Challenge: Translate Boat Name in Japanese to English

[capcook]

Originally Posted by Me-and-Boo

My boat has this Japanese name on her.
Can someone translate the Japanese to English please?

My wife who is native Japanese says it means "the north star"

Interesting who it can different meanings

[h20man]

Originally Posted by capcook

My wife who is native Japanese says it means "the north star"

Interesting who it can different meanings

Bit odd that google translate shows a different image for Japanese:

again, original top,
below:
Japanese characters (left "north star") Traditional Chinese right ("big dipper").

I still think it is Chinese for big dipper...

[h20man]

Originally Posted by capcook

My wife who is native Japanese says it means "the north star"

Interesting who it can different meanings

BTW, my understanding is that Japanese and Chinese use the similar character sets... ( Kanji uses adopted Chinese characters)...

hence the difficulty in initially knowing the difference.

[pillum]

My Chinese staff here say 'Pole Star' (Chinese and Japanese are different spoken language, but the same written language).

[klubko]

It's most definitely the Big Dipper, not the North Star.
Chinese and Japanese use the same characters for this name, so it's both Chinese and Japanese.
Just for clarification, Japanese uses only a small subset (around 2000) of Chinese characters and has few of their own.

[Me-and-Boo]

Okay, time for the answer which I did not know when I first asked the question.
Her original name was "Dipper".
Thank you all for such wonderful help!

[Adelie]

Don't rename the boat until the old name and all the stuff with the old name is off.
Bad juju.

Here's a de-naming ceremony to use.

48° Vigor's Interdenominational Boat Denaming Ceremony

[garymcg]

Originally Posted by h20man

Bit odd that google translate shows a different image for Japanese:

again, original top,
below:
Japanese characters (left "north star") Traditional Chinese right ("big dipper").

I still think it is Chinese for big dipper...

The difference here is that the Japanese translation is using 2 different character sets. There are 3 sets in written Japanese; Kanji, which are the Chinese characters (the first character is Kanji) and Hiragana and Katakana. Hiragana is a phonetic character set for native Japanese words; Katakana is used for words imported from other languages. The second character in the Japanese translation is the Hiragana character "su", the third character is "ta" and the - makes it long.

プリンタの is "printer" in Katakana. It's actually pu ri n ta no phoenetically, the imported words are pretty easy to figure out once you know your katakana.


Another poster said "it's the same in Japanese and Chinese" which is not the case, as the first character in the original boat name is not used in Japanese kanji. Two well-educated Japanese nationals who I work with confirm this.

[Me-and-Boo]

Originally Posted by Adelie

Don't rename the boat until the old name and all the stuff with the old name is off.
Bad juju.

Here's a de-naming ceremony to use.

48° Vigor's Interdenominational Boat Denaming Ceremony

So right you are.
I have a de-naming ceremony tentatively scheduled for mid-December.

It is good I do not need a couple of virgins for the ceremony. They are extremely scarce around here; and the ones that advertise as such are of questionable quality (truth in advertising seems to be lacking) and very expensive.

[sailorboy1]

I get a kick out people and their renaming ceremonies

I did my last on the hard in the boat yard and the words I used were mostly cussing at the old name as I worked and worked to get the glue off the hull!

[Dhillen]

It means "north star" in both languages, of that I am pretty sure. I speak Mandarin and Japanese. Be careful of the "Google translation" for your Finnish name "Sisu." It is totally incorrect. Those two characters, "Jin Ru," mean "to enter," as in the opposite of "to exit."

Go to a Chinese restaurant and order lunch. Then ask the people who work there (make sure they really are Chinese first!) which characters are used for "determination," or "audacity." There are several. Pick the one you like most.

Cheers.

Dhillen