Why not to call your lover a carp, and other bad language uses-full article

[saitaina]

I've got it finished and up. Thanks to everyone who helped. Those whom I quoted are credited as you can see inside. Neeky, I knicked your whole post, I couldn't seperate out one quote without it going wobbly.

And now:

We've all been there we’ve all done it at one point. We have taken a language
that is not our own and inserted it into a fanfiction. Sometimes we’re fluent,
sometimes we pray Babble Fish got it right.

But sadly this has become an EPIDEMIC in Gravitation and other manga/anime
based fanfiction that is frankly starting to disgust me and turn me away from
reading fanfiction (and I read close to sixteen hours a day in between other
things).

The reason?

The rampant fan girl Japanese that is used randomly, without concern for
context or meaning that is there just to prove how special you are.

Guess what, ladies and gentle writers, you are not special. You are just
annoying the hell out of your readers. Many, many veteran readers would tell you
this…if they weren’t more polite then I am.

Luckily, I’m not polite and with the help of other long time readers have
come with a hand guide to help you in your writing of foreign language in
fanfiction.

1. Don’t do it.

That’s it.

Well, not EXACTLY since shockingly enough, there is a time and place for it.
Generally when your character speaks a foreign language, is in a land that does
NOT speak that language, and doesn’t know the proper language.

But even then, gentle writer, you can get away with not using it. For
example, let’s use one of my own characters, from my first novel. He’s a
Frenchman, visiting the United States in search of a person.

Now, Rafel can speak English, he just doesn’t when he’s talking to a fellow
countryman. I on the other hand, as the writer, know very little about French.
So how did I get around this problem? I simply wrote it in English, as
follows

Rafel leaned against his car, lighting his cigarette as Mical gave a woman
passing an appraising glance, smiling. “I wonder if she comes cheap,” he
whispered in French, causing his brother to glare at him and smack him upside
the head, gold lighter increasing the pain of the blow.
(“Affairs of the
Heart”, Lulu publishing)

See, that simple phrase “whispered in French” clue a reader in that it wasn’t
in English, while still allowing them to understand the conversation. A lot
faster and a heck of a lot more reliable then an online translator, or a friend
who could be screwing with you.

That is, basically, the only exception to the ˜Don’t do it’ rule I, as a
reader, can think of.

But sadly, this is not the only use of forgin language in fanfiction. In
manga/anime related fandoms we have what is known as “fangirl language’ or
‘random foreign words’.

This is when the writer sits there, and types two or three pages in pure
English, before randomly throwing out a word that leaves the writer to go “What
the hell?”. Sadly, more often then not, the writer is either still learning the
language, or had heard the word/sentence and thought it would be cool to
add.

It is not, dear writer, a cool thing.

The basic problem with his idea, not only in the fact that it is random and
often mis-used, but is that it does not fit. Say you are writing a Gravitation
fanfiction (as that is what this site is for). Your characters, with the
exception of six, are Japanese. And only four of the Japanese characters, speak
English fluently (and one doesn’t speak it at all) that we know of.

This means that almost all of your characters, with the exception of Claude
“K” or Bill who are known to speak English randomly, would be speaking Japanese.
But you are writing the story in English.

Which means EVERYTHING you are writing right now, would be ‘translated’ since
in reality they are speaking Japanese.

It’s not that confusing, just sit there a moment and think about it.

Right, now that you’ve caught up, if everything you are writing is
‘translated’, that would mean ANY words they speak (with the two exceptions)
would be in English as you are translating their story.

That means, no random Japanese, because it would be instantly converted to
English. Either they’re speaking Japanese and you’re writing ALL the dialogue
that way, or they’re speaking Japanese and you’re writing it in English.

Again, not that confusing, just sit for a moment and think about it.

Good.

Now, as I have mentioned, there are exceptions, but those exceptions do not
matter as they speak English, not random Japanese.

Now let’s move on to proper use/most abused Japanese words ever since I know
some of you are going to do it anyway.

Koi is a carp.

I’m sorry, but you cannot go around calling your lover a fish, it’s just not
cool. I don’t care what your bestest best friend told you. It’s a fish. A small
fish that lives in temple ponds called Koi Ponds. The Uesugi Temple has one.

Now that that is out of the way, I would like to discuss ‘usage’. This is
where we smack you with a grammar stick. As this is a Japanese grammar stick, I
have had a fluent friend put words in my mouth.

Neeks, of Lovecarp Aquarium had this to say on the subject:

I could really write an essay of my own about why young men don't ask each
other "hontou desu ka" and "daijoubu desu ka"... Yes, your online dictionary
probably told you it means "are you okay", but Japanese is a tad bit more
complicated than that.

