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> Translation is not something to be avoided for the adult language learner. We should use every advantage at our disposal. Because you're relying on the trans
by knolax 6y ago
> Translation is not something to be avoided for the adult language learner. We should use every advantage at our disposal.
Because you're relying on the translator to accurately convey the meaning of words to you, which translators rarely do. Most professional translators and language instructors don't exactly have the best grasp of language themselves. They do some 1 to 1 translation of "monkey" and 猿 as if the connotation, denotation, and etymology are all the same when if you look it up, they're only kinda similar but not exactly.
English Wikipedia:
"Monkey is a common name that may refer to groups or species of mammals, in part, the simians of infraorder Simiiformes."
Japanese Wikipedia:
"日本語におけるサル（猿）とは、通俗的な意味ではサル目（霊長目）のうち、ヒト（古人類を含む）を除いたもののことである。"
Former talks about Simians whereas the latter apparently says (correct me if I'm wrong I don't know much japanese) colloquially all non-human primates. Is the translator going to know whether an orangutan or gorilla qualifies as 猿? Probably not, they're not even going to mention it.
Personally I believe people should learn a language well enough to read Wikipedia( or equivalent), and then continue only with media in the language in question from that point onwards.
- Kwpolska 6y agoThe Japanese Wikipedia is not a translation of the English Wikpedia. Wikipedia isn’t a good place to learn a language, and especially not by comparison. For example, here’s the Polish Wikipedia page: 404 Not Found Oh, and here’s the German Wikipedia page: 404 Not Found …hold on, that’s not right. Both Wikipedias have a disambiguation page, and the first link on them goes to their equivalent of Simian. The point is, every Wikipedia has its own structure, its own rules of what should be a page, and articles might be based on sources in that language, not in English.
- knolax 6y ago> The Japanese Wikipedia is not a translation of the English Wikpedia. Yeah that's the point. "猿" and "monkey" are unrelated terms that only have a little bit of overlap. Translators ignore this.