Hi :) I'm deciding that once I'm confident in my fluency and knowledge of japanese, I will write a manga a friend and I are making entirely in japanese, and then an english version as well. I'm aware I may have to change some stuff around to have it make sense to an english reader, but one thing is really hard to figure out.
While it isn't a huge part of the story, the main character has surface dyslexia and often mixes up characters such as
さ and き
れ and わ
め and ぬ
二 and こ
etc.
It would be simple to just show his writing in english, but the thing is, it's very heavily shown that the characters are speaking, writing and reading in japanese even if the english version would have english dialogue/text. There's even a language barrier depicted between a character who comes from the US and the boss of the main character.
I'm not sure how to approach this since I don't want to make the changes for the english version to seem awkward, any ideas are appreciated ^_^
1. If he has dyslexia, wouldn't that just be in writing only? I'm not the most knowledgeable but I assumed that it was just for reading/writing.
2. I recommend searching up topics about dyslexia in Japanese, as it will change with varying writing systems. For example, the awareness about dyslexia is next to none in Japan, and responses may be different. Here's a chart some Japanese dude made back in 2013.
3. I found this interesting and slightly relevant, but being dyslexic in one writing system does not mean being dyslexic in another. According to some dyslexic people online, they actually could read in Japanese better.
1. If he has dyslexia, wouldn't that just be in writing only? I'm not the most knowledgeable but I assumed that it was just for reading/writing.
2. I recommend searching up topics about dyslexia in Japanese, as it will change with varying writing systems. For example, the awareness about dyslexia is next to none in Japan, and responses may be different. Here's a chart some Japanese dude made back in 2013.
3. I found this interesting and slightly relevant, but being dyslexic in one writing system does not mean being dyslexic in another. According to some dyslexic people online, they actually could read in Japanese better.
1. Oh yeah, dyslexia can cause problems with speech, but the character's dyslexia type (surface dyslexia) is more visual (reading) than oral (speaking). It would be more noticeable in his writing and if he ever reads something out-loud rather than just speaking.
2. I did actually keep this in mind :D!! Since dyslexia and many other issues are not well known about in Japan, the other characters do react accordingly to his dyslexia and any other disorder he has.
3. That's interesting, and really fitting since it's implied that he struggles more with reading and writing in japanese as opposed to english lol. This does make it a bit more awkward now since just switching his writing to english would have this aspect make no sense :(
I'm starting to understand how difficult localization stuff is 😅
This post piqued my interest because I am currently writing a bit of backstory for a character who has substantial memory loss and cannot remember most kanji. If you're interested in exchanging character concepts, feel free to send me a friend request
Regarding your original post, is the main character a native Japanese speaker? I imagine a person's ability to write will be heavily influenced by their exposure to a language, so a native Japanese speaker who has dyslexia may not encounter the same problems as someone who is learning Japanese as a second language. (Apologies if you clarified this in the original post, my reading comprehension is a bit scattered at the moment.)
This post piqued my interest because I am currently writing a bit of backstory for a character who has substantial memory loss and cannot remember most kanji. If you're interested in exchanging character concepts, feel free to send me a friend request
Regarding your original post, is the main character a native Japanese speaker? I imagine a person's ability to write will be heavily influenced by their exposure to a language, so a native Japanese speaker who has dyslexia may not encounter the same problems as someone who is learning Japanese as a second language. (Apologies if you clarified this in the original post, my reading comprehension is a bit scattered at the moment.)
Yep! He is a native japanese speaker (his name is Tomoya fyi just so I don't have to keep vaguely mentioning him lol)
His dyslexia impacts his japanese a lot more than his english (which a friend of his likes to tease him about). Because of that, it just makes it a bit awkward to transfer that aspect of him to an english version of the story.
Out of curiosity, did you find anything regarding the writing order for kanji and how dyslexia may impact that? I imagine dyslexia could cause a person to accidentally write a kanji "out of order" (e.g. placing the radical in the wrong spot,) but I have not studied the topic. I am drawing a blank, but hopefully this can support your research somehow?
