new to japanese translating, need some advice...

[jeffreymgibson]

I've been studying Japanese for about 2 years now. The 1st year, I just learned kana and mainly listened to lots of audio courses is my car, but this past year I got really serious and studied grammar as well as kanji. I feel like I have a good foundation and I make an effort to learn new kanji and vocabulary everyday.

About once a month a will open up some raw manga or load a visual novel and try my luck at translation so that I can how well I've improved since my last attempt. However, it never fails, I quickly run across words that I don't know and can't find in dictionaries. When I run across an unknown word, 1st I try the more popular dictionaries, and if I can't find it, I try other dictionaries that I know of. As a last resort I'll Google the phrase. If this is now help I feel like Ive hit a wall and I don't know where to look next.

Any advice would be helpful. Are there any decent slang dictionaries or word lists that could help me? I really want to start contributing to translation scene but I always hit a wall whenever this happens.

Whats resources do you guys use for translation?

Thanks,
Jeffrey

 

[FinalPyre]

Android has a really good dictionary just called JED (made by umibouzu). It has over 300k entries, so it normally pulls up what I'm looking for. It even includes several compounds and short phrases that can be very helpful.

 

[amimajime]

I've been exactly in your shoes.

The way to really get better at Japanese at this point is literally to -submerge- yourself in it. Basically, what I mean to say is to jump right in and expose yourself to it. Japanese is a lot like radiation, the more you stick around with it, the more you'll get it.

So I'll mention a few keys to what you can do.

1. Exposure - Expose yourself as much as you can to Japanese, as much as possible. I don't mean just a little, what I mean is try to be creative and get as much time in as you can. Be creative, and exceed what you think is your "maximum"

2. Let go of expectations - The best way to be successful at Japanese is the exact opposite than what a lot of people believe it to be. Letting go of expectations will allow you to experience Japanese without thinking of it as a "skill I must learn" or a "thing that I must finish". Learn to enjoy Japanese without knowing it. Pressuring yourself to learn Japanese is the #1 thing that will ensure that you will never get there.

3. Learn how you learned English, use it like how you use English, think of it as you do with English - How many times did you use a dictionary to learn English? Even if you do speak in English, do you realize that you only use a handful of things from the dictionary? Oh - and the big one here: when you listen or speak or read in English, do you break grammar down like a math formula? Of course not. English is not Calculus. It's a "bridge" to communicate how you feel, and how you can understand what others feel. Go off of feeling, read it for feeling, talk off of feeling, listen for feeling.

4. Take off all the subtitles for anime you watch - Ask yourself... how many anime have I watched "without" subtitles? I know two friends. They both watched anime for over 5 years. There was a difference though. One went 5 years without subtitles, and the other went 5 years with subtitles. The end result? The one who went without subtitles in the beginning could understand nothing, while the one with subtitles could understand everything. After 5 years, the one who went without subtitles could understand everything, and the one who went with it for 5 years understood nothing*

Why do I say this? Because the one who watched with subtitles was so dependent on it that even if he watched anime for 5 years, he never really "heard" any of the words, or learned it. Up until today, his understanding cannot even come close to a 4 year olds.*

5. Expect to learn Japanese for a long time -- so don't worry about getting there "now". Even if you did learn 1,000 vocabulary words in a day (which I tried before because I really WANTED it) don't expect to have them internalized and ready for use after one day of studying. Even if you did decide to learn 1,000 a day, you'd have to reinforce those words day after day after day after day. If you really want to learn fast, I'd recommend that you go "boot-camp" style and learn 1,000 a day and reinforce them everyday until you get to maybe a good 15,000... then keep reviewing and reviewing and reviewing. If you want to go hardcore, go all for it. But it will still take a long time.

I've studied Japanese pretty hardcore for the last two and a half years. I've gotten extremely far from it, but I've been using methodologies that I totally did not think I would be using in the beginning. There is a lot with this language, and it's not for everyone. Many will fail, and I've seen them. High school classmates and college peers to be exact. It takes someone special, and with a passion. But if you want to know some more tips, feel free to PM me and I can tell you more if you need any questions. Later!

 

[~dreamer~]

http://jisho.org/ is pretty good as an online dictionary though i personally use Midori dictionary for iOS (because it's much more practical to use - the handwriting recognition is very handy..!)
you could use a flash card program like Anki, and import word lists people already made in http://quizlet.com/