#tbh writing and translating the spells is really fun even though it's time consuming and difficult at times

[rokso-o]

@blueteller this is my sideblog so i couldn’t reply instead 😣 eng isn’t my first language so i hope my explanation will be understandable 😭😭😭 so sorry in advance if it’s not very nuanced. (also i had to like doubletake cause you replied to my post and i thought you were calling me a smartass and a jerk who doesn’t know what they’re talking about 😭⁉️ i literally am so dumb................ [a moment of silence] i was like damnnnn i know im no professional and only translate for... fun?? but i know a little bit jdkdjdkjfkfkff im so sorry unless YOU ACTUALLY ARE CALLING ME ONE???)

i already explained this whole thing multiple times from the reblog from op to couple answered asks about it but yes! but i do believe that the whole argument (if there should be one) should’ve been whether or not the spelling should be /better/ as miru or mireu instead, because they are the most accurate (and if we’re being literal, the only accurate ones for pure korean romanisations.) another new example i would have is when we would romanised surnames like seo or suh, choi or chwe. people use both and can be use interchangeably unless the person put one as their actual government name. nevertheless, they are the same. the only difference would be the easier pronunciation for foreigners who doesn’t speak or know korean. if you consume any korean media and pick up their proununciation and how they romanise/write names, you would know that the ‘eo’ sound is spoken as ‘uh’ and for choi, it is written and pronounced as ‘chwe’ (accurately, though they do let people in western countries pronounce it as choi sometimes... like with lee but it’s pronounced as “ih” literally). of course, there can be exemptions to this rule like no one will romanise a name like eunjae as unjae or eunjeh whereas you can use jaehyun vs jaehyeon. thats why i found it a bit ??!!¥!}¥!¥?_!}_ when i saw them use “mir” and their t/n i was a bit disappointed because they tried to localise a pure korean word. one of my pet peeves and the reason why i learned languages is because i reaaaaaaally disliked it when certain things get lost in translation 😖 and for me, this one felt like it. [as in, it just sounded high and mighty to me the way they worded it but even if you try and google the pure korean word, everyone does romanise it as mireu]. in addition to this, it just makes me a tiny bittttt sad because cale has ALWAYS emphasised the fact that raon’s name is PURE KOREAN so this means a lot to me?!!?¥!}¥!¥ [and tbh, i have translated a few rofan and esp wuxia/xianxia centric novels and manhwas so it was so weird to me when a translator’s thought was to try and romanise a pure korean name like it was a borrowed word. but it’s aight anyways since i do read the raws and just wanted to put my two cents in since a lot of novel readers thought that miru was innacurate] [and like i said before, im not sure if this tl team translate terms like hyung or oppa, etc as is but if they do, i just really don’t understand the type of spite they gotta have for them to try and translate miru/mireu as mir......???]

[ps. regarding this reply hekdjdkjdkf i jus wanna be delulu bc i can’t express my adoration to cale normally..... i do not know how hkddjkdjdwhat it was a platonic proposal (for his money... and his brain tbh) but if im being honest i do wanna marry beacrox unironically.... although i feel like that’s even more impossible....... sighhhhhh]

[thecourtsorcerer]

Just hit 8.5k words on my main entry for Tavernfest Quest 2: Merlin Hurt/Comfort Fest 2021, and am currently screaming because I just realized I’m not even halfway done and only have 16 days left to finish and post it. 

I’mnotfreakingoutyou’refreakingoutwhydidn’tIstartsoonerohyeahbecauseIhadotherprojects  

Two days and two weeks to go! I got this. I’m lowkey super excited to finish and post this fic, I’ve put a lot of work into it, including creating and translating spells into Old English (well, trying to translate them into Old English, unsurprisingly that is a rather difficult task). 

I cannot wait to share this work on Ao3, though, truly. I only hope those who read it enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.  

[taruyison]

Tagged by @stxphxn-strange - always a delight!!

