What words can you tolerate untranslated? what words do you think should be kept in their original punctuation?

What words can you tolerate untranslated? what words do you think should be kept in their original punctuation?

Other urls found in this thread:

mic.com/articles/111300/the-psychological-case-for-talking-in-the-third-person#.QzI2FlAQ8
bbc.com/news/magazine-33943762
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illeism
twitter.com/AnonBabble

Everything has to be translated, otherwise it's a weebshit meme translation.

Everything
t. できる人

>できる人
Lies.

What should 'onii-chan' be translated to?

It depends on the context.

One example would be having untranslated words when they clearly aren't common in their given environment.

The person's name, possibly some shortened form of nickname or something. Just don't translate it as fucking "Broski" or some bullshit like that.

Onii-chan - big brother
Onii-san - big bro
Aniki - broski

Hime-sama - BroHime

I like it when the translator actually has the balls to translate "lolicon" to "pedophile"

I prefer translations that aren't overly localized, so a lot. The basics for me:

-Moe
-Tsundere, kuudere, yandere, and any dere archetype
-Common and unique honorifics: chan, kun, san, sama, etc
-Third person speech should be kept
-Onii-chan, Onii-sama, Nii-sama, Onii, and any honorifics used for brother
-Onee-sama, Nee-san, and any honorifics used for sister
-Otaku
-Hikikomori (technically it's in the English dictionary now)
-Locations, names and nicknames should never be translated
-Yen
-Bento
-Popular foods that should be kept (sushi, ramen, okonomiyaki, etc), especially when they're well known even in Western culture
-Religion and cosmology that's significant to the setting and is deep in Japanese culture. Examples: Onmyouji, Miko, etc

>replacing onii-can with an actual name
disgusting. next you gonna suggest repalcing ramen with burgers.
hime sama could go with m'lady

what about aniwe, niinii, onii-sama, ani, onii, ani-sama and onii-tan?

That would be a ministration because lolicon prefers to people that enjoys lolita complex.

I would prefer every word to be translated, but I can accept some untranslated words. They are amateur fan translations after all, I can't expect them to be able to translate everything perfectly.

If I buy a book, then I do expect them to be fully translated.

mistranslation*

This

Fuck off weebshit.

Honorifics, deres, loli, and lolicon are the most important that should be kept.

What do you prefer ramen and sushi to be translated to?

出来無い

>that list
It'd be more professional to translate around these because leaving them is just sloppy, but I can put up with them just fine since they're pretty much the baseline for fan translations at this point which is what I mainly read/watch.

Why would they be "translated"? They are in the English dictionary.

Noodle soup and fish with rice.

Some of those aren't really an issue of a linguistic translation as much as a cultural translation, since they are called the same in other languages as well, like food items and such.

Honorifics should never be translated

>Hikikomori
We have words for that though.

I concur.
"Shut-in" should suffice.

There are quite a number of Japanese words that are part of the English language after being added to the English dictionary. But many TLs still translate them. Weird, right?

>Third person speech should be kept
Literally the biggest sign of someone who doesn't have a clue how to translate.

Keikaku

If there exists a translation for it then that's obviously fine too.

how would you translate it, barring normal speech?

Hikikomori have connotations that shut-in doesn't have.

I hope you are joking with some of these, reading this list made me gag a little.

>What words can you tolerate untranslated
none desu senpai

You translate everything except shit like "samurai". Otherwise, as explained, it's a meme weeb translation.

I think user means in the context of little kids who sometimes refer to themselves in third person.

You can't really translate your way out of that nuance.

You mean the opposite, right? A translator that doesn't retain third speech is a failure.

Hikikomori is more like a "recluse" or "hermit" in terms of cultural significance, since they withdraw from society as well, only less gracefully.

lolita and complex are both English words

I agree with him, though. Third person speech is considered immature, and characters changing their speech are often used in stories.

Years of amateur translations have groomed some people to prefer poor translations. They also make Japanese comics sound more exotic, which obviously appeals to a large group of impressible teens. They then continue the tradition of weeb translations and the cycle keeps going.

Agreed. This user knows his stuff. Although this list absolutely needs loli and lolicon and kouhai/senpai.

Read more manga.

What connotations? Both imply towards people who have removed themselves from society almost completely.

