Fansubbing

No, breathe easy. I'm not going into fansubbing.
I don't think I could put up with that kind of workload and stress.


I've been thinking a lot about translators and whatnot.


Basically, whine and complain about everything you want.
Bad TL, Typesetting, Editing, etc etc.

Just a short excerpt:

"5. People don’t actually give a shit about the quality of subs. Following from that, people don’t seem to give a shit about what the characters are saying on screen. Otherwise, there’s no way in hell Coalgirls and qIIq could get away with their subs. This isn’t even about translation “accuracy,” it’s about using half-decent English."

http://mogumogubakubaku.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/6-2/


*Clap Clap Clap Clap*
Right on the mark, in fact, this entire post is.


And I'm also pulling up really old posts.


I'll admit, I myself have really bad English. My marks in English are usually several letters lower then everything else.


And, no, posting a picture of a book on grammar in front of a computer doesn't make you an English major.
Nor does it tell anyone anything about the quality/consistency of your work.
No names here...


I have a high opinion of Hadena, not because of their work, but because I see that they are actively trying to improve themselves, and I respect that.








Random update: Rethinking blog. Expect 1-5 posts a month.

Japanese - Listening

This being a blog and all, I can't say much about speaking practice, but for listening, True Listening, most Drama CD's will do.

I'll actually have to admit, I think they are a tad slower then a native speaker.

Listening to this has multiple effects.

1. It helps you develop an ear for Japanese, and believe me, if you want to live and work in Japan, you will need an ear. They talk fast (Granted if you look non-Japanese they will speak slower)

2. Learn to pick out words you need to make an answer, listen for certain. Even when I speak and listen to Japanese, I rarely process the entire sentence, this is helpful on a test (say AP or JLPT), where they are speaking fast, and you can only make out a few words anyway.

Because that was all pretty badly written (re-watching IDOLM@STER right now):

tl;dr

Listen until Japanese doesn't sound fast anymore.

and by fast, I mean this:

Don't read the subtitles, just press play and then minimize the window. Pure listening. See what your up against.

I tend to find that when watching anime raw, they still talk slower then in real life, or on a CD.

There are also a lot of Drama CD's on CRAZY-CAKE

The Hyakumonogatari Original Drama CD is something I would also recommend.

Random note:

Season 2 when?

Take (竹)

http://sai-zen-sen.jp/special/takegarou/post-170.html

The name of this is "Red Dress"

VOFAN

http://www.wretch.cc/album/show.php?i=vofan&b=10&f=1676450916&p=41&sp=0

Unnamed, or I just could not find it.

ただいま！

I'm back from my short hiatus, and I am more or less recovered. I hope you all don't mind that 90% of this post is "Ex Post Facto".
By the way, this post will hammer your bandwidth.

The first order of business, Happy Tanabata everyone!

For those of you who don't know what Tanabata is, it's the Star Festival. It's about the stars Altair and Vega (Known as Hikoboshi and Orihime in Japanese), and they are two lovers that can only meet one day of the year (7/7).

Or something like that, I grew up around the Chinese version, so my mind is a little scrambled about all of that.

You write a wish on paper and hang it on a bamboo tree. It's seen in a lot of anime, I don't have any screencaps handy though :/

Second, now that I am back, I can resume TL'ing Sora no Otoshimo PICO.

Third; The weather in Japan sucks right now. Don't visit Asia in the summer.
Aside from that, the people there are really nice and helpful, the streets are very clean, and unlike America, it doesn't take a million hours to get out of the airport.

Saw this in the electronics district in Osaka, too bad I was there 2 days before the release, otherwise I would have gotten Robotics;Notes (a relapse prevented me from leaving to get it two days later)

Oh, also, at the time of my first post, 化物語（上）was the only Japanese book I owned. After this trip, that is not quite the case anymore.

The Zaregoto Series (Bought book 4 twice)

 

Various NisiOisiN (Actually, just Medaka Box and the Monogatari series)






TYPE-MOON








The PIXIV 2011 annual, and Golgo 13









This book was quite interesting:

 
I don't know how well you can see with the resolution (phone camera) but the book is bilingual.

