How To Japonese - Locali Links

Be it games, manga, fashion, anime, or martial arts, Japanese culture enjoys great popularity among young people around the world. I think the prominence of these cultural exports is one of the main reasons why many people have the idea of trying to learn Japanese, and why there are many sites (such as Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese, and Maggie Sensei) that cater to this desire. These sites are great for beginners and intermediates. Moreover, I am sure the continuing popularity of Japanese culture is constantly creating new people interested in learning Japanese. However, I'd wager that the majority of these people are unable to commit the time Japanese demands, and so never progress beyond an intermediate level. It thus makes sense for the aforementioned sites to give more focus to beginners, and ensure a low barrier of entry for the site's content. However, this has led to a dearth of sites with content tailored towards experienced Japanese speakers who are looking to deepen their proficient understanding of Japanese.

JapanesePod101, another popular site for learning Japanese, advertises itself with the slogan, "Learn Japanese in the fastest, easiest and most fun way." However, the kind of slogan an experienced Japanese speaker looks for in a Japanese learning site would be something more along the lines of, "Refine your Japanese in the most detailed, nuanced, and interesting way." There are precious few sites that fit such a tagline line, so it is my truly pleasure to introduce one such site...

Learning Japanese & Translation Skills With Anime

I'm a fluent Japanese speaker. I can handle novels and text-heavy videogames. When it comes to films or anime, I am just about able to enjoy them without subtitles (though having them there certainly makes things less mentally taxing). Regardless, it's a fact that the more you read and listen, the more your reading and listening skills improve. However, this week I have found myself back watching anime with English subtitles, back to a time when I could barely speak Japanese. But why?

Super Mario RPG - Localisation Review (2)

This is an entry in a series of posts looking at the localisation of the beginning segment of the game, Super Mario RPG. You can find the first post here. Thanks for reading!

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	Original Japanese	Game's Translation	Literal Translation	LocaliReview Translation
Bowser	フンギャ！	Fungah! Foiled again!	Fungya!	Fungah! Foiled again!

At first I was suspicious of the game's original translation because it replicates the sound Bowser makes in Japanese, albeit finessed from fungya to fungah to include the word gah, a common noise of dismay in English. Many Japanese noises, if exactly replicated, do not translate well. For example, the animal sound, gero gero. I doubt any native English speakers would imagine that this is the sound of a frog. This is because in English, we write the sound frogs make as ribbit ribbit. 

In this case, fungah has no meaning in English and is not a common term. However, to my surprise, I found that the same can be said about the term in Japanese! Googling the term revealed only a very sparse usage. In this way, I've come to appreciate the game's translation! I also like the addition of foiled again. I initially thought this might have been added because the translator was concerned about whether the meaning of fungah would carry across in English. However, upon reviewing the game footage, Bowser utters this line right after Mario stomps on his head and is sent plummeting to his doom. A single fungah would seem rather lacking, so I think adding foiled again is a much more natural way for Bowser to bow out.