justiceforjumin

[justiceforjumin]

Hesitating on publishing the next chat because I can't choose whether I go literal or liberal with the translation... literal would be more accurate and prevent misunderstandings but it would lose SO MUCH meaning whereas liberal could cause misunderstandings but retain its overall meaning... the age old translator's dilemma

[justiceforjumin]

Deep Story, Day 4 — 20:02 Chatroom (Translation)

Choi Saeyoung, bisexual king?

[justiceforjumin]

Deep Story, Day 4 — 11:45 Chatroom (Translation)

Still laughing at the thought of Jaehee making Jumin read the Urban Dictionary, lmao. (Also I didn't put this in the footnotes so I'll mention it here - in case you're not very familiar with South Korean culture, ~30% of South Koreans are some denomination of Christian, with rich families more likely to be so. A little more than half the population is irreligious.)

[justiceforjumin]

Deep Story, Day 3 — 20:01 Chatroom (Translation)

I'm back on the grind my dudes! I've got all the chats up to Day 6 done so I should be able to upload more frequently for a little bit. Sorry this took so long to get out, life really got busy for me in the past year. Anyways. This chat isn't that different from its English version save for a few subtle changes. The noticeable differences in translation mostly happen in Jumin's actual route starting on Day 5, but I still want to get the Common Route ones done first.

[justiceforjumin]

Saeyoung has never been more relatable honestly.

(In case you're wondering, the footnote is me affirming that I am not, in fact, paraphrasing. That's actually what he says.)

[justiceforjumin]

So, I've started working on the translation again (I have a few chats done so far but I want to do a few more before I start posting them) and once again found something they changed in the English version that I wish they'd kept. I made a footnote about it in the actual translation but I still want to share it with y'all in this post.

It's the chat on Day 4 at 11:45AM with Yoosung where they're talking about Seven changing his legal name to Luciel. The English version goes like this :

MC : Yeah, I thought the name Luciel was a bit too cartoonish. Yoosung : Really ? Jumin : Doesn't the name remind you of a character in a fantasy novel ? Yoosung : How would you know that ? Jumin : I do have common sense.

But — you guessed it — that's not what he says in Korean. The Korean version actually translates to :

MC : I did think the name “Luciel” sounded a bit like a character from a comic book. Yoosung : Really ? Jumin : Doesn’t it feel like middle-school syndrome ? I mean, “Luciel”? Yoosung : Hyung;; how do you even know the term “middle-school syndrome”? Jumin : It was in a “Modern Language Dictionary” that Assistant Kang told me to read.

WHY DIDN'T CHERITZ KEEP THIS IN I DON'T UNDERSTAND—

[justiceforjumin]

Hi! I just wanted to say I like your blog! I only know one language myself but I'm always fascinated by the process of translation and the things that get lost or changed.

I'm not a Jumin fan necessarily, and there are times during Jaehee's route where I would like to guillotine him, but I do think he's a good and compelling character with understandable flaws. The MysMes characters all have really well-done flaws that can make them more compelling if you like them, or make them seem like monsters if you don't.

I assume you're not getting to Jihyun's route for a good while, but I am curious about that. He's the only character that I feel completely flopped. The game's writing and design works against him from just about every angle, and I'm curious how much is different in the Korean.

Hi ! Thank you so much for taking the time to send me this ask.

To answer your first point, after playing through the game several times, I think the reason some characters are easier to hate in certain routes is bc some routes exacerbate their flaws more than in others. The game is super well designed in that aspect - it's like MC is adopting the POV of whoever love interest they choose. Jaehee's story puts her at odds with Jumin, and the game is trying to make it easier for you to agree with her, so of course Jumin's flaws will be brought to the frontline.

I think it's okay not to like Jumin. There is no one, irl and fictional, who is going to be loved by everyone. I just hate that 99% of the backlash he gets comes from mistranslations and a lot of hate posts about him just reek of ableism (no kidding, they sound the same as my ableist family members do when it comes to my autism) which is just shitty. I just want to set the record straight.

About Jihyun, playing his route in English is actually what pushed me to play the game in Korean at first. The amount of weird sentences I couldn't understand (first example that comes to mind is the first solo chat with Jihyun on Day 1 where the English translation says "so we've been holding parties as best as we could, with rewards such as the rewarding feeling" - like wtf does that even mean) completely threw me off. I just HAD to look up the Korean version. Eventually it led to me replaying Jumin's route in Korean and that's where it hit me how much was lost in translation. It's not always blatantly obvious but every little change adds up over time.

I will get to Jihyun's route eventually because I think it's the route that needs it the most, lol. But with my new job (well, it's not so new anymore since it's been a year but it's a different job from the one I had when I made this blog) it's difficult to find the time to work on this project, so it might take a while before that happens.