Out of curiosity, did you find anything regarding the writing order for kanji and how dyslexia may impact that? I imagine dyslexia could cause a person to accidentally write a kanji "out of order" (e.g. placing the radical in the wrong spot,) but I have not studied the topic. I am drawing a blank, but hopefully this can support your research somehow?
According to what I could find, some Japanese people with dyslexia write them backwards or completely wonky
This post piqued my interest because I am currently writing a bit of backstory for a character who has substantial memory loss and cannot remember most kanji. If you're interested in exchanging character concepts, feel free to send me a friend request
Regarding your original post, is the main character a native Japanese speaker? I imagine a person's ability to write will be heavily influenced by their exposure to a language, so a native Japanese speaker who has dyslexia may not encounter the same problems as someone who is learning Japanese as a second language. (Apologies if you clarified this in the original post, my reading comprehension is a bit scattered at the moment.)
Yep! He is a native japanese speaker (his name is Tomoya fyi just so I don't have to keep vaguely mentioning him lol)
His dyslexia impacts his japanese a lot more than his english (which a friend of his likes to tease him about). Because of that, it just makes it a bit awkward to transfer that aspect of him to an english version of the story.
Couldn't you just specify that they're speaking Japanese in the story? I haven't read localized manga in a while, but from what I remember they were still Japanese speakers and they referred to English as a different language. You could just make him say "aw poop I really suck at English" or whatever and people'll get the point
This post piqued my interest because I am currently writing a bit of backstory for a character who has substantial memory loss and cannot remember most kanji. If you're interested in exchanging character concepts, feel free to send me a friend request
Regarding your original post, is the main character a native Japanese speaker? I imagine a person's ability to write will be heavily influenced by their exposure to a language, so a native Japanese speaker who has dyslexia may not encounter the same problems as someone who is learning Japanese as a second language. (Apologies if you clarified this in the original post, my reading comprehension is a bit scattered at the moment.)
Yep! He is a native japanese speaker (his name is Tomoya fyi just so I don't have to keep vaguely mentioning him lol)
His dyslexia impacts his japanese a lot more than his english (which a friend of his likes to tease him about). Because of that, it just makes it a bit awkward to transfer that aspect of him to an english version of the story.
Couldn't you just specify that they're speaking Japanese in the story? I haven't read localized manga in a while, but from what I remember they were still Japanese speakers and they referred to English as a different language. You could just make him say "aw poop I really suck at English" or whatever and people'll get the point
Hmmm that's the thing. It's specified they are speaking japanese, but how would I show Tomo's difficulty with writing and reading japanese characters if the english version would probably have that same japanese text translated into english roman characters?
I'm considering maybe just keeping any of his handwriting in japanese... It's the solution that causes the least amount of problems from what I can tell. Still, I do appreciate the ideas from you guys! ^_^
I have seen a lot of mangas and animes that simply preserved the written language on papers and computer screens and added English subtitles beneath it. I think this is a nice stylistic touch because it shows a character's connection to the Japanese language.
You could write the Japanese text with a variant of dyslexia, then translate the text and add an English variant of dyslexia to the translation. (Like writing the parts of a kanji out of order on the paper the character writes on, then flipping the letter b, d, q, p, and so forth in the English subtitles.) This could be a bit confusing to read, so you can show the English subtitles and written Japanese with the dyslexic writing patterns and include a fully revised version in the next manga panel.
I have seen a lot of mangas and animes that simply preserved the written language on papers and computer screens and added English subtitles beneath it. I think this is a nice stylistic touch because it shows a character's connection to the Japanese language.
You could write the Japanese text with a variant of dyslexia, then translate the text and add an English variant of dyslexia to the translation. (Like writing the parts of a kanji out of order on the paper the character writes on, then flipping the letter b, d, q, p, and so forth in the English subtitles.) This could be a bit confusing to read, so you can show the English subtitles and written Japanese with the dyslexic writing patterns and include a fully revised version in the next manga panel.
Yeah yeah that makes so much sense!! I'll see how I can do that without the english subtitles for the writing being too confusing to read but just confusing enough to see that something is off, thanks :D
