languages

[Goo]

it seems there's been a recent uprise in interest in using other languages in the works around here. i'm all for it, but there's certain things that irritates me. e.g. there's a pic with characters in the bg and a character with an offensive gesture. i dont know whether to be impressed by the concept and artwork or be disgusted by the piece overall. there's another piece with the 'foreign' characters meaning one thing while the english title means completely another thing.

as i said, i'm all for the use of other characters from other languages, but at least have respect for the language. at least know what the characters you are using means before you use it and write or draw them out correctly. the use of something without understanding what it really means is just plain ignoramus.

respect.

[Payback]

You mean like if I would start implementing chinese signs in a pic? And that those could be offensive or something?

[Goo]

Originally posted by Payback
You mean like if I would start implementing chinese signs in a pic? And that those could be offensive or something?

its not offensive, its just irritating. if you know what you are doing, or what the characters means, or can give a rational explanation for your choice, or at least get the basics right and not just throwing a bunch of characters which practically means nothing but just because it looks nice (eg; "maybbe i'll throw in the characters for 'knowledge' and 'shit' juz because they look cool, tho i dun understand what the characters means") , i wouldn't mind. in most languages, a certain stroke too long in the character would cause the character to deviate and thus mean another thing altogether, though most of the times the 'wrong' stroke could often turn the character into nothing more than another scribble.

i'll admit, i was a little worked up on the piece of the chinese characters and the offensive gesture pose, but wouldnt you if someone took some words from your language, place them in because they look cool, and then place something offensive in the fg. you can blame me on not having a more open mind and taking a liberal stand, but there's a certain limit to everything.

i reiterate: to me, as an artist, if you are going to use something foreign to you in a piece, whether as reference or something else, it is your responsibilty to understand what it is and what it means and do some research on the topic. its up to the rest of you whether you agree to this or not, but thats just what I feel.

i'm not trying to flame anyone or start a civil war on this matter. Sorry if my posts have offended you.

[bat]

Originally posted by Goo


i'll admit, i was a little worked up on the piece of the chinese characters and the offensive gesture pose, but wouldnt you if someone took some words from your language, place them in because they look cool, and then place something offensive in the fg. you can blame me on not having a more open mind and taking a liberal stand, but there's a certain limit to everything.

i reiterate: to me, as an artist, if you are going to use something foreign to you in a piece, whether as reference or something else, it is your responsibilty to understand what it is and what it means and do some research on the topic. its up to the rest of you whether you agree to this or not, but thats just what I feel.

i'm not trying to flame anyone or start a civil war on this matter. Sorry if my posts have offended you.


I understand you are not trying to start a flame war, and I understand your point, but I see the misuse of words a lot in general advertising as well. I am American, but have lived in Japan and can write kanji and katagana fairly well and I can read them to a degree (I am no master, just learned as I lived overseas). I have seen English murdered so badly in Japan for just about everything under the sun, to the point where I no longer am bothered by such things myself (see the English word f*ck everywhere in print is a bit disarming the first couple of times, but you get used to it). My point being, really, it goes both ways, so it is of no use being bothered about. The image with the gesture, I see your point totally there. However, I don't see the background and foreground as anything but loosely linked in that they are on the same image. In that particular case, there are two seperate but neat ideas (Chinese over machine language and an elf-like being possibly taking the place of a human from the matrix?) meshed into one somewhat confusing image.


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