| Staff A |
Thank you for joining us today. We will talk about how to translate Japanese words, which is difficult to describe by English words this time. |
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| Ten |
I often have a hard time translating Japanese food. |
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| Alex |
Yes, they're really hard to translate, but Sushi and Tofu are already popular in the states, so you don't have to translate them. |
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| #1. SABA-NO-MISONI (My Friend Animal Hospital1: P.22) |
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| Ten |
Yeah, Sushi and Tofu are popular, but SABA-NO-MISONI is not popular. So, you know, it's a pain in the neck. |
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| Staff A |
There is no similar food, so it must be difficult. |
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| Alex |
Yeah, I think there would be all kinds of translations for them. |
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| Ten |
That's true. Here are my candidate translations for Saba no Misoni. Mackerel boiled in Miso, Mackerel simmered in Miso and Mackerel Miso Stew. |
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| Staff A |
But I think Miso Stew sounds more watery than Misoni. |
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| Alex |
Stew also means to simmer/boil, so I would say Stewed Miso Mackerel is roughly equivalent to SABA-NO-MISONI. |
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| Ten |
Oh, by the way, I read a topic You useless pig! on your website. Surprisingly a free online translator could translate KATSU-DON(Cutlet bowl) and TONKATSU(Pork cutlet) well, right? So I used it to translate SABA-NO-MISONI. |
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SABA-NO-MISONI => Mackerel's miso boiling |
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| Staff A |
Well, people "might" understand what that is. |
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| Alex |
(LAUGHTER) |
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| Ten |
I tried other patterns too. |
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SABA(KANJI)-NO-MISO(KANJI)NI => Mackerel's miso Ni |
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SABA(KATAKANA)-NO-MISO(HIRAGANA)NI => Saba Ni |
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SABA(KATAKANA)-NO-MISO(KANJI)NI => Miso Ni of Saba |
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Personally, I like the last one. I think it (a free online translator) did a "great" job. |
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| Alex |
Yeah, it did. (LAUGHTER) |
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| Ten |
Actually, I saw Katsu-don (in roman letters) on the menus in some Japanese restaurants. Probably using Japanese names (in roman letters) get more interest (from customers). And actually Sushi and Tofu are not really translated, just romanized. |
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| Staff A |
That's true. People get more interested in Japanese dishes if they are written in Japanese (in roman letters) on the menu. And most Japanese restaurants have replica foods(food samples) anyway. |
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| Alex |
Romanization might be one of the ways to translate dishes. In that case, Saba-Misoni and Saba no Misoni would be fine too. And people might be interested in Japanese food culture if we add a footnote. |
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| #2. PURIN & KASUTERA (My Friend Animal Hospital1:P.130) |
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| Ten |
Well, the next words are PURIN(Caramel Custard) and KASUTERA(sponge cake). I translated them as pudding and cookie. |
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| Staff A |
PURIN is pudding, according to the dictionary. |
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| Ten |
I also translated it as pudding. But I want to change it to Cream Brulee because my American friend told me PURIN is more like Cream Brulee than pudding. |
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| Alex |
Actually, there is a difference between pudding and Cream Brulee/Creame Brulee. The recipe is slightly different. |
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| Staff A & Ten |
The Recipe? How come you know that? |
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| Alex |
Well, I used to work as a pastry chef. |
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| Staff A & Ten |
A Pastry chef!? |
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| Alex |
That's right. So I would say... PURIN is Caramel Custard. |
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| Staff A |
Well...that makes sense. By the way, KASUTERA(sponge cake) is not a cookie, is it? |
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| Ten |
Well, you know? I'd say it fits perfectly into the scene. |
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| Staff A |
Tell me the truth. |
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| Ten |
Who would wanna do a lot of research to put a footnote saying, "KASUTERA (sponge cake) was introduced to Japan by Portuguese, blah-blah-blah"? |
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| Alex & Staff A |
(LAUGHTER) |
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| Alex |
I know exactly how you feel. (LAUGHTER) |
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| Ten |
Well, one of my friends, he is an interpreter. His customer asked the name of Japanese veggie, but he didn't want to check the dictionary each time, so he answered, "It's a Chinese veggie (so I don't know)" for most of the time. |
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| Staff A |
It's understandable if it's CHINGENSAI(Qing-geng-cai) or HAKUSAI(Chinese cabbage), but you know (what I want to say)? |
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| Alex & Ten |
(LAUGHTER) |
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| Alex |
KASUTERA could be translated as sponge cake, but as an ex-pastry chef, I would say those two are slightly different. |
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| Ten |
Sponge cake sounds good to me! So I don't have to research the origin of kasutera. |
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| Staff A |
(BITTER LAUGHTER) |
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| Conclusion |
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| * It is a technique to use the original name for Japanese food. |
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| * Another way is to substitute each country's popular sweet for an original one. |
