Is it a good to translate your story?

[Representing_Tromba]

Consider the old failed translations provided by mangling with Google translate. Could it be interesting to pump a completed story into Google translate and translating it into various languages before going back to English? Should I do this with my own story and release it onto Scribblehub? Should you do this with your own story? Would it even be readable?

 

[HelloHound]

I do that whenever I wanna mess with the dialogue structure, but honestly Google translate has really leveled up un/fortunately

 

[miyoga]

Have GPT translate it, that still sucks. What you could do is translate it properly/normally, then do a 1-to-1 translation back so that it's messed up.

In a bit of seriousness, and if SH would allow other languages, I'd be tempted to do it with mine unidirectionally. I wouldn't dare translate it back for reposting because none of the references I made would even make sense after that.

 

[RepresentingPride]

If you can't read the language you translate your story in, I suggest not to do it. Google translate will let a lot of mistake that you can edit quickly if you know how to read the said language but if not, that would just be a machine translation and every reader can do it directly on scribble hub without you needing to do it.

 

[vzymmer]

add more mtl = more brain damage.

still the readers choice if they want to read or not.

 

[Rhaps]

This just give me a great way to make aliens trying to speak but fail spectacularly

 

[SRB]

If you want a wider audience - sure, go for it. But you need to find a native speaker to check your work before posting.

Could it be interesting to pump a completed story into Google translate and translating it into various languages before going back to English?

Ah. That would be funny for a bit, but not for long. After three chapters max, the joke would become stale.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

If you aren't interested in learning & training your skill to translate bulk of text, Its not worth it to do or yourself.

Its far preferrable to ask someone else to translate it.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

If you can't read the language you translate your story in, I suggest not to do it. Google translate will let a lot of mistake that you can edit quickly if you know how to read the said language but if not, that would just be a machine translation and every reader can do it directly on scribble hub without you needing to do it.

That's kind of the whole point. Translating it so that there are mistakes and then back to English to make some really weird sentences.

If you want a wider audience - sure, go for it. But you need to find a native speaker to check your work before posting.


Ah. That would be funny for a bit, but not for long. After three chapters max, the joke would become stale.

Maybe I wasn't asking my question properly but the whole point would be to get a shitty translation and put it back to English. The whole point is to make a joke story out of a regular one. If I was going to translate it properly then I would use a proper translator.

 

[Succubiome]

If you want a wider audience - sure, go for it. But you need to find a native speaker to check your work before posting.


Ah. That would be funny for a bit, but not for long. After three chapters max, the joke would become stale.

I agree with this-- I once watched the Backstroke of the West dub, which is essentially this in film format, and about halfway into it I had adjusted to the cadence of it and was basically just watching Star Wars again. I might be a bit quick to adjust, but I believe readers will either bounce or adjust within a surprisingly short amount of time, and once you've lost the novelty, there's not a lot of draw to needlessly weird language.

Also @Paul_Tromba -- I'd say you could've titled this better since the goal isn't actually translation.

 

[SRB]

Maybe I wasn't asking my question properly but the whole point would be to get a shitty translation and put it back to English. The whole point is to make a joke story out of a regular one. If I was going to translate it properly then I would use a proper translator.

Personally, that would be mildly interesting to read. But it would break my brain after a while. There's a reason why that kind of translations only works with movies or songs.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Also @Paul_Tromba -- I'd say you could've titled this better since the goal isn't actually translation.

I translated the title 17 times before returning it to English. It was originally "is poorly translating your story a good idea?" It is best to keep titles short as a sort of summary of all overarching questions so I put all of my questions in the body. Also, I now know who here only reads titles.

 

[georgelee5786]

Readable? Ehhhh, it would probably been intelligible enough to piece together, but would it really be worth it? Not really

 

[Succubiome]

I translated the title 17 times before returning it to English. It was originally "is poorly translating your story a good idea?" It is best to keep titles short as a sort of summary of all overarching questions so I put all of my questions in the body. Also, I now know who here only reads titles.

Ooh, so it was a science on two fronts.

Objection withdrawn!

 

[Lodur]

I translated the title 17 times before returning it to English. It was originally "is poorly translating your story a good idea?"

I presume, you are aware, that Google Translate doing translations between absolute majority of languages throuh English? (So, if you are traslating, say, from French to Italian, it will translate from French to English, and then from English to Italian). So, it, actually, was around 32 translations.

 

[KinoNoir]

I feel like MTL always butchers a story. I'd avoid if I don't have a native speaker to correct the errors in the target language.

 

[Deleted member 68927]

In the same time, you spend translating, you can write another novel. For every train, there are passengers. Some of them already use Google Translate, so I honestly don't see the point. Unless you want to sell the novel to a specific market, that is.

 

[HungrySheep]

I think it mainly depends on the depth and complexity of the writing. MTL usually doesn't do too well with complex sentence structures or even metaphors.