Who here can read Japanese?

It's bad enough I had to be clueless about every other dialogue box that came up, but this one has me curious.

"Wait!

Something's coming!!

Eh?

...Didn't you take the key?

A-N-Y-WHO!

Give it to me immediately!"


I dont know. Just a guess. I guess it depends on context, but that's what I understand it as.

The hell is that anyway?

^ T'is a Super Mario World ROMhack. Quite fun to play.

^ T'is a Super Mario World ROMhack. Quite fun to play.

I mean... yeah, but which one?

There are four of them, a fifth being in the making, it's called VIP Mario.

"Wait!

Something's coming!!

Eh?

...Didn't you take the key?

A-N-Y-WHO!

Give it to me immediately!"


I dont know. Just a guess. I guess it depends on context, but that's what I understand it as.

So, what's the deal? Yesterday you were pretending to not even know what I typed out in your profile, but you're still okay with taking translation requests? Granted, this wasn't a difficult translation, but still. Seriously, what happened? Did someone point out some flaws in your Japanese that made you feel down or something?

I know that feeling sometimes, when I think I know enough Japanese to tackle on something, like some fairly difficult reading, and then end up feeling like crap when I need to stop every few sentences to look up stuff, but just take a second to relax. Don't stress the stuff that you don't know. You never stop learning a language. Even in your native language, chances are you bump into a word you don't know every now and then, or run into a grammatical rule that's almost never used. You can't really "master" a language. You're going to have hiccups along the road every now and then. It's okay. Nobody expects you to be as fluent as a native speaker, especially if you've never actually gone abroad and immersed yourself for a while.

Try looking at some simple stuff and remind yourself: "Hey, there's no way I could have read this years ago. I wouldn't even know that, and it's so simple. I wouldn't even TRY because it would intimidate me..."

I suck at grammar, sometimes I feel like I've gotten nowhere at all with my studdies. But then I look at my kanji flash cards, and look at the little numbers I put in the corners. "Wow, there's no way I've really gone through that many, right? I mean... I forgot some, chances are I don't remember most of these by heart!"

But then I test that thought out, and end up proving myself wrong. I had memorized a lot of them, a lot more than I thought I would. That brings my confidence up.

So... was that the correct translation or no? o_o

So... was that the correct translation or no? o_o

Seems okay to me. I hate reading Japanese without any kanji in it though. The kanji makes reading so much easier.

I mean, you can end up with something like 「はしのはしではしではしてたべます。」

What the fuck is that trying to tell me? "I eat at the edge of a bridge while running."
Without kanji, you wouldn't have a fucking clue what I was talking about. Or at least, you'd have to spend about 5 minutes looking up all the potential kanji and meanings for "hashi."


By the way, if you're interested, here's what it says in text form:

ちょっとー！！
ナニはいってきてんのよー！！
え？
・・・かきが　かかってなかった？
と・に・か・く！
いますぐにでてってきょうだい！！！


Edit - Wait, bottom part seems off in Justin's...

Edit 2 - Wait, it does fit. I was thrown off a bit, mostly at きょうだい、but when putting it together, Justin's translation seems fine to me. I guess? When I read this over it came out to me as more of "Right now, I'm going out, brother," but at the same time that doesn't seem like it fits with everything else in the paragraph.

Last sentence is confusing to me. I'll try tying it out with kanji to make sense of it I guess.

Mind helping us out, Karen? What exactly is going on in this scene? It's easier to make sense of it if we know what's happening.

But words are spoken without any kanji, and people seem to understand each other just fine.

Also, that sentence looks nightmare-ish.

But words are spoken without any kanji, and people seem to understand each other just fine.

Also, that sentence looks nightmare-ish.

Words are spoken in context though. However, I do know what you're getting at. It's the same reason you can say "I saw a knight at night" and people would get it. However, it doesn't work when written. If "knight" were spelled the same as "night" it looks stupid. "I saw a night at night."

What? See how it gets confusing that way? Doesn't help that there are a crapload of kanji that share pronunciation, unlike English where most words try to not sound like each other.

Sure, it's fine when spoken, but it's confusing when written. I remember a really nice English example somewhere that I read in high school or something for English class. It was a really long story that overused the word "wood", "would", etc. I think it did, from what I remember. I wouldn't call it a tongue twister, but it was pretty horrible to read through.

Esau Wood sawed wood. All the wood Esau Wood saw, Esau Wood would saw. All the wood Wood saw, Esau sought to saw. One day Esau Wood's wood-saw would saw no wood. So Esau Wood sought a new wood-saw. The new wood-saw would saw wood. Oh, the wood Esau Wood would saw. Esau sought a saw that would saw wood as no other wood-saw would saw. And Esau found a saw that would saw as no other wood-saw would saw. And Esau Wood sawed wood.

