Question Often used "too lazy to" phrase in CN novels. Can someone explain?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by RAGA, Dec 26, 2019.

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  1. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    I've noticed in a lot of CN novel translations that a common phrase "too lazy to" is used often in sentences where the situation seems to be displaying the speaker's apathy/disinclination towards something, rather than the speaker's idleness/slothfulness/unwillingness.

    I'm not a translator or in any way fluent in anything Chinese, but I found one term the phrase is translated from: "懒得", which I looked up in an online Chinese/English dictionary to mean "not to feel like (doing sth) / disinclined to," but it is also MTL translated into "too lazy". However, I could be completely wrong about thinking that these character could have anything to do with the translated phrasing, so feel free to check me on that.

    The "too lazy" phrase is used a lot in different CN translated novels I've read and by many different translators. So, I wanted to know why this phrase is used as a common translation choice when, from how I'm reading the context, it doesn't make sense to me.

    For example, in one novel, a person goes out of their way to help a complete stranger and at great risk because the stranger reminds the person of the person's son. The person tells the stranger that he'd have been "too lazy to" help if not for that fact.

    Another example is that an MC (black-bellied, super ambitious and OP) decided to not respond to a cannon fodder's taunting of the MC because the MC was "too lazy to" argue with the cannon fodder because the MC was being dismissive towards the cannon fodder.

    And in another story, the MC was "too lazy to" find out more information from someone because the other person's information was either thought to be too superficial or the MC had more pressing concerns at the moment.

    In all those examples, the context of the story infers that "lazy" is being used to describe the MC's apathy or disinclination, which is pretty awkward. Lazy is usually used as a more active word of describing unwillingness, in that there exists feelings of not wanting to do something, while "apathy" or "disinclination" is describing the lack of feeling to do something. While there are occasions where these words are able to be more interchangeable, in these cases from the examples (and in plenty of other stories too), they're not.

    Please note that I'm not trying to attack anyone with English grammar, but it's just that I've been noticing the phrase used so often like this and by so many different people that it sparked my curiosity as to why translators choose to use this turn of phrase in those kinds of situations, rather than something like, "couldn't be bother to," instead.

    Also, if someone already answered this question in another thread, please let me know too. I've tried searching but couldn't find anything talking about this, which is why I made this thread.
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2019
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  2. PotatoZero

    PotatoZero Well-known Potato

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    Meh, too lazy
     
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  3. LNreader

    LNreader Courting Death

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    Courting laziness
     
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  4. Amaruna Myu

    Amaruna Myu ugly squid dokja (●´∀`●)

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    tl(azy);dr

    I'm just lacking vocabulary to use anything else

    please shorten/summarise your post
     
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  5. yakuzapandaz

    yakuzapandaz Well-Known Member

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    It mean that they couldn't be bothered to do it without some kind of reason
     
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  6. SwordDrake

    SwordDrake Slice of Life Lover

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    It's because to native speakers or people versed in the language, the phrase literally means "too lazy to" and to me it also means "can't be bothered". It's used so often that it just looks natural and it's subconsciously overlooked, for me at least.
     
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  7. hexfirwe

    hexfirwe Active Member

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    Being lazy to do something implies apathy. You're being nitpicky about phrasing that isn't even incorrect by any definition.
     
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  8. Nightow1

    Nightow1 Well-Known Member

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    Are you sure that all the phrases translated as "too lazy" or "can't be bothered to" are even the same words in Chinese? You do realize I hope that even English has synonyms that can often be translated into a common word, for example your "lazy" can also have a root word of "indolent", "slothful", "lethagic", "can't be bothered" etc. That "too lazy" might be something translated from 2 or even more different words.

    Translation =/= exact wording. Just read those funny English signs in China to see this principle in action.
     
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  9. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for replying!

    Short summary: I was wondering why the phrase "too lazy" was so often being used to describe a situation of apathy when the situation doesn't allow for the words to be interchangeable. Mainly, I was trying to find out if this was a translation thing or something like an Chinese idiom/saying.
     
  10. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for replying! Thanks for clarifying that too!
     
  11. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    That makes sense. I'm not used to seeing the word be used in that manner, so I thought it might have been an idiom translation or something similar. Thanks for the input!
     
  12. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    I'm honestly not trying to be nitpicky. ^^; The way the phrase "too lazy to" is used enough to jump out at me whenever it was used in a non-standard way. Even if lazy may at times imply some form of apathy, those words aren't always interchangeable in English sentences either, so it was noticeable when "too lazy to" was used when it didn't really fit. I was trying to understand if that was just a translator's choice or if there was something about the grammar, like it being from something like an idiom or saying, that I wasn't aware of.
     
  13. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    Thank you, that's why I wrote that "懒得" was just one term I found and stressed that I'm not in any manner familiar with the Chinese language. I read that "懒" is more similar to the meaning of "lazy". But the term was really just to have an example in case any translator notices if that they've encountered the characters before and could better explain how they'd translate it.

    I figured that I might not have found the exact translation of "懒得" so I wanted to know if there was something about the grammar that results in the wide usage of the phrase, "too lazy to," in translations that I wasn't aware of, such as something only someone familiar with the language would really understand and hopefully explain. I thought maybe it was something like a saying. Or, as I've seen in replies, it could be a translator's choice to use that phrase.

    I just notice the phrase "too lazy to" being used often enough that it made me curious about it.
     
  14. Amaruna Myu

    Amaruna Myu ugly squid dokja (●´∀`●)

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    probably you're referring to 懒得理,also meaning lazy to care about. it's just a really common phrase thus used frequently and all with the same meaning.

    I'm not sure if it answered your question though...
     
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  15. Maliza

    Maliza Member

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    I've got no clue what you are trying to understand exactly.
    apathy
    1.lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern
    laziness
    1.the quality of being unwilling to work or use energy

    There is a pretty obvious connection between the two. Someone who is "too lazy to" do something doesn't have enough motivation to do that something. If you can't be bothered to do something, you regard that something with apathy. It doesn't spark enough motivation, interest or concern to force you out of your state of idleness (laziness) and act to accomplish it, so by consequence you are "too lazy to" do it.
     
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  16. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for clarifying the meaning and providing a full phrase. It gives me more insight into this by knowing it's a common expression!
     
  17. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for replying!

    Yes, I agree that in some cases you can use both "laziness" and "apathy" interchangeably, but there are cases when "lazy" doesn't work because of the context or it's not the regular use of "lazy" as the turn of phrase. Like in my first example, the person tells the stranger, "[If you didn't remind me of my son], I would have been too lazy to help you." I'm paraphrasing a bit, but this isn't really the usual use of the word "lazy." In the scene, the person risked a lot of danger and the scene is set up to be in a state of high intensity because they're in a "Big Brother" environment. To me, something like "I wouldn't have bothered to help you" would fit better given the state of the characters.
     
    Last edited: Dec 26, 2019
  18. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    The OP is correct. "懒得理" does mean "too lazy to care", but there are tons of places where it's used where translating it like that would be awkward and ill-fitting. And phrases like "I can't be bothered" or "I don't feel like it" would often work better to express the idea that the original is trying to convey. I think the problem is even more serious when it comes to translations from Japanese where I see poorly placed terms like "evaluation" or "justice" or "circumstance" all the time. Yeah, I get what it's supposed to mean, but English doesn't really work like Japanese so it scans poorly.
     
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  19. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    This is yet another example why literal translation doesn't work
    [​IMG]
     
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  20. RAGA

    RAGA Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for explaining it! :sushi_thankyou::sushi_thankyou::sushi_thankyou:
     
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