רגב אליהו ניוסטרם-יונג

[Multilingual Monday] Perepea

aadroma@yahoo.com — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:01:24 GMT

I've said, repeatedly, that translation is just as much of an art as it is a science. It's one thing to directly translate, say, lines of dialogue in a story, sentence for sentence. But does the MEANING remain? What is said is as important as why it is said and what remains unsaid, so indeed, conveying that same "feeling" in another language can be just as much an art as it is a science.

Let's take a look at different kinds of translations, watching English get ported to a number of countries. Won't you join me as we use Family Guy as an example of translation?

Yes, really.

Many jokes can be dependent upon language. To the left is the source language (English), featuring Stewie's awkward pronunciation of "Cool Whip," putting emphasis on the "H". Immediately porting it to another language, there are several problems: will somone in, say, Spain, know what Cool Whip is? And even if they would, would anyone actually pronounce the H?? The right shows how Spain's dubbing handled the problem -- even though the package clearly says COOL WHIP, they replace it with local product Batida, and play upon the B/V pronunciation depending upon the placement of the letter in the word. This was pretty damned creative in my opinion.

Not every language-based joke is successfully ported. In the left example, Peter is in rehab and is asked his name, and he tries to make one up based on what he sees (pea, tear, gryphon -- crap!). The Latin American dub of the show, however, doesn't even bother to translate the joke. and thus one needs to know English to understand why Peter's response for a name is "Pe tir grifon".

The Italian version of the show changes a joke entirely; on the left is Peter watching Dennis Miller, leaving him to wonder what "rant" means, but in the Italian version Dennis' spiel is quite different, leaving Peter to wonder about the simplest thing said -- "Who is Dante Alighieri??"

Another gag that depends on knowledge of English -- with the letters on the board the answer has to be "GO FUCK YOURSELF", right? Wrong. The contestant in the German version explains what the puzzle REALLY says in German, but there's no further explanation.

Another "what do you do when X doesn't exist??" In this case, the original episode has Stewie trying to watch Mr. Belvedere, but would Hungarian audiences know what that show even is? Instead, hear him try to shut his family up with Ducktales ... it's unique as, while that version is on the right, the left features a scene from the same episode in Italian, where apparently they DID have Mr. Belvedere. Huh, who knew??

I'd love your examples of television, film, or books that have had to do a "dodge" because of cultural or linguistic reasons. Did it succeed? Why or why not?

Mika + Pork = YouTube Video ^_-

aadroma@yahoo.com — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:42:03 GMT

Eurovision 2010: Abandon Ship!

aadroma@yahoo.com — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:48:10 GMT

Earlier this year it seemed as if the next edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was going to have the largest number of participants ever. Not only was there talk of Lichtenstein FINALLY getting an entry, but talks of Austria, San Marino, Monaco, and even Luxemburg's return to the stage (hell, there hasn't been an entry from Luxemburg since 1993!). However, not only have none of these countries returned (San Marino is still a "maybe" technically but I'm no longer holding my breath), but so far four more countries have jumped ship -- Hungary, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, and as of today, Andorra.

All of these countries claim financial difficulties, and that's not unlikely; most broadcasters have had budget cuts after the economic fiasco over the last year. That being said, though, none of the withdrawing countries have made it to the final over the last two editions, and there's no doubt in my mind that this is a factor. Hungary was last place in its semi-final in '08 and had to replace its song twice this year; Montenegro and the Czech Republic both debuted the same year but neither had ever qualified to the final, with Montenegro's "friendly votes" never being enough and CR having TWO last-place finish, one "nul point" score, and a total number of points in three years of 10. And Andorra? Andorra's been around since 2004, and has also never qualified, with some at Andorra's broadcaster calling sending entries to the contest a "waste" since they never made it to the final. A shame, as I always rooted for Andorra -- if ever there was an "underdog" in the contest it's Andorra!

So now we're down to 37 countries. It's certainly a respectable number, but the number hasn't been that low since Athens 2006, and the new two-semi system was meant for a good deal more to participate. It'll be interesting to see who else may have to bow out, as there are talks of Lithuania and Latvia also not being able to secure funding in order to particpate.

Major League Dreidel

aadroma@yahoo.com — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:32:52 GMT

Major League Dreidel???

How did I miss this? Oh, and incidentally, the sidebar add for "Hanukkah gone metal" makes me grin.

