Stir Fry : funny

[–]I_DRINK_PERIOD_BLOOD 17 points18 points19 points 4 months ago

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[–]t-o-k-u-m-e-i 11 points12 points13 points 4 months ago*

[+]yipeskop comment score below threshold (6 children)

[–]t-o-k-u-m-e-i 2 points3 points4 points 4 months ago

[–]yipeskop 1 point2 points3 points 4 months ago*

By "you people" I was referring to people in general who would rather describe a foreign word or a phrase using foreign words instead of readily available English equivalents that don't cause ANY loss of meaning.

For instance, those that would rather say "Kami" instead of "divinity", the word "nakama" instead of "friend" or "companion", the phrase "mahou shoujo" instead of "magical girl", the word "manzai" instead of "comedic duo", "tsukkomi" and "boke" instead of "straight man" and "comic man" respectively.

All that is achieved in doing this is unnecessarily confusing those not familiar with the Japanese language and culture. And more often than not, I've noticed that those who'd rather use a foreign word instead of an English equivalent do so to feel special about themselves either because they feel they are in some sort of exclusive club or because they like to feel better than everyone else.

Of course, there are some words that don't translate into English well at all such as "moe" and there really is no way around using it only as such.

[–]t-o-k-u-m-e-i 1 point2 points3 points 4 months ago

I definitely see what you're saying, but i think there's more to it than that - The question of whether or not to translate something is a major point of debate in translation theory. Translation choices (as well as the decision not to translate) have a very real influence on meaning for people reading something.

I'm coming at this from an academic perspective, where including the untranslated term is an important check on the writer - it allows readers to call out a bad translation, provides nuance for those who care to look up the original term, and opens up the possibility for readers to pursue further research if they so choose. Showing the original is sort of like open source knowledge production in that respect.

While I'll admit that I didn't explicitly translate "batsu geimu" in this case, I thought that the translation of "punishment game" was pretty clear from context, and made explicit in the linked wiki. If you check back through my posting history (This is my dedicated translation/explanation account) you'll see that I usually make a point to include a translation, a romanization of the original word and (sometimes) the original kanji etc. I call that open source knowledge.

You seem to have a different take on it. Why does introducing a new term, if the meaning is explained, necessarily have to introduce confusion? If the point of using the term is specifically to give context and make it understandable to more people (my intention here), how is that exclusive?

[–]yipeskop 1 point2 points3 points 4 months ago

Well first off I wish to apologize for, ironically, causing confusion here. You did give a fine explanation of punishment games and I have no issues with that.

My only goal in what I was saying was to make a point about the silly egotistical weeaboo type mindset I see rampant everywhere (and it's hardly exclusive to Japanese). I often forget (or just simply fail) to make the purpose of my statements clear.

I realize now that it's improbable that you would fit into the group of people I was referring to before when I said "you people" and I'm sorry if you took or take any offence to that. I was just reasoning that I_DRINK_PERIOD_BLOOD was probably such a person and that you might have been so I made my comment. And I was thinking that even if neither of you weren't such people, my message was still a good message to get out as it would hopefully cause people to think about and analyze their thoughts and decisions.

Sorry for causing confusion due to my inability to convey my thoughts well.