Sadly the companies involved will say "but that is inconsistent with what you used two lines ago, fix ur shit"
Localizationing stuff
but it really depends
For example, "Mr" or "Mrs" instead of Sensei for a teacher is totally interchangeable,you dont lose anything but again, havin Sakura calling Shiro by his name is the best you could if you dont leave it, but you lose something. In a character like her, the "Sempai" is more than an interchangeable word
Ah, quite true. Either that, or Quality Control will "fix" your translation.
Then you make up for it elsewhere in their dialogue.
Yes, that is difficult, but no one said translating was an easy business.
Well, Google did, but sod Google.
Senpai is an interesting one because nobody in English just addresses someone as "senior" like that. I don't mind it being left untranslated because of that, but I do think if it's the only Japanese term you're leaving untouched it rather stands out. If it's not left untouched, then I think it should just be omitted instead of given an equivalent since in English that sounds more natural than Sakura saying "Mr. Shirou" or "Mr. Upperclassman" or something.
To my mind, yes, translate every word for which there is an English word that means the same thing, but I don't see the point in excising words for which there isn't. It's a foreign production; why pretend that there isn't the occasional foreign concept in it?
O walls, you have held up so much tedious graffiti that I am amazed you have not already collapsed in ruin.
Translating is easy. I could translate, with my five year old C-grade Japanese.
Localization is hard.
Localizationing stuff
i'm sorry mang
I understand, lol. And Shake is cool enought
That's an artificial distinction, one which devalues the profession ("We don't need a professional translator, just get someone who knows the language").
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Because that's often much more rarely the case than initially assumed. The Brazilian manga translation of "Rurouni Kenshin" had no problem with "senpai" and "kohai", for instance, or even with Kenshin's "sessha" pronoun.
Sometimes you may need to leave things untranslated - for instance, here in Brazil certain professions often employ their technical jargon while it's still in English (even though Portuguese has perfectly fine terms for the same concepts *grumble* *grumble*), so it would actually be counter-productive to translate it -, but more often than not, that's not the case.
Last edited by SpoonyViking; May 24th, 2018 at 03:46 AM.
No, the distinction is very much pertinent and even important to separate. Translation itself is not actually difficult per se so much as time-consuming. A machine can translate for you, too. Which Google Translate will do. But actually interpreting what is being said beyond the literal and localizing it is very much a different beast. A good translator may do both.
A better comparison would be learning a language, then being adept at writing or communicating proficiently in that language. Your average high school student is going to know words and sentence structure to function (maybe), but they're not going to necessarily be skilled at writing or communicating professionally. Your example is apt, but that's the thing: most people are actually looking for someone who is skilled at interpreting or localizing, not translating. Even if they don't know it.
Last edited by Arashi_Leonhart; May 24th, 2018 at 03:56 AM.
Localizationing stuff
I see your point, but I maintain a proper translator - not even a good one, necessarily - has to do both.
ETA: And not just for literary texts, either. Contracts, academic papers and technical documents also require what you call localisation skills.
Last edited by SpoonyViking; May 24th, 2018 at 04:21 AM.