Holiday Card Model: 蓝斯

aadroma@yahoo.com — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:40:29 GMT

Not the pic I'll be working from, but a little preview of the gent who I'll be drawing. ^o^

Happy Xanukah!

aadroma@yahoo.com — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:14:24 GMT

Happy Xanukah, everyone! I have no plans and few gifts to give the man I love, which makes me feel cheap and somewhat useless; I'll figure something out, but ... yeah. ;_;

Our shlixah was guilting me in Hebrew via voice mail about coming to the Young Adult Xanukah party tomorrow. "You NEVER come to our functions!" :: laugh :: Oy...

Død Snø

aadroma@yahoo.com — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:54:26 GMT

So last night slavetoreznor, myself, and our respective men watched the Norwegian Nazi zombie slasher film Død Snø, "Dead Snow". It was amusing hearing Jamie's boyfriend Tim constantly referring to the film as "German", and Jamie would go, "CAN YOU NOT HEAR?? It's NORWEGIAN." :: laugh ::

Overall: not bad. Plotwise, it's standard slasher fare, certainly. Young people alone getting drunk and fucking in an isolated place? Check. Ominous warning from visitor? Check. Doing stupid shit which gets you killed? Check. There are a couple of bizarre actions from the young group of doctors in a cabin out in the middle of BumFuck, Norway (who fucks someone in an outhouse while they're still on the toilet???), but where the movie shines is in some of the unique ways various people -- both the Nazi zombies and the young victims -- meet their end, as well as a few "oh shit we fucked up" moments that I won't mention here for fear of ruining the surprises.

I find it highly amusing that Carl owns only two BluRay films -- this and Mamma Mia!. Yeah, THOSE two have a lot in common ^^;;;

[Multilingual Monday] Kanji Tales, Vol, 7572

aadroma@yahoo.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:32:21 GMT

One of the reasons I believe I excel at Japanese and not so much in Korean is that the Japanese still use Chinese characters, whereas the Koreans for the most part have gotten rid of Chinese characters as part of their orthography. Both languages maintain a HUGE stock of loanwords from Chinese, but both lack phonetic elements that exist in several Chinese dialects, so even MORE characters end up sounding identical to one another; in written text this poses a particular problem and, in my experience, having a character with a semantic MEANING greatly aids my ability to comprehend what is being read; even if I don't recognize a word, knowing the rough meaning of the characters with which the word is written can help me figure it out, whereas I don't have this luxury in standard modern Korean.

So where am I going with this? It seems that there has been a proposal to increase the number of jouyou kanji and this is what today's article will be about, for the most part. The jouyou kanji (as seen here) is the list of 1,945 characters that are "acceptable" for usage in print. There are many more characters, but you technically don't have to know these characters, and there are rules in place that state that, for general consumption, characters not on this list need to have a pronunciation guide or to not be used at all.

Over the last decade or so, most people have ignored this list, for a few reasons. For starters, the list is VERY arbitrary. It was, for example, acceptable to use the kanji for an antiquated unit of weight (匁, monme), but words like 誰, dare, "who" or 俺, ore, the masculine form of "I" were NOT, for some unfathomable reason. In fact, it's frightening HOW many of the new additions to the set I KNOW, when there are still some characters in the old set that I never can remember. ^^;;;; Secondly, computers have made it far easier to input characters -- just because you can't remember how to write it doesn't mean that you can't type it on a cell phone or on a PC, and because of this much more obscure characters have been used far more frequently.

The new character additions can be found at the end of this article. Wow, it took them this long to add 韓, the first character in the name for South Korea? And 熊, "bear"?? Or 串, "skewer"??? This is just further adding to the feeling that these lists are completely random.

Fun tidbits about the new additions:

I don't know if this was intentional or not, but on the official list (and the article I've linked to, which lists the characters in the same order as the list) put 尻, "ass", next to 拭, "wipe". :: immature giggle ::

Technically speaking, 埼玉, "Saitama" (a city not so far from Tokyo that's been beautifully described by some as "the New Jersey" of Japan ^^;;;) couldn't be written with the "allowed" jouyou kanji until these newest characters were added, and one suggested way to handle a character NOT on the list is to write it phonetically. Thus, サイ玉 would have been a proper way to get around this except that サイ is also the phonetic get-around for the non-jouyou kanji 犀, "rhinoceros". Thus, サイ玉 could easily be misinterpreted as "rhinoceros testicles". For those I know who've been to Saitama, they claim this is a rather fitting name for the city. ^^;;;

[Multilingual Monday Music] ABBA, in Hindi!

aadroma@yahoo.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:30:42 GMT

This little corner of this blog is supposed to showcase interesting music from around the world, new talents, fresh melodies, and the beauty of non-English music.

