Translate48 Has Officially Launched! (Calling All Translators)

Introduction

This has been an idea that's been gnawing on my mind since I've returned from Japan. After discussing it with a couple other Stage48 staff members this past week we've decided to restart Blog48 from scratch. Right now Blog48 is in shambles and no one goes there because it hasn't been updated since April. I bet some of you didn't even know it existed. However, it's in the header right next to Wiki48 and Studio48, both of which at the moment are infinitely more valuable and resourceful. I hope to make Blog48 a site that can rival those.

Blog48 used to be the place to go for blog translations, and you can see the history of it here: http://stage48.net/forum/index.php?threads/blog48-translators-thread.3324/. Due to various reasons however, such as the transition to G+ and the fact that livejournal is pretty much dead, Blog48 also died with it. The idea to revamp it was first posited in way back in 2012 but that was put on hold because we all thought the new site that HoneyRoastedPeanuts would be establishing would take the place of it; however, at this point in time it's clear that new site won't be happening anytime soon but I feel a place where everyone can rely on for translations in the meantime is still essential. You can't know the girls only through singles and stages, reading what they think and write is absolutely necessary especially if you plan on meeting the girls in the future.

Location/Design

Some of you already know I run a translation blog for Sakura, and recently committed to doing Meru and Mikurin translations for the near future. We're moving Blog48 there, to Blogger, for its convenience. Presumably if you follow the girls at all on G+ you already have a Google account, and if not, you have one for Gmail or Youtube - that account is all you need to start writing. Blogger is also modern enough to have sharing options through Twitter, Facebook and Pininterest, so that's a bonus. All I have to do is add you as an author through your email and you can get started immediately. @aezea, the same person that helped us with the redesign of Stage48, has agreed to help us make a new header and background since right now I just use an HKT48 themed one and that won't work.

Naming

Right now my blog is simply named translate48.blogspot.com. It's simple, and has a double meaning - translate as a verb is a call for people to translate 48-related things, but is also easy for readers to remember as a place for translations. Honestly though, I didn't think hard about the name because I don't really care that much - the content of it will be much more important. If you have another name that you think would be great, feel free to suggest it.

We can't use Blog48 anymore because blog48.blogspot.com is already taken and because that'd be horribly redundant.

To Potential Contributors

Your translations don't have to be exclusive; if you already post somewhere else like your own personal blog all we ask if you volunteer to contribute is that you cross post those here too.

The idea is that once we have enough contributors, @Mr Waffle will be replacing the link at the top of our header with the new website so that it'll redirect there instead of the old Blog48. You'll be gaining a secondary audience through association with Stage48 (which is still the largest English website for the 48 Group and has had its existence acknowledged by management) but you don't necessarily have to have a Stage48 account or be active here to contribute. I think having one site for translations is invaluable - not everyone is on top of which random tumblr translates who. A link at the top everyone can click to find translations regarding their favorite member would be a huge benefit to our Japanese-challenged foreign fandom.

You can post translations of any official 48 Group things - G+, blogs, articles, etc, just label/title what it is. This is not a place to write opinion pieces or whatever though; it's a site purely for translations.

Quality Concerns

No one is going to be checking your translations because we don't have the time or staff for that. Ideally though, if you volunteer for this you do know Japanese well enough, probably minimally around N3 level (going by the JLPT). Please don't be running stuff through Google Translate and then just fixing the grammar or something - you'll miss many, many things that way.

You can be as liberal or literal with your translations as you want - it's your own translation style, I don't care. There'll just be some rules concerning formatting such as placing the G+ post/blog post at the end of the post, but nothing governing your own translation.

Start Date

Uh...since I can add people as authors right now, there's no official start date. It'll take some time for aezea to make the header/background, but I don't anticipate that taking past July. Before then, if you don't mind posting on an HKT48 skinned blog, be my guest, just let me know your Gmail address so I can add you as an author, otherwise you can just wait till the new graphics are up.

We do need enough translators of multiple girls before updating the link at the top of our forum though, because there's no point in replacing the link if I'm the only one doing translations there, so we really do need your help! Please let anyone that already does translations of any 48 Group girl know! Right now I'm using this thread to recruit.

That's it! Any questions or concerns, please ask here and I'll try my best to answer. I didn't really think through all the details necessarily since I only broached the subject with other staff members last week, but I did want to get a place for translations up and I hope those of you that know Japanese out there will lend me your help.

