[ WiR #002 ]

[case]

⌈ Week in Review #002 ⌋

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

Saturday: [ #792 ]
Sunday: [ #793 ]
Monday: [ #794 ]
Tuesday: [ #795 ]
Wednesday: [ #796 ]
Thursday: [ #797 ]
Friday: [ #798 ]

Responses to secrets you missed, things you forgot to say, general comments about the week, etc. go here.


Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: I know you're just as curious as I was.

[gethenian.livejournal.com]

Not everything can be translated perfectly into English. And even when it sorta kinda can be, in this case it still took 2 lines of text to attempt to approximate the general meaning and implications of the word in English, compared to the actually appropriate 4-character word.

Honestly, this is like faulting a person for using an English word that has more than 3 syllables and is not normally used in common everyday speaking. If it means the right thing exactly the way you want to say it, there is no good reason not to use that word.

Re: I know you're just as curious as I was.

[(Anonymous)]

It still makes the secret writer look pretentious, srry2say.

Re: I know you're just as curious as I was.

[gethenian.livejournal.com]

Oooooor.... maybe the secret-writer is just Chinese?

Re: I know you're just as curious as I was.

[(Anonymous)]

And?

They obviously know enough English to write the rest of the secret. I don't post in Chinese comms because I don't speak or understand it. I'm not saying that a Chinese person should never speak Chinese in an 'English speaking' place ever, but if they are making a secret/post for an audience that generally speaks English, that is what they should use (or provide as good a translation as possible). Or maybe they should have asked an English speaking friend to translate for them rather than expecting the thousands of members of this comm to each do it individually.

Re: I know you're just as curious as I was.

[jennilee.livejournal.com]

If it means the right thing exactly the way you want to say it, there is no good reason not to use that word.

No, there's a perfectly good reason in this specific scenario. Fandom Secrets is mostly written and read in English. I wouldn't have had a problem with this secret writer using another language if they have translated it for us on the same secret. Otherwise, yes. Pretentious, especially a secret that is written on the subject of wank.

Re: I know you're just as curious as I was.

[onydanse.livejournal.com]

Having originally studied to be a translator in college, the whole 'there's no translation so you don't have to even try' doesn't really hold for me. There are some words and phrases we adopt from other languages that we keep in the original because the translation isn't exact, or is otherwise messy, which have come into common English usage, but the rest of the time you have to do the best you can with the original word or concept and make it work in the target language. Imagine reading Kafka and coming across German word after German word in your English 'translation' with a note at the bottom for each telling you to ask a friend who's fluent in German what this means. It's ridiculous. And in such a case, as in this one, it would most likely mean the writer has no damn clue what it means himself, is lazy as hell, or just wants to show off how much German he knows, and how little you don't.

Still, what really irritated me about this one is that this is fandom secrets, not school. Don't give me frickin' homework. So, no, I didn't track down a Chinese speaker to ask about this. I guess I get a zero for the day.