Discussion How much does the translation affect your reading experience?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by Bad Storm, Apr 27, 2021.

?

Would you drop a novel due to translation?

  1. Yup, I have standards

    74.1%
  2. Nope, I've mtl-proofed myself *flex*

    25.9%
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  1. Bad Storm

    Bad Storm no thought, head empty

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    I was reading a novel. I thought the concept was nice. But it's so painful to read. Not mtl level painful, that is on another level. But it's really hard to immerse yourself with a story when names keep changing. Places keep changing. Skills keep changing. Pronouns and POV's keep changing. Sometimes, I get lost in one single chapter multiple times. I think I'll just drop the novel. I really want what I read, at the very least, consistently readable. What about you? Has there been a novel that made you really feel like that translation was spot on?
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2021
  2. SquadCammander354

    SquadCammander354 『Early Life Crisis』〖Stormy's Bro〗『Lord of Storms』

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    Reading Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei was a blast, mainly because I read only the fan translations.

    There are individuals who spend 200 hours painstakingly editing an MTL translation to match with the author's original writing and past translations.

    It was, to say the least, refreshing to read all the volumes.

    Except too many Volumes made me tired for a while, after all these originally came out months or even years apart from one another.

    But yeah, when a translation goes from Professional to Google Translate I usually just fucking quit.

    I'm too tired these days to waste my time on destroying my brain even further. :blobpopcorn_two:

    Same thing with Doujins and manga. :blobcry:
     
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  3. Nefasdetestasti

    Nefasdetestasti ❄️Wɪɴᴛᴇʀ's Sᴏɴɢ❄️ ||| [Schrödinger Pantsu]

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    It feels like I'm watching a 1080p video from YouTube then suddenly dropping into the most lowest quality and everything becomes unrecognizedable.

    That's how I feel whenever I read a novel with shitty translation.
     
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  4. GonZ555

    GonZ555 What i want for christmas is you

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    Yes translation affect reading experience.
    One time there was a translator that toned down the swearing of a novel to a seamless degree that it felt off when another translator picked up the series and the swearing comes out.
     
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  5. KhayDesu

    KhayDesu ❀Rᴇᴀᴅιɴԍ Eɴтнusιᴀsт❀ | ★ᴅᴇsu~★ | ✿Loquᴀcιous✿『☕』

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    Hmmmm~~ for me its very important that a translation is properly done (especially when it is published) to provide readers with a 'proper' product, unless you'd be giving your readers frustration. In case of a webnovel not so much, though i am irritated when some translators just translate it for the sake fo translating and ruin a perfectly good novel.

    I

    I can feel you~ It just ruins the experience and the atmosphere of the novel, as i've observed this is quite apparent for Jp novels as they can switch up to 5 translators and the translator who picked it up doesn't even bother to check the past translations naming for the Names, Skills, Places which can induce confusion, headaches, and annoyance to readers. I've experienced this so many times that i just tend to stick to the first translations naming
     
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  6. Bad Storm

    Bad Storm no thought, head empty

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    I'm still not done with Mahouka haha
    Ahh I know what you mean. I think that happened to my OVR experience. When the translators change, I felt like the novel itself changed.
    Interesting that the amount of swearing could bring out such effects.
    Reminds me of a translator that cuts chapters into 3 parts. I didn't even know at the start, I thought it was a diligent translator coz there was an update everyday.
     
  7. albeldayuia

    albeldayuia Can't-Re Member

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    Most of the novels I read are mtl :blob_teary::blob_teary: so I can say that I'm used to reading error-ridden texts, but I've dropped 'translated' novels with questionable quality. I hold human translation and mtl on different levels, I guess? When I know that someone is in charge of it, the errors become less tolerable
     
  8. Aquaa

    Aquaa 『We Lost The Summer』

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    I mtl novels so well...I am quite desperate for novels with good plotline or anything that suits my taste
     
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  9. Bad Storm

    Bad Storm no thought, head empty

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    That makes sense, it's like you have no expectations and you know what you're getting with mtl.
    I think one of the reasons I don't mtl, because I know I'd lost track of my progress. No matter how good the plot-line is, it's a lot more forgettable to me since I could only understand the general outline.
     
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  10. Guan Zhong

    Guan Zhong Well-Known Member

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    Bad grammar and syntax of course are annoying. The most common errors I notice are subject-verb disagreement, wrong preposition use (like using "on" when you ought to use "in", etc), and not understanding mass nouns and count nouns (can't think of a real example at the moment, but just to make something up, it would be like saying "There's waters all over the floor").

    If you don't know the original language then as long as the grammar is alright then it will seem to be a "good" translation. But if you know the original language you end up spotting translation errors. Sometimes I go and check the raws and find even more errors or even parts of lines not even translated.

