Written out sound effects in Japanese

I've noticed that one of the biggest obstacle for a translator is translating sound effects that don't exist in the English language.

If you've ever seen an odd animal sound like "Kyueeeen!" "Kuuuuuun!" in a game, it's all example of poor attempts by the translator to do the impossible.

In Japan, there are sound effects that can actually be written out by letters. A horse's trot is "paka paka paka". When a box opens, it make a sound "paka". When you pull on something, it goes "gui gui gui". A dog can bark in several ways. There are so many...

So what can the translator do when they face such a dilemma.

In Tales of Symphonia (for the GC), I've noticed that they use the action tag that is common online.

Example: *whine*

Instead of writing out the Japanese sound for when a creature whines, they used the action tag.

I'm personally undecided if I like this better than writting out sound effects that won't mean anything to International fans, but I would like to know how everyone else thinks.

Would you rather know exactly what the animal is doing (like whining, whimpering, etc...) instead of seeing unusual animal sounds that probably may not be able to differentiate?

 

I'd prefer to have the sound and explanation about it. So let's say a cat said "Meow", the text box should be "Meow ... -This cat just wants to say hi to you-" That way I know what they meant to be doing and I still got the silly sound text.

I definitely don't like the action tag. Not sure why, but I guess I'm just not used at seeing that in games.

 

Well I haven't seen exactly how the action tags work in Tales of Symphonia, but after having it explained to me, I believe I know what they are now. I guess I don't mind them and I find it to be certainly more helpful than being shown a Japanese word or word phrase that is left untranslated. I mean, even after taking a few courses in the Japanese language I am not even close to learning about the various sound effects found in Japanese. I would be lost in trying to comprehend the meaning behind the sound effects, let alone those who have no knowledge of the Japanese langauge.

I would say that the best way to go about translating it is just by doing the best one can by finding the closest sound effect in the English langauge or describing the action that is taking place through the use of an action tag. It might not be the most accurate translation of the original text, but it would be close enough I would think and trivial in comparison to the overall translation of the more important dialogue found in the game.

-SkyeWelse

 

I believe that a translator should just use common sense.
Unless we are talking a game where the animals can talk then the translator shouldn't have that much of a problem.
If you come across a cat, then its obvious that it would say 'meow'.
I don't see the reason for the translator to exactly and accurately translate such sound effects, a dog will 'bark' and a horse will 'neigh'

 

I found out that Star Ocean 3 Till the End of Time and Megaman Zero 3 also uses the internet action tag. That means that SquareEnix and Capcom translators are doing the same thing as well. I wonder if one company started it or they all got together and discussed what they were to do with these untranslatable sounds.

So this is probably going to be a trend in all of these new games coming out.