Rhap Sodos Posted August 21, 2014 Posted August 21, 2014 (edited) Translating Names in Manga is a Strange Thing - MangaStream Really cool article about translating stuff from Japanese to English when there is no "textbook" example. This comes up a lot on NA when people are trying to translate names, techniques, skills, etc. so I figured some of you might find it interesting. Edited August 21, 2014 by Rhap Sodos Quote
ZeroFate Posted August 21, 2014 Posted August 21, 2014 Generally speaking, I think most people just ask you to do it for them. Quote
Rhap Sodos Posted August 21, 2014 Author Posted August 21, 2014 Which can still be hit or miss. I studied Japanese for four years, but haven't really used it in two outside of NA. There are definitely some times when I can be like "That's... not what it says. Like at all." but most of the time when people ask "How do you say <blank>?" I'm still consulting dictionaries and other resources (that I just happen to have on hand because... studied the language) and making the best approximation that I can. Even for professional translators - it's an imperfect art. A good resource is to check out the Naruto Wiki to see what's going to be closest to the "official/canon" name. They include both the kanji/kana and the romaji for techniques and skills. For example, if you look up "assassin" in a Japanese Dictionary you're most likely going to be given "Shikaku". However, Naruto has more commonly used "Ansatsu" - Assassination Technique, The Assassin in the Mist, ANBU, etc. 1 Quote
