Alternate between names

[Super Sonic]

Hey does anyone else besides me say the original names for some DB/DBZ characters and the dub names for others? With this question I'm not referring to guys who had simple changes in spelling, ie Frieza, or pronounciation, ie. Dr. Gero. For myself, I say and write, "Master Roshi or Old Man Roshi," while also saying "Tao Pie Pie." I also alternate between "Lunch" and "Launch". Any thoughts?

[Jerseymilk]

I just tend to use all the Japanese pronunciations and most of the spellings too, usually. So I say and spell "Buruma", "Kuririn", "Tenshinhan", etc. I say and spell Roshi's name as either "Muten Roshi" or "Kamesennin". Of course I don't take it to the extreme and non-sensical, like I don't say things like "Bideru" for "Videl" or "Bejita", because, to me that's just romanized Japanese pronunciations coming into play. Then there are the ones that I definitely insist on saying the Japanese name for because I just don't think the dubbed Funi version is very accurate, such as "Lunch" and not "Launch" because as far as I've always known, she's named after, well, the word "lunch" I also prefer "Saichorou" instead of "Guru", to me it's the Funi name isn't close enough. I also spell "Buu" name with the two u's instead of two o's even though I know the latter is accurate, I just like the way "Buu" looks better. One really weird thing I notice I do though is with Freeza's name. I spell it "Freeza", but I'll tend to say "Freezer". Weird huh?

[TripleRach]

I generally use the same names aloud as I use in writing. I don't know too many "real life" people who like Dragon Ball anymore (they all kinda lost interest), so I don't get to talk about it verbally so much now. But what I used to do for names that are totally different from the dub, like Kamesennin and Tenshinhan, was to clarify afterwards if they weren't sure who I meant. I did mostly train people to eventually understand without clarification, and even converted a few. I guess that was pretty weird...

I pronounce stuff like Trunks and Piccolo the natural English way, though. Any native English speaker who uses "Torankusu" or "Pikkoro" should be beaten.

[Zackarotto]

Yeah. We're all figments of your imagination, Rach.

I say them all in their original names, but not like Bideru. Videl and stuff. Guru is the exception. Saichorou just takes too long.

[The S]

Well bring on the beatings! Although I usually use the actual name (Trunks, Piccolo, Videl, etc.), I occasionally say things like Torankusu, Pikkoro, and Biideru just because Japanese kicks English's ass.

[TripleRach]

Yeah. We're all figments of your imagination, Rach.

It took me a minute to realize what you meant. People like to use the term "real life" to distinguish between online and offline, but I think that's silly, because online people aren't robots or anything (or at least most of them aren't...I hope). "Real life" is better for distinguishing between videogames and reality. Like, in Doom, I kill Cyberdemons with the Super Shotgun, but in real life, I am quiet and mellow and guns scare me.

Well bring on the beatings! Although I usually use the actual name (Trunks, Piccolo, Videl, etc.), I occasionally say things like Torankusu, Pikkoro, and Biideru just because Japanese kicks English's ass.

Hehe. Japanese is cool, but to me, it seems pointless to use Japanese for obvious English words. Torankusu is five syllables, but Trunks is only one!

[PsyLiam]

And if it kicks English's ass, why are so many of the puns in English? Eh? Eh?

I do tend to flip flop between both versions. I do always write Kuririn, but usually say "Krillin" (or "Kurillin"). I pretty much use English pronounciation, because, well, I don't know Japanese, and I imagine that a native speaker would burst out laughing at the horrendous accent a non-speaker would have if he attempted to say "Torankusu".

My only exception is with "Roshi", for the same reason Zack uses...it's quicker to type than Kame Sen'nin. I also tend to say "World Tornament", due to a horrendous fear of mispelling Tenchiachi Budokai.

*Tenka-ichi Budôkai

[Super Sonic]

Whoa I never thought about mispelling names before. Maybe because I haven't had to write "Tenkaichi" and only say it.

[Jerseymilk]

Yeah. We're all figments of your imagination, Rach.

It took me a minute to realize what you meant. People like to use the term "real life" to distinguish between online and offline, but I think that's silly, because online people aren't robots or anything (or at least most of them aren't...I hope).

Darn! She's discovered my secret!

[PsyLiam]

Ahh! Julian has the power to posess my posts! I am afeared!

Tenka-ichi.

[laserkid]

I tend to say Krillin, type Kururin, but beyond that I tend to stick with the subtitled names. Course theres exceptions. I don't call him Guru or Saichoro Sama, I call him Grand Elder for instance :/

[Zackarotto]

Yeah, Tenka-ichi Budôkai. Allthough, I didn't know about the hyphen or the ˆ accent. I guess you know Budôkai because you see it written a lot more (people such as me just shortening it to that, and the games).

