#bc this is in part for commission examples right…..but i still need to finalize & format that comm post…….

[gontagokuhara]

man i rly thought these edits were gonna be quick & easy & all the parts would go right up…… get-a-load-of-this-guy cam

[teyuuka]

teyuuka’s translation process

So following my commission post, I thought I could share my usual translation timeline for new followers. Actually different translators work differently, and tbh I’m not as structured as most translators out there, but I do have a general flow of how I work out paid translations (commissions, essentially).

[Start]

If I have zero idea about the CD and the potential commissioner is willing to share the tracks with me before commissioning, I will skim through the smut to confirm there is no disturbing content. At this stage nothing is confirmed yet and no payment has been made yet so both parties can refuse the commission if they wish. Discussions of fees and additional requests also happens here, so if you have certain conditions (e.g, if you’d like a certain format, to include the title call, to stay anonymous, etc) this would be the right time to bring it up.

If the commissioner is unable to give sample tracks, they must let me know about the content of the CD - the nature of the content and the general summary. (not in depth, just state whatever synopsis is given in the website or whatever blogs that posts CD updates, such as @dauriculaire)

Upon confirmation of terms and fees, the commissioner will send me the audio tracks. After receiving the payment and the audio tracks, I will usually listen to the CD in whole ~1hr, to get a sense of the story. At this stage I won’t usually concentrate too hard, as to not lose the shock factor.

[Transcribing - Appr. 2 hrs]

Time to begin translating!

Or rather just transcribing, really. AKA, listening to the conversations, actually paying attention, and jotting everything down (mostly in Japanese, except the parts that I’m sure I can translate in English right away). Since this is basically my first listening in focus, most of my comments or intense fangirl screaming will go in here.

A lot of pausing here. When I don’t understand something I will just type it in Hiragana or Katakana with a bunch of question marks (lmao) and highlight it for the next stage.

[Draft translation - Appr. 4 hrs]

Ok... Actual translating begins here. This is the first draft so the translation is still a little wonky.

Depending on how many question marks I have from the previous stage, it will take some time because I tend to do edits along the way.

Most of the time I will translate along with the audio, but after 2.5++ hrs I won’t play the audio anymore because after a long exposure you tend to mishear things.

[Final edit - Appr. 2 hr]

This basically involves final edits along WITH the tracks playing, to confirm the translation matches the nuance of the original version (or as close as I try to be). Here I will listen through the whole CD which will take me around 1 hr or more including tokuten.

[Review and finalize - Appr. 15 mins]

This step is mostly straight after the previous step - I will just do a final proofreading (without audio) and send the file out to my commissioner [you! :)]

[Posting!! YAY]

The rest of it is only to post the translation - depending whether the commissioner consented it. Typically I will queue it to post 2 days from the date I sent the translation to my commissioner. However, for more difficult projects I will wait for the commissioner to confirm that they’ve received and are satisfied with the quality before I post the translation on my blog.

SO YEEEEEEE that is basically how I churn out my translations! Do note that this process does NOT take place on the same day though, for example, from transcribing to draft translation might have a few days interval bc I got busy irl or just because, well it’s night time and I need to sleep lmao.

Obviously this is more like a generalized timeline, so the duration will change depending on the length and difficulty project I am working on, but I hope this might be of help when you are considering my services. :^)