The Japanese fascination with English-speaking fans...

[Marcus H.]

Marcus H.　フィリピン　20歳　男性
今のところは、君に届け２期とゴシックだね。
あぁ・・・早くきみとどの１期をコンプリートしないと・・・・・・

Seeing my post in Japanese never felt this... awkward.

On a serious note, seems that they are also gauging the fame or hype of certain series based on what I discovered; my posts were part of the Winter 2010 Anime Expectations Thread here.

[Tri-ring]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Which is accessible only to accepted "friends". All right, who here has been leaking my private information?

Mods needs to confirm this but I don't think you need to be befriended to see you public profile since I can go through yours.
And no I am not the one if anyone is curious. I don't get any kicks translating other people's comments and I wouldn't do it unless I am paid.

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Which is accessible only to accepted "friends". All right, who here has been leaking my private information?

Please accept my apologies. I did manage to enter your profile and see your info. Perhaps you should look over your privacy settings?

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

On a more constructive note, this thread reminds me of a series of "dialogues" between English-language and Japanese-language players of Square-Enix's MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI. The whole thing was community driven, and the questions and answers are archived here.

Since we're all feeling a bit shocked at being "spied upon" by otherworldly entities speaking in moon runes, why not set up an inter-species inter-cultural exchange in this thread?

Like, "We come in peace. How are you doing?", or "Why are you watching us?", or even "Do Japanese men really dig teenage girls in sailor-moon uniforms?"

Since we already got their attention, we might as well And you'd want to know if that's what they're interested in, wouldn't you

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by Tri-ring

Mods needs to confirm this but I don't think you need to be befriended to see you public profile since I can go through yours.
And no I am not the one if anyone is curious. I don't get any kicks translating other people's comments and I wouldn't do it unless I am paid.

Originally Posted by Tsuyoshi

Please accept my apologies. I did manage to enter your profile and see your info. Perhaps you should look over your privacy settings?

Oh f*ck. I forgot that I changed the setting to all registered members some time ago. Part of my decision to go public about my professional ties. Well... no harm done, really. And, yes, I would very much like to know why Japanese men are such perverts have such eclectic tastes.

WTB Japanese-English Auto-Translator. {Good evening!} {Nice to meet you.} {Gil} {Do you have it?}

[cyth]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

but translating whole posts and going as far as specifying the name of the author and their gender (!)? I don't think that ever happened, or at least I've never seen such a thing.

Well, gender, age and nationality, as these sites like to specify, help their readers determine what kind of perspective is behind the translated opinions. They wouldn't be doing us any favors if they just applied a GAIJIN label to all of us. No, we come from different places, some of us are more experienced than others and so on. I guess it doesn't help combat generalizations all that much and may bring about other generalizations, but it's a bit more helpful to know that a 15 year-old girl from Malaysia has a different opinion on the subject of anime piracy than a 40 year-old male U.S. citizen, and that's just one example.

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Kagayaki

Haha, you should. I think the logical conclusion of this translation circle is that whoever is going through all the effort to translate these things back and forth would basically just be acting as an intermediary so that Japanese and English speaking fans could talk directly with each other.

I think what's so fascination about this is not simply conversation back and forth. But how what you said can be taken, interpreted, and commented upon in a different language and cultural perspective

And did i say that i am envy with some of you because they didn't quote my post?

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

And did i say that i am envy with some of you because they didn't quote my post?

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...www.google.com

there, you don't need to envy us anymore.

[Akito Kinomoto]

Originally Posted by Kagayaki

I think the logical conclusion of this translation circle is that whoever is going through all the effort to translate these things back and forth would basically just be acting as an intermediary so that Japanese and English speaking fans could talk directly with each other.

Dare I try this?

"Japan, who is your favorite seiyu? Mine would be Rie Kugimiya or Kana Ueda."

[Midonin]

I've done something like that once before. There's this guy on Nico who made some tribute music that I liked, and, though I had to translate my e-mail to Japanese and he to English, it was a mutual exchange of "I like your work. Keep it up!" "Thanks, much appreciated."

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...www.google.com

there, you don't need to envy us anymore.

I actually also just got to that pages using google. And it was a fun experiences reading what i wrote back from several years ago

It seems even the most recent one was at least 2 years back, they stopped quoting me? xD....

