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3 hours ago, Riku said:

You can try kanjitomo too. Or the Google handwriting app, it's freaking amazing and sometimes and wonder how the hell it can recognise some of the things I write.

Kanjitomo works really well. It finds characters i failed to find with handwriting or jisho.

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33 minutes ago, Huang Ling Yin said:

yes, therefore i asked, i stuck since the scene is measuring "human" temperature, and either 64 or 6.4 makes no sense,
thanks, i'll use 6.4.

Well if the characters weren't confused about it, it's likely just a typo of 36度4分.

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14 minutes ago, Parallel Pain said:

More likely it's just omitted as everyone knows she's talking about the 30s. Japanese like to abbreviate and omit things. Actually the Japanese aren't the only ones.

Yeah, it could just be implied. Didn't think about that.

Edited by 1P1A
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  • 7 months later...

Can I get some help on a few lines?

MC is helping a girl with her homework, which is fill-in-the-blank kanji phrases. Goes like this:

「む~……次は穴埋め問題……。ざくろに教えてもらったんだけど……」

『○肉○食』

「……ざくろは、何て?」

「『ふにくあくじき』だって。身体に悪いものばかり食べてることだって言ってた」

解答欄の横に『腐肉悪食』といちごが書き込む。

気付かないか……当て字もいいところだ。

「でも、一応意味は通ってるのか」

「えっ、合ってるの? 焼肉定食じゃないんだ」

「いや、どっちも間違い。正解は弱肉強食。弱いものは強いものに食べられるってこと」

 

I've got this as a translation so far:

「Mu~......Next is the Fill the Blanks questions......Zakuro also taught me these but......」

『○肉○食』

「What did Zakuro tell you?」

「『Fu-Niku-Aku-Jiki』. Meaning something like eating only stuff that is bad for your body.」

Ichigo started writing 『腐肉悪食』in the answer column.

She doesn't get it... it's a case of using ateji.

「But, at least the meaning is the same.」

「Eh, it's right? But isn't it Grilled Meat Special...」

「No, both are wrong. The correct answer is "The strong eat the weak". It is the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest.」

 

I get most of it but I don't understand the couple sentences in the middle where he says it's a case of using ateji and the meaning is the same. There's a wikipedia article for ateji

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On 5/13/2019 at 12:47 AM, RaurosFalls said:

Can I get some help on a few lines?

1. unless you want your translation to be a meme or you have very good reasons, you should localize this to not use 四字熟語. Try an English idiom instead, you could probably get a fun one to mess with.

2. this is painfully literal in places, I hope your editor is good or you get better at translating

3. k fine ill do something on the actual lines. This all assumes there were only 2 speakers please denote your speakers if you can

解答欄の横に『腐肉悪食』といちごが書き込む。

Ichigo started writing 『腐肉悪食』in the answer column.

The の横に here seems unlikely to be "horizontally across"; I think she's writing it to the side of the answer column to demonstrate it (the other way makes less sense; she'd have to erase it were it wrong, and she's doubting its accuracy. Remember, things usually make sense.)

気付かないか……当て字もいいところだ。

She doesn't get it... it's a case of using ateji.

My suspicion which I can't confirm without context is that Zakuro is either messing with Ichigo or not that good at what she was trying to teach, and that this is what Ichigo has not 気付く'd.
(も)いいところ can be used to say that something is brazen / has chutzpah; were I to do this literally I could think of "And she gave it an ateji reading and everything" or maybe "The reading she gave it is pretty strained, too."

「でも、一応意味は通ってるのか」

「But, at least the meaning is the same.」

(why are you using weeb quotes? the engine?)
I tried googling 一応意味は通ってる and it seems to usually be "gets the point across" using the "transfer" meaning of 通う. There's definitely also a possibility that it means the 意味 are similar (not the same!). That said I think this makes more sense as とおってる which gives us "make logical sense" as one of its meanings.

 

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Quote

1. unless you want your translation to be a meme or you have very good reasons, you should localize this to not use 四字熟語. Try an English idiom instead, you could probably get a fun one to mess with.

I understand that usually you would want to localize things to English, but this is specifically Japanese homework. It's based on finding the correct fill in the blank answer for a kanji phrase. There's no english idiom that accurately reflects the meaning and can be turned into a fill in the blank question that lends itself to all the subsequent misrepresentations in the following lines.

I did however change the line with "Fu-Niku-Aku-Jiki" to "Bad meat, poor food" at least.

