Discussion The Daily Task of Preventing My Disciple from Turning... : Criticizing other translators

Edit: Okay, you guys win. You can have the project. I'll just stop MTL'ing it since it has caused all this stupid drama. There are literally thousands (or possibly tens of thousands) of other stories anyway.

What happened:

TL;DR - two people have been harassing me about my first project.

I MTL'ed a project (it's in my sig) and @Ashley123 started a thread complaining that someone took her project. There were a lot of comments about MTL being shit and "bottom feeding." Basically, that thread was made to harass me into dropping a project that @Ashley123 had started on...more than one month ago. Note: They had never released a chapter.

Then @sinyueliang pm'ed me saying that my MTL was inaccurate and missing parts so he wanted to pick it up. That's rude but I'm like, "sure, go ahead."

Then there was this lovely announcement on their website.



Even then, I never said anything. Big mistake because that just made those translators think its okay.

The last straw was today when I posted that I had published two new chapters, @sinyueliang posted right after I did that he had also posted...and that his translation fixed the inaccuracies of my translation. That ain't right, folks. And they these people need to be called out for their rudeness.

This was also my first project. So thanks for showing this newbie translator that people are disgusting.

Original post:

When I said that I was okay with other people translating I 100% from the bottom of my heart meant it. I feel that there's nothing wrong with that. @SnowTime for example, is cool.

However, I must protest at the sneaky and gross actions of @sinyueliang and @Ashley123. Criticizing another translator in this way is very hurtful and unnecessary.

If you don't like someone's translation, then don't read it. It's not like I went to your house and started killing your pets. There's no reason to create drama this way.

 

Firstly, I don't recall being sneaky or gross. I messaged you about retranslating this, and you said to go ahead. Secondly, I believe I already mentioned to you that your translations were inaccurate and missing some points, to which I also said couldn't be helped as it's MTL after all. There's nothing wrong with MTLing, and I'm not looking down on the hard work that you have done to bring the translations to others, but it doesn't change the fact that portions of your translations are outright wrong or missing (which can't really be helped considering the nature of MTL), which is why I decided to continue translating the novel from scratch. I've MTLed a Japanese novel before and understand the difficulties that come with MTL and how much can get lost in the process... which is why I want a proper translation of the novel, especially as the person who posted the thread advocating for its translation in the first place. I don't see anything particularly wrong with my actions.

@readerz I apologize if I come off as rude or criticizing you, but I'm honestly not ._. in fact, I plenty admire the fact that you're MTLing the novel

 

If you hadn't wanted to start drama, you should not have posted criticism of someone else's work. I could go on here and criticize your work, you aren't perfect. But I don't do that. Because that just creates drama.

If I hadn't called you out, I bet you would have continued posting all that "oh, look at me, I am sooooo much better than the other translator" stuff.

Sure, go ahead and pretend you meant no harm but basically shitting over someone else's work is not cool.

Just post your stuff and leave other people alone.

 

Alright. This isn't about MTL vs Direct Translation, this about some guys trying to create drama with their bs posts criticizing fellow translators.

I'm just sick of it. You don't pay me to translate for you. You don't have the right to go on and on and on criticizing me. I don't even know you so leave me alone.

And you were the one who went public with this.



That is not something that is not criticizing me like you claim. That is clearly 100% a criticism

This type of behavior towards a newbie translator who is working on her first project is not right. I said I'm fine with you (or anyone else) translating the same story. I am not feeling fine about these types of posts.

 

Well they said you didn't mind - in their comment on chap 1... Was that not the case?

 

I am not fine with them shooting their mouth off.

I ignored the first post when he criticized me in public. And also the pm where he criticized me in private. But today's post was just too much. I had to call him out. That guy was just planning to publicly criticize and criticize again and again. Mu Chen is right, you shouldn't let other people bully you. If you ignore it, they will just keep on doing it.

 

......I'm just here enjoying the show, continue.This is interesting,someone have popcorn?

And I was never sneaky,the only thing I could have said of mean is you leaving out some part of the paragraph.As someone having translated the 1st chapter,I could see that you did not have some sentences that has details(ex: with the cheng pao,),etc.I read the 1st chapter you posted just so I could see if the translation is ok and when I saw that it was readable and ok,I let you have it.What more do you want?
And just so you know,each chapter has a title.It's not first chapter,second chapter,third chapter.I don't know if the raws you used did not have a title or if you did not want to translate it or something,idk but it's best to translate the title too.
1st chapter is :Finally found you
Second chapter title is something like :The execution of the world,blabla

I let you translate the novel because honestly it's not worth the trouble and drama if I translate it too.And also, idc too much.Like I'm a little pissed that I have to search for another novel but that's all.

