I translate Japanese to English (mainly manga and news), and a common thing that people say is always translate into your native language, rather than from it. In spite of the fact that I can...
I translate Japanese to English (mainly manga and news), and a common thing that people say is always translate into your native language, rather than from it. In spite of the fact that I can speak and write Japanese just fine, there's so much context that I'm missing from not growing up in Japan that I'm almost certain to sound stilted.
I thought this was an interesting perspective—we see a lot of complaints/jokes/etc. about bad translations into English, but it's unusual to hear anything about translations in the other...
I thought this was an interesting perspective—we see a lot of complaints/jokes/etc. about bad translations into English, but it's unusual to hear anything about translations in the other direction.
Pretty interesting to see that even relatively high-profile games like Celeste end up with serious issues like inadvertently using a slur-like term.
Yeah, that word (キチガイ) is really bad. What I find funny is that the translator managed to accidentally use a slur in a language that has very few everyday words that are taboo at all.
Yeah, that word (キチガイ) is really bad. What I find funny is that the translator managed to accidentally use a slur in a language that has very few everyday words that are taboo at all.
Just chiming in to say that the same applies for lots of other languages. In Italian, it feels weird seeing abilities or spell names in Italian. I obviously cannot give you an example in English,...
Just chiming in to say that the same applies for lots of other languages.
In Italian, it feels weird seeing abilities or spell names in Italian.
I obviously cannot give you an example in English, because English speaking people are used to see everything in their language, but there is something weird in hearing things like "cura lampo" or "cura rapida" because those are words that have not a common use together in the language culture like they have in English.
Giving a game to a non specialized translator is definitely a bad move. Actually, giving any software to localize to someone that doesn't know what they're doing (usually the cheapest ones) is a...
Giving a game to a non specialized translator is definitely a bad move. Actually, giving any software to localize to someone that doesn't know what they're doing (usually the cheapest ones) is a terrible idea. And it really reflects bad on the company. Although I understand giving enough context when you haven't prepared for localization from the beginning can be difficult for a developer. More so if they don't know the language and the problems that will arise.
I have quit playing games or using most software in Spanish for this same reason. They're usually pretty bad, or at least bad enough to bother me. Spanish doesn't have the peculiarities of Japanese, but still things get bad translations and small mistakes all the time (masculine and feminine words, formal and informal styles, words that are not appropriate for items, etc.). Specially since crowsourced fan translation became a thing.
Sometimes I try to change the language to Spanish because I end up knowing how to refer to some things in English and not in Spanish, but after a while I almost always go back to English. Even if the original language is not English, at least the mistakes are not as apparent to me as if I see them in Spanish.
I translate Japanese to English (mainly manga and news), and a common thing that people say is always translate into your native language, rather than from it. In spite of the fact that I can speak and write Japanese just fine, there's so much context that I'm missing from not growing up in Japan that I'm almost certain to sound stilted.
I thought this was an interesting perspective—we see a lot of complaints/jokes/etc. about bad translations into English, but it's unusual to hear anything about translations in the other direction.
Pretty interesting to see that even relatively high-profile games like Celeste end up with serious issues like inadvertently using a slur-like term.
Those just must have been very lousy translators. You don't use a slur term when translating unless you're sure you have to. :/
Yeah, that word (キチガイ) is really bad. What I find funny is that the translator managed to accidentally use a slur in a language that has very few everyday words that are taboo at all.
Just chiming in to say that the same applies for lots of other languages.
In Italian, it feels weird seeing abilities or spell names in Italian.
I obviously cannot give you an example in English, because English speaking people are used to see everything in their language, but there is something weird in hearing things like "cura lampo" or "cura rapida" because those are words that have not a common use together in the language culture like they have in English.
Giving a game to a non specialized translator is definitely a bad move. Actually, giving any software to localize to someone that doesn't know what they're doing (usually the cheapest ones) is a terrible idea. And it really reflects bad on the company. Although I understand giving enough context when you haven't prepared for localization from the beginning can be difficult for a developer. More so if they don't know the language and the problems that will arise.
I have quit playing games or using most software in Spanish for this same reason. They're usually pretty bad, or at least bad enough to bother me. Spanish doesn't have the peculiarities of Japanese, but still things get bad translations and small mistakes all the time (masculine and feminine words, formal and informal styles, words that are not appropriate for items, etc.). Specially since crowsourced fan translation became a thing.
Sometimes I try to change the language to Spanish because I end up knowing how to refer to some things in English and not in Spanish, but after a while I almost always go back to English. Even if the original language is not English, at least the mistakes are not as apparent to me as if I see them in Spanish.