Discussion Bad translation ruined novels, what to do?

I was rather triggered by the random "tonikaku" in one of the chapters.
兎に角, ......... I usually fine with people not translating バカ, ツンデレ, 妹, お姉様, お兄様, ヘタレ, そう, っぽい, 計画通り but 兎に角? I never hear that 兎に角 reached the meme-level of the other words...

I had repeatedly said to pure MTL translator. Learn some Japanese:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar
Even knowing that は and が mark the subject and を mark the object could really help in sorting the idiot translation and who knows, perhaps they can even become a bonafide translator.

Machine Translator is just a translator assisting tool, in the end, it will still return to the TL's language skill.

 

Did they really say 'tonikaku' instead of translating it as 'anyhow' or something? I don't read that title because I was butthurt that Kenja no Deshi wo Nanoru Kenja that I found first was machine translated before I could release my translation.

 

I feel like there should be a system to contest to this problem.
But at the same time, I feel like this kind of system can be very easily abused.
a tricky problem indeed.

 

Yes. Pure unadulterated "Tonikaku". And without any explanation of it.
Even if I want to put a Keikakudoori. I will slap a footnote and a 5-minute long youtube keikakudoori compilation.

 

But isn't that really strange? Anyone who watch anime will know what 'tonikaku' means. It's that common of a word. Is this intentional?

 

being too much of a weabo or pure laziness

 

Hmmm... I remember keepin Soudesuka untranslated on one of my chapters, but I made sure to put a proper footnote for it! >.<

Nobody complained about it, so I kept it as is~

Dunno Ai Chan, I don't remember ever hearing it before... Though it's been a while since I ever saw anime...

 

Just letting you know that something good happens, most of the novels translated by them r going over to qidian, and while I hate qidian and the drama is fun to watch, I do have to admit their translation quality is superb.

 

Indeed, it seems @Roslolian missed the point. It's not just about forking out english version of a novel, but giving the smallest amount of respect to the original work itself. Some MTL translators that started early, before the chinese novel fame, can now release a decent MTL version.
I guess in the end, once again, there are two kinds of translation: Fan made and Profit made. A fan with no knowledge of the original language started with MTL trying to translate either by knowing what each word means and constructing the sentence from there, or translating it per sentence then trying to make sense of it before writing. Or some who sees the opportunity in the sudden popularity of novels and discovered they can actually take advantage of it. Churning out translated chapters like a pro, like a machine(which is true since it's a copy paste of google translate). without regards to quality whatsoever.

 

Lol novelsaga, most of their novels r heading over to QI

 

I blocked that guys website since i cant read there with adblock on and when i disabled my adblock i still need to wait for 5 seconds just to get redirected . LOL

 

Interesting how their links are either down or behind an adwall weren't adwalls forbidden?

 

I agree, I tried reading Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria at Baka-Tsuki but put it on hiatus cause it was riddled with bad grammar and spelling which wasn't so bad, until the plot thickened and developed and the translations made it hard to understand what was going on

And yeah rating the translation would be cool

 

Before we come to the translation quality, let us discuss grammar and flow of the sentences. Now, if the sentences are wrong then thats it for me.

As for translation, I have read some works that had subpar translation quality, yes, it does affect the pleasure we recieve negatively, but hey, there is this or there is none.

 

The best english editor can make an MTL readable.
The best native wont really be able to make a good quality if he/she have a low skill in english.
Maybe theyre just bad at english if they arent straight MTL..?

 

This is something that become apparently recently with Seki and RTW
Seki was originally just editing MTL, but it read perfectly fine because their grammar was solid.

QI on the other hand is actually translating the raws, but the final version has terrible grammar and English in general. Not to mention they are translating the names incorrectly somehow.

It's also apparent that some synonyms and rephrasing can go a REALLY long way. Good example with "the demons are way stronger than us" vs "the power of the demons is far greater than ours". Goes beyond simple editing but increases the quality so much.

 

Are you joking? Novel Saga translation quality superb? What have you been smoking?

 

How can a bad translation ruin a novel? A bad translation can ruin your reading experience, but the novel's quality in itself will not change due to a translation ...

• I don't think that any translator should (would) pick a novel based on ratings on NU, as they should translate something they enjoy reading themselves ...

• Get rid of the rating system completely, as we notice that a lot of people still use it to rate the translation quality instead of the story itself - and that shall not be done ...

• If you don't like someone's translations - learn the language, pay a private translator (then you can bitch about quality as they are on your payroll), offer to help them to improve the grammar etc, or just stop reading it ...

 

its pretty simple.

If they retranslate it, then NUF does have the right to exercise that "cleansing". That is because it was a good move.

However, if they remove it just because it was complained against, it would set precedence to nastier stuffs.


For example, The Magus Era.
I once slated them for remarkably bad translation, an even choices of words, for example their insistence of "ah ba" and "amma" (father, mother!) which, in cantonese sounded okay, but totally disrupted the flow of the story. I slated a lot of their translation quality, even calling them lazy fuck translation quality, because they were.

(later they cleaned up the quality. Or somebody else did, I couldn't be bothered because I dropped the series, but what I re-read, it was some remarkable leap from very unreadable to somewhat readable).

The review was later deleted. I even made complaints about it, but all NUF mods said was "it was perceived as an attack towards the translators".

So, there's that fine line. What you're asking isn't impossible. However, how short would it be from really insulting the opinions of those who read the badly translated stories, or how short would it be from insulting the translators?

I don't speak for the moderators, but having experienced things first hand, i'm sure they don't want to lend precedence to more drama.

 

From the guidelines (http://www.novelupdates.com/review-guidelines/)

Reviews should:

• contain why you like or dislike the novel without spoiling the story.
• have good grammar: use proper capitalization, punctuation and spellcheck.
• written in English.
• be as objectively as possible.

Reviews should NOT contain:

• reviews of the translator. You are reviewing the novel, not the translator.
• replies to other reviews. This means mentioning another user and replying to a specific review.
• spoilers that will hurt the reader’s enjoyment of the story. All spoilers should be hidden in the spoiler bbc code.
• one liners: “it’s good”, “I like it”, “I love it a lot”, etc…
• profanity.