Hi forum, I hope you are familiar with the children's book series, Curious George, currently my Japanese self-study main dish. I was wondering, how ひとまねこざる translates to "Curious" since Google translate and search didn't help much.

If you are interested in the books you can find them on Amazon Japan for like ~672 yen each.

The answer is it doesn't translate to 'curious'.
ひとまね - mimicry, imitation

Exactly, now, how do you go from mimicry to Curious George?

Maybe the important part is hito, and the fact that he mimics people. So, person-imitating-monkey.

Titles often change in translation because of cultural or economic matters. One term may be more familiar to the people than the other and may make the product sell better than the other.

A good example is the film 'Up' which became カールじいさんの空飛ぶ家. I think whoever translated that title has no imagination at all.

pudding cat Wrote:A good example is the film 'Up' which became カールじいさんの空飛ぶ家. I think whoever translated that title has no imagination at all.

Just feeling like point this out, this is not what we refer to as "translation", this is more closer to a title being "localized", as the titles don't match at all. But rather is a reference to the move subject matter itself. I'd say the same about the Curious George title.

They probably felt that since Pixar does not have the big-name draw in Japan that it does here (even though it is known to some extent), it would be better to have a more descriptive title than "up". It also seems that in general, Japan favors longer titles for their movies and series than we do.

Rayath Wrote:Titles often change in translation because of cultural or economic matters. One term may be more familiar to the people than the other and may make the product sell better than the other.

This is basically exactly right. This isn't a question about the Japanese language, it is a question about marketing. When Curious George was translated into Japanese, they chose the title based on what they thought would sell best. Staying true to the original title was probably not very high on their list of priorities.

Of course, what they chose is based on various aspects of Japanese culture. In this case, how monkeys are perceived by the Japanese, what children are likely to be drawn to, what parents are likely to buy, and so on.

yudantaiteki Wrote:It also seems that in general, Japan favors longer titles for their movies and series than we do.

This is true. But that's not to say that they don't have unoriginal titles:
The Great Mouse Detective - オリビアちゃんの大冒険
The Rescuers - ビアンカの大冒険
The Rescuers Down Under - ビアンカの大冒険 ゴールデン・イーグルを救え!
The Golden Compass (Northern Lights) - ライラの冒険
The Hobbit - ホビットの冒険
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - トムソーヤの冒険 (ok, this one is forgiven)

There's probably a lot of other 冒険 stories, but those are a few that stuck in my head. I left Tom Sawyer in, because English titles aren't always that great either.

Probably one reason for the name change is that having curiosity (好奇心) can be taken as a somewhat negative personality trait in Japan.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Probably one reason for the name change is that having curiosity (好奇心) can be taken as a somewhat negative personality trait in Japan.

That's an interesting take. But curiosity leads to development and Japan is far from being non-developed. I can't imagine how a system without such fundamental trait, could be where it is right now.

bucaran Wrote:That's an interesting take. But curiosity leads to development and Japan is far from being non-developed. I can't imagine how a system without such fundamental trait, could be where it is right now.

Never lived abroad or something?

You seem to have missed the point of what Jarvik7 just said--your opinions on curiosity are largely culturally determined. You view it as a fundamental and positive trait, and the Japanese don't. You're writing as if you're right and they're wrong, which means you're not really used to dealing with cultural differences.

Of course, with certain matters there is a right and wrong. For example, people who think prayer cures disease are wrong, regardless of whether or not that's part of their culture. But your impressions on the merits and demerits of curiosity are not a matter of correct or incorrect.

Curiosity is associated with getting into trouble (doing things you shouldn't, not knowing your role/boundaries), not a thirst for knowledge and experience.

Curiosity killed the cat.

But it was pig ignorance that did for the rest of them.

Tzadeck Wrote:Never lived abroad or something?

You seem to have missed the point of what Jarvik7 just said--your opinions on curiosity are largely culturally determined. You view it as a fundamental and positive trait, and the Japanese don't. You're writing as if you're right and they're wrong, which means you're not really used to dealing with cultural differences.

Of course, with certain matters there is a right and wrong. For example, people who think prayer cures disease are wrong, regardless of whether or not that's part of their culture. But your impressions on the merits and demerits of curiosity are not a matter of correct or incorrect.

I agree, it's ridiculous to pretend to be correct on matters of opinion. There is no right or wrong on which color is best. However I meant curiosity as a thirst for knowledge that motivates investigation and study. The thesaurus offers several definitions, but the first one is "a desire to know or learn" and that's what I am talking about. That's not an opinion.

Maybe we are defining curiosity differently. I am claiming that a desire to learn is a fundamental human trait and actually I don't believe Japanese lack that quality. I am not an expert on Japanese culture though.

I live in Japan.

Prayer does cure dis-ease for some; just probably not in the person being prayed for, but in the one praying for the well-being of another.

好奇心がたいてい災いのもと
「ふしぎの国のアリス」より

bucaran Wrote:Maybe we are defining curiosity differently. I am claiming that a desire to learn is a fundamental human trait and actually I don't believe Japanese lack that quality. I am not an expert on Japanese culture though.

Yeah, I think this is what's going on.

Although Curious George's curiosity is somewhat negative as well since it's always getting him into trouble.