human or MTL

Discussion in 'Translator's Corner' started by ssokuri, Mar 30, 2023.

  1. ssokuri

    ssokuri Member

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  2. Yasi

    Yasi Well-Known Member

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    I went through all of your examples and I'd say 95% of it is readable. The problem with just MTL is that you're going to get a lot of the terminologies wrong, and you're going to miss a lot of the nuances. I think you'll be able to garner a good chunk of interest from readers that don't care about any of that, though.

    There are like millions of untranslated JP, CN, KR, and other novels, so I personally don't mind it. It also won't hurt if you can maintain the quality from example #6 in the survey.
     
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  3. Purelove

    Purelove Pure Love Translations

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    the problem is some 'human's grasp' on English can't even be compared to machine hahaha.
     
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  4. NorthBladeTL

    NorthBladeTL Well-Known Member

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    As sad as it is, readers generally care more about the quality and clarity of the English writing than the actual accuracy of the translation. I'd say everything except 1 (bad human tl) and 14 (unedited mtl) is readable. I've seen readers defending obvious mistranslations just because it sounds better in English and coming up with all sorts of excuses why they're right.

    Anyway, it's not like the writing quality of webnovels are any good, regardless of language. If they were written sloppily to begin with, any translation is going to look just as sloppy unless the translator is making an effort to improve the writing quality over the original.
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2023