Welome!!
There's not much to actually TEACH translations, but I'll be answering and commenting on any topic re: translations.

You know any good online Japanese dictionarys? Also, isn't the sentence of eastern languages different than western languages? And how do you get the romanji? I know that in Chinese there's the pinyin system.

I use this site for my romaji->english translations (and also those obscure Japanese words):

http://www.nihongoresources.com/

(Tip: Check the "Show Romaji" for better searching.)

While I use this handy site for coverting kanji characters and turning them to romaji:

http://www.j-talk.com/nihongo/

(Tip: Use the Middle radio button for the kanji->romaji converter. A word of warning though, it's not 100% correct most of the time.)

English sentances are Subject, Verb, Object order.

I went to the store
I is the subject
went is the verb
store is the object

Japanese sentances are different. Subject, Object, Verb

I American am
I is subject
American is object
am is verb

wow, i barely know any japanese and i knew that.....better head for the environmental bunkers >.<

*raises hand meekly*

I was silently nudged to enter translation school. I would like to improve my skills by working on translations anyway, as I'm a bit strapped for work in my Japanese class. Anyway...

I use JWPce for all my translating needs. It's a handy little English-Japanese-English dictionary/Kanji Dictionary. The link can be found here:

http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~grosenth/c_download.html

*Paracelsius looks at Jaceryl*

HA!! I knew you would have joined this school!! Well, Good luck everyone...

*Silently Para"TOM SAWYER"celsius sneaks out of the window and goes fishing at a spot on the Mississipi river*

Actually, that's not a very good example because the line would be:

watashi wa Amerikajin desu
私はアメリカ人です

-desu is simply a polite copula, so if you were to force convert the line, the -wa(ha) particle would be the "am".

A better example would be an action, like "I'll drink beer":

watashi ha biiru o nomimasu
私はビールを飲みます

watashi - subject
biiru - object
nomu(nomimasu) - verb

more often, if the subject is clear (when everybody knows you're talking about yourself), then the subject "I" is not needed.

biiru o nomimasu
ビールを飲みます

means the same thing as "I'll drink beer", even though "I" is not present.

I would like to second Jaceryl's recommendation on jwpce. (it also includes a radical based kanji search system... it is nothing special but having it in your comp is always a plus).

Also, for those lucky enoguh to be firefox users, there is an extension called moji, which is basically a japanese dictionary integrated into firefox. (highlight a kanji/word, alt+m and voilá! :P)

For other, windows based japanese editors you might like NJStar (even the freeware version is quite nice)

or you might want to scrap windows altogether and choose some nifty *nix tools like gjiten (a quite nice expressions/kanji dictionary) or kanjipad ( this one allows you to draw a kanji with your mouse/electronic pen and search for it, excellent for getting in your clipboard those 100+ radical kanji's whose reading you don't know :P

Hmm.. about things I'd like to ask...

Ok my knowledge of the form verb+ くれる
is rather empyrical... exactly how do you use it?

Oh, and which is the diff between the conditional forms
~ば and ~たら

"Kureru" itself means "give", but if you're talking about ex: "totte kureru?" that'll mean "take it for me"
and the Kureru part'll mean "for me"
usually used when asking a favor.

they're the same...basically.
It means "if" right?
but as far as I know, the former can be used for adjectives&verbs,
(you always need connectors) and the latter only uses verbs.

Well, I guess I'll start with questions here:

First off, what are the common uses of "tada"?

Secondly, when is "de aru" used, and for what purpose?

Yeah, I know the basic use of くれる ,

彼が(私に) 何とかをくれます ... but I was oblivious (well, apart from what common sense told you, but common sense is not a very good method when learning foreign languages :P) as to the more complicated uses


and about ば and なら I know of their grammatical usage difference, but I was curious as to if they had more subtle differences... (as with -なら, which even if its conditional it means something on the lines of if you are talking/refering to/about then...)

you mean, not "tadaaa" but "tada", right?
it means "just"(not the time) or, "free" as in money.
"tada mitakatta" is saying "I just wanted to see it"

it's just a style of speaking nowadays.
but it is more formal (or old).

