Translations (JP to English)

[Rhomagus]

Man... There are two things that hit me with these interviews.

1. Yoshi is one hell of a producer. I can't believe the amount of work he's doing.
2. Why is it the JP interviews are so much better than the english ones? It's crazy!

Thanks for the translations Reinheart. You're the official hero of the forums. FFXIV's Chribba.

I thought the same as you when it came to the Japanese interviews but the nature of their questions are different and seem conversational rather than inquisitive. Without a language barrier and a 30 minute time constraint you can whittle away at a subject's natural defenses and open them up allowing them to communicate more complicated concepts on the fly without the need of a translator.

While the western interviews may seems short they aren't including every word said by everyone.

Interviewer: Question?
Translator to Subject: Translated Question.
Subject to Translator: Answer
Translator to Interviewer: Translated Answer.

When we read a translated interview we only get:

Interviewer: Question
Subject: Answer

Not too mention all of the "mental reformatting", which is probably followed by a lot of "ums, uhs, and hms?" done by the translator to make sure their getting the right tones and emotions across into the new language, not to mention if an interviewer asks a particularly thought provoking question.

From an interviewer's perspective, the language barrier alone restricts you from telling jokes which might get your subject to open up a little more. Most of the time both sides are just trying to make sure they are understood.

This is the advantage of reading Reinhart's translations. We get to read a more natural interview and are privy to more potential information than if we were there ourselves with a translator.

I've seen foreign interviews with authors where the interviewer actually speaks English but the subject still seems shut off as they are making sure to use proper English and refrain from using too many cultural metaphors in order to get their idea across.

So that's probably why.

I don't think it would have much to do with the quality of questions or the unwillingness to share information with foreign press. Fitting all that translation work into 30 mins in a foreign environment has to be jarring for both parties involved.