Katrina Leonoudakis πŸ’™ katrinal10n.bsky Profile picture
Localization Producer & JA-EN Specialist! I've migrated to bluer skies -- find my essays, discussions, and info on my next speaking engagement there. πŸ’™K
Dec 21, 2023 β€’ 4 tweets β€’ 2 min read
Machine translation isn't 'smart' enough to handle audiovisual work like TV, movies, anime, manga, etc.
I wrote an entire essay about it back in January 2021, but the fact remains even now in 2023.
Audiovisual translators are already criminally underpaid, both due to the intrusion of machine translation in the field as a whole, and the demand to work in the entertainment industry.
At least show your fans and creators more respect by giving them a human translation.
Jun 11, 2023 β€’ 4 tweets β€’ 1 min read
99% of the time, when a game is revealed, the only thing we CAN do is say "Hey! I worked on this!"
Lots of times, we've been waiting years to say it.
But apart from that, we're not allowed to "represent" the company to talk about anything. That's Marketing's job! You can get in trouble for making the slightest hints about anything that's going to be in a game (or show), because people will take your word as "official".
Leaking anything PURPOSEFULLY, i.e. to get RTs, likes or updoots, is grounds for termination pretty much everywhere.
Jun 10, 2023 β€’ 22 tweets β€’ 7 min read
In Japanese 101, you were probably taught that 倩才 means "genius".
But "genius" in English doesn't function the same way that 倩才 does in Japanese.
Let's talk about meaning, collocation, and the wonderful world of corpora!🧡#l10n Image (Yes, this is another short essay that's going to ruin subtitles for you, because once you start seeing it, you won't be able to stop seeing it.
It just can't be helped. You'll never forgive me.)
Apr 19, 2023 β€’ 4 tweets β€’ 2 min read
Have to disagree with this comment🧡, because γ€Œγγ‚Œγ―γ€‚γ€‚γ€‚γ€ is not a truncation of the phrasesγ€Œγγ‚Œγ―ι•γ„γΎγ™γ€ or γ€Œγγ‚Œγ―ζœ¬ε½“γ γ€.
In these contexts, it's 100% phatic, not literal.
You're still taking the γγ‚Œ too literally. "The character themselves doesn't know which one it is"?
If they're being asked a question and don't know the answer, then they wouldn't be responding with "That's not true/that's right", would they? πŸ˜‰
In that case, γγ‚Œγ― HAS to be phatic, and "that's" is even MORE wrong!
Apr 19, 2023 β€’ 64 tweets β€’ 14 min read
Language is complicated, yet somehow, we manage to express infinite meanings with the limited words and sounds we have.
But how do you translate a line of dialogue when the words they're saying don't actually matter?
Let's talk about phatic expressions in translation! 🧡 Image This is also available to read and share on my website:
katrina-l-translation.online/2023/04/18/tra…
And yes, the Tom Scott video on this is one of my favorites!