Again I can't speak for fan-subs but professional translators won't have a very long career if they can't get projects done on time or are lazy.

With anime, expecially, there are a dozen or more hands touching the script, besides the translator...

My comments were in reference to fan-subbed translations. Sorry if it came of as me insulting professional translators. Studying a language even for a year makes you realize the amount of time and effort professional translation takes.

In most cases with fan-subs, its not a professional translator. It's usually multiple hands, as stated, and in some cases its also between people that don't fully understand the other's language. For example, a Japanese national assisting English-speakers, without a solid grasp on English or the English speakers not having a solid grasp on Japanese, or even a 3rd language being used as the middle ground.
Fansubbers deal with limited resources, and so for the most part they are not direct. I respect the amount of personal time they invest into the project, but its simply not what a professional would have done. Then again, the fansubbers aren't being paid to be accurate, unlike the professional.

If a fansubber is wrong, someone somewhere gets upset. If a professional is wrong, someone somewhere gets upset and doesn't get a contract.

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In language learning, accuracy is the most important thing.

In anime, entertaining the audience is the most important thing, not accuracy.

Therefore I believe the title of OP is right on.


And thanks for clarifying, Nathan. I've never watched a fan-subbed anime, but have heard horror stories.

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Yare-yare so that's why! no matter how many years i have been watching Animes, in japanese, i could only utter bits & pieces of it :p

I still luv Anime though :)

Do you think it's possible to learn English just by watching Bugs Bunny or Aqua Team Hunger Force? Of course not. Same with anime. No one says you can't love it, though.

eeeeh wassup doc! lol i don't think so too :D

I could see someone picking up a word or two out of anime, maybe a couple short phrases, but never a much more. Mainly because the grammar of Japanese is so different from English.

First of all let me just say that I agree with the statement that you can not and should not try to learn japanese completely from TV shows of any kind.

However I agree just as much with those who say that it is a good tool for listening practice, and for picking up phrases and words you otherwise wouldn't.

In Sweden, we learn english in school from an early age, however this is true for many countries. But because we don't dub TV, atleast I personally have learned massive amounts of english that I wouldn't just by going to school. Try comparing our english knowledge to countries who dub all tv shows, and see who you'd rather try to have a conversation with.


"Japanese is not like english", you say. Of course it's not. But it's not like english doesn't have levels of politeness, much like japanese. You wouldn't get far in your career by learning english from The Wire or OZ, and then going to a job interview talking "yo, whazzaa!! can i aks if i'm be gettin this j-o-b or nawh?".

My point just beeing that watching shows enhances your language skills, if used correctly. I think you SHOULD try to broaden any language you're learning with TV/plays/shows/whateverthehellyoucanfind, just understand what it is you're learning!

On a side note, I don't remember who it was that claimed japanese people mostly always talk in the polite "-masu"-etc way. Well, surely that's true for the professional world where you don't know those you talk with. In my experience (lived 4 months in a mixed gaijin-japanese guesthouse) however, my japanese friends _very_ often used/use the shortest possible way to communicate anything :) Like "baiku motteiru?" and such things.

So really, I wouldn't have been able to understand any of those things they said with just knowledge of "proper" japanese.

I think you are selling people a bit short. Just because the grammar is different won't mean people cant comprehend it.