My tempo is picking up. Text density is down and phrase reuse is up. Initially I only spent about 30 minutes a day on this project. As it gets easier, and more enjoyable, I'm spending more time on this. I'd like to carve out at least an hour every day.
Process
It's really satisfying when I can recognize phrases and individual kanji. I still need to rely on various tools to read Shin Chan. The most used single tool is my phone's camera: I read zoomed in at about 2x magnification, followed by my pen and pad, writing everything down with room for my notes and translation.
Process
It's really satisfying when I can recognize phrases and individual kanji. I still need to rely on various tools to read Shin Chan. The most used single tool is my phone's camera: I read zoomed in at about 2x magnification, followed by my pen and pad, writing everything down with room for my notes and translation.
The next tool is an app named Takoboto, a dictionary tool that let's you find kanji based on the radicals (think of radicals as building blocks to build kanji).
I already mentioned the furigana next to the kanji. These are great for pronunciation, however to really understand the the dialog, it really helps to have the kanji.
As I select radicals from the table (highlighted in orange) radicals that that are never combined with the selected radical disappear. Unselected but possible radicals appear in grey. You can keep selecting to narrow down the search.
The top window shows possible matches.
There are other dictionaries, some let you write the kanji on the screen and it will find a match. But for those to work you need to know the stroke order. And with practice you can surmise the proper stroke order for unfamiliar kanji.
I already mentioned the furigana next to the kanji. These are great for pronunciation, however to really understand the the dialog, it really helps to have the kanji.
As I select radicals from the table (highlighted in orange) radicals that that are never combined with the selected radical disappear. Unselected but possible radicals appear in grey. You can keep selecting to narrow down the search.
The top window shows possible matches.
There are other dictionaries, some let you write the kanji on the screen and it will find a match. But for those to work you need to know the stroke order. And with practice you can surmise the proper stroke order for unfamiliar kanji.
Translation
Every few pages there's a title block like the one at the top of this post. The first two chapters were brutal with tons of dialog setting up the whole lunch room premise. But as things progress things are clearer and less complex.
Once I've written everything down, I make notes on what I'm capable of translating myself. If I don't recognize a kanji, roughly half so far, I use Takoboto.
Next I turn to the internet for phrases. the other thing I do is use the Japanese keyboard. I find that searching for expression using kanji and kana works much better than romaji (latin characters to represent kana). I used to struggle with the keyboard. Each key pops up a selector with related kana grouped by sounds. I've improved leaps and bounds since I've never had much motivation to practice using the Japanese keyboard before.
Every few pages there's a title block like the one at the top of this post. The first two chapters were brutal with tons of dialog setting up the whole lunch room premise. But as things progress things are clearer and less complex.
Once I've written everything down, I make notes on what I'm capable of translating myself. If I don't recognize a kanji, roughly half so far, I use Takoboto.
Next I turn to the internet for phrases. the other thing I do is use the Japanese keyboard. I find that searching for expression using kanji and kana works much better than romaji (latin characters to represent kana). I used to struggle with the keyboard. Each key pops up a selector with related kana grouped by sounds. I've improved leaps and bounds since I've never had much motivation to practice using the Japanese keyboard before.
Google Translate
This is a last resort for a couple of reasons. The first is if I depend on Translate, what is the point of doing all this? I'd be better off buying an English version of Shin Chan.
The other is the issue with understanding the context. Google Translate is fine for words or kanji but phrases throw it for loop. The title block at the top (Bosses and Minions) of the post starts with 親, parent. But change it to 親分 it becomes "boss", the kind that implies a crime syndicate. Below is what Google Translate does to this fairly concise and readable title block.
This is a last resort for a couple of reasons. The first is if I depend on Translate, what is the point of doing all this? I'd be better off buying an English version of Shin Chan.
The other is the issue with understanding the context. Google Translate is fine for words or kanji but phrases throw it for loop. The title block at the top (Bosses and Minions) of the post starts with 親, parent. But change it to 親分 it becomes "boss", the kind that implies a crime syndicate. Below is what Google Translate does to this fairly concise and readable title block.
Hilarity ensues. And to be fair, Google tries. Holding the camera over the text changes every couple of seconds as it tries to improve the translation. Since it doesn't know it keeps cycling through various interpretations.