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NEWS: 2nd Haikara-san ga Tōru Anime Film's Teaser Reveals Fall Opening




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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1759
PostPosted: Fri Mar 30, 2018 6:39 am Reply with quote
I think this is a new low as far as ANN's "translations" go.

Quote:
Gekijōban Haikara-san ga Tōru Kōhen - Hana no Tōkyō Dai Roman (Haikara Goes By the Movie: Hana's Great Tokyo Romance),

In the words of Luke Skywalker... Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong.

1. Haikara doesn't go by anywhere. There's no character named "Haikara" in the story. "Haikara-san" means "a modern, fashionable girl".
2. The title of the show you're writing this article about is "Haikara-san ga tooru". Its meaning is along the lines of "Here Comes Miss Fashionable".
3. There's also no character in the story named "Hana". "Hana no" is a phrase meaning, roughly, "glamorous"/"grand and romantic".

A more accurate translation of the title would be: "Haikara-san ga Tooru, the Movie - A Grand Tokyo Romance". (A native English speaker could probably come up with something more snappy, alas, I'm ESL.)

I really wonder when ANN will do something about their "translators". I mean, I'm not trying to be mean but if I had commissioned this translation I wouldn't pay for it. This isn't exactly the kind of quality that one would expect of a website claiming to be the internet's most trusted anime news source.
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#Verso.Sciolto





PostPosted: Fri Mar 30, 2018 7:04 pm Reply with quote
SHD wrote:
[...] I mean, I'm not trying to be mean but ...
What compelled you to insert that line of thought? Were you, perhaps, already aware that you might come across that way, in English? If you weren't trying to be mean does that mean being mean comes natural to you? Or would that be a misunderstanding? Misconstruing what might well be an English idiom by taking it literally? Were you aware that you could have phrased all of that in a nicer way, is what I'm asking, in a round about way? Might rephrasing have been more effective or did you get the result you were hoping for? I'm not trying to be mean, mind you ...
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1759
PostPosted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 6:50 am Reply with quote
#Verso.Sciolto wrote:
SHD wrote:
[...] I mean, I'm not trying to be mean but ...
What compelled you to insert that line of thought? Were you, perhaps, already aware that you might come across that way, in English? If you weren't trying to be mean does that mean being mean comes natural to you? Or would that be a misunderstanding? Misconstruing what might well be an English idiom by taking it literally? Were you aware that you could have phrased all of that in a nicer way, is what I'm asking, in a round about way? Might rephrasing have been more effective or did you get the result you were hoping for? I'm not trying to be mean, mind you ...

What exactly is your problem? Did you get offended by my criticism? If yes, why, was this your translation? (If yes, you might want to invest in some Japanese lessons, and also learn some professionalism as a journalist.) <-- see, this is me being mean.

FYI I added that line simply because I'm not criticizing the translations out of nitpicking or having a bad day, I'm sending a good-intentioned warning to ANN that they're having a translation problem (although I can't imagine that they're unaware of it). Also I wanted to sound at least somewhat diplomatic about "if you are paying money for this person's translations you are being ripped off". This is at least the third occasion I'm correcting a ridiculously bad translation at ANN, and I'm not the only one doing it. I wouldn't mind it half as much if ANN was operated by enthusiastic amateurs just doing their best with their limited abilities, but this is a business that pays its contributors. A business with a pretty lofty claim ("most trusted source of anime news") that is being regularly undermined by crappy translations. People who don't know Japanese trust this website to present accurate and useful information that includes accurate translations of something originally written in a language they don't understand. And yet the site keeps employing people who clearly lack the necessary language skills and professionalism to provide this. Anime fandom is rife with bad translations (which often spread and give people false impressions) and it's disheartening to see that a website claiming to be professional and trustworthy doesn't seem to have quality control over what is one of their most important services.

I work in the translation business as a translation provider and client (and am a translator myself, on the side). Let me just say, if I regularly provided my clients with translations like the ones I so often see at ANN I would have no clients left. If a translator delivered me translations like this one I would never work with them again.
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