Old tattoo... Needs verification

[Lancerdude_08]

Had this for some time now but would like some clarification of what it really means. I got this when I was younger with someone I trust so I hope it's correct. It is supposed to mean or stand for "family honor".

I hope that works for a picture.

[Lu]

家族 means family (extended family); 誉 means 'reputation and fame'; but together this is not a Chinese phrase, it's just two words somewhat randomly thrown together. Basically, this is not how you write 'family honour' in Chinese. The calligraphy is not very good-looking, but the strokes are all correct and the characters are immediately recognisable. I think that the person you trusted did his/her best but didn't actually know any Chinese. All in all, it doesn't mean anything bad, and you can continue to have it mean 'family, honour' for you. Just don't expect Chinese people to understand it without your explanation.

[Lancerdude_08]

Thank you, it makes me feel better that I don't have a chinese cuisine on my arm.

[Nathan Mao]

It may well mean "Family honor" in Japanese.  I don't know Japanese, but that's what Google Translate says.

(as opposed to "family reputation" if you set Google Translate to Chinese)

[Kamille]

I don't think you should consider google translate a reliable tool, Nathan Mao.

 

Family reputation (or honour) might be something as 家族名譽 (or 家族榮譽) in Chinese. 名譽 being closer to the meaning of reputation and 榮譽 to this of honour.

[Nathan Mao]

I don't think you should ignore Google Translate as a tool after you recognize and make allowances for its limits, either.

 

I don't know Japanese.  Do you?

 

I know that some things that don't make sense in Chinese can make sense in Japanese.  It was fully established that not only does his tattoo not mean "family honor" in Chinese, it really doesn't translate into anything typical in Chinese, as Lu helpfully pointed out.

 

That being said, when Google Translate is set to translate Japanese characters, it does return "Family Honor".  

 

Please note that I didn't say that means it DOES mean "family honor" in Japanese.  Just that there is a chance it does so.  I thought the implication was clear that he should go to someone fluent in Japanese to check.

 

The only reason I included what it returns in Chinese is to demonstrate that translating the same characters from Chinese and Japanese don't give you the same results.

 

Google is most helpful to me for extremely rough translations of phrases that aren't common enough for a dictionary. 

Even still, I don't take it as a definitive translation, and I double-check it with other dictionaries.

 

But there have been times that Google Translate has provided some translations more accurate than other online dictionaries.

This is because unlike most other electronic dictionaries, Google Translate has a crowd-sourcing function.  That allows people to suggest better translations than are already loaded.  It uses this process to continue learning.

I've found Google Translate to be helpful in figuring out slang or regional variations, as a result.

 

Google Translate isn't a final answer by itself. But it can be a useful tool for better understanding of language. 

[Lu]

Google Translate can be very useful, but it has its limits, and checking the correctness of tattoos in a language you don't know is well outside of them. I wouldn't be surprised if a very large number of wrong tattoos comes from Google Translate in the first place. A better way of finding out whether the tattoo is more meaningful in Japanese is to ask someone who knows Japanese.

[imron]

Actually it's also quite easy to use Google to verify whether or not it means family honour in Japanese, and the answer is almost certainly - no.

[Nathan Mao]

@#8

Not sure what you mean by providing a link to just a blank google search page (unless my browser stripped out a search term?).  What search term would you put in to determine that 家族誉 does not mean "family honor" in Japanese?

 

I did search for just 家族誉 in Google. I got some interesting results:

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/518251144.html

http://www.biquge.com/6_6045/1923653.html

 

So although 家族誉 isn't a word, 家族 can be followed by 誉为..and maybe other words that start with 誉.  So the three word combination 家族誉 isn't completely unheard of, but is incomplete and meaningless in Chinese as is.

[hackinger]

Hi,

 

see this  thread , #8 and #9. Apparently it is not proper Japanese either.

 

Cheers

 

hackinger

[imron]

Not sure what you mean by providing a link to just a blank google search page

Gah, sorry, that should have been a link to "家族誉" limited to sites in Japan.  Not sure what happened there.  Corrected.

[Kamille]

But there have been times that Google Translate has provided some translations more accurate than other online dictionaries.

 

Indeed. (But what are you trying to prove here? That you should rely on it because despite the fact it often gives random translations, it sometimes translates better then other online automated translators?). I won't get into an explanation of what google translate is and is not because most of us already know.

Anyways I don't really see its use here (though I also use it for rough translations in certain cases). Of course it had great chances to return anything that had to see with family reputation or honour since 家族 indeed means family and 譽 honour. Fact is, 譽 is not a word but a morpheme, and Google translate has a hard time making the difference between words and morphemes. It will also return "language" for 語, and "wood" for 木 (at least if set to Chinese, I'm sorry I don't know Japanese).

 

Or did you just want to ascertain that 譽 was at least a morpheme in Japanese? In that case, no problem, google translate is reliable enough for that kind of use at least in my opinion. If your intented meaning was: "there are chances that a Japanese person will understand the meaning intended (and who knows, it might even be proper Japanese)", then nevermind, you are probably right. That's the kind of conclusion google translate can be trusted for (given the shortness and plainness of the phase).

[Lu]

see this  thread , #8 and #9. Apparently it is not proper Japanese either.

That thread basically reaches the same conclusion we do and then says 'but perhaps it works in Chinese!' Nice :-)

 

Kamille: I agree, that's about how useful Google Translate is here.