Discussion Slow Translators Getting Slower

I totally agree with you! One of my favorite novels, which I won’t name, has a translator that only translate a chapter of it IF they get over $200. That’s an huge amount of dough to spend on a SINGLE chapter. Also, I’ve tried to talk about money/donations/etc on here before and yes, a good portion of translators are EXTREMELY touchy about the subject of being paid for their work. Say something that could be construed as negative and BLAM your thread is filled with angry translators. It’s exhausting.

Also, I have a question, does NUF have a volunteer page? Like, a place where you can either post what you’re good at, or a place where you can post what you need help with? Because wouldn’t that make the whole “getting volunteers” bit easier?

 

Idk what's up with all the recent threads suddenly hating against translators and what they're doing. The vast majority of readers are leeches and pay nuts for a translation, many don't even click the ads or use adblockers. I don't even know why there's an entitlement towards the translators tbh.


On the other hand, I do think it does give false hope to advertise a certain number of translations a week but not deliver. I think it's just because at the start when translators start it seems like an easy thing to do and then as the weeks stack up it gets in the way of more important things - friends, family, job, school etc so it just gets pushed back more and more.

 

I can totally see your point, and I do agree with you about the whole false advertising bit as that totally gives out false hope. But, when it comes to people complaining about translators, I think it’s fine. I mean yes, if you constantly complain about translators in general that’s pretty terrible, but there’s a good number of translators/translation sites that deserve criticism

 

Excuse me but who are you again?

First of all, if translating is a torture, then those translators should just stop. Nobody owe you anything. Not a single chapter. This is a hobby. Nothing more.

Who needs to pay for what? Why should anybody pay anyone anything? What exactly have you done for baum and why would she owe you anything now?

If reading baum's translation is too slow for you, go ahead and translate it faster yourself. And don't you dare drop any project, because don't you know that free translators are slaves?

That ONLY ONE HUNDRED TWENTY CHAPTERS thing - they are 6k words each. Normal chapters are usually around 3k words. She's translating double speed when she releases two chapters (12k) a week.

One 3k words chapter usually takes about 4 hours for new translators, if you're fast you can do it in 2 hours. Some novels are more difficult than others and might take longer.

 

i'm not quite understanding the point of dropping the name of a translator without pointing out which project or even giving the full story and simply using it to start off yet another 'translators owe the world something' thread.

let's talk facts. baumkuchen has two projects, Fantasy Farm (which I can vaguely maybe guess might be the one you're talking about), and Don’t Pick Up Boyfriends From the Trash Bin. She releases at minimum 4 releases a week across both projects, and each release is on average at least 3k Chinese words/chapter. I use the word 'release' rather than 'chapter' here because the projects baum chose don't have a consistent word count.

I understand your supposed 'frustration' about 'slower releases' might have come from the fact that chapters are now split. Instead of starting a negative thread like this that only shows your ignorance about translations, maybe do some research, or better yet, have asked the translator WHY she 'slowed down' the way you think she did. The recent Fantasy Farm chapters have been 9k chinese words, moving to 6k words average per chapter. The typical chinese BL chapter is 3-4k words. Splitting anything above that is really for sanity's sake.

Now, both projects are BL projects, so I assume you also follow some other BL projects. That release speed is already considered quite fast for BL. i'm not sure why you didn't decide to pick on a translator who does one release every three months just to 'hog' a novel and keep people who abide by the 'unspoken rules' from picking it up, and instead chose to set up a topic and pick on a translator who is actually releasing pretty damn fast for an individual BL translator. Chrysanthemum Garden (the group we're part of) does not pay per chapter, so I also don't know what you guys are harping on about with regards to getting 'paid per chapter'. We're all just doing this for fun.

The fact that you're picking on a novel that by all angles has a very frequent, consistent release schedule, a high word count per chapter, and is of decent quality rather than saying 'thanks' is really just incredibly ungrateful.

And honestly, the rest of the people in this thread that literally spent NO time to look up the project the OP was talking about and see what the actual situation was before jumping on the 'let's hate on translators who get paid and do slow releases' bandwagon... it's a shame that this is what NUF has turned into.

 

I think what people feeling salty about is how some translators says that more donations will make the release faster & there will be extras once a certain amount is reached & it'll be posted at X date, but when the X date comes along, the promised release is no where to be found.
There's also the shenanigans with translators that are claiming to be on haitus but is still advertising their donations page & is accepting donations under the name of faster release even though they're on hiatus.

