[ SECRET POST #3023 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3023 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 056 secrets from Secret Submission Post #432.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

10. http://oi61.tinypic.com/21dei4n.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Which book? Which language? Into or out of English?

[silverr]

Now THIS... this is a spectacular secret.

Bravo, OP!

[a_potato]

It really, truly is.

[kallanda_lee]

I have a r/l acquaintance who published a children's book and put in a Who reference. So all power to you!

[(Anonymous)]

I heard a story about an LAPD training manual where as a joke, under similar circumstances, if there was an earthquake they were supposed to throw a virgin into either Hanson Dam or maybe it was the La Brea Tar Pits. Either way, the supervisor who was supposed to proof the manual failed to notice, so in it went and then off it went to the printing office.

[miss_yuka]

That's actually pretty shitty of you.

A+ secret tho.

[silverr]

I don't think it's all that bad, though? -- it sounds like it was just an arbritrary detail of little importance.

If it were all that essential to the plot one of the editors would have redlined it (though in that case I'm betting OP wouldn't have done it anyhow).

[(Anonymous)]

It's still rather disrespectful of the original author though.

[(Anonymous)]

No, bad Koiwai, bad!

[(Anonymous)]

You're a respectless asshole who doesn't deserve your job. You disgust me, and I hope you get fired.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

Haha even if the client found out they wouldn't fire me over a petty detail like that. It would make me look bad, sure, but I always meet my deadlines and do a better job than most. The client LOVES me for all the work I do. It would be a strike against me at most.

You really don't know anything about business, do you?

[(Anonymous)]

If anyone notices, that joke will be used as another excuse to bitch about how bad professional translators are.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

I don't want to say what it is to protect my identity, but I will say that I think the kind of person who enjoys the book I did probably lacks the critical thinking necessary to even identify a bad or good translation. It's... the trashiest of genre fiction, let's leave it at that.

[(Anonymous)]

I do not approve at all. An author has to be able to trust that translations stay true to the original, no matter of minor a detail.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm going to disagree a bit. I believe that translations should be as true and accurate to the original as possible. Unfortunately, that does mean teeny, tiny details can get lost in order to capture the overall meaning in another language. Some concepts are universal. Other times, you have to do your best to come as close as possible. I'm not a professional, but I lean more toward capturing the spirit of what I believe the author intended as far as I can tell from the original text, than translating word-for-word and missing the true meaning.

What the OP did? It sounds like he/she honestly thought editing would catch it, only to later discover that they didn't. That's an editor fail right there. In fact, both editors failed. So I blame the editors more than the OP, personally.

[(Anonymous)]

As a fellow professional translator, I'm not impressed at all. See, this is why we translators get so little respect and recognition. If you want to be treated like a professional, then act like one! At all times, not just when you feel like it!

I know, you're saying "but it was just ONCE, I don't usually do this, blah blah blah", but one stupid joke is enough to ruin your reputation and make other translators look bad. Not to mention it's also very disrespectful to the author of the book!

Transcript

[(Anonymous)]

Image: the Elenventh doctor, from the chin down, adjusting his bowtie

Text: I’m a professional translator.

I was translating a particularly boring book, so I put in a Doctor Who reference instead of correctly translating one line. I meant it as a joke for my editor, but she didn’t notice it! It even with by a second editor without getting noticed at all. So…

My joke Doctor Who reference got published.
I hope someone notices and get a lol or two. I don’t usually do this, I swear…

OP

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, I'm surprised so many people are so hostile about this. It's unprofessional, sure, but really harmless. And if you guys knew the kind of trash literature the original work was, I seriously doubt anyone here would care. The book was garbage with a capital G.

I literally changed two words out of a whole book. And trust me, editors change a lot more than that just for the sake of flow or for other reasons (editing out names of companies so they don't get sued, changing factual errors the author made, changing whole lines just because the writing of the original was bad).

I didn't intend for it to slide past my editors, but I didn't bring it up after the fact because it would be a waste of their time and I doubt they care that much. We all work on tight schedules and get paid little. I'm sure plenty of actual errors have slipped past all of us already, anyway. This one little joke is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, so because you don't approve of the original work, it's okay for you to change it just for shits and giggles? What did the author do to you to deserve that? I mean, assuming that writing a book you don't enjoy isn't actually a crime, by your reckoning.

I have a suggestion: since this is no big deal, why not confess to your editors and client what you did? Is it possibly because you know you'd get in trouble, so therefore it kind of IS a big deal in the grand scheme of things?

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Like you can find as many excuses of how "worse" things happen all the time, but those worse things probably don't happen on purpose...?? How hard is it to grasp the difference? Like you really don't understand why people might not appreciate others putting shitty fandom jokes into other people's work just because?

I'm sorry you were expecting asspats and cheers for spreading fandom love or whatever.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

"changing factual errors the author made, changing whole lines just because the writing of the original was bad"

That's not the standard practice when editing translations tho
(it's when it comes to original texts, but that's irrelevant here)

[11thdoctor]

Is it that Ikea book? Though that had more than one reference to doctor who as far as I remember.

[(Anonymous)]

IKEA book?

OP

[(Anonymous)]

No, haha, I haven't heard of that.

I literally changed two words, it's not a significant part of the book at all.