Eastern novels on western settings

UnKnownEntity001 · February 17,2025

I've read korean novels before but most of them were set in korea or were set in a stage/game world so i never really took notice of little nuances here and there.

Currently reading trash of count's family.

From the first 2-3 chapters, i already get that the setting is something like medieval europe, it is even stated on the novel itself.

So it was glaring to me when i read the part where a butler called the count as count-nim.

Before that, i forgot the chapters already but i think there were atleast 2 chapters before that but there were never any korean honorifics so i was immersed in the story.

Anyways, i tried to make this post after reading that but i thought to myself that maybe that was just a fluke? but now there are more korean honorifics. like calling someone 'noona' which obviously doesnt fit the current setting.

I would like to ask the translators and readers here, if it is 'more' correct to translate them in context, like 'noona' to 'older sister' if the setting was western.

since the novel was originally written in korean so ofcourse the author who is korean would write 'noona'(korean characters) because that is their language.

Idk it's a confusing thought.

EDIT: I'm trying hard right now to remember instances when i watched anime or read manga/japanese novels/lightnovels where they would address someone like that like 'king-san' or 'wizard-san'.

Idk, i'll just ask because whenever i watch anime, i always use subs instead of dubs. That was just how i was used to watching it and could never adapt to dubs. But let's say in naruto, in japanese they would call naruto as naruto-kun or uzumaki-kun. In dubs, do they keep that? or do they just call him naruto? or if you're a bleach fan, do dubs call ichigo as ichigo or ichigo-kun especially if its a line by inoue(the annoying healer girl).

Staplehead · February 18,2025

Okay, desu.

Sleeping_Scholar · February 18,2025

I suppose it depends on the translator and the writer of course (interactions/dialogues are usully influenced by the writer's nationality an other things)

blank69 · February 18,2025

Well, with novels (translation) that are given little context, those honorifics can help a lot.
Ah, wait, this only applies to those who have read Japanese/Chinese/Korean novels and have a grasp of how things go and still not forgetting it .

Kelvar10AKE · February 18,2025

The others here said it there is little of equivalent in English language. Some gags would not work, so more work for translator and editor (some of them are not native English speaker so it is a lot more work).
The way to “study” the right way to replace all san, nims, samas etc could be a work for a bachelor degree in English or vis versa in the Asian language.
The other problem is the author has written it that way and as “hobby” translator the community try to be as near on the original as it can be done.
I have not read a san,nim etc in a published translation jet but i know that if the author insist on it would be done. The problem is that “expression” of respect or intimacy would be lost if the whole sentence would be not rewritten which would be not a translation and can be done only with the authors permit...

KaryKDGU0 · February 18,2025

I'm okay with honorifics, just don't throw me a desu~ at the end of a sentence please.

Noob6writer9 · February 18,2025

Nah you often end up calling them brother or sister. Only time you will call them by name generally is when ur talking about them to others or trying to get attention of them. Cause people are more used to being called by their name if their attention is needed.
How is onee-san easier to understand then say younger brother in English as someone who these days rarely reads Japanese novels because of this sort of thing being so prevalent I can tell you without any grasp of Japanese it can get very confusing especially with some novels with how little context these things are given.

Also English does have terms for an older/younger woman/man who aren’t related to differentiate age such as hag for old women. They are usually just derogatory or have fallen out of use like lass and lad/laddie which is why translators and people like you probably forget they exist.

YudhaKusuma2 · February 18,2025

Definitely not a fan of eastern honorifics in translations, but one thing you should take into account is that a proper translation that retains the nuances would require a rather strong grasp of the intricacies of English as a language. Many translations I read in the past clearly were made by non-native speakers or in general people who did not have a background in linguistics, so such a translation would be rather hard to achieve, at least on a level where it would feel natural.

I guess this is just one of those compromises that you have to make when reading things that would otherwise not receive a proper translation.

RoshanModi · February 18,2025

Well first of all, even if it is a western setting, since this isn't earth, they aren't speaking any latin language or any asian language. They are speaking the language of that world which could be anything. So to say western setting should not have this isn't really correct.

Now if you want to talk about translation and proper translation to english, that would be a different story. Though you generally don't call someone "older sister" in english. You would call them miss, sister or aunt. Maybe even a pet word like auntie if its spoken by a child.

8destroyer · February 18,2025

I don't mind the honorifics, even if it's a western setting. There may be some which have no exact English equivalent. I'd rather TLs kept the honorifics than lose out their nuances when replacing with the nearest English counterpart.

Maybe some actual TLs can shed more light on this issue; my knowledge is pretty limited. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

IMMORTAL_ZANE_23 · February 18,2025

It's only a problem the first few times i encounter them since they're pretty out of place. It would be like if i were to go to europe and people(europeans) started calling my name with added korean honorifics.

I'll get used to it as chapters goes by but i was curious. I also asked a similar question about chinese novel translations for how lightning and thunder mean/can mean the same thing in chinese.

badboyz999wtE · February 18,2025

This sounds to me that it's the translator's fault. I'm only familiar with Japanese, but I assume that Korean honorifics work somewhat similarly. When talking about European nobility honorifics, Japanese writers will use the same Japanese ones that they use in everyday life. So you'll have things like "lord" or "sir" rendered as "-sama" or "-dono". A good translator should know what context the writer is using so he should adapt his translation to whatever is appropriate rather than leave all the honorifics in romaji.

As a side note, this wouldn't be a problem in Chinese because the Chinese language has a million honorifics anyways, so all of these European terms will have unique honorifics rather than using the native ones.