So you see, money makes the whole thing complicated because people would just the same old pay the translator for faster release comeback when they're claiming that this is just a hobby that they voluntarily do

 

The translators should at least take up the responsibility to release regularly and finished the novel. Even if it’s slow, they must have schedule or at least ways to tell their readers news regarding their absence.

 

I don't think you 'get' it, because otherwise, you wouldn't have whined in forum for what is considered decent release speed for hobbyists.

this is YMMV, but I wouldn't consider 1ch/wk 'slow', were you thinking and channeling '1ch/month' translator to this one in anger?
I think not everyone knows the situation with this translator, so I brought some context!

IMO the translator didn't do wrong. this novel is Fantasy Farm, everyone can check. No one lied to OP, it's just that after VIP the author went mad with words.

Spoiler: word count

The fact that you didn't notice you were getting the same amount of words proves to me you're entitled and doesn't really 'get' it, and your thanks are probably fake with hidden complaints

Spoiler: TL-related complaints

talking about another type of translator while thinking of another translator who DO eat fans' money without giving anything back despite promising they will after being paid, IMO is wrong and rude, I can't agree to you, because you didn't look carefully and is being very entitled. Not saying much about how some are territorial, but getting attached is understandable -- otherwise, they wouldn't have felt compelled to translate it to begin with. Generalisation only works when the majority is like this. And, Baum didn't ask for compensation for those chapters.

This is not realistic, and for something like Quick Transmigration(also one of Baum's projects, recently got upgraded to 6000 tier too) chapters can be really long. New words and Old words may stump translators because they can change the paragraph's meaning entirely. If you don't care about the quality or details, there is google and baidu translator.

yes, and I'd like to mention that having people who have *bad attitude and not enough skill, *doesn't have the same workflow as you, *adding a new voice to the established team is more often than not, more damaging.

 

People have a life.
Just saying.

I work very fucking slowly on my projects now (and I will fight tooth and nail with anyone who wants to grab em) due to how swamped my real life is. It would be a big help if I did get assistants but often, I find myself in a state without one. So the most I can do is work at it when I have the time.

 

You know translating by Character count is a valid reason. When normal chapters are 3k characters and all of a sudden you have a 12k character chapter. Splitting it into fourths is pretty valid.

In the professional translating industry, they translate projects based on the amount of characters within written works. You can actually google search this if you have the time. Or click here for one example [translation cost: word count or page count]

Spoiler: Some maths using one of my chapters as an example

A professional charges their works either by the Pages, Words or Characters of the original piece.
And the flat rates can be $10/page, $.014/word, or $.021/character. Depending on the translator it could be more or it could be less.

For the purpose of this example I'm using the [ALL] row
So for this one chapter I can either charge $68.50, $165.99 or $258.85.

And that's just for the translation, that does not include the man hours used, which could be an additional $3/hour. (again this depends)
But being a freelance translator is usually commission only.

 

I respect what you guys do. That is why I'm upset. That's why I created this thread.
Your one of the few translation groups out there that is pretty professional.
So when the format changed you crushed my expectations for the professionalism that you had built up.
-And there was my mistake. I shouldn't have expected anything in the first place.

Half of my rant is about translators not realizing the size of there project and then suffering from it.
The other is about format.
I actually do have the ability to fuck off and go translate it myself but I don't want to, because I like the way that you guys do what you do.
And I'm upset because I just seriously realized that this project would be much longer to finish.
I'm half angry at myself for name dropping and half satisfied that I got a response.
I'm not sure how the paying thing got into this, I meant it as a metaphor of looking at novels as a loan and how to manage such as big project,not what people jumped onto it to as.
And word count to a lot of readers is not an easy concept. When your reading it flows seamlessly, you don't think in word count. You think in chapter. Your right Xiin I am upset at the change in format mostly because it really did change the flow of the story for me.

But I wasn't explained why this was the case until just now. Which is why I'm kinda glad I got a response.

I asked and was told 2 chapters a week. Since I read and follow your sight, I trusted in your word and reputation that It would be so. That's what your group had cultivated.So when the format changed I realized that my slowing building trust in your professionalism was crushed.It wasn't explained anywhere that this is the way we do things and this is the current situation. It wasn't explained about word count vs chapter or that the translator had other projects. It wasn't explained why the change at all. From my perspective,as the reader, it just looks like another translator who picked up a project to big for themselves and is now slowing down.

