SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

General discussion related to these two novel series

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KuroiHikari
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by KuroiHikari »

Ushwood wrote:
Teh_ping wrote: when Accel World gets removed from B-T...
That's some news to me... Is anybody going to licence AW?
It's like the SAO incident
User753
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by User753 »

SAO incident?
Does that mean about a certain site that copy B-T's translation of AW to the letter?
That has a bad ring to it.
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magykalman
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by magykalman »

Hi Admin-san. I would like to be an editor for this project...Just wondering if this thread is still open to all...But if it is open, I would really like to be an editor and contribute to the Baka! Tsuki! society! :D
But just wondering, how is the editing procedure like? Thx.

Regards, Katekyo.
Hatsune Miku FTW! XD
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BeginnerXP
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by BeginnerXP »

Just register an account on the wiki if you haven't done so yet, then edit away, but please be careful when your edits change the meaning of the content. You can edit as anonymous too, but it'll be hard to communicate when others have questions regarding your edits.
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magykalman
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by magykalman »

BeginnerXP wrote:Just register an account on the wiki if you haven't done so yet, then edit away, but please be careful when your edits change the meaning of the content. You can edit as anonymous too, but it'll be hard to communicate when others have questions regarding your edits.
Erm hi...thanks for your help and advice...but where is the "wiki"? Sorry kinda new to this... :(

Regards, Katekyo.
Hatsune Miku FTW! XD
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magykalman
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by magykalman »

Oh okay. I have found the wiki already. Btw, so where should I start? 0.o thx.

Regards, Katekyo.
Hatsune Miku FTW! XD
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Catsy
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by Catsy »

While reading the LN translations, I saw a lot of phrasing that felt unnatural in English. This is in no way meant to diminish the efforts of the translators, for whose work I'm deeply grateful, but in some cases the only reason I could fully grasp what was being said was because I've done translation work before and retain enough (very rusty and dated) Japanese to recognize how a lot of common Japanese grammar constructions and rote phrases sound when translated literally into English.

I would like to offer help in "naturalizing" some of the English translations to make them flow better, but I do not own the LNs and am hesitant to make certain changes without seeing what the original wording was. I saw the note upthread about not linking to raws, and was wondering if it is considered a violation of etiquette to ask others to quote the original Japanese from a given scene?

On a related note, I occasionally found it difficult to tell which character was speaking due to the way spoken dialogue is usually placed on a separate line from narration describing who has spoken and how they said it. I would imagine that in Japanese it would be much clearer due to the differences in (e.g.) speaking styles and sentence-final particles used in the dialogue, but English has a way of homogenizing those largely untranslatable subtleties. Is it acceptable to alter punctuation and line breaks to make this clearer, closer to the way dialogue in English-language novels is formatted?

To give an example, this is an excerpt from the current translated text of Vol 1 Ch 5:
Spoiler! :
“Kirito-kun.”
It was a feminine voice. There weren't many female players who knew my name. Well actually, in this situation there was only one. I grabbed the hand on my left shoulder and said.
“Cook acquired.”
“Wh-What?”
With her hand in mine, the person stammered with a suspicious expression on her face.
Keeping in mind that I do not have access to the original text, I would have written it like this:
Spoiler! :
"Kirito-kun."
It was a feminine voice. There weren't many female players who knew my name. Well actually, in this situation there was only one. I grabbed the hand on my left shoulder and said, "Cook acquired."
"Wh-What?" the person stammered with a suspicious expression on her face, her hand in mine.
Is this sort of stylistic change acceptable, or frowned upon?
Lan013
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by Lan013 »

Catsy wrote:Is this sort of stylistic change acceptable, or frowned upon?
They are written like that in the raws and so in order to follow the original closely, they are translated like that.
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by Tap »

Actually, volume 1 was mainly translated from Korean.
No idea on the grammar differences between Japanese and Korean though.

My personal opinion is that aside from the paragraphing, flow and meaning, almost everything can be changed. (though I do have a thing for punctuation without established standards...)

To use your example, it would be something like this:
Spoiler! :
"Kirito-kun."
It was a feminine voice. There weren't many female players who knew my name. Well actually, in this situation there was only one. I grabbed the hand on my left shoulder and said,
"Cook acquired."
"Wh-What?"
And the person stammered with a suspicious expression on her face, her hand in mine.
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Catsy
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by Catsy »

Ah, that's unfortunate. The line breaks between dialogue and dialogue tags are precisely what makes it so stilted and occasionally confusing in English. My own approach to translation has always been for clarity and natural flow to take precedence over literal reproduction of sentence structure and formatting, but if the preferred philosophy here is different then I'm not going to make waves by arguing such a subjective point.

I remain enormously grateful for all the work that has gone into these translations.
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larethian
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by larethian »

Japanese and Korean are actually very similar in grammar and honorific style (including having different degrees of keigo).
I think naturalizing the English to certain extent is actually desired if it makes it easier for the readers to understand. However what Tap is retaining is merely the paragraphing, while using your flow fix. Japanese novels almost always begin dialogue in a newline. I find this to be extremely neat and easy to read and in no way unnatural. I would actually find it harder to read the other way round if the non-dialogue lines are long.
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TheAlpaca
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by TheAlpaca »

OK, I just joined Baka-Tsuki, but don't discount me as a newbie. I'm not too sure if this is the right place to post this but...
Basically - I'm addicted to Sword Art Online and I'd love to help out as an editor, or something similar :)
I was born and raised in Australia (still living there), so obviously I am fluent in English, but I don't speak any other languages besides a little French (and Pig Latin hehe, comes in handy upon occasion).
You already have people working on the translations I see, but I've come across a fair few mistakes (both grammar and spelling) in the Sword Art Online novels - most noticeably in Volume 3: Fairy Dance. I can help out by fixing these up if you want me to.
Although I haven't had any experience really in these projects before I have several 'qualifications' for this kind of thing:
In the State Spelling Bee's during primary school I was ranked in the top 100 students in Australia for Literacy. My high school is selective (I had to sit an exam to get in - I passed with flying colours) and my English mark is usually pretty high.
I know you have a lot of people working hard on this project and I feel I can really contribute to the general editing department. Message me if you're interested in my help or email me at [email protected]

- Sincerely, TheAlpaca
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NoirX
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by NoirX »

Hi, I was wondering if there are still any Editor position open for either SAO or Accel World? If yes, then I'd like to join as one. Thank you sincerely.
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Nomad76
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by Nomad76 »

NoirX wrote:Hi, I was wondering if there are still any Editor position open for either SAO or Accel World? If yes, then I'd like to join as one. Thank you sincerely.
I just wanted to tag onto this. I'm interested in the same. I love both stories, and would like to contribute if possible.
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carinderyeah
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Re: SAO and now Accel World Recruitment Page

Post by carinderyeah »

I would want in with SAO series, if you guys would allow me to begin editing.

Also I also want to try out translating for HnA, but I'm totally new regarding that though I already applied to do some editing on the series (IFF we are allowed to have 2 work positions in a single series). First question would be where can I get the raws from? I just skipped the beginning of this thread because I'm a bit in a hurry right now. I'll try going over this thread again to see if a conversation like "Where can I get HnA raws? I wan't to help translate, but I'm new." "I can provide some, I'll contact you soon for the requirements and stuff that can help out with the translating", something.

I would glad to help a lot as seeing that HnA is already at Vol.13 and how we are current still at Vol.10/11 ( nothing against the translators ok) I would really want to lend a helping hand, body and mind to the community. Because I find reading LN's very interesting and relaxing, though my main reason is I want to escape from the world! (2D girls are the best!). :D Thanks a lot.
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