Q. What is Wota in Translation?
Short answer: English translations of Hello! Project threads from 2ch.
Long answer: 2ch is a massive, anonymous Japanese discussion forum that also has a dedicated section for Hello! Project. Like many boards on 2ch, the H!P board is very active and there is definitely an “anything goes” atmosphere that comes along with the anonymity.
However, because of that anonymity, you often get really interesting, candid sneak peeks at how some Japanese fans think about things in this fandom we share with them. Plus, what’s more is that there are often all kinds of funny or interesting episodes about these idols posted on 2ch that many times never make their way into the English speaking fan community.
I think it’d be a shame for overseas fans to miss out on all of that and that’s where this site steps in. What you’ll find here are translations of select H!P threads from 2ch. It’s just the threads I care about and just the comments I care about (or have enough motivation to translate).
In addition to 2ch translations, I also translate books and articles related to Hello! Project. See here for the index of all the non-2ch stuff. Some of it’s pretty good!
To keep up with new posts, follow Wota in Translation via RSS, Twitter or Facebook!
Q. Can you recommend me some especially good threads to get me started?
Try the Best of Wota in Translation lists, chosen by me: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019.
Q. Do you take requests? Can you translate a thread about (insert topic/person)?
No, sorry.
Q. What do all the different colors mean?
Like on other matome sites, I simply use colors to highlight certain comments. My criteria in doing so varies — there’s no deeper meaning as to the colors representing anything in particular.
Q. Who’s who in those ascii art smileys 2ch uses to portray the members?
If it’s not obvious from the context, here’s a complete-ish collection you can refer to.
Q. Is 2ch really like how it’s shown on this site? I see almost no haters or trolls!
No, this site is not an accurate portrayal of “real” 2ch. 2ch does indeed have its fair share of haters, trolls, spammers and so on — in every single thread. However, before any thread ends up here for you to read, it usually goes through two filters:
- the matome site (the source I link at the end of the posts) whose administrator removes all spam as well as any other replies according to their own criteria, and
- me, almost always resulting in the deletion of even more replies.
As for my criteria in the selection of which replies to include, I mostly try not to let my own biases show too much and I try to have a good balance of comments that are the most relevant/interesting/funny/stupid/ridiculous/memorable.
Q. What sort of things aren’t allowed on the comments section of this site?
For the most part, you can say whatever you like. There are a couple of things I won’t allow:
- personal information of anyone but yourself
- comments that could be perceived as threats
- overly explicit sexual fantasies — post that stuff elsewhere
My policy on this is subject to change at any time, but in short, just don’t be an idiot.
Q. I left a comment but it’s not appearing.
It might’ve been mistakenly caught in the spam filter. Leave a comment on this page and I’ll check it out.
Q. I found a mistranslation!
I’d appreciate it if you could leave a comment and tell me about it so I can fix it.
Q. How should I learn Japanese? How did you learn Japanese?
You should learn it whichever way works the best for you — the only things you really need are motivation and (the ability to make) time. For me, the only method I find enjoyable when it comes to language acquisition is immersion. If you’re interested, a lot of the language learning philosophy that I subscribe to can be read about at All Japanese All The Time (click here and here).
Q. How do I contact you?
Have any other comments or questions? Leave a comment below or message me directly.
Well i don’t know where to request things…but how about something about C-ute in Paris?
Like…what do Japanese Fans think about the outcome?
Many many maaaany thanks! :D
I don’t really take requests, but you can try asking Wolves and Morning Musume.
did you study Japanese in school or are self-taught? I want to become good at Japanese like you!
I’m self-taught. And sweet! Language learning is lots of fun and you can absolutely become good at Japanese. All you need is motivation and (the ability to make) time. If you’re interested, a lot the the language learning philosophy I adhere to can be found at All Japanese All The Time (click here and here) and Steve Kaufman’s YouTube channel.
OK, I will continue with my daily lessons! Thank you.
Partly since I don’t know much Japanese, trying to navigate the 2ch website makes my head hurt. Could you post a link to the H!P section.
Here you go.
This may be a dumb question, but how come certain lines of your translation are in certain colours?
Good question. If you look at the Japanese matome sites I’ve linked above, they also use colors to highlight comments. I just picked it up from them. For the longest time I tried to find some sort of pattern and figure out which color meant what… but I never managed to find it. That’s not to say that there isn’t one though, maybe I just wasn’t smart enough to get it.
Anyway, for me personally, I just use them to highlight comments that I find the most interesting/funny/stupid/ridiculous/disgusting… basically the most memorable ones for me. The colors I just choose randomly, none of them stand for any of the above categories in particular.
Ah, okay! For a while I thought it might be related to member colours or something, like, “Read this pink text as though Sayumi were saying it.” But that didn’t end up making sense. Anyway, thank you for all the good work you’re doing!
Do you ever delete comments? What sort of things do you not want to see?
I haven’t deleted a single one so far. While there’s been one or two comments I’ve found pretty idiotic, I’m not a fan of censorship and especially considering the nature of this site (=translations of threads originating from 2ch — an “anything goes” environment if there ever was one), I’d rather not delete any comments unless absolutely necessary.
Thanks Henkka, for everything.
