vibayo Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 Hi there,it's me again with another poll:D (continue voting the other as well ) The question is: Should Yamato have an english version of their http://www.yamato-toys.com/ ? i can't read japanese and they know that many many people outside Japan is interested in their "Toys" ; so why they don't do a translation of their web? Many people should be very glad with that idea,so before making a petitiononline, i need to know your opinion Thanks from Spain (The place where you can't find any Macross related items )
Draykov Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 (edited) As someone with little to no knowledge of the Japanese language, my answer is HELL YES, though I wouldn't expect it to make much more sense than a Babble Fish translation. Edited January 28, 2004 by Draykov
mister_e Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 Personally, I think they should have an Engrish version of their site for comedic purposes.
Vostok 7 Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 My opinion? Yes. Will it happen? No. Or at least, it's more likely that we'll get a 1/48 scale SDF-1 than an English Yamato website <_< Vostok 7
do not disturb Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 forget the damn website.... how about some instructions in english yamato? i just got a yf-21FP and it took me 2 hours to transform that thing.
Godzilla Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 Boy would lI like to see it in English just so I know what is coming up. Talk about a pain... As for the instructions, I see the pitcures of transforming my 1/48s easier to undestand.
Mallet21 Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 They tried to have 2 English Websites: toycom.com and sunwards.com Damn HGUSA
JsARCLIGHT Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 I think the real question is: How much of their target consumer base is english speaking as a primary language? Remember that Yamato is not actively courting the english speaking consumer, we are a secondary market that they do not "actively support". IMHO it would be a waste of money business-wise to make an english website for products that are not actively supported or on the shelves in retail stores in english speaking markets.... and just because importers have them on their shelves does not make it the same thing. What you are asking would be akin to a small american toy company with their toys only on american shelves having an alternate website in Japanese just because the occasional Japanese fan imports one of their toys to Japan... of course most japanese people have a basic understanding of the english language and can usually read most english language web pages. My thoughts are the same as they were before this fancy In-tro-net showed up: If you are a serious anime or japanese toy fan it would behoove you to buy a basic japanese-english dictionary and do some translating yourself to get a better understanding of the show/toy. After a while you would be suprised how much of another country's language you can learn. Don't put it all on the people making the thing you are interested in after all it's not like they are forcing it down your throat... we are technically going out of our way to get these foriegn toys imported to us. Complaining they are not EEN ENGRISH at this point is just plain greedy.
tom64ss Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 Why would anyone vote no? Especially on a English-based fansite like MW.
JsARCLIGHT Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 Why would anyone vote no? Especially on a English-based fansite like MW. I voted no. They have no reason to make an english language website other than to cater to lazy, whiny english speaking fanboys like us which are not their active market. I'm a businessman myself and I have to vote how I think they should act. (read my sig now)
tom64ss Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 I think the real question is: How much of their target consumer base is english speaking as a primary language? Remember that Yamato is not actively courting the english speaking consumer, we are a secondary market that they do not "actively support".IMHO it would be a waste of money business-wise to make an english website for products that are not actively supported or on the shelves in retail stores in english speaking markets.... and just because importers have them on their shelves does not make it the same thing. What you are asking would be akin to a small american toy company with their toys only on american shelves having an alternate website in Japanese just because the occasional Japanese fan imports one of their toys to Japan... of course most japanese people have a basic understanding of the english language and can usually read most english language web pages. My thoughts are the same as they were before this fancy In-tro-net showed up: If you are a serious anime or japanese toy fan it would behoove you to buy a basic japanese-english dictionary and do some translating yourself to get a better understanding of the show/toy. After a while you would be suprised how much of another country's language you can learn. Don't put it all on the people making the thing you are interested in after all it's not like they are forcing it down your throat... we are technically going out of our way to get these foriegn toys imported to us. Complaining they are not EEN ENGRISH at this point is just plain greedy. I should've known, if anyone could be the devil's advocate for this poll, it'd be JsARCLIGHT. Honestly though, how much could it cost them? I'm sure there's be a couple people here that'd do it for a case or two of 1/48s.
Dangard Ace Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 (read my sig now) Yup....and all I see are spelling errors. Must be the rantings of a madman. Reading the above post my anger, upset, nausiate or piss you off. Disreguard all things may. nauseate. disregard.
JsARCLIGHT Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 Thank you for pointing out even more of my drunken typings for me to fix. I swear, the last few days I've been on here I've been drunk as a skunk and typing with my feet.
JsARCLIGHT Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 I should've known, if anyone could be the devil's advocate for this poll, it'd be JsARCLIGHT.
