>>282286973>Translating jokes that are Japan-specific should just be done with a TL note.Agreed if the joke can be summed up in one sentence.If it can be condensed to one or two words, use furigana-style superscript. If it takes multiple sentences, attach a text file.>It was done 20+ years ago, and then dropped entirely a decade ago because translators either don't understand the jokes themselves or are retarded when it comes to getting the dialogue across.My theory is that half the competent translators got hired by simulcasters whose editorial policies don't allow for TL notes, the other half got better-paying jobs, and most translators who got into the hobby after the rise of simulcasts move onto scanlation once they get good enough to read kanji without getting yelled at in the comment section. Then they give up because some teenager on the other side of the world snipes them with barely edited MTL.
>>282287248A good translator would localize the joke.That's what make the difference between a good translator, and a translator that don't putting in the effort to make an understandable translation.
>>282287315>A good translator would localize the joke.Define "localize".Any definition you can come up with will enrage certain purists who pretend to know Japanese but can't offer any better alternative.
>>282287315Some translators don't have the skill to localize the joke, and some jokes cannot be localized no matter how much skill you have. Trust me, I like a good localized joke that fits but in a general sense I would rather tl notes be used predominantlyOnly if 1. The joke can be localized2. you're smart enough to come up with a good localization Then should you do itYou have to be a good writer to be a top tier translator and most of them aren't
>>282287248You cant even have Japanese staples in anime manga anymore
>>282287382>Any definition you can come up with will enrage certain purists who pretend to know Japanese but can't offer any better alternative.I don't care. That's what being a good translator is about. The Wapanese purists are a joke.
>>282287733Put the 24th letter of the alphabet in the box to prove you're human:[ ]
>>282287315Yeah, just like the translations of Dazai's work turn the dialogue into 50's American slapstick. I guess those translators weren't very professional.
>>282287774You're hired. We pay in exposure.
>>282287459>You have to be a good writer to be a top tier translatorNow THIS I can't agree with.A good writer needs to know how to come up with a compelling premise, write nuanced characters and conflict, identify recurring themes, find a satisfying dramatic structure that unifies the above, and phrase the result in prose that is both entertaining enough to satisfy their target audience and original enough to satisfy critics.A good translator just needs to know how to express the result in two languages.Most writers who think they're too good to be translators even though their original work keeps getting rejected end up as dub writers.
>>282287248>once they get good enough to read kanji without getting yelled at in the comment section.People reading manga are complete shit-eaters. You can make everything up and they'll still thank you for the translation. Most fan translations these days are made with OCR and the "translators" can't even read basic kana.
>>282288063Okay maybe writer isn't the best word, but you do have to be well read and have good command of not just Japanese translating but also writing English in order to be a good translator. I don't know what that word would be for someone good at writing as opposed to storytelling. Actually, no I think you're wrong. Writer doesn't inherently have to do with that. A person who writes a textbook or a newspaper article is a writer for example, and what they write would have nothing to do with what you said.What you said would be more accurately a novelist or a storyteller. A writer is just anyone that writes. >Per ChatGPT>A writer is someone who uses written language to create and communicate ideas, stories, information, or argumentsSo what I'm saying is I think you need to be good at communicating ideas in your native language through text as a prerequisite. Not everyone is good at this which is why we have editors and translating groups in usually have (if they can) seperate editors and proofreaders. But if you're a solo translator you have to do the editing and proofreading yourself, I don't think that's so easy.
>>282288409>you do have to be well readThat entails different things when it comes to fiction vs. non-fiction. For example, someone translating a technical manual won't need much background knowledge on the language's cultural history or literary tradition, but someone translating poetry absolutely will.>A person who writes a textbook or a newspaper article is a writer for example, and what they write would have nothing to do with what you said.Fair point. Writing nonfiction is a separate skill from writing fiction. Translation is a skill downstream from both. A good translator needs to understand those differences and the technicalities of both target forms to translate both types of texts accurately, but doesn't necessarily need to have an original authorial voice.>Per ChatGPTStop that. ChatGPT is a word sequence prediction engine, not a domain expert on anything.