But instead today we go surreal and give you two songs by Salma & Sabina Agha, who a while back released an album of ABBA covers, in Hindi. What's fascinating is that, while the actual music itself doesn't change -- in fact, it might be the same tracks as ABBA used! -- the singing style itself is very unmistakably an Indian style, and suddenly ABBA tunes in a Bollywood feature don't seem so unreasonable.

तोबा-तोबा / Toba Toba / Mamma Mia

मीठा मज़ेदार / Mitha Mazedar / Dancing Queen

Enjoy ^o^

Brother's wife

aadroma@yahoo.com — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:57:56 GMT

My brother's wife had her gallbladder removed today and is in the hospital recovering. My poor brother was freaking out more than a little about this -- this is the first major health problem she's ever had and, in fact, she's never been in the hospital for anything in her life. My brother simply doesn't know what to do, as this is the first time this has ever happened.

Okaaaay, so new topic ...

aadroma@yahoo.com — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:34:21 GMT

Holy fuck, did my last post blow up. 36 responses?? I didn't get that many when I showed a picture of my DICK a while back. :: laugh ::

So everyone's riled up and out for blood, so ... erm .. yeah, new topic? :: laugh ::

I'm contemplating making these cookies. What does everyone think? Has anyone tried these? WOULD you try these?

Recent Picture Request

aadroma@yahoo.com — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:39:50 GMT

Me in my untouched-up, half-awake glory, taken about 15 minutes ago, per scream4noreason's request.

And now it's bed.

Holiday Card Rollcall!

aadroma@yahoo.com — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:16:31 GMT

For those wanting to mail cards:

Regev Nyström & Carl Young
新川良謝と鶴河狩
רגב ניוסטרום וקארל ינג
რეგევ ნიუსტრემი და კარლ იუნგი
4010 N. Brandywine
Building 4, Apartment 422
Peoria, IL 61614
USA

If you'd like a card back, please respond here. All comments are screened!

A reflection on World AIDS Day

aadroma@yahoo.com — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:11:10 GMT

Ne never told anyone that he was positive, as though he wanted to deny the fact even to himself. Even as we saw him fall into illness, none of us equated his sickness with HIV, yet complications from HIV are what took him from us. He never sought any kind of treatment, but had he done something about it, he might still be with us today. Instead he kept it as his secret, fearful of ever getting truly intimate with anyone, remaining distal with all but his closest companions. His family didn't even disclose the information, and omitted that piece of imformation when they disclosed that he died.

I miss him, and I wish he would have told me. I wish he would have gotten help. He left too damned soon.

[Multilingual Monday Music] It's Not Me

aadroma@yahoo.com — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:04:49 GMT

This is "Ei minua", "It's not me", by Villieläin, and this song was one of the first cut in the Finnish Eurovision preselection. While not a fantastic song by any means, there's some interesting stuff going on here -- a unique goth-rock-electronica fusion that works most of the time. In some instances it's reminiscent to Machinae Supremacy, which is one of my fave bands. I think it's also one of the few times where a song transposes DOWN towards the end, rather than up. If you're in the mood for something a bit different, do give it a shot!

[Multilingual Monday] The Partitive, Plus "Smartass"!

aadroma@yahoo.com — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:01:04 GMT

It's a two-for-one today!

First up: the partitive case. Just what is this? I've first noticed this in Basque:

Ez dago libururik. "There are no books."
Badago lanik? "Is there any work?"

The suffix -ik (or -rik after a consonant) can translate to "any" in a positive sentence or as "none" in a negative sentence. Rather than having a separate word, the Basque uses this suffix. It's also used to mean "most of x" (as seen in emakumerik gehienak (or, more literally, "from-the-women, the-majority"), or in the superlative (as seen in herririk politena, "the prettiest town", more literally "from-the-towns, the pretty").

Though there is debate as to whether or not the partitive is a case in Basque because of its limited use (like its lack of a plural counterpart), in languages like Finnish it IS a full case, suffixing words with -a or -ta. Onko teillä kirjoja? means, "Are there any books?" and mirrors the usage in Basque, at least in this instance.

Now I've said this before, but it needs to be said again: not all languages use the same cases or the same grammatical items in identical ways -- this was seen upon looking at the subjunctive in various languages and it holds true here. While the Basque have used the partitive to make a superlative, Finnish has used the same case to indicate ASPECT (as opposed to indicating it in the verb as in Russian or other Slavic languages). Kirjoitin artikkelia, "I was writing the article" (but didn't finish) in the partitive vs. Kirjoitin artikkelin, "I wrote the article" (and finished it) in the accusative. It's certainly fascinating as, if this same example were in the PRESENT tense, the partitive would indicate "I am writing the article" and the accusative would imply "I WILL write (and finish) the article". It's fascinating, to me, to see such a wide use of the case.

