And a Babelfish hack job won’t do, I’m afraid. We’ve been having problems with the Honda parts that we’ve been making, because of some of the decisions made by the idiots in charge. Things are so bad, that Honda’s sending a bunch of folks to have a “chat” with the owner of the company tomorrow. Now, if this is made up of the same group who originally inspected the place, then at least two of the guys will be native Japanese speakers. Given that I won’t be able to pull them aside and explain to them that we’re boned because the idiots are running the asylum, I’d like to be able to get a message to them somehow. Given that none of the management where I work speaks Japanese, and that we’re having to use a cardboard shield to protect ourselves from flying chips, I’ve hit upon the idea of writing a message on the cardboard in Japanese, so that when they walk through, they’ll get an idea of how bad things are. I was thinking of something like, “Help! Management doesn’t know what they’re doing!”
Of course, I realize that Japanese “style” is such that a literal translation might not have the desired effect, so if you’ve got a better idea, then please go with that. Thanks.
If they’re under 60, then I’d say 99.9% yes. However, they may not notice Japanese written in romaji, unless they’re looking for it, or it’s in a very conspicuous place. If I were walking through a factory full of signs in Japanese, I probably wouldn’t notice that one sign on the wall was a message in English written in katakana, even though I could read it. So if you want them to read your message Tuckerfan, you’ll have to make it noticeable.
Ok, this may or may not come up on your computer, depending on your language settings:
助けて下さい！ ここの管理はだめです！
(I used “kanri” for “kanbu” since it seems to be a more common word and “desu” and “kudasai” to make it more polite.)
I dunno if this’ll help tho’. If I were Honda and I saw something like this, I’d probalby just take my business elsewhere and your entire company would suffer.
Well, it was all for naught anyway, since it was only roundeyes who showed up, no Japanese whatsoever.
And I know that Honda would probably find somebody else to do the job. My mom’s worked for Honda for 20 odd years now, so I know exactly how Honda operates. They’re going to wind up pulling the contract sooner or later, since nobody in management has a clue as to what “quality” means, and they keep trying to pass off scrap parts as good ones. Which is why Honda was paying us a visit today. As soon as I can get enough booze in me, there’s gone to be a Pit thread about today that’ll curl your hair.
Well, there are kanji for “dame” ( 駄目 ) but I almost never see it written that way. Jim Breen’s online dictionary has only hiragana examples. Seems like I see it written equally both in hiragana and katakana but that’s in manga (not the definitive source of Japanese grammar ). I think writting it in katakana is like putting it in italics. Sorta of like: The management here is no good! (but I’m trying to learn Japanese all the way over here in Texas so I could be totally off…)
). I think writting it in katakana is like putting it in italics. Sorta of like: The management here is no good! (but I’m trying to learn Japanese all the way over here in Texas so I could be totally off…)