Your translation,I have no problem with them.The only thing that I don't like is you.As far as 1st impression goes,your's is not the best.But you don't see me going everywhere saying I don't like Readerz,blablabla.I ignore you and you ignore me.That's how I thought it was going to be.

I don't think sinyuelang was mean,it's only the thruth.You should have known that considering that you use MTL.I use more time because I translate each word myself using a dictionary(and since my Chinese is less than average,I have to use my dictionary for the more difficult words used by the author) but at last I know what the author means.

So let's go back to ignoring each other's.Point final.

 

Yeah, my translation isn't perfect. I never said it was. In fact, the effort I spend is probably only a step or so less than an MTLer, since I only recognize a few number of characters and rely on text to speech and a dictionary for the rest, as well as having to constantly clarify points I'm confused over with other translators, and even my parents get dragged in to help occasionally. But what about it? Like I said, I'm not trying to criticize you. It's hard work doing MTL. Personally, I already take a long time to translate a chapter and it's exhausting, and I'm not even MTLing. And, I've attempted to MTL a Japanese novel before, and that was an absolute nightmare. After comparing with the translation of someone who could actually read Japanese, there were several parts that had been misstranslated, despite my efforts, so it was extremely frustrating but also an enlightening experience (needless to say, I gave up on MTLing that novel after that). I said your translation is inaccurate and missing parts, because it is. But it's MTL, so I don't expect it to be anything better. I'm not trying to start drama, like wtf man. You said that I was free to do whatever, so I went and translated and posted it. I honestly feel that it was actually good to be blunt about your translations being, and let me be forward since I'm mildly pissed at you because I feel you're the one trying to start drama *coughs violently*, kinda shitty in terms of translation quality, since I would personally be upset to find out if a chapter has details that are missing or etc. Hey, being honest, I had someone retranslate my chapters of another novel too, saying that the translation quality wasn't very good. I was a bit upset about it, especially because I spent a lot of effort on translating those couple of chapters, but I never started anything, and I've never seen other people start things when that gets called out, but maybe that's just because I never noticed. But for me personally, I never said anything back about it because I know it's true. If I lashed out in anger here, it'd be a case of getting angry because they hit the point on the head right? My Chinese isn't great. I can speak it, but I can't really read all that much, and the terminology in novels is difficult since a lot of words aren't used in daily life conversations. And then don't even talk about things like cultivation grades or titles or whatnot. So I admit that there might be points off in my own translations as well. If a better more experienced translator did the same thing I did to you to the both of us, I'd be like, okay I'm a bit upset but I know it's true, so there's really no reason to go up and pick a fight. Rather, it's a weird feeling that's partially grateful a better translator has taken up the project, combined with the little bit of being upset at them for dissing my translations. It might feel like I'm disdaining, or even throwing shade at you, but let me repeat... I'm not. I'm simply stating what I believe to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And I've never thought that there was anything wrong with what I've said or the actions I took.

 

Burn them Burn them!!
Seriously though, some people just come off as snobbish, condescending even.
It is like talking to a young master who pisses you off without knowing
I am guilty of that a lot myself
Let us just forgive and move on.

 

>-> <-< I'm not trying to be condescending or arrogant... o3o;;

Edit: that just made me sound like I'm naturally condescending and arrogant LOL please don't think that lololol though I admit I can sometimes be a bitch, but everyone has their moments right

 

It's not my fault some people are just too rude and clueless.

I can't believe they still think they did nothing wrong... grow up, people. Your whole "I did nothing wrong, I only told the truth" is the usual defense of tactless people who offend others with their rude behavior.

You can have the project. I'll just stop MTL'ing it since it has caused all this stupid drama. There are literally thousands (or possibly tens of thousands) of other stories anyway.

 

Yes there are,so why did you have to take the one I was going to translate? Jokes aside, if you don't wanna translate then so what? I don't care,you can do all you want.

Remember,the “stupid drama" was caused by you.Not me,not us,YOU.If you analyze this situation carefully,this is how it happened on my side:

I pick up Daily Task->I start translating the 1st chapter,doing the ToC,etc->Sinyuelang agrees to become the editor and TLC->I discover you have released the 1,2 and third chapter of Daily Task->I make a thread just to have thoughts on this->You reply,making your opinion known->We continue with our lives->You start this thread talking about drama when there was none

So where did the “drama" start?When you appeared and happened

This situation is making me want to give up on finding a novel to translate and focus on writing my bl novel.Too much drama when all I wanted to do is translate a novel that I was interested in.

