10 replies to this topic

[ShadowTiger]

Hm. I've always wondered. Is there a website which will translate English text into Japanese text? Not into Kanji though. Every time I try, it just ends up looking like this: ||||||||?||||| or ???????? ... It's kinda annoying.

Anyone ever seen something like this? I could definitely use a pointer in the right direction. Thanks.


EDIT: Oh, that's right. I forgot to tell you. I DID download a large set of Japanese fonts. The thing is, either they're not taking effect, or they're not recognized. They're in my fonts folder, of course, as usual. So that's alright. I'm just trying to figure out why they're not being used as necessary. ... Maybe I've just download the wrong file or something. Meh. I suppose anything's possible nowadays.

[Radien]

Do you use Windows? You probably need to install Japanese language support, rather than find a translation website. My computer is fully capable of Japanese text (although Win98's display bugs up every once in awhile ), and what you entered looks like those command squares to me, too.

At one point I downloaded a service pack of some sort that pretty much solved all my incompatibility problems, but I forget exactly what it was. Go to Microsoft's site and look around for a bit. It's there somewhere.

If you still need a translation site, well, I'm a 4th year Japanese student (albeit inactive), and I use Jim Breen's online J/E dictionary. It doesn't translate it in a neat format for those with no Japanese language experience, but it's fairly accurate, and it's great for breaking down sentences to their different parts and for looking up single words.

Don't expect much in the way of modern slang or lingo, though... It's several decades' primitive when it comes to imported words and vernacular katakana. (words with no real origin; quite often onomatopoeia).

...Yes, I had to look up the spelling of "onomatopoeia." >_<

[Takuya]

Yeah, and if you have more problems, I would search google for Romanji > English and vice versa

[ShadowTiger]

Thanks Radien, & Dlu. But please note, that I'm not referring to the handwritten Kanji, or the related material. I'm talking about spoken Japanese, in which the words that come out of their mouths, would be typed in English, based on how they sound coming out of their mouths. Obviously you can't really say "|||?||||||" at all. THAT, is what I am looking for. Obviously, I highly doubt they have such a thing when their written alphabet isn't composed of English at all.

[Radien]

Hmm... their writing system may not use Roman letters normally, but it's possible to spell out anything phonetically in Japanese using Roman letters, regardless. That's what "Romanji" is. In Jim Breen's, you can look up individual words in Romanji, but I doubt it works that way for the "translate text" feature.

EDIT: It occured to me... I forgot you were asking for "English --> Japanese." Do you actually want a translater, or do you want something that converts Romanji spelling into Japanese characters? Jim Breen's can do it one word at a time, but you need some knowledge of Japanese to be able to use a Japanese dictionary effectively.

Edited by Radien, 18 October 2004 - 06:06 PM.

[ShadowTiger]

... ... EXAMPLE: (In Italian) "Hello" --> "Ciao" or something like that. Not into symbols. I need a translator that, even if it does it word by word, would translate NOT INTO SYMBOLS! It must be readable in English, but not necessarily understood! So they can still read the word, but it may not make any sense to them unless they know what it means.


And Radien, where exactly on This Link you gave me is the Romanji converter? I can't seem to find it. Thanks...

[Takuya]

You need to search for English to Romanji translators.. ji means character, roman ji=japanese text with the roman alphabet. I think that's what you want. =P

ex. Good Evening = Konbon wa. Konnichi wa=good morning. A translator like that is what you want...Up for some google?

Edited by Darklink813, 19 October 2004 - 03:23 PM.

[Radien]

I don't think Jim Breen's has an English to Japanese Romanji converter. But it can do it the other way around. The link you want to click is "Search for words in dictionary." Make sure you click the radio box for "romanji" before you submit a search.

The one that says something along the lines of "translate from text" is for large amounts of Japanese text.

Or you could spend two or three weeks learning the hiragana alphabet in your spare time.

By the way, it's "Konban wa," not "Konbon wa."

[ShadowTiger]

Yes, Dlu, that's exactly what I requested. ... And thanks for referring me... to... Google. ...

Thank you Radien, I think I will attempt that. Or something similar, at least.

[Zemious]

You all helped me so much, thanks.

[Takuya]

Well, Radien, sorry bout the spelling error..XD, yeah, I'm learning Hiragana/Katakana,and Kanji too..I know some basic Kanji.. It's really cool..