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Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?
Well, it's not quite that simple; the time unit for 'hour' really is 時間 (jikan); you can write 一時間, 二時間, etc. to mean one hour, two hour, etc., but it would be impractical to put all that in the auto-translator since in FFXI the players have uses for 'hour' ranging from 1/2 hour to 20 hour (Traverser Stone) 24 hour (spawn) and beyond.
Moreover, the word for 'time' is exact the same word, 時間, so it's not like SE can easily make the JP players pick another translation. Using your own example, English speakers do not use different words to 'reward' pets and 'reward' people, so even though SE tried hard and provided a ◀Reward:▶ and placed it above ◀Reward▶, people still shout with "◀Teleport - Dem▶ ◀Reward▶ 2k" instead.
(I really don't understand why that's the case, but the majority of NA players just refuse to use â—€Reward:â–¶; maybe people are scared of the colon for some reason?)
Lastly, to compound the difficulty, the word jikan (時間) can take on different shades of meaning depending how it's used, if I'm not mistaken.
時間ã§ã™ã‹ã€‚　　　　Is it time? (Time's up?) [Implies a sense of time limit, as in running out of time.]
å•é¡Œã¯æ™‚é–“ã§ã™ã€‚　The problem is time. [Could mean the timing or the limit in terms of duration.]
åˆå¾Œã®æ—©ã„時間。　Around early afternoon (time). [Here it functions like a reflexive the period (of time) that is afternoon.]
* * *
There really isn't a substitute to knowing another language. And, there's no substitute to understanding the limitations of the auto-translator function in detail--the reason I know ikan (時間) so well is precisely because the JP players confused the heck out of me several times, which made me go look up the what exactly it translated to in Japanese (though I should have guessed)--then I slapped my forehead.
Again, to those interested, if you want to communicate well with Japanese players, you just have to put in the effort and learn the language differences and the subtlety (or broken-ness) of the auto-translator.
There's no shortcut; you have to work for understanding, and how much work depends on how good are you at picking up language/cultural differences and how much work you've already put into understanding Japanese.
Originally posted by Feba
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Moreover, the word for 'time' is exact the same word, 時間, so it's not like SE can easily make the JP players pick another translation. Using your own example, English speakers do not use different words to 'reward' pets and 'reward' people, so even though SE tried hard and provided a ◀Reward:▶ and placed it above ◀Reward▶, people still shout with "◀Teleport - Dem▶ ◀Reward▶ 2k" instead.
(I really don't understand why that's the case, but the majority of NA players just refuse to use â—€Reward:â–¶; maybe people are scared of the colon for some reason?)
Lastly, to compound the difficulty, the word jikan (時間) can take on different shades of meaning depending how it's used, if I'm not mistaken.
時間ã§ã™ã‹ã€‚　　　　Is it time? (Time's up?) [Implies a sense of time limit, as in running out of time.]
å•é¡Œã¯æ™‚é–“ã§ã™ã€‚　The problem is time. [Could mean the timing or the limit in terms of duration.]
åˆå¾Œã®æ—©ã„時間。　Around early afternoon (time). [Here it functions like a reflexive the period (of time) that is afternoon.]
* * *
There really isn't a substitute to knowing another language. And, there's no substitute to understanding the limitations of the auto-translator function in detail--the reason I know ikan (時間) so well is precisely because the JP players confused the heck out of me several times, which made me go look up the what exactly it translated to in Japanese (though I should have guessed)--then I slapped my forehead.
Again, to those interested, if you want to communicate well with Japanese players, you just have to put in the effort and learn the language differences and the subtlety (or broken-ness) of the auto-translator.
There's no shortcut; you have to work for understanding, and how much work depends on how good are you at picking up language/cultural differences and how much work you've already put into understanding Japanese.
When you're laying there dead, with people all around, but no one will revive you.
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