*if it's used in the middle of a sentence, ex: "kare ha baka de aru kara ~ "
then it'll mean " ~ because he's stupid""

@Proto

nah, it's fairly simple

well, not much here either, but the latter is more polite.
to say the same thing, Asuna would use the former and Konoka would use the latter.

oh, almost forgot:
"ba" can be used to say "why don't you?"
as in "ocha wo nomeba?" will mean "why don't you drink tea?"

Poor JCO, unicode just don't work for you, switch to Firefox maybe? ^^;

For the free example, something like "tada de asoberu", which means "play for free".

And "de aru" is more often seen in literature rather than everyday speech.

There's really nothing too complicated about it. 何とかをくれます would be an odd usage though, I think you meant 何かをくれます. 何とか means "somewhat" or "somehow" and is usually used to refer to actions, ie. 翻訳学校なんかちょっと無理かなと思わないこともないけど、 JCOならきっと何とかしてくれるはず。

Oh damn, it's not even my school, why do I keep getting sidetracked and dropping in here? *goes back to some other menial work*

Err... yeah. That as a mental slip on my part. >.< Thanks for the insight though

And yours truly would greatly appreciate if senpai can drop here every now and then :P

... which leads to the next question: what was that はず that senpai used at the end of her example?

Whaaaat?
are you chaining me to this school Sushi?
If I'm the principal, you're the teacher :lol:

My philosophy is to get everybody involved and work together,
rather than one person teaching or commenting.

RE:browser
I'm using a tab-browser called Donut Rapt, which is super cool for my purposes.
I'll try somthing else next time to see if it'll work posting Jp here.

のうのう, remember what I said when the school thing was proposed?

If anything, I'm the principle who sits in the air-conditioned office with the big comfy chair, and you're the little teacher running around working your ass off for bread crumbs.

Remember rule #1?

oh....(T_T)*sob
shukke shite iidesuka?

Btw, I found out that my settings change the encodes to ISO automatically, so I'm looking for a way to lock it.

anyway, my Japanese can be read by Shift-JIS when necessary.

‚±‚ê“Ç‚ß‚é�`�H
�™�Ü‚x�Ü‚x�Ü‚x�Ü‚x�Ü �S(o�L„D�M)É ƒqƒ„ƒbƒzƒE�ô
‚Å‚à‚ß‚ñ‚Ç‚¤‚¾‚æ‚Ë�B�B�B�V_ _�jƒÐ�aƒCƒWƒCƒW¥¥¥

I have a question for you, for translating purposes which of the writing systems should someone concentrate on learning?

Umm, what do you mean by writing systems?
if it's about programs, IME Global is the most popular.
if it's about encoding, it has nothing to do with learning.

I meant which of the three written langauges should we concentrate on learning, Kanji,Katanaka or Hiragna?

now I get it.
All 3 are critical in terms of learning how to translate.

well, there's usually a Hiragana written next to the Kanji's in manga (cuz kids can't read kanji's),
but there are so many words that are spelled the same but means different.
So, you really need to learn both.

as for Katakana, they're used for foriegn words, so just know what letter stands for which hiragana.
also for sound effects in katakana, just know how they sound.
say it out loud and you'll know what it means.

isn't that more like a pipedream? :P

Hey, I got an idea :P
I was thinking of finding translation-related material, but how about we discuss Sushi's translations of Negima??

This way, we can talk about the same topic, as well as learning why/how certain lines are translated in such ways.

For example, we compare the raws and Sushi's (or your own) translations, and discuss the differences.
and questions regarding certain phrases can be brought up.
(damn, I'm repeating myself...)

If it's cool, I'll make another thread for it, and leave this thread as General Questions thread.

But most importantly, may I do this Sushi-Y ??