Take a simple phrase, like "What are you doing?" In English, this could be
said by just about anyone - a street thug, a lawyer, a little kid. In Japanese,
you could say it in so many different ways, depending on who's talking to whom.
"Nani shiyagaru, kono kusoyarou?!" would be what a street thug yells when his
friend is doing something stupid. "Sumimasen ga, okyaku-sama wa nani wo
nasatteimasu ka?" is what a clerk asks when someone walks into the store and
starts riverdancing out of the blue. "Nani shiten' no?" is what a schoolgirl
asks her best friend who is writing a love letter in class. See how the three
phrases don't even look the same?

Yes, yes we do sensei. The point is (besides the amusing Riverdance
reference), Japanese is a complicated language. English, for those of us who
speak it fluently, is rather easy. Many words meaning different things and many
uses for a simple word (love, being the easiest to reference). Japanese, on the
other hand, has many words meaning many of the same things. This means you
cannot just plug a sentence into an online translator and expect correct
results. Nor can you write Japanese after taking one or two classes, because you
may not have yet learned all the meanings and could royally screw it up.

You also cannot shorten words and hope they mean the same thing. This is
where things go wrong and we start having love carps.

My dearest friend Kibethan put together a list of some of the most commonly
used (and sometimes miss-used) terms of Japanese (and their proper usage):

hai = yes
daijobu = alright (like, it's alright)
okaa-san = mother

ane-ue = My honorable older sister (funny as hell when that's said because
msot people don't realize that the ue makes it very honorable)
otou-san =
father
onii-chan = older brother
iie = no
daijobuka = are you
alright?
hontou ni = really?
houshi = monk not to be confused with
hoshii which means to want
sou ka = is that so?
baka = idiot

Do you use any of these? If so, stop.

If you INSIST on using Japanese/foreign language in fanfiction, please, for
the sake of your readers, fanfiction in general, the fandom and the world’s
sanity, get someone FLUENT in the language (as in can speak it, has spoken it
and knows it thoroughly) to translate it for you. Do NOT use Babble Fish or any
other online translator.

Thank you, gentle writer for taking a moment to better improve the fanfiction
experience.

Comments

[skinship.livejournal.com]

Babble Fish. Heh. It certainly is that.

In general, I applaud you - nicely and constructively put, and I'm honoured that you quoted me. :)

But I'd like to address a topic I forgot when I commented last time; the Japanese words that have no proper English equivalent. Take senpai for example. This word can, occasionally, be translated if the context is right. In Ranma Half, Kuno insists to be called "Upperclassman", and while this is somewhat awkward, it's still a valid translation of "senpai" and gets the point across. However, when JJ calls everyone "senpai" in the 27th, it's not so easy to find suitable ways to translate it. He treats everyone as his senior officer, and is very polite, even when he's been in the station for years and got to know everybody. If you can make this clear in your English fanfic without using the word "senpai", more power to you. I don't always find a way, and that's when I simply stick to "senpai". I like to punctuate how he stops calling Drake "Drake-senpai" when the two get romantically involved, for example. This is something that's virtually impossible to do without using the Japanese word in the fic somehow.

There are also other culturally and mythologically meaningful words, like kitsune and tanuki, that have different meanings in different cultures. For example, no Finn would make the connection that when Dee calls their chief "Badger", Sanami Matou means a plump raccoon dog with its huge testicles hanging out who likes to trick mere mortals with his transformation skills - you never know what a tanuki is up to, but he sure loves good food and loud parties. All this in one word; amazing, isn't it? I wouldn't want my readers to miss all these meanings behind the terms, so I stick to the Japanese words here, too. If the word is something really obscure, it's of course polite to offer an explanation in the author's notes. But most anime fangirls recognise words like "tanuki" - and if they don't, they should watch more Studio Ghibli movies. Pom Poko is all about them.

Well would you look at that, I seem to be ranting again. *g* Sorry, I get carried away. Future profession and so on. ;P

[saitaina]

No worries darling, all an education bit to me. I'll add that stuff in if I write a sequal or make an addendum. I'm now working on a character essay for Fujisaki Suguru of Gravi.

Speaking of Gravi, I found the WORST Mary-Sue I have seen in the fandom. I have the first eight pages bitched for ficbitch_anon. I think I'll post it tonight and do the rest up tomorrow. My eyes are bleeding from this shit.

Oh, and we need more of your fic, dearest darling. Don't make me poke you!