Well, this is confusing even if you heard someone saying it, but it's really freaking annoying to read. You most likely have to read it out loud to yourself and think what the story is telling you based on sentence structure, previous language experience where you've bumped into similar sentences (not exactly good for non-native speakers...), and language rules (capitals for proper nouns).

Imagine trying to read this, but you're not a native English speaker and don't have years of immersion for constant language experience. You'd have to think a lot while reading it, and piece together what the hell is being said. That's how I feel when reading Japanese that's purely in kana with minimalistic spacing. Some things are easy to make out, if they're short and to the point, but it gets pretty annoying with longer stuff.

Seems okay to me. I hate reading Japanese without any kanji in it though. The kanji makes reading so much easier.

I mean, you can end up with something like 「はしのはしではしではしてたべます。」

What the fuck is that trying to tell me? "I eat at the edge of a bridge while running."
Without kanji, you wouldn't have a fucking clue what I was talking about. Or at least, you'd have to spend about 5 minutes looking up all the potential kanji and meanings for "hashi."


By the way, if you're interested, here's what it says in text form:

ちょっとー！！
ナニはいってきてんのよー！！
え？
・・・かきが　かかってなかった？
と・に・か・く！
いますぐにでてってきょうだい！！！


Edit - Wait, bottom part seems off in Justin's...

Edit 2 - Wait, it does fit. I was thrown off a bit, mostly at きょうだい、but when putting it together, Justin's translation seems fine to me. I guess? When I read this over it came out to me as more of "Right now, I'm going out, brother," but at the same time that doesn't seem like it fits with everything else in the paragraph.

Last sentence is confusing to me. I'll try tying it out with kanji to make sense of it I guess.

Mind helping us out, Karen? What exactly is going on in this scene? It's easier to make sense of it if we know what's happening.

Huh? It's not kyoudai, it's choudai. Choudai is the female speech casual form of "kudasai."

Oh, I'd like to point out that in the manga, Yotsuba only talks in kana. This is easier to read for various reasons though. It's spaced out pretty nicely in the voice bubble, so it doesn't look like a clumped up train wreck, and there's plenty of context from the scenes and images.

 Example

Though, I still find it easier to make out what other people are saying sometimes. Yotsuba doesn't exactly use difficult vocabulary though, so it's usually not so hard for me to make out what she's talking about.

Huh? It's not kyoudai, it's choudai. Choudai is the female speech casual form of "kudasai."

Whoops, guess that's where I was screwing the hell up then! I know what choudai is, but didn't notice my mistake. I could have sworn it was きょうだい when I first read it. That would explain why that sentence was kicking my ass then, yeah it makes sense now.


So to fix what I typed before (thanks for noticing):


ちょっとー！！
ナニはいってきてんのよー！！
え？
・・・かきが　かかってなかった？
と・に・か・く！
いますぐにでてってちょうだい！！！

I will agree with you, though, that reading pure Kana sucks f'ucking monkey balls. Kanji definitely makes the language a lot easier, though also a lot harder at the same time.

The last sentence sounds like "Get out, right now!" to me, now that I read it correctly. Seems to make more sense that way as well.

("Leave this place at once!" may be a more fitting translation)

I will agree with you, though, that reading pure Kana sucks f'ucking monkey balls. Kanji definitely makes the language a lot easier, though also a lot harder at the same time.

What if they just used spaces like us?

What if they just used spaces like us?

It still sucks. To me, it feels like reading chicken scratch. Reading it with Kanji makes it feel more organized and easier on the eyes.

What if they just used spaces like us?

Unnecessary. With particles and such, spaces aren't really needed (kana only sentences should be short and sweet, if theyre to long without any kanji, my head would explode)

Unnecessary. With particles and such, spaces aren't really needed (kana only sentences should be short and sweet, if theyre to long without any kanji, my head would explode)

はしのはしではしではしてたべます。

If it's going to be kana only, I'd prefer it spaced reasonably. That doesn't mean it has to be spaced every word, but just spaced every now and then nearly, kinda like how you would separate your text to keep it from looking like a wall. Nobody wants to read it when it's in a wall, but if you just space it out a little it doesn't look bad to read through. I know when I see a huge wall of text, I sometimes don't want to read it just because it's a wall, but if you were to take that text and space is properly I'd have no problem with it so long as it's not boring to read through.

So yeah, I'd prefer spaces after a certain length. Using kana only for stuff that's straight to the point is fine by me.