You're right about the context, that Zakuro is not that good at teaching or messing with her. At first, Itsuki thinks she's not a good teacher but it's later revealed that Zakuro was messing with her fill in the blank question just before the one here. Here's my current translation with names labelled now:

Ichigo:「Urgh~... next is the Fill in the Blanks questions... Zakuro also helped me with these, but...」

『○肉○食』

Itsuki: 「What did Zakuro tell you?」

Ichigo:「"Bad meat, poor food". Meaning something like eating only stuff that is bad for your body.」

Ichigo wrote『腐肉悪食』beside the answer column.

She doesn't get it... even after Zakuro gave it an ateji reading and everything.

Itsuki: But at least the meaning makes sense.」(I used "weeb" quotes here because Itsuki is actually talking for this line.)

Ichigo:「Eh, it's right? But isn't it Grilled Meat Special...」

Itsuki:「No, both are wrong. The correct answer is "The strong eat the weak". The law of the jungle, survival of the fittest.」

 

 

Edited by RaurosFalls
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The old as balls ONE fan translation changes a kanji reading test to an English spelling test and it works well (it was more necessary since you actually took it, but still). I don't think localizing this is any weirder; people will get that you localized something Japanese-cultural - there will about two point five people on 4chan complaining about it, but that means you've done the right thing. Japanese readers have a decent chance of knowing the correct 四字熟語, as the protagonist does. You're changing the experience for English readers if they don't have that. Under the theory of translating for as equivalent an experience as you can, I think the way you're going about it is suboptimal.

I also seriously hope you're not using 『』 in the actual tl unless engine reasons absolutely compel you to. The hollow set of quote brackets is even more weeb than ordinary Japanese quotes. Again, why are you using Japanese quotes?

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On 5/26/2019 at 2:18 AM, Awesomeguy247 said:

Hi!

I try to translate this 警戒心が強い無愛想.

I initially though that it's "Wary and Very Untouchable" but I feel like this isn't right. Any help?

I think it's "wary and not very sociable".

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On 5/22/2019 at 1:44 PM, Zakamutt said:

The old as balls ONE fan translation changes a kanji reading test to an English spelling test and it works well (it was more necessary since you actually took it, but still). I don't think localizing this is any weirder; people will get that you localized something Japanese-cultural - there will about two point five people on 4chan complaining about it, but that means you've done the right thing. Japanese readers have a decent chance of knowing the correct 四字熟語, as the protagonist does. You're changing the experience for English readers if they don't have that. Under the theory of translating for as equivalent an experience as you can, I think the way you're going about it is suboptimal.

I also seriously hope you're not using 『』 in the actual tl unless engine reasons absolutely compel you to. The hollow set of quote brackets is even more weeb than ordinary Japanese quotes. Again, why are you using Japanese quotes?

Okay, I will try and see if I can come up with any way of expressing something similar in English. Edit: Sorry but I'm looking at it and I can't see how these questions would make sense unless you show them in Japanese initially, so I'll leave it as is for now.

And yes, my translation does use『』sometimes. I will try and see if I can reduce the weeb-factor by removing them. The thing is, the regular japanese quotes (not the hollow ones) are convenient for wrapping around lines of dialogue. It would be awkward to use " for wrapping around every line of dialogue, and not using anything can make it hard to distinguish what's narration and what's dialogue. Nevertheless, I will consider your advice. (I may be forced to remove them anyway since my hacker has gone awol and currently half of the dialogue text uses it and half of it does not, and I only know how to remove it, not add it in, to make it consistent.)

Edited by RaurosFalls
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3 hours ago, RaurosFalls said:

Okay, I will try and see if I can come up with any way of expressing something similar in English. Edit: Sorry but I'm looking at it and I can't see how these questions would make sense unless you show them in Japanese initially, so I'll leave it as is for now.

And yes, my translation does use『』sometimes. I will try and see if I can reduce the weeb-factor by removing them. The thing is, the regular japanese quotes (not the hollow ones) are convenient for wrapping around lines of dialogue. It would be awkward to use " for wrapping around every line of dialogue, and not using anything can make it hard to distinguish what's narration and what's dialogue. Nevertheless, I will consider your advice. (I may be forced to remove them anyway since my hacker has gone awol and currently half of the dialogue text uses it and half of it does not, and I only know how to remove it, not add it in, to make it consistent.)

Very well, let me try...

 

「む~……次は穴埋め問題……。ざくろに教えてもらったんだけど……」

"Jeez, next there's this proverb question... I asked Zakuro about it, but I'm not sure about what she told me."

『○肉○食』

The paper said "Please explain the following idiom: 'As thick as thieves.'"

「……ざくろは、何て?」

"What'd Zakuro tell you?"

「『ふにくあくじき』だって。身体に悪いものばかり食べてることだって言ってた」

"She said it meant being really fat. Like how robbers and corrupt politicians would get fat off their ill-gotten gains a long time ago."

