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Question about Names and Translation

KudouKun

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25 Jul 2015
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A pleasure. I am trying to get off the ground as a translator, and I have a couple of questions about a panel of a manga I am working on.

1. The first two characters are the kanji for Beautiful and Chronicle/Story. When I put them into google translate(I know it isn't a reliable program, but sometimes it gives me hints) it turns them into a name. My main question is, how can you tell if kanji are making a name rather than words, and are there any signs to make it easier to see in the future? Also, is it more likely that the two characters are making a name or saying something like Beautiful Tale? The tough part is no one has mentioned any names yet so I don't actually know.

2. For the second two lines, I see the kanji for buy and the word "あげよう" which I have learned to be "to give." Buy also has きて at the end which also kinda throws me off, what does that do to buy?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.
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1)
が indicates the subject "the one who will buy the book", and a period can't do it. Thus, it must refer to a person. But, first of all, you can check in a decent dictionary if the word is listed or not. (美紀 is a very common female given name, by the way.)

2)
Haven't you learned the auxiliary verbs ~てくる and ~てあげる yet?
 
The best advice you can get if it is your intention to be a translator is to put the comic books away for a while and spend some serious time in serious study of the language first. Get a good textbook series such as Genki and work your way through it. You simply don't know enough of the basics to be attempting translations yet.
 
1)
が indicates the subject "the one who will buy the book", and a period can't do it. Thus, it must refer to a person. But, first of all, you can check in a decent dictionary if the word is listed or not. (美紀 is a very common female given name, by the way.)

2)
Haven't you learned the auxiliary verbs ~てくる and ~てあげる yet?
Thanks for the input, I'll review auxiliary verbs. Although one more thing, where did you get "the one who will buy the book" from? if my reading is correct, the first bubble should be something like "みきがかってきてあげようか?" in hiragana which seems to be something along the lines of "Miki bought them for me?" and the second bubble should be "ほんとう?" like "Really?" I'm sorry, I just want to clarify this, because if this panel is about buying a book I'm way farther off course than I thought.
 
You're just guessing at the grammar, aren't you? How did you get past tense "bought" ?

There's more to it than looking up kanji and just guessing the rest of the stuff.
 
I get it Mike, you don't think I know enough about Japanese to be trying to translate a comic. Gotcha. Noted. Awesome. I've been studying for a while and I find it's sticking faster when I use it practically, such as translating video game text and articles, and now I'm trying to translate a comic. I'm learning real ways too, this is just a side project because I find learning this way helps some stuff stick when I see it in use. I know what those kanji mean without looking them up, and the last panel was them being out of tissues and the panel after this is her going to get some more, I was just guessing based on context. If you're here to help me, just tell me why I got it wrong please.
 
Well....did you see the verb in past tense? Since you've been doing so much study, would it be safe to assume you have learned past tense conjugation? Do you know the function of the ~よう ending?

If she went to buy more after this panel, why would it be past tense in this one?

What have you been learning from?
 
Actually someone in another forum just gave me a really straightforward answer. The bubble says "Do you want Miki to buy it for you?"
It's amazing to think how simple this post would have been if the people here could give answers like those! See ya Mike. I'll be posting more questions and I look forward to more lectures. 待ったね!
 
待ったね doesn't makes sense, I'm afraid. I think you wanted to say 待っててね.
I believe that just to give you the correct translation is easier than our ways of answering but not good for your learning. Can you parse みきがかってきてあげようか and explain why it means so?
 
My main question is, how can you tell if kanji are making a name rather than words, and are there any signs to make it easier to see in the future?
Practice and context.
美紀 doesn't make sense as a word. It really only makes sense as a name. The context also lets you know that the person isn't randomly shouting out "beautiful era!".
Its the same in English when some names are identical to words (Rob, Mark, Nick, Hunter). We have capital letters to help differentiate, but if the word comes at the beginning of a sentence, you have to rely on context to know whether the author intends to the word as a name, or as a noun or verb, etc... Usually its pretty obvious, as in the case with the manga caption above. But..for the student, it only becomes obvious through lots of practice. I struggled with names for a long time. It can still be tricky, and I've had, er, lots of practice.
 
My questions were intended to help you work through the problem. Could you answer them, please?

I think you meant また, not 待った.
 
I think you meant また, not 待った.
Ah, yeah, it might be so.:)

@ the OP, do you know that ~てあげようか actually doesn't have a pushy nuance "do you want~?"? Also, do you understand whom 美紀 is referring to?
 
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