Saku Saku Weird Translation?

[Akshay]

So I noticed something yesterday, when I finished yuri's route. With my (admittedly) limited knowledge of japanese.

As far as I know baka means idiot. And hanako always calls yuma baka or idiot. (from the audio) Yet it seems to be translated to bat. 

i.e.

Asa-baka becomes asa-bat instead of idiot.

It bothered me.....

[Dergonu]

Baka = Bat.

Wut? o.O

 

Are you sure the word is baka?

That is either just a typo, or some weird refrence I don't understand. I can't see how baka would become bat... I mean, I personally wouldn't leave in "name-baka" as "name-idiot", I'd make up some fun insult instead, but... bat? That seems too strange to me.

I want to say it's a typo, but the fact that it's repeated several times makes me question that... I'm at a loss, lol.

[Okarin]

Yup, seems they went full retardo and mistook "baka" for "bat".

When Hanako talks about "designing bats [by eroge writers]", seems she's talking about "designing idiots" instead, since in the above sentence she says those people are "irritating".

[ShinRaikdou]

They even changed image translation ON bat after last patch.

Spoiler

Why you ask? It is simple. Look at protagonist name. Asaba. Asa-ba-ka. Asa-ba-t.

Bat can be mean as idiot, referring to

 

Edited October 16, 2017 by ShinRaikdou

[Dergonu]

5 minutes ago, ShinRaikdou said:

Bat can be mean as idiot, referring to

 

Huh, I see. The more you know.

Well, that explains it. Not a typo. (I thought it was weird, since they repeated it three times in the conversation.)

Though, I still think simply going with "moron" or something like that would be way better. "Bat" sounds dumb, even if it is correct.

[Akshay]

30 minutes ago, ShinRaikdou said:

They even changed image translation ON bat after last patch.

  Hide contents

Why you ask? It is simple. Look at protagonist name. Asaba. Asa-ba-ka. Asa-ba-t.

Bat can be mean as idiot, referring to

 

Thanks. Did not know that. Still it feels kind of unnatural to use in regular conversation and I'm willing to bet the majority of people who played this did not know that.

Probably would have been better if they used moron or something.

A lot of these things make sense in slang.

For example saying "you're such a bat" may imply he is an idiot, 

but hearing a reply "he is not a bat" or "game designers should use you as a reference for designing bat's" feels very weird.

Less than an innovative translation, and more of a crude find and replace for baka.

 

Edited October 16, 2017 by Akshay

[Akimoto Masato]

She might be a vampire 

 

[Akshay]

38 minutes ago, Akimoto Masato said:

She might be a vampire 

 

He might be a vampire.

Yes, I will keep doing this to you!

[Akimoto Masato]

1 hour ago, Akshay said:

He might be a vampire.

Yes, I will keep doing this to you!

Just let me assign genders to people god 

[Okarin]

Oh, so it's one of those things impervious to us non-native speakers. Great, I guess.

[Akshay]

21 minutes ago, Okarin said:

Oh, so it's one of those things impervious to us non-native speakers. Great, I guess.

NO! I'm a native english speaker. I'm still not convinced that that article isn't a shitpost. 

 

4 hours ago, ShinRaikdou said:

 

 

NO self respecting person would cheat on someone with there mom and then call them a bat.....

I mean if you wanna get back at someone there are so many non-cringe worthy things you can say.

This will leave most people more confused than insulted.

[HMN]

#cheeky

[Beichuuka]

I mean, you do hear things like "You're bats/batty" to mean someone's crazy, etc, but....
(bats/batty comes from "bats in the belfry", which in itself is a phrase I've never heard of)

I don't think any average English speaker is going to get what bat is supposed to mean here lol.

Edit:
I think the last time I remember hearing bat used in this context is by the Joker, when he says something along the lines of "You're making me batty" to, guess who? Batman.

Edited October 16, 2017 by Beichuuka

[ChaosRaven]

Never heard that the word 'bat' is used in that context. But English isn't my mother language, so it's certainly possible, even if I don't think it's a frequently used word in that context.

Still, it's nothing compared to Chrono Clock's translation, where a supposedly ultra British girl is constantly throwing in Japanese words to 'emphasize' her Britishness. 

Edited October 16, 2017 by ChaosRaven

[Mr Poltroon]

1 hour ago, ChaosRaven said:

Still, it's nothing compared to Chrono Clock's translation, where a supposedly ultra British girl is constantly throwing in Japanese words to 'emphasize' her weeaboo-ness. 