解答欄の横に『腐肉悪食』といちごが書き込む。

Ichigo wrote "really fat" next to the answer line.

気付かないか……当て字もいいところだ。

I guess she hasn't realized about Zakuro, huh. Well, it's certainly a... creative interpretation.

「でも、一応意味は通ってるのか」

"Well, I have to admit it does make sense."

「えっ、合ってるの? 焼肉定食じゃないんだ」

"What, is it right? I was sure it meant that they were just really dumb to turn to crime. Like, thick."

「いや、どっちも間違い。正解は弱肉強食。弱いものは強いものに食べられるってこと」

"No, no, no, none of those are right. The correct meaning is 'in a very close relationship.' Like, you've heard about honor among thieves? Outlaws had to stick together since everyone else disliked them."

------------------------------------

I'm not sure why it'd be awkward to wrap all dialogue with double quotes, that's done in practically every American book you can find. with that said, if nametags are displayed, I really don't you think you actually need to show the line being spoken; the nametag will do that for you without adding redundant quotes. More than one tl has done this, actually, and I'd say it's probably the better choice even. Though I liked the effect in the harisenbo tl (ETA who knows), lol.

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I have to say that I like Zaka's meme localization. It serves the basic purpose of a translation - to give the reader the same or a similar experience a native would have had reading the original. I personally wouldn't want to see random kanji on an english translation unless it was plot relevant or had some kind of meaning, and I suppose the same would be for most people. Actually, I'd guess that hardly anyone who would read this knows what an ateji even is. Maybe 5% of your audience at most. It doesn't have to be word by word exactly what Zaka wrote, but he turned something that most people would glance over into a decent gag and I think that's more in the right track.

While they're just a few lines, it's something nice to keep in mind as part of your translation philosophy, I believe.

Edited by Ramaladni
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While I give you kudos for that creative example of an English idiom being used to fill in the gaps in a translation, I myself am not creative enough to come up with a parallel English example like that, and I think the literal translation works fine if someone is just reading through it. So unless you want to do the same thing for the other questions in the script (there's 2 more), I will leave them as is. I will however amend the translation to the example you gave, since it is quite good (to put it into perspective, it's like it was at 70% before, and you upped it to like 90-100%). I'll leave my current translations below if you're interested. Also, I will remove the Japanese quotes for all my translation like you suggest since there is a nametag when a character speaks.

---

Ichigo: Alright. Then, first question. Let's see...

"蛇足"

Hmmm, Ichigo is being taught some complicated words for her grade.

Itsuki: So, what did you answer, Ichigo?

Ichigo: Snake legs

An incredibly charming, honest, child-like answer.

Ichigo: Zakuro said it's "Jasoku". As in "Soga Jasoku".

Soga Jasoku... a painter from the late Muromachi period.

Itsuki: Oh~, you also asked Zakuro? ...Why she knows that is a mystery.

Itsuki: This is "Redundancy". When it happens, it means you added words that have no need to be added.

---

Itsuki: Then, next.

"足袋"

Ichigo: Leg bags right?

Itsuki: Another unusual word. What did Zakuro say?

Ichigo: She said it's the leg's bags so it's "socks".

Itsuki: ......

Itsuki: (Maybe Zakuro isn't that smart...?)

She knows a lot of pointless stuff, but certainly, I couldn't imagine Zakuro sitting at a desk studying.

Ichigo: And she also said "Reading this as 'Tabi' is very embarassing, so make sure you don't!"

Itsuki: ......Too bad. This is read as "Tabi".

Ichigo: No way!?

Forget what I said. Zakuro knew it and even made fun of Ichigo with it.

Ichigo: How mean~~!! Zakuro is a jerk~!

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Here is the original Japanese:

---

Itsuki:「よし。それじゃ最初の問題。えっと

『蛇足』

う~ん、いちごの学年で、難しい漢字を習うんだなぁ。

Itsuki:「ちなみに、いちごは何て答えた?」

Ichigo:「へびあし」

子供らしい素直な答えで大変微笑ましい。

Ichigo:「ざくろは『じゃそく』だって言ってた。『そがじゃそく』だって」

曾我蛇足(そがじゃそく)……室町時代後期の画家。

Itsuki: 「へぇ、ざくろにも訊いたのか。……何でそんな知識があるのか不明だが」

Itsuki: 「これは『だそく』。あっても意味の無い物をこう呼ぶんだ」

---

Itsuki: 「えっと、次は」

『足袋』

Ichigo: 「あしぶくろじゃないの?」

Itsuki: 「これも普通には読めない字だな。ちなみに、ざくろは何て?」

Ichigo: 「足の袋だから、『くつした』だって」

Itsuki:「………」

Itsuki:(……もしかして、ざくろもあんまり勉強は出来ないのか…?)

