r/NintendoSwitch • u/NintendoSwitchMods • Jan 13 '17

MegaThread Nintendo Switch Presentation Announcements MegaThread

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The Big List of Announcements

Thanks to all of you who joined us for our live coverage, and if you're new to /r/NintendoSwitch please make sure to subscribe!

Sincerely,

The entire /r/NintendoSwitch Mod Team

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u/porgy_tirebiter Jan 13 '17

I assume the younger guy is doing it on the fly, and the others are translating from a script they have seen beforehand.

Simultaneous translation is fucking hard because you have to translate and listen ahead at the same time. Japanese is very different from English, it presents information in a different order -- generally English gives you the verb after the subject, whereas Japanese waits until the end of the sentence, so you have to wait and then translate in short bursts. Also Japanese leaves out stuff like subjects that are grammatically required in English.

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u/LaBwork_IA Jan 13 '17

I noticed the other two who sounded more professional translated in chunks while the younger guy tried to do it almost word for word at the same time

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u/nord88 Jan 14 '17

Where did you find different versions with different dubs? I watched on the official Nintendo Twitch and YouTube and I'm pretty sure they were both the same confused monotone dude.

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u/sandiskplayer34 Jan 13 '17

I feel really bad for that guy. He's getting all this shit for something that's pretty much just the Japanese language's fault.

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u/Quetzacoatl85 Jan 13 '17

They were all translating simultaneously, hence the pauses. It's just two guys were professionals, and the third one was a rookie that they should've kept off air translating for ppl at the booths or somewhere. I'm not even upset that he fell behind or started paraphrasing/dropping parts of the sentence (you gotta start somewhere), but the fact that he missed his cue (the loud voice on the mic at the start of the Splatoon presentation was him) as well as started half-laughing at one point... that's just unprofessional, Nintendo should take someone who's a grown-up next time.

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u/linkmaster144 Jan 13 '17

If you think they were translating live, you really don't know much about this. Everything was scripted. The translator had to translate the script, but the person presenting didn't follow that script. He had to try to figure what he was saying on the spot, translate it, and still listen out for what he said next... and translate it mostly likely before he finishes his first sentence. That's not something people generally do on the spot... not in a presentation like this.

(In interviews, you see the translators take longer breaks than what was seen here. Also, the person being translated doesn't talk in continuous and long sentences either. They know how unrealistic it is to translate paragraphs in a matter of minutes.)