To learn one script and not the other would be like only learning the CAPITAL letters of the English alphabet script and not the lower case alphabets. Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji are all equally important.

Most people start with Hiragana (because it's the most basic), then Katakana, then Kanji, in that order.

That depends, if it's giseigo (sound onomatopoeia), it might be easier (ie. GAN for two objects clashing together). But if it's gitaigo (action mimic words), then it probably won't work. (ie. No matter how loud you yell out NIKORI, you probably won't know it means "the act of smiling")

なぁんだ、今更になって逃げるつもり？出家してもかまわないが．．．それは何のためにもなりませんよ、あなたを捕まえてここに連れ戻すだけのことです．．．けけけけぇ．．．

Ok, ok, I'm driving this place off the rail, answer the questions that haven't been answered yet, JCO. *cracks whip*

Why mine? ^^; Use your ow... ahh dammit it's not out yet.

JCO-Sensei, I wanted to ask you a thing about the ha particle.

Is it safe for me to assume that the ha particle is written as ha and read as wa all the time?

And also, do you know how yakuza speak?
(This is a legal translation question due to Yakitate Japan volume 17.)

And does JCO-sensei know of a wonderful Kanji dictionary out there that I can buy for a reasonable price?


**********
Huwaa~ Sushi-dono seems like she's been laying the smack down quite a lot lately...

It's like Kowashite! Kowashite! Kowashite! ... can't be a good Kochou-sensei if she ain't like that tho...

ooh, missed that one.

it means "should" in terms of expectations.
or you can use "must", but be carefull not to confuse it with the "force" meaning.

I take that as a yes :D :P :lol:
Well, I did say "(or your own)", so it's not like picking on your work.
You know that we all love your work, Sushi.

and it'll also let me get revenge!! help you with your future translations right?

if the ha is used as an subject marker, yes.
but anything else, pronounce it as "ha".

uhh...yeah, but how should I explain it?
They tend to use rough, old language...
other than that, master Sushi will explain it for you.

nope, you're asking the wrong person :P
I'm a pure Japanese, so I only know about dictionaries that work the other way around.
Try the online ones Megane&co suggested in the earlier posts ^^;

bah, i knew there was a reason someone who doesn't even know all the hiragana shouldn't teach japanese <_<

Oh yeah... This has been bugging me for quite some time now...

JCO-sensei, why are some of the words in written in katakana when a hiragana could suffice?

Like the Ha, hai that Negi uses.

Or, Nagi's "Aru no yarou" in 118-p1 (the yarou part).

And the "ikemen" from Misa in 118-p2 (though it could be a foreign loan word).

and also the "mame" in "mame na yatsu da na" in 118-p3 (Mame has kanji for it).

Is there a reason for the usage of katakana even in sentences that looks Japanese enough to warrant hiragana (even Kanji) use, JCO-sensei?


******

Also, I hate to ask this question as late as 118 is already... but what were the kanji in the bubble in page 14-15?
(Located in the box with the civilians: the small, kanji-filled bubble after "Wa---------!?" and before "Nanda are!?")

Sorry, but I can't read it since it's so small.... (from a guy trying to expand his kanji dict.)

Since I'm around, I'll answer that question for you.

To describe it simply: style and emphasis.

Besides marking foreign words, Katakana is inherently an "attention grabbing" script, so it's common to see katakana used in the place of hiragana or kanji in mangas because it places an extra emphasis/meaning on a word. Think of it like a bold typeface for English writings.

For example, ハイ would have more emphasis in it than はい.

A second reason is style, even though the character isn't emphasizing on something, it might get written in katakana so the reader can "single it out" faster than other words.

It's really a gimmicky type of writing style though, so you won't see this in official or formal literatures.

軍事研の新型爆弾 Military Research's new type bomb

So using katakana can also be likened to using a bold or italic font in a sea of regular font words. Hmm... I see...

Domo arigatou gozarimasu, Sushi-dono.

