zlacker

This is the essence of why anime is better in Japanese than with subs/dubs - not only is the wording much better than a straight translation but the voice acting is much more passionate in turn.

>>presen+(OP)
It's becoming annoying to watch any netflix animes because the subtitles focus on the official translations instead of what's being said. After 15 years of watching anime, I can understand several expressions and sentence structures, and English translations are really lacking. English is a good international language because it's simple, not because it's subtle, and it shows.

>>lopis+v
The thing about translations is that they’re not written by the author. You can translate something and convey the same approximate meaning, but it will always be an approximation, sometimes reduced, of the original intent of the writing.

Sometimes you just can’t translate feelings well, even if an apparent direct translation exists. Swear words are a glaring example. You can translate motherf* either word for word or with a similar swear word, but it either won’t feel native or it won’t have the same connotation.

English itself is fine. I recently read “The Gradual Extinction of Softness” [1] and I was unable to translate it into my language and maintain the same feeling.

1: https://hippocampusmagazine.com/2021/11/the-gradual-extincti...

>>lopis+v
"English is a good international language because it's simple, not because it's subtle, and it shows."

I can't let that pass :-)

English as an international language is not the entirety of English. The English language is enormously subtle - but people rarely (these days) learn it to the required level. Ironically, (in my view) its adoption as an international tongue is one cause of this. People learn it to a functional level, to get on in business and life, and that's the job done. Sadly this reduced, simplified English will likely become what English is (this is already happening) . A bit of a poisoned chalice, becoming the international language.

>>taylor+24
Hence lowest common denominator.

But upward mobility remains :)

>>taylor+24
There's a word for that : "Globish" !

;)

>>walter+r5
We can hope! :-)

>>BlueTe+o9
Thank you, I hadn't heard of that!

>>BlueTe+o9
Ok, just looked it up - and I see the phrase was coined by a Frenchman from the Grand Ecole. From the article - Nerriere describes Globish as a device that will 'limit the influence of the English language dramatically'.

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose... :-)

>>feupan+b3
That said I think any translation even with a great deal of love and care can’t really express things the same way just due to cultural/innate differences in languages. Def don’t agree that English is somehow less capable of expression than Japanese, but just that any translation is an approximation, and usually it’s a half hearted one.