[andre2907]

Originally Posted by evolusean

Whoa! Come on the offense, why don't you? Why are you coming off hostile? I completely absolved your name from Uwasa's unreliability, as you were only reporting what they had said.

I didn't mean to come off hostile. But... anyway, the point is, I'm sick of people saying the site is unreliable, because they almost always point out things that are wrong and she did end up saying this things.

I didn't provide a translation of the special, so don't talk to me as though I am competing with Uwasa's translation. And why am I in no position to judge? I speak Japanese... I lived in Japan... I watched the special. That's requirement enough, I think.

Competing with Uwasa's translation? Mm... k... anyway, not it isn't, unless you can read the site, you can't judge it.

[Translations are a dangerous thing, because they can shift a persons words incredibly, depending on how something is worded in a new language. Most translators SUCK at this. They also have a tendency to exaggerate and drop important information. I want everyone to know that, because I don't want anyone to be the victim of a bad translation. Bad translation = misleading information = hostility and wrong conclusions.

I don't care if a 100% native Japanese person offered translation information. If they don't have a feel for the vibe and rhythm of both languages in question, their translation will suffer.



As far as this TV special is concerned, Kumi flat out DENIED having surgery. At one point in the classroom, she draws eyes on the chalk board, says she was born with a single-eyelid, and repeatedly says that she is: "MUSEIKEI". That means "WITHOUT PLASTIC SURGERY". The Kanji are 無整形. Then she writes the character 無 ("NO") on the board, and puts a big circle around it. It is plain as day, I don't understand how it could be any clearer. It makes me think Uwasa is unreliable to miss this.

If Kumi confirmed plastic surgery somewhere else, that's irrelevant.

Of course it isn't. You're saying she denied it, so if she confirmed it, it is relevant.

I am judging the summary of Uwasa's site that was provided earlier in this thread. It said things like Matsuura stated that Kumi was "VERY fat" and "VERY ugly", when no words like "VERY" or even "ugly" were in anything Max Matsuura said. It's a simple issue of vocabulary. It's not even a question. (And this, of course, is even kindly disregarding the fact that the name of this site means "rumors" "gossip" and other kinds of US Weekly-esque water-cooler chat.)

Why are we still discussing the Max Matsuura line?! There's a better translation, later, so just read it because I corrected it. He didn't say she was very fat and very ugly. But he did say he was fat AND ugly.

And are you judging a site by it's name?

As far as her use of Gal-go, well... yeah, derr. She flat out says in the interview that she has considered herself a gal. What I said was that Kumi never said anything uncouth or un-classy (i.e. trashy) other than the "Cherry Girl" comment. Of course you wouldn't use any slang PERIOD if you were in a situation of ultimate class and reserve. But this wasn't the case... she was with a casual celebrity TV host who was just was kooky as she was, and a room full of teenage girls just like she was. Looking at it subjectively, as is the case, Kumi was hardly out of line.

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OK, I guess people can have different judgement about that. The ameblo recap also said she said rude things, so maybe you didn't tought she wasn't classy, but lots of people did? It wasn't just a line, it was the vocubalary, etc.

So their translations never were wrong and I don't believe they are now. They're always translating stuff (they translated lots of Interviews, a BoA SP, etc, and I never saw anyone complaining about it being unreliable. I don't know why you can, seeing how you never read the site, but...) and now they're even doing a scene-by-scene translation, with screencaps of every scene and even translating the subtitles on the screen because they're are sick of foreign in boards saying their translations are wrong and they are lying, etc (when they aren't).