Something that's been confusing me for a while....

KDBA · Post by **KDBA** » Thu May 11, 2006 10:34 pm

I hadn't wanted to ask this on the wiki talk pages since they're so cluttered and there is no clear place to ask questions.

What exactly is the point of recruiting so many translators? Whoever did volume one seems to have had no trouble with the task, so why can't they just keep going with volume two, and so on?

The only reason I can see for having multiple translators is to translate multiple chapters at once, and that is something I would consider to be a bad idea. Reading chapters out of order can really ruin a story, and even if people choose to not read translated chapters until the overall translation has reached that point (i.e. they can read from the start to that point with no interruprtions) other people may have no qualms about doing so and then talking about it in the middle of discussions.

I suppose it might be considered wise to have a 'backup' translator in case the original disappears mysteriously, but that doesn't seem to be the way this project is being handled.

So, back to my question - why have a large number of translators and a system of claiming chapters and volumes? It doesn't make any sense to me.

onizuka-gto · Post by **onizuka-gto** » Thu May 11, 2006 10:40 pm

I dunno.

Translators work in mysterious ways....

Or maybe they just wanna have a break?

If you were given a task to translate the entire series, but was expected no breaks, i don't think you will do it....

Besides we had three translators from the start, and even if one can do the entire series, it seem unfair to not let the other two have a go.

Beside one of the other two is the big boss himself, so we gotta give him a chapter or two or he'll run off and sulk and probably take the whole site down with him......

psieye · Post by **psieye** » Fri May 12, 2006 3:32 am

Reading chapters out of order can really ruin a story, and even if people choose to not read translated chapters until the overall translation has reached that point (i.e. they can read from the start to that point with no interruprtions) other people may have no qualms about doing so and then talking about it in the middle of discussions.

Well, if it's about the risk of spoilers then factor in people who've read the entire thing in Japanese or Chinese. There are plenty of people out there who could spoil stuff for us, but my experience (in AnimeSuki at least) is that they're quite careful to avoid spoiler talk in the open.

As for reading chapters out of order... at least within the scope of Vol 1 vs Vol 3, look at how the anime's handling the chapters - jumping around between them.

Note: I'm holding back on reading the chapters too - and I'm an Editor...

I guess to answer your original question, the system's set up to be extremely flexible for translators to do their job for fun with no big constraints. We assume the readers take responsibility for their own reading and cover up of spoilers.

arcticphoenix16 · Post by **arcticphoenix16** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:58 pm

i think novel 1, 4, and 7 are the "main" storyline. Those need to be read in that order. But the other novels/chapters aren't exactly in chronological order, so it really doesn't matter which chapter you read first. With very few exceptions (for example, The melancholy of Asahina Mikuru from novel 6 talks contains a minor spoiler for Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody from novel 3), in general you're not going to be spoiled by doing so.

If you've watched the anime, episode 4/7, Koizumi said something like "how did you and suzumiya-san got out of that place?" Then you know that kyon and haruhi were at some place, and they got out of it by some means. If you can tolerate spoilers like that, you can read the other novels / chapters in any order you want.

onizuka-gto · Post by **onizuka-gto** » Fri May 12, 2006 4:42 pm

i read chapters in the order they are finished translated.

i.e. everywhere!

Thats te fun about SH novels, you can read them again in a differnet order and get a different experience. how cool is that?

Platypus · Post by **Platypus** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:14 am

As a translator (not for Suzumiya Haruhi, I'm French so I would have difficulties to translate from japanese into another language xD), I can say it's a very tiring task, so if there are more people, there are less difficulties. Sometimes I'd appreciate that other persons learne to speak japanese to relieve me a little for the fansub ^^°