Discussion An open letter to low quality translators

I just wanted to get this off my chest. If you don't meet all of the following criteria:
1: Have a notably high level of skill with written English / your chosen language
2: Have a high level of standards for your own work
3: Care enough to make sure your translation meets those standards
Then you really shouldn't be translating at all.

I don't care if you're heavily reliant on machine translators to do translations or you don't speak much of the language you're translating from, I've seen people who've done absolutely fantastic work with machine translators as their very first attempt at translation. All I ask is that you put your efforts into making your translation look and read nicely and fix your previous translations when errors are found, but for every one that does that I seem to see a dozen who either have English as a third language or put zero effort into their translations, to the point where I'm pretty sure I've just spent more effort on this one post than some translators have done in all of their translated chapters combined. I'm not naming any example names here as this isn't contained to just a few translators, but you people know who you are.

I've been stewing on this for a while now and am just so sick to death of losing some of my favourite series to awful translations that are about as appealing to read as staring at vomit, now including my #3 of all time that I had been reading for an entire half a decade from the very first chapter.

No translation at all is a temporary problem, but a bad translation is permanent.

 

tell that to the following novels:

Mad God
Killing Grounds of Gods and Devils
Survival Game
Acquiring Talent in a Dungeon
Dragon Blood Warrior
Chaotic Lightning Cultivation
Solo Clear
Chaotic Lightning Cultivation
Magician of Insa-Dong

 

Bad translation would make you barf and drop the original in a blink of an eye

 

Very few of the translations on NU are the official translations, and many of them are purely the hobby of the translator, for them to practice a certain language, or simply out of kindness. I don't really see why you get to decide who can translate and who can't? You say no translation is better than a bad translation, but you can just not read the bad translation, right???

Yeah, bad translations suck, but it's not like that should matter? Cuz unlike what you seem to think, there can exist more than 1 translation for something. Just cuz the translation for a novel is currently shit, it doesnt mean someone else can't just retranslate it later.

 

It's temporary. I make zero promises on what the length of "temporary" is, other than the fact that it'll be done quicker than both a bad translation being redone and the heat death of the universe.

 

I am happy with decent translation quality and read mtl when I need to know what happens next.

But my problem is the translations in the gap between the two.

 

i don't disagree, but saying that it is temporary is also wrong, there are good novels that have been dead for ages, while certain novels with bad translation have eventually been picked up by good translators that retranslated it from the start so it isn't just black and white

 

@Wujigege

 

Bad translation is a bad thing. Sure. But I look at whetger it is monetized or not. If not, then I just stop when the TL is too bad.

 

mad god... one day you will return to us

 

I knew several translation sites, they didn't edit chapters even after few people pointed out typo and misplaced word

 

simply going back and editing (or bothering to edit in the first place) would go a really long way for these novels. like, great, they finally mastered english. sadly nobody wants to put up with the 800 chapters it'll take for their project to reach a readable level and everyone already stopped around chapter 20, tops. most of the novels i've seen where things are bad, so long as there's some sort of effort and openness on the part of the TL, people will usually offer corrections to improve the chapter and one's english in the process. the TL ignoring those to continue doing an extremely shitty TL job is doing everyone a disservice, themselves included.

as for a new person starting over... those occurrences are really rare. sure, people *can* do that, but usually the novel's considered as tainted and not worth the bother.

 

Acquiring talent in a dungeon was dropped by the author..

 

I agree at some point. I had this few reading bl translations being translated directly from Chinese language into English and suddenly because the Translator is slow at updating, some of the readers from the official Translator suddenly ask some new unknown Translator who choose to translate in fast pace with low quality using mtl. It's a big waste especially if the official Translator do ask permission first to the author to translate it. They don't give face not to the Translator but for the author and the book/story as well.

So for me, what the heck! It's like you're wasting time when there's many more stories to translate why bother snatching the others translation when the Translator didn't say they give up the project. I could still accept if they decided to continue the translation of other novel already translated but got halted because the first Translator isn't available anymore or lose the will/motivation to continue on.

That is why I decided to choose translation sites / group to trust who are openly discussing their way when doing translation no matter way it is. It's because they clearly stated what are the things are ought to offer to their prospect readers. Not just to gain fame/recognition for a fast but unquality translation that makes your head dizzy or spinning coz they can't fully express the phrases, idioms and culture of the novel they are translating. And Mind you, some of them are also unsure of the characters name of the story they translate.

 

To be honest, I'm probably quite an oddball. I'm not really fussy about translation quality, I mean, even if there are grammar or spelling errors in the chapters, I won't comment a thing. But of course, once it's intolerable, I'll quietly leave. It's just that I'm having this thought that if a translator set up a site and pick up a novel, he must make sure to at least produce a readable work. I know this is double-standards especially when factored that once I like a particular novel, I'm the type who won't mind mtl-ing it to the end... You see, I somehow dislike translation that are like MTLs... but I'm fine with google translating Chinese raws of novels I like... I don't understand myself hahaha XD
#justwannashare

 

This kind of shit irks me when certain translators only cares about dumping excessive amounts of chapter.
It's so revolting that even reading through a rough machine translation is less insulting. I wouldn't blame on the software.

I'm fine with machine translation at a slower pace if you bother to edit, at least that shows that you are willing to do a decent job.

 

I wonder if there will ever be a site for aspiring editors who practice their craft by turning those Invisible Dragon wannabes into the enjoyable pieces of literature they were meant to be.

Probably not, but I can hope.

 

I agree that isn't absolute, but there are a lot more novels with bad translations and likelyhood of dropped novel being picked up by a decent translator is higher than of badly translated novel picked up and retranslated. Especially considering the notion of not touching the novels, which are being translated. So one bad MTL group could update a bunch of novels once a month\3 months and those novels are highly unlikely to be ever retranslated.

 

Don't be too demanding. No translation is better than bad translation? Of course, you wouldn't have a thing to complain about.

You don't understand what is going on in the story? So what? That isn't the world's end. This is for entertainment. You're not entertained with the quality? Don't read then. No translators owe you anything. Just be grateful.

Complaints toward official translation would be valid, but to these fan translations who don't make a dime out of it, just no please.

 

The problem with a bad translator is that it taints the series in a way that is unlikely to ever be fixed. A bad translator isn't just doing something that fans of the series can avoid reading and read a better translator's version instead, because it drastically reduces the chance that a good translator will ever come along and fix things.

It actively kills the series, it's not a "just don't read it" thing, they are actively doing more harm to the series than would happen if it simply didn't get translated at all.