[PsyLiam]

There's some great irony in the games being called "Budokai" in the west, but not in Japan.

And the fact that the term isn't actually used in the English version of the game itself. Which begs the question...whose idea was it to use it? And why didn't they use it throughout the game if they were going for a "Japanese words are cool" thing?

It translates to "Strongest under the heavens" or something, right? What would "Budokai" by itself mean?

[Zackarotto]

Well, World's Greatest Martial Art Tournament, or something. I think is was the "under the heavens #1 martial arts tournament", "martial arts tournament being the "budokai" part. Correct me if I'm wrong, higher beings.

[Adamant]

Well, World's Greatest Martial Art Tournament, or something. I think is was the "under the heavens #1 martial arts tournament", "martial arts tournament being the "budokai" part. Correct me if I'm wrong, higher beings.

Budo mean martial arts, I know that.

Kai.. eh, it does mean world, but it probably means tournamet or something as well.


As for me.. eh, I use some odd mix between japanese, english and german/danish.

I use the japanese names, like (Son) Goku, Kuririn, Kame Sennin, ect.
(And yes, I do say Torankusu, but the way I pronounce it, it ends up sounding like Trunks anyway (or "Tranks", or whatever). When i write it, it Trunks.)

As for german/danish names, I write Vejita, Freezer, and God (Eh, okay, his german name is Gott, and his danish name is Gud, but it all means God)

(Although my pronounciation of Vejita and Freezer are like the japanese original: Bejiita and Furiiza)

And.. um.. I use Jinzoningen, since Artificial Humans is too long, and Cyborgs/Androids are just wrong. When I write individual names, I just go with #18, #16, ect.

Um..

I say Saiya-jin, yet I also say Namekian (I probably said Nameksei-jin a few times or something, but whatever.)

Um.. I use "ou" at the end of names like Daimaou and Kaiou..

And I use the japanese name for attacks, and various other stuff that doesn't sound too good when translated, like "Choushinsui" (Super Holy Water).

[PsyLiam]

As for german/danish names, I write Vejita, Freezer, and God (Eh, okay, his german name is Gott, and his danish name is Gud, but it all means God)

(Although my pronounciation of Vejita and Freezer are like the japanese original: Bejiita and Furiiza)

Y'know, Kami is surely the least powerful God ever. It can't be good for your self-esteem when well over half of the main characters could beat the stuffing out of you.

As to the "Bejita" stuff, there's one thing that's always god me. Listening to it, it doesn't sound like "Bejita". At least, it doesn't sound like how a Brit or American or Canadian etc would say "Bejita". To me, it always sounds a bit like a combination of both "b" and "v", the same way that the letter l always sounds a bit like "l", and a bit like "r". So clearly saying "Bejita" would still be wrong. Unless you are saying it in a Japanese accent, I suppose.

(Where the voice actors aware that "Bejita" was suppossed to be a pun on Vegetable, and thus sound more like "Vegeta"? Did they try to pronounce it like that, as well as they could?)

[Jerseymilk]

Oh yes, I garuantee they were aware of it. Have you ever heard a Japanese person try to speak English? Well, it's really hard for them. Just listen to any song sung in English by a Japanese person and you'll see what I mean, except that Hikaru Utada doesn't count. She's actually quite good at it.

[PsyLiam]

Well, that's the point I was singularly failing to make: Although traditionally Japanese people have trouble with several English sounds (phenomes?), it's not the same across the board. Some of them are better at it than others, just as some western people are better at doing "foreign" sounds than others (such as some people being able to roll their r's. It's vital in some languages, and some English-speakers can do it, despite it not being useful at all in English).

And I'm blabbering, again. So let's start, again.

*ahem* Surely some of the Japanese voice actors would have been better at pronouncing v's than others? So for some of them at least, it WOULD have been closer to "Vegeta" than Bejita, right?

And, to start wandering off the topic again, I'm guessing that western languages are taught more in Japanese schools than they used to. Does that mean that younger generations of Japanese people are better able to pronounce western-specific phenomes?

[Jerseymilk]

Yes basic English is pretty much compulsory nowadays in high schools in Japan I believe. The problem with the high schools teaching it is that usually the Japanese teachers teaching it, don't have very good command of pronunciation themselves! So you can see that would be a confusing problem. It's actually better to attend an independent school that teaches English using Western teachers. Only thing is that the lessons are pretty pricey.

[Adamant]

(Although my pronounciation of Vejita and Freezer are like the japanese original: Bejiita and Furiiza)

Unless you are saying it in a Japanese accent, I suppose.

Norwegian and japanese doesn't sound THAT different, actually. It's not hard to make it sound decent.