Tales of a Proofreader
Published on November 12, 2016
This post has been a draft on my blog for years now and it's about time I posted it. Have you ever wanted to contribute to the anime/manga experience? I certainly have. If you've read some of my other posts, you may have noticed that I'm a bit of a Grammar Nazi (just a little bit, though). A while back, I decided I'd put that to use in the anime I watched so often. So I just want to share my experiences. Honestly, it's not all it's cracked up to be...especially with sites like Crunchyroll these days.
Note: In the anime subtitle world, the role is usually called an editor, but that means something else in manga, so I'm just going to call it proofreader.
Let's get this out of the way first. If you're not confident in your English, I think proofreading is great practice. I believe and hope that the time I spent constantly looking out for awkward phrasings in translations has made my own writing less awkward.
Depending on the group, you might even learn some Japanese along the way (I never did, though...wasn't really trying). I also find some of the sentences translators come up with are truly entertaining...but more on that later.
And now, we move on to...I guess some harsh truths? Unfortunately, roughly 330 million people in the world speak English as their first language and many of them are on the Internet. There's a lot of competition out there, especially for anime. I personally suggest that if you really want to try, you should look for manga groups. They tend to be less stressful and more plentiful (if you're curious where to look, I can certainly help out).
Next up, translators. I think that most translators are either people who know Japanese and want to get better at English or the opposite. They're allowed to do this because the number of translators is practically zero compared the number of proofreaders and groups in general. As a proofreader, you're only as good as your translator, so even if you do the best you can, you can often completely miss the point of the line.
And finally, you're ultimately left to your own devices. You're probably going to know the most about the English language in your group, so your mistakes may never be communicated to you. That may be a good thing or a bad thing...depending on the person. Just thought I'd point that out.
And now let's get on to the good part. Show and tell! I don't have too many examples, but these are a few examples from my experiences in this area. Enjoy!
(Seriously, this wasn't my fault)
(Green text is mine)
Don't have a screenshot for this one, but: "they would take intereste in him whole-heartedly, and touch him at full strength" - Typos happen, but nothing makes me laugh harder than the thought of a group of people touching someone at full strength.
Something more recent.
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Brian G.
Nov. 12, 2016, 7:19 p.m.Hey, I would actually be super interested in getting into this. You
mentioned that you could help out in finding manga groups who would
benefit from a proofreader, so I was hoping that you might be able to
help me out in finding a group that needs help.marthaurion
Nov. 12, 2016, 7:56 p.m.sure thing. if you read a lot of manga, you might be able to find openings in the credits pages at the beginning of each chapter. that's my preferred approach because a group that's translating a manga i like is more likely to be translating another manga i like. alternatively, i find that the recruitment section of the batoto forums (it's a manga aggregator) have a lot of groups advertising themselves. good luck!
Flow
Nov. 12, 2016, 8:55 p.m.Marth the proofreader! You should become an english teacher! *nods*
Schrodingers Cat
Nov. 13, 2016, 5:23 a.m.HEY! I've totally seen that last example before *nod nod* :D
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