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NEWS: DA PUMP Member DAICHI Leaves Group Due to Illness (Updated)




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ChrissyC



Joined: 17 Jun 2015
Posts: 542
PostPosted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 4:36 pm Reply with quote
They've been going on for a long time. This is surprising news.
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Aresef



Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 909
Location: MD
PostPosted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 12:26 am Reply with quote
Wow, what shocking news.

DA PUMP was one of first exposures to Japanese music outside of video games. I was channel-surfing in a Disney resort hotel and came across a performance of Feelin’ Good.
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Nayoko-Kihara



Joined: 06 May 2008
Posts: 13
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 2:52 am Reply with quote
The site doesn't say anything about them disbanding as a group. The only thing happening is DAICHI leaving. ISSA's statement says the remaining 6 will work hard to give back to fans with even more performances. They still have a live performance scheduled for May 12th.
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Aresef



Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 909
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 10:29 pm Reply with quote
So, uh, not a great look for ANN.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar


Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 16935
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 12:09 pm Reply with quote
Aresef wrote:
So, uh, not a great look for ANN.


Why? Because nobody can make mistakes? Ironic how you previously told people not to respond to a troll, but you post this which sure looks like the same sort of thing.
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Aresef



Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 909
Location: MD
PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 9:58 pm Reply with quote
Psycho 101 wrote:
Aresef wrote:
So, uh, not a great look for ANN.


Why? Because nobody can make mistakes? Ironic how you previously told people not to respond to a troll, but you post this which sure looks like the same sort of thing.


Respectfully, I don’t agree with that comparison. I think there’s a difference between what that person was doing in bad faith and raising concerns with how wrong the original version was and the process that led to that. Maybe I was too snarky, and for that I’m sorry. I’m glad ANN fixed it, don’t get me wrong, and I hope ANN does better moving forward. And as soon as that revamped subscription functionality that’s been talked about for ages goes live, I’ll be happy to sign up.

I understand it wouldn’t be wise to try to get into this further on here. So I’ll leave it there.
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 4:03 am Reply with quote
Psycho 101 wrote:
Aresef wrote:
So, uh, not a great look for ANN.


Why? Because nobody can make mistakes?

Thing is, ANN has a history of really embarrassing translation mistakes. I've called out some myself, others have done so as well, and yet it just keeps happening, and it doesn't seem like ANN is doing anything to improve the situation. This is a fairly bad look for a site that calls itself "the internet's most trusted anime news source" - ANN shouldn't depend on readers to regularly call out beginner-level mistakes in their translations.
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shosakukan



Joined: 09 Jan 2014
Posts: 290
PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:27 am Reply with quote
SHD wrote:
Thing is, ANN has a history of really embarrassing translation mistakes. I've called out some myself, others have done so as well, and yet it just keeps happening, and it doesn't seem like ANN is doing anything to improve the situation. This is a fairly bad look for a site that calls itself "the internet's most trusted anime news source" - ANN shouldn't depend on readers to regularly call out beginner-level mistakes in their translations.

In a treatise on Japanese-language education, I have seen Professor Mizumoto Terumi, who had taught Japanese at Princeton and Harvard say that actually the Japanese-language knowledge and skills of non-Japanese students with JLPT 2-kyū (roughly equivalent to N2 of the current system) are far inferior to those of non-Japanese students with JLPT 1-kyū (roughly equivalent to N1).
If ANN requires its staffers to have JLPT N1, possibly it will improve the translation-related situation to some extent? Since even third-rate/so-called F-rank universities such as Tokyo Christian University demand non-Japanese students who try to enroll to have JLPT N1, in reality having JLPT N1 might be still not a very great thing, however.
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:55 am Reply with quote
shosakukan wrote:
In a treatise on Japanese-language education, I have seen Professor Mizumoto Terumi, who had taught Japanese at Princeton and Harvard say that actually the Japanese-language knowledge and skills of non-Japanese students with JLPT 2-kyū (roughly equivalent to N2 of the current system) are far inferior to those of non-Japanese students with JLPT 1-kyū (roughly equivalent to N1).
If ANN requires its staffers to have JLPT N1, possibly it will improve the translation-related situation to some extent? Since even third-rate/so-called F-rank universities such as Tokyo Christian University demand non-Japanese students who try to enroll to have JLPT N1, in reality having JLPT N1 might be still not a very great thing, however.

I agree. I mean, obviously I don't know what requirements ANN currently has for their Japanese news correspondents, but clearly they're not enough... Also, again I don't know if there's any translation-related QA on the articles before they're published, but if not there definitely should be.
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shosakukan



Joined: 09 Jan 2014
Posts: 290
PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 11:45 am Reply with quote
SHD wrote:
I agree. I mean, obviously I don't know what requirements ANN currently has for their Japanese news correspondents, but clearly they're not enough... Also, again I don't know if there's any translation-related QA on the articles before they're published, but if not there definitely should be.

