A small suggestion for translations...

[AT23]

Hi, nice to meet you all. Just wanted to say this is a pretty cool site and the information is pretty quick here so I've been a visitor until I signed up today. Now I get to join you all on fun FFXIII/Versus XIII discussions, yay!

Introductions aside, I wanted to provide a small suggestion that may help the translators or the way information is publicized on this site. On the front page, there is a section that had the topic title of a possible demo game in 2008, which was posted on the 23rd of January.

It said "The entity that built Cocoon is not the Crystal." near the end, but I think that would rather be a brash conclusion to make, considering the information isn't 100% clear and might have the magazine writer's personal thoughts and speculations behind it. I went over the scanned images, tried to even go to a local japanese book market to purchase these magazines to understand the given information better. Couldn't find them, but so far, my interpretation is that the writer of the magazine says the Cocoon is "kizuita"ed by the Farushi, and one may usually think that since the Crystal built Cocoon, people may make the connection of Crystal = Farushi. However, this isn't the case as the story given thus far doesn't seem that simple or straight foward. The girl has a very high chance of being a Rushi, but again there has been no fact that the blond-haired man is a Rushi as well. Additionally, the writer of the magazine says that if in fact the Farushi(s?) is/are the same entity as the Crystal, wouldn't that make Lightning herself a Rushi, as all living beings in Cocoon are given "roles", and the "role" that Lightning has been labeled to play is "The Enemy that would destroy the world of human beings." She seems to have been chosen that fate or destiny. If you look at it from another point of view, you could say Lightning herself is a Rushi.

I wouldn't make statements as of yet to saying "The entity that built Cocoon is not the Crystal", but insert words like "seems" or "unlikely" and such to portray information on a game that isn't released yet or isn't a direct source from Square-Enix.

As a side note, "Kizuita" or "Kizuku" means to organize, form, band, to find (ie: like find an organization/be founders of the website like this one) in japanese. Yes, I guess make or built could be one of the definitions, but from what I've gathered, it may be that the Crystal did in fact "Build" Cocoon, but the Crystal and Cocoon, and the civilization built within Cocoon has been found by the Farushi.

Just my 2 cents on how translations and info distribution can be done better, otherwise the translator's japanese isn't bad and I like the environment of this site. Cheers for your time, later!

[BlankChocobo]

Hi, nice to meet you all. Just wanted to say this is a pretty cool site and the information is pretty quick here so I've been a visitor until I signed up today. Now I get to join you all on fun FFXIII/Versus XIII discussions, yay!

Introductions aside, I wanted to provide a small suggestion that may help the translators or the way information is publicized on this site. On the front page, there is a section that had the topic title of a possible demo game in 2008, which was posted on the 23rd of January.

It said "The entity that built Cocoon is not the Crystal." near the end, but I think that would rather be a brash conclusion to make, considering the information isn't 100% clear and might have the magazine writer's personal thoughts and speculations behind it. I went over the scanned images, tried to even go to a local japanese book market to purchase these magazines to understand the given information better. Couldn't find them, but so far, my interpretation is that the writer of the magazine says the Cocoon is "kizuita"ed by the Farushi, and one may usually think that since the Crystal built Cocoon, people may make the connection of Crystal = Farushi. However, this isn't the case as the story given thus far doesn't seem that simple or straight foward. The girl has a very high chance of being a Rushi, but again there has been no fact that the blond-haired man is a Rushi as well. Additionally, the writer of the magazine says that if in fact the Farushi(s?) is/are the same entity as the Crystal, wouldn't that make Lightning herself a Rushi, as all living beings in Cocoon are given "roles", and the "role" that Lightning has been labeled to play is "The Enemy that would destroy the world of human beings." She seems to have been chosen that fate or destiny. If you look at it from another point of view, you could say Lightning herself is a Rushi.

I wouldn't make statements as of yet to saying "The entity that built Cocoon is not the Crystal", but insert words like "seems" or "unlikely" and such to portray information on a game that isn't released yet or isn't a direct source from Square-Enix.

As a side note, "Kizuita" or "Kizuku" means to organize, form, band, to find (ie: like find an organization/be founders of the website like this one) in japanese. Yes, I guess make or built could be one of the definitions, but from what I've gathered, it may be that the Crystal did in fact "Build" Cocoon, but the Crystal and Cocoon, and the civilization built within Cocoon has been found by the Farushi.

Just my 2 cents on how translations and info distribution can be done better, otherwise the translator's japanese isn't bad and I like the environment of this site. Cheers for your time, later!