 

List of Contributors by Member/Team

AKB48
Team A
Iriyama Anna Google+ (hikari_kun)
Kawaei Rina Google+ (araishikeiwai)
Team K
Kojima Mako Google+ (araishikeiwai)
Team B
Umeta Ayano Google+ (wotarubsakb)
Team 4
Iwatate Saho Google+ (araishikeiwai)
Sasaki Yukari (Andi Ilham)
Shinozaki Ayana (Hydroyasai)
Takashima Yurina (Hydroyasai)
Mukaichi Mion Google+ (araishikeiwai)
Murayama Yuiri Google+ (araishikeiwai)

SKE48
Team E
Kimoto Kanon Blog / Google+ (araishikeiwai)

NMB48
Team M
Shiroma Miru Google+ (hikari_kun)
Team BII
Shibuya Nagisa Google+ (hikari_kun)
Yabushita Shu Google+ (hikari_kun)
KKS
Eriko Jo Google+ (wotarubsakb)

HKT48
Team H
Tashima Meru Google+ (ithebigc)
Tanaka Miku Google+ (ithebigc)
Team KIV
Tomonaga Mio Google+ (araishikeiwai)
Miyawaki Sakura Google+ (ithebigc)

List of Translators: @ithebigc, @gekophetweb, @hikari_kun, @araishikeiwai, @wotarubsakb, @Hydroyasai, @Andi Ilham

 

Style Guide

Here's a quick style guide to keep posts as uniform as possible on Translate48.

1. Titles for G+ posts should be in the following format:

[Member Name] Google+ / [Full Date], [Time] (JST)

so for example,

Miyawaki Sakura Google+ / May 21, 2014, 11:31 pm (JST)

Months are shortened to 3 letters only, so Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, and Dec.

2. Titles for blog and mobame entries should just be straight translations of the title of the blog/mobame entry, the name, and date.

[Translated Title] / [Member Name] [Blog or Mobame] / [Full Date], [Time] (JST)

so for example,

Totoro / Miyawaki Sakura Mobame / Jul 11, 2014, 9:27 pm (JST)

3. For G+ posts, embed the original G+ post at the bottom of the post. You can find the embed link by moving your mouse to the top right corner of any G+ post and an arrow pointing down will appear. Click it and select "Embed Post." Copy and paste everything below

<!-- Place this tag where you want the widget to render. -->

at the bottom of your post and the G+ will appear embedded on Blogger.

4. If possible, please include the original Japanese text.

5. Use a label to tag the author of your post. This is done on the right hand side of the author panel, in the section "Labels." If you're adding a post for the first time, you'll have to type in the full name of the girl but after you use it once it'll just appear as a selectable option.

That's it! Everything else is your own translation.

 

I could contribute but do we have to do every blog entry? cause some entries are really annoying/not interesting to translate.

 

I could translate the G+ posts of Iriyama Anna, Shiroma Miru, Shibuya Nagisa and Yabushita Shu as I already translate their posts in Tumblr (every now and then). Also, I agree with what gekophetweb said... Some posts are sometimes too short or uninteresting...

 

No, while I do do every G+ entry, that's my own personal thing and I do realize that many of the posts read like "I had a photoshoot today. It was fun. Please buy it when it comes out kthxbye" so I won't be holding anyone to doing all of them. All I ask for is some consistency; don't bite off more than you can chew and claim 10 girls but then only do like 2 posts from each member every month.

And thank you for volunteering! I'm going to be starting up the claims list now in the second post. Let me know which girl you'll be doing and what (G+, blog, mobame, or all of them) and I'll update the list there as I get more translators.

 

Can I suggest something?
It's a thing I'm doing in my own blog.

About the publish date of each translation post, I think it's good to put it as the same date as the original post itself.
This way readers can easily read all the posts chronologically.
Imagine someone translates Ricchan's recent post with happy face photo included, and then just a second after that someone else translates Kojimako's old post (which he has been catching up with) being all sad about Ricchan's incident.
This can be avoided by setting up the publish date of the post the same as the original post (down to the minute).

Other thing I do in my blog too:

これは日本語の投稿。笑
And this is the translation in English. 笑

What I do is I differentiate the color for the original post and the translation, for the sake of readibility. And I keep all emoji as they are.

I also have many other self-template I'm using in my own translation blog, but I think what @ithebigc wrote above are more than great already.

 

I am glad someone is doing this, good job. I'd say that blog layout definitely needs an overhaul too xD

Is this restricted to G+ posts? It really sounds like it. Any translations I do tend not to be from G+ anymore. Of course, I will happily contribute if that's not the case. I tend to do more longform stuff like interviews and whatnot, and only very sporadically. You can always find them on my own blog (you can add a link to it on a sidebar or something if my content doesn't belong on the blog - or not if you aren't doing links). It'd be nice to reach a wider audience. I assume this also doesn't go for retroactive posts, huh?

