Did I Seriously Just Get Reincarnated as My Gag Character?! - Vol. 4 Ch. 14

[Googloo]

finally this got updated woo

 

[Tradvillain]

Hell of a chapter for a first time translator lmao

 

[himi-cat]

That's what I do personally, I use 2 translator and whenever it doesn't make sense, or doesn't satisfy me, I check on romajidesu. The biggest barrier in my case is my own English knowledge.

It occurred to me just now that, sometimes, in my native language, I write or say things that make no goddamned sense - now I'm wondering how many of the things the MTL just can't figure out, or make not much sense after lots of work trying to decode them, /make no sense in the first place/ . . .

I've also realised that it's definitely not just "run it through MTL, maybe two of them, and then edit it into sensible English" - if you aren't referring back to the original then you're less likely to screw up just leaving the MTL as-is (or just doing obvious things like fixing tenses and genders and getting rid of all those dumb "Mr. Whatever") than if you try to make the MTL into colloquial English.

I definitely wouldn't want to try doing this into a language that I /wasn't/ a native speaker in . . .

 

[YumYummity]

Hell of a chapter for a first time translator lmao

I've read enough manga/manhua/manhwa to know what to do I guess? I'm also very good at proofreading stuff lol, the original MTL was terrible.

 

[himi-cat]

Well, you're going in the right direction with breaking down sentence into pieces.

As someone who's non-native and can somewhat understand JP (which ironically started with me finding 2 different translations of the same term, went to the source material and compare letters with similar thing until I sorta reverse-engineer the whole katakana...it was pokemon names btw) I'd say having the foundations down (sentence structure, different verb tenses) will get you quite far especially if you double check the material for context.

Yeah, figuring out the structure seems to be the key - without that it feels like the original is just a soup of concepts (the nouns and base verbs/adverbs/etc), that are just thrown together and you're expected to figure shit out somehow. Getting the main particles at least roughly in your head gives you the core relationships between the concepts, figuring out the verb forms gives you tenses and so forth, and then it's less of a soup of conceptual entrails you have to try and divine meaning from, it's kind of a conceptual sentence . . . Of course, then you have to try and figure out how to express that in English . . . And honestly, one of the nicest thing about the MTL is that it gives you a starting point there which you can then fix up, rather than having to come up with everything from scratch.

Trying to figure all this out is making me regret never learning any formal grammar - it was never necessary for me to understand English (and that lack of linguistic education hasn't stopped me from being very good at writing), it's only when I'm trying to understand things in a different language that I'm seeing how useful it would be to have a way to formalise the structure of language properly.

Anyway, it's kind of fun, though as I said it's the slowest and most painful way imaginable to read an interesting story.

 

[jasty]

I know some people are sticklers for a super accurate translation but I'm fine with MTL with proper editing so it flows naturally and the story makes sense.

 

[kaosjr]

Good job on the typesetting - it's the thing that bugs me the most after translation quality, and you did an excellent job for a first time! I've seen proper scan groups do worse jobs lol

 

[urtoast]

A readable MTL?! Impossible! Lol
Good job, especially on the notes.

 

[ryokome]

the art changed

 

[Quarnozian]

the synopsis seems kind of generic. idk, i may give it a shot later ^^

Yeah, I was reading it at the same time as these, and sometimes I'd mix up what happened in the previous chapters because they were so similar.

• Nito no Taidana Isekai Shoukougun
• Hazure Waku no Joutai Ijou Skill
• Tsuki ga Michibiku (not as much with this one. The characters are pretty distinct.)

 

[Khulmach]

A traitorous piece of shite.
I am guessing the "hero" is the bad guy.

 

[galaxia9]

Sorry for laughing at your pain but the plea for the characters to stop talking and go back to fighting gave me a chuckle. Thanks for the effort.