rhodesia123 said:
pui ought to employ people who are fluent in english and japanese so this doesnt have to happen
I think the more important issue is whether the translators are fluent in the pokémon card game rules and engine.
I believe the way a card works is mathematically consistent. 50 damage is always 50 damage whatever language it is portrayed in. While different languages get the message across in different ways, the card should do exactly the same "mathematically".
A fluent English speaker understands the game-changing difference between Banette being allowed to KO itself and it not being able to. Equally, a fluent Japanese speaker understands the difference between being able to place counters "beyond" its maximum HP or not. Although these are two different statements, it's mathematically similar and exactly the same to gameplay.
So as I see it, translation shouldn't go from Japanese -> English (or whatever language). It should instead involve clarification of how the card works (either in Japanese or otherwise).
So the translator translates the card in a way that by reading the English or Japanese cards independently, the SAME mathematical model of the card can be constructed.
I guess what I'm trying to say is: couldn't the translators/whoever just read each translated card as if they hadn't seen it before, and THEN think "does this match how it should be"? Ie. do that as each card is translated.
Take a set of instructions to construct a yellow cardboard box:
- Draw a net in pen on yellow card
- Cut out this net
- Fold and glue
Following these instructions makes a box. If the instructions are translated, the first obvioius thing to do is to follow the new and instructions without using the original and THEN check if the boxes match.
So if the translation became equivalent to this in the original language:
- Draw a net in pen on red card
- Cut out this net
- Fold and glue
then simply following the instructions exactly would easily indicate "wait a sec. this is yellow not red"!
How this applies to pokémon you've probably all guessed by now, follow the instruction for ghost head!!
Doing what we did with the box applies the same, the same instructions give a different result showing something went wrong in the translation.
I know that Japanese and English are extremely different in all kinds of ways. No Japanese text will be translated exactly the same way by two different translators - the two languages Japanese and English are so different that you have to completely rework the whole sentence (including the word order and much more).
The effect of the card, like the colour of the box is the same in terms of game play. A correct translation of a card works exactly as the other did. Different grammar is a poor excuse IMO for a translation to be wrong because a bilingual like yourself can see the effect to be different so why canm't the translators?
It's also it's very hard to do translations for such things as TCGs, where every single word can make a huge difference. As other people have said in this entry, there are cases like this in Yu-Gi-Oh too. I think every TCG written in Japan and translated to English has to have problems like this, it's unavoidable.
Again, why can't they not release the cards until it's confirmed the card works as it should?
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I don't have much insight or knowledge into the translation process, so please treat my comments above as a "noob's view" on the subject; I'm just thinking about what makes sense not actual practalities.