sanjo 2 Posted October 3, 2004 Share Posted October 3, 2004 I was in a book shop today with a Japanese friend and came across a Japanese version of Da Vinci Code. I was amazed to see that it is split into 2 books , each 1800 yen. So you have to buy 2 books @ 3600 yen to get it. Are all Japanese versions of western books such a massive ripoff? Link to post Share on other sites
slow 0 Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 A people's history of united states by Howard Zinn was 3books in Japanese. When I translate from English to Japanese, usually it needs more pages. What do you think, Ocean? Link to post Share on other sites
xxx 2 Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 Apart from the obvious "getting money" issue, why don't they just make a bigger book? How can they get away with this! It's a bit mad to ask people to buy 2 books, for 1 story isn't it. Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 I wonder how they get the "flavor" right. Watching Japanese subtitles of English-language movies, you'll see "Damn, you bet yo sweet ass, mo-f***aa!" translated as "Hai". How can you put that kind of slang or response that suggests a character type into a language where no such character has ever existed? There must be a thousand variants of this translation problem. Naturally, this works the other way: stuff translated into English from other languages is probably stripped of much of what gave it color and pleasurable idiom in its own language. Every language has its own peculiarities than can be turned to creative use. In English, we have a vocabulary larger than most Romance or Germanic languages, because historical factors resulted in the incorporation of both into modern English, and gave us two words for many things--the Anglo-Saxon word, which often has a lower, earthier connotation, and the Romance-origin word, which thanks to the Norman Conquests and similar social factors that cast the invading French as upperclass sages and put the native people in the role of servants, butchers and oafs, often has a higher, more "intellectual" connotation. Here's some examples. GERMANIC ROMANCE pig pork sweat perspiration smell odor Bush Chirac I wonder if there is a similar doubling of vocabulary in literary Japanese. Even just learning to count in basic courses one learns about the "native" Japanese word and the Chinese variants, and there is the constellation of on-yomi and kun-yomi. Hats off to translators, this sounds like a really hard job to do right. Link to post Share on other sites
nori-chan 0 Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 and I am sure many do not get right. Sometimes I feel completely different meaning in movies from English to Japanese. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 I suspect this is a question of marketing and people's preferred size of book, rather than one of space consumed by text. I've not read many Japanese novels, but at least some of Murakami Haruki's Japanese originals (Sheep Chase, End of the World, etc) are in two volumes sold separately. The books themselves are physically very small, as indeed most Japanese paperbacks seem to be. Maybe it's for jacket pockets on trains. Despite being published in two (actually inexpensive) volumes, those particular novels are short. I think I got through the single-volume translation of Sheep Chase twice on a Korean Air flight to the UK (16 hours?). FWIW, Murakami writes in a very Western style, so I don't think much is lost when he gets translated. If anything, English text is far longer than Japanese. e.g. 首相 Prime Minister If you have to translate a chart with formatting into English, this can be a big pain. This rarely appears in my work, but is a well-known problem in the business. Link to post Share on other sites
klingon 10 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 I would have thought a publishers preferred way of getting more money than a readers preferred size of book. I've seen them too - both are really small, it could be the same same front size just twice the number of pages easily. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Ive bought and read Japanese books and eventhough you have to buy two books generally speaking, theyre cheap. Like 300-400 yen each. Thats not bad. And if you wanna buy em cheaper go to a Book Off and get books in japanese for 100yen - thats what I usually do. Link to post Share on other sites
TheOrange 0 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 sanjos books here were 1800 a piece.... Link to post Share on other sites
miteyak 0 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Having sat in on marketing decisions regarding book size, I can vouch that function and customer preference are often less of an issue than the obvious 'we can charge more for two books than for one'. Which, of course, is not to say that it's always the case. Given the role of management 'intuition' here, I wouldn't be surprised if market research (ie project manager takes sample to lunch, tries to fit it into his jacket pocket and can't, decides all book readers would appreciate the book in two halves at twice the price) leads to some of these decisions. Link to post Share on other sites
