Dec/0812
Getting cultural enlightenment from translation
In my endeavors in translation of colloquial Japanese in common-day situations, I always end up stumbling over references made to literature, god deities, TV shows, and all kinds of imaginable commonplace things that your everyday Japanese person would know of if they are actually watching anime. For me, who's living over in cold Norway, I haven't had the chance to get indulged in these cultural tidbits around me while growing up and thus having a parental unit to ask about what the hell is going on and why it is funny. Instead, I have to do research with the mighty force of Google in Japanese behind me, reading up and trying to figure why it is funny or why something makes sense to say, and sometimes I end up wasting quite a lot time on it too. Not only is it on references, but on things that guys would never know of unless especially interested or if they got kids, and I have to say some of the things I have learned from translation is rather funny.
