Umm if I may ask how do you translate stuff like drama cds,etc. Do you have any kind of special method?
Iâve only translated one drama CD. My method was nothing special. First I listened to the full drama CD about two times to understand the story completely. Then I opened a text file, and I started to translate each line one by one, writing them down in English (also adding the name of the character that is speaking for each line).
If I had trouble with grasping the specific meaning of a line, I would write the line down in Japanese and analyze the sentence grammar in detail. Also looking up definitions of certain words in both Japanese dictionaries and Japanese/English dictionaries to be sure I knew the correct meaning. Obviously, since Iâm not a native speaker, I sometimes come across words I donât know. Then I just type the word in romaji/hiragana in the dictionary, and I look up the meaning. Searching a Japanese word on google together with æćł (meaning) can also be useful. When itâs difficult to hear the pronunciation, I sometimes have to guess what the word can be based on the context.
And finally, when everything is translated, I open the text file in Aegisub and start timing it to the audio. Of course, this final step is optional. Drama CDs donât necessarily have to be timed, a text file is already enough.
I pretty much used the same method for translating things like the Osomatsu seiyuu event. But because that one had so many lines (exactly 2000), I actually did the timing and translating in parallel. I would time about 100 lines in Aegisub, translate them in Aegisub (I didnât use a separate text file), and color code them based on the speaker. Then I would do the same thing for the next 100 lines, and so forth. This was to switch things up, and prevent me from getting bored.
Translating Japanese text is easier, since you donât have to worry about mishearing things. On the other hand, kanji can be a huge pain. Google Translate is surprisingly helpful for looking up kanji though. The handwriting function can recognize kanji really well. Just press the handwriting button, and try to replicate the kanji by drawing it (it works most of the time). And the Google Translate smartphone app has the camera function, which is super useful. Just press the camera button and take a picture of the kanji you want look up and youâll get the romaji. You can then use the romaji to look up the word in the dictionary. Donât use the English translations by Google, as they are mostly incomprehensible and sometimes they use the wrong definitions. Unfortunately, I donât think the camera function really works on handwritten kanji though. Also, install the Rikaikun (Chrome) Rikaichan (Firefox) addon, itâs very useful for kanji lookup on stuff you can highlight with a mouse!