Comments | euro_fics: Lost in Translation

euro_fics

Lost in Translation

Feb 19, 2008 15:50

As I continue to slip down the rabbit hole into all things Japanese, I find a fascinating, often hilarious, disconnect between English and Japanese. Well, of course there'd be one, duh, but when I studied French in college it wasn't all that far off from how my brain processes verbal thought. Before long I was able to think a little bit in French. ( Read more... )

Comments 10

karadin February 20 2008, 00:50:51 UTC

*snorfle*

yeah, I think that Japanese is not really a language that you can teach yourself, (and want to learn reading and writing and speaking) I have to take classes. But listening to Japanese every day will certainly help me pronouce better (I hope)

dakishemete!

euro_fics February 20 2008, 01:19:36 UTC

Yeah, you really do have to hear it to get the "beats down" so to speak. Although it is spelled as it sounds sometimes the emphasis is unexpected or contradictory to what we think it should be as English speakers. The obvious is sayoNARa as misspoken by Americans... should be saYOnara with a proper r/l Japanese "r" sound. Which isn't hard to make, but it helps to hear it spoken slooooowly. Our sensei enunciates carefully for us. Then we go into lab where we hear other voices ratting off Japanese phrases at the speed of light and it's like, WTF was THAT? Rewind, rewind ( ... )

karadin February 20 2008, 04:01:04 UTC

Gackt has gotten much better with his English, particularly his new single Megurai, so I have hopes for him. :D Most of his contemporaries in Japanese rock and pop throw English into their songs, in a somewhat random manner, so I like that Gackt goes one way or the other.

euro_fics February 20 2008, 04:45:55 UTC

I like his use of a little English in his otherwise native lyrics. But when the whole song is in English, it gets a bit muddy and weird. Of course, I think his speaking accent is kirei. But then, I'm smitten.

yukitheawesome February 20 2008, 04:20:27 UTC

"e"

lolz. :)

Je suis triste que je doive apprendre le français... Je souhait que je n'aie pas dû prendre la classe (je veux prendre une classe japonais, aussi), mais mon famille entière est française. Alors c'est obligatoire. Euh... plus ou moins. :(

euro_fics February 20 2008, 04:36:33 UTC

Let's see how much French I forgot by trying to translate:

I am [sad] that I [learned?] French. I wish that I didn't take the class? (I took one Japanese class also) but my whole family is French. Therefore it's an obligation. Uh, all the [woe?].

Je ne sais pas. I give up. Je suck.

yukitheawesome February 20 2008, 11:27:32 UTC

I'm sad that I have to learn French. I wish I didn't have to take the class (I want to take a Japanese class, too), but my whole family is French. So it's obligatory... Uh, more or less.

Je suck.

Awwh, you're closer than you thought. X] -hugs-

euro_fics February 20 2008, 15:31:55 UTC

Hey! I wasn't too bad. Wow. It's been 15 years since my run with it in college, after all.

(The comment has been removed)

euro_fics February 20 2008, 15:35:01 UTC

I take Japanese at the local jr. college. It's $28 a unit and Japanese is a five unit class plus another unit for language lab. Then there's the books...but we get to use the books across two semesters. I'm on my second semester now and plan to take two more! After that, I'm off to Japan and after that. *sniff* I wonder what I'll do with it. I hope to learn it well enough to read Japanese so I can keep it up.

mere_ubu February 21 2008, 21:24:00 UTC

On the flipside and maybe to boost my courage a bit, I've been chortling through this site:
www.engrish.com in which the Japanese take no shame in slaughtering the English language with great gusto.

I heart www.engrish.com! I used to check it with great regularity a year or two ago and then it kind of slipped off my radar. Thank you for reminding me. Some of it is just laugh-til-you-cry funny.