Next up: "Smartass"

My most recent FaceBook status read:
Regev Nyström רוצה לדעת, איך אומרים "סמארט אס" בעברית
And a friend wrote:
אני חושב שאין מילה מקבילה בעברית

("Regev Nyström wants to know how to say 'smartass' in Hebrew."
"I don't think there's an equivalent word in Hebrew.")

And this is probably true, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there's no real parallel in many of the languages I speak. Sure enough, I looked through ALC to find an equivalent in Japanese and it gave me:

失礼な人, shitsurei na hito, "rude person"
知ったかぶり, shittakaburi. "know-it-all"
うぬぼれ屋, unuboreya, "swelled head"/"narcissist"

... and none of these quite matches what a "smartass" is, and its various implications. Can it be that there's really not an equivalent term? That wouldn't be the first time ...

By all means, comments on the partitive or "smartass" are welcome!

Picture Pages, Episode #7572

aadroma@yahoo.com — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:59:56 GMT

So this is the outfit I wore -- with modifications -- to orious' birthday party, which was a "purple themed party". musikub told me I should post these here too. And yeah, I've gotten an unusual amount of mileage from that monocle!

My dressertop, scattered with random items. The Polaroid is of Gary, my first BF. You have to love the bacon & judaica fusion going on here ^_-

Last weekend I was in Chicago with meteron and lucentnotion, and upon going to breakfast we walked past this auto place that had its signs and stuff on saying "OPEN" but ... yeah, how are you supposed to get to the door? ^^;;;

Behind my apartment complex there is a subdivision that has this sign posted. Mika took a big steaming crap there, amusingly enough.

Before the birthday party Mark and I stopped in a Walmart somewhere in BF Centarl Illinois. I went to the bathroom and there were all sorts of Christmas decorations up. Who decorates the BATHROOM???

Finally, just a random bus cutie.

RIP, Marc Brincivalli

aadroma@yahoo.com — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 01:21:09 GMT

Marc, AKA bootglove, passed away earlier today. He had a series of health issues and was awaiting a transplant, but this didn't come in time.

It's so surreal for me to think of Marc being gone, for Marc had been one of the most consistent faces in my post-coming out life, and it was always a pleasure to see him at a variety of functions. He was one of the first people I met who not only shared some of my kinks, but was upfront and honest about them, even wearing them as part of his identity.

He was a beautiful man, and I remember shamelessly flirting with him for years, and at one point his response was, "Oh you just want me because I'm one of the few men you HAVEN'T slept with in Chicago!" Later that night, we went to a bar, and I kept saying, "Didn't sleep with him ... didn't fuck him ... nope, not him either!" He knew how to get my goat, but I certainly knew how to shoot back.

His passing was a bit of a surprise to me. Yes, he was hospitalized; yes, he had health issues; yes, we knew he was waiting for a new liver. But I remember not so long ago when poor Marc looked like hell; his face looked pale and gaunt, and he had been in the hospital then, but he rebounded. He always did.

After all, I was looking back at his blog, and I read this:
"I am not giving up the fight. I WILL be better soon, no matter what!!!"

That tears me up, as I wanted to believe that after all of this, he could win this battle too.

I'll miss you Marc, and you'll be missed by so many people.

[Obscure Crushes] The Random 4-For-1 Edition

aadroma@yahoo.com — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:10:00 GMT

Last night was just insane, meaning Multilingual Monday got skipped. Boo me, I know. But hey, what better way to make up for it, than posting pictures of men I find hot? ^_-

BRYANT REEVES. Yes, he was at one time well-known for being a professional basketball player, but hasn't been playing the game for quite a while now. And apparently, in that period of time that he hasn't been playing he's developed into quite the bubba. Tall, belied, hunky ... yeah, I'd do bad things to him.

RANDOM AUTO REPAIR MAN. I generally am a facial hair lover, but some men don't even need it -- the above gent, for example, who's just a prime example of thick-necked bubba beef. A shame I don't, you know, actually have a car to repair in order for me to visit the man. ^_-

JOHN DEERE BLACKSMITH MAN. Found in an ad for a "John Deere Historic Site," the above blacksmith is prominently shown. For me, men doing blacksmithing are inexplicably hotter for me, but man, that man is just hot, and that beard is just so strokable; his build so huggable.

