Translating East Asian Cultural terms to the West
Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2015 10:54 pm
This has happened quite often during translations. Due to the nature of the the Chinese and Japanese language, many of the terms or the way character speak just sounds strange in English because people in the west simply don't do it.
One example would be the moe culture, where girls act cutesy (撒娇 etc, but not really this.) to get the attention of another person. I can't find any reference to something similar in the West.
So, I'll list out some of the terms (Chinese or Japanese) that I hope someone in the west can help me to translate or correct to the culturally-correct terms.
Term, translation, context, notes
1, "笨蛋!" , "You're so stupid! / Don't be a fool!" ,
spoken by a tsundere female character when she is in dere mode to the opposite sex when he does something that is difficult to do that she likes, what do poeple actually say to their boyfriends/girlfriends when they want to convey the same meaning?
2, "讨厌啦!" , "Oh go on, you flatterer!" ,
spoken by a tsundere female character, it would work if the character was dere, but picture a tsundere, with red cheeks, a frown, a pout and turning her face aside, saying this in English.
3. "睡相", "sleeping face",
Actually the term 睡相 would refer to the entire body, not just the face, so is there something in the West that people use to refer to how the other person looks like when he or she is sleeping?
One example would be the moe culture, where girls act cutesy (撒娇 etc, but not really this.) to get the attention of another person. I can't find any reference to something similar in the West.
So, I'll list out some of the terms (Chinese or Japanese) that I hope someone in the west can help me to translate or correct to the culturally-correct terms.
Term, translation, context, notes
1, "笨蛋!" , "You're so stupid! / Don't be a fool!" ,
spoken by a tsundere female character when she is in dere mode to the opposite sex when he does something that is difficult to do that she likes, what do poeple actually say to their boyfriends/girlfriends when they want to convey the same meaning?
2, "讨厌啦!" , "Oh go on, you flatterer!" ,
spoken by a tsundere female character, it would work if the character was dere, but picture a tsundere, with red cheeks, a frown, a pout and turning her face aside, saying this in English.
3. "睡相", "sleeping face",
Actually the term 睡相 would refer to the entire body, not just the face, so is there something in the West that people use to refer to how the other person looks like when he or she is sleeping?