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Japanese student translates Trump’s tweets to practice English; gets 60K+ followers

12 Comments
By Scott Wilson, RocketNews24

Making English-learning great again. With Donald Trump as the new U.S. president, people all around the world have been trying to understand the man better – his policies, his ideas, and most important of all, what he is saying on Twitter.

Up until recently many in Japan had no way of knowing what was coming out of the President’s Twitter feed, outside of breaking out an English dictionary or when something was big enough to make Japanese news. But then, on November 20 last year, an anonymous 17-year-old Japanese high school senior who goes by the pseudonym K・T-san changed all of that. He started translating almost every tweet Donald Trump made into Japanese.

And he does a pretty good job too! If you ever wanted to know how to say “fake news” in Japanese, it’s "feeku nyuusu."

K・T-san says that he created the account in order to improve his English skills for college entrance exams by doing some translation. He was also interested in what the president was saying, and had others encourage him to go through with it.

To help him figure out some of the more difficult expressions and political/cultural issues, he enlists the help of an American student he met in Japan, an American who works in Japan who offered to help him, and, since K・T-san is only 17, his dad.

Aside from just translating tweets, K・T-san has also put together summaries of Trump’s policies and and lists some of Trump’s most frequently used words and their meanings.

When asked if translating the tweets has helped with his English, K・T-san responded that he’s learned a lot of useful expressions. He’s also gained an interest in politics, and he’s gotten many words of thanks from Japanese people for his work with the translation, which are a huge support. As of this writing, he has over 60,000 followers, and that number just gets higher every day.

One aspect in particular that makes K・T-san’s translations so colorful is his commitment to conveying Trump’s casual language. For example, when Trump uses “you” to address the American people, K・T-san translates it as "anatagata," a very polite “you all.” But when Trump says “you” referring to a someone he doesn’t like, K・T-san translates it is "aitsura" (an impolite “those guys”) or "omae" (an impolite “you”), words that Japanese politicians would almost never use.

K・T-san has said that he will continue to translate the tweets for as long as possible. He plans to study international economics at college and wants to use the English he’s learned in projects all around the world.

Source: Twitter/@DonaldTrumpJPN via BuzzFeed Japan

Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Is Life Accordion to Trump the best video on the Internet? Japanese Twitter seems to think so! -- Expecting Trump defeat, Twitter artist draws president-elect as slain Attack on Titan monster -- Man strips down to Sailor Moon cosplay outfit to disrupt Donald Trump political rally 【Video】

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12 Comments
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What a great little project!

9 ( +9 / -0 )

so sad that instead of relying on someone professional to translate.. 60000+ Japanese people follow a 17year old with no real proper command of the language and that usus things like Omae... which is practically gang speak... stupidity rules

-16 ( +2 / -18 )

so sad that instead of relying on someone professional to translate.. 60000+ Japanese people follow a 17year old with no real proper command of the language

If 60,000 people are each willing to pay the going rate for translation of all Trump's twitterings, count me in. ....

things like Omae... which is practically gang speak... stupidity rules

While I haven't seen any of the lad's translations, actually it sounds like his choice of vocabulary is pretty much spot-on. Words like 'aitsura' and 'omae' are what you'd expect from the mouth of a rabble-rouser, and give pretty much the right flavour to Trump's outbursts.

stupidity rules

In the Land of the D, oh yes.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

Omae... which is practically gang speak...

Um, no. And as Cleo says, it's a pretty appropriate word for translation of Trump's twits.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

I'm fairly certain that a 17 yr old can translate the words from a 12 yr old mentality.

The slang will teach much, but I do worry that President Trump's older references and some snide comments will be lost to a generation that has never used a rotary phone.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Trump's emotional outbursts phrased mostly in fragments do match the Japanese vernacular, so perhaps translation is easy. If he expects to transfer these skills to international business, though - sad!

6 ( +6 / -0 )

http://occupydemocrats.com/2017/02/04/eight-different-european-countries-just-made-trump-parody-videos/

6 ( +6 / -0 )

so sad that instead of relying on someone professional to translate.. 60000+ Japanese people follow a 17year old with no real proper command of the language and that usus things like Omae... which is practically gang speak... stupidity rules

'Omae' is pretty common among teenage and adult males (and sometimes female and between couples). Older guys in my company use it pretty regular to speak to people in lower positions too. It's far from gang speak.

Regardless, good on this guy for choosing to enhance is language abilities.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

@ Alex -- The kid's translations look pretty good, in fact better than some "professional" jobs that I've seen. It's difficult to translate with the proper nuisance but his choice of words seem appropriate, perhaps a bit more polite than I would use for some of DT's outbursts! Good on the kid!

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Well done young man!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Trump's command of English is so simple (elementary tier), even a Japanese boy can translate it!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I'd like to imitate K・T-san's method. It's wonderfully good idea! I've never come up with translating sentences on twitter English into Japanese as a paractice for improvement of foreign language. This method appears easy as everyday activity, but in fact, it needs to spend a lot of time translating spoken foreign language into mother tongue, so it's very difficult and hard work, especially for his/her age. Because phrases or sentences on twitter are usually more spoken language rather than written language. In other words, unlike the written language usually includes formal expression, spoken one often includes rough, if not slang, phrases or sentences that only native speakers can understand. The system of SNS is also one of the reason. When you want to tweet something, you can immediately sent what you want to say as if you are speaking out loud on the spot. This meeans that the phrases or sentences then you create are more likely to be spoken language. Therefore, translating them into mother tongue is relatively difficult. That way K・T-san's English ability will improve dramatically in the future or in near future. Keep going and get your dream K・T-san!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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