[RWBladewing]

I found another post by me here. From what I can tell from Google's translation I think whoever made that page was really surprised that I'm not a fan of Hinagiku from Hayate no Gotoku because he's never heard of a foreigner not liking her before. I guess I'm happy they consider me unique then, haha.

[Solace]

The only thing I could find was a thread of us talking about Madoka's delay due to the earthquake. Finding things with my username isn't easy. ><

[Vexx]

I've run across my posts translated before ... I think its amusing though when they dump on a post you can't help but feeling the few haters are a bit cowardly since they're in the "safety of the Nihongo sphere" from most foreign posters. However, Google Translate is getting scarily better month by month for those who can't read Japanese.

Most of the Japanese fan comments I see though are just outright curiosity or amazement that outsiders have any clue at all.

[DonQuigleone]

I just think it's amazing they bother to translate forum posts. I mean maybe I could understand blog posts, but forum posts are a lot like conversations, rather then coherent complete writing.

How good are they at detecting when we're sarcastic and/or humourous?

[Archon_Wing]

It's too bad the only notable one of me is about tsunderes, as that is my least favorite sibjects to talk about. It's even funnier since they added their own pics to point out who's who. So now, they associated me with Shana. I guess it could be worse.

[Icy.Tear]

Well, they tend to miss some subtleties:

HI Ep. 6

NNNOOOOO!!!! Tohru, hands off Ohana. You've got Minchi already. XD

徹はミンチがいるのに緒花にLOVEってことなの！？
Despite the fact that Tohru already has Minchi, he's going to 'LOVE' Ohana!?

I suppose that, looking at it in a certain light, they're about the same in terms of nuance. Perhaps.

Rather, looking at it from a Japanese viewpoint, I suppose that it'd make more sense than what I'd translate it as:
いいいやあああああああ！！徹、緒花で離れなさい！ミンチはもうあんたの女だから XD

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Which is accessible only to accepted "friends". All right, who here has been leaking my private information?

On a more constructive note, this thread reminds me of a series of "dialogues" between English-language and Japanese-language players of Square-Enix's MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI. The whole thing was community driven, and the questions and answers are archived here.

Since we're all feeling a bit shocked at being "spied upon" by otherworldly entities speaking in moon runes, why not set up an inter-species inter-cultural exchange in this thread?

Like, "We come in peace. How are you doing?", or "Why are you watching us?", or even "Do Japanese men really dig teenage girls in sailor-moon uniforms?"

I think this is a really great idea. What if we found a similiarly large Japanese forum and corresponded with them, and some obliging individuals with a decent command of both languages could do the translating, something along the lines of FFXI example you gave. Each side would compile a set of questions, and we'd send them to each other, and then we'd each answer all their questions. What you guys think?

Examples of questions: 2D or 3D women? (or more seriously "Many anime talk about Otaku preferring 2D women to 3D women, how widespread a belief is this really among Japanese Anime fans?")

Are there Japanese fan translations of western TV?

If you watch western material, do you only watch American stuff, or do you watch British or other European stuff in translation as well?

In western Anime fandom, downloading is the main mode of distribution, how widely is downloading used in Japan?

etc. etc.

[ChainLegacy]

Hmm, well I can't blame them I guess. While I wouldn't go as far as translating forum posts myself, I am often curious of perceptions of various things in different cultures.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by ChainLegacy

Hmm, well I can't blame them I guess. While I wouldn't go as far as translating forum posts myself, I am often curious of perceptions of various things in different cultures.

It gets better — even the Greeks are interested in us. To my amusement, someone actually quoted me on a Greek anime forum back in 2008:

Originally Posted by Kenny

Χεχε. Αυτό που περίμενα. Οι εξελίξεις στο 21 δεν αρέσουν. Για να δούμε πως θα σας φανεί και το 22.

Food for thought από το animesuki forum για τα επεισόδια 20 + 21. Ως επί το πλείστον συμφωνώ με τα παρακάτω posts.

OK... need to keep my ego in check and my head from swelling too big now.


Err... how do I say "thank you" in Greek?

[Last Sinner]

The real question is - has this thread been copied, broken down and discussed by them?