You can find their post here

Would You Rather - Fanfic Version

(I responded to all the questions under the cut cause it would be such a long post. Btw, if you wanna do a read more tag on mobile, write :readmore: and press the enter button. Works like a charm 👌)

Do you prefer friends to lovers or enemies to lovers? - I feel like I haven’t really read any of these tropes, but I think I’d say friends to lovers because that’s wholesome (although enemies to lovers could be FEELS)

Would you rather be forced to watch a terrible movie adaptation of your favorite fanfic or an amazing adaptation of your least favorite fanfic? - I’m a giant movie critic, although silently, so I might want the amazing adaptation tbh

Would you rather read fanfic chapters backwards or read them as parsed from google translate? - “I’m fluent in Google Translate”

Would you rather consume every fanfic as an audiobook read by a monotone narrator or have to read on a tiny printed piece of papers written in yellow highlighter? - Monotone audiobook; how am I supposed to see *anything* written in highlighter??

Would you rather get a tattoo on your body of very fanfic title you read or never read fanfic again? - I’ve always wanted a tattoo tbh, and imagine having the titles of the fics you adore on your arms. Great way to remember if you wanna go back for a re-read! 👌

Do you prefer vampire au or werewolf au? - I haven’t read enough of any of these to know for sure, but let’s say Vampire AU 🙈

Would you rather get sold to a boy band or be stuck in a time loop with your love interest? - Oh yeah, just throw me into the Doctor Strange canon cause I literally have no love life and he’s the closest thing to anything called a love interest 😂

Would you rather kill your favorite character or marry your least favorite character? - I’ve already killed my favorite character so I guess it’s time to marry my least favorite

Would you rather meet your love interest in a coffee shop au or college au? - Coffee Shop AU cause then I can be lazy and sit in a corner and slurp tea while stalking him

Would you rather have your fic history leaked or never read another fanfic again? - I don’t think I have anything *too* bad in my history, and I still have plenty of fics I wanna read, as sooo (129 + 5 on my TBR)

Would you rather be able to read amazing fanfiction but it always has an mpreg plot twist or only read bad fanfiction for the rest of your life? - I mean, mpreg is my jam so why the hell not? Why is this even a question sksksksk--

Would you rather gay ships or straight ships? - Be gay, do crimes!

Would you rather ship a rarepair with almost no content or a pair with lots of content but almost all of it is cracky nightmare smut? - Rarepair (tbh I think I have one exactly like this) (oh god, you have me thinking about the baby carrot incident-- DO NOT REMIND ME OF THE BABY CARROT INCIDENT)

Would you rather see your otp shatter years after their happily ever after or never have the happily ever after happen in the first place? - Reading or writing? Cause I could write both, it would probably even be fun writing some good old angst and heartbreak, but I’d probably prefer to read the latter

Would you rather read a poorly written but complete fanfic or a literary masterpiece last updated june 2013? - Why do you have to attack me like this sjsbddjsm-- I choose masterpiece

Would you rather read SSSS++++ tier smut with almost 11k words or 70k words worth of fluff? - Can I just ask.. Is the 11k *only* smut? Like are they literally having sex for three damn days straight with no breaks? Then I’d probably pick the fluff because damn, the smut would get messy (and probably unsanitary)

Would you rather read only alternate universe fanfics or only canon fanfics? - Alternate Universe, duh; we don’t do canon in this household

Would you rather introduce fanfics to your normie friend with an ongoing smut fic with great writing or a complete fluff fic with terrible writing? - Wait, normies actually exist? Like, for real? I thought they were a myth! But yeah, probably the smut fic to keep them on their toes, lol

Would you rather read your notp with all your favorite tropes and perfect characterization or your otp with tropes you despise and inconsistent characterization? - I don’t even think I have a notp, but I’d prefer good characterization tbh

Would you rather have a major character death or have a bed sharing scene but it’s a ship you hate? - Major Character Death; we’ve all been through it

Would you rather every fanfic includes Jackson Wang or every fanfic includes at least one nsfw moment? - Don’t they already? Lmao, nsfw please

Would you rather read a fanfic that has constant grammar and spelling mistakes or one that the characters are wildly different than canon? - OOC; rather good spelling than bad because I have an ounce of perfectionism

