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Misc YUI Info:

I have created the live audio thread, enjoy.

Someone is translating the Tokyo live. Stay tuned.

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This post is meant for my classmates. We have Malay<->Japanese<->English translation class this semester, and apparently it is driving everyone crazy.

I'm still a novice when it comes to Japanese language and translation but still, I have to start it some where. I used these 4 tools for ROCKIN' ON JAPAN translation. Basically I can't do a thing without them.

1. My brain, which sometimes doesn't function properly due to short term memory loss.
2. Asahi online dictionary + firefox search engine.
3. Eijiro on the WEB + firefox search engine (My fave!!)
4. Google dot com

5. Contacts in MSN
6. Wikipedia
7. The Free Dictionary
8. Firefox with a bunch of addons

First I use Asahi online dictionary to look up Japanese words, to double confirm the exact meaning. You can use other dictionaries such as Sanseido, Yahoo Japan etc. Sometimes I use Excite for Japanese<->Chinese stuff.

These dictionaries don't really have all the words, especially slang words. Hence, Eijiro is my best buddy when I want to look for not so conventional phrases. Since it is some sort of a search engine, gathering data from numerous source, some of the translation might be incorrect. That, I have to use my brain to determine.

Interpreting/ figuring out what the sentence means isn't that difficult, if you are translating simple stuff like normal conversation. The hardest pain in the butt part to me is to form a new sentence in another language.

I cannot talk in proper Chinese (according to some of my friends), didn't learn English grammar properly when I was in school (second language), I always have problem constructing sentences, somehow these sentences don't feel right.

That's why Google is my friend. Lets say I wanna know if this phrase sounds normal or not: We go together-gether.

Just add quotation marks and look for it in Google: "We go together-gether"

You will notice that the result is usually written by people who:

1. Can't spell or no spell checker in browser.
2. Prefers abbreviations.
3. Likes to mix their writings in different languages.

This is what we called Malaysian English =P Inspired by the Malay word, bersama-sama. That's what I normally do if I'm not sure whether my sentence is correct or not.

My boss once asked me to translation 50 Malay haiku into Japanese and I relied on these two websites, and of course, google. Normally people will ask native speakers to do such translation. Although my native tongue is Chinese, people sometimes think that I'm a banana, or thought I'm major in English instead of Japanese. This is sad.

I'm trying to speak 'as standard as possible' these days, but it's hard >.<

Feel free to make fun of me whenever I mispronounced something or misused certain words/idioms, then I might force myself to study/work harder.

I only use these 4 tools primarily. What do you use??

Note: In half-banana dot com, we talk about YUI not languages and linguistics. I still have a long way to go when it comes to languages, I guess practise makes perfect.