Welcome to the Japanese Phrase of the Month for June 2021!
Yeah, I know it’s been a few months. I did admit from the beginning that this might not be monthly…
This month, let’s talk Japanese pronouns! And in particular about a common pronoun trap in anime, manga, and video games.
I’ll give a pronoun overview for general readers, and then get into some concrete details about the pronoun trap.
When is a personal name more terrifying than a word? I’m sure most teachers taking attendance on the first day of school have stories about name-terror… and so do translators, sometimes. For a Japanese-English translator, the terror can go beyond a simple “How do I pronounce this?” to “How do I spell this in the … Read more
“Hey guys, does anybody know what doom sounds like?” On Friday I came across a perfect example of a classic translation challenge in Japanese fiction. It all started when an editor reviewing a TV episode showed me some onscreen Japanese text that said “gogogogo.” Now, anyone who spends time watching or reading Japanese media is … Read more