Would you rather read the most absolutely messed up dead dove with your most wholesome ship or subject yourself to 100,000 words of your notp all written in a solid block with no punctuation and horrible grammar? - I realize I know nothing about the Dead Dove trope, but I literally can’t stand giant walls of text. I’m in *physical pain* from people who don’t know how to paragraph. Which means yes, I pick the dove

Would you rather have the power to read every fanfic in existence or have the power to make any ship canon? - IronStrange, here we come! I guess that doesn’t actually answer the question, lol. Second option

Would you rather read a cringy 70 chapter harry styles mafia au or a high school kpop au y/n fic with horrible grammar? - I’ve no joke stumbled upon a mildly erotic kpop fanfiction on Twitter at some point and that shit was weirdly interesting. I know nothing about kpop but that author was good. Probably picking the Mafia AU though cause that seems like a morbidly interesting idea

Would you rather have your otp get together in canon but one of them dies in a tragic way or all members of your otp survive but get together with other people? - Isn’t both of these just Marvel canon at this point? Bahbaii Tony Stark, but if he *had* survived, he’d still be with Pepper; rip IronStrange either way. Still, I’ll pick the first

Would you rather accidentally send your boss a super detailed smut fic or read a super detailed smut fic about your boss? - Who’s my boss if I’m unemployed? Self-employment? Myself then? Lol, joke’s on you because I *write* detailed smut about myself (no, I ain't sharing, I’m a coward) (at least let me finish it first, jfc)

Would you rather read smut fanfic aloud to your parents or submit smut fanfic to the employer of your dream job? - I think I need context about this one-- Did the employer *ask* for this submission? Is this the criteria to get the job? Because if so, hell yeah I would (though I’m wondering if I might already have read a smut fic to my parents at some point >.>)

Would you rather pine after an oblivious love interest or be the oblivious love interest pined after? - I have pined and I legit have been pined for. Can’t say either of them was very interesting, but I pick the latter (I was turned down when I asked that stupid old crush for a dance... Twice)

Would you rather hanahaki disease or your soulmate’s first words to you tattooed on your body (and they’re really stupid)? - Soulmate’s words. I imagine I’d say something equally as stupid back

Would you rather be an alpha, beta, or omega in omegaverse? - I think the most convenient choice here would be beta, but I really think it would be interesting to be an omega and still keep my asshole demeanor. “Fuck you alpha, I ain’t for sale today”

Would you rather read a fanfic where the characters turn into furries or a fanfic where the characters all get pregnant? - How about all the characters turn fuzzy AND pregnant? Didn’t think about that one, did you 😏

Would you rather be able to resurrect dead fics or have the power to create a plethora of new fics effortlessly? - I already have too many ideas swimming in my head and I don’t need more. However, too many fics have been lost into the void, and I have a few that I absolutely would like to see born anew!

Alright this was cool! I like thinking about fanfiction and talking about fanfiction, so this was a really fun tag! Thanks again stxphxn

I believe everyone that cones to mind has already been tagged for this but ssksnsjdb @dezmondmyles @hickapostsart @ironstrangeislove and literally anyone who wants to gossip about fanfiction--

Have fun! :)

[eyfey]

Do you have advice on how to improve on translating? Also, what made you want to start translating? Major props to you for translating Saiki because Akechi Touma’s lines kinda make me wanna die inside.

Thanks!!! (though tbh Akechi’s blathering is not NEARLY as bad as the non-stop puns/obscure references lol)

For what made me start translating:I found some Pyu to Fuku Jaguar raws for cheap at a used bookstore and started learning Japanese so I could read them. Once I got a little faster at reading, I noticed the Jaguar scanlation team had lost their translator, so I offered to join. My first translations were super not great (the only reason they’re even somewhat accurate is because Mangahelpers was more active at the time and I posted my translations there in the forums for people to proofread/asked for help whenever there was any kanji/grammar I got stuck on.

