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Blanchimont
Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3520
Location: Finland
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 6:49 pm
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Quote: | Manga Localization Company Amimaru Allegedly Trials Machine Translation For Commercial Manga Releases |
Umm, no, that will NOT go over well, I guarantee it.
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MagicPolly
Joined: 26 Nov 2020
Posts: 1611
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 6:52 pm
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Doesn't Amimaru already have a bad enough reputation? Why do they feel the need to run it into the ground further?
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cchigu
Joined: 15 Feb 2020
Posts: 250
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 6:57 pm
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Don't see any problem with Machine Translation, in maybe a couple of years that is. Currently ML technology is not that advanced. Still need a lot more training, or maybe I am wrong.
As for many translators, and as a matter of fact other individuals in a similar boat, losing their jobs, I mean, you just gotta adapt to the ever changing world and find something new to do.
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otastorian
Joined: 02 Aug 2018
Posts: 64
Location: otakuhistoryguy.blogspot.com
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 6:58 pm
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Awesome, I look forward to reading MTL poetry in my officially localized manga! /s
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Blanchimont
Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3520
Location: Finland
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 7:05 pm
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cchigu wrote: | Don't see any problem with Machine Translation, in maybe a couple of years that is. Currently ML technology is not that advanced. Still need a lot more training, or maybe I am wrong. |
We already have an application of it on commercial releases, Some visual novels released in China as well as many China-made visual novels have an English machine translated option. They're practically unplayable, so much so that not even pirates bother much with them.
I don't think a few years will cut it...
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JoelBurger
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 7:14 pm
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I find it funny that people are under the impression that "good" MTL is a matter of years away. As though there's going to be some magical breakthrough that allows a machine to understand what context is in a ridiculously context-based language.
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Gem-Bug
Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1268
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 7:16 pm
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cchigu wrote: | As for many translators, and as a matter of fact other individuals in a similar boat, losing their jobs, I mean, you just gotta adapt to the ever changing world and find something new to do. |
This is the kind of attitude that let walmart and amazon work people to death while destroying small-scale businesses for billions. It's always the people with absolutely no stake in X business who are always spewing the "you just gotta adapt!" mantra the loudest.
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xxmsxx
Joined: 06 Sep 2017
Posts: 584
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 8:11 pm
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Yes, some of your run-of-the-mill isekai/romcom/slice of life will be okay under machines. But many will not at this point or a few years down the road. Some will never.
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CrypticPurpose
Joined: 15 Jan 2020
Posts: 332
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 8:15 pm
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Gem-Bug wrote: |
cchigu wrote: | As for many translators, and as a matter of fact other individuals in a similar boat, losing their jobs, I mean, you just gotta adapt to the ever changing world and find something new to do. |
This is the kind of attitude that let walmart and amazon work people to death while destroying small-scale businesses for billions. It's always the people with absolutely no stake in X business who are always spewing the "you just gotta adapt!" mantra the loudest. |
Are you on the side of the coal miners that want us to keep polluting our atmosphere just so they don't have to learn a new trade as well?
Nothing is black and white, and sometimes, adaptation is the right answer, even if it hurts. In this particular case, it happens to be stupid, because machine translation is still in its infancy, but the world isn't static, and just because change always hurts someone doesn't mean it isn't the right path for society as a whole.
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Pokenatic
Joined: 24 Jan 2012
Posts: 571
Location: Neo Venezia
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 8:34 pm
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It's already hard to deal with when the only "fan" translation for a work is machine translated garbage, but when a company wants to use machine translation for an official release that they expect you to pay for? No thanks.
cchigu wrote: | Don't see any problem with Machine Translation, in maybe a couple of years that is. Currently ML technology is not that advanced. Still need a lot more training, or maybe I am wrong. |
Not gonna lie, I'm pretty sure tech people said good machine translation was only a couple years away all the way back around 2000. Kinda like how VR is gonna have it's breakout moment for the past decade.
Last edited by Pokenatic on Thu Dec 23, 2021 8:43 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Cardcaptor Takato
Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 5018
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 8:40 pm
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CrypticPurpose wrote: |
Are you on the side of the coal miners that want us to keep polluting our atmosphere just so they don't have to learn a new trade as well?