Firstly, I'd like to say that I didn't translate anything from the articles that isn't on the scans ~_~; My only translations of article writing is on scans, I mean. Those comments on the main page are Japanese people's comments about the articles THEY read. ^^;

Which magazine are you looking at? I'm curious, as the only one I have translated FFXIII for is Famitsuu Weekly. I have yet to read or translate Famitsuu PS3 or Dengeki Playstation.

I'm glad to hear my Japanese is fair, though. Unlike translating manga, it's often quite difficult for me to follow an article because there are relatively little visual aids for me to understand the context, especially regarding trailers I have yet to see. ~_~; My Japanese is actually fairly poor and to make up for it, I simply sink more time into the translation to patch it.

In the article translation, I actually added more uncertainty phrases than the article originally contained, because I'm not sure myself how much the writers were told.

Also, I highly encourage you to correct any translation I do. I'm often not entirely sure when I put something down until later. ~_~; I'd feel a TON better if I knew someone was reading the raws and then reading my translations to check.

EDIT: By the way, that's translator, singular. (._.);

[AT23]

Meh, copy/paste didn't work, and I don't feel like typing what I just did again so I'll try to sum it up in a simple manner:

I looked at the scanned images on the front page after the topic that said there might be a demo in 2008. It has 8(+) scanned images. I went to the store today and they still didn't have FamWeek, FamPS3, or Dengeki magazine... disappointing but whatever.

Lastly, my apologies for the plural reference, I thought translations were done collectively by the staff members here. I wouldn't discredit yourself with your japanese, it's a hard language and if you can do translations decently, your japanese is good so keep up the good work!

Edit1: Posted wrong response, it took my previous copied writing and pasted it here which was not what I wanted.

Edit 2: Funny signature, I like it.

[Neal]

Ok... why did you just post the same thing twice?

[AT23]

Read my Edits Dante, thanks.

[Pulse]

A small suggestion of mine would be for you to read the forum posts before making a suggestion like this. In nearly every thread where there is an update, people actually specualte openly about the information, they realise that nothing is solid at the moment, as do almost every other playstation owner out there. It is seriously disheartening when a new member joins and just begins to slate members of staff for either attempting to do something (such as translating) without actually proof reading the site over.

I suggest that you introduce yourself to the other people on this forum, and not jump straight to diminishing one of the many attributes we have as a forum.

Thanks

[AT23]

Hmm... I didn't mean this as an attack or anything, but merely as a suggestion. Guess some people are sensitive. I guess I will find people who are open to criticism like BlankChocobo, and others... who are not.

The reason I did not post this on the other forums: While specifically addressing the 2008 Demo description, it was only an example of some of the translation muck-ups I've found on this site. I could go into every one of those topics and bump it, or, just fuse everything in one place and post it here in suggestions since I do think it can be improved. What's already written on the front page can't be changed, or is just a hassle to change for you guys... hmm... maybe I should have wrote somewhere in my starting topic "for future references".

Slating is one thing, if I were to slate you guys I could do it in a better fashion. I only came here to suggest something on the suggestion forums, which seems like an appropriate place to do so. Don't take this as diminishing, and don't be so defensive. Thanks.

PS: I "introduced" myself again in the "proper" forum section.

[Pulse]

Why thankyou for introducing yourself properly. Usually people go there first in order to create a bond with the forum members. I see our bond will be purely civil. Enjoy your time here at the forums. I thankyou for your clarity in your response.

Regards

[BlankChocobo]

Geez guys. ^__^; I had to look up words before I could reply to the thread. ~_~;

Firstly, I'm not offended. I'm just sleep deprived and may be slightly grumpy because of it.

May I ask what your level of Japanese is like?

Honestly, I had to think about whether or not taking a postion as staff was a good idea, considering my own level of proficiency (second year of formal instruction). But it was a bit too cool to pass up... ^__^; Conversations are still extremely difficult for me to follow, and the amount of kanji I know by sight is minimal, although my gaming vocabulary has probably quadrupled since I started... I just hope the site isn't suffering because of me... I feel bad for everyone here being stuck with someone as slow as me to translate. =_=;

Edit 2: Funny signature, I like it.

Why thank you. Amleya here made it for me. ^____^ It makes me giggle too.

