Considering you're looking into a medical field, a good in dept science class would probably serve you best, huh?
Inuyasha was a pretty decent balance of action, romance, and drama, but it was definitely heaviest of all on action, being a shounen manga. Overall I'd still call it a solid little series, even if historical accuracy isn't a strong point. As for Gatsby, as a general fan of what I have red of Fitzgerald, as well as a big fan of 20s music and fashion, that they went with hip hop is really disappointing. I love big band jazz and swing and stuff.
Man, Battle Royale's not really a good mainstream manga either. Why'd they did that and add the videotape/televise thing, I wonder? Was it Tokyo Pop who published it in the West? Tokyo Pop is notorious for lots of American references, to my chagrin. I remember reading their redux of Fake and cringing a lot... and that's a series taking place in New York, so I'd be more forgiving of heavy US slang. But even the adult characters sound like a 90's hip hop kid's show parody.
Yeah, I'm less picky when the difference is 'my gratitude' or 'You have my thanks.' At least in both cases, each translation is clearly taking a formal translation; likewise, I don't much fuss over whether people translate Mikami as saying eliminate, delete, remove, etc. Though, I tend to assume people who go with 'delete' are dubbies because I know that's what the dub used, while I think eliminate is better and use it myself, I don't think it's too significant. Going again back to the FMA novel translations, Ed, who speaks keigo (desu/masu polite speech) to Izumi and is generally very verbally respectful of her (because he values his life--in the manga she berates him the one time he doesn't keigo her) is translated as saying "Thanks, Teach." That's just too far out of the ballpark, unlike eliminate vs. delete or thanks vs. sorry (for the trouble).
I tend to look for unfamiliar words in various contexts using weblio, Google, Bing, and ALC. Since those all include real sentences, you can get a feel for how the word is used. Sometimes, dictionaries will also even tell you if it's a more 'newpaper' term or informal term. There are more tricky ones, like knowing the difference between yatto and youyaku, naze and nande, etc. that you just have to expose yourself to a lot of character media to learn the feel for, but fortunately the Japanese are frequently willing to talk about or think about this kind of stuff, too.
It's kind of like how in English, we tend to hear "charming" as pretentious and fake, or sarcastic. Fabulous, likewise, is usually used sarcastically or implying some degree of overdone gaudiness that smacks of sequins and camp gay. We don't use the word 'merry' outside of Christmas greetings, either, though a Chinese chick I know used it once and made me think "We need this back in our language, it's classy as hell." If a girl on a full scholarship and living stipend to Yale is using it, it's a good word, by God. You just have to try to keep a look out and try to look for patterns, then if you think you see one, see how well it holds up. It's imperfect and I have something of a complex about it. But like I said, I think it's good for a translator to always be kicking themselves and wallowing in doubt.
no subject
Inuyasha was a pretty decent balance of action, romance, and drama, but it was definitely heaviest of all on action, being a shounen manga. Overall I'd still call it a solid little series, even if historical accuracy isn't a strong point. As for Gatsby, as a general fan of what I have red of Fitzgerald, as well as a big fan of 20s music and fashion, that they went with hip hop is really disappointing. I love big band jazz and swing and stuff.
Man, Battle Royale's not really a good mainstream manga either. Why'd they did that and add the videotape/televise thing, I wonder? Was it Tokyo Pop who published it in the West? Tokyo Pop is notorious for lots of American references, to my chagrin. I remember reading their redux of Fake and cringing a lot... and that's a series taking place in New York, so I'd be more forgiving of heavy US slang. But even the adult characters sound like a 90's hip hop kid's show parody.
Yeah, I'm less picky when the difference is 'my gratitude' or 'You have my thanks.' At least in both cases, each translation is clearly taking a formal translation; likewise, I don't much fuss over whether people translate Mikami as saying eliminate, delete, remove, etc. Though, I tend to assume people who go with 'delete' are dubbies because I know that's what the dub used, while I think eliminate is better and use it myself, I don't think it's too significant. Going again back to the FMA novel translations, Ed, who speaks keigo (desu/masu polite speech) to Izumi and is generally very verbally respectful of her (because he values his life--in the manga she berates him the one time he doesn't keigo her) is translated as saying "Thanks, Teach." That's just too far out of the ballpark, unlike eliminate vs. delete or thanks vs. sorry (for the trouble).
I tend to look for unfamiliar words in various contexts using weblio, Google, Bing, and ALC. Since those all include real sentences, you can get a feel for how the word is used. Sometimes, dictionaries will also even tell you if it's a more 'newpaper' term or informal term. There are more tricky ones, like knowing the difference between yatto and youyaku, naze and nande, etc. that you just have to expose yourself to a lot of character media to learn the feel for, but fortunately the Japanese are frequently willing to talk about or think about this kind of stuff, too.
It's kind of like how in English, we tend to hear "charming" as pretentious and fake, or sarcastic. Fabulous, likewise, is usually used sarcastically or implying some degree of overdone gaudiness that smacks of sequins and camp gay. We don't use the word 'merry' outside of Christmas greetings, either, though a Chinese chick I know used it once and made me think "We need this back in our language, it's classy as hell." If a girl on a full scholarship and living stipend to Yale is using it, it's a good word, by God. You just have to try to keep a look out and try to look for patterns, then if you think you see one, see how well it holds up. It's imperfect and I have something of a complex about it. But like I said, I think it's good for a translator to always be kicking themselves and wallowing in doubt.