 

I've added @araishikeiwai as our newest member to our team! With his additions the list of members being translated grows much more diverse. We'll finally have members in every group Everyone else, please join in if you translation something somewhere or is willing to start translating!

I like the idea of changing the publish date to be the same as the date that the girl published her post, but realistically that might be a bit difficult at the moment with a couple of the translators (including me) still catching up on posts for certain girls as even new posts would be pushed back weeks, and no one's going to read new posts on the third or fourth page. Once everyone is done catching up, I might go back and change the publishing dates to match the titles, but it'll depend on how much time that will take.

As for the color-coding, I wanted to refrain from imposing any more formatting rules on translators. What I wrote in the Style Guide is just the bare minimum needed to keep the the posts looking uniform so that any readers know what to expect as they continue visiting the blog.

I actually already mentioned blogs, mobame and articles in the first and third posts Translate48 will be a hub for translations of any sort, so if you want to do translations of any interviews/articles be my guest. I can add you the author list now, although your username won't appear next to any member names in the "claims" since it'll be hard to claim translations for any one girl in articles. I'll just need your Gmail address (or whatever email address is tied to your Google account) to add you as an author.

And no retroactive posts at the moment, sorry

 

Hi, I'd be interested in translating G+ posts for Umeta Ayano and Jo Eriko. I have a question though;
What date do we start from? Or are we expected to translate right from their first ever G+ post?

 

Hi! I could translate posts for Takashima Yurina and Shinozaki Ayana whom I translate for already on tumblr (this should encourage me to be more regular about it). Also, would this be an appropriate place to post seitansai letters (in text form)?

 

I'm leaving that up to the each individual translator. You definitely don't have to start from their first ever G+ post, haha, that would take forever to catch up. For example, I decided to start from Mikurin's first ever G+ post because she started fairly recently and her posts are short enough (although now I have a backlog), but I'm resuming/starting Sakura's and Meru's from the day of the sousenkyo, June 7. If that sounds good, I'll go ahead and add you the the team in the second post!

Sounds great! I'll also add your name to the second post. You're talking about their G+ posts, right? (Not sure if they have a blog)

As for seitansai letters, do you mean the letters to members that are read during seitansai shows, like from their mom, dad, or member they are close to? If so, yes, those would be very welcome too! I translated Sakura's letter to Haruppi for her 17th birthday actually: http://translate48.blogspot.com/2013/11/sakuras-handwritten-letter-to-haruppi.html

 

@ithebigc that sounds good please do let us know when you have the website up and running.

 

@ithebigc Yup, I mean their G+ posts, and yes those letters; I've translated a few for some of the 13th/14th gens.

 

@ithebigc count me in for sasaki yukari G+ please

 

@wotarubsakb, @Hydroyasai, @Andi Ilham - Please send me the email address associated with your Google account via PM and I'll add you to the blog immediately.

As you might have noticed, Translate48 has already replaced Blog48 in the header of Stage48, so we should be getting more exposure and readers now. A couple of the translators also have already started writing there already, so we've "launched" in all aspects except for the graphics/look of it. That still has to be immediately replaced, but otherwise, we're pretty much good to go now.

 

Hi, I was wondering about international sister group contributions...?

I know of one tumblr whose owner already routinely posts well-written English translation of Team J captain Kinal's blog entries...

Out of all the members, Kinal probably is one of JKT48's the better barometers for how the group is doing as a whole since she acts as one of JKT's main spokespersons. Kami-member, she accepts awards on behalf of the group, and has had several revisits to Japan in the past year. Cool Japan tourism where members met Japan-US ambassador Caroline Kennedy, she was also present for Yuko's rained out graduation concert, made tourism videos for Niseko, and so on.

Also, JKT48 has some high profile concerts coming up... so those blog entries could be interesting to general fans: Opening act for Kpop groups like Sistar and Apink in Indonesia, another TV anniversary concert thing where Super Junior M are headlining ... and the coolest one, JKT48 were invited to perform in an Japanese idol concert in Yokohama Arena at end of August (the line-up!!).

 

I suggest our dear @Sayanara231 if it's possible to bring her extremely valuable lovetan and Haruppi G+ translation to the blog so everyone can enjoy it!

 

i'm going to contact the translator of tumblr fandom if they are interested to gather all the translation in one site.

It can help people to read other G+ member and so possibly be appealed.

 

Since I already do Shibata Aya's Ameba on Tumblr, I'm perfectly fine with posting it on Translation48 too! Count me in!