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Lost in Translation?

A short clip from a TBS News report about crack dealers in the United States shows that Japanese subtitles sometimes fail to capture the beauty of certain English phrases:

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21 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - October 17, 2009 at 5:42 am

Categories: Japanese TV Tags: bloods, crack, crime, gang

Weirdo

Translations in general fail at capturing original meaning/nuances.
matt

I’m american and I couldn’t understand exactly what he said…

No what I’m sayin?

yes I know what you are saying you don’t have to keep asking me that….

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/251900

LB

You know what I mean? Know what I’m sayin’? Know what I mean? Cuz, I don’t know what I’m sayin’, know what I mean?
Karisu

I’m not sure what part of what he said was hard to understand. Particularly for an American…

Fred R.

Matt, you don’t know what he sayin, you feel me? Ya heard? Na mean?

Can’t touch this, ta nanana, tana, ta na, can’t touch this
Mr. USA

Crack dealers? Beauty?

lol
Cliff

and they’re interviewing dealers because?

Briant

Could have something to do with that one girl who got caught with meth….
Nippon

To make America look bad haha, naaa mean? ya no what im sayin? ya digg?

Cliff

lol fa sho, fa sho.

pixel_bomber

I’m sure they are just curious about the American way of life. Pretty much everyone in the states either sells or uses crack. I remember when I started selling crack so I could afford my first gun when I was 12 years old.
Or most likely its part of some report on Japans growing drug problem. Almost all the drugs sold in Japan come from gaijins.
Actually I got no idea why this would be shown on Japanese TV.

Cliff

12 yrs old? starting kinda late aren’t ya? I was running the block when I was 8. of course if someone believes that I got some ocean front land in Oklahoma I want to sell them.
Just hope not too many people think that everyone born with a permanent tan is like this idiot on the clip.

colorful

what’s the equivalent of 有钱能使鬼推磨 in japanese?

Ajapa

I can’t speak Chinese though…

「有钱能使鬼推磨」= “Money makes the mare to go”

Right? Then,

「地獄の沙汰も金次第」(Jigoku no sata mo kane shidai)

A literal translation of it is: Even judgement in hell (court) depends on (the amount of) money (you pay).

HamachiMan

I too can barely understand what this guy is saying. He must be high or something.

At any rate, a “blood?” LOL, if he ain’t from los angeles, he ain’t no legitimate blood. Unless there are some sanctioned offshoots out theres across the U.S.
http://japanycool.blogspot.com Ram

why would they show this on Japanese TV? most of the drug dealers in the US have a criminal record, therefore cant find good jobs, and end up right back on the street. thats a sad fact. are they trying to glorify crack dealers?
aussie

i din’t hav no probs understanin his inglish, watu sayn?
The Overthinker

And yet another of my comments vanishes into limbo. Why do some comments appear for a short time and then vanish?

http://www.japanprobe.com James

I think your comment may have been threaded in response to a complaint that was deleted for violations of the discussion party.

The user in question trolls every post that presents a remotely negative image of a black person, using multiple usernames to make it seem like the complaints are coming from more than one reader.

Pretty sad, actually.

The Overthinker

That would be it. I did respond to this troll, who accused you of only showing up black people in a negative light, and directed them to Jero. I didn’t realise this troll was sockpuppeting though. That is below the belt.

The Overthinker

You clearly missed all the posts about the black singer Jero, for example. If you even bothered looking.

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