They accidentally left a translators note in the most recent volume of Classroom of the Elite. It's a literal translation and the interpretation of it.
I honestly wish I could get books with this type of "director's commentary" because it's very interesting to see how certain ideas are phrased in other languages.
It's really nice when translators interact with the community and share their thoughts. Unfortunately some bigger communities don't appreciate their translators and bully them to the point where they stop doing cool stuff like this (looking at you, MHA Twitter...)
@neatchee I’ve been studying french for a little while now and I think about this a lot. Knowing the closest translation in english is nowhere near as helpful as understanding the full context & train of thought of the original speaker.
Tiny example: “de rien” is often translated along the lines of “you’re welcome”. But it’s actually “of nothing” (i.e. it was nothing, no hassle)
@neatchee Similarly “je t’entend” is “I hear you”. But more literally (I think) it’s best represented “I you hear”.
Obviously this grammatical rule is very different between languages. I can try and memorise that this means that as much as I want, but it’s nowhere NEAR as effective as training my brain to think in that sequence to start with. This is an ongoing battle (which I have yet to win). It’s kinda fun to learn.
@neatchee hahaha that is a fantastic example. I have got a lot out of the duolingo french course but my biggest annoyance is that they skip the middle step which means that they don’t allow me the option to translate example. The sample in this screenshot is how we would say it. But I want to practice what they actually mean word for word.
For this example, it’s literally translated as “I have thirty five years”. But I cannot provide that response!
@neatchee I’m slowly graduating to tv which I’ve already seen w/ english subsitles now in (native) french audio + french subtitles. There are a lot of tiny examples where subtitles deviate a little from what was said, presumably for reasons similar to your well. Every time it happens it immediately sets my brain WHEELING to try to understand the reason and I miss a good 20-30s. Often it’s cultural, which is fascinating. Other times it’s a space for writing/time to read constraint.
@herdingdata if you want an adventure in pausing to read, check out "Yakitate Japan" (I've only ever found it on YouTube with the notes) or "Joshiraku" with the translation notes from the blog notedrevie.ws.
Both shows rely extremely heavily on subtle cultural jokes, puns, etc. Really funny with the notes. Barely comprehensible without
@neatchee I used to watch anime with translator comments being visible. It was interesting seeing comments from the translator to the rest of the staff explaining why they translated like that. It could vary from an expression being too difficult and they had to check a lot of sources to the translator being too confused that they checked a fan translation to get a solution to their problem.
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