Forum - View topicManga Translation as a Career.
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c.rescentro.ses
Posts: 11 |
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I love manga, anime, and the Japanese language so much that I'm thinking about pursuing a career in manga translation from Japanese to either English or French. I haven’t taken a course in Japanese yet, but I plan to in a few years after I get my degree in English Lit and French, so I have time to think about it. I've been trying to read up on it online, but it doesn't seem there are enough sites about manga translation as there are about general translation. So, I came here to ask a few questions.
How does one get into such a field? Is it possible for a college student with a few years of Japanese/study in Japan to do it? Is there any advice (good or bad) someone in this field could give me? It just seems like the perfect job for me. Thanks in advance if you reply. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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This would be an excellent question to supply to the Answerman column. [email protected]
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c.rescentro.ses
Posts: 11 |
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Oh. I didn't think of that, since I don't usually read the columns on ANN (don't kill me!). Thanks for your advice, I'll try asking there.
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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From what I was told, they don't make much and most do it as a side job to their main job. A career in "manga translation" wouldn't last long either, once manga sale start dying like it is now, you'll be out of a "part time" job.
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KyuuA4
 Posts: 1361 Location: America, where anime and manga can be made |
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Yup, what good is a translator if there's nothing to translate? 
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digitalkikka
 Posts: 462 Location: Chicago, Illinois |
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Blame the OEL. 
You'll probably need more then a few years of college Japanese if you want a professional company to hire you. As it says in the back of Del Rey books; "translation is more art then science". It's not easy, you can't just succeed with a semester or two of Japanese and a dictionary. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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I definitely agree that you might be a bit lacking on the Japanese knowledge, but it all depends on how well you are able to grasp the language. However if you are interested in translation work, perhaps sticking to the languages you know better, ie English and French, might be a better step, or at least don't exclude those just because you happen to like manga better.
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Arakis
 Posts: 33 Location: Amish Country, USA |
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Manga/anime translation can be a difficult field to jump straight into unless you're already an established translator. It was largely a combination of timing, luck, knowing the right people, studying my butt off in college, and practicing as a fan translator that led me to be able to translate professionally today.
As was stated, we don't make a whole lot of money. Whether freelance or in-house, work can be hard to come by sometimes and the pay is often only livable if you have a spouse who makes good main/supplementary income, a living situation with very low overhead, or as was stated above, a second job. This kind of work truly is a labor of love, which in a way is good since the people who will do it are often those who care more about the work they deal with. Speaking from personal experience, after two years of college level Japanese I was ready to do fan translation but my skills were not at all at a professional level. I've seen this be the case with a few other individuals as well. If you really do want to pursue this course, then study hard, get good dictionaries, and practice on your own Japanese manga and anime, but be prepared for a hard road ahead of you. Get to know lots of people in industry and fandom because networking is key to getting work in this field. And try your hand at translation for fansubbers/scanlators, but you may want to use a pseudonym if you go that route... The bottom line is that such a "career" is attainable, but it takes a lot of patience, hard work, and good fortune. |
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c.rescentro.ses
Posts: 11 |
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Thanks everyone for your replies. I still want to pursue being a translator of some sort, but now maybe not a manga translator as my current field choice.
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KyuuA4
Posts: 1361 Location: America, where anime and manga can be made |
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Actually, those could be translated into Japanese... or some other language, like Spanish. Well, IF someone's willing to do it. We so take our English language for granted such that everything must be translated into English.
Yup. Can't just be a Level 1 Japanese speaker to do translation duties. Gotta be fluent! |
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