Phenomenon: Dubs and subs of the same anime usually have different lines.
Question: Why do they translate it twice? I mean, they can translate an anime once and for all, using that translation for both subs and dubs. I kind of wonder how the translation in sub and dub work is done.
In: 5
Japanese is also a very complex and different language to zenglish, so when translating things you can’t always translate things very well because there’s many cultural themes and ideas that just don’t translate well.
Same with English to Japanese.
Japanese doesn’t really have swear words in the way English does. It’s a very foreign concept. With that in mind, how does one even begin to explain the word “fuck” to someone who doesn’t really have a base concept of it.
English doesn’t have the same social hierarchical rules woven into the language. So, how do you explain honorifics to someone who doesn’t already know about them? A lot of people would say its like titles here, but it really isn’t, they don’t function the same or even really serve the same purpose for the most part – especially to younger generations who haven’t grown up with those values.
This is why a lot of translators and localisers do something incredibly clever. They take those ideas and rather than translate the words, they translate that idea in a way that someone from another culture can understand. At the end of the day, we are all human, so we all feel and think in very similar ways. It’s just how to communicate that which can be the tricky bit!
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