Yes, but lolicon is a contraction of both words, like cosplay and countless other words that are made up of English loanwords but originally only used in Japan.

I can barely read translations at all these days. I'll only tolerate them if it's something I really want to read and there are no options available.

I'll assume you're not stupid and just switched up your translations of onii-chan and onii-san by accident.

Hikikomori is a Japanese phenomenon. It implies Japanese and carries an expression due to its impact on society there. It has ties to otaku lifestyle in many cases. It's similar to using "samurai" instead of warrior. The former implies Japanese and carries certain stereotypes that instantly comes to mind when you hear the word.

Should "skinship" be translated? It sounds so English, we should just go ahead and adopt it.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. If you ask an average Japanese person what he thinks about the word he'd probably say it just means a person who's secluded himself from society and locked himself up in his house, his nationality not really being of importance.

Sure, hikikomoris are considered a social problem in Japan, but going from that to saying that "hikikomori" implies being Japanese is the same as saying that "school shooting" implies the school is in the United States.

Honorifics should be left untranslated if the story is set in Japan, otherwise, they must be adapted. It really triggers me to read people refering to each other as "-sama" in the fucking French Revolution.

>"school shooting" implies the school is in the United States
Which is kinda true because you don't hear of school shootings in any other country.

I think almost everything should be translated.
Although I'm torn with "ittadakimasu." How would you guys translate it?

Anyone know how "Official" subs translate?

Let's eat some fucking shit, yo (I'm a Mangastream translator)

But the word doesn't hold that implication in itself. If I say there was a school shooting in Japan that wouldn't sound like a contradiction, just like saying "there are many hikikomoris in London" shouldn't sound like you're saying that a lot of Japanese shut-ins go to London.

rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub!

Depends on the context. It could range from something like "Let's eat!" to "Thank you Lord for this food on our plates."

>rub a dub dub, thanks for the ittadakimasu

The general masses in Japan holds negative stereotypical views about otaku, NEET, and hikki lifestyle. The latter two are generally linked to otaku. The phenomenon aspects reinforces their general negative image of them.

Your analogy is doesn't add up and is different. School shooting is generic and refers to a specific incidents that has no culture ties to the U.S. Your point is better illustrated by using "nerd" for otaku. Sure, it can be applied to otaku from a western perspective, but it doesn't illustrate what an otaku really is nor does it have the implication of Japanese and all of stereotypical fields of interests (anime, manga, eroge, mecha, moe, and so forth)

If I have to read the word "nakama" one more time I will slash my wrists.

Nigga, are you serious? Speaking in third person isn't even a Japanese thing. English has it and it's basic grammar study in the English language.

How Japan uses it isn't that much different from English. Still, their way is a lot cuter and cooler in their main usage for moe, intentional immaturity, or to sound grandiose.

I hate it when TLs ignores third person speak. Doing that completely disregards personality traits and removes moe that should be there to enjoy.

Kawaii is in the English dictionary. It's okay to use them in the subs.

> English has it and it's basic grammar study in the English language.
I'm sorry?

Google grammatical person.

>grammatical person
>A linguistic category used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and those to whom or about whom he is referring; implemented in most languages by a variety of pronouns, and in inflected languages by variation in word endings.
? I don't see how that proves anything. Is it really alright to refer to yourself in third person?

1st, 2nd, and 3rd person pronouns, dude. That's basic grammar lesson you should have learned studying English.

It has its place in fiction to add color and spice things up, but not so much in non-fictional. But it depends on the language and culture. It's really strange and possible sign of mental illness in the west, but it's not that uncommon for young kids in Japan to use them until they grow out of it.

>"school shooting" implies the school is in the United States.
loud lel

But "Lolita complex" would describe a girl who likes older men. If anything it should be translated as Humbert complex.

i know each person pronoun, but i never encountered a person referring to themselves in third person in the west except self-inserts. can you provide a proof to back up your claims, or are you just trying to be annoying?

>asked for proof over the internet, yet doesn't use the internet to google people using and talking in third person
Can't tell if troll or genuinely stupid.

主 in the upcoming swordshit anime should be left untranslated desu.
But it won't happen. It bothers my autism so much.

didn't find any person who talks about themselves in third person (outside of mangas).
so yeah, right back at you.