Thank you very much for making me lose interest in translating.At last I can use my experience now when writing about someone I met on the Internet that made me lose hope.

This is making me dislike you more and more.I hope I never encounter you in the future,but with my bad luck,I'm sure it will happen again.

What Wujigege talked about?Forgive her?Move on I can,but forgive.... What is there to forgive,her being a #####?Ugh sorry impossible.

Grow up,Readerz.I don't care about you.You think I'm mean,that I hate you (which I do btw) that you are going to get sympathy against people who are criticizing you?It's not my fault that you are too rude and [insert mean adjective].

I just noticed you changed the title of the thread to make us sound even meaner.......................ok,congratulations

 

Edit: Youreply,making your opinion known->We continue with our lives->You start this thread talking about drama when there was none
*Insert sinyueliang private messages about continuing project, receives go ahead, thus continuing with our lives, to each our own.

Man, people are so sensitive these days. Like I said, I apologize if I came across as harassing you or whatever, but that was not my intentions at all. You said we should just do whatever we want so I'm like okay lol we go our own ways, totes cool with me. I never had a problem with other people reading your translations, but obviously it'd be good for people to read mine as well to pick up on anything they missed. As for the post in LCD, that was a complete coincidence that I posted right after you. After posting my second chapter link on my status I was thinking that I should also post the link in the LCD if there is one, so I did. I saw your post and was like oh hey, this translator doing the same thing, cool, obviously we had the same idea. I'm not like a clingy stalker ex following you around man. As a small time translator of the niche danmei genre, of course I have to go around publicizing my chapters to gather readers.

I'll be frank, my thoughts weren't to harass you, but as a horrible cruel person... the reason why I so often stated the true fact of your translations being inaccurate was that so readers wouldn't skip over my own translations thinking ah, this has already been translated before so there's no need to read it since it'll be pretty much the same (I'm guilty of this). So no, I wasn't targeting you. But I also still don't think the actions I took were wrong, simply for the fact that your translations really are inaccurate. You even admitted it yourself on your own site... like Jesus man.

 

Oki didn't know about it,sorry,just had too much to say.And how did you notice it so fast?Cause that was reallyyyy fast
@LaDyViL

 

Were you lurking with popcorn to see how he drama was?If so,share some with me,nobody repiled when I asked for some

Just saw the edit you did,I harassed you? How so? I ignore you with all my possible might,never talked to you unless you were talking about me(in this thread) and acted like you didn't exist.I don't know how I could have had the time to harass you between all that.

I was never “complaining” about you,I only wanted opinion and thoughts about what to do because I was confused.It's not like I incited them to write how MTL is bottom-feeding and shit.You think too highly of me,I wish I had that superpower,making other write what I want.Think of all the things I could do....(especially about my homework and essays)

 

By the way your claim that your translation is better is false. I invite people to read my translation and compare it to theirs. Mine is more natural, readable, and enjoyable. Regardless of the accuracy of a few words/sentences here and there, I still have 8 chapters of excellent and fun reading.

Yours - "The person who came appeared to be just about twenty years old, possessing a slim stature, so much so that he appeared a bit thin and weak, while his beautiful facial features were as if they had been meticulously sculpted, impossible to pick out a single flaw. He was clothed in an exquisite wide-sleeved robe, entire body snow white, with not a speck of dust. Except for his front collar and sleeve cuffs which were adorned with several thin golden bamboo leaves, he wore no other decorations. A golden jade hat bundled up his neat waist long hair, which lightly fluttered in the wind. The entire person was wreathed in a faint mist, appearing like an immortal, aloof and noble."

Mine - "That person looked around 20 years old, slender or even emaciated, the beautiful face seemed carefully carved and flawless. He is wearing a fine wide-sleeved white robe decorated with golden bamboo leaves at the edges. His long hair, crowned with gold and jade, is fluttering in the wind, giving him an ethereal and reserved air."

As you can see, mine is not inaccurate and the meaning of the two paragraphs is exactly the same. The difference is that mine uses English sentence structure and word choices. Yours preserves the Chinese syntax and phrasing.

I used "flawless" instead of "impossible to pick out a single flaw." I think it's better to say "slender" instead of "possessing a slim stature." I have never in my entire life seen the words "possessing a slim stature" written by a native English speaker.

Thanks for the laughs, anyway.

 

.........And of course you don't reply to all the things I said before.I don't care about what you says except your replies to why you think I'm harassing you.You even go as far as calling it "harassing" just to make it sound more severe.So?Explain to me why do you think I'm harassing you and how am I harassing you?