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Pokémon, now in Chinese language!
After 20 years worth of waiting and a petition that comes afterwards, finally Pokémon, with its latest title Sun and Moon, are coming with Chinese language, both in Simplified and Traditional language versions under the name [精灵宝可梦 太阳-月亮] (Jing Ling Bao Ke Meng - Tai Yang - Yue Liang). Of course you can pick one of these languages along with others like English, Spanish, Japanese, France, Italian, Germany, and Korea.
What's your opinion about this new language additions in the Pokémon game? |
I think it's a great improvement, because it's definitely a sign that we hope to see more new languages and that way be able to get the entire world involved easier without needing translators.
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Love to see these extra languages too and hope for more to come.
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It will be fun playing the game in Chinese - coming up with Pokemon nicknames will be at times easier and harder. I'm one of the few who loves playing the games in other languages just for fun.
if they had added more languages, wish they had added Norwegian, Danish or Swedish. |
Will they be released only in Taiwan and Hong Kong or the entire China?
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I always thought Pokemon was called 口袋妖怪 (kou dai yao guai) in Chinese - literally meaning Pocket Monsters. The new name is a little weird to me.
But it's great to see the games finally getting localised in Chinese. I've always wondered the names of some Pokemon in other languages. |
I feel like this is Game Freak's attempt to expand the franchise onto the Chinese market and increase sales for Sun and Moon to surpass R/B's sales due to having the largest population in the world. However, we should be reminded that the Force Awakens flopped at the Chinese box office, thus failing to surpass James Cameron's Titanic and Avatar as the highest grossing film of all time, so I fear the same would apply with Pokémon Sun and Moon if GF tries to surpass R/B sales by trying to sell it to the Chinese.
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And now, for my own thoughts about Pokémon in Chinese... Personally, I'm thrilled when knowing that it'll also come with Chinese language because I've been wanted to play Pokémon in Chinese language at some point, and I hope it might improve my Chinese language know-how as I'm still studying for one. Besides, having Chinese language means good thing to everyone who speaks in Chinese in everywhere in the world. |
This doesn't affect me in the least, because I can't read Chinese, but I'm glad that Nintendo are making an effort to do this - video games in China have been in an awkward position for quite a while; the ban on consoles was only lifted last year - and give Chinese players the opportunity to play what the rest of the world has taken for granted for a long time now. It can't be anything other than a good thing. So, good for them.
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I didn't know that 精靈寶可夢 is a official name for the Chinese community. They are still using the old name here in uh my place.
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Different Chinese-speaking regions had different localised names for Pokemon in the past. Now they've made all of them the same - with 宝可梦 (bao ke meng) in the title, which sounds like "Pokemon". As Singapore is largely bilingual and almost all of our games are in English, we are more familiar with the English name Pokemon than any of the Chinese names. |
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My Cantonese isn't that good, so I wonder how will 寶可夢 work out for Hong Kong players. Characters meant for Mandarin will sometimes sound really weird in other Chinese dialects. |
I can't even understand the tiniest bit of Chinese, so I don't think it will affect myself, but it's cool they're doing this, certainly considering they have to use another alphabet for this.
It'd be fun to see Pokémon appear in Dutch as well sometime in the future, but that most likely is never going to happen. |
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I think it's great that they're reaching out to different languages. Adding multiple languages to an individual game is also a great feature, not that I use any language other than English but I can understand how useful it can be!
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What I want to know is why is Chinese the only language to get two different versions of it. English has its own simplified and traditional version as well (simplified English is how Americans today speak, whereas traditional English is how people from Shakespeare's time all the way to the late 18th century spoke).
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Because English doesn't have a language schism (and the characters themselves are written totally differently, it's not like English which has mostly kept the same alphabet since the 16th Century)
The use of Simplified / Traditional characters is a topic of debate in the various Chinese-speaking nations, and what children are taught differs. |
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The aforementioned petition (scroll down for some sweet artwork and photos):
http://makeawish.52poke.net/en Also, logo: http://i.imgur.com/Axw9Vgy.png |
My friend from Hong Kong was so excited by this news; it may seem not so major to people in a similar situation as me, not having any reason to use a Chinese language option, but this really is a big deal. This is gonna sound really cliché, but it's the truth: the more places Pokémon can reach out to, the more connected we can all become. I'm looking forward to seeing Pokémon branch out even further into the future!
And also, those logos posted by audinowho above are awesome. |
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It doesn't affect me anyway, but anytime a franchise decides to do this is a huge plus and a step forward for any industry. Anything that can reach more people, especially with what's already a globe-spanning franchise, and bring in more fans -specifically across cultural boundaries- well, it's great to see companies do it.
Now, I just hope that doesn't become the main marketed feature of the games. |
If I'm not mistaken, the simplified script was introduced by the Communist Party under Mao to improve literacy in mainland China. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan were unaffected and continued to use the traditional script. The simplified script wasn't opened up to overseas Chinese communities until many years later.
Today, Singapore and Malaysia teach exclusively using the simplified script (apart from calligraphy classes, because traditional characters look MUCH nicer when displayed) Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau are still actively using traditional. Could it be a political reason? Maybe, but I can't say for sure. |
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