I often ask for feedback regarding my style and choice of translation in terms of style and inclusions to the posts, and since I’m very behind, I thought I’d give some insight on some things I typically do with blog post translations. For now here’s a couple of things real quick.

Note: This is for these Blog translations only, when doing “Official Statements” and “Subs” I run with different standards for various reasons.

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1. DokiDoki WakuWaku!
Typically you’ll notice in posts I leave both the translations and the wording together in a translation. Most people would probably call this bad translations on my part and in a professional setting this may be so but there is a point to this. If this were a video, I would probably not include this because you’d hear the words yourself, and if you’ve seen any translations I’ve done of official statements I avoid this in general unless it’s a title for a show.

The reason you see this is for those curious about the onomatopoeia style Japanese hold for their words, especially with it’s frequent use in titles, as well as part of the normalcy I had occurred in my own upbringing.

If it hasn’t been made clear, I live in Hawaii and the use of this style of talking was part of my upbringing. Though not all Japanese words you would find it normal in the places I lived to hear people say things like, “This place is all guchagucha,” and find it natural. This might seem out of place outside of Hawaii, and if enough people think it is, I’m fine excluding it. I noticed that childrens media come to making up sounds and words for things too, so I figured it’d be equivalent as long as I translate the sounds as well (which I do).

How to spot the translations: Usually before or after the use of the Onomatopoeia.
What the main characteristic is: Sound words usually in doubles or conjoined with camel-type (ConjoinedCaptialization)

Examples:
DokiWaku Hearting pounding excitement
It was slippery TsuruTsuru

2. Gochisousama Deshita vs. Otsukare
I’m constantly on the ropes with how to handle these kinds of words, and in all the time I’ve been doing blog translations I’ve wavered a lot on what I do.

Right now, certain terms which have clear equivalents are given them (Ohayo = Mornin’ being a prime example). Recently I’ve shifted Otsukare(sama Deshita) into being Good Work Everyone, or Job Well Done Everyone. General this is an acceptable equivalent and is often done in real life after work is over.

Gochisousama Deshita and Itadakimasu on the otherhand does not necessarily have a good equivalent. Sure people have given the “Thanks for the food” expression before, but the commonality of saying that at the beginning and end of every meal in English is rare (again from my personal experience). I’ve also mentioned it before but if it’s okay for a person to use French to say “Bon Apetite” then this should be okay too.

In contrast I shifted Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu recently as well into being whatever equivalent fits the line, making it harder to tell when they say it (unless you read Japanese) but makes it sound more natural. This was done because of the increased use of it in various situations where a translation was needed, or else it would sound confusing. All translations follow the cultural meaning of the words though, so it’s still translations.

How to spot translations: Key phrases usually be capitalized
What is main characteristics: They are set translations for phrases which don’t always have straight “translated” equivalents but more “cultural” equivalents

Examples:
G’night (G’nite)
Good Work Everyone

3. Happy Birthday
An ongoing issue exists with the concept of Happy Birthday (Otanjoubi Omedetou) and the shorting to just Omedetou. As of now I translate just Omedetou, which is normally translated as congratulations, when it is clearly a shortening of Otanjoubi Omedetou as just “happy birthday” as opposed to “Happy Birthday” This is one major exception as of now.

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So there’s a couple of starters, if you have better ideas for how to handle issues let me know! I also want to some day soon talk about what I feel is the differences in “translations” and styles. But I want to know what you guys think about these too. And what you all prefer and why, so comments, questions, and the like in the comments and I can address them in the future… even make a feature out of this for real!

Till then and hopefully with more up to date, ja ne~

The term quality control is so vague. To many it is a precious commitment to ensure that a video is perfect in every aspect: translations are coherent & grammatically correct, visuals are easy to see & not overbearing, and that the encoding is not corrupted in any way. To some, it’s a chance to watch something early and say it looks cool.

No human is perfect but if you have several QC mistakes should be few and far between, and not easily caught by screen previews/thumbnails.

Good QC will be willing to break another person’s heart to fix a problem, poor QC leave things behind. To the valuable QCs, you know who you are, thank you for being picky, you’ve saved many a project from awkward mistakes.

When fansubs happen, their goal is generally the same: provide friends with a way to understand something a person who already understands something already enjoys. For the sake of brevity it doesn’t matter who does what or how it gets done (we’ll touch on that if this series takes off), but rather that they are non getting profit but providing a way for someone to enjoy something they enjoy. But what kinds of results do we have? While no complete standard exists for it, I’d like to give a perspective on the kinds of things that you may see, and what type of subs I would call them.

1. The speed sub – aka “I’d think your wonderful” – speed subs for all intensive purposes are done with releasing fast and first at the forefront. Whether the reason for this is to “be on the cutting edge,” “provide people with content immediately,” or the less mature, “beat another group from doing it too,” the concept is that you want to put out a translations immediately. The problem with most speed subs is quality. You’ll notice that speed subs usually lack in one of three ways: a. typesetting is minimal or a reused template design, b. translations are sometimes confusing, blank, or blatantly wrong, c. referential (in-joke or references to past events), grammatical and typographical errors are medium to high.

Pros: Content usually comes out fast, might be the only way to get some content (for Idol works, things like variety show appearances that are short, or news show snippets fall under this category)

Cons: Quality suffering means that some ideas might be misunderstood, could stop better versions from being released, does not feel very reliable.

Note: Speed subs are referred to by the speed in the amount of work, not their actual speed, some speed subs maybe month/years old, but done with the same amount of time dedicated as something subbed in a day.

2. The casual sub – aka “I wanna do this!” – casual subs are done by small or non-serial groups for the purpose of providing translations for something that they feel really needs subs. They aren’t always going to do everything, and mostly focus on one type or perhaps one series, but do so with dedication in mind. In Nantonaku’s past “freelance” translators have fallen into this category providing 1 time participation for certain projects.

Pros: Output is clean, usually of a higher quality than a speed sub, and with a better understanding of references made within the video (since the people who do the subs know more about the background of the people involved in it due to their interest).

Cons: Sometimes slower (both because of the higher quality and because of the lack of experience), cannot be guaranteed to occur for anything.

Note: casual subs may be part of a “bigger” sub group, but the output is based on those with particular interest and they may not be part of the groups “regular” releases.

3. The serial sub – aka “Here’s this weeks ___” – These people are very regular and very use to their content. This means that visuals, references, and output should remain very consistent throughout productions or increase in style from beginning to end. These can be the best thing to get, but at the same time can be the hardest to find as they only exist if material comes out on a regular basis (TV shows/dramas/etc.).

Pros: Quality is consistent, work becomes familiar and easy to recognize.

Cons: Only occurs for serial content, sometimes starts off worse before getting better.

4. The karaoke sub – aka “Sparkly!” – Karaoke subs get their own category simply because their outlook is completely different from the rest. Not only is translation secondary in many karaoke subs, the ability to read the words also sometimes become secondary to a typesetters own desire for creativity. This results in works with neither are true subs nor karaoke, since they are hard to follow. (Karaoke subs may get their own article in the future if interest is shown)

Pros: fun to look at, sometimes good for learning songs, sometimes teaches you words

Cons: sometimes unreadable, sometimes ill timed (words will not show up till milliseconds before they are sung), sometimes not translated well
In the past N!N translation has done each of these, LDK’s first releases could be considered both speed and karaoke (which are a great shame for us even today), and N!N fansubs has done many casual sub variety shows as well as a couple of serial titles. We’ve seen what happens in each of these situations and feel like these are the results.

Do you disagree? Have a better system? Want to make this series on subbing and translation background more regular? Leave your comments below!