User blog:Damesukekun/Song Translating and Mistranslating

Okay, I've found not a few vocaloid songs that are awfully mistranslated on YouTube and other sites. I think it would be good to create an article about translating and mistranslating, but I want your opinion before starting.

Here is a draft plan. Feel free to leave your comment. Damesukekun (talk) 13:28, October 28, 2012 (UTC)

Please leave your comment here.

Last edited on October 28. Still growing.

Many volunteer translators of Vocaloid songs are active on YouTube and other sites. Since the release of Hatsune Miku, many Vocaloid songs have been created in Japan and the songs have caught many fans. Most overseas fans, however, don't understand Japanese so translators are of much need. Those translators have made a great contribution to the Vocaloid fandom, but unfortunately not all of the translators leave high quality translations. In fact many grave mistranslations that totally convert original lyrics are going around.

Japanese language is one of the most difficult languages for westerners. The Department of States says an American needs about 4,000 hours of study for basic Japanese skill whereas the Ministry of Education and Science of Japan says a Japanese needs about 2,000 hours for basic English skill. That means learning Japanese is much more difficulty than learning English. Japanese language has tons of conjugation and inflection patterns and particles. A slightest misreading can easily lead to a grave mistranslation. Furthermore Japanese writing system is very complicated. Japanese sentences don't have interword spaces. Most Kanji have several readings with different senses.

It is almost impossible to self-learn Japanese. If you want to understand the language properly, you should take a Japanese class with a professional teacher. Yet a few month of learning isn't enough to grasp the whole framework of Japanese. It takes much time and effort to teach all the Japanese conjugation, inflection patterns and particles so the Japanese taught in overseas is in a simplified form. The teachers only teach basic expressions. You will need years of study for the command of Japanese.

Here are the typical mistranslations of Vocaloid songs by beginners.
 * Misreading of omitted subjects and objects.
 * Misreading of transitive verbs and intransitive verbs.
 * Misreading of main verbs and subsidiary verbs.
 * Misreading of 連体形 (attributive form). The Japanese verb in attributive form is exactly in the same form as 終止形 (basic form) so beginners often mix up the two forms.
 * Misinterpreting of は. The particle は usually works as a subject marker, but sometimes adverbial marker.
 * Misinterpreting of が. The particle が works either subject marker or object marker.