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ChronoClock Review Discussion


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26 minutes ago, Erogamer said:

I am not going to entertain your asinine condescending arguments. 

Erm, okay? I really am genuinely confused by your statement, though. The text, outside of DD, didn't feel especially British to me, but I may have just unconsciously accepted it and therefore not noticed it, or something like that.

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4 hours ago, Decay said:

Erm, okay? I really am genuinely confused by your statement, though. The text, outside of DD, didn't feel especially British to me, but I may have just unconsciously accepted it and therefore not noticed it, or something like that.

Characters other than DD use British slang fairly frequently, especially Rei and Shuji. I mentioned it in my review as something I didn't like and considered to be a questionable decision. I don't have examples handy and don't really feel like cracking the game open to find them, but it's there, for sure.

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4 minutes ago, Palas said:

...Is there something inherently wrong with British English? Does it break some sort of internal consistency?

No. As I also mentioned in the review, there's nothing per se wrong with it, but that doesn't keep it from annoying me. I literally didn't understand quite a bit of the slang used in the translation, and that got in the way of my enjoying reading it at times. To be clear, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest if it was just using British spellings for words common to both dialects, but when it's frequently throwing in phrases like "taking the Mickey out of [x]" which I have to deduce the meaning of from context, it hurts the reading experience.

For the most part, it's a small annoyance compared to the actual problem of crappy writing which we had in pretty much every VN TL until a few years ago, and still have rampant in fan translations, so I'm mostly willing to take that trade, but I'd still much rather have something without all the British slang. In some ways, it's exactly the same problem as an unnaturally stilted translation: it doesn't sound like the way people actually talk, in the language I see everywhere, hear everywhere, and speak, and which I've come to expect as the standard for stuff I'm reading. It's arguably not as bad ideologically as a stilted translation, in that literally nobody actually talks the way a stilted translation reads, but from the perspective of somebody who's reading occasional bouts of near-nonsense, it's not practically that different. I've read a lot of world literature, a lot of genre fiction, and a lot of VNs; none of the rest of them have had characters periodically taking the Mickey out of each other.

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20 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

I've read a lot of world literature, a lot of genre fiction, and a lot of VNs; none of the rest of them have had characters periodically taking the Mickey out of each other.

Vns are translated predominantly by a) people who speak English as a second language or b) people native to America or Canada. Genre fiction from overseas are often “localised” into American for the American audience when published. And literature isn’t very popular outside the classics, so I’m going to assume you mean classic literature, “taking the piss” originated around the second world war and so no piece of classic literature would have it. I would assume some sort of modern British literature would include the phrase, but I'm not going to dig for it. Anyway, because of these reasons I’m not surprised you’ve never come across it :P

However you may (MAY) run across it in Anthony Briggs translation of War and Peace. Many people didn’t like how soldiers talked in cockney in that book, and “taking the Mickey” is a piece of cockney.

Edit: If you watched British TV you'd come across it semi frequently

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1 minute ago, Darklord Rooke said:

Genre fiction from overseas are often “localised” into American for the American audience when published.

Yeah, this is something I was well aware of, but which probably isn't well known in general. I had a friend in college who insisted on importing the British version of the Harry Potter books, rather than reading the American localization, as if there was some joy to be had in hearing people say "Happy Christmas" to each other, and generally sounding like space aliens.

3 minutes ago, Darklord Rooke said:

And literature isn’t very popular outside the classics, so I’m going to assume you mean classic literature...

I meant more like modern world literature, which I presume is predominantly translated into intentionally neutral English so as not to alienate Americans, Canadians, Brits, etc., though I could be wrong and maybe non-Americans find that all translated world literature reads strangely. I expect it makes the most sense, economically, to ensure you don't alienate Americans primarily, and then try to not alienate those other markets as a secondary goal. The best equivalent example I can find is translations from Japanese world literature: I've read tons of Murakami, a fair bit of Mishima, a couple of Kawabata novels, and an Oe novel. I don't recall any of those featuring British slang, and while I don't know if there was a separate translation for Britain vs. for the US for those, I'd be kind of surprised if there was.

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7 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

and generally sounding like space aliens.

xD

8 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

The best equivalent example I can find is translations from Japanese world literature: I've read tons of Murakami, a fair bit of Mishima, a couple of Kawabata novels, and an Oe novel. I don't recall any of those featuring British slang, and while I don't know if there was a separate translation for Britain vs. for the US for those, I'd be kind of surprised if there was.

Murakami's works are apparently translated into English by Alfred Birnbaum (American) and Philip Gabriel (American). Mishima's works are translated by Hiroaki Sato (been called the finest translator of Japanese poetry into AMERICAN english) Donald Keene (American) Michael Gallagher (American.) You can see the pattern? :P The only exception I've found so far is "After the banquet" by Mishima, translated by Morris, a British man. 

So my guess would be the vast majority of translated literature you've read were translated by Americans xD

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5 hours ago, Decay said:

I guess I just let all that stuff wash over my without noticing it. Maybe I've consumed too much british media. :P

Heh, watched Red Dwarf the other day and heard the line "let's go out there and twat it". I remember thinking how many Americans would have been bat-shit confused by it :P. Along with all the mentions of "scousers" "gits" "taking the smegs" and the rest of it. 

You should watch Red Dwarf, it's amazing :3

 

Heh, or when Kryten laments "You sold your unique set of haploid chromosomes? You traded away the very essence of your genetic make up for 100 pounds, and half a packet of fags?" 

I mean, I'm pretty sure Americans don't use 'fags' in that context but it's a common part of the British lexicon xD

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I remember one of the Discworld books had the previous slogan of a latrine collection magnate be "Taking the piss since 1873" or something in that vein. I wonder if that was localized or some Americans just missed the joke.

As a swede I've seen quite a bit of british media on the telly, so I'm likely to know some of the more common expressions. Definitely not everything, though.

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Sorry for an offtopic, but I found this interesting.

12 hours ago, Zakamutt said:

As a swede I've seen quite a bit of british media on the telly, so I'm likely to know some of the more common expressions.

Huh? In my country (Russia) everything foreign on TV is always dubbed in the local language, though often very poorly. Is it different in other countries, or am I misunderstanding something?

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14 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

Sorry for an offtopic, but I found this interesting.

Huh? In my country (Russia) everything foreign on TV is always dubbed in the local language, though often very poorly. Is it different in other countries, or am I misunderstanding something?

It really depends on the country. In Sweden pretty much everything but kids' shows is subbed (which is great for our English skills!).

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