A few questions I need to clear up....

[512kb]

Ok, so I have a few questions that I need to be cleared up about Japanese:

1. I read in a book that arigato means thank you, and arigato gozaimasu means thank you very much. However, in an epsisode of Samurai Champloo, someone says arigato and it the subtitle said "Thank you!". But in Battle Royale when Kitano says "arigato gozaimasu" the subititle says "Thank you!" Why is this?

2. When I was watching Battle Royale, I paused the movie after someone said something. I memorized what they said in Japanese. I typed the subtitle in a Japanese - English translator, and I pasted the Japanese text into a program that reads Japanese out loud. They sound way different!! Why is this?

3. I just forgot my 3rd question... :(

Thank you all for your help!

[Mike Cash]

1. It's because the differences arise from functional translation, which is much more flexible and results in different things, and direct (literal) translation.

2. Are you saying it sounded like an entirely different phrase? Or are you asking about why a computer-generated voice sounds different than a human voice?

3. Dang! And I knew the answer to this one!

[512kb]

1. It's because the differences arise from function translation, which is much more flexible and results in different things, and direct (literal) translation.

2. Are you saying it sounded like an entirely different phrase? Or are you asking about why a computer-generated voice sounds different than a human voice?

3. Dang! And I knew the answer to this one!

1. Oh, I see...

2. I mean it sounds like a different phrase, not the voice.

3. I always know you're here to help. <3

[Mike Cash]

Without meaning to sound nasty....#2 was probably a case of GIGO.

[512kb]

Without meaning to sound nasty....#2 was probably a case of GIGO.

What, like I didn't paste the text right? Well, OK. You're the wise one. But I have another question: do people always count noon as 0:00 in Japan?

[Shibuyaexpat]

Noon in Japan is 12:00, whereas midnight is 24:00.

[Mike Cash]

I've seen at least one sign which indicated someone thought 26:00 was a time of day. It was for a store's hours and said something like "8 - 26". (Meaning they stay open until 2 a.m., of course).

[PopCulturePooka]

I saw a lot of that in Tokyo.

[budd]

unh!!! interesting info