fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #457 ]

⌈ Secret Post #457 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 15 pages, 340 secrets from Secret Submission Post #066.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 - too big ], [ 1 - empty comment ], [ 1 - what ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

26: Don't worry, they'll grow out of it. How many Twilight fans are over the age of 20?

55: It's not because they're lazy or incompetent. It's because Japanese honorifics have no equivalent in English, and they convey information about characterization and relationships that can't be conveyed otherwise. I note that you haven't provided a reason why they should be left out; do you have any, or is this just a gut reaction? If you have a reason, I'd be interested to hear it. If not, well... consensus is against you, and you're going to have to live with it.

Haven't you heard about the Twilight Moms????? :o They are scary.

I'm 26 years old, but I think the books are...not so good. But for some reason, I like them. And I hate the Edward/Bella TROO!LUV!

By coincidence, I just read a bunch of posts about how scarifyingly awful the Twilight books are, most of which end with something along the lines of "this kind of thing appeals to 13-year-olds, I guess..." ;) Twilight Moms? Erk. I fear for their children.

(Disclaimer: I've never actually read the books, because plot summaries were enough to make me say "NO NO NO DEAR GOD NO GET IT AWAY FROM ME". Predestined True Love is a horrible, awful trope. Though, yeah, when I was 13 I loved it, and my inner 13-year-old still does. But I don't indulge my inner 13-year-old. That way madness lies.)

26. Oh, you'd be surprised.

Because for the most part, finding something that can convey the same meaning is not that hard. Sure, sometimes it may be harder to say the same thing without the specific honorific, but seriously, half of the time I end up feeling that the honorifics were left out to please the masses of fans that throw fits of rage when they're not there.

And Japanese honorifics have no equivalent? Well gee, and here I thought that Professor, Doctor or Master were quite valid ways of translating -sensei. Or Mr. and Miss for -san.

As for reasons? Well, for I just expect a translation to actually be a translation, not something that mixes two different languages. Kinda annoys me, as someone that speaks two languages and due to the nature of the internet, translates on a nearly daily basis. And I suppose you can add an annoyance to people that throw in stuff from different languages at random.

No, it would sound retarded (I mean what 15 year old call another 15 year old "Mr. or Miss", seriously). Then you'll eventually have to deal with -chan, or -kun, -sama, -dono and the like (I still shudder of what Magic Knight Rayearth did to replace Hikaru's penchant of using "-chan"). And "-sensei" isn't limited to teachers, doctors, or dojo masters too (although to note, most dojo masters rather to be address as sensei outside of Japan). Sometimes an author or fashion designer can be address as sensei as well.

It's a lot less trouble and a better way NOT to translate it and leave a translator notes on them than trying to find shitty alternatives and omitting them together. Plus it gives the person an inkling of how interpersonal relationships work in Japan.

You're drawing conclusions about the translators' motives, and that bothers me. You can't read their minds, and it's unfair and unwise to assume that they're trying "to please the masses of fans that throw fits of rage when they're not there". For one thing, the readership of manga is huge in the States alone; the fans who throw hissy fits are a tiny and insignificant proportion of the market, and certainly not big enough to influence the translators' decisions. (Maybe in the case of niche publishers like June, but probably not even then.)

finding something that can convey the same meaning is not that hard

But nuances are lost. There are a lot of nuances that get lost anyway; the difference between "boku" and "watashi", for instance. That really can't be translated, and leaving the words untranslated would be very confusing to readers, which isn't the case for honorifics; keeping honorifics makes it possible to preserve nuance without being confusing. When I see honorifics in an English translation -- at least with respect to series that are set in Japan -- I feel that I'm in the hands of a translator who respects the cultural differences between Japan and the West and respects my ability to cope with those differences without freaking out.

It's a shame that it bothers you, and I'm not saying you're wrong to be bothered. But from all the evidence I've seen (and I've been reading manga, and reading about manga, for 14 years), translators don't tend to make decisions like this for no good reason. You may disagree with their reasoning, but that's a different matter from assuming they're just lazy.

[ SECRET POST #457 ]

26, 55

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Re: 26

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