Are you a manga aficionado? Are you fluent in Japanese? Put your Japanese translation skills to the test in a contest from the Digital Comics Association!
The 3rd annual Manga Translation Battle is going on right now. In this contest, amateur manga fans and professional Japanese translators alike will compete to see who can produce the best English translations of selected Japanese manga comics.
It’s free to enter- all you have to do is choose one of four manga to translate, read it, and then translate the required pages. The entry deadline is November 7th, 2014. Entries will be judged by a panel of professional translators and manga experts. Once finalists have been selected, readers will have a chance to vote for their favorite translations, as well.
One grand prize winner will win a trip to Japan, along with a job offer to finish translating the manga they chose for competition. First prize winners get job offers, too, but no trip to Japan. Runners up get tablet computers.
Keep in mind, translating creative work like manga is often much harder than it looks. In addition to translating the meaning, you have to be able to capture the mood, tone and voice of the piece in another language. Think you’ve got what it takes? Entry forms and rules are available here.
Last year’s grand prize winner was Sarah Kim Perry, an American living in Japan. She told Otaku Mode that winning the contest “completely changed” her life:
“I was given the chance to translate all three volumes of the work I translated for the contest, and, of course, made my debut as a manga translator. But I was also invited to work for Tokyo Otaku Mode, which managed the event, and have been working there since this summer.”
Will you try your hand at translating manga?