Editing Teh Ping Talk:Miscellaneous (section)

==Any Final Questions?==

Alright, there's one month left before I'll be gone, so I'll entertain questions for the time being. Just follow the rules below and post your questions on this document.

::*No discussion on very debatable stuff like political and religious issues.
::*No sexual related stuff here.
::*No translation requests.

To those of you who may be interested in becoming LN translators, now will be a good time to ask me any questions you might have, for...to put it this way, Unicorns will appear if you see me back again. I don't plan to give any farewell speeches (just doesn't feel right for me), so this Q&A will be the final interaction here.

'''Q. Did you take any Japanese classes or did you teach yourself?'''

A: I didn't actually take Japanese classes. When I started out translating, I didn't understand a single word of Japanese. All I had was my pretty 'excellent' coverage of kanji characters which I could guess the meaning from. So yeah, I kind of taught myself Japanese while translating (during the time when I first started on Index). It's more of picking out the grammar nuances, learning the charts and working my way up. It's not easy (and I'm still learning), but I am still around.

'''Q: Who will continue Baka To Test Translation Project?'''

A: Depends. I haven't found a successor yet.

'''Q: I've seen one in SAO before, so did you have other novels that you payed more of your time researching than translating?'''

A: About researching, that's a very fun aspect in this hobby...I would say that Gundam Unicorn would be the one series where I spent 10% translating and 90% researching. I would say that I first started researching on the stories when I started working on Baka Test because of all the questions that were tested. I think Unicorn's the only series in this regards, though the madness that was SAO volume 10 chapter 2 reached the 20-80 ratio. I would also recommend translators to do research, not for the sake of the readers, but to gain some form of knowledge (Baka Test's research can mentally scar me though)

'''Q: What drives you into this..job? translating I mean. Could you say your motivations for this job, also for the wannabe translators.'''

A: Ehh...if I have to put it, it's kind of like a hobby to me. Part of the answer is here: http://www.baka-tsuki.org/blog/?p=513  and, another part of the reason is because I lack a sense of self-worth, the shameless in trying something new (for this profession anyway). I can't say that this is a 'job' that will attract many people because of the time dedication required. If I have to say, you're not going to be very well-known under this Baka-Tsuki community of translating unless you have shown an outstanding amount of contribution, especially for series that have developed massive fanbases (looking at you, Index, Infinite Stratos, SAO). Of course, I feel you got to have a large sense of responsibility in order to be able to keep going, or else you will keep procrastinating (leaders of tomorrow). I can't say to anyone straight that there is any motivation, because there isn't actually one. It comes down basically to one thing, what is/are the reason(s) for translating.

'''Q: As one of the trolls on B-T... What do you think about people who are flaming and complain about translations ?'''

A: If I have to say it bluntly, there is no excuse for translators to get dejected just because other people critique their work and stuff. I honestly...can't take people seriously if they only talk and don't do anything of any contributions, or just type behind the computer and not do anything to try and remedy situations when the people being critiqued are contributing more than them atm. (It's probably because of this that I took up more of an admin role this year, and it's kinda tough to balance it out.) I'm a firm believer in backing up words, and for people complaining about speeds and such, I do try to put the effort in telling them to be patient and such. The results are still bleak, but I'm still optimistic (even idealistic about this).  

'''Q: Do you enjoy translating all those chapters or is there a time when you feel it's too late to back out of a certain chapter/novel and feel that you must finish it no matter what?'''

A: While I do try to view all the chapters I work on as my kids, there are a few 'emotional' chapters I had to literally force myself to keep translating. Unicorn has quite a few of them (especially with the parts that weren't adapted into the anime), Mother Rosario, Index Volume 16 (after the first chapter), Baka Test Minami and Shouko's backstory (there's another touching one in 10.5 involving Akihisa and Mizuki when they were kids, now if I can force myself to work on that) and especially Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Some do make me cringe when I translate, like...Infinite Stratos volume 7...the Railgun story written by Ryougo Narita-shi...Baka Test volume 4 (the reason why I preferred not to work on that volume), so I had to force myself to be professional when translating them. Normally, the ideal situation is to read through the stories, know what I'm going to expect, and have a mental preparation of going through what's going to happen (especially if it's your favorite series), but because of my workstyle and RL, I don't even have the time to read through the stories beforehand, which I admit does affect the quality of the overall work. Either way, I can't say that I enjoy a lot of the stories I work on, but I do force myself to work through them.

'''Q: And yeah, why are you leaving?'''

A: I'm tired. Yes, I'm tired of translating. At the same time, i want to finish off what I have left so that I don't 'owe' anything to anyone here. At the same time, I am pursuing a double degree right now, and once the next semester starts, I will be saddled with quite a lot of responsibilities both academically and non-academically. I know many of you are asking me to stay as an admin or senior advisor, but I do believe that you guys have to get used to life without me here, and also, I do prefer to be the finisher (the translator) than the quarterback (the admin), which is weird since I get more of QB roles than finisher roles.

'''Q: When are you coming back?'''

A: When Unicorns appear.

'''Q: Ping, when are unicorns gonna appear?'''

A: When you fulfill that request I asked of you. =P I will be back in some way on 22nd March 2013.

'''Q: What do you think of machine translations on BT? Could it help projects progress?'''

A: Well, the general consensus is that machine translations are very bad because they don't translate the grammatical terms well. Sure, they will often get one or two-word terms correct, so it is a good for short phrases, but entire translations on machine translations, to me, is not really the way to go because of the grammatical issues when translating. It is improving with people giving translation recommendations, but I don't expect machine translation to be the way to go for another 10 years at least.

'''Q: Ping, what will happen to SAO translations in the future?'''

A: Right now, there's still Tap around to translate. I'll let him have free reign to do what he wants with the project, but the thing is that I don't see more translators being willing to take up this project because of the stress level involved in this project. It caused me to fake a ragequit, do an April Fools' Joke as a take that to the people complaining about the lack of progress on Volume 5 Chapter 6...and increased the size of my forehead by 3 inches...but jokes aside, whoever who has this project has to be mentally prepared for high demands on this series (unless you can shut your mind from it), so to Tap and anyone else working on it, good luck. It's not going to be easy, so I'll be there with you in spirit =P.

'''Q: What projects have you actually wanted to work on?'''

A: 'When Hikaru was on the Earth' is one series that I was most hoping to work on, since I do like Nomura-shi's works. Accel World is another if I didn't have SAO...and for basketball reasons, Ro-Kyu-Bu!

'''Q: Any LNs you like to read once you retire?'''

A: It's not an LN per say, but [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Biblia_Koshodou_no_Jiken_Techou Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou] is one series I look forward to catching up. I am getting sick and tired of all the harem stories and such, and I'm looking forward to working on more serious stories per say...Maybe I can check out Another or Sugar Dark. I am looking forward to picking up more obscure stories when I head to the bookstore after my retirement. (and work as a literature club member writing stories everyday, oh who am I kidding...)

'''Q: Is there a series you will like to work on if it wasn't licensed?'''

A: First Choice: Spice and Wolf. Second Choice: Bungaku Shoujo. Third Choice: The Twelve Kingdoms.

'''Q: Are you going to be gone for good?'''

A: Check one of the questions above.

'''Q: Any plans to retake Infinite Stratos?'''

A: Nope. I'll like to ask Life4Kaoru to help take over if IS does come out since they offered quite a lot of support to the project, but it's their choice.

'''Q: What regrets do you have over here?'''

A: Not being able to finish the Shana translations.

'''Q: What are your thoughts of having people competing with each other while doing the same story?'''

A: I would say, redundant, because when two people are doing the same volume, it's like doing a double translation. However, it does have the benefit of making sure that the translators try to keep up their standards. It's the same issue with having kids. Once you have two or more children, each child will want to work harder to impress their parents (at least when they're young), especially the older one who's been getting the attention up till this point. Ultimately, it comes down to the translators' decision, but I'll just state my view here.

'''Q: Any concerns about BT?'''

A: If I have to say, it's that those who post their translations here should be prepared to get their work edited. If they don't accept that they don't have absolute control, this really isn't the place for them. This isn't a particular dig at anyone, but a lamentation on my part since I don't really put  that much control over my work when I post here, since I do expect careless typos and mistranslations on my part (I'm fine with my translations being shared, but only if no profits are made, and that credit is given due). Of course, the easy way out is to control everything on my own, but I prefer to be the finisher (translator) than be the all-rounder who has to do everything. I just have to rely on the readers and hope that they make the right edits. This is also the main reason why I don't want to create a blog for my translations, because I don't want to end up doing everything. I just want to 'arrive, post, leave'. This is a culture of BT in itself, and honestly, it isn't for everyone because of how open it is.

'''Q: How do you respond to those who complain about the quality of the work?'''

Speaking of which, I remember one of the posts on a certain place where I was called out specifically, telling me to 'clean up the mess'. The thing is, you can't turn Carbon into gold directly (and when I say directly, I mean that it's possible to do so indirectly by selling carbon and buying gold, but this is just to cover all bases). The style of LN translations is that we do try to keep the meaning and diction as close as possible. Most of the sentences are either dialogue or short paragraphs of 2, 3 lines that eschew adverbs as much as possible. Most of the stories are action and dialogue driven (or in fact, all of them are), and they aren't the best of literary greatness in the first place. And when it reaches the second stage (us), this literary sense is diminished further because of the different grammar styles. We're basically trying to fit jigsaws when we translate. There are some lines that require further elaboration because they just don't work out in English. There are some lines that can be simply translated from long sentences into 1, 2 words. Honestly, you have to read the originals in order to understand this well.