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Jenn & Wesley O'Donnell – Japanese-English Game and Media Translators

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“The Professor of Magic” by Edogawa Ranpo

“The Professor of Magic” by Edogawa Ranpo

I recently won 2nd place in a literary translators competition! The person who held the competition was kind enough to give feedback. Taking his advice on I went through my writing and tweaked it slightly. Here is my translation for

Jennifer O'Donnell May 4, 2018May 22, 2018 Literary Translation, My Translations Read more

Read Well to Translate Well

Read Well to Translate Well

Translators are constantly honing their skills. Both in their source and target languages. As such, it is important for any translator to read a lot. Reading can expose us to new ways of thinking, new information, new language in multiple

Jennifer O'Donnell April 29, 2018April 29, 2018 Literary Translation Read more

I got 2nd Place in a Literary Translation Competition!

I got 2nd Place in a Literary Translation Competition!

On March 12th 2018 J. D. Wisgo of Self Taught Japanese announced a literary translation competition for promising translators. (Japanese Translation Contest Announced: Promising Translators 2018.) This competition was for novice translators who are unpublished to translate a short literary

Jennifer O'Donnell April 25, 2018April 30, 2018 Literary Translation, Personal Read more

An Exercise in Research – The Extremely Hard Take Home Anime Quiz

An Exercise in Research – The Extremely Hard Take Home Anime Quiz

The Extreme Hard Take Home Anime Quiz is a fun fan-made quiz. It is held twice a year at a few anime conventions in the US, and has been for about 10 years. It’s an open-book quiz that you have

Jennifer O'Donnell April 8, 2018January 3, 2019 Further Education, Personal Read more

Female Translators Kicking Butt on International Women’s Day

Female Translators Kicking Butt on International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day! Did You Know There are More Female Translators and Interpreters Than Men? Did you know there are more female translators and interpreters than men? The translation industry is one of those rare fields that is dominated by

Jennifer O'Donnell March 8, 2018January 1, 2025 Localization Read more

TED Talks On Translation

TED Talks On Translation

TED Talks are always great resources for various information and new insights. But sometimes it can be hard to find subjects that interest you. I love watching TED Talks about science, computing, new ideas, learning and, of course, translating. Here

Jennifer O'Donnell March 7, 2018 Freelance Business Advice, Literary Translation, Localization Read more

New Goals and Improving Skills – Translation Link Roundup [February 2018]

New Goals and Improving Skills – Translation Link Roundup [February 2018]

Translation Industry & Business New Year, New Goals – An short inspirational article from NOTIS, the North West translation association, about improving yourself as a translator this year.   LinkedIn Profile Mastery for Freelancers: 10 Steps to Get You Hired

Jennifer O'Donnell March 1, 2018 Link Roundup Read more

February 2018 Goals

February 2018 Goals

I want to be better at setting myself monthly goals for self-development. These are things I keep saying I want to do but kept putting off. I hope to set myself just 3 goals a month and the will update

Jennifer O'Donnell February 3, 2018February 3, 2018 Personal Read more

All The Video Game Localizations – Translation Link Roundup [January 2018]

All The Video Game Localizations – Translation Link Roundup [January 2018]

Translation What We Talk About When We Talk About Translation – Deborah Smith talks about her translation of The Vegetarian. And how translations are so heavily rooted in the source culture. Exclusive Interview: Award-winning translator Hiroaki Sato on literary translation and ‘The Silver

Jennifer O'Donnell January 31, 2018June 19, 2022 Game Translation, Link Roundup Read more

What a Course in Translation Should Include

What a Course in Translation Should Include

In September 2015 I finished my Translation MA at SOAS University in London and was… disappointed to say the least. I felt it had been sorely lacking and wrote What an MA in Translation Doesn’t Teach You. It’s been a

Jennifer O'Donnell January 28, 2018January 30, 2018 Freelance Business Advice, Further Education Read more

2018 Goals and Challenges

2018 Goals and Challenges

The new year is always a great time to set self-improvements and self-development goals. But I’ve always found that calling them “resolutions” and aiming for the end of the year never works. I much prefer to set monthly and three

Jennifer O'Donnell January 17, 2018January 20, 2018 Personal Read more

Termbases for Manga Translation

Termbases for Manga Translation

Manga translation is an interesting job. It involves a lot of creativity as you create discourse which reflects the individual characters in the appropriate setting. One great example of this is YenPress’ publication of the popular manga Black Butler. Set

Jennifer O'Donnell January 12, 2018January 13, 2018 Manga Translation Read more

Translation Link Roundup [December 2017]

Translation Link Roundup [December 2017]

Translation Books on Translation and Interpreting – A list of pretty much any major book about translating and interpreting out there. How to Be a Better Translator – Some book recommendations for improving quality control in localization. “How Long Will It

Jennifer O'Donnell January 3, 2018January 3, 2018 Freelance Business Advice, Link Roundup, Localization Read more

“Deaimon” – Manga Translation

“Deaimon” – Manga Translation

    In September 2017 entries opened for the 6th Manga Translation Battle, where anyone can enter at least one of three manga translations. The winners for each manga may get a chance to translate the final manga officially. So

Jennifer O'Donnell January 1, 2018January 3, 2018 Manga Translation, My Translations Read more

Translation and Dyslexia

Translation and Dyslexia

In secondary school (middle school) we had to learn French and Spanish. I really hated these classes because I just couldn’t do them. In all my classes I struggled with spelling and reading, but languages were the worst. I got

