Yeah, I kinda saw that coming through, but the last part of the sentence (のだろう) confused me.
“Why am I me? I wonder why I’m not someone else?” or something like that?
I do think interpretation is far preferable to literal translation, but only if it keeps the original basic meaning. If you twist that, it gets messy.
I’ve been taking a Japanese course at my university for a good 7 months now. It has it’s own way of doing things, like using SIM Coding to classify Kanji, making them surprisingly easy to look up without even remembering any radicals. Or using the ‘five constructions’ and combinations thereof to classify all Japanese sentences. It’s going pretty well, I certainly understand Japanese a lot better than I used to.
For learning the kanas I can wholeheartedly recommend http://realkana.com/. It’s a very simple web-application but it really worked wonders. Only took me like a week or two to memorize most of them.
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Im not really sure if this is into the learning session but it certainly helps a lot with trainslations and making something clear.
Im gonna post some links below that are quite handy and you can use them whenever - Im not really sure if they work properly tho.
This is what I got from my sensei. It should be a site that adds hiragana to the kanji if you are on a japanese website.
And this should work as a partial translator - you can click jp > en and it should translate some stuff. Im not really sure how it works since I have used it only a few times but it’s quite handy.
Other than that, I recommend a series or … even a book is it? Geh I dont know. Its basically called “Erin-chan” and it has a lot of videos that shows the daily lives, japanese culture and it even has english or romaji subtitles. It has a lot of lessons, from particles to kanji or verbs basically anything, and its pretty fun.
There should be also an online version of that.
OH there we go I found it! So if anyone is interested that is a quite good one. I highly recommend it: here
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Ooh, Erin-chan! My teach also showed me that, and in my national channel it’s a regular show.
I remember watching that and they show socks glue…? It is uncommon in my place, so knowing that people in Japan actually glue their socks to their legs is quite something.
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They just fall down if you don’t! Then you get those ugly landslide shapes that look like they’ve given up on their sockily duties. That, or you do the English thing, and just wear another pair over them.
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I thought i’d pitch in my 2 cents about this. I’m learning it right now too and I find it so much easier if you don’t take time in learning the stroke order. Lets be real here, how often do people actually write things with pen and paper outside of classes, barely anything. Everything is being digitized so taking time to learn how to write it just adds a lot more hassle especially since learning stroke order takes a huge amount of time. Since i’m learning it for the sole reason of VNs, maybe animes and oral conversations. That’s just my method and it helped me understand about 1.5k kanji in 4 months with relative ease. Can’t write Japanese but hey, I can understand/read and type it.
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I’ve always wanted to learn Japanese so I can read untranslated VNs, mangas, interesting Japanese blogs, etc. But I haven’t really gotten down to doing it. (Screw procrastination!)
Anyway, have you guys considered using JLPT as a benchmark for where your Japanese literacy stands?
I know its just a piece of paper but I believe it gives a tangible form to your learning, and it might come in handy someday.
Here are some resources for preparing for the JLPT tests:
- http://www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/ - complete syllabus of JLPT from N5 to N1, with some past papers and other useful resources
- http://www.jlpt.jp/e/index.html - official JLPT website, you can find the nearest test date, and where/how to take the test in your home country
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Urrrrrgh I feel the SAME WAY
Unfortunately, my classes require writing (and so does JLPT) so I just have to bite that bullet
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Yeah, actually a lot of Japanese don’t really bother about stroke orders as well. Example would be in writing kanji “woman” 女. The correct order is ku (く) - no (ノ) - ichi (一) but I’ve seen people writing the horizontal line first.
But as @Pepe said it’ll be required for JLPT. I can read kanji and understand the meaning, but writing them is my biggest flop. Which is why I can’t get through JLPT lol.
There were a few things in there that seemed slightly inaccurate, though the guide seemed to be rather valuable for collecting all of that information in one place.
Btw, I’ll be adding WaniKani to the list after I try it out a bit more. I registered but haven’t done anything with it yet. Haven’t forgotten! 
I think this depends on the audience and the work itself. If the audience is expected to know a reasonable degree of Japanese culture or terms then you can omit the translation of some words entirely. (For example, in Haruhi they use the word “otaku” directly.)
