Webnovel.Forum

N0xiety I used "google translate" in the title only to make it easier to understand what I mean. I guess I shouldn't have done that.

I dropped SS, too... I believe I will never have the opportunity to finish it, simply because it's very, very, very unlikely that qidian will (let someone) retranslate the ruined chapers.

But it's not like SS is the only novel they are ruining.

Karyehs I really doubt they are using Google Translate/Systranet as their primary source for translation.

What they do appear to be doing is using a 'Computer Assisted Translation Tool' AKA CAT Tool.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_translation

If you take a look at their glossary aka a 'terminology manager' you will notice that almost all of the entries are for nouns. Using a CAT Tool ensures that terms are consistent throughout the novel.

Another advantage of a CAT Tool is the use of 'translation memory tools' which is a database consisting of text segments in the source language that have previously been translated to increase the speed when translating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_memory

I see nothing wrong with using CAT Tools since they increase translation speed while ensuring consistency.

As far as grammar is concerned with translations overall (not signaling out Nyoi-Bo Studio). Unfortunately, there are many reasons for poor grammar in a novel.

1. Poor translation requiring more than expected editing by the editor.
2. Amount of time spent editing.
3. Underpaid editors
4. Overworked editors (Sometimes directly related to points 1, 2 and 3)
5. Grammatically weak or inexperienced editors
6. Rushed editing due to deadlines
7. Lazy editing where the editor doesn't bother to proofread the chapter.
8. Editors who have English as a second language and can miss some of the more nuanced English grammar rules which are distracting to native English readers.

I've long advocated that Webnovel should hire proofreaders/proof-editors (preferably native English) to ensure that Premium chapters are really 'Premium'. But Webnovel staff has always responded as it's 'Too Expensive'. Which gives you an idea what they think of quality writing.

checkm8 Hmm, you make very good points. Theoretically. For this specific case "consistency" can't be an argument, since it is rather inconsistent with the past translation.

"Blaming" the editor is rather funny, since this group claims to be translator and editor in one.

Computer assisted translation is a mighty tool, as long you have the sufficient qualifications to "fill in the blanks" between nouns and proverbs.

As far as I know CAT tools also integrate google (and other) normal translation software, which leads to a rather "decent" machine translation.... As I said before, as long as you edit it correctly. (And have the semantic skills to search for stuff which got lost in machine translation)

The problem is: The translator/editor team doesn't seem to be proficient enough in english to warrant regular payment for released chapters. At best they would deserve a one-time payment for the creation of a (flawed) glossary. There are many people in this community which would edit the CAT/mtl'd version rather cheap/even free (maybe spirit stones) and WAY, WAY, WAY faster than the said TL/editing "group".

If they don't care about professional/decent quality, they don't need to overpay poor quality, right?

Edit: There is also some overreliance on editors here. Editors shouldn't be nannies who need to fix every sentence for authors/translators. Editors should try to make the text flow better, check for consistency mistakes,... Not for typos and "was/were/your/you're/have/has",.... mistakes, which would be avoidable, if the translator was proficient in the language AND at least read what he has written once, before publishing it (/give to edit).

Karyehs "Blaming" the editor is rather funny, since this group claims to be translator and editor in one.

In this I agree completely, if the translation team has no editors and rely solely on the translator then that's completely the failure of the translator and their team/studio/company. It's an extremely myopic approach to translating.

Webnovel has stated that third-party translation studios/companies/groups are responsible for providing their own editors. Many of them do. But as you suggest, there is no way to verify that and some groups just take the extra money and skip the editor.

In all honesty, it's hard to hold translation groups/teams/studios accountable unless the translation is so egregious that there is a huge uproar over the quality. Sad to say but Webnovel and many readers don't care about the quality and only care about the release speed.

In addition, some of the large Translation groups are only in it for the money and don't even interact with readers.