(If you want to go read my first translation, it’s ch62 of Pyu to Fuku! Jaguar. …Looking at it now, there’s so many places I could’ve translated better lol)

Since then I’ve gotten a lot better:

So here’s my hot tips on how to get better at translating!!!(under the readmore ‘cause it’s looong)

The number one thing that I recommend is… Just Translate! Pick up some raws and start doing some translations! They’re probably gonna be bad at first but who cares! You gotta start somewhere! Translating forces you to think about how to actually translate stuff and makes you look up words/grammar you don’t know. If you’re translating for a group/actually releasing your translations: You’ve got deadlines now! People looking forward to your translations! You’ve got consequences that will make it harder for you to slack off and drop your studies!

Google things! Whenever there’s a word/phrase/grammar that you don’t know: Google it! Google is a translators best friend!!!

Here’s some keywords I use:��[vocab/phrase in japanese] 英語で” will give you a google translate of the vocab, and if you scroll down a little like a weblio page or something with some translations for the vocab (the weblio/other pages are usually more accurate than the google translate option).

“[grammar in japanese] grammar” - Example 食べさせた (tabesaseta). Can’t remember what the -saseta verb ending meants? (I don’t blame you lol) Google “させた grammar” and you’ll get some pages in english explaining it along with several examples.

Have another translator proofread your translations! They can help you with vocab/grammar, parts that you misread, or even just suggest different ways to translate things that might fit better in different situations. The first scanlation group I was in did this and I learned soooo much that way! I don’t know how many other groups do this though (or how many other groups even have more than one translator) so maybe I just lucked out!

Fun fact! If something seems out of place when you’re reading/translating, it’s probably one of the following:a). A pun/cultural reference. b). A specific phrase/saying that shouldn’t be taken literally. (Googling the entire phrase will usually give you an equivelant phrase or appropriate definition in English.)c). Some weird grammar that you’re translating wrong (do a deep google: a lot of grammar forms have multiple meanings/change meaning based on very small factors/are very similar sounding to other different grammar forms)

Understand that a literal translation is not always a good or accurate translation: There’s some famous Natsume Souseki shenanigans where the line “I love you” was translated as “The moon is beautiful” in Japanese, because of how Japanese people are more shy or something and would never say “I love you straight out”. Natsume Souseki is valid- some things when you translate directly lose their nuance and change the meaning to something completely different.

That being said, changing TOO much will also ruin your translation. It’s a fine balance.The point is: once you understand what the Japanese says, you gotta think “okay now how would they say this in English?” If this series were originally in English, how would the author write that dialogue? What is the main point that needs to get across and what is the tone and how do you accurately convey both of those in English?

Consume! Consume media! Read stuff! Watch TV! Listen Learn how people talk! Get a bunch of English vocabulary up in your head and save it for later. Translating is not just understanding, it’s also WRITING. You need to have at least SOME understanding of how to write a poem if you want to translate a poem. You need to have at least SOME understanding of how to write comics/fiction if you want to translate comics/fiction.

Read/watch translated stuff! See how other translators translate certain words/phrases and take notes. Steal their cool ways of translating things and incorporate them into your own translations. Notice what DOESN’T work in a translation and make a mental note to not do that. (Season 2 of Aggretsuko on Netflix had me going “WOW that’s a good translation!” constantly while watching it. Good job Aggretsuko S2 netflix translator!)

Google again! Remember how you had to google to learn Japanese words? Good! Now google English words too! Google vocab terms! Google synonyms! Google phrases/sayings! Google words to make sure you’re spelling them right! Google grammar to make sure you’re using it right! GOOGLE!

Accents/dialects: Tread carefully with accents and speech quirks. Sprinkle them in, don’t lay them on heavy. Read the dialogue you’ve written and think “Does this sound like how an actual person would talk? or does this sound like someone putting on a shitty fake accent?” I’ve seen so many translations where people slam the accent on so hard you can’t even read the dialogue any more… It’s not great. *Exceptions for if the character IS putting on a shitty fake accent in Japanese, in which case go hog wild.

