How I became and un-became a manga translator

http://www.bemmu.com/how-i-became-and-unbecame-a-manga-translator

by bemmu • 11 years ago

49 9 11 years ago

Mithaldu2• 11 years ago

Yeah, he discovered the cruel truth that translation work isn't seen as cerebral at all by most people, and just thought of as factory labor, to be underpaid and forced to push as hard as possible.

I was once on a similar path, localizing MMOs, and am so glad i got out of that and into software development.

bemmu2• 11 years ago

The best part of it was that I was basically getting paid to learn Japanese. Had I continued on that path my language skills would be amazing at this point.

Mithaldu2• 11 years ago

That actually makes me a little envious. :)

I only got the job at a point where i was already very fluent in english, and got into dev because i had enough learning time to learn programming skills to help the translations.

As for your language skills, does that mean you live in japan, have a business selling things from japan, but aren't fully fluent?

(Also, as a subscriber, i adore the service and hope you'll be doing it for some time to come. :D)

thirdtruck• 11 years ago

How much Japanese did you know going in? I took a couple years in it back in undergrad, but it's all rusted away from a lack of practice.

erikb• 11 years ago

As always it's supply and demand. Translating Mangas/Animes is considered so coool that way too many are willing to do way too much work for way too little pay. As a result the work sucks, considering it as a normal job.

matxip• 11 years ago

I've done some 'scanlations' work. I couldn't imagine doing it for a job though.

On one hand, there's some pressures and social issues to grapple with when doing scanlations. For example, You can essentially start turf wars by taking on certain projects, even if the 'maintainer' is grossly neglecting the project or non-communicative. Also, the readers are very passionate people, and they have a direct line to air their grievances with the translation/typesetting/rate of release/etc. There's also, of course, the moral issue of enabling what is essentially just piracy.

On the other hand, you're able to work on a manga you're passionate about, or at the very least interested in without worrying about licensing/etc. And being unbeholden to anyone on the level of accuracy-versus-fluidity and offensiveness is definitely very valuable.

Even just doing it for fun was pretty brutal though. I have a lot of respect for the ancient groups and members that've been plugging away at it forever.

How I became and un-became a manga translator

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