As to why I didn't ask more from questions. I stopped asking directly about things like this because of Helaines type of responses from translators and other people involved. Angry, Defensive, and scoffing at my ignorance.
I bottled it up till I got upset enough to say something.

 

Please don't bottle it up and explode at another time/place. Politely ask the translator why. This is a call-out post, does Baum deserve this treatment after the delivery that you also consider 'professional' and 'trustworthy'?
Helaine's words are emotional, but still counts as tame. Truthfully, no one on the internet you don't pay owes you anything.
You were also drawing parallels as people who scam their readers' money and not deliver contents when you actually got triple the amount in Ch.20. That is upsetting...

 

I'm not sure about Korean, but it has a limited number of characters to learn (40), as opposed to Chinese. The problem may be in finding the good quality dictionaries to help get you started. I did find this site, that you can take a look at. I hope it helps.

 

applebeans your wrong on the money thing. Seriously I was not implying or drawing parallels. It's disturbing to me that you take things I say out of context...

And why did no one catch that the reason why I was upset was because I felt lied to! It's in the tags! Its in the post!
When have I said that someone owes me anything? NO I want people to be honest with themselves and there readers! If you do one chapter a week Say So. If you do one chapter a month say so! If you one chapter a year! Say SO. If things change explain WHY.
Also its a complaint about realizing about biting off more then you can chew!

 

It would have been easier to start of the post with those points.

Also making your complaints like a riddle, won't make it easier for people to understand you. (Checking tags? I didn't even look at it, I just read the title "Slow Translators getting slower")

Another perspective is that everyone's level of comprehension is different. So its alot easier to be blunt about things than vague or generalized

Edit: Communication is always key right. But people aren't perfect, we like it when things go well and we want to run away when things go awry.

 

If you can translate...why don't you just buy the raws and read it? Or find the pirated raws online and read it if you're so dissatisfied with this wait.

I don't think you can complain that the translator is biting off more than they can chew or slowing down if their releases are still the same stable 3k or 4k characters they were translating per release. The word count of the releases is still pretty much the same...I think the translator knows exactly how much they can handle.

Basically, you're complaining that they're not translating faster to meet your standards. Which is why a lot of people are upset at you.

 

.....How did it become to being "lied" to? Since when is baum not honest with readers?

Speaking of biting off more than one can chew, it's very common for new translators / editors / helpers / readers to underestimate the amount of time and dedication it takes to translate.

120 chapters isn't "JUST" 120 chapters. Even if you assume all those chapters are at average length, that's still 480hours+ just for translating alone.

If translating 120 chapters is so easy we wouldn't have so many dead novels on NU. But it's already such a hard work even without being berated like this.

Honestly though - it's hard to keep up a schedule for something you do for free. This isn't a job. Life happens and sometimes updates become slower. That's not lying, that's just life. Nobody deserves to be name-called for giving stuff for free, wtf.

See, you seem to understand that donations shouldn't be expected. It's freely given. Well, except that you only seem to apply it to your own money and not other people's time or skills.

Translators don't get much of anything back for their time and skills, that's why they don't owe anyone anything.

 

I've found Baum's reply to you and I don't see what they lied about? Baum never said anything about releasing two chapters a week. All they said was they update twice a week, which is what they've seem to be doing. Seems like they know exactly what they can handle.

 

It was more format confusion. At that time every update was a full chapter Even Chapter 20 that I had asked this question on. Then Chapter 21 comes and the chapter is split between updates. I was super confused. So I waited for an explanation. But none came. I waited to see if it was a one time thing. But It seemed to be constant. It looked liked I was told 2 chapter(updates) and then suddenly it became one.Every other novel I was reading on your sight was not split like this.

I had no idea you guys were going by word count. Or that the novel lengthened in chapter length significantly from that point on. Thanks Xiin for pointing that out. Every other time I've run into that there's usually an announcement made that this is the case now. Since there was no announcement after 4 weeks. I got upset because I had specifically asked about releases. I felt lied to so I posted about it.

 

You do realize that it gets increasingly tiring the more you translate (or do anything really) each day, right? It's like running one mile each day for a year vs running three miles each day for four months. How can you think this is a good idea? It would just burn out the translator. This is like killing the goose that lays the golden egg.