a proposal

[writingkami.livejournal.com]

I'm a French translator when I'm not a secretary or a fanfic writer. I've read a lot of fanfic, and there are a lot of fandoms that use languages other than English. And a lot of people, if they don't know somebody who speaks the language they need, will use BabelFish, and wind up with something that REALLY isn't what they meant. I saw one once that was supposed to say "I want my money back" in French, only "back" was translated in the sense of "the part opposite your front".

So I'm proposing that we all pool our languages in a community devoted to translations to be used in fanfic. Need Chinese for Firefly, or Norwegian for Greg, or Spanish, or something else? Go there and ask. We've got to be better than BabelFish, which can't parse context. Unfortunately I don't have the time to devote to setting up and advertising a community, but I thought I'd see if anyone else was interested.

So, anyone interested? (Feel free to cross-post this if you know anywhere else it should be put)

Comments

[littlebuttercup.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'll set it up. As for advertising, well, I don't have a lot of places to advertise too, but I'm sure word will get around.

[littleminx.livejournal.com]

What a lovely idea! I'm only English/French, but i have access to people who speak assorted different languages who may be able to help!

[kuyashinaki.livejournal.com]

Great idea, you can count on me. (I sometimes burst laughing when I see what BabelFish calls "German" and if it's equally as bad for every other language... oh my *g*.)

[htx1992.livejournal.com]

Believe me - it is equally bad for other languages. If I need a really good laugh I put some text in the Google translator *eg*. There's nothing more hilarious.

I'd love to help with German as well and Latin (not as popular in the CSI-fandom, but rather HP; nevertheless I'm available).

[justams.livejournal.com]

If someone else sets it up, I could help with Norwegian... I should be good at it. lol

[dawn-rogue.livejournal.com]

I can help with Spanish. I do it now for some fanfics and I usually have enough time for more translations

[annakas.livejournal.com]

In the unlikely even (that I doubt will ever happen, since noone knows about us) I can help with Estonian.

And a little bit of Russian. Though my Russian is not that good.

annakas