[Spoiler] Difference in translation in ACNH

[Hydrangea028]

I noticed there are some differences in the translation for New Horizons. I first played New Horizons in English, then after few months of playing, I decided to change it to my mother tongue (which is Mandarin) for a breath of fresh air.

Then I start to notice there are some noticeable difference, especially in the conversation of lazy villager. In English version, lazy villager always talk about bugs. There is even one conversation saying that they are scared that fish’s ear got bugs because lazy villagers eat fish and bugs are their friends so they are scared that they eat their friend. But in Mandarin version, they will just say they are scared that fish are eavesdropping what they are saying.

In English version, lazy villager will sometimes say this world is fake and then just tell you this is just a joke. I played Mandarin version for 2 months and never had this conversion. In English version, lazy villagers always talk about bugs, but in Mandarin version, lazy villagers only talk about bugs when they go bug catching and comment about maybe there is a bug sitting on a chair outside.

There are some conversation got shortened in Mandarin version where normal villager will ask about what kind of books you will bring to a deserted island. If you choose romance novel, there are only few lines of conversation while there is a lot more emotions used and conversation in English version.

I wondered when translation team start the translation, do they even communicate with each other because it seemed to me that the material given doesn’t seem to be exactly the same (especially on lazy villagers).

Does anyone play ACNH using few languages and notice any differences?

 

[Iemon]

One thing I've noticed is that the letters you get from villagers when playing in Japanese contain much more character and you can understand better who it is? I don't know how to explain it well. I never read the letters in English because they all seem so "empty" and just bore me most of the time. I'm thinking it might have to do with language and how in Japanese you can have so many different forms and levels of addressing something so the language actually fits the character types in a better way?
Maybe that's just me but that was one thing that surprised me when I played a bit in Japanese.
(I'm not fluent in Japanese though so maybe that has something to do with it too)

 

[Queenno]

I play in French and lazy villagers always talk about bugs as well. I might switch to English soon to see what are the differences (and also for a breath of fresh air). About letters, I do not find them empty in French, sometimes they are even funny... The only thing which bother about switching language and translation are the names of the villagers and NPC. When I am reading a post sometimes I have to check on google the names of the villagers because they are totally differents.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

One thing I've noticed is that the letters you get from villagers when playing in Japanese contain much more character and you can understand better who it is? I don't know how to explain it well. I never read the letters in English because they all seem so "empty" and just bore me most of the time. I'm thinking it might have to do with language and how in Japanese you can have so many different forms and levels of addressing something so the language actually fits the character types in a better way?
Maybe that's just me but that was one thing that surprised me when I played a bit in Japanese.
(I'm not fluent in Japanese though so maybe that has something to do with it too)

i play primarily in Japanese (though not a native speaker). The villagers’ speech is more distinct, in part due to the fact that each personality type uses different prounouns. Japan has a lot of ways to say ‘I’ and ‘you’ which have to do with who you are and how you want to be perceived. Because of this, and other speech markers/ politeness levels that are specific to personality type you immediately know what you how each villager is. It is usually obvious in English pretty quickly, but it is unmistakable in Japanese.

In Japanese the lazies talk about food a lot but they do not talk about ‘bug friends’ or being dirty the way they do in English. They are still kind of spacey and babyish though. So it seems the bstuff was added specifically to the English language version, which is why it is probably missing in other languages (I’m guessing especially ones which translate/ localize from English rather than from Japanese).

though some of the dialogue is closer to translation, a lot of it is not direct translation, and a lot of it is completely changed. The comments made when catching creatures are totally different.

As someone has just commented a lot of the names are different as well. Some of it for cultural context, the Japanese traditional names were all changed and the pun type names that wouldn’t work in other languages were changed (sometimes to different puns/ wordplay, sometimes not) for example Fuchsia’s name in Japanese is ‘jeshika’ which is the English name Jessica in Japanese but also contains the word ‘shika’ which means deer.
A lot of the characters have English names in Japanese which were changed in the English version eg - Pancetti (Britney in Japanese), Diana (Natalie), and Reneigh (Rhianna). At least in some cases (such as the first two examples), it seems to have been done to make the connotation of the english names better fit the character.

