Ok, you find yourself coding in Japan one day and have to check your stuff into source control. What do you write? You could just type it up in English, and nobody will complain. Probably because they’re a little afraid of talking to you. But nobody will read your English comment, so they won’t know what you’ve been doing, and you’ll have no way of validating all the time you spend browsing YouTube at work.
So, here’s how you write a check in comment in Japanese. Just like a normal English comment, you start with a spiffy but concise title with details below. Like
Fixed crash when loading level 3
- Character was loading the wrong file
So you can pretty much just translate that literally to
レベル３のハングを修正
・キャラは間違いファイルをロードした
It’s really not much different from English, you just need to know the proper vocab. Here’s a simple list of the common “editing” words. I’ve provided then English and roman-character translation, which you don’t need if you have a proper browser with a proper plugin.
| 日本語 | ローマ字 | English | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 修正 | shuusei | fix, correct | メモリシステムを修正した | Fixed the memory system |
| 更新 | koushin | update | キャラテクスチャーを更新 | Updated the character textures |
| 追加 | tsuika | add, append | 飛ぶモーションを追加 | Added the jumping animation |
| 削除 | sakujyo | delete, remove | 不要コードを削除 | Removed unused code |
| バッグ | baggu | Bug | バッグを修正 | Fixed the bug |
| ハング | hangu | hang, freeze, crash | 敵を作成するとハング | The game hangs when creating an enemy |
| 落ちる | ochiru | fall, fail, crash | レベル３ロードのときゲームが落ちちゃった | The game crashed in level 3 |
| 戻る | modoru | return, revert | 前のバージョンに戻る | Revert to the previous version |
| 調整 | chousei | adjust, tune | 武器ダメージを調整 | Tuned the weapon damage |
| 設定 | settei | setting, configuration, setup | ネットワーク設定を更新 | Updated the network settings |
| 機能 | kinou | functionality, feature | セーブゲーム機能追加 | Added the save game feature |
| アップ | appu | up, upload | 更新したデータをアップ | Uploaded the new data |
Obviously, you still have to know what you’re changing to describe it, but that’s another problem entirely. These form the basic structure for your comment and are used all the time.