Fixed.

 

I have serious doubts that 'bat' in that context is used widely enough for that to be an astute translation choice.

[Okarin]

Seems just obscure slang.

[Chuee]

It's explained in the first instance the phrase is used, and I'm pretty sure the meaning is just simply the animal, not slang for "idiot". 

So yeah, you would have to not read the lines to misunderstand why she's calling him that. 

[ittaku]

3 hours ago, ChaosRaven said:

Never heard that the word 'bat' is used in that context. But English isn't my mother language, so it's certainly possible, even if I don't think it's a frequently used word in that context.

Still, it's nothing compared to Chrono Clock's translation, where a supposedly ultra British girl is constantly throwing in Japanese words to 'emphasize' her Britishness. 

As a native Australian speaker who speaks something closer to UK English than US English I can tell you that I have never used or heard bat used in such a way. Personally I have no problem with wildly different translations of baka since idiot rarely conveys the nuance for every moment though most translations just use idiot. Artistic license in translation I have no problem with, but this is just plain shit; bat shit stupid ding bat perhaps.

[Erogamer]

Well, I have found other places where the Sakusaku TL was questionable besides this. Some places they even outright added words. What do you expect from SP I guess. I am sorry I bought this game now.

[Silvz]

I haven't read the game, but from what I see here, it is only an adaptation because of his name. Translating a joke as specific as this (where she uses the last syllable to make the pun) is very hard for the translator. On a personal note, it does not seem to be even important to the game in any ways.

I think you guys are trying to look too much into it.

Edited October 16, 2017 by Silvz

[ittaku]

5 hours ago, Erogamer said:

Some places they even outright added words.

Adding words is perfectly reasonable on going from a more implicitly terse language such as Japanese to a more explicitly verbose language such as English. Sometimes a whole sentence is required to convey the nuance of just one word in Japanese. The converse may also happen but is extremely rare by comparison.

[Nandemonai]

Indeed.  Trust me, you don't want the game translated as if it were a technical manual.  Instead, when characters talk, the English is supposed to convey as close to the same thoughts in as close to the same tone as you can get to the original.  Now, Saku Saku in particular is supposed to be funny.  Taking some liberties in order to keep the funny bits funny is definitely a good call.  Overall, it's not the best translation I've ever seen, but it works well.  I have found some spots where the translation seemed rough, but it had nothing to do with adding words or not.  (Embarrassingly, I can't remember any off the top of my head.)

As for "bat"? Yeah, that's a pretty darn terrible choice.  There are worse ways to translate using "baka" as if it were an honorific.  But you kind of have to try.  I would honestly not have called it a piece of real slang had I not seen the evidence in this thread.  And I would have been just as sure of it as I was that "circuituitous" was a word until about a month ago.

Edited October 17, 2017 by Nandemonai

[Kenshin_sama]

Couldn't they just keep it as baka? Honestly, I think it would sound so much more natural since pretty much every English variant of baka sounds awkward as hell when it's used in a nickname (at least the ones I've heard).

[Nandemonai]

... And to think, when people play the game where the translators actually did something like that (Chrono Clock) they're like ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER! DO YOU SPEAK IT!?

Edit: No, you can't. And I say that as someone who's moderately in favor of leaving honorifics in.  It's not an honorific. It's an insult. Calling someone stupid is not some untranslatable concept.

Edited October 17, 2017 by Nandemonai

[Kenshin_sama]

1 hour ago, Nandemonai said:

Edit: No, you can't. And I say that as someone who's moderately in favor of leaving honorifics in.  It's not an honorific. It's an insult. Calling someone stupid is not some untranslatable concept.

What would you have translated it to?

It's not so much that I'm opposed to translating the word baka when used on its own, just when used in conjunction with a name. And I agree, it's not impossible to translate, but it's probably impossible to translate it effectively. Asa-baka works because it flows well, makes logical sense, and has some appeal to it. Asa-idiot makes sense, but doesn't flow with the name very well. Asa-bat, while making sense logically and having good flow, just doesn't have much appeal. In this particular instance, leaving baka as is would be the ideal choice.

... And to think, when people play the game where the translators actually did something like that (Chrono Clock) they're like ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER! DO YOU SPEAK IT!?

Yeah, I suppose that's true, lol. But everyone has a different opinion on everything.

Edited October 17, 2017 by Kenshin_sama