Translating is easy, that’s what every bilingual person must have thought of at least once. I can finish reading a chapter in 30 minutes, I should be able to finish translating one chapter with just the same amount of time.
However, it is not that easy in reality. The words don’t get automatically translated in your head, the structure of the sentence is different in both languages and you have to think of the most appropriate words to use in order to translate each sentence without losing its meaning. One sentence which can take you 3 seconds to read will take you 3 minutes to translate. One chapter that can take you 10 minutes to read can take you 4 hours to translate.
I have a friend who told me he could translate a single chapter in 30 minutes, so I gave him a project and asked him to translate it for me. I asked him the next day, he told me it’s not done. I asked him again the day after the next, he’s still not done. And this process repeated for a month and he’s still haven’t provided me with a single chapter.
Translating sound like an easy job, but it’s actually not. You have to stop whenever a new term come out and do some research to see if there’s an official translation of said terms and if there is not, you have to think of how should you translate that word. I especially hate any words with the “神 (literally: god)” character in it. Any terms with that “god” character attached may come in several meanings and is very ambiguous. To name a few, it can be “consciousness”, “mind”, “spiritual power”, “shikigami”, “eyesight”, “temple”, “expression”, or literally “god”.
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