tactical Dove, Best Birb

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    OP wants to improve our FREE reading material, OP also wants to save potential good novels to translation

    OP offering 3 different solutions, then asked our opinion about those particular solutions
    Not a good question... If you hate it, why don't improve it to make it match to your taste?


    Yeah... your post... OP just offering solutions to his own problem, no need to badmouthing it
     
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2017
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  13. Shiraori_

    Shiraori_ Heh, nothing personnel, kid.

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    Yeah, you know what else is free? Going on Syosetu and hitting "Google Translate." That's also free.

    If you're going to "translate," then fucking T R A N S L A T E. I shouldn't be able to use Google Translate to find something of literally equivalent quality. That's how bad some MTLs I've seen are. Don't some of these novels deserve fucking better? Or because it's "free" you'll literally chug down a gallon of shit and thank the person who gave it and ask for more?

    Do you people have no fucking standards at all?
     
  14. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    None of the mods know CN, JP or KR.
    Yeah, nobody has the right to judge the quality of the translator's work, so one can't simply go and exclude them.

    Besides, I bet a lot of people would start asking to exclude Qidian novels because of bad quality... It would be a huge can of worms...
    There is, wait until it's implemented: http://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/view-chapters-by-translator-option.35190/
     
  15. TheDefend

    TheDefend Public Dental Support

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    i am sooo fking agreed to this!!!!
    Then again, majority of mtl barely has the understanding of english language as a whole
     
  16. Shiraori_

    Shiraori_ Heh, nothing personnel, kid.

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  17. Yukkuri Oniisan

    Yukkuri Oniisan 『Procrastinator Archwizard Translator and Writer』

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    Le Me see a new novel listed in NU.
    Read the description.
    Le Me is interested.
    Le Me open google and search for it in syosetsu.
    Le Me download the whole RAW.
    Le Me read it from the RAW.

    Sorry, but ever since I read the Magi's Grandson translated chapters post-Japtem, I mostly read straight from the RAW right now. Even new series... Sorry for translator out there...
    After all, it's also a good way for me to practice my Japanese.
     
  18. noire125

    noire125 Belongs Nowhere

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    Fan made? FAN MADE????!!!! WTF?! A copy paste google translation is fan made? FAN MADE???!!! Take that back, that's the greatest insult one can give towards people who do fan translations.
     
  19. Dino Translation

    Dino Translation Active Member

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    Hahaha, I get you, I haven't read Magi's Grandson after Japtem stopped, the drop in quality just really kill my interest. I'm not so sure about its current state but I just can't work up the will to read it again.
     
  20. TheDefend

    TheDefend Public Dental Support

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    Proper fanmade translation including even those that do proper mtl
     
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