Puns: If you hate yourself, you will try to translate the puns instead of putting a translators note. Don’t worry too much about translating the pun EXACTLY. With puns/jokes, there’s two important factors at play: 1. What is the joke? Is it a reference? Is it a play on words? 2. What is the text ACTUALLY saying?Start by translating the line with no pun, just regular dialogue, and then adjust from there. Then re-word to try and fit in the pun- swap out words for ones that lend themselves better to punnery, or change which part of the sentence has the pun worked into it. (Wanna know a secret? Sometimes*, if the pun is the main focus of the line and there isn’t actually any important meaning to the dialogue? You can just write whatever the fuck you want to fit the pun. *but only if you’re ABSOLUTELY sure that it’s 100% about the pun and there���s no other significance)

しかたがない: This sucks. This phrase sucks. “It can’t be helped” sucks 98% of the time. “What choice do we have”, “Fine then” “What did you expect?” “I guess” “If you insist” “Whatever”. There’s a million ways to translate it, but no one way works for every situation. Sometimes you can just take it out completely. It all boils down to “I don’t want to do this but I’m doing it anyway” so think of what someone might say in that scenario that conveys that feeling and still feels natural.

Sentence structure/double bubbles: Japanese grammar structure is weird. Sometimes they do stuff like put the subject at the end of the sentence. It sounds weird when you do that in English. Don’t do that in english when you’re translating it. If you’ve got a line like 強いね、君は (tsuyoi ne, kimi wa). Please don’t translate it as “You’re strong, you are”. Just translating it as “You’re strong” is good enough. If you want to try and keep the pause in there, you could do something like “Yknow, you’re pretty strong.” If you’ve got something like this that’s split up across multiple speech bubbles- DON’T try to translate each bubble individually. Translate them all together as one big block of text, then divide it where it feels natural, and THEN re-distribute it to the speech bubbles. Sometimes what was in the last bubble will end up in the first bubble.

If it sounds awkward in English- Change it. Figure out what doesn’t sound awkward and make it be that.

PROOFREAD. You’re gonna spell things wrong. You’re gonna misread things. You’re gonna go back and decide to change the wording of a sentence but forget to change the tense of one of the words. You’re gonna translate something too close to the Japanese sentence structure and you won’t really notice it the first go around but when you go back to proofread you’ll be like “Wow. No one talks like that in English.”

For reference, here’s my translation/proofread process:

1. Translate. Get it into English. Doesn’t matter if it sounds janky or awkward right now, just try to get the meaning down in English. Anything you’re not sure you translated right? Mark it so you can double check it later. (I usually do this in a google doc on my phone.)2. 1st passthrough. Go through, and turn all that janky english into more natural sounding English: Check for anything that sounds off and give it some tlc. Reword anything that needs it. Do some hard research on the places you weren’t sure about the first time.3. 2nd passthrough. One more sweep through to polish up any parts that still sound awkward in English. If you’re not pressed for time it’s good to do this one a day or two after the previous passthrough so you’ve had some time to let the translation simmer in the back of your mind. Maybe you’ve come up with a better way to word something? Maybe you came up with a good way to make that joke work?4. Final proofread. Usually I do this after it’s been typeset: Sometimes something that read fine as a script doesn’t read so great when put on a page, divided into bubbles or split into separate pages. Adjust those parts. Check extra hard for any missed typos or messed up grammar ‘cause there IS going to be some that slipped through.

KEEP NOTES: If you’re working on a series, consistency is important and makes you look professional! Keep a document somewhere with translation notes so you can do a quick consistency check whenever necessary. Write down things like: How to spell/translate the names of characters/places/special attacks/etc (especially side characters that only show up every once and a while), how you translate certain catch phrases, how you handle certain characters’ speech quirks. You WILL forget if you spelled that name with one R or two Rs and it’s WAY easier to keep it all in one document than to have to go back and scan through every chapter until you find the ONE panel to see how it was written before. It also helps if you have multiple translators working on a series.

Put your name on your translation scripts if you want to be credited! Doesn’t have to be on every page, just once at the top- I used to not bother 'cause they were always just uploaded directly to the scan groups/never publicly uploaded, but then one day someone used one of my translations and the credit page just said something like “don’t know who to credit” lol

…and that’s all I can think of right now! Hope that helps!