As a multilingual that speaks at least 4 languages comfortably, I have something to say about translating.

thread, ofc.

Y'all know how difficult it is to translate real-time?

It's madness. We aren't even going to talk about real-time interpretation, just subtitling real-time.

I'm sharing my personal experience here because some of you are really being ungrateful pieces of shits.

I speak Japanese and I work in the travel industry, specializing in Japan.

There are many events where I had to connect with people and Japanese is not my first language. But I can only communicate in Japanese in these events, to connect with tourism organizations and companies.

Sometimes I had to go alone. I have no translators/interpreter with me for my business trips, so I sometimes miss out details or contexts. Many things are taken into account when it comes to communicating in a language that isn't your mothertongue.

I had to cope in other ways.

And that takes more time than usual communication. I had to ask questions to reconfirm what I was hearing; I had to scribble on my notes so quickly and I have never for once retained everything word by word in a single hearing.

I've been doing this for 8 years.

Even if I've done translations for 8 years I always felt that something is lacking, there's always something new that I learn from every conversation.

I've been to Japanese concerts, voice actor (seiyuu) events, and I thought I could handle the information well but...

NOPE.

For me to deliver a translation accurately, word-by-word, I need to go back to the recorded audio clips (that is if I was given permission to record or otherwise RIP to me) at least 3 times.

The longer the clip is, the worse it gets. There are a lot of cross-checking required.

We aren't even talking about LIVE translations, that is some real-time chaotic shit and this is an understatement especially if you deal with people that speak FAST.

Like Japanese and Korean.

If it involves multiple people, the amount of chaos is unimaginable.

If you're subtitling or having to provide a real-time translation through words, it is not just typing it out

You've to figure various things - the context, how to translate it accurately without losing the meaning, etc.

Because you can't always translate everything directly.

Taking Japanese as an example.

We always say 'itadakimasu' and translate it as 'thanks for the meal' but it has a deeper meaning into it - there are a lot of emotions, feelings that can never be translated through words in another language.

And this is only by text. Not LIVE.

When it comes to translating and interpreting live events, as a non-native speaker, you might miss out the context at times, it can be a cultural context, or it can be something completely new.

There are many hippy Japanese words that I had to Google to understand

And sometimes at certain concerts or events the conversation can be about something or somewhere or some event that you haven't been involved in, or even to know about but the hosts kept talking about it and you might only realize it's actually about ANOTHER TOPIC after the event

I legit had experiences where I had to ask my ex about certain context so I can confirm if the stuff I understood aren't wrong before submitting my work and so

and girl, lemme tell you the amount of times I went like this:

So far I have been thankful that I am not an interpreter where I had to always do real-time interpretation or translation (like the KCON event there are subtitles right?).

Y'all complain that it's late as if you think systems are simple to operate LMAO TRY DOING IT URSELF BIJ

Grammar structure are different. You need to listen to the whole sentence to know wtf is actually being said before actually sending that translation out

Your brain needs to work fast, you need to type fast, you need to be alert on the next lines, you need to recall past events.

I could talk about this all day but it really isn't easy.

Many fandom translators don't even earn. They do it for the love of their fandom.

Before translating we all have our personal lives - work, studies, etc.

Sometimes they even forget to eat.

So if I see someone complain about translators being slow or mistranslated something imma give this

But ofc you can't just add random context like the China fansign. That is 100% unacceptable. The ultimate goal is to deliver the context as it is to the audience language only.

Appreciate your translators.
If you complain, then try doing it and be better than us.

出来なければ黙って自分を埋めろ、クソが！

Translate that yourself

- end of thread -