Basically, the game is not only translated but localized into the English/ western context, or i assume (I’ve only played in english and Japanese) into the appropriate cultural context for other countries. I do wonder if the European language versions are more influenced by the English language version than other translations/ localized versions.

Anyway, I always love when a translation/ language topic comes up, since I studied translation theory and a lot of languages in college. Thanks op!

 

[Queenno]

I do wonder if the European language versions are more influenced by the English language version than other translations/ localized versions.

I believe the language does not only depend on the "selected language" but also on the localisation. I bought the switch while living in Canada and I downloaded the game in Canada as well (I am originally from France). Even if I selected the "French" language for the switch and the game, my villagers are talking like the people from Quebec and not from France (I believe because my switch is located in North America)
Edit: So I changed the settings of my switch to "Europe" and I can confirm, it's different, even the names of some of the fishes are different... It made me realize how the French from France is way more "formal" than the French from Quebec. Some of my villagers seemed almost cold and unfriendly (well it's not very far from the reality then ) I am wondering if it's the same with the English versions ?

 

[WaileaNoRei]

I believe the language does not only depend on the "selected language" but also on the localisation. I bought the switch while living in Canada and I downloaded the game in Canada as well (I am originally from France). Even if I selected the "French" language for the switch and the game, my villagers are talking like the people from Québec and not from France (I believe because my switch is located in North America)

that’s something I was wondering about too! I wonder if the UK and Australian English versions of the game differ from the Us one. And I wonder how this works for people playing in a language with no regional version on their country (like me playing in Japanese). I’m guessing it is just the same as the standard Japan version, but I don’t know for sure. maybe the Spanish language version in North America would be different?

it reminds me of how the first Harry Potter books were technically translated into US English.

 

[Iemon]

i play primarily in Japanese (though not a native speaker). The villagers’ speech is more distinct, in part due to the fact that each personality type uses different prounouns. Japan has a lot of ways to say ‘I’ and ‘you’ which have to do with who you are and how you want to be perceived. Because of this, and other speech markers/ politeness levels that are specific to personality type you immediately know what you how each villager is. It is usually obvious in English pretty quickly, but it is unmistakable in Japanese.


Anyway, I always love when a translation/ language topic comes up, since I studied translation theory and a lot of languages in college. Thanks op!

Actually working on a term paper right now about translation (German/Japanese) and this couldn't fit the topic of pronouns and their use any better. I agree, it's a very interesting topic.

 

[visibleghost]

that’s interesting. i think the excessive bug talk of lazies is a bit annoying, it’s weird that it is so different in different languages though

 

[EmmaFrost]

That’s so interesting to know! I figured that the dialogue was different in different languages/cultures but I didn’t know it would be that different!

 

[ReeBear]

This is a tangent, but out of interest how easy is the Japanese to read for non native speakers? Do more complex kanji have kana? I'm way out of practice with Japanese but playing acnh in it could be a gentle way to ease me into it again >>

 

[Wickel]

So I started playing in Dutch and eventually switched back to English and they're both almost exactly the same. I'm almost 100% sure the Dutch version is just a translation of the English one. They didn't even change the names of the characters! Although that makes sense because this is the first time an AC game is translated into Dutch and everyone's so used to the names!

The puns are an exception because those are changed into actual, working puns. Which is good because not every Dutch translation of a game does that which makes the game stupid af hahah.

 

[-Blue-]

I feel like this is DejaVu. I could had sworn someone made a topic very similar to this. Maybe it was back in the NewLeaf days.

The puns are an exception because those are changed into actual, working puns. Which is good because not every Dutch translation of a game does that which makes the game stupid af hahah.

Do you have an example of one of the names that was changed for the pun? Just curious, is all.

 

[mirukushake]

This is a tangent, but out of interest how easy is the Japanese to read for non native speakers? Do more complex kanji have kana? I'm way out of practice with Japanese but playing acnh in it could be a gentle way to ease me into it again >>

Depends on what level your language is at. It's made to be accessible for younger kids so the kanji does have furigana, but if your actual vocab/grammar skills aren't above at least beginner it will probably be a struggle, and you may miss things like puns and cultural references.