雑学は多そうだが、確かに机に向かって勉強してる姿は想像できない。

Ichigo: 「あと、これを『たび』って読むのは恥ずかしい意味だから、絶対ダメだってざくろが言ってたよ」

Itsuki: 「……残念。これは『たび』って読むんだよ」

Ichigo:「うそッ!?」

前言撤回。ざくろは分かってて、いちごで遊んでいるだけか。

Ichigo:「酷いーー!! ざくろ、あんまりだーっ!」

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On 5/29/2019 at 8:05 PM, RaurosFalls said:

---

Well, these aren't that easy. Japanese just has a lot more freedom when it comes to puns and wordplay.

I thought the joke was about meaning of the word, but now I see that this is more of a kanji reading quiz. The challenge was to come up with something that fulfilled three basic conditions: Ichigo has a childish misunderstanding about the reading (and meaning of the word), Zakuro has some kind of meme interpretation and the meaning of the word is something that you wouldn't be able to guess by its components. Kinda like the word white-collar - it has nothing to do with collars or white things.

On top of that, it should be a word that isn't too easy or too obscure, and in the second example, there's even a reference to an artist. Anyway, I like how this one turned out.

Quote

Itsuki: 「えっと、次は」

Okay, next is...

『足袋』

"Seahorse".

Ichigo: 「あしぶくろじゃないの?」

Isn't it a horse that likes to swim?

Itsuki: 「これも普通には読めない字だな。ちなみに、ざくろは何て?」

Another unusual word, huh. By the way, what did Zakuro tell you?

Ichigo: 「足の袋だから、『くつした』だって」

She said it's a sea horse, so it's a horse in the sea.

Itsuki:「………」

...

Itsuki:(……もしかして、ざくろもあんまり勉強は出来ないのか…?)

Could it be that Zakuro isn't very good at studying?

雑学は多そうだが、確かに机に向かって勉強してる姿は想像できない。

While she seems to know plenty of meaningless trivia, I really can't imagine her sat down, studying in front of a desk.

Ichigo: 「あと、これを『たび』って読むのは恥ずかしい意味だから、絶対ダメだってざくろが言ってたよ」

And she also said that "thinking this is some kind of fishie is embarassing, so make sure you don't!".

Itsuki: 「……残念。これは『たび』って読むんだよ」

Sorry to say, but that's exactly what it is.

Ichigo:「うそッ!?」

No way!

前言撤回。ざくろは分かってて、いちごで遊んでいるだけか。

I take it back. Zakuro was just messing around with Ichigo.

Ichigo:「酷いーー!! ざくろ、あんまりだーっ!」

Zakuro, that's too much! You meanie!

The next one was kinda annoying, and I'm not all that satisfied with it for two reasons. One because it might be too weird of a word to show up on a quiz, and second because I ended up changing it to a pop culture reference. I looked at composers, artists, and even authors, but couldn't come up with a decent pun. Maybe a native speaker would have an easier time coming up with a better word, but at least I found something that keeps the "snake" part. It's decent, I guess.

 
Quote

Itsuki:「よし。それじゃ最初の問題。えっと

 
Alright, so here's the first question.
 
『蛇足』
 
"Snake eyes"
 
う~ん、いちごの学年で、難しい漢字を習うんだなぁ。
 
Hmm, Ichigo is being taught some unusual words for her age.
 
Itsuki:「ちなみに、いちごは何て答えた?」
 
What do you think it means, Ichigo?
 
Ichigo:「へびあし」
 
A snake's eyes.
 
子供らしい素直な答えで大変微笑ましい。
 
An incredibly charming, honest, childlike answer.
 
Ichigo:「ざくろは『じゃそく』だって言ってた。『そがじゃそく』だって」
 
Zakuro said it has to do with *the* Snake Eyes.
 
曾我蛇足(そがじゃそく)……室町時代後期の画家。
 
Snake Eyes...if I remember correctly, he's one of the original G.I. Joe members.
 
Itsuki: 「へぇ、ざくろにも訊いたのか。……何でそんな知識があるのか不明だが」
 
Oh, you also asked her, huh. Why she knows about him is a mystery, but...
 
Itsuki: 「これは『だそく』。あっても意味の無い物をこう呼ぶんだ」[/spoiler]
 

This is actually a gambling term. It's when you roll two dice and get only one dot on each die. I guess they resemble a snake's eyes in a way.

(Extra: They're associated with snakes since they're considered be a symbol of bad luck.)

 

 

Edited by Ramaladni
I hate fuwanovel formatting.
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