My personal preference is for a large degree of creative freedom as long as it isn’t destructive to the overall meaning or nuance. This is particular important if the work being translated expects the reader to pick up on subtle nuance, such as in mysteries or abstract philosophical works.
That sounds pretty neat, I’ll check it out a bit later. I also like watching some YouTubers that live in Japan, such as Rachel & Jun or Gimmeaflakeman. Lots of fun insights into the culture and discussions there.
Uguu~ I’ve been doing it wrong this whole time. I did ku (く) - ichi (一) - no (ノ)…
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Yeah I don’t think people care about stroke order anymore, but it might make it easier to remember how to write the more complicated kanji. Factor in some messy handwriting, and it’s always a pain to read anyway. The only person who’s criticized me for incorrect stroke order (besides in a classroom setting) wasn’t even Japanese.
I would also do JLPT if it had zero written portion lol. While I admit there are times living in Japan I needed to actually write what I could type, even those times are rare enough to not warrant putting in the effort to learn.
I really dislike this, actually. It’s one thing with terms that don’t have an easy, simple translation, like tsundere. In the case of otaku, while some of the culture implication is lost, words like nerd or geek can still suffice. One Piece subs using “nakama” comes to mind as the biggest offender. My main issue though is the idea of taking the audience’s knowledge into consideration as a reason to slack on translations. Leaving this stuff alone is not an example of creative freedom, because it’s not a translation at all. Creative freedom would be how you choose to translate it and how “far” it strays from the literal meaning.
I remember when Steins;Gate had some Japanese memes that got translated to Western memes and some people complained the subs completely changed what was being said. This is a good example of creative freedom where they basically ignored the original to keep the intended implication, and regardless of how you might feel about it, it’s still a translation.
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While I’ve used several different sites, books, etc over my time of studying I think my favorites are TextFugu (soon to be EtoEto) and WaniKani, both by the aforementioned Tofugu.
Personally, I like TextFugu because I enjoy the writing style, which is clearly aimed at keeping self-studying students interested and committed. It is currently still only a beginner level resource, which is why it is not as widely used. However, after a long time of working on it, back in January they finally started alpha testing their new resource EtoEto, a huge project which will cover intermediate and advanced levels, as well as overhaul the current beginner resource.
WaniKani is great too. Its basically an SSR that teaches teaches kanji by radicals instead of strokes, and uses a ton of mnemonics to help you remember everything.
Lastly, I havent used this at all yet, but someone recommended imabi to me. From just skimming over it, it looks pretty useful, but as I said I haven’t touched it yet.
Good luck everyone!
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The context of the example I gave was actually pretty terrible. When I first saw it used that way I really disliked that they kept that term. (I don’t mind so much anymore.) But I would still say it’s part of the translation. If we think of translation as a sort of process that transforms a given input, we can think of certain words as, although going through the process, coming out effectively unaltered because the process need not apply to them.
My opinion on translation specifically is that its purpose is to make something understandable for the target audience to whatever degree the original author intended for their target audience. Leaving some words untouched, then, could be viewed as part of the creative freedom of the translator. (Much like 4’33" is still considered a song despite its lack of detail.) Well, I just wanted to explain my view a little bit more. I don’t disagree with what you’ve said either.
I do agree that with no 1:1 mapping terms, like tsundere, that those are acceptable candidates for leaving in, but again I think this depends on the audience. For example, if we know the audience won’t typically know what tsundere means then the translation for it may need to completely reword the sentence.
There are some interesting problems, like translating Ayu’s use of boku in Kanon. (General/mild Kanon spoiler) Especially since it is referenced later on by Yuichi. I’ve completely forgotten how that was translated though. (And I haven’t seen the dubbed version if there is one.)
Yeah I agree with that. (Changing memes to match better so the same effect comes across.) There are certain translations that are well regarded to have gone too far though. (Granted, this is usually by fans already familiar with the show who aren’t necessarily in the target audience.) A good example would be the English version of Detective Conan. The name of the series was changed to Case Closed. Locations were changed to places in America. “I think that guy was from Chicago.” Names of characters changed entirely.
I really like TextFugu too! Thanks, I had forgotten to add that one. The writing style is definitely engaging and enjoyable. I’ve registered with WaniKani but haven’t used it just yet. I’ll add both to the list soon.
