🌿Translation pitfalls

#language

和製英語 Table

日本語 English Literal Notes
リボン Bow Ribbon 90% of the time, ribon in Japanese is supposed to be bow in English
スイーツ Desserts, snacks Sweets UK English, fine; US English, most likely not the "sweets" that I'd picture as being hard candy.
メールマガジン e-newsletter Mail magazine
ギミック Trick, trap Gimmick Sometimes it is gimmick, but that is the only word choice in Jpn for different things it could be
マニキュア Nail polish Manicure This almost always just means nail polish
SNS Social media SNS I hardly ever see English speakers say SNS.
HP Website, site HP HP for home page, but that sounds dated?
フェス Fest Fes Short for festival. Aussie Fest, not Aussie Fes.
クールタイム Cooldown Cool time For games
NGワード Forbidden/Banned words NG word NG stands for the opposite of OK: no good, but that's not how it should be here

Translation quirks to avoid

The way things are written in Japanese can be very different than how we'd state things in English. Japanese people have no issue with repetition/redundancy, but that's something that English speakers might not find appealing. Stuff like that!

  1. Don't bother using *
    Japanese will often uses ＊ at the start of a sentence to indicate that it's an important note. This concept? doesn't exist in English, but I think a looot of people just use the most obvious equivalent: the asterisk. But asterisks are more for footnotes...
    ＊続く前に必ず読んでください
    Continue only after reading. < Just dropping it works fine, I promise. That asterisk usage doesn't exist outside of Jpn > Eng tranlsated media. It's just not a thing, and it doesn't have to be a thing. You can also just put "Note:" at the beginning or enclose the text in brackets or something.

  2. Overuse of "please"
    Japanese can tend to end many things in ください.
    ボタンを押してください。
    A simple "Push the button." is not necessarily impolite. Plus, it gets redundant when there are many upcoming lines that start with "Please" but it's fine lol.

  3. Overuse of quotation marks
    この飛行機は「安全」で「快適」
    This plane is safe and comfy, not this plane is "safe" and "comfy" 😭 (Sort of paraphrasing from that one legendary localization blunder)