Japanese Translation Party
The Ultimate Translation Time Waster

Translators are no different from the rest of the population, in that we can waste time just like everyone else. Whether we want to procrastinate that project we just don't want to start, or are looking for something to do instead of marketing our translation services, we have plenty of opportunities to waste time.

Some people waste time by checking their email inbox every three minutes, others would rather update their Facebook status five times a minute, and some people believe it or not would rather clean their bathroom or mop their kitchen floor than get to that project that has been looming for the past couple of days.

Well, if you are tired of your old time-wasting methods, I recently found another way to waste time... The Japanese Translation Party.

So what is the translation party? Well, basically, Japanese Translation Party is a website where you as the user put in an English phrase and then hit a button called "find equilibrium".

What happens next is nothing short of seeing a train wreck unfolding before your eyes, but instead of train cars piling up and becoming a giant mess of tangled wreckage, you instead have words coming together in a mass of incomprehension, with just enough familiarity remaining for you to recognize the original input.

The site takes the English phrase and using Google Translate, translates the phrase into Japanese, and then back into English, and then back into Japanese and then... you get the picture. The translations keep coming, back and forth, back and forth until equilibrium is reached, meaning when the English translated into Japanese and back into English again has the same results.

Sometimes, equilibrium is never reached and the system eventually gives up. But the important thing is that you won't. In fact, you will keep playing and continue to have fun at the Japanese Translation Party, so glad that you found something new to keep your mind off that 5,000 word translation that you need to get started on!

Just to give you a preview, I entered in one of my favorite quotes from Nacho Libre:

Precious Father, why have you given me this desire to wrestle and then made me such a stinky warrior

After a few back and forth iterations, the English phrase finally reached equilibrium with the following translation:

My father was a rare reason, the smell of battle as a warrior, I was given this hope

You can join the party at TranslationParty.com, but be sure you think long and hard before clicking that link. It might be a while before you get to your work. And don't say I didn't warn you! Don't forget to come back here and share your translation with the rest of us.

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