UPDATE: DOLE SALAD MAN. Some might think he's too thin for me, but I beg to differ. He has a nice beard and I love the focus on the body fur. He might be svelte but the cute smile and the look in his eyes tells me that he's wild in the sack.

And as you may have noticed: yes, damn near everything is erotic to me. :: laugh ::

Regev's Unpopular Sentiment du Jour

aadroma@yahoo.com — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:30:21 GMT

I had fun at orious's party last night, certainly. He turned 30, got to be a living fundoshi demo, made out with a straight guy, and was covered in silly string that, as profundojoe pointed out, smelled like household cleaner and has probably left a huge hole in the ozone layer over Iceland.

However, the night dragged on and I came to the conclusion: being the small guy at a big boy party can really make one feel amazingly unattractive. :: nodnod ::

古文・漢文DS

aadroma@yahoo.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:50:19 GMT

Being a linguaphile can be downright lonely at times.

I saw the game above, Kobun Kanbun DS, for the Nintendo DS, which teaches and drills on use of older/obsolete characters and Classical Chinese marked with kanbun, which indicated how to reorder a Chinese sentence and pronunciation of more obscure characters, for Japanese readers/speakers. Works were written in kanbun were fairly common in Japan because Classical Chinese was the language of the educated, and several of my old Japanese books are in kanbun.

And I've always wanted to learn kanbun, so I showed the game to Carl, and he gave me a "yeah, and?" look.

And that's when I realized: I'M THE ONLY ONE THAT CARES.

Yeah, that's an isolating feeling.

Dreams

aadroma@yahoo.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:12:26 GMT

Last night I had a dream that I was at work, and got a phone call that my mother shot my brother for some reason, and after she killed him, pointed the gun to her temple and blew her own brains out. The details of the dream were all wrong -- for example my boss is someone that in the DREAM I recognized as my boss but was NOT my current boss, or even someone I know; my office is different; my mother would NEVER off herself; etc.

But somehow, during that dream, everything was so vivid and so REAL that I bolted up out of a dead sleep, as it was just that disturbing to me.

Tell me about some of your more disturbing dreams.

Not who you think it is

aadroma@yahoo.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:32:05 GMT

So the proofreader sitting next to me was scrolling through his FaceBook on his lunch and I glanced over, and saw he was on some blond woman's picture.

And I don't know why, but I mentally grokked the profile as that of my sister. And my heart skipped a beat, and ... I can't even explain WHY it is, that I interpreted it as such, but it's almost as though my brain interpreted this piece of scant evidence -- which isn't even evidence at all -- as all it needed to negate the fact that my sister's been dead since 2007.

I asked the guy looking at the proofreader to scroll up, and ... of course, it's NOT my sister. She didn't even look that close to her.

It really makes me feel stupid, and foolish, and I think this is the first time this ever happened. I'm used to rational logical evidence-based thinking, so something like this? Yeah, it's new to me.

عيد الأضحى‎

aadroma@yahoo.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:54:23 GMT

if there was one immediate thing I could say that I hated about the immediate Jewish circle I'm in, it's the lingering Islamophobia that is so readily displayed.

Example: yesterday in Hebrew class we were reading headlines, and one of the news blurbs mentioned a חג הקורבן, xag hakorban, "Holiday of the victim/sacrifice", and we were all unsure of what holiday this referred to, and the name was translated literally from the Arabic.

Immediately one of the older class members blurted out, "Figures those people! Making a holiday for suicide bombers!"

Fucking idiot. Shut the fuck up. You don't know what you're even talking about.

And indeed, he's far off -- the holiday being referred to is عيد الأضحى‎, or Eid al Adha, a holiday commemorating Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, so the "sacrifice" here is, indeed, not someone with a bunch of C4 strapped on.

It just annoys me -- what does it say about someone if they're so ready to make that connection right off the bat? I wanted to tell him off and I bit my tongue, but still -- oy. What the fuck.

Yay poetry!

aadroma@yahoo.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:53:14 GMT

大足子熊と呼ばれている
大きな足からだけじゃなく
大きな足跡からも
愛すると大きく愛して
仕えると大きく仕えて
危険を冒すと
君は大きな子熊
と受け取られるも
時々、躓くいても
大きくで起こるぞ
大足子熊、人々に
影響を与えるんだ

I'm still tinkering with it because ... yeah, I can't leave well enough alone. Seriously, I've modified this poem about 7572 times now.

(and yes, "子熊" was intentional!)