Translating for dummies.
Yes, I've found something else to do ( right other than work, which I really should be starting on sometime soon) that fleshes out the current interest. So I'm currently embarking on the translation of Chinese manga into English because my Favourite scanlation group needed some help.
It's laughable I know with my sub-standard Chinese though I was pleasantly surprised to realise I could actually understand and translate the stuff I was given with a little help from my *very* dusty Secondary school Chinese dictionary. The first 66 pages were fun and after the initial struggle on trying to anglicise names and Surnames (Some of which really sounded weird Herna for a guy? Richard Hillier??), translating it got a lot more fun and faster to boot. The characters were good, even though the Commander was a little too indecisive for my liking and the plot was engaging, even moving at times.
I guess translating it, actually forces you to focus more on the possible nuances of the actual meaning when a literal translation would just sound plain wrong. The last 10 pages were in that horribly complex Traditional Chinese format but I was again pleasantly surprised to find that I could translate it smoothly except for one bubble, the gist of which could still be deduced. Which I guess is the beauty of being able to deduce what a couple of strange words actually mean ( in Simplified Chinese) when you read the whole sentence.
All in all, Hard Line is an enjoyable series though the common pretext on which it is built upon is not very believable. (A navy SEAL unit with members that fall in love with other men ranging from a rather femme fatale looking reporter to a vice-commander with a penchant for rough loving. And to top it off a uke bishonen commander and his seme bodyguard like sergeant. You get my drift.)
It's laughable I know with my sub-standard Chinese though I was pleasantly surprised to realise I could actually understand and translate the stuff I was given with a little help from my *very* dusty Secondary school Chinese dictionary. The first 66 pages were fun and after the initial struggle on trying to anglicise names and Surnames (Some of which really sounded weird Herna for a guy? Richard Hillier??), translating it got a lot more fun and faster to boot. The characters were good, even though the Commander was a little too indecisive for my liking and the plot was engaging, even moving at times.
I guess translating it, actually forces you to focus more on the possible nuances of the actual meaning when a literal translation would just sound plain wrong. The last 10 pages were in that horribly complex Traditional Chinese format but I was again pleasantly surprised to find that I could translate it smoothly except for one bubble, the gist of which could still be deduced. Which I guess is the beauty of being able to deduce what a couple of strange words actually mean ( in Simplified Chinese) when you read the whole sentence.
All in all, Hard Line is an enjoyable series though the common pretext on which it is built upon is not very believable. (A navy SEAL unit with members that fall in love with other men ranging from a rather femme fatale looking reporter to a vice-commander with a penchant for rough loving. And to top it off a uke bishonen commander and his seme bodyguard like sergeant. You get my drift.)
But Men in Uniform are always attractive, I guess, and people don't read manga for a dose of realism. Realistic in how they react, yes possibly, but the very scenario highly unlikely. Ah well, it gives me something to do in the meantime.
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