I've always known that translations are difficult -- I mean, it was hard enough sometimes to capture the nuance-differences when I spoke French fluently and would try to repeat in the other language what I'd said in the first -- but it's even more difficult when the culture is also at such a divide (Chinese/English, Japanese/English, hell, honestly, even Chinese/Japanese).
Given my impression that English is a bit more graceful about adapting to loanwords and foreign-language inclusion, I find it surprising that several folks have reported they prefer Japanese-to-Chinese translations, while I find the two languages' perspectives to be so different that I can't believe I'd be getting a truly 'accurate' (if there's ever such a thing) translation. I dunno. Although one person pointed out, reasonably so, I think, that being able to compare a J-to-C-to-E script to the J-to-E script just means the chance for greater insight into the original story: y'know, comparing multiple versions.
I suspect the one who wrote me is probably involved on the photoshop-side of things, since DP's work is usually remarkably mispelling-free. At least, I hope so, or else I really feel for the editor who's got to run her stuff through spellcheck every single time... ;-)
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Date: 9 Jun 2008 03:18 pm (UTC)Given my impression that English is a bit more graceful about adapting to loanwords and foreign-language inclusion, I find it surprising that several folks have reported they prefer Japanese-to-Chinese translations, while I find the two languages' perspectives to be so different that I can't believe I'd be getting a truly 'accurate' (if there's ever such a thing) translation. I dunno. Although one person pointed out, reasonably so, I think, that being able to compare a J-to-C-to-E script to the J-to-E script just means the chance for greater insight into the original story: y'know, comparing multiple versions.
I suspect the one who wrote me is probably involved on the photoshop-side of things, since DP's work is usually remarkably mispelling-free. At least, I hope so, or else I really feel for the editor who's got to run her stuff through spellcheck every single time... ;-)