Jennifer O'Donnell December 20, 2017December 20, 2017 Personal Read more

“Flying Grandpa” – Short Story Translation

“Flying Grandpa” – Short Story Translation

A while ago in Translate Like No One’s Watching I mentioned how I was translating a short story. Specifically for the 2017 Kurodahan Press Translation Competition. I had a fantastic time translating this story. And although I didn’t win, I’m still incredibly

Jennifer O'Donnell December 13, 2017May 22, 2018 Literary Translation, My Translations Read more

New Video Game Translator – Beware the Jabberwocks

New Video Game Translator – Beware the Jabberwocks

Are you a new video game translator? Many beginner Japanese to English game translators struggle to find work. It’s the ever frustrating catch 22 of “you need experience to get the job, but need the job to get experience”. It’s

Jennifer O'Donnell December 5, 2017December 7, 2017 Freelance Business Advice, Game Translation Read more

Education for Literary Translators

Education for Literary Translators

I attended a round table discussion on education for literary translators organized by NOTIS last night, and it was fantastic! I wanted to write my own thoughts regarding education for literary translators with resources and points that were discussed. A

Jennifer O'Donnell November 9, 2017January 21, 2018 Freelance Business Advice, Literary Translation Read more

NOTIS – Roundtable on Education for Literary Translators

NOTIS – Roundtable on Education for Literary Translators

I will be on the panel for a roundtable about education for translators this week (11/8/2017)! The panel is being held by the literary translators branch of the Northwest Translators & Interpreters Society (NOTIS) in conjunction with the private library

Jennifer O'Donnell November 6, 2017 Literary Translation, Personal Read more

Come for the Sights, Stay for the Poetry – Pikes Market’s Japanese Book Store

Come for the Sights, Stay for the Poetry – Pikes Market’s Japanese Book Store

If you live in Seattle, or have ever visited it, you probably know about Pikes Market. You’ve probably even visited its maze of shops and crowds of people. But have you even ventured deeper in? Did you know that if

Jennifer O'Donnell October 11, 2017October 11, 2017 Literary Translation Read more

Kansai Cats Manga – The Great Tora – Chapter 2

Kansai Cats Manga – The Great Tora – Chapter 2

The Great Tora – Kansai Cats Chapter 2             Artist: MakiART @ccmakiart Translator: J-EN Translations Editor: WaterFlame Original 関西弁にゃんこ Manga   Chapter 1 Chapter 3

Jennifer O'Donnell October 11, 2017September 9, 2018 Kansai Kittens, Manga Translation Read more

Getting the Creative Juices Flowing – Translate Like No One’s Watching

Getting the Creative Juices Flowing – Translate Like No One’s Watching

Happy National Translation Day! I would like to celebrate National Translation Day (9/30) by telling you a story about frustration, fighting, and self discovery.   Translation Never Seemed to Click At First My very first job outside of University was

Jennifer O'Donnell September 29, 2017October 2, 2017 Personal Read more

Kansai Cats Manga – Hey’ya! – Chapter 1

Kansai Cats Manga – Hey’ya! – Chapter 1

  Hey’ya! – Kansai Cats Chapter 1 Welcome to the first chapter of Kansai Cats! This is the official release of the adorable manga written by ccMakiArt, a Kyoto artist and illustrator.           Artist: MakiART @ccmakiart

Jennifer O'Donnell September 21, 2017September 9, 2018 Kansai Kittens, Manga Translation Read more

Game Translation Scams

Game Translation Scams

So the other day I got a message from a friend saying he might have a game translation for me. But he also mentioned that something wasn’t quite right about this ‘job’. He was messaging me to check it out

Jennifer O'Donnell September 11, 2017September 11, 2017 Freelance Business Advice, Game Translation Read more

The Financial Diet – Money Wasted on Learning Japanese

The Financial Diet – Money Wasted on Learning Japanese

I began following The Financial Diet last year. Simply put it’s a website and YouTube channel which shares advice about money. It’s a website made by women so has slightly female leaning content (i.e saving money on makeup, although I have

Jennifer O'Donnell August 20, 2017September 11, 2017 Japanese Language, Personal Read more

My First Japanese Otome Game Translation

My First Japanese Otome Game Translation

Starting out as a freelance translator is hard. You need experience to get jobs but can’t get jobs without experience. I can see why though, with every new job you learn something new and your translation improves. And companies want

Jennifer O'Donnell July 26, 2017July 12, 2019 Game Translation, Localization, My Translations Read more

What Went Wrong With The Persona 5 Translation?

What Went Wrong With The Persona 5 Translation?

Persona 5 was a highly anticipated game that was released internationally in April 2017. Only many players were shocked to find there was something off about the Persona 5 translation. Many people went online to point out all the places

Jennifer O'Donnell June 5, 2017June 12, 2017 Game Translation, Localization Read more

How to Fit Japanese Studies Into Your Busy Life

How to Fit Japanese Studies Into Your Busy Life

I wrote another article for the Business in Japan Blog! How to Fit Japanese Studies Into Your Busy Life   The article looks at analyzing your time and priorities. How can you find the time in the day to study

Jennifer O'Donnell May 5, 2017 Japanese Language Read more

Translating Japanese for Beginners

Translating Japanese for Beginners

Are you studying Japanese and interested in translation? But you have no idea how to translate something from Japanese into English? This article on translating Japanese for beginners is for you!   A few years ago I completed an MA in

Jennifer O'Donnell April 24, 2017May 5, 2017 Localization Read more

Two Japanese Jabberwocky Poems

Two Japanese Jabberwocky Poems

This is one of my favourite essays from my MA in Translation Theory and Practice. The MA certainly focuses more on the theory side of translation which is evident from this essay. The point of the essay was to compare

Jennifer O'Donnell April 20, 2017September 19, 2021 Further Education, My Translations Read more
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