#translation work

Freedom and intentionality, mainly. A fan translator, even one working as a group, has a say on what the final product will look like. There are no limitations from above on format, glossary, and tone. For some concrete examples:

You know those typesetting and encoding tricks Kaleido loves doing? You don't find them in professional works because producers want scripts to be Netflix-compatible even if the series is not initially on Netflix, and the Netflix subtitling platform doesn't allow for shit.

Whether opening and ending songs are subbed depends on whether or not the song's producer felt like licensing it.

There was one time I was translating even-numbered chapters while someone else is translating odd-numbered chapters, and we couldn't see each other's work, and when the series is released, I learned that our editor made no attempt to unify the two styles. This is a highly unusual work structure, but take this super specific example as a symbol of a broader "producers being creative and experimental with workflows to cut costs" situation.

Deadlines exist. Something something "a delayed game is good forever".

You must inherit terminology from the person who the previous games/chapters/episodes in the series even if they're shit. This includes character names (hi, Altria 👋). Inheriting terminology from the person who translated the source material is heavily encouraged, but thankfully optional a lot of the time.

A fan translator always chooses what they work on, so there always will be some additional level of care, knowledge, and insight. The translated series is one of the things they think about in their free time, after all.

🪽 14th week of 2026

I finally got my hands on strawberries 🍓

I wanted them so badly back when Chapter 11 dropped on Ficbook…

At least it perfectly lined up with the AO3 release.

I’ve started moving faster with LS. Sorted out some adult-life chaos, even cleared part of my work backlog. Not fully — but I can finally breathe under it.

I also changed my translation strategy, and it feels much more sustainable now.

I still don’t quite understand how I’m supposed to finish the translation this year, keep up with chapter analysis posts, and write a new story.

So for now — I just keep moving.

If you've been studying a second language, and have at least some proficiency, but want to learn that second language...have you considered translating webcomics & webnovels?

It's not going to be for the brand-new language-learner, but it will help you to immerse yourself in the culture (or cultural assumptions), and learn how to translate from "how they say things in Language X" to "how they say things in Language Y."

While some are free "for the love of it," many of these are paid positions, especially if you can prove you do have some translation chops. There are a LOT of manga, manhua, manhwa, however you want to spell it or say it, etc, that are coming out of East Asia, so you'd be dealing with Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc.

There are also a lot of these webcomics coming out of South America, which would involve Spanish, Portuguese, and even Dutch (Suriname).

And there are webcomics being produced in many other areas of the world, various European countries/languages, various ones in the many nations of Africa, etc, etc, and there are a lot of folks who would love to read these stories, but cannot due to language barriers. ou can also try your hand at translating from English to another language.

The things I would strongly recommend is to first read a lot of these stories, both in their original language and in the translated versions. Then, when you feel confident you can give it a go, try to either contact the creators directly to ask if you can do it (often something you'll need to offer to do for free; creators rarely make any money themselves), or you will want contact the translation teams doing it (many have Discord chats). I recommend the latter, to ask how to get into this sort of thing. They already the have the experience, and hopefully can give you good advice.

Now, being paid would be nice, but what you want here is to practice the other language, and practice translating into or out of the other language. Webcomics in particular are a fantastic medium because you can often see what is going on, and infer the intended meaning...though sometimes cultural uniqueness may trip up a person.

Either way, it's fantastic practice. Plus, it can add positively to your list of work resumé skills.

(Translated excerpt from my grandmother's book, from chapter 1: the early life of her mother's grandmother.)

I'm still at the very beginning of this project, and it has already brought me to tears plenty. These women, whose names would never appear in history books, whose lives would never be studied by historians, they deserve to not be forgotten. Their stories deserve to be told. Everything they had gone through should not simply be lost to time and erased from history forever.

I am not native-born nor a native-speaker. I studied Japanese language in school for many years and developed a focus in comparative Japanese literature study with some sociology towards the end of my degree. At one point I was on track to go for a PhD but then realized academic writing sucks ass. I am not fluent nor have I passed any proficiency exams. I just translate for fun, and my translations should not be taken for perfect. I try to provide literal translations so that people have context to compare other translations and determine their likely accuracy.

The only tips I can give for translation are to read other translations, ask questions, practice translating as much as possible, and LISTEN TO (and read) the language whenever possible.