Second language learning and translation benefit from an intersection between Queer Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. A comparison of original Japanese dialogues and translated English subtitles/dubbed dialogues of lgbtq+ characters in Japanese TV shows, movies, and manga comics sheds light on language-specific features indexing sexuality and gender and how speakers perform queerness. These dialogue comparisons in turn serve as ideal language materials in enhancing both lgbtq+ and non-lgbtq+ learners in more faithfully expressing their identity in Japanese as a second language (L2), given that lgbtq+ voices are generally missing in foreign language classrooms.
Speakers possess a linguistic repertoire of codes/styles to index gender identities, affiliations, ideologies, and stances (Hanks, 1996). Media create character backgrounds and describe relationships by activating the social associations of these codes/styles. Scripts exploit shifting between these codes/styles to develop storylines by expressing fluid identities, evolving relationships, and changing stances. In the Japanese manga-based Netflix lgbtq+ TV series What Did You Eat Yesterday?, a rich linguistic repertoire (e.g., pronouns, sentence-final particles, verb forms, pitch levels/patterns) is manipulated to define the personalities and relationship of a gay middle-aged couple from a stereotypically heteronormative perspective: masculine/feminine and hierarchical (i.e., "husband" vs "wife"). Furthermore, the show mainstreams Japanese gay community vernacular (e.g., neko sexually submissive, tachi-neko masculine sexually submissive).
The current study has two objectives: 1) comparing interpretations of the linguistic features indexing identities, relationships, and stances of the original Japanese and translated English dialogues in What Did You Eat Yesterday (TV series, manga) by native speakers of Japanese and English, respectively, and 2) incorporating Japanese-to-English dialogue comparisons as a teaching technique within a pragmatics-focused task-based teaching approach to enhance awareness of queer and heteronormative language forms, usages, and stereotypes.
Analyses demonstrate that indexical features in the original Japanese dialogues tend to be translated into cisgender, male, white, middle-class American English, erasing identities, relationships, stances, and styleshifting and thereby blurring fluid identities, evolving relationships, and changing stances. Japanese forms tend to be more hypermasculine or hyperfeminine whereas English translated forms are "gender-neutral". By contrast, gay terms in Japanese (nonke, neko) are less understood than their English translated counterparts (straight, sexually passive). Nevertheless, translated subtitles and dubbed dialogues largely result in one-dimensional characters, flat interactions, and hard-to-follow dialogues. Consequently, translations perpetuate a false narrative of a monolithic, heteronormative Japan and standard-language ideology by erasing lgbtq+ voices in Japan and among international viewers.
These dialogue comparisons further serve as scaffolding activities (e.g., analysis, listening, dubbing, roleplay) within a pragmatics-focused task-based teaching approach. A survey and pre-/post-tests show that L2 learners positively view dialogue comparisons in boosting awareness of linguistic forms indexing lgbtq+ identities and aiding them in developing a more faithful L2 Japanese identity and more fully participating in the Japanese lgbtq+ community.
This presentation discusses:
1) lgbtq+ indexical features in Japanese and translated English counterparts
2) teaching techniques for L2 Japanese lgbtq+ indexical features
References
Hanks, W. F. (1996). Language form and communicative practices. Oxford: Westview Press.
