Okay, I had originally resisted the urge to get into this discussion, but 
here goes:

In my first fanfic, Ranma-ototo, I had used various Japanese words to
describe family relationships. Since this was a key part fo the story, I
thought it appropriate. Well, long story short, I ended up messing up
using Japanese when I didn't really understand how the language worked.

Case in point is ototo (which could also be romanized as otouto or
otooto, but let's not open that can of worms too). I had assumed,
incorrectly, that ototo was an honorific (it's not) like -san and -chan,
so I based my title on 'Ranma-ototo'.

Boy is my face red.

So when it came to revising the original and writing Please Save My
Family, I had to decide what to fix. I remove many Japanese words, but
decided to keep the title 'Ranma-ototo' as is. Little Akane continued to
use it to Little Ranma, since it conveyed a 5 year olds view of Ranma as
her brother the way I wanted it to. A five year old making the mistake is
understandable (a grown man like me is not :) ).

I also kept some uses of Ranma-Ototo as a teasing statement by Nabiki and
others.

Ototchan was also suggested to me as an appropriate term of address for a
younger brother, but I did get some conflicting advice on this.

In short, my suggestion would be to use Japanese terms sparingly unless
you're very familiar with the Japanese language, and then in moderation.

These days, I generally keep my Japanese words limited to the special
attack names. Although I may occasionally throw a BAKA in where it would
sound better than jerk or idiot.

I myself have stopped reading some fanfics that have overused Japanese
words to the point of becoming hard to read. So, unless there is a good
reason to use the Japanese words, you're best off sticking to English.



-=-
Jim Lazar

E-Mail - mailto:jimlazar@earthlink.net
Home - http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlazar
FanFiction - http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlazar/anime
-=-