Is anyone here bored and fluent in Japanese?

Nemesis · Jun 6, 2008

I've just got my hands on some very valuble information for the YM2612. Trouble is, it's in Japanese. More info at http://www.spritesmind.net/_GenDev/forum/viewtopic.php?t=386

Is anyone here is able and willing to lend a hand translating some of this doc?

Soselocke · Jun 6, 2008

Yo. I'm pretty good, I'll give my try at it. BRB TRANSLATING

Blarg, never mind. My computer is getting too fucked up for me to do anything. Sorry. :[

theSTHguy · Jun 6, 2008

On the first page of the pdf http://nemesis.hacking-cult.org/MegaDrive/...ion/YM2608J.PDF, where it reads:

YM2608
OPNA
アプリケーションマニュアル

The Japanese text translates as: Application Manual

And at the very bottom right (ヤマハ etc., translates as: Yahama, then the rest I don't know. I'll find out in a few ticks.

Not much, but it's a start.

Nemesis · Jun 7, 2008

Well, that's already more than I could get with the Google translator. :D

What I might do is pick out some "high priority" pages to get translated. The full document is 67 pages, and that's a lot of work. Being a technical manual, there are a lot of tables and diagrams and blank spaces, but it's still got a fair bit of text across those pages, and I've heard technical documentation can be some of the more difficult things to read and translate from Japanese. The pages which look most useful to me are the FM section of the manual, pages 15-36. I'd really like to know what's written in that section.

theSTHguy · Jun 7, 2008

Nemesis said:

The pages which look most useful to me are the FM section of the manual, pages 15-36. I'd really like to know what's written in that section.
Click to expand...

I can do that for you over the weekend, or however long it takes!

Carrying on with what I said before:

theSTHguy said:

And at the very bottom right (ヤマハ etc., translates as: Yahama, then the rest I don't know. I'll find out in a few ticks.
Click to expand...

Yeh(!) More than a few ticks, clearly(!)
But anyway. I've managed to translate the entire ヤマハ抹式会社 business; and it simply comes out as 'Yahama End Type Company'.

I have no idea what that means? But it probably does mean something.

Nemesis · Jun 7, 2008

Thanks for taking this onboard. I might start breaking the document down, extracting images etc, in preparation for a transcription.

theSTHguy · Jun 7, 2008

Nemesis said:

Thanks for taking this onboard.
Click to expand...

You're welcome. Hey! I've got study leave for the next week so I'm free all day, every day.

Nemesis said:

I might start breaking the document down, extracting images etc, in preparation for a transcription.
Click to expand...

I think that would be best. I'll try to do around a page or two a day. I'll type the translations in MS Word and then convert them to a PDF - images included, of course!

If the translations are acceptable enough, should they be uploaded to the wiki?

Nemesis · Jun 7, 2008

Well I think the main goal should be to create an offline PDF translation of the original manual which can be shared, distributed, printed, etc. There's no reason the information in this document couldn't be added to the wiki, but I think the initial translation should only be changing the language of the document, not messing with the formatting or structure of the document. A html conversion can come after the translation.

Soselocke · Jun 7, 2008

Try this site for machine translation. It doesn't get EVERYTHING perfect, but it helps a hell of a lot better than pretty much any other online translator.
http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/
(英→日 = English to Japanese, likewise 日→英 = Japanese to English)

Also, for further help:
http://nihongo.j-talk.com/parser/search/
This site has the most complete Japanese-English dictionary I've ever found. Also, if you've got a strange kanji you can't figure, try out the Kanji Search page (I usually end up increasing my font size since kanji can be so complex and miniscule at the same time). For best results concerning the dictionary, I suggest that every check box in the options menu be checked and the results per page be extended to the 250 maximum.

I've used these sites for the past 3 years or so as my Japanese resources. They help tons. If you need any help with either site, don't hesitate to ask!

Overlord · Jun 7, 2008

I might have something backwards here, but "Yahama"? Shouldn't it be Yamaha...?

Nemesis · Jun 8, 2008

Thanks for those links Soselocke. I'm having some success with the Adobe Acrobat OCR function and that Japanese translator. It's a lot better than the Google translator. Most things still come out fairly messed up, but I can often figure out what they're trying to say from context.

I might have something backwards here, but "Yahama"? Shouldn't it be Yamaha...?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Soselocke · Jun 8, 2008

No problem!

Yeah, if the translator doesn't give very much context, just use the dictionary site. If that still doesn't help, use the Kanji Dictionary function. Sometimes, seeing the main details of the individual kanji helps tie things together when nothing else can.

Is anyone here bored and fluent in Japanese?

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