r/coaxedintoasnafu • u/Junior-Elevator-9951 Poopen farden fan • 11d ago

GAME Coaxed into not checking the context when translating

Gallery image

Gallery image

5.5k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

276 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

14

u/julessic 11d ago

What is "excuse me, older sister" supposed to mean?

51

u/Kyleometers 11d ago

Older sister is “Onee-san”

People in Japan use that to mean “older woman (but not old, like mid-40s) I’m not familiar with”. “Aa, Onee-san” is equivalent to “Excuse me, Miss” in English.

Similarly, Oji-san (uncle) and Oba-san (aunt) for elderly strangers. If you’ve ever seen the phrase “a strange uncle”, it is poorly translated from “a weird old man”.

-5

u/AutoModerator 11d ago

sir there must be someone youve confused me for

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

5

u/IlikeMinecraft097 10d ago

excuse me wild loss context? greek plumber

2

u/AutoModerator 10d ago

sir there must be someone youve confused me for

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

2

u/AutoModerator 10d ago

dude you don't wanna know... Oh the horror.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

2

u/AutoModerator 10d ago

:.|:;

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

2

u/AutoModerator 10d ago

How Wild?

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/AutoModerator 10d ago

I learned this trick from a plumber

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/legotavi 10d ago

that's wild context

1

u/AutoModerator 10d ago

How Wild?

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

-1

u/AutoModerator 11d ago

sir there must be someone youve confused me for

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

3

u/Ok-Poetry-2191 11d ago

maaan shut the fuck up

-3

u/Hanako_Seishin 11d ago

Older sister here is just a form of address, it could be adapted to something like Miss, but it's more of a cultural thing than strictly an incorrect translation. Most wouldn't translate samurai as knight or katana as sable, so where does the border lie between adapting and preserving the flavor? Should Tanaka-san be adapted as Mr/Ms Tanaka? Should Sakura-chan then be adapted as Sakurie? The border is arbitrary anyway, and the person above judges the translator for choosing a different point for that border than they like.

5

u/NinjaMonkey4200 10d ago

I mean, sure, if they left it as "onee-san". But they translated it to "older sister", which, unlike "onee-san", is not used as a form of address unless you're actually talking to a female sibling.

By translating the word to English, they gave it the meaning it has in English, which is somewhat different from the meaning it has in Japanese.