LitBC Part I - German and English translations my observations
Having read Part 1 Jaehee of the German version two times since last Saturday and the English version once today, i feel like I have read the same story.
To me there is a bit of a tonal difference where the German version feels a bit more colloquial than the English version. Although that could be because I am a native speaker of German and therefore the indicators for that in English might not be as obvious to me.
Both translation have the English title 'Love in the Big City' they both number the Parts as opposed to being only titled in the original. English uses quotation dashes like in Korean while German uses guillemets.
Some differences in the translations stood out to me, in particular:
The drinking rule
"I had a funny drinking rule back then—I would do anything I was told by whoever bought me a drink" (p. 3)
"Es war die Zeit, als ich die Gewohnheit hatte, jeden Gefallen zu erfüllen, solange man mir einen ausgab" (S. 10)
'It was at the time when I had the habit to fullfill any favour as long as I was treated to a drink'
Why did they develop a relationship
"After my defense of her sort of outed me" (p. 5)
"Nun, wo wir so unvorhergesehenerweise ein Geheimnis miteinander teilten" (S. 13)
'Now that we unexpectedly shared a secret with each other'
How close they were when they moved in together
"which meant the closest person we had at the time was each other" (p. 13)
"war unser Verhältnis so unkompliziert und vertrauensvoll, wie man es sich nur denken kann" (S. 21)
'our relationship was as uncomplicated and trusting as one can imagine'
The Olympic sport
"Since I hated losing, and since I was into booze and men to begin with ..." (p.14)
"[W]eil ich von Natur aus nicht gern den Kürzeren zog, beziehungsweise besser gesagt, weil mir einfach der Sinn danach stand" (S. 22)
'[B]ecause by nature I didn't like to lose, or rather in other words, because I just felt like it, ...'
The finishing sentence
"that Jaehee didn't live here anymore" (p. 48)
"Diese Jaehee war nun nicht mehr da. (S.58)
'That Jaehee was not there anymore now.'