Clarifications on some translation matter

Alright guys, time for a long-assed post. I felt like I need to write a detailed post regarding my recent problem with WoT raw.

#1 – I am Chinese but I can’t read nor write the words. I can speak and listen though.

#2 – Starting from Chapter 59, the raw is in picture format . Which means I can’t understand because I can’t read Chinese words. (Refer #1)

#3 – The font inside the picture raw is in calligraphy font. It was done to prevent people from trying to OCR it . Which means most, if not all, OCR program doesn’t work.

#4 – I found a site with copyable text . It is sxx.xx (I censored it because let’s try not to promote the pirate site, but I’m very sure y’all know which site I’m talking about since at least 2 of my readers suggested the same site to me).

#5 – The raw from that site has typos. Some make sense but some don’t, still typo nevertheless.


Possible Q & A
Q : Why don’t you use [insert OCR site name]?
A : I’ve tried at least 4 online free OCR site. None of them could give me a result with 95% correct words. If you want to suggest one to me, please try using the picture above (#2) and see if you could get a result with 90% accuracy first.

Q : Why don’t you use text raw instead of picture raw ?
A : I did, please refer #4. The picture raw is the real raw from lcread.

Q : What’s wrong with raw text from #4?
A : It has typos (refer #5).

Q : What’s wrong with having typos? / Typos are normal.
A : What’s wrong with you?! / Well, I don’t have to share your opinion regarding the typos, do I?

Q : Can’t you fix the typo while you translate?
A : If the typo doesn’t make sense, I might be able to spot it, but if it makes sense I will probably miss it because I can’t eyeball all 3k words/chapter against the picture raw each time (refer #1).
Adding extra Q & A –

Q : Do you know that the raw in lcread will be in picture format when you picked the novel?
A : No. I tried googling about it and nothing usable came out. The most usable one was Giraffe Corps’ site showing how to purchase VIP chapters from lcread. I did dropped a message asking if the VIP chapters are copyable but I didn’t get any response.

Possible solution suggested by readers :
Ratata – Use Google Doc’s OCR function


Why I am posting this?
I felt like some of my readers are confused with my current conditions and keep giving me suggestions that I already knew/tried. I am just human, it gets really irritating when I need to repeatedly give the same answer to every single suggestion.

I need the readers to read this so that they won’t give me that same suggestion all over again and me repeating the same answer back .

#SpareMePlease
#EvenBuddhaCanGetAngry

8 thoughts on “Clarifications on some translation matter”

  1. I have some questions, no meant to offense,
    did you know this whole things gonna happen when you start translating this series? Cos it has pictures format in the middle of it in which applied to all the novels in the site perharps, Or you did know, but haven’t tried to solved it before translating cos you thought you got ways, then halfway through it, you just realise you have a problem?
    It’s just, why pick this series if you know there’s gonna be a pictures format in which you can’t read without OCR? Are you gonna give up on this series if you can’t find the solution? It’s make sense if you did, not gonna blame you or anything..
    I also thought maybe you didn’t know cos they are locked chaps, then voila, surprise!,lol, something like that?
    Anyway, still appreciate all your hard work.. thank you.:)

    1. 1. I know all site has locked chapters .
      2. I have an account in jjwxc which their VIP chapters are copyable.
      3. I thought lcread will be copyable as well upon purchase. So to answer your question, no I don’t know it’s in picture format.
      4. I thought picture format would be solvable using OCR method. So to answer your question, yes I thought I could solve it but I never knew the font in image would be calligraphy font.
      5. I didn’t pick the novel knowing that it will be in picture format. You writing this sentence had you already assumed I’m doing this despite knowing the truth. That’s rude.
      6. I will only give up after exhausting any possible methods. Right now I still have raws with typo.

  2. Oh, okay, sorry if im offending you, i told you i meant no offense, that’s why im asking, it’s a question actually, im not assuming anything.. oh well, good luck, hope you find the solution..

  3. Hey Banana! Been a while. If only you could find a *cough* minion to check both image and text raws to spot the typos for you… It’s like being an editor/quality checker go in through your translation and spotting grammatical errors etc – only for Chinese text.
    Not saying that this is a solution but it could be? If you can find someone willing to do so anyway.

  4. That’s a bummer, i hope you get a project that doesn’t trouble you like this. I also hope that maybe in the future something good happens and you’ll be able to pick it up again without any issues if the publisher changes it or VIP is copyable 👍
    Hang in there and thank you so much for doing everything you’ve done already 💕

  5. As a Chinese who can only read Chinese as “got bian read bian, no bian read middle” (I hope you can understand because I have no idea what is bian in English =_=)
    At least you’re able to translate well tho. I tried translating but it’s hard when you can’t read well TwT

  6. I actually had the same suggestion as kaylarala. Since for people that understand Chinese, the calligraphy is not a big problem as long as the raw is in simplified Chinese format, instead of traditional Chinese format. Hopefully you’re able to find a solution to this problem. Fighting~!

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