frannyo 2 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 ...without the accompanying reduction in price considering it's really "the same book", I'm sure.... Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 I should crawl back into my futon and shut up today Link to post Share on other sites
excuse me 0 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 He is talking about the Japanese language verion of The Da Vinci Code. Split into 2, 1800 yen each. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 excuse me, but that is for hardback yeah? Paper, dont know if its out yet, will be bout 400-800yen, or 100 used at Book Off - I see you saw my edited post...my bad. Link to post Share on other sites
sanjo 2 Posted October 6, 2004 Author Share Posted October 6, 2004 Yes it was hardback. Both of them quite small. But the thing was, who in their right mind buys just half a book, that just doesn't make sense. They could have split it into two and sold them both together if it was important to keep some kind of size (weak!), selling them separately doesn't make much sense. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted October 6, 2004 Share Posted October 6, 2004 sanjo, I hear ya. Seems like another one of Japans 中途半端 syndrome. Guess if they dont like the books halfway through then they dont have to buy the 2nd half? Link to post Share on other sites
Fattwins 0 Posted October 6, 2004 Share Posted October 6, 2004 my wife says that japanese like posket books beat. Link to post Share on other sites
sanjo 2 Posted October 6, 2004 Author Share Posted October 6, 2004 posket books beat... ??? Yes Yukis Passion - so thats why they'd done it. If they don't like the book, the reader will have effectively SAVED 1800 on the 2nd half. Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted October 6, 2004 Share Posted October 6, 2004 Sorry, but this is all just the same as tiny bags of salt, tiny packages of spaghetti, tiny packs of chocolate, tiny broccoli, tiny glasses, tiny tables and tiny apartments. It's all been proportionately downsized, get it? I wonder how the average local would feel if all the sinks in the country topped out around mid-thigh, all mirrors were placed below eye level, and all sofas hit around mid-calf? Erm...probably about like I feel now. And then there's the thrill of having to pay double price for half-sized stuff. Yes, this is one of those things about living here. I wonder if there is a country where everything is too big for foreigners? Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted October 7, 2004 Share Posted October 7, 2004 I know what you're saying there, but I think splitting a novel in two is a bit different from having small packs of spaghetti. And where's the spaghetti rings in tomato sauces. Whats with that? Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted October 7, 2004 Share Posted October 7, 2004 Nice one, Scouser! And FYI, Mogs used to keep 2 somewhat smaller girlfriends, just like that book that had to have 2 volumes where only 1 formerly did the trick. This may be the only smart iteration of this doubling thing so far! Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted October 8, 2004 Share Posted October 8, 2004 Quote: Originally posted by badmigraine: Sorry, but this is all just the same as tiny bags of salt, tiny packages of spaghetti, tiny packs of chocolate, tiny broccoli, tiny glasses, tiny tables and tiny apartments. It's all been proportionately downsized, get it? I wonder how the average local would feel if all the sinks in the country topped out around mid-thigh, all mirrors were placed below eye level, and all sofas hit around mid-calf? Erm...probably about like I feel now. And then there's the thrill of having to pay double price for half-sized stuff. Yes, this is one of those things about living here. I wonder if there is a country where everything is too big for foreigners? Maybe we should include their thinking capapcity in that as well. Very narrow minded... Link to post Share on other sites
base40 0 Posted October 10, 2004 Share Posted October 10, 2004 And then there's the thrill of having to pay double price for half-sized stuff. I had a cake today that must have been, no kidding, 4cm x 4cm and about the same height. And I bet it cost 400 yen. Link to post Share on other sites
sanjo 2 Posted May 4, 2006 Author Share Posted May 4, 2006 Going back to my first posting on this thread. I was in the bookstore today and noticed that the Da Vinci Code is now selling in 3 PARTS (not the 2 it was before)!?! You have to buy 3 books to get "the book". Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted May 5, 2006 Share Posted May 5, 2006 Ah, but sometimes the Japanese get it right. Lord of the Rings for example was written as 9 seperate books, although they always get bundled into 3 books (fellowship/two towers/return of king) in English. In the Japanese edition, they have retained Tolkiens intention and published it as 9 volumes! LOTR on amazon.co.jp Link to post Share on other sites
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