small milestone

[piranha]

today i translated my first page of manga. and no, it wasn't one of the pages with a lot of "a...h" and "n...h". :) though it had only a minimum of kanji, since i know so few. i hadn't actually planned on it, but i got sucked into a story that has only had a chapter scanlated, whch ended on a cliffhanger, so i got my hands on the raw and tried to make sense of it. this bloody raw doesn't have furigana, so i am not planning to carry on with it; it'd frustrate me in no time. it took hours just to do three pages with very little actual text. but i resolved the cliffhanger and can now sleep well.

i'm glad i listened to so many drama CDs lately. knowing the sound of words even if i don't know how they're written really helps when translating -- i have to painstakingly sound out the kana syllable by syllable (yes, i move my lips), and then suddenly! it makes a phrase i know! なんでもない was the first one that gave me a "eureka" feeling.

this stage of foreign language acquisition is generally a royal pain because i don't recognize any patterns yet, and i am generally such a pattern matcher, and rely on it hugely for reading in all languages in which i am fluent, *sigh*. but to get the mere inkling of a pattern is a thrill.

i'm tickled a bright electric blue. :)

Comments

re: small milestone

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Wow, go you! What story was so interesting in the first two chapters?

Re: small milestone

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i am not sure the story's interest level actually warrants my efforts, really. :) uso to kisu by minase masara. it was the hotness of the bois; i like minase-sensei's style.

what's happy-makingly different about this story is that there is no initial angst happening at all, no rape (yay!), no one-sided pursuit, nor any of the other silly tropes -- these two bois meet, they're attracted to each other for a while, and one day they go out drinking, and then have hot, happy sex. (except we're getting omniscient foreshadowing that there will be angst, of course). i am easily hooked these days. :)

woops. it's licensed! i didn't realize. well, that means i could buy it and check my translation! i am not sure i want to buy it, though. it's not one of the stories that really gets to me. i am just happy that it didn't suck.

i need an icon with some minase boi with glasses. in the meantime, here's colour art from this story: