I have talked about the difficulty of translation between languages before, but I’ve been thinking about translations again recently, so I decided to write my thoughts on the subject in greater detail this time.

Right now, I am currently at a level of proficiency that allows me to consume some Japanese media entirely in Japanese. Some things are still well above my level of comprehension, such as scientific, political, or highly technical topics, but for the most part, I can understand pretty much anything that I encounter. This has, in turn, caused my confidence in my ability to understand to increase greatly. I am now at the point where I am considering replacing a lot of my translated Japanese media, mostly video games, with the Japanese versions. Those are the original versions of those works, in most cases, although there are some exceptions, as I do have several Japanese games that were actually written in English to begin with, but for the most part, Japanese is the original language.

I don’t really need to do this, but it doesn’t really prevent me from considering doing it anyway. I have found that my ability to understand another language has allowed me to understand the things that don’t work well in English or can’t be translated to English at all. There are plenty of Japanese jokes or words or expressions that do not work well in English. The reverse is true, as well. Because some things simply do not exist in the other language, translation becomes difficult or perhaps impossible, depending on the situation. At this point, the best the translator can do is to do the best they can or to choose to simply replace what can’t be translated with something that the target audience can understand. This is partially why I generally prefer to use the word “localization” in place of “translation” in many cases, as there is an important difference to make.

Seeing the Japanese versions of non-Japanese media is also rather interesting, but for different reasons. Although I almost never watch films or TV, I do love Star Trek. One of the first things I did when I bought a set of Star Trek Blu-rays several years ago was to check the Japanese language tracks. Learning how all of the characters speak in Japanese was actually rather interesting, as some of them spoke in ways that I would not have expected them to speak in. Although I did find this to be rather amusing, I do still prefer Star Trek in English, however, so I changed it back. Perhaps I’ll try it in Japanese again in the future, however.

In any case, translation between languages can be difficult. If the words that you are looking for do not convey the intended meaning of the original language, it can be difficult to find something that does work. This is perhaps one of the more difficult aspects of localization, I believe, but with practice and good word use, I think it can still be overcome.