time it takes to translate

[ChiPocky]

I'm just curious~ Usually how long does it take you guys to finish translating a chapter (like 30 page)?

[yami_no_tenshi1563]

It depends on the translator or the genre but if it's me I think about 2-4 hours for me

[kenji_37]

30 pages..... it depends on the text I think and translator. well, if it on fighting mode like claymore right now, maybe 30-45 min is enough. but if it 0nly talks and talks it could takes up to 4-5 hours.

[ChiPocky]

aw man.... that means i'm super slow >< hehe... but do you guys spend a lot of time to make sure you get the sentence just right or you leave it up to proof readers?

[real0st]

Well it depends on the translator again. If the translator is a native language speaker (say Japanese) but their English isn't too well, the proofreader is suppose to translate the disjointed English into grammatically English

But if the translator is very fluent in both languages, as in he/she knows both language's grammar, enunciations, etc., then it would go along quick and almost eliminating the need for a proofreader.

[Lixivium]

Varies from chapter to chapter, but usually 1-2 hours. I consult the Japanese raw when I have access to it, and a bunch of other things: Google translate, kanji dictionaries, kana tables, cross-referencing previous chapters, etc.

[ankokuryu]

less than ten minutes if i'm just translating it. putting it into the translated script format i like though, would take me about thirty.

i translate as i read. :)

but im japanese and fluent in english so yer... dont worry about this, yu aint slow.

;)

[d4v1d_su]

10 mins., Wow. I need about 20 mins just to read the whole chapter first.
I think, I'm the slowest one here. I never translate something in one shot (except School Rumble). But if accumulate all the time, it's about 4 hours to translate Hatsukoi Limited (20 pages). And it takes longer to translate AIKI (30 pages).

But I think it depends a lot on the manga. I translated the second half of R+V II ch. 5 recently, and it took me about 1 and a half hour (20 pages).
But you know what, I was faster when I translated manga for the first time. My english is not really fluent, so it also takes time for me to make a sentence in english that sounds natural and to find grammatical mistakes (And I think I'm improving :p).

[ChiPocky]

wow.. 10 mins..... it's the same for me... takes me more than 10 mins to read the thing......... maybe i'll aim for that! Be so fluent in Japanese that I can translate within 10 mins~~~ (as if this will ever happen :sigh:)

[sandyaj]

You're a lot better than I can ever be :P I don't translate manga, but I do translate music videos (to add karaoke lyrics) I have no problem with the kana/katakana, but when it comes to the Kanji -_-' I have to listen to the sound just to figure out what the symbol is then to find the translation for that one kanji. A PV i did took me nearly a month to translate/romanize/ karoake timing :P

BTW, can anyone reccommend any good Kanji Dictionaries?

[yami_no_tenshi1563]

I use jisho.org and I think d4v1d translates a 20 page manga so maybe ChiPocky if you were to translate a 30 page manga it would take me about 1-2 hours depending on the story and genre

[sandyaj]

thanks tenshi, that really helped me out with some tough kanji that were driving me crazy for months :P

[urazora]

This is really interesting to see everyone's speed, I should contribute as well!

Shoujo and shounen are so different...because usually shoujo have much more dialogue and are monthly, so around 50 pages, while regular weekly shounen has less dialogue and are under 20 pages.

For me, translating a typical shoujo chapter would take me around 1~2 hours; but shounen I guess will take less than half the time of that? Like many people here have said, it really depends on the situation and also the translator!

Also, do people find a difference in translating different languages? I'm fluent in Japanese/Chinese/English, and personally, I'm not very good at doing CHI>ENG translations because I find translating from a translation makes it miss much more of the original meaning, and I get annoyed at myself >///< so I much prefer JPN>ENG translations, it's clearer and I'm much faster at that :) It is only when I can't find raws in Japanese that I revert to Chinese..gah i'm so useless :(

[yami_no_tenshi1563]

This is really interesting to see everyone's speed, I should contribute as well!

Shoujo and shounen are so different...because usually shoujo have much more dialogue and are monthly, so around 50 pages, while regular weekly shounen has less dialogue and are under 20 pages.

For me, translating a typical shoujo chapter would take me around 1~2 hours; but shounen I guess will take less than half the time of that? Like many people here have said, it really depends on the situation and also the translator!

Also, do people find a difference in translating different languages? I'm fluent in Japanese/Chinese/English, and personally, I'm not very good at doing CHI>ENG translations because I find translating from a translation makes it miss much more of the original meaning, and I get annoyed at myself >///< so I much prefer JPN>ENG translations, it's clearer and I'm much faster at that :) It is only when I can't find raws in Japanese that I revert to Chinese..gah i'm so useless :(

I agree meaning lost when you use chinese raws but then I'm not good at chinese too so I really can only translate from japanese XD

[pcxxy]

my 18pg of one piece translation takes from 30min to 2hrs

i thought i was slow, but i guess i'm average ;p

my english is far from great though, and can be even worse, so it will probably take longer (if not forever) if i wanted to polish it

[llnnin]

lol skip beat takes forever to finish, it's like 30 pages with lots of dialogue, and R+V was like 40 pages, and i usually only do couple pages at a time, unless i got bored and have nothing else to do