Re:Why Japanese web design is so different (2013)
by cambalache on Saturday November 21, 2020 @03:18PM
(#25172468)
> Japanese sentences are typically a bit longer than English in terms of syllables and written length?
Do you understand than 1 kana represents 1 syllable? They are BY DEFINITION, more concise than Latin letters.
Re:Why Japanese web design is so different (2013)
by japgolly on Monday November 30, 2020 @09:39PM
(#25261668)
Wow thanks! I didn't understand that despite being able to read and write Japanese! Sarcasm aside you don't seem to have a very deep understanding so maybe you should be a bit nicer when expressing your opinion.
> 1 kana represents 1 syllable
ちゅ <-- 2 kana, 1 syllable
> BY DEFINITION, more concise than Latin letters
smash <-- 1 syllable, 5 latin letters, ~3 kana in length スマッシュ <-- 5 kana
Re:Why Japanese web design is so different (2013)
by fyolnish on Friday November 20, 2020 @06:30PM
(#25166403)
Why’s it so hot today?
何でこんなに暑いの今日？
Where in the US are you from?
出身は米国の何処ですか?
Japanese sentences are usually shorter than the english translation.
Re:Why Japanese web design is so different (2013)
by Jach on Friday November 20, 2020 @07:07PM
(#25166675)
For paid translations, English likes to charge by the word, whereas Japanese charges by the character. The rule of thumb for conversion is 2 JP characters --> 1 English word i.e. translating a 1000 character JP document you'll expect about 500 EN words at the end.
- Why's it so hot today? = 6 syllables
- Nande konna ni atsui no kyou? = 10 syllables (spoken colloquially)
What about written length? You can see the Japanese sentence is a little longer here (when the English uses a non-monospaced font). It's also enough to demonstrates the why using kanji doesn't always provide the huge reduction/compression that you're expecting.
- Why's it so hot today?
- なんでこんなに暑いの今日？