And the most important thing:

Hehe, I guess I'm still not that good at writing, this post turned out to be mostly pictures.
give me some time, I believe in Laconic phrases, and it will take a while to change that.

I did have pneumonia, and I'm told it got quite bad after the first relapse (WBC count at 20k), I'm a lot better now though.

So you want to read manga?

A somewhat informational post, or not.

(A hopefully long post incoming)

0. Preface

1. America

    -1A. Names to know

    -1B. Manga near you

    -1C. Kinokuniya

    -1D. Importing

    -1E. Scanlations

    -1F. Mangafox

==================================

0. Preface:

So, what is manga? When looking at that question, it is important to remember, that "Manga" is sometimes used as a blanket term, and comics from other parts of Asia, are sometimes added to this term. 

Manga, like every form of entertainment is split into your typical genres, mystery, horror, drama, comedy, romance. And also is split into 4 demographics, Shonen, Shojou, Seinen, and Josei. Those demographic terms should not be used as black and white, as they only really act to categorize things. Take Cardcaptor Sakura or Sanzae-San. Believe it or not, manga was actually influenced by America, at the end of World War II, because of the American occupation. In fact, a lot of Japanese pop culture is influenced by America.

Manga, local to Japan at first, gained worldwide popularity, and now has a worldwide audience and a market as well.

==================================

1. In English

I'm going to assume you, the reader, are American, because I can't say much about outside America or Japan. Now then I hope you know something about the process to books.

==================================

1A. Names to know

In America, there are several large publishers of Manga.

Dark Horse Comics - They seem to publish some of the darker, and older Manga, as well as CLAMP titles

Yen Press - I think they have a monthly Manga magazine, like in Japan

Tokyopop - Ok, these guys may be defunct, I'm not entirely too sure, because, they did stop publishing, but beyond that, I am unaware of their future plans.

Del Ray Manga - Subsidiary to Randomhouse, they have quite a lot of titles liscenced

Viz Media - Who also sit on the rights to Bleach (Which is ending soon).

If you buy from these companies, you will help expand the R1 Market (America, and Canada). Less will go to the author, and more to the publishers. This in turn will help them make more money, to get licence more manga, make more money ect. ect.

I believe, you can also contact a company and request a title, if enough people ask for it, then they may attempt to get the licence, and start publishing. Similar to anime, the Japanese ask for ridiculous licencing fees, which is why, if you want to see something officially released in your region, buy from your regional publishers to help them.

Typically, manga in America is around $10, and in Black and white.

==================================

1B. Manga near you

Ever been to your local library?

Bet you didn't know there was a manga section.

In every library I have been to, there has been a manga section (even the school libraries).

Publishers also will take requests for donations to libraries as well (Take Viz Media for example).

Look around, you may be fairly surprised where you can find Manga

==================================

1C. Kinokuniya (Click title for site)

Kinokuniya, is a Japanese bookstore chain that has 7 Stores in America.

Everything they sell is in Japanese. It's a little overwhelming at first, but if you want to support the authors more, then buy from here. It's somewhat overpriced, but short of going to Japan, or importing, it's the next best place.

==================================

1D. Importing

Importing is expansive, but the names for that are:

CDJapan

Mandarake

Amazon JP

Dont use Amazon JP, scroll down to the bottom of this page to see why.

Now then, to pull a page from the buyfag guide:

I don't import, so you are on your own there...

==================================

1E. Scanlations

I'm sure we all know what these are. Opinion seems fairly divided about it.

Well, use 'em or not, the choice is yours.

But this brings up our next point....

==================================

1D. Mangafox and NOEZ

Read this Batoto thread to get a better grasp.

Mangafox and NOEZ are evil. Don't ever use Mangafox, unless you have an ad blocker, so that way they won't be making any money off of you, or scanlators.

==================================

Thanks for reading!

==================================

Oh yeah, for scrolling down to the bottom, see

"Kodansha Bilingual Comics" for a good reading and learning aid

they do exist!

