HALLOO



Another week of my mindless questions. Sorry.


I have a brain of a curious five year old. Non stop questions....
(To Five year olds who is reading this, this lowly Misera praises you if you know how to get on this site at your age!)
(To mommies who have adorable, obedient five year olds... Don't kill me...)


So, this week's question is:


Is it really a turnoff in English Language stories to have Japanese phrases?

I've read some amazing stories with Japanese phrases, but I've noticed a lot of readers don't like them in a story?

Is it bad to put a Japanese phrases in a story, then at the end during AN's, we define them??



Personally, I don't mind. I'm not fluent in Japanese, but I know enough to save my life if it should come to it.


What about YOU?

I think this one might depend on who is reading it. Because, everyone's personal wants on a story is different.

For me; I think that if it has little things, like chan or kun at the end of a name. Or other things that are easy to understand. That is fine, because its easy to catch on to, and flows together with the story nicely.

When they do full sentences, or use very hard terms to understand. It is hard to read, not just Japanese terms, but other languages some of people won't speak fluently in. That's when it is something I don't like. Because I feel like I am missing half the story.

Sure, they can leave footnotes at the bottom, but usually if you don't understand a full sentence, you will still feel lost, or annoyed.

But then its the author's opinion, and their story.. But to me, its sort of like when people just use dialogue for one chapter, no description. Just speaking between the characters, it makes me not want to read it.

So, I guess it can be a bit of a turn off?

doesnt bother me unless theres one ive never read before and the person doesnt put the definition somewheres. ive been reading a while and i know most of the common ones used. so its not really a big deal. i know some people dont like it but i dont get y so if someone can explain y they dont that would be interesting.

I think for many it's not a matter of not understanding a Japanese word. After all, most of us know what Arigato or Konnichiwa means or at least can surmise what they mean through the context of the sentence.

The real matter however, is that foreign words can be jarring when reading and therefore can disrupt the flow. If a reader spends too long of a moment deciphering a word, then the ease of reading is lost and they are pulled out of the story.

Personally, I believe honorifics are usually fine, such as -sama or -kun, along with titles or the names of things, like miko or hakama (pants). But words that are easily defined in English are best written in English. The less time the reader spends translating a word in their head, the better.

The simple, easy to understand words, such as arigato, or honorifics/titles such as -kun or onii-chan/youkai, are fine, in my point of view anyway. They never disrupt the flow of the story for me, and sometimes, they even sound better than what could be put in English.

However, long phrases or full sentences can be quite confusing to the reader. If someone doesn't understand it, it can really throw the reader off. Even though we may eventually find out what the phrase means, whether it be by the footnote or context of the story, it will really damage the flow of the story if one misses a chunk of the text. Imagine scribbling out a small part of a book, a paragraph, a sentence, etc. Even though that particular section of the story may not be crucial to the story's plot, it will still probably make the reader wonder what that bit is.

And thus, that small pause of the story will most likely disrupt the flow.

I agree. I think using words like youkai, hanyou, and miko, somehow make a story more...authentic. Plus we've all probably read enough fics that use these terms, plus the manga, to know what they mean. Honorifics are also fine. I mean, even if you don't know what they mean, it isn't that big of a deal. But whole phrases are distracting to me, and like the others have said, it disrupts the flow.

Though I completely agree with everything said above, I also discovered that even creating your own attacks, such as the "Kaze no Kizu" that InuYasha uses can sometimes disrupt the reader too. I had a complaint about the attack I have Kagome use with her sword because I discovered then that not everyone wishes to watch the animes in Japanese with english subtitles like I do. Some people only know "Wind Scar" and that's perfectly fine too. The key is finding a nice balance between them. Don't use them too frequently because you'll lose those readers. Not everyone is going to like everything, you can't win them all. But keeping an even ground goes a long way to pleasing most people.

The way I plan on getting around that in the future is to state the english translation right there with the Japanese one. Something like, "Kaze no Kizu... Wind Scar, huh?" This could possibly annoy one or two more hardcore Japanese fans, but on the flip side, now everyone knows what it means without having to disrupt the flow of the story by looking for a translation.

I don't really find it much of a turn off, unless it's used frequently without translations provided at the bottom of the chapter.

the only time it bothers me is when the Japanese words are misused and misspelled... also the random sprinkling of Japanese words in sentences to where it's half English-half Japanese is jarring and can get irritating. Personally I like to stick to using titles, and vocabulary where there is no real definitive translation from one language to the other (ie: youkai).

The occasional Japanese vocab word used to make the story sound and feel more authentic doesn't bother me in the least, especially if there's really no equivalent English word. But when you have characters speaking lines of dialog entirely in Japanese, I find that disruptive and just plain silly.

I really, really, really hate it. My first language was Japanese and English is either my fourth or fifth... When I read English FanFictions and all of sudden it changes to Japanese I get so confused it's not even funny. My brain is not good with the switched languages because my English itself is still not very good. So when it all of sudden switches, it leaves me thinking, "Wait, is that English? I never heard of that English word." The characters in the story are either speaking one or the other. 1. English - The FanFiction is written in English and will stay English. or 2. Japanese - The FanFiction is written in English but they are speaking Japanese.

Very interesting ^_^


Wow, I guess the feeling is mutual for many of us!



Thank you all for replying!

(And preventing me from making a fatal mistake during my cannon fic!)