>mic.com/articles/111300/the-psychological-case-for-talking-in-the-third-person#.QzI2FlAQ8
>bbc.com/news/magazine-33943762
>Hurr durr
You're a damn troll. I'm done with you.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illeism

>people talking about themselves in third person are considered retarded
you are cementing my point rather than proving yours you know.

think before spouting nonsense like '3rd person is english thing'

>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illeism
thats better.

This. The more I read in Japanese, the more I realize that a lot of nuances simply do not translate because the cultural context is so different.

>official
it depends on the group i recon

I don't even read translations anymore, you lose so much characterization that it isn't worth it. You completely miss out on the author's style as well.
If I can't find raws I simply don't read it. Would rather wait for it to get a tank a buy it.

Honorifics.

English and Japanese are just too different. Character speech styles don't translate except in the coarsest sense. It goes way beyond the level of senpai/oniichan/etc stuff the rest of the thread is talking about. (This applies to Japanese > Chinese translations too, which is another reason why scanlators should get some standards and stop retranslating from Chinese translations.)

>If I can't find raws I simply don't read it. Would rather wait for it to get a tank a buy it.
At least nowadays it's so much easier to get raws now that most manga are sold as ebooks, even a lot of out of print stuff.

EOPs have no clue how much they're missing out on.

Translate everything except proper nouns and abstract concepts that are well-established in Western society.

Honorifics especially need to go; make up for the initial loss of nuance with more specific word choices, different sentence constructions, or by outright changing the words to convey the exact same sentiment. Most fan translations read really poorly because they use honorifics as a crutch for not writing anything better than the most basic sentences. They act like the honorific is the most important part of the sentence, ignoring all the nuance their barely-edited literal translation failed to capture. So long as that -san's there to tell you that the character holds respect for someone else, it's okay in their minds that literally none of the rest of the sentence shows that.

If the writing is really trying to be grounded and realistic, then you need to go further, by replacing Japanese pronouns with names, or by dropping names/pronouns from sentences, especially if it's obvious who's being talked about in context.

>At least nowadays it's so much easier to get raws
Still not anywhere close to ideal.

ma nigga

More and more magazines are going digital. Some publishers even let you read the latest chapter for free. This is heaven compared to the times when blurry, watermarked shitscans were all you could find unless you paid someone for hq scans.

Brother.

>compared to the times when blurry, watermarked shitscans were all you could find
So it's like today?

All honorifics.
Anything close enough to a replacement name. That's stuff like Onii/Onee. The subtitles should reflect how each character refers to a particular character. It also depends on how often this will be said.

If a character is referred to as the man with the black hat once it's usually fine to just translate it that way.

But if that same character refers to him that way each and every time, and it turns into a kind of name then Kuroi Boshi might be better. I prefer audibly recognizing what character is being talked about rather than dealing with the subtitles to point out who they're talking about.

I feel bad for EOPs. They could enjoy everything so much more if they knew, specially on things that are character-heavy and have a lot of personality embedded in the way they talk. All those little untranslatae details that make up part of their personality are lost forever.

Thank god for ebooks, they're relatively cheap to get too thanks to all the coupons the stores put out. The problem for me is that it takes forever for a series to get compiled into a tank. Been waiting for about a year and a half for some shit now, and buying each magazine one by one costs too much.

...

Chuunibyou, Middle School/2nd Year Syndrome often fucks the text in the bubbles

Sure. But again, there's stuff I can't find so obviously it's not ideal.

Everything I know.

I really think there should be two kinds of translations, one that gets the most number of people to understand what's going on, and another that tries to get as much nuance and cultural significance without just speaking the other language. then you could just choose one based on your weeb level

>another that tries to get as much nuance and cultural significance
>without just speaking the other language
It doesn't work like that.

I meant speaking the other language completely. you gain context by leaving in things like honorifics or itadakimasu. it would take translator notes, which means it might not really work with anime, but in manga I really enjoy when they explain when there is like a pun or something like that.

But it does. What were all those subs back in the day when people put in effort, one with honorifics and onii-chan/sensei and the other with Mr. Older Brother Teacher?

oh, I also meant "as much nuance and cultural significance as possible"
my bad