I'm being asocial

[anamuan]

jadedfrenzy: Look! It's Nakamaru! ;^)

there was a moment wednesday when rocksizedheart looked at me, after we'd suggested to the bartender that we might like another drink and he asked if we didn't want to kick it up a notch (I shrugged and smiled and said sure!), and said, "You really are an enabler, you know!"

btw, READ THE UEDA/YAMAPI. Read it. reaaaad it. I dreamt

Comments

[acchikocchi]

It does, very much. I try and gauge what I do with what would throw me out of the story if I were reading it. I never, ever use puns because puns always throw me out of a fic where the source material is Japanese. Dialogue is always hard, because I really don't want to sound too American and slang-y since they're... not American (except Jin ahahaha)... but I'm definitely not going to use actual Japanese or anything. Basically, I do my best to imagine what the characters would sound like in Japanese and how that would come across to a Japanese-speaking reader, and then how to phrase things so it has the same effect on an English speaker. This sounds a lot more complicated than it really is, ahahaha, it's pretty instinctive.

I try to avoid Japanese phrases in general, yeah. I can handle a few set phrases, like moshi moshi or whatever, if I'm reading, but not many -- on the other hand, that's not nearly as problematic for me as... literal translations of Japanese phrases? Like, if there's a common phrase in Japanese that has a literal translation that isn't really used in English, and suddenly all the characters are tossing it around. Basically, trying to sound like a bad translation doesn't work for me.

...This was all sounding really familiar and then I realized I'd written this before for a comment on a different post a few months. My comment is here and the original post and the comments have more discussion. :D

edit: *dies* that's not even getting into characterization/personality. uh, give me a bit to gather my thoughts on that one.

[ginzarhapsody]

I totally relate to you on dialogue. When I started RPS in JE, I wanted to write them entire in Japanese because I could not get their Japanee voices and tones out of my head. Now, it's better and I tend to write their dialogue the way I think they would sound in English IF they spoke English. ;)

How do you feel about words native to Japanese that you can't translate? I know, for one, I have so much trouble translating ofuro and Japanese foods. I just can't bring myself to do it. It feels wrong to me. ;_;

[acchikocchi]

Hm. I've never actually had to deal with ofuro but the one that throws me every single time? GENKAN. I ALWAYS HAVE TO USE "ENTRY" (or entryway, or whatever) AND IT ALWAYS SOUNDS WRONG. *breathes* As for food, I have no problem leaving that untranslated. Or translated, depending on what's most common? Like. Miso soup instead of miso shiru is fine with me. *g* Um, I'm trying to think of any other examples -- I know I've butted up against that before but I can't remember the outcome.

[anamuan]

genkan, JL;KAFLJKFA AMEN! it's the worst thing because it's so ubiquitous. i get so upset when i read fic with people wandering around apartments/houses with their shoes on. i'm ridiculous ;jkfajkl like BOYS WHERE ARE YOUR MANNERS OMG. D

[anamuan]

mer, please let me take a moment to express my love for you. i love you. i love you a lot.

[acchikocchi]

*preens happily* ♥

[anamuan]

i'm going to write you a real reply as soon as i get off the phone.

[acchikocchi]

no rush! :D

[ginzarhapsody]

she was on the phone with MEEE! (she read me your answer to me ♥ :333)

[anamuan]

i do the same thing with dialogue, though sometimes it makes me unhappy when you can't get two different kinds of nuances to both transfer the same way. Though i figure slangy English is ok if it's representative of slangy Japanese.

XDD bad translations! bad translation is a fine art, but perhaps not one that should be practiced along with the art of fanfiction.
Do you use set phrases when you write? Is there a kind of distinction between different kinds of set phrases? Personally, I wouldn't use 'moshi moshi' because there's a couple of set ways to answer the phone in english already, but i would be strongly tempted at least, to use something like 'yoroshiku' because there isn't really an english equivalent. Even 'otsukaresama' i'd probably use english: 'thanks for the hard work' or 'good job' or something instead.

I'm going to go read that now! thank you for linking. and i look forward the charactersation *beams*