[Pulse]

I just hope the site isn't suffering because of me... I feel bad for everyone here being stuck with someone as slow as me to translate. =_=;

You aren't serious are you? You're an excellent staff member. You provide the site with a very useful talent, do not feel like you are making anyone suffer, you have a life outside of this forum as do we all............ but by all means, you are NOT slow. It wouldn't matter if it took you a week or a month to translate, its just nice to have someone that can translate the magazine scans. You are a true attribute to the site.

PEACE OUT!

Josh

[Whiplash]

I just hope the site isn't suffering because of me... I feel bad for everyone here being stuck with someone as slow as me to translate. =_=;



Have you forgotten that you're the god of the forums already?

[BlankChocobo]

Have you forgotten that you're the god of the forums already?

Lol. Famitsuu owned my vocabulary x 1000. ._.;

[Thimien]

You aren't serious are you? You're an excellent staff member. You provide the site with a very useful talent, do not feel like you are making anyone suffer, you have a life outside of this forum as do we all............ but by all means, you are NOT slow. It wouldn't matter if it took you a week or a month to translate, its just nice to have someone that can translate the magazine scans. You are a true attribute to the site.

Just for the fact he doesnt mind doing it is amazing, alot of people dont give a crap, Blanc.. Thank you for translating JP for us no brainers lol

I just give credit to anyone who can actualy reed japanese, let alone try and translate the damn thing for us here on the forum lol

Suggestions are fine, no one needs to even be upset, if anything we have a mind of our own to desagree or agree with what is translated, and as time goes on, more scans will come in and people eather will stand corrected, or not ;)

Congrats to all you guys who can read JP.

[Pulse]

Thimien...... blanks a dudette... not a dude.... theres a symbol next to her name lol

Josh

[AT23]

Hi, there seems to be a little misunderstanding/unintended... faulting or rather making you feel bad BlankChocobo... so here's my chance to apologize to you and give you what my thoughts are for your japanese.

Again, your skills are not to be discredited, japanese is a hard, or at least different language to begin with. This is because it does not use the english or latin-derived alphabet, as in our abcdefz0mgtoolongandwhocares. For someone who's never learned a eastern language, this is a challenge. You're stepping up to the challenge.

That said, your japanese is good. There are few people who could read, speak and write japanese, let alone understand BOTH japanese and english(or another language) and translate between them. Speed or skills isn't a problem for you, you're doing fine. Don't think you're letting down other people, as Pulse said, not even many gaming sites, let alone a FF-devoted site has a translator position and I am impressed by this.

Lastly, to answer your question about my japanese level... let's just say I can read, write, and speak some japanese too. XD And I have done a few translations and interpretations for side-businesses. I'm currently trying to pick up French so I can be tri-lingual, since I feel France is the next frontier in terms of videogames. They've got interesting ideas and amazing 3D artists there. Anywho, it can be quite a challenge since there are words mixed in translations or interpretations that aren't used often and you're a deer caught in the headlights. But I'm here to help, so any questions or doubts you have I can try to solve with you in terms of translating. I hope you can maintain the same cheery and generous attitude of translating for this site, as you're both skilled and able, and this place can only be as cool as it is with someone like yourself.

[BlankChocobo]

Thanks, Thimien. ^_^

Don't worry about the gender thing. It totally happens all the time. Really. XD

And AT23 didn't make me feel bad. I was thinking that I didn't have enough skill with Japanese to be translating for other people way before.

I'm so jealous of you... >_< I'd love to do work as a translator. My Japanese teacher asked if the translating I did over break was for work, but I'm pretty sure it's not actually possible to get a job translating anything with only one and a half years of formal classes. ~_~ I also assume you need to take one of the Japanese proficiency tests...

I understand Spanish well enough to translate back to English, for sure, but I really don't have much interest in it. Spanish doesn't have that "happy place" feeling that Japanese does for me. ^^;

I'll definitely take you up on your offer to help... probably a lot. ^^; I've found when I translate, there are often a lot of things I want confirmation on, especially where they're vague due to dropped nouns T_T; More than difficult vocabulary, expressions tend to trip me up.

[Thimien]

Pulse i only realised when i went to her profile lol

Your welcome BlankChocochocochocobo :)

As for langu's, im ok on Portuguese, English, French, Italian and Spanish.. when i say ok, i mean i can understand when people talk to me, cant write Italian or Spanish, crap at French, and i do alot of errors on Portuguese and English.. i tend to think the reason for that, is becouse im confusing all 5, couse of the traveling, and the learning, i never really got the hand of at least one.

God Bless Word haha.

And yeah sorry about the dude thing, miss dudette lol :)