質問です！！

In this picture [don't mind the loli] and this one[don't mind the freakishly laughing guy] too, I don't understand the meaning of that similar ending they share [the なかった part specifically], even after consulting a few people, so it's been bugging my curiousity.


And while I'm at it, may I ask what is the meaning behind the "ｗ" I often see in the japanese online community and games like .hack?

そして、はじめまして．スシさん

ご質問を頂きありがとうございます。回答は以下の通りです。

The -なかった in both pictures would all be the past tense of -ない, in the first picture's case
"あの作文は、過去形では書いてなかった" says "That essay wasn't written in past tense". (past tense of 書いてない, not writing)
"知られたくなかったんだ" says "(I/you/he/she/etc.) didn't want that to be known (by me/you/him/her/etc.)". (past tense of 知られたくない, don't want to be known)
"強くなるしかなかったんだよ" says "There was no other way except to become strong" (past tense of しかない, there is no other way but)

It's a 2ch language, simply put, w stands for warai (笑). In a way, you can see it as the Japanese online equivalent of "lol". But in terms of meaning, it's slightly different. Where "lol" in English means "laugh out loud" and is used to respond to something you find humorous, "w" (which, by the way, can be longer to add emphasis, like www or wwwww) represents more of a laughter directed at one's own comment. For example "I rode my bike so fast I almost hit a lightpost w".

そうなんですか？ あなたの名前はこのフォルムのどこかで見たような記憶がありますけど、とりあえずどうもはじめまして～。

Arrg, past tenses. Missed that.
*records into notepad*
*also records the little 'w' note*

ああ．たしかにおれ、以前からいたけど、今度は初めの会話だから、「はじめまして」と言った．
ええ、日本語はちょっと（？）ダメから、よろしくおねがいします＞．＜

Omfg ownage.

I'm definitely making the 好き好きスシさん fanclub.

Shamelessly stolen from Shuffle btw.

SANTA: Party itte omoshiroi monda na

MAI : Deshou? Deshou?

I deeply apologize if the spelling sux, but how should "deshou" be translated??

"Isn't it? Isn't it?"

Sushi-dono, JCO-sensei...

How do you translate it when a person ends their sentence with -mon?

(like with the phrase "hourou surundamon!")

I mean, it's like a speech mannerism (same with ending questions using kai), right?

I've seen Sushi-dono translate Takahata's kai particle like it was nothing more than a regular ka particle.

I was wondering if the -mon itself has a different way of being taken care of during translation.

I have a question as well. I'm curious as to how this line would be translated:

聞くことのではなく　理解することが大切ということをお忘れなく。

I'm particularly intersted in how "naku" is being used here.

I wouldn't translate it because you really can't. If you're talking about -mon used as an inflectional end (for example, そんなことないもん, 猫だもん！), then the best way I can describe it is "a childish word end". Just like how males use "-ze" or "-zo" and females with "-wa" or "-ne", "-mon" gives off the "little child" feeling. As a result, inherently, a sentence may sound a little "childish" (that is, stubborn) with a -mon end. Potentially, you can use it if you want to give off a "determined" feel... Well, it's not as if there are rules about how to use it, you just have to get used to it I guess.

"kai" is simply a masculine version of "ka".

-naku is simply the conjunctive form of -nai. But I suppose you're asking about the お忘れなく. Anyways, notice the honorific "o-", which places significance onto the act (noun) of "forget", the "naku" here implies "have none (of the action)". So お忘れなく would translate to something like "have no forget" or "without forget". It's a rather specialized usage (it's a set expression, similiar to ご心配なく or お構いなく), I can't really explain it well except to say you shouldn't really have to worry about how it works.

Similiar English example would be expressions like "have no regret" or "have no fear".

I'd translate that sentence as "Please do not forget that the important thing is not about listening, but about understanding."

Yay, I'm a masculine particle >.>

Nice avvy btw >.>