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Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

A comment I left on Google Maps received a Like.

Normally I don't leave any comment about a place, unless I went to that place directly and the first-person experience is either 1) Irritates me very much, or 2) Makes me very happy.

Unfortunately, I have not yet went to any place leaving me the 2) experience. The 1) experience was always the most memorable one.
 
Since someone mentioned the flexibility of the English language...
And I begin to wonder... The dreams I can't remember when I wake up in the morning - where in the world did they go?
This quote, which was in my signature at the time of typing this, is from the Japanese boxart of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. It has the most awkward word order I've ever seen, but it still makes sense. It's a rough translation of the opening text of the game, and the official translation (in the PS1 version) contains this line:
Sometimes I can't remember my dreams, though I'm sure I saw them.
...Which is also a bit awkward, since as far as I know, Japanese for dreaming literally means "dream-seeing". Some say the awkward wording makes it sound more poetic, but whatever the case, it's an example of what I like to call a translation artefact, or dubling.

A dubling isn't Engrish or completely changing something, but it can be an odd word choice, odd sentence structure, or trying to directly translate a phrase into something that has the same meaning, but different connotations (eg: honorifics).

My personal favourite dubling comes from Dragon Rider, where magical beings are called "fabulous creatures", which I will never not find funny. It's a German book, and also basically the only work of fiction I have decent experience with that wasn't originally made in English or Japanese. I need to broaden my horizons.
 
My buddy Silver shows this kind of flexibility as well. Every now and then - he's Italian - he'll come out with something that isn't really wrong, but just sounds a little strange. I can never remember many examples - I suppose one would be his tendency to say "Hear you later!" rather than "See you later!"

My personal favourite dubling comes from Dragon Rider, where magical beings are called "fabulous creatures", which I will never not find funny.

To quote from Lords and Ladies:

“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice."
 
My buddy Silver shows this kind of flexibility as well. Every now and then - he's Italian - he'll come out with something that isn't really wrong, but just sounds a little strange. I can never remember many examples - I suppose one would be his tendency to say "Hear you later!" rather than "See you later!"



To quote from Lords and Ladies:

“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice."
Reminds me, I once read somewhere that there's a language where "hello" and "goodbye" have the same word, so when native speakers speak English, they get those two words confused.

Isn't Lords ans Ladies a Discworld book?
 
Hawaiian's "aloha" means hello and goodbye, but that's mostly due to English corruption of the language and those god damned tourists, ruining everything. Dunno if that's the language you're talking about, since I don't believe many people speak Hawaiian as their primary language, which would lead to the confusion.
 
@Eliza Prescott I can't remember what language it was, but I don't think it was Hawaiian.
It is indeed. One of my favourites, actually
I once read a bit of the Colour of Magic graphic novel, and a few pages of some other book, and the synopsis of one of the Science of Discworld books, but that's it. Strange how I'd never heard of it until I started going on TV Tropes...
 
It's a shame The Colour of Magic isn't all that good - I don't think Pratchett starts to really hit his stride till Mort. Discworld keeps evolving over the course of the series, such as it is. I usually advise people to start somewhere near the middle, with something like Feet of Clay, Small Gods, or Lords and Ladies. It also depends a lot on what you like - the Death or the Wizards books are distinctly sillier and usually less insightful than the Watch or the Witches.

I sometimes disagree with some of the interpretations expressed on Tv Tropes. The "gun control" theme in Night Watch, for example, I think is taken too far out of the context of the world
 
It's a shame The Colour of Magic isn't all that good - I don't think Pratchett starts to really hit his stride till Mort. Discworld keeps evolving over the course of the series, such as it is. I usually advise people to start somewhere near the middle, with something like Feet of Clay, Small Gods, or Lords and Ladies. It also depends a lot on what you like - the Death or the Wizards books are distinctly sillier and usually less insightful than the Watch or the Witches.

I sometimes disagree with some of the interpretations expressed on Tv Tropes. The "gun control" theme in Night Watch, for example, I think is taken too far out of the context of the world
I didn't really read too much into Discworld on TV Tropes, and I don't go on TV Tropes any more. I swear that they said My Little Pony: Escape from Katrina was a metaphor for drug addiction...?

90s video game localisations are full of dublings. I once saw someone call A Link to the Past's localisation awkward as well, but I can't think of any specific examples. By the 2000s, things got better, but we still got a few awkward things such as this:
Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil said:
So Klonoa... is the name of the Dream Traveller.
Also, this was around the time anime localisation was being taken more seriously as well, but my second-favourite dubling phrase is probably "spirit attatchments" from Fullmetal Alchemist 2003. Please tell me that there aren't many angry Brotherhood fans on this site...

EDIT: I found a hilarious mistranslation that is too mistranslated to be a dubling.
 
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I didn't really read too much into Discworld on TV Tropes, and I don't go on TV Tropes any more. I swear that they said My Little Pony: Escape from Katrina was a metaphor for drug addiction...?

I think that's entirely on the YMMV tab (one of the many refinements they made once they realized the wiki system is an inherently terrible way of building an encyclopedia). But these days, even they will say to not fully trust their site's interpretation of some things and to treat the site more as entertainment.

90s video game localisations are full of dublings. I once saw someone call A Link to the Past's localisation awkward as well, but I can't think of any specific examples. By the 2000s, things got better, but we still got a few awkward things such as this:

Also, this was around the time anime localisation was being taken more seriously as well, but my second-favourite dubling phrase is probably "spirit attatchments" from Fullmetal Alchemist 2003. Please tell me that there aren't many angry Brotherhood fans on this site...

EDIT: I found a hilarious mistranslation that is too mistranslated to be a dubling.

Localisations took years to get right on video games >.< One of the worst offenders was the Harvest Moon series. I once saw "blind idiot translation" nicknamed "Natsume Translation" because of it.
 
I'm having to rethink one minor item that came up. It was intended to be funny, but kinda went a wee bit too far...
 
I think that's entirely on the YMMV tab (one of the many refinements they made once they realized the wiki system is an inherently terrible way of building an encyclopedia). But these days, even they will say to not fully trust their site's interpretation of some things and to treat the site more as entertainment.
I might be confusing its article with that cartoon crossover.
 
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