Subtitles in Katakana

Japanese translation: Does not work.

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	Subtitles in Katakana
Japanese translation:	Does not work.
Entered by:	humbird

15:37 Feb 14, 2005

English to Japanese translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Cinema, Film, TV, Drama

English term or phrase: Subtitles in Katakana

Dear Translators,

We are developing a subtitle system for films. However, this system will only work in Katakana. Do you think that the Japanese audience will be confortable using this system? Would you be confortable watching a US or European film wiht Katakana subtitles.

We will really apreciate your help and thank you very much in advance.
Best regards from London,

Alex Vegh
World Translations

WorldTrans (X) KudoZ activity Questions: 1 (none open) Answers: 0
Local time: 09:16

Explanation:
As I already indicated in "question to asker", I don't think that work for reason I already stated.
Katakana is one of three Japanese writing systems -- Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. These three make up the writing system. If whole sentences, whole subtitles are in Katakana it is extremely hard to read. But at this point I do not know what is your question.

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Note added at 16 mins (2005-02-14 15:53:54 GMT)
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Pondering about this over, again my suggestion is \"please do not spend not a shilling on such a project. Reason: Subtitiles being written language, please keep this in mind, Japanese writing systmem exists ONLY with the mixture of the three I mentioned above.

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Note added at 19 mins (2005-02-14 15:57:10 GMT)
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----- with exception of childre\'s literature for very, very, young (in this case Hiragana only).

Selected response from:

humbird

Grading comment

Thank you very much to all of you.
We will have to develop another system which allows Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana.
Once again, thank you very much.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

5 +9

humbird

Discussion entries: 3

Answers

6 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +9

subtitles in katakana

humbird
Native speaker of:

Japanese,

English
PRO pts in category: 12

Grading comment

Thank you very much to all of you.
We will have to develop another system which allows Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana.
Once again, thank you very much.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

mstkwasa: Absolutely... How interesting we have responded with the same points - shows what all native Japanese speakers would think of the scheme.

2 mins

-> Thank you, mstkwasa-san.

agree

yumiiturain: It would be very hard to read.

6 mins

-> Thank you, yumiiturain-san.

agree

conejo: I definitely agree. Katakana-only subtitles would be so strange that it would quickly become a laughable conversation topic. Like Humbird said, katakana-only would seem very childish, like it was a kids' movie. Please don't spend money on this idea!

22 mins

-> Thank you conejo. I do not mean to minimize the validity of the idea itself, but when it does not work it well could be a laughable piece.

agree

Will Matter: I agree. Even though I learned Japanese as an adult & this would not affect me in the same way as a Japanese I still think that it would be strange to see & not very readable. Lots & lots of room for error due to the large amount of homonyms & homophones.

1 hr

-> willmatter-san you got a point there ..... yes Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana distinction sorts out homophones and such, thus avoiding confusions.

agree

Mariko Kobayashi: I can't agree more with all of the above.

5 hrs

agree

Nobuo Kawamura: Definitely NO !!!

6 hrs

agree

Kurt Hammond: It would be virtually impossible to watch. Save your development money.

16 hrs

agree

yumom: Without kanji, written Japanese is illegible to Japanese.

21 hrs

agree

mnlucht: Wow, it is a wild idea which I can't agree even a little bit.

1 day 22 hrs

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