This article written by Mr Christopher Macdonald says:
Quote:
Journalist Wanted In India
posted on 2019-08-22 16:02 EDT by Christopher Macdonald

Anime News Network is looking to hire experienced and paid intern Journalists immediately in the following locations: (updated 2020-02-17)
India
...ANN is looking for a journalist to cover events and do interviews in India, as well as join our full-time team covering news from Japan and around the world.

• Must write English at a professional level;
• Bonus if you can read Japanese at N3 or better;...

So it may suggest that, when an ANN staffer deals with the Japanese language, it is possible that his/her Japanese-language knowledge and skills are JLPT N3.
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Tempest
I Run this place.
ANN Publisher


Joined: 29 Dec 2001
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 5:42 pm Reply with quote
A number of posts were deleted from this thread. A couple were troll criticism, attacking ANN for things completely unrelated to this article, I've left those deleted. A couple were criticism directly related to the error that was made in this article. I've brought those posts back.
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Tempest
I Run this place.
ANN Publisher


Joined: 29 Dec 2001
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 6:05 pm Reply with quote
ANN's staff who cover Japanese news are all N2 or better. Most are, or would qualify as N1, at least on the written exam.

The job listing referred to was for a position not related directly to Japanese sourced news, so Japanese reading abilities weren't a necessity, but they are always a plus. N4 & N5 are useless, so we only considered a level of N3 or better as a plus, but at that level we still wouldn't task them with unsupervised news translation. The person who ultimately took that internship, and later joined ANN fulltime, does not read Japanese, and focuses on news from English language markets.

As for the mistake in this article, I apologize for it. ANN regrets every mistake we make, and we are always working to avoid making them in the first place.

It's easy for a long-term reader to say that we have a "history of translation mistakes," because you remember the last one "not too long ago," and others before that. However if you look at the incredible quantity of articles ANN publishes (over 600 news+interest articles a month), and the fact that we are publishing translation corrections significantly less than once a month, I don't think our track record is all that bad.

We also definitely don't "rely" on readers to point out our mistakes. We put a lot of effort into bringing in qualified journalists who make fewer mistakes in the first place and copy-editing as many articles as possible before they are posted. Our team doesn't make that many mistakes, and most of the ones that are made are caught during the copyediting phase. Unfortunately some mistakes do happen, and some of those do slip through; in those cases we are always very thankful to whomever points it out for us so that we can correct it as fast as possible.

That said, every mistake we make is one mistake too many. We're always trying to improve the quality of our articles, and we are hopping to increase the number of people working in the newsroom later this year, allowing for a bit more QA. Unfortunately QA costs money, so we can't snap our fingers and double the amount of time we spend on every article, it would bankrupt us. Sadly, this is a problem that is endemic to the modern news industry, not just ANN. Major mainstream news services also have trouble bringing in the amount of QA that we all believe should be the bare minimum (I have friends working at Bloomberg who complain about this constantly).

As for this article in question, I don't know if the error was actually a translation error, or something else. The journalist who wrote the article is in Japan and is not on shift right now. Her level of Japanese is very high though, and she is more than qualified to be writing news based on Japanese sources. I'll ask her about what happened when her next shift starts, but she is one of our best journalists, so it very much is a case of "everyone makes mistakes from time to time."

Thank you for your feedback,
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Aresef



Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 909
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 11:33 am Reply with quote
Thank you for the detailed explanation. That's all I wanted.
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shosakukan



Joined: 09 Jan 2014
Posts: 290
PostPosted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 3:30 am Reply with quote
Tempest wrote:
ANN's staff who cover Japanese news are all N2 or better. Most are, or would qualify as N1, at least on the written exam...

Thank you very much for your response, Mr Macdonald.

Tempest wrote:
Her level of Japanese is very high

I'm sorry to say this, but it is rather difficult to think that someone who thinks the way to read the jukugo '呪剣' is 'noroken' is a person whose 'level of Japanese is very high'.

As I have said, since even non-Japanese students who try to enroll in Japanese third-rate universities / so-called F-rank universities / 'cow colleges' are required to have JLPT N1, even if a non-Japanese person who learnt Japanese has JLPT N1, it may be in reality not a that great thing Japanese-language proficiency-wise. It may be better for you not to overestimate the value of a person's having a JLPT N1 certificate.

Certainly, JLPT doesn't have levels which are higher than N1.
Possibly ANN should require its staffers to have J1+ of BJT or something. It is said that JLPT N1 is roughly equivalent to J2 of BJT, and J1+ and J1 of BJT are higher than J2.

Anyway, since Anime News Network mainly deals with Japanese animations and Japanese comics and ANN articles seem to largely rely upon Japanese sources, probably Japanese-language knowledge and skills are a very important thing for ANN staffers. I hope that Mr Macdonald and his staffers keep improving their Japanese-language knowledge and skills.

Again, thank you.
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