While we’re at it discussing localization (although I’m not sure if it’s the right place to discuss about it)
I honestly don’t like localization like Detective Conan, like the example @NotKyon stated. Changing names and location are not okay in my opinion, but at times necessary to make the reader feel close… or maybe that’s the execs think.
At times I often question about the official localized title, e.g. Yahari Oregairu turned into My Teen Romcom SNAFU. I honestly don’t like the use of military slang in the title although the term is now not limited for military use only. (Also I found out that a lot of people are not familiar with that term, but they said SNAFU is quite matching with the nature of the show)
I also dislike the localized 2009 Fullmetal Alchemist as Brotherhood. The Japanese title is redundant too (鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, lit. Fullmetal Alchemist: FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST). I don’t quite like to use the title Brotherhood or FMAB because in my opinion, “brotherhood” is more known as a term of organization, or guild, or gang… The word means “being brothers” so maybe it’s not all that bad, but maybe because of culture or something, that word has a bad connotation to me. I usually call this series as Hagaren FA (yep, not FMA) or FA 2009.
Sometimes the official localized title is not quite literal with the Japanese title but it works well, like Shingeki no Kyojin (lit. Advancing Giants) into Attack on Titan. Well, at least it’s better than Eotena Onslaught lol
(feel free to flag or delete this if it is off topic)
Oh god, I´ve been waiting for this thead for so long ( I’ve been studiying jap for 6 months) I got to say that I´m not in any kind of course. I´ve been learning by just reading books, guides and using apps for andorid, I hope U guys can help me and I hope to be able to help others too :)…
I’m more interested in learning how to read japanes, I got hiragana and katakana nailed and I´ve been studing kanji for a few months so there comes my first question. I´m currently reading a book called “remembering the kanji” but it just talks about kanji´s meaning, strokes and radicals, but It doesn´t even touch the japanese reading neighter onyomi nor the kunyomi… U think I should first learn the kanjis and it’s meaning before the japanese vocabulary and reading?? or should I change to a diferent book for the kanji learning?
If I remember correctly Heisig made other Remembering the Kanji books to follow up on the first one, teaching their pronunciations and meanings. While I didn’t stick with RtK personally, I think it’s a really solid system if you’re willing to commit to it. You can get through the first RtK book crazy quickly if you keep your mind to it. From that point learning the readings should be pretty easy stuff. It’s a proven method that many people highly regard, so I don’t think you’ll go wrong by using RtK.
Of course, a lot of this comes down to personal preference. If you want a RtK-like system that also teaching you the on’yomi and kun’yomi I recommend checking out WaniKani.
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Huh, I always thought that was just a random catchy word they threw in. I remember it more than Oregairu.
Probably the culture thing. Brotherhood is like fatherhood, motherhood, or sisterhood. The only time I’ve seen the word used in a way that in negative is with that one Assassin’s Creed game.
Plus, it needs to be disassociated with the original, so it needs a short tag-line. No one would know what FA 2009 is.
That was never supposed to be taken literally though. It wasn’t lumping the words together.
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/_cb20130725232055/shingekinokyojin/images/d/d4/SnK-_Manga_Volume_1.png
Attack on Titan makes more sense in the long term as well I think, at least, as far as I managed to get with the Manga.
I didn’t realize this, but Stack Exchange also covers the Japanese language.
Basically you can ask a question, somebody can answer, and the better answers get voted up. You can choose the answer that actually solved your question as well. There are similar systems out there, like Yahoo! Answers. Personally, I prefer Stack Exchange.
I also just found “Maggie Sensei.”
It has some pretty extensive coverage on different topics and seems to do a good job of covering various bits of slang and other unofficial aspects of the language. For example, あり the slang term.
Hopefully these will prove to be helpful.
I’ll edit the main post soon.
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Oh no I think Ixrec’s guide has gone down, I can’t access it anymore T_T
I wish I’d downloaded it.
Hmm I think it’s his entire website that’s down right now, so perhaps it should be up again sometime soon 
To put this thing back on topic, do any of you guys use any sort of mechanism to help memorize Kanji? I generally use Anki (on android) but I ended up being too lazy to do it everyday xP Even harder for me because my lessons basically require me to write Kanji so urrrrrgh
