Okay, I should be the *last* one to do this, since I'm quite guilty
of Japanese usage in fanfics...but I usually (1) know what I'm doing
and (2) check at least one good dictionary first. 

Now, we've all seen examples of bad Japanese grammar/phrasing, and
improperly used Japanese words in fanfiction. Many of us have even
been guilty of this. I'd just like to point out something I saw this
morning. Apologies to Tatum-san...this isn't a flame, I'm not picking
on you, but I felt this would be the perfect time to make this point
to the entire list.

In the latest chapter of "The Return of the Sisters", Tatum-san
invented a ki blast for Akane, with an unusual nature. This is all
fine and well, but he decided to give it a Japanese name...by
translating directly from English.

Let's examine his attempt...

"RANMA WA KOIBITU ARARE KUDASAI HA"

Which he translated as "Ranma is my Lover Attack". By his logic, "wa"
means "is", "arare" means "of", and "kudasai" means "me".

Now, those among us who speak a marginal amount of Japanese would
recognize the errors here in a heartbeat. Most notably, that he
attempted a direct translation from English to Japanese. This does
not work. I've learned this the hard way, when I tried to come up
with the Japanese equivalent of "There can be only one" and ended up
with "The one book is over there." 

In this case, Tatum-san just invented the attack called "Ranma lover
rice cracker please." 

The point I'm trying to make? If you're going to come up with
Japanese attack names, more power to you, but *please* make use of at
least one, preferably two, Japanese-English dictionaries, and don't
rely solely upon those found on the Internet. Go to a bookstore and
*buy one*, they are *NOT* that hard to find. Also, it helps to ask
people whom you know have at least a slight working knowledge of the
language...you'll find lots of them right here on the FFML. It's not
that difficult to seek advice from others...that's *why* you're here
on the FFML, right? 

Oh, and while I'm here, I should be working up the revision (*massive
revision*) of O:RS chapter 22 this afternoon.

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America must truly be a great country indeed, 
for Americans can so easily sneer upon the 
fine, quality works of Japanese animators, which
fall far short of shows featuring flatulent bovines
and dialogue such as "Ready, Ike? Kick the baby!"

---
The Eternal Lost Lurker
EternalLostLurker@worldnet.att.net
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Garden/9502

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