[justiceforjumin]

You never realize how long the prologue of Another Story is until you decide to sit down and translate the whole thing

[justiceforjumin]

@justiceforjumin hewwo, me a 21 year old girlie named Rei, also a huge Jumin Han enthusiast (and a cat lover too)

idk but currently pursuing Jumin's route, i feel him day by day (minus the rich part and spoiler alert the arranged marriage with him and Sarah Choi aside from the relationship with him and his mother, him and i are both sheltered AF growing up)

i also got sterotyped as robot, bitch and many times just because i has trouble expressing and processing me emotions (i am a tsundere towards me friends irl and also keep them at arm's length at le fear of getting attached)

it makes me feel pain for him the same way i do with my life but like a closure and a good one

note: jumin deserves the world indeed, justice for jumin

he reminds me of this song based on his route and lore (my fave song rn): The Moon Will Sing — The Crane Wives (https://open.spotify.com/track/4c0tJe2ENJwrZbn9Bap2qs?si=jn713RlCQty1aCcULbMNig)

No fr I feel you so much on this. I remember playing MysMe for the first time and thinking "Jumin is literally me wtf" and it blew my mind bc I'd never felt that way about any character in any piece of media ever. He helped me make sense of a lot of the behaviors I exhibited that I couldn't explain and it's thanks to him that I was able to get my autism diagnosis. He put into words what I'd been feeling all my life, it's almost scary how much our lives mirror each other minus the whole billionaire CEO thing, obviously. But his relationship with both of his parents ? Yeah. Not gonna trauma dump on this post but it's the same for me.

Seeing so many people bash him over misunderstandings sometimes feels personal, I'm ngl. And it's a huge part of why I took on this project. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who was bothered by the way he's treated outside the Jumin stan circle.

[justiceforjumin]

The way I would sell my soul for a sequel to MysMe just to talk to Jumin some more but instead Cheritz decided to turn him into a background character in a soulless game to try and bait the nostalgic MysMe fans into playing it...

To the anon who wanted the pics from Jumin in The Ssum latest update, this is the quality they are delivering 😭 (got them from Twitter)

This is criminal honestly 😭, at least it doesn't seem to be IA but I don't get what's the point of including these if they are not even going to deliver quality, Jumin deserves better damnit!!

[justiceforjumin]

I just discovered your blog and as someone who is super late to Mystic Messenger, I was absolutely amazed and THRILLED to find your content!!! Just wanted to let you know you still have very eager readers ^_^

Thank you ! I know it feels like I've abandoned this blog/project since I haven't updated in so long but I assure you I didn't ! I just got a new job that came with a lot of new responsibilities and a new schedule, I don't have as much time for myself anymore, but once things settle down a bit I'll be back to posting :)

[justiceforjumin]

Hi! Sorry, this isn't related to the translation but I was wondering if you're part of the Korean Mystic Messenger fandom (if it still exists in 2024)? And if so, what is it like and how is it different to the international fandom? Thanks!

I am not, actually ! I have no idea what's going on in that side of the fandom or if there still are people active in it. I pretty much only lurk here on Tumblr and sometimes in the MysMe subreddit. I was active in the Chinese fandom some years ago but Chinese fans tend to be kind of unhinged so I'm not sure I can use that as reference either lmao

[justiceforjumin]

Deep Story, Day 3 — 15:15 Chatroom (Translation)

I thought the Konglish jokes from the last one would be the most difficult thing I'd have to translate. I was proven wrong by this chat. So the quality of the translation may not be as good as the others, I apologize for that. I still tried my best but Zen's weird analogies made my life really difficult >.<

[justiceforjumin]

Me playing Jihyun's route

[justiceforjumin]

I realize that I rant a lot about the translation process but in reality, even if it's sometimes a bit of a headache, I really enjoy doing this lol. I am considering doing Jihyun's route next bc that one is a disaster in and of itself but haven't decided on it yet. The chats in Another Story are so much longer than in Casual or Deep Story and I also can't stand Rika but Jihyun may be worth that pain, lol. But idk. I guess I'll see when I'm done with Jumin's route.

[justiceforjumin]

Deep Story, Day 3 — 12:02 Chatroom (Translation)

This chat... holy crap this was a mess to translate. If I didn't have the ability to add footnotes, a huge chunk of it would make no sense. I really do not blame Cheritz for switching things up in this one. Hopefully I don't have to deal with this sort of stuff again bc OOF.

[justiceforjumin]

This part of the Day 3, 12:02 Chatroom is an absolute NIGHTMARE for any translator I swear. Saeyoung's Konglish puns and habit of switching between Korean and English (sometimes even writing English words and phrases in Hangul) literally makes it impossible to translate into English. Thankfully, I have the power of footnotes. The game doesn't. So I really don't (and can't) blame Cheritz for changing this whole part of the conversation in the English version.

This is a great example of translation work being so much more complicated than just copy/pasting something into Google Translate and hope it makes enough sense to get the message across. (And if you don't understand why this is hard in particular, you'll get it when I release the full translation with the footnotes, don't worry, lol.)