exazubi PhineasFlynn
IMO the stumbling block is that good translation requires not just grammatical correctness but also idiomatic fluency. Knowing comparable slang and metaphors, and also cultural context. The best media, not only games, relies on idiomatic fluency, and translations which don't have it frequently come across as clunky or weird. It's a different type of translation from business/legal documents.
In English 'kidding' means 'making a joke,' but the phrase "Are you kidding me?" can be used as a sarcastic way to express disbelief or annoyance, which a lot of foreign speakers probably won't pick up on in written format. That includes subtitles...
If someone asks you why you're doing something that affects others and you answer "I'm doing it for myself," most Westerners won't think too much about it (unless it's something anti-social). But Japan has a more collectivist society, and a Japanese person might think "I'm doing it for myself" is being selfish...that you're putting your own feelings or even welfare ahead of others' even if that's not what you meant.
Japanese has a leg up on this level of translation because they've been much more connected to the West than other Asian societies for decades. Korean isn't too far behind. But Chinese, Vietnamese, even Thai are well behind them. India's population is huge and I can count on one hand the number of Hindi translations I've seen that didn't make my brain hurt. Tamil is the second largest language in India and I don't think I've ever seen a single Tamil translation.
There's a VAST market for various localizations, and just not enough people to serve them all, let alone those who would do it for free in their own time.
IMO the stumbling block is that good translation requires not just grammatical correctness but also idiomatic fluency. Knowing comparable slang and metaphors, and also cultural context. The best media, not only games, relies on idiomatic fluency, and translations which don't have it frequently come across as clunky or weird. It's a different type of translation from business/legal documents.
In English 'kidding' means 'making a joke,' but the phrase "Are you kidding me?" can be used as a sarcastic way to express disbelief or annoyance, which a lot of foreign speakers probably won't pick up on in written format. That includes subtitles...
If someone asks you why you're doing something that affects others and you answer "I'm doing it for myself," most Westerners won't think too much about it (unless it's something anti-social). But Japan has a more collectivist society, and a Japanese person might think "I'm doing it for myself" is being selfish...that you're putting your own feelings or even welfare ahead of others' even if that's not what you meant.
Japanese has a leg up on this level of translation because they've been much more connected to the West than other Asian societies for decades. Korean isn't too far behind. But Chinese, Vietnamese, even Thai are well behind them. India's population is huge and I can count on one hand the number of Hindi translations I've seen that didn't make my brain hurt. Tamil is the second largest language in India and I don't think I've ever seen a single Tamil translation.
There's a VAST market for various localizations, and just not enough people to serve them all, let alone those who would do it for free in their own time.
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