translation complaints containment thread

He is pulling to bits with very clumsy fingers a web that he has only made a slight attempt to understand

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translation complaints containment thread

Post by Rylinks » Fri May 06, 2022 1:02 pm

how did yen press translate this title page?

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Spoiler!
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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Ashenai » Fri May 06, 2022 1:03 pm

ahahaha

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Doug » Fri May 06, 2022 1:22 pm

su-re-i-bu
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Rylinks » Fri May 06, 2022 1:23 pm

the fu has " on it so it's bu

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Doug » Fri May 06, 2022 1:23 pm

jaja took me a second on that
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Luna » Sat May 07, 2022 12:48 am

The slave protagonist referenced in said title is not a soldier, apparently

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Ashenai » Sat May 07, 2022 12:16 pm

That reminds me, the Sailor Scouts aren't scouts! They're 戦士 (senshi, warriors).

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Rylinks » Sat May 07, 2022 12:19 pm

are they not セーラー also

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Ashenai » Sat May 07, 2022 12:23 pm

They're sailors but not scouts!

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Doug » Sun May 08, 2022 10:20 pm

How could a sailor even be a scout

Hey I'm going to row on ahead and see what's there, be right back
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Rylinks » Sun May 08, 2022 10:22 pm

they fly a radar up really high into the sky

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Doug » Sun May 08, 2022 10:39 pm

They don't call you a scout when you do that, they call you a radar operator
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

http://devilsbiscuit.com/

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Rylinks » Sun May 08, 2022 10:44 pm

maybe in the US navy :gft:

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Doug » Sun May 08, 2022 10:46 pm

Right, in the French navy you'd be a radariste
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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Ashenai » Sat May 14, 2022 11:03 am

A thing that really jostles my giblets in amateur japanese translations is how readily translators will fall for false friends written in katakana.

Japanese borrows a lot from English, these loanwords are often written in katakana. They are usually recognizable english words. For example, コーヒー (kōhi) means coffee. バイバイ (baibai) means bye-bye, goodbye. Great stuff.

The thing is, though, katakana aren't just English words, they're loanwords. A lot of them underwent a great deal of weird semantic drift, and no longer mean what they sound like. Some of them just aren't used like that in English. And translators get owned by them regularly.

フライドポテト (furaidopoteto) means what you'd expect it to, but we don't call that food "fried potato" in English. We call it "freedom fries".

マンション (manshon) is clearly sourced from "mansion", but hilariously means "apartment".

ブレイブ (bureibu) is almost always translated as "brave", which is the word it's sourced from. And it is very often wrong! Because in Japanese, it is most often used as a noun! And it means "hero", "champion" or "knight".

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by groff_enthusiast » Sat May 14, 2022 12:29 pm

Thanks for advertising that!
Ashenai wrote: Sat Jul 16, 2022 5:08 pmoh no

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Jeb Bush 2012 » Sat May 14, 2022 8:02 pm

brave used to have a noun form in english too! nowadays it only survives as a term for native american warriors and even that is antiquated (possibly even somewhat offensive?)

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Crunchums » Sun May 15, 2022 4:16 am

u gotta skate

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Ashenai » Sun May 15, 2022 12:31 pm

"Attack on Titan" is Engrish that the mangaka thought sounded cool because he wasn't very good at English grammar (Japanese doesn't have plurals, and the word "on" is much easier to pronounce and sounds much better to a Japanese person than the word "of"). People like to twist themselves into pretzels trying to explain the name as some kind of allusion to the story's themes, but it really is just bad English.

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Blissful » Sun May 15, 2022 12:33 pm

Ashenai wrote: Sat May 14, 2022 11:03 am ブレイブ (bureibu) is almost always translated as "brave", which is the word it's sourced from. And it is very often wrong! Because in Japanese, it is most often used as a noun! And it means "hero", "champion" or "knight".
It means this in english too, its just a dated/esoteric usage
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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Doug » Sun May 15, 2022 8:29 pm

Note that just as brave is an antiquated noun in English, so is bravo
It's your turn in Cthulhu Wars
It's your turn in Squirrel Wars
It's your turn in Demon Wars
It's your turn in Wall Street Wars

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by rianalnn » Sun May 15, 2022 11:51 pm

Attack on, titan brave!

From: vicious_bastard
Subject: crippled masters

Bring on the kung-fu amputees - no arms vs. no legs anyone? A bit of high-speed underground ninja-tunneling is always good as well. I wanna see some shit like that. Crazy monks with gnarly special powers can make any film good. FACT.

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Rylinks » Mon May 23, 2022 1:34 am

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Luna » Mon May 23, 2022 1:50 am

speaking of that, they just recently ruined Triangle Strategy

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Luna » Mon May 23, 2022 1:59 am

why is the world like this

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Rylinks » Mon May 23, 2022 2:00 am

weebs continue to be the most oppressed people

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Blissful » Mon May 23, 2022 3:10 am

Luna wrote: Mon May 23, 2022 1:50 am speaking of that, they just recently ruined Triangle Strategy
whats this
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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Ashenai » Mon May 23, 2022 5:28 am

Rylinks wrote: Mon May 23, 2022 1:34 am Image
ugh

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Ashenai » Mon May 23, 2022 5:37 am

Also, only the dumbest of narcissists would think that you can make a woman "strong or independent" by mistranslating a couple of lines, because only they could believe that strength or independence is about whether or not she makes some sassy quips, instead of consistent behavior within the work that is beyond the power of a translator to modify.

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Re: translation complaints containment thread

Post by Luna » Mon May 23, 2022 6:19 am

Blissful wrote:whats this
Ashenai wrote:Also, only the dumbest of narcissists would think that you can make a woman "strong or independent" by mistranslating a couple of lines, because only they could believe that strength or independence is about whether or not she makes some sassy quips, instead of consistent behavior within the work that is beyond the power of a translator to modify.
funny you should mention this, but i'll just post this instead

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