>>48876816Also, here's a fun little tidbit that I would have thought most of you would have been able to figure out.
You know what defines a "professional" translator?
A paycheck.
Most of the civilized world has no legal restrictions on who translates what. Legal records are usually the exception in some countries, but even that is relatively recent. You can bet your ass there's no check whatsoever for who does them newfangled chinese cartoons.
The difference between a "professional" translator and a fansubber in anime is, at best, some years of experience, at worst, none whatsoever. I'm fucking serious, I'm 23 and I've been doing freelance translation for six years now. You are of age at 21 in my country, so if you do the math you can tell what I'm getting at.
The point is, to expect a discernible rise in quality just because someone is getting paid, or a drop in quality because somebody isn't is laughable. Quality check vary horrendously and sometimes a professional enviroment MIGHT result in a higher degree of quality check, but that's by no means guaranteed. A lot of professionally subbed anime was made by getting some dude in his early 20s with some generic certificate that said he spoke Japanese*, throwing him a check and a deadline and calling it a day.
*I should also mention, speaking a language is BY NO MEANS a certain sign that you are capable of translating it accurately.