Lost in translation

Aug 01, 2008 00:09

If you don't know Japanese well, please, for everyone's sake, don't attempt to translate anything ( Read more... )

language rant

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Comments 13

budiamond July 31 2008, 23:49:44 UTC
I've been taking Japanese for 6 years now, and I still never submit my translations to the public. And I don't think I ever will, until I've spent at least a year living there, or unless I complete honours level at university. Or even both.

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coathangerwings August 1 2008, 00:58:37 UTC
^ Agree with above commenter, though it's only been about a year of Japanese for me.

You know what else annoys the heck out of me? Fangirls randomly replacing words in English sentences with Japanese ones and tacking "ne" at the ends. I can barely restrain myself from telling them it doesn't make them sound fluent. Moronic, maybe.

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budiamond August 1 2008, 09:09:43 UTC
Haha, I tack ne onto the end of sentences all the time, but I've been immersed in Japanese for so long, and I just can't think of an English equivilant.
Although, when I write fanfics, I do avoid doing it...

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coathangerwings August 6 2008, 04:25:31 UTC
I just can't think of an English equivilant.

Agree with you there. "Isn't it" or "right" doesn't quite cut it, does it?

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konnistique August 1 2008, 02:30:32 UTC
I agree with the first comment too. Even though 6 years might seem like a long time, I still come across ridiculously hard sentences that simply cannot be translated into proper english.

This rant wins :D

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budiamond August 1 2008, 09:17:29 UTC
Yeah. Even after 6 years, there's just some sentences which, even if you know the words and the grammar, and you understand the general meaning of the sentence, you still can't put it into English/your respective language.
And there's some cultural aspects you just wouldn't get until you'd lived there for a while.
Like, "I'll have a moon watching burger."? If you had no idea about the special Japanese McDonalds burgers, you'd be so lost on that sentence.

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konnistique August 1 2008, 10:29:16 UTC
Haha "Moon Watching Burger" :D Now that's something I'd like to try! It's the same with something as simple as '花見' because in Japanese everyone would understand it, but it's just something you can't translate without losing the meaning. "Flower-Viewing"? "Viewing Flowers?" Like what.. you go look at flowers? LOL D:

And then Japanese people use a lot of 'という' and 'もの' in written forms which sounds absolutely ridiculous if you translate directly ;~; Not to mention run-on sentences which kills my brain everytime I attempt to translate them.

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budiamond August 1 2008, 11:42:46 UTC
I just left it as tsukimi burger, in romaji. Honestly, I think that's far less confusing than actually translating it. Then if people actually care (since it didn't relate to the story, so there was no point in putting in a translator's note), they can go look up what it is, and they'll find a whole explanation and not be confused.

I really, really hate translating noun-modification with second person pronouns in it. It's like, the most horrible thing ever. Like when it's just 銀行に行った女性 and you can just translate it as, "The girl who went to the bank" it's just fine. But when it's something like... 愛しい君 I just want to kill myself. How do you put that into English? "My beloved you"? That sounds like crap.
That said, I do love Japanese. A lot. XD

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aixmee August 1 2008, 02:54:29 UTC
totally agree.
& that's how some rumors/facts get twisted, and become "real facts" for overseas fans.

...one of the recent translation facts that bothered me was that someone said ohno was 40kg.
...was too lazy to correct it, but his weight is "in his 40's".
which means he may be 40kg or 49.5kg.
so sanely thinking, i'm going to say that he weighs in the upper 40kg's.

eh =/

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gummy_bear05 August 1 2008, 11:43:26 UTC
i totally agree. it just irritates me when i read the translated post & then look at the original one in japanese & see that its completely off.

i guess its a nice thing that they are willing to translate something, but it just annoys me how its just wrong. DDDD:

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