 

[ReeBear]

Depends on what level your language is at. It's made to be accessible for younger kids so the kanji does have furigana, but if your actual vocab/grammar skills aren't above at least beginner it will probably be a struggle, and you may miss things like puns and cultural references.

That makes sense - I may give it a go and see how quickly I fall out of my depth

 

[WaileaNoRei]

Depends on what level your language is at. It's made to be accessible for younger kids so the kanji does have furigana, but if your actual vocab/grammar skills aren't above at least beginner it will probably be a struggle, and you may miss things like puns and cultural references.

I agree, and will also say the different personalities speak differently and it includes a lot of colloquialisms, and informal speech, even some dialect when it comes to the uchi villagers. However, it’s definitely doable. I’m a non native speaker and I play primarily in Japanese and it has been a good way to help me maintain at least a little daily use of Japanese, and helped get me back into using it a little more day today.

but keep a dictionary handy, esp if you are talking to blathers! I was very lacking on my fish/ bugs/ dinosaur vocab.

good luck and feel free to reach out if you ever want to chat/ commiserate about language issues.

Post automatically merged: Oct 30, 2020

I agree, and will also say the different personalities speak differently and it includes a lot of colloquialisms, and informal speech, even some dialect when it comes to the uchi villagers. However, it’s definitely doable. I’m a non native speaker and I play primarily in Japanese and it has been a good way to help me maintain at least a little daily use of Japanese, and helped get me back into using it a little more day today.

but keep a dictionary handy, esp if you are talking to blathers! I was very lacking on my fish/ bugs/ dinosaur vocab.

good luck and feel free to reach out if you ever want to chat/ commiserate about language issues.

Sorry, the last part should have been aimed at @ReeBear!

 

[ReeBear]

I agree, and will also say the different personalities speak differently and it includes a lot of colloquialisms, and informal speech, even some dialect when it comes to the uchi villagers. However, it’s definitely doable. I’m a non native speaker and I play primarily in Japanese and it has been a good way to help me maintain at least a little daily use of Japanese, and helped get me back into using it a little more day today.

but keep a dictionary handy, esp if you are talking to blathers! I was very lacking on my fish/ bugs/ dinosaur vocab.

good luck and feel free to reach out if you ever want to chat/ commiserate about language issues.

Ahahaha oh god I can imagine with Blathers Outside of sporadic studying, I used to use more conversational Japanese in online games (Sky, particularly seems to have a lot of Japanese players) but we'd do a mix of English and Japanese so I'd never properly fill in gaps in my knowledge >> Kind of excited about seeing what's still in my brain

 

[Nefarious]

Well I played in Spanish for a bit and there seems to be some differences. Of course some different puns and jokes when it comes to catching fish and bugs and some name changes. Dobie's name in Spanish is just straight up the word German which I found funny. The cutest dang name change though is that Felicity's Spanish name is Micha, which means loaf of bread, a reference to how cats tuck themselves into a loaf shape.

Anyways, I bothered Bones a lot and not once has he talked about bugs so intensely as in the English translation. One conversation he talked about how one of his dreams is to drive a convertible. One where he loves to invite guest to his home, and best part of throwing parties at home is that he can nap at anytime. Another conversation about how if he doesn't clean his home, the ants that visit him won't go back to their own home. The Halloween interactions were cute. He asked me if I would help him trick or treat, to beat his record for most candy, and that if I received any candy I didn't like that I should give them to him. Last interaction had with him was him telling me that I'm welcome to visit him if he's at home... and awake. Seems to me in the Spanish translation, lazy villagers are all about food and sleeping. They're still messy, as the DIY he gave me was covered in chocolate, but seems they aren't as "gross" as they can be in English.

 

[Wickel]

Do you have an example of one of the names that was changed for the pun? Just curious, is all.

Ah, no, sorry, I just meant the puns in general (like from fishing) are the only things that aren't literally translated but changed into actual, working puns in Dutch.
Some games don't do that. They just literally translate a pun into Dutch, making the sentence completely nonsensical.