Weebshit Thread

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Well, reading katakana just involves hitting wikipedia and trying to convert the word back into Western letters.

(Which is of course way easier when the word is from your mother tongue. I've once seen a translator of SRW stuff doing some weird shit with the German names there, which he apparently didn't even realize were German to begin with.)

[Liar Revealed]

I'll try that, but the thing is that I don't really speak German. I tried using an English translation once and didn't have a lot of luck. With these sort of things, I wonder if there are multiple was of saying "youth" in German. (There certainly are in Japanese.)

Another thing I just remembered was translating characters names in Space Battleship Yamato. The series has had a history of naming villains Germanic sounding names or at times directly after specific German historical figures.

Sometimes the professional anime translators don't do the research and the botch the characters' names. And then these botched names will often become the official English name for eternity. (See the English dub of the Dragon Ball franchise for reference.) So it's nice to get characters' names translated correctly and out there on the net ASAP. Because I've noticed a lot of the pro translators will reference fan sites these days.

I'm already having this problem with the new Lupin the 3rd series (part 5). It takes place in France and people are butchering all the characters' names. I don't speak French either, but I know enough to know these are all wrong.

[Guest]

Language's are hard. Why can't everybody just speak American English?

[Liar Revealed]

Language's are hard. Why can't everybody just speak American English?

According to the movies, they do!

[Kugelfisch]

With these sort of things, I wonder if there are multiple was of saying "youth" in German. (There certainly are in Japanese.)

No, not really. You can use words to replace it, depending on the context, but nothing you couldn't also do in other languages. Like, calling your "youth" your "childhood" or your "spring" or whatever. But there are no other versions of "youth" or really any other word for that matter.

The only thing that comes close to such a thing is that German usually has a native version of a latin-based word that's totally valid but seldom used. For example, you can call something "obsolet" (obsolete, duh) but most will say "veraltet" ("over aged") instead.
You could also call it "überflüssig" (superfluous) or "nicht mehr zeitgemäß" (not adequate for the times). Yeah, those don't exactly mean the same thing but they are often used interchangeably and you can see how it's not really any different from how it works in English.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Using these Latin-based words in actual everyday language makes you one of those internet "intellectuals" who put on a fake British accents to appear smarter (as in "Look at me! I know of a more obtuse way of saying things!"). Aka probably not good for translations unless the guy is supposed to be a pompous douche.

[Kugelfisch]

It depends. In some instances, the latin-based words are very commonly used.

[Auli]

Seen about 10 episodes of Ajin: Demi-Human now.

It's... ok. My biggest problem is that I don't really like the main character xD

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

I'd say a likeable main character in modern animu is more of an exception. A glitch in the Matrix, if you will.

[Liar Revealed]

Seen about 10 episodes of Ajin: Demi-Human now.

It's... ok. My biggest problem is that I don't really like the main character xD

Oh, I openly cheer for the villain on that show, a very open homage to Hannibal Smith from the A-Team.