May I ask if you’re still going to post the ask Lehua Sandbo thing? Did she answer your emails? :)
Yes and yes. Look forward to the interview within the next 24 hours!
My comments arent showing up in the recent thread, when i try and write them again wordpress says im doing a duplicate even though the first one never seemed to post
Your comment got caught in the spam filter for some reason. Just approved it now.
In case it’s relevant to your interests, I found a (I think) complete collection of the ascii faces
http://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E3%83%8F%E3%83%AD%E3%83%97%E3%83%AD%E9%A1%94%E6%96%87%E5%AD%97%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%A7
Plus, this one gets updated regularly it seems.
Thanks!
Henkka, I noticed you deleted Linda’s comments. That was, of course, the right thing to do.
I’m deeply sorry about this incident. I’ve spoken to her and I’m confident it won’t be happening again.
That’s alright, no need to apologize. I’ll just assume you’re a super good-looking dude for getting yourself such a persistent fan — can’t blame a guy for being too handsome!
Can you also make a Facebook account? I love your site and I’m addicted to your content, I think it’s just way way easier for me to follow you there than in RSS or Twitter. I really hope you could help.
Alright, sure. Why not. Here you go: https://www.facebook.com/wotaintranslation
Let me know if I’m supposed to do anything else with it aside from posting new post updates!
I’m sure people would love to read your thoughts on current situations there. For example, Maro becoming a lyricist.
I don’t like Facebook, so I’d prefer it if there was no exclusive content there.
I totally get that, I’m not a fan of Facebook either. What I think I’m just going to do is link Facebook and Twitter so that both will have the same content.
So rest assured: you don’t have to follow Wota in Translation on both Twitter and Facebook to get everything. Following one of those is enough. (The bad news for the RSS-only users is: I do post some stuff — mostly pics or tweet-sized 2ch/blog translations — that you can only get on Twitter or Facebook.)
Great, that’s cool then!
While I genuinely appreciate you and others caring about my thoughts to such an extent, I do think my blogging days are behind me. For the most part, anyway. The bits I put at the end of the threads are the best I can do at the moment (and even those are more often silly jokes than they are personal opinions of mine.)
It’s the same reason I hardly post on any forums, reddit, 4chan, Facebook, Twitter and such: I just don’t have much to say. I don’t have strong opinions about many things and I’ve grown so wishy-washy over the years. I’m better off just translating things; we’ll let those speak who actually have something to say.
FINALLY! I’ve been wanting an FB update from you guys! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Henkka, do you need any help translating for Wota in Translation? I know the amount of effort that goes into accurately translating Japanese to English, and being a frequent reader of the matome sites myself, I’d love to pitch in with the translations.
That’s a good question. I guess my answer would be “maybe,” but only if I found the right person. I have a pretty clear vision of how I want this site to be, so I’m probably very picky. We could talk though. Is that a valid address you typed in the email field?
That’s understandable. I typed my real email address this time. Feel free to shoot me an email!
Thanks! I’ll email you once I’ve sort of gathered my thoughts on this subject.
This is wildly off topic for anything on the website, so I’ll just put it here.
Question; Do you read and if so, would you be interested in my slightly absurd Idol-cop novel?
Offering it to you for nothing, as your persistent work on this site has amused me for ages, also free of charge. So just kind of a thank you for your hard work.
Tried leaving a reply to C♂rnh♂li♂ regarding domain names, but didn’t show up, so I think it got caught by the spam filter. Understandable considering several domain names mentioned in a short space, I guess.
Yep. Fixed. Sorry about that.
Off topic but was wondering if you were watching “Sono Okodawari, Watashi ni mo Kure yo!!”.. This show is hilarious, Matsuoka Mayu and Itoh Sairi play themselves and they are out of control in a good way lol.. In the very first episode Mayu compares the resonating starch flavors in potatoes and barley tea to the Takahashi Ai and Sayashi Riho dual center era
Been trying to leave a longer comment all day but it won’t go through from any device with different networks…
Is there a character limit? I wouldn’t think so cuz I remember some pretty long comments on certain treads but idk
It’s 1723 characters
Sorry, not sure what the problem is. I don’t think it’s stuck in the spam filter. Maybe try splitting your comment up into a couple of smaller ones?
Yeah, I guess that’s my only choice now huh
Thanks
I know you don’t do requests but when you read this you may make an exception: http://helloprot.ldblog.jp/archives/78507034.html
Oh dear.
Well, the general consensus is: “Alright, that’s pretty shitty. The office might want to do something about this one.” I won’t bother translating the whole thread — I sort of caught this one pretty late. But what with everyone being so active in letting Up-Front know about it, I think it’s safe to say that “Morning Musume Germany” won’t be a thing for much longer.
Poor Michael may soon discover that he’s done a bit of an oopsie.
Thank you.
Hi,
I wrote a comment to the Uemura Akari thread a few hours ago, but it doesn’t show up.
Could you please check it out?
Thanks in advance.
If your post included a link sometimes it doesn’t post. Try splitting the link up. I think if you use certain words in your post it stops it from being displayed as well.
Hey Becca. Found it caught in the spam filter. Not sure why it ended up there, but it’s approved now.
Thanks :).