    Then there's seeing the same words over and over and knowing exactly what the original text was. I call it "Autopilot Translating", where you just plug in the same English word or phrase every time you come across a given word/phrase. So every time the author writes 非常 the translator writes "extremely", every 竟然 is "actually", etc. I can't unsee it, and it annoys me to no end.
     
  11. Bad Storm

    Bad Storm no thought, head empty

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    The curse of knowing how to read raws :blobrofl:
    But yah, there are things that are hard to unsee.
     
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  12. Aquaa

    Aquaa 『We Lost The Summer』

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    thats true , I just remember the plotlije in general, but that applies to all novels i read , many times i just forget what I read >>;; but it quenches the temporary thirst to read something
     
  13. afelice

    afelice Well-Known Member

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    if i need to read fan translation, i usually pick the most coherent one. english is not my first language but i can spot grammatical errors and if it's in japanese language i can spot the errors and inconsistencies with raws, too (i avoid reading CN novels because can't stand reading too much chapters :blobjoy:)

    currently i bought novels myself and ended up MTL-ing for my own amusement (because now I mostly read KR novels lol, i don't have time to dig through private groups and dealing with passwords and verifications).

    i rarely drop novels just because of the translation quality. most of the fan translation novels i read get butchered or dropped due to various reasons :notlikeblob:.
     
  14. Joospinch

    Joospinch Don't click my avatar!!!

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    No matter how much i like a novel i can never go read the MTL because at that point i start questioning myself lol.

    Also if i start a novel and the translation is not passable i immediately drop it, although im not a native english speaker that doesn't mean i can understand broken english :blobjoy:
     
  15. asriu

    asriu fu~ fu~ fu~

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    to certain degree~ cuz there was time this cat on situation need to make sense from barely scratch language , gesture language is thing this cat done on past so trying to connect few this based on general stuff is ok~ such as mtl muahahaha!
    anyway mtl this day not as pain as before~ meh its not formal occasion so just yolo~ this cat just practical ba~
     
  16. Havisu

    Havisu Night Lurker

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    I can cope with bad translation..

    But i can't stand with the reading experience when another translator picked up the novel that i already used to read from another translator..

    Even if the translation are better than the previous one, but if the format, the way sentences are made, the way grammars are used, etc are changed, i would have to read from chapter 1 translated by that another TL so that i can adapt to the new way of translation.

    This is also true even if my fav translator picked an already translated novels..

    But i wouldn't blame anyone, after all translator are like apostle who bring us holy text (novel), that are actually the words of divine being (author)..

    Mtl or not, people put their efforts in translating something, even if they're not native english speaker. I would respect them for having more motivation than me in doing something...

    what i do not respect is, if they (translator) are "reserving" the novels, and will not translate it unless people donate to them, or only release a new chapter when another translator try to translate it under "3 months absence" rule.
     
  17. Shiroikaze42

    Shiroikaze42 Well-Known Member

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    It's hard to draw a definite line, but when I have to mentally re-translate everything, that's a solid no. I'm not reading it. I'll wait for someone else to translate it, or I won't read it. Or if it's Japanese I might just read the originals.

    I've read a few fan translations that I was extremely satisfied with. But as long as it's made of coherent sentences, and there's no weird passages that show the translator has no idea what's actually happening in the story, I'm usually happy. I just want to be able to understand the story without having to rework every sentence I'm reading.
     
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  18. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    The quality of the translation matters a lot. I read for pleasure, and the quality of the prose is one of the most important components of this. So if a translation is bad then there has to be something very special about the book for me to keep reading.

    The worst is when the word used for this is incorrect. It's almost a game to spot all the mistranslations!
     
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  19. Fluffums

    Fluffums 【R-18 Researcher】【Seeker of Moe】

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    Some groups seem like the "translator" just put it through MTL, scanned through the page to make sure the program didn't have an error or bug, and then post it on their website. Probably takes them about a minute and maybe 20 mouse clicks per chapter. Of course they make sure to ask for donations!

    I don't mind MTL, partially because if there's a section I don't understand I can take a look at individual words and phrases to figure it out. If I'm reading a translation, I feel like it's reasonable to expect the translator to at least put that much time and effort in, because at the end of the day, if I have to put extra effort in to understand something that's already been translated to my language of choice, the translator has failed. There's no room for excuses because they're doing nothing a machine translation program can't do better.
     
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  20. Shiroikaze42

    Shiroikaze42 Well-Known Member

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    I cringe every time I see "metastasis" used in reference to teleportation. Google Translate is not adjusted for fantasy terminology.
     
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