How correct is this translation?

[Okami]

I came upon an interesting blog  that share idea about how could you learn Japanese faster by using some program called Translation aggregator that recognizes text in Japanese VNs then gives you that same text in Romanji and in English. But before I start using it I want to consult with  people here about correction of that  translation as well as their opinion about this idea.

Here is the text:

 

 

その時が来た。 - That time has come.

ウィンチのワイヤーが張りつめ、純白の機体が動き出し、速度を増し――。 - The wire of the winch is strained, A pure-white airframe begins to move, It increases velocity and ――.

次の瞬間にはもう、緑の草地を離れ、青い世界へ――蒼穹へ、舞い上がる！ - Already in another second, It leaves a green meadow, To the blue world and to sky It flies.

ああ…… - Ah

わたしは見上げる。 - I look up.

青い空に舞い上がる、白い翼。 - Soar in the blue sky, white wings. (It flies up to the blue sky, White wing. )

湖水を渡る風に乗って、高く、高く、飛翔する。 - Riding on the wind across the lake, high, high, and flying.

翼が角度を変え、旋回を始めた。- The wing changes the angle,  I started turning.

純白の機体のすべてが見えて、青い空を背景に、まばゆく輝く。 - All of the body pure white is visible, on a background of the blue sky, It shines brilliantly.

そして再び翼は水平を取り戻し、風をとらえて、上昇を始める。 - And, the wing regains the balance again, The wind is caught, it rises again.

高く昇ってゆく。どこまでも、高く……青い空の彼方へ……。 - It rises high. Beyond the blue sky ...... high.

ああ………………きれい………………。 - Ah..................  so beautiful.

 

 

PS:I already started once a topic about translation programs, so I know that people Here are not too fond of them, but this topic is different because last time I asked with the purpose of translating VNs and this time I am asking with the purpose of learning Japanese + this program seems different from others as translation it gives you sound as it is... (I don't know how to put it, it just sounds better) .

[shcboomer]

Translation Aggregator is usually more than just a standard translator. The tools are useful for a lot of purposes which includes jParser which can be useful when looking up individual kanji and the like. In terms of accuracy, I'll let someone else more in touch answer.The thing about Translation Aggregator is that it can also use multiple sources to translate.

[garejei]

Semi-accurate, I guess, but not without problems. I don't want to point out everything, but in 翼が角度を変え、旋回を始めた, there is no "I started turning" as the TL would suggest, since both verbs refer to 翼; the 変え form of the verb is merely meant as a connector of sorts. (the same way you use て form when listing qualities or successive actions and only use the full form for the last one)

 

Also in 次の瞬間にはもう, it's TL'd as "already in another second" which could be confusing, since it's actually meant to say "a mere second later..." (...it was already off the ground and flying, or whatever)

 

Similarly, "It flies up to the blue sky, White wing" is preposterous English, but you should be able to make out that "it" is supposed to refer to 白い翼)

 

I dunno. The choice is completely up to you, but if you want to learn grammar well, it is exactly these small things that you should be aware of, so I doubt this would be a very good learning tool in that regard. IMO the only things text extractors should be used for by the Japanese learner is looking up new vocab faster (since you can just copy-pase ITH's output into an online dictionary and such), which I very much recommend. For grammar and its nuances, machine translation is probably not something you'd want to heavily rely on. I don't quite see how you could master grammar rules via an MTL's output.

[REtransInternational]

You can try it out here (once he is not busy). If you haven't already, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_grammar

"With cruise control you still have to steer."

[Bolverk]

Well generally speaking, TA with MT's aren't what you would call perfect. But they do they job if you want to understand a standard Moege vn. If you combine TA with with Romanji you might learn some japanese yeah. But tbh... It will be kinda missmash of info you will get. You will first have to decifer the sentences to understand them, then put them back into japanese.

There are better ways to learn japanese while reading raw JP vn's. But as with any system you use to learn stuff, if you end up not using it it's useless. So I won't really say, noooo. don'ttt.

 

The text the Machine translator gave out is completely okay imo. One warning though. The text extract you gave us here is prbly one of the easiest types of japanese text the MT can translate. Manuals, 3rd person monologue and such. On other texts it might translate into understanble english, but it's translation is wrong. Or it just massively fails and doesn't translate at all.

 

Also you prbly already noticed. But the english the translator gave out is written in neither japanese or English style. Kinda robotic, wierd way. So if you don't mind that, you can enjoy MT vn's. You don't even need to learn jp.

 

 

Btw, which translator did you use? Atlas? google? TA got like 8 or so translators already bulit in which it can auto copy into and translate. Btw can I you give me the link to the Blogpost. I would like to read it

[Okami]

Bolverk sure thing, here is a link to Blogpost (I used the tutorial from another site to set TA to work but if you need that too I can write a more accurate tutorial here).

 

I used both google and Atlas and copied translation that seemed more accurate + mebac for names.

 

I don't mind match that translation isn't written in English style since English isn't my native language so I won't notice it as much as Native English speakers. But just that I have another way of reading Japanese VNs without knowing Japanese doesn't mean that I will stop learning Japanese as VNs aren't my only reason for wanting to learn it. And even if they were knowing Language yourself is still batter then using translation programs.

 

 

Thanks everybody for giving me your opinion.

[Bolverk]

Thanks for the link. That is acutally the guide I used back a year ago when I started learning jap. Ho ho ho.

 

 

Good luck!