EXO Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 Why cater to a fanbase they can't legally import to? (yet)
Vostok 7 Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 Thank you for pointing out even more of my drunken typings for me to fix. I swear, the last few days I've been on here I've been drunk as a skunk and typing with my feet. hjafsdjh haouhef afjndjnas hdaoladljhfda Vostok 7
Tico0001 Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 (edited) My thoughts are the same as they were before this fancy In-tro-net showed up: If you are a serious anime or japanese toy fan it would behoove you to buy a basic japanese-english dictionary and do some translating yourself to get a better understanding of the show/toy. After a while you would be suprised how much of another country's language you can learn. Don't put it all on the people making the thing you are interested in after all it's not like they are forcing it down your throat... we are technically going out of our way to get these foriegn toys imported to us.Complaining they are not EEN ENGRISH at this point is just plain greedy. I would agree with you if it wasn't for the fact that the website is in japanese!! Not another western language. We are talking about a language that you don't even know the alphabet for!! Meaning, looking stuff up in a dictionary is not an easy task. Translating their webpage into english wouldn't cost yamato much money, if any at all. You can even find small personal webpages that are written in many different languages. I vote yes, but i know yamato is not going to do at least till they can legally export to english speaking country. EDIT:Written Japanese is based on written chinese... i don't think there's such a thing as easier pictograms... at least not easier to read than chinese's. Kanji+hiragana+katakana make a sentence very tricky to understand unless you know what they are. ~Tico Edited January 28, 2004 by Tico0001
JsARCLIGHT Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 People always confuse Japanese with Chinese... Japanese is primarily a phonetic language with easy to learn the pictograms... It's not as daunting as people make it. With a good japanese-english dictionary you could make good headway on instruction books in no time flat. I used to do it back in college with model instructions and it's easy when you put your mind to it. As for the website, constant updates and alterations mean they would have to basically make their site twice every time they updated it and retain people on staff for both versions... and let's also not forget my original point that that would in effect be wasted effort on a non-possessed market. Yamato is a business, not a fanclub or international site like MW. Their actions are fitting with their business model. As EXO pointed out, only expect an english site when and if they topple HG's control in the english speaking world and move in.
VF-1Guy Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 I voted no. Company websites rarely have useful information and I'd rather see the money spent on product development. I'm guessing there isn't one word about the 1/100 VF-0 on their website and look what we know already. An english translation of some of the Japanese message boards would probably be more useful.
ValkyrieFactory Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 (edited) Quick question: Would you buy more Yamato toys if their web site were in English? If "No" or even "Maybe" then from Yamato's point of view, there is really no need to change what they are doing now, is there? Edited January 28, 2004 by ValkyrieFactory
Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0 Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 I think graham updates news in these forums more than yamatos frontpage ever does and will. Kinda like asking takara for a english version of thheir site..niether hasbro nor the offial takara transformers sites or gijoe sites provide good info...to get good info more than half the time u nedto get a fanboard like this.
pfunk Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 null vote,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,dont giva damn,products will be here when they get here Our front man is muzzled, and THAT sucks
rocco_77 Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 English version of their site would be great. The Engrish version is a definite!
tom64ss Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 Alright, maybe the whole website doesn't have to have an English version, but it would be nice if they offered English (or preferably Engrish ) versions of their newsletters.
bsu legato Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 Well I for one would certainly not object to an english version of the Yamato site. Aside from JsARCLIGHT's contrarian rantings, I don't see why anybody wouldn't like seeing the site in english. Then again, doesn't most of their non-Macross toys come out through Toycom anyhow? Are we really missing that much?
JsARCLIGHT Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 I'm just being a realist... I'm like that sometimes... well... all the time actually... I never said that I personally would not like a nice english website, I was just saying that there is no reason at the moment for them to make one or even have partial english on their site. "English Version" is more of a gripe of non-target market fanboys... [taunt]Seems to me if you were a true die-hard Gaijin Fanboy you would already know japanese and be reading those pages aloud with no trace of an accent...[/taunt]
bsu legato Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 I never said that I personally would not like a nice english website, I was just saying that there is no reason at the moment for them to make one or even have partial english on their site. "English Version" is more of a gripe of non-target market fanboys... Oh, I agree with you. It's just that, as a Macross Fanboy, it's my sworn duty to have unrealistic expectations of Yamato. In fact, just this morning I woke up, had a shower, and found that Yamato hadn't made my breakfast. "WTF?" I asked my 1/48, "Where's my toast and oj?" And of course, in true Yamato fashion all a got was a stony silence.
pfunk Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 I never said that I personally would not like a nice english website, I was just saying that there is no reason at the moment for them to make one or even have partial english on their site. "English Version" is more of a gripe of non-target market fanboys... Oh, I agree with you. It's just that, as a Macross Fanboy, it's my sworn duty to have unrealistic expectations of Yamato. In fact, just this morning I woke up, had a shower, and found that Yamato hadn't made my breakfast. "WTF?" I asked my 1/48, "Where's my toast and oj?" And of course, in true Yamato fashion all a got was a stony silence. huh, I got the same responce, doesnt that just piss ya off
tom64ss Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 Need something translated, give me a link. You already do, and usually long before I'd even get a chance to send it to you. Thanks imode.
ewilen Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 The whining on this board is reaching a crescendo. Don't use babelfish. If Imode's swamped after his generous offer, use an amikai-based translator like Excite or nifty. The real question should be, why don't the importers provide English translations of instructions or write up their own?
DrClay Posted January 28, 2004 Posted January 28, 2004 I made a poll and everyone told me I was lame... so I voted in this one.
Blaine23 Posted January 29, 2004 Posted January 29, 2004 I made a poll and everyone told me I was lame... so I voted in this one. Whaa, whaa ,wah wah, wah...sniff, sniff... wah, waaaah. I'm a pretty princess and nobody loves me. Sorry, just had to translate the last post. Other than, I say sure, why not? Yamato has to recognize that a pretty good percentage of their products somehow magically end up in the US... it would be nice of them to translate, but not a requirement.
Coedes Posted January 29, 2004 Posted January 29, 2004 (edited) Need something translated, give me a link. what i do is i go to http://world.altavista.com/, what many of us know as Babel Fish Translation ... under "Translate a Web page"... cut and paste yamato's "what's new" link, http://www.yamato-toys.com/index.php?mode=wnew ... select "japanese to english"..and then translate the whole thing.. most of the page should show up in terrible, but readable engRish... even the links work.. Edited January 29, 2004 by Coedes
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