Almight

Almight, an AVG cross-platform engine.
runs off HTML5, and most devices with a modern browser support it.

It's on the app store, and the google play store

Check out the site here

This is wonderful!
but I don't have a smartphone, or a tablet, or a handheld device that uses HTML5

Welp, another great thing I'm missing out on.

Technocrati

I recently submitted my site to Technocrati, but then, I read the FAQ

There goes that....

30 Days left

Happy June everyone.

Just to remind you all, on July 1st most major American ISP's will start policing internet for illegal downloads.

The RIAA seems to want to create a cartel to control the internet, because the US government won't do it for them.

皆さん、気をつけて.

This better get to the supreme court.

Silver Rain

So, today I'd like to direct your attention to something called "Silver Rain".
This is purely interest, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Japanese.

This is a webgame, illustrated by  Koyama Hirokazu from TYPE-MOON.

Link to page here: http://t-walker.jp/sr/
Click on "ゲームを始める" (Start game) to get to the game.

After that, click on , to get to the character creation screen.
You're on your own after that.

This has too many words for my own liking.

Here we go again....

Puella Magi English Stream

The dub is crap anyway, most dubs are inferior to subs.
I'd watch it for the Japanese subtitles, to help with reading.

I might join in, thoughts on this?

Happy Memorial Day America

I just marched in a parade.
I had to wake up early.

Happy Memorial Day...

Go the the beach, have a picnic, but most importantly, if you see a veteran, don't forget to thank them for making all of this possible.

Post scheduler

I'm trying it out today.
I hope it works.

Sorry for anything that might go wrong

Toonami, is back

That's right, Toonami is back.
Today,

Midnight - Bleach
12:30 - Deadman Wonderland
1:00 - Casshern Sins
1:30 - FMA:Brotherhood
2:00 - Ghost in the Shell
2:30 - Cowboy Bebop

Watch it, I know I will.

Much better than a cookie.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2012-05-26/red-cross-to-give-blood-donors-blood-c-posters-in-tokyo

Why don't we do stuff like this in America?

Why can't we have nice things?

In Japan you get movie Memorabilia.
In America, you get a Cookie.

Given the level of advertising done for this, I think the Box Office scores will be interesting.

Production I.G. is animating this.
Guilty Crown.

Comments and Questions Appreciated!

Hmm, this is a recent addition...

and I never did make a formal announcement.

On the "Pages" Tab on the sidebar, there is now a "Contact Me"
Click HERE to view it.

I'll try to check it daily.

Remember, your questions and comments are always appreciated!

What exactly are my qualifications for Japanese?

Some people have raised the point, "What qualifies you to teach Japanese?"
To get to the point, none.

If you want something concrete like a JLPT certificate,
I don't have one.

I speak Chinese, English, and some Japanese
I can write English and some Japanese.
I use to be able to write in Chinese, but that skill is no more.

I've taken about 2 years of Japanese classes.
Keep in mind, that this is a school class. I have it for five out of seven days of a week, and for about 182 days a year.
I also do quite a bit of self study in the summer.

Mild Xenoglossy also is helpful, but that may have just been the Chinese

So, for those doubtful individuals (you know who you are), you do have that right to question where I derive my legitimacy.
I have no concrete proof, that I have a grasp of the language, you can only take my word for it.

I'll take the JLPT, and if I pass, then you can rest easy, knowing that I am someone you can learn from.

General Update

Bakemonogatari - Gone nowhere, less then one page done.

Mahoyo - Not Started

Kara no Kyoukai - Not started

Reviews - Season's not over yet/I have not finished Shiki, no time to watch

Japanese 101 - Expect the amount of lessons to increase. That is, I have more material, so I can spread it out over a longer course of time.

Expect the amount of posts to slow down. I'm trying to cram 2 years of a subject into about 7 months.

New Headphones :D

I'm still using a phone camera for this.

 2 New Headphones. The Numark Redwave, and the Electrowave.

"5 Lessons, in one day"

>>655281515

I've outdone myself.

If you are looking for them, click the "Japanese 101" on the pages tab.