I was going to post another wonderful thing, but this one is a brand new wonderful thing, so I’m going to post this now.
My friend Chris Kimball, a.k.a GreatBigHugeTallChris (He’s 6’11! He definitely deserves his nickname), who does freelance design work for Lolcats, the people who created other sites like “i can has cheezeburger” and “fail blog.” A couple of weeks ago, he asked me to translate an English sentence into Japanese for the t-shirt he’s designing. The sentence was, of course, “i can has cheezeburger?”
If you don’t know “i can has cheezeburger?”, it started when the creator of Lolcats posted an image from Something Awful of a smiling grey cat, known as Happycat, with a caption of the cat asking, “I can has cheezburger?” in a style popularized by 4chan. (from Wiki)
I’m writing this boring ‘how I decided on the Japanese translation,’ since there are some negative comments about it.
First I just translated the sentence, but then it seemed a bit boring… So I thought of a couple of childish/cutesy-way to say it in Japanese, but it still didn’t seem like it’d deliver the nuance right. The sentence was too short to have cute Engrishy (Engrish = incorrect English) Japanese.
I was browsing random Japanese sites for some ideas, and came up with a completely new approach. “4chan” is an American version of 2chan which was originated in Japan. 2chan is basically a text thread, and people on 2chan use many different unique terms. If you’ve watched “Densha Otoko” (J-drama), you might be familiar with what 2chan is like.
One of the terms 2channelers often use when they want something is “ギボンヌ (ghi-boh-n-nu).” It’s a made-up word from “kibou (希望)” which means “hope.” So instead of saying “Details please”, they’d say “詳細(detail)ギボンヌ.”
Chris showed a couple of different translations I did with his design to Lolcats