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Translate things

Sometimes people are like "noooooooo I can't just translate Tian as Heaven or Dao as Way or junzi as gentleman, the terms have slightly different connotations and are used by this writer in a sort of distinct way". Nah. Writers in English use common terms idiosyncratically all the time. If you're worried we'll misunderstand, put an asterisk the first place the terms are used and refer us to a glossary. In the meantime, the reader will have a better understanding of what the terms mean.

In general I think we should translate more things so that you can understand what people are saying. E.g. "Hamas" is just short for "the Islamic Resistance Movement", call them that or the IRM if you want to save space. Most English speakers don't speak foreign languages, and it's important to be comprehensible!

in reply to Daniel Filan

Daniel Filan
Daniel Filan
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Unrelated but I find the pattern of "that which is W is called X, that which is X is called Y, that which is Y is called Z" very funny somehow.
in reply to Daniel Filan

Daniel Filan
Daniel Filan
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Altho in this case I guess it makes sense because you're building up a definition / modifying it each time. Like it's nice to be able to say "the teaching" rather than "cultivating leading by that which is ordained by Heaven".
in reply to Daniel Filan

renshin
renshin
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I disagree...? Why not just include more foreign words in our vocab? It works pretty well, and English is already known for doing it.
in reply to renshin

Daniel Filan
Daniel Filan
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In these cases I don't think they meaningfully add richness to the vocab, they're just covering space for which we already have words. Or if they are meant to mean something importantly different, I'm not getting that anyway.
in reply to Daniel Filan

renshin
renshin
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i dont know words like junzi or Tian. With Dao I think we should use Dao. But shrug.

If this were about Buddhist terms I'd have more specific things to say.

But my sense of English is that it just doesn't even act like these other languages in very relevant ways. Pali/Sanskrit is super different as a language, for instance, and so you just can't translate the words into English without losing ~70% of the background meaning and connotation.

in reply to renshin

Daniel Filan
Daniel Filan
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Yeah I think it depends on the topic for sure. And probably people who are specialists should use the original term. At the same time, one thing I worry about is: there's some instinct that like 70% of the meaning/connotation gets lost in translation. But do you really retain that meaning when you don't translate? Like presumably you're going to use some Pali/Sanskrit term that I won't immediately understand and tell me what it means, right? If so, couldn't you also just use an English term and tell me what it means? I think this doesn't work for terms that cross concepts in English (like 'dharma' kind of does), but does work for words that are close enough to an English equivalent.
in reply to Daniel Filan

renshin
renshin
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oh i see.

yes i agree that context is important.

if you're just a casual audience, then i should use an English phrase in the conversation so you know what i'm saying at all.

in reply to Daniel Filan

Michael Dickens
Michael Dickens
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So you're saying people should write more like official subs and not fan subs youtube.com/watch?v=YvNxgHTWIl…

(I have never watched a fan sub but I have observed the urge of people who are really into a hobby using obscure language because they care too much about capturing nuances)

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