Re: Subs vs. Dubs redux (was Re: For darkstar...)

S.t.A.n.L.e.E <LostRune+NGs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wa:
Heh, my Chinese friends would have a field day with this.
No regular Gringo could say their real Chinese names close.
Not only would they have to get the pronunciations right
but also the cadence (among other things).
It's like a wake-up call if somebody was speaking in English
then suddenly change into Chinese names.
It can be jarring.............. and funny. ^_^

Yeah, this is similar to the Japanese mispronouncing English. Where
phonemes are concerned, it goes like: Chinese > English > Japanese. This
makes it difficult for someone coming from a smaller set of phonemes to
learn to properly speak a language with a larger set. This is part of
the reason why I don't really care if the Japanese repeatedly butcher
English in anime (I also find it funny, among other things).


(Now you know why they adopt Western names in addition to their own.
Can't have a dramatic line ruined by unintentional funny try of Chinese.)

My Japanese friend stopped giving her full name to her American friends
as "what to call her", and instead adopted a nickname that is basically
her real name without the last syllable, because she got so sick of
people butchering the pronunciation of her name. How hard is it to say
"Satomi" properly anyways?

Meanwhile, in Japan, pretty much no one ever said my name right but I
have ceased to care that much about this over the years. Even though my
name is two syllables, it contains the dreaded "R", and so, well, you
can see the problem (also, the vowel pronunciations are not intuitive
based on the spelling, which kinda sucks).

Learning a lot about Japanese has in turn forced me to learn a lot of
nuances of English that aren't covered in your standard classes. English
obviously puts emphasis on the second syllable of a three-syllable word
whereas Japanese emphasizes the first. This small change to the way an
English voice actor speaks a Japanese name can't be THAT hard, can it?
I mean, I'm just an internet idiot and I can do it without much effort.
So, professionals should be able to 1-up me on this, right?


--
"Care must be exorcised when handring Opiticar System as it is apts to
be sticked by dusts and hand-fat." --Japanese Translators

"Keep your fingers off the lens." --Elton Byington, English Translator
.

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