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Are you really comparing translators to something that harms the environment? Why are some people in this thread really jumping for joy to have translators lose their jobs?
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Gem-Bug
Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1268
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 8:40 pm
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CrypticPurpose wrote: |
Gem-Bug wrote: |
cchigu wrote: | As for many translators, and as a matter of fact other individuals in a similar boat, losing their jobs, I mean, you just gotta adapt to the ever changing world and find something new to do. |
This is the kind of attitude that let walmart and amazon work people to death while destroying small-scale businesses for billions. It's always the people with absolutely no stake in X business who are always spewing the "you just gotta adapt!" mantra the loudest. |
Are you on the side of the coal miners that want us to keep polluting our atmosphere just so they don't have to learn a new trade as well? |
Um, no, since the example I used -also- harms people and the environment? I think all fossil fuel energy sector workers should be given the opportunity to transition to green tech/energy jobs(but this is a topic for a different thread).
CrypticPurpose wrote: | Nothing is black and white, and sometimes, adaptation is the right answer, even if it hurts. In this particular case, it happens to be stupid, because machine translation is still in its infancy, but the world isn't static, and just because change always hurts someone doesn't mean it isn't the right path for society as a whole. |
And just because you -can- do something, doesn't mean that you -should-. The whole point of this(machine learning for manga translation), from idea to implementation, is anti-worker/pro-profit. That's it. There's no shiny "right path for society" moral or goal here, and it's delusional to think so. If you want to argue this tech from a pro-capitalist stance, sure, go for it. But it's disingenuous to pretend like this specific instance is a good for humanity, especially where it's established how poorly treated translators can be.
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AQuin1904
Joined: 13 Nov 2021
Posts: 268
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 8:41 pm
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Having been asked to "proofread" (read: rewrite completely in half the time for a third of the pay) machine translations for subtitles, MT is nowhere up to the standard required for any kind of creative work, and honestly, neither are CAT tools. Beyond simple grammar issues (correctly identifying the beginning and end of a sentence split across multiple bubbles or subtitles; parsing slang, slurred pronunciations, and accents; filling in implied parts of speech that aren't optional in the target language; etc.), you have elements that require context (references, cultural terms, deliberate clichés, and more) and all sorts of puns, gags, and so on that require a more creative approach. Agencies want MT to cut out language specialists by giving them something that they can hand directly to a monolingual editor (only the ones who have completely left reality behind think that they can release automated work as-is), but it ends up requiring language specialists to fix any of these issues when they inevitably go wrong.
MT software that can clear all those hurdles isn't coming anytime soon. At present, commercial products being tested by big-name agencies can't even keep single terms consistent in short business documents. People who have been saying that this technology is "just a few years away" for over about two decades now, and the one thing all those people have in common is a complete failure to understand what a professional translator actually does.
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FunkyDude88
Joined: 01 Oct 2021
Posts: 108
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 9:17 pm
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Cardcaptor Takato wrote: | Why are some people in this thread really jumping for joy to have translators lose their jobs? |
People probably just have a lot of animosity towards official translators these days. A lot of people would take a literal, if stilted, translation over one filled with politics and internet memes.
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
Joined: 14 Dec 2012
Posts: 1431
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Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 9:55 pm
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FunkyDude88 wrote: |
People probably just have a lot of animosity towards official translators these days. A lot of people would take a literal, if stilted, translation over one filled with politics and internet memes. |
For a problem that's apparently rampant in the English manga industry I sure don't seem to run into anything like that in the 20 or so simulpublished series I follow every week, nor the volumes I read outside of that. Where's all this controversial editorializing coming from?
Anyway, machine translation is absolutely a pipe dream. If it were to ever actually advance to the point where it was capable of replacing a human translator for anything but the most rudimentary tasks, it'd instantly be locked behind expensive licensing agreements the same way pro-level office software is, negating any actual profit margin increases. As-is it's mainly a tool for shortsighted or just plain poorly managed companies who don't actually value the skills necessary for good translation.
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