Please Translate, "Father, Mother, Grandmother..."

[takenoko]

To me it matters not, as long as we can keep on honorifics on real names. Mother ad Father could be changed or left along. Whatever path is taken though should also be done with Nii-san and Nee-san though.

Yeah, I initially made the change to make it match with the Nii-san/Nee-san thing. Although I don't feel like anyone's ever really had a problem with those terms. Maybe it's because father/mother isn't quite as affectionate as the relationship between siblings?

[superjollymac]

It honestly doesn't bother me at all. But I do usually translate stuff in my head while I'm watching anyway. Not that I don't trust you guys or anything, I just find it a nice way to keep me from forgetting my Japanese. I do understand how it'd confuse people without a japanese background or even experience in real japanese speaking. Seeing as some terms can be used in ways that not everyone's familiar with, like the oojisan, oobasan, even nichan and sensei... The list goes on.

[Tenraisenpuujin]

I'm with the "translate them" camp, personally. I'm half-Japanese and I speak a bit of it, so it's not really confusing or anything; it's just that I think that any time there's a direct analog in English for a Japanese word, it should get translated.

And really, the honorifics aren't really a barrier to this. Depending on the context and the ending, you don't just have to stick with "father/mother/grandfather/etc.", there's a host of words that correspond in English: Dad, Daddy, Mom, Ma, Mommy, Grandfather, Gramps, Grandpa... Even the brother/sister relationship could sometimes be boiled down to (Big/Little) Bro and Sis, though the various terms for big/little brother/sister tend to be more nuanced than we get/use in English.

[VerusMaya II]

I like it as-is. Oooba-san and similar overwhelming words may be getting a little overboard, but seeing a sibling called "sis" is just too Americanized, I guess.

[NicktheQuik]

I've had a similar problem while watching Magiranger a year or so ago. I thought Makito's name was Aniki for a while. I don't think it was translated that Aniki means, older brother or whatever, so for a while I got real confused as to why they kept calling him Makito, and Aniki. I thought he had two names or something.

[voltronfan83]

My two cents would be close family (brother, sister, father, mother) with the honorifics are great left in, as well as some of the other common Japanese words, aka Itadakimasu. Maybe other family members such as uncles and aunts I could see changing to the English equivalent, but I would still like to see the honorifics added for clarity sake.

Its my view that watching media from another culture should help to broaden one's own horizons and understandings while also being entertained. It's both learning and fun!

[Silentwolfdog]

Are there any meaning behind some words?

Like if you tried to translate mom, mama, mommy, or mother into Japanese. We all know those words have different meaning behind it and it could get lost in translation. That's one of issues which the reason why I like the way TVN does their stuff right now. Leaving it alone. So that way I can understand the level of affection behind it due to disadvantage I have over you guys.

I also think poll's pretty much spoke for, for the majority.

I also think it's neat to be able to see words match person's lip movement.

[William_Duel]

Well my thing is that there are many variations in japanese and lots of the words have different meanings.
Otou-san is basically dad, then we have Otou-sama, more respect. And then there's Chichi-ue (sp?) which is like honorable father and is the most respectful you can be for your dad. I think just translating it as Father, leaves a lot of that out. I mean for Chichi-ue I've seen people translate it as simply Honorable Father but I dunno... I think this could simply be resolved by leaving the original word in and putting in a translator's note somewhere. There's also a million ways to say brother, much more than father or mother. Aniki for example, isn't always used for brothers and is often times used by Yakuza to denote a senior (sempai-ish) or just someone they respect. I think in recent times the word is starting to be used more often colloquially but it wasn't always like that. I think an accurate translation for Aniki would simply be "bro". So I just think it would be a tremendous disservice to plop them down in certain ways unless you would attempt to match it with the varying respectful forms in english (pops, papa, daddy, dad, etc.).

[SunStar85]

I personally prefer to have the words translated as mother and father. While I understand what they mean, I'm going along reading English and then boom! Japanese word. It kind of pulls me out of the show for a second to insert the English word.

-chan and -san don't bother me though as they clarify relationships.

I do appreciate all of the work that the TV-N staff puts into each episode. Thank you so much for all of your time and effort, and keep up the great work!

[Spectrum]

I like "Onii-chan" and "Oba(a)-san". I have mixed feelings about "Tou-san" and "Kaa-san". On one hand they seem like a bit of overkill, but OTOH some shades of meaning are lost if you translate them.

I do, however, believe that we could do well with some more translator's notes.

• Japanese or asians youngsters tend to call older ladies which are not related to them Obaasan which literally means aunt, but this is not common in english speaking culture so you can keep the Obaasan

"Oba-san" means "aunt. "Obaa-san" means "grandmother".

[shadowneko003]

Personally, whatever the group decides to go, that's fine with me. But keep the "-san, -sama, -chan, -kun, etc" in.

[lostinbrave]

I think I am the first person to explicitly state this: I like the Japanese terms more.

I really don't know why for any reason other than I like them more.

[DekaChief]

I don't have any preference, but if you keep using the Japanese words, maybe at least put a Translator's note for the first time they're used in each show.

[Ryu Serpentine]

As someone who watches alot of subs, I personally like the Japanese terms more. I do however think they should have a Translator's Note the first time they are used.

[harpdevil]

It doesn't bother me at all, I prefer it that way. Titles such as mum, dad, nan and granddad are basically used as secondary names, particularly by children, and you don't translate or change names. As we don't use honorifics in English it's important to keep them, they give us an extra insight into two character's relationship. For instance, if a child calls their mother Kaa-sama instead of Kaa-san, that tells you something very important about their relationship. What are you going to have instead? Mum-san?

Im saying this from the viewpoint of a british white guy in his 20s, who lives in an area that has (im guessing) about 90% caucasians and very very few asians, never mind dividing that demographic into nationalities. The simple untranslated words I know I have learnt from watching the shows, it doesn't take very long at all, and really if you have any interest in japanese shows you'll pick it up very quickly.

Stupid example: I was watching the latest episode of Naruto today and although I could very distinctly hear "Yondaime" (the characters name), the subtitles read "the Fourth". It wasn't even part of a sentence, just one word. That western simplification threw me out of the show much more than a straight non-translation would have.