Machine translated VN's

[neptune 10]

I just saw recently someone posted in the eroge library flyable heart was machine translated and from what I'm seeing on comments is that the machine translated was actually pretty good, im wondering what program was used to translate this if anyone knows.

[OneManArmy 82]

Mashine translations good? Bahahahaha...joke of the year. And well I wouldn't say it's a machine translation so much so that it was translated akin to a machine translation. In other words, awkwardly literal with definitions/translation of words lifted straight out of dictionaries without any actual logical thought to formulating the sentences.

[SaruDa 11]

It could be that someone with no knowledge of Japanese used a machine translation on the whole thing, then went back and made most of it grammatically accurate.

 

That would be a passable approach, although obviously an intimate knowledge of Japanese helps vastly to ensure you're getting the right idea across.

[Bane Doyle 10]

The problem with doing it that way is that it sounds funny, sadly. Grammatically correct doesn't always mean it sounds good, especially not if it is a character speaking.

 

Still, from what I have seen FH's is better than most machine translations so I think it is likely this is what happened.

 

I only know... like .001% Japanese, but if I tried to machine translate I wouldn't feel right just fixing the grammar to make it readable, I would feel the urge to go back and REWRITE many lines until they flowed properly. ("Dinner was delicious, mom!" always sounds better to me than "mom, dinner tasted delicious!" to me if it is a teenager for example, but that is me)

 

That is probably why I will never translate one. XD

[Maxar 13]

It could be that someone with no knowledge of Japanese used a machine translation on the whole thing, then went back and made most of it grammatically accurate.

 

That would be a passable approach, although obviously an intimate knowledge of Japanese helps vastly to ensure you're getting the right idea across.

 

That would indeed be a good way, to make a Visual Novel available for people who badly want to play it, but I searched a bit around about the Flyable Heart translation, and it seems he tried to keep the english translation as literal and close to the japanese original as possible.

I never tried the english patch because of that, so I can't say for sure, but I saw some people making screenshots, how that fish shaped bread (forgot the name right now), was translated to "fish - shaped bread, filled with bean paste" or something like that.

[Bane Doyle 10]

You mean taiyaki?

 

... couldn't he add that after giving an explanation? It's rather well known in the west even if most people don't know what it is called.

[Maxar 13]

Ah, right.

It was Taiyaki.

And well, he probably could.

I can't find the original site of the translation anymore, but he said something like: "When I involved other people in the project, they always wanted to change too much, changing the true meaning of the original sentence."

But well, I'd still prefer to read normal english than weird english.

I don't see translations as a 100% perfect english version anyway.

[OneManArmy 82]

But well, I'd still prefer to read normal english than weird english.

I don't see translations as a 100% perfect english version anyway.

This is so true.

[Bane Doyle 10]

Perfect English does not always mean "English that sounds like something someone would say" so I have to agree again.

 

It is one thing to change the meaning of the sentence (going back to my example, that doesn't change the meaning at all, it just makes it flow better to me), I do have to agree with him there. But small changes to make it flow is different, it makes it easier to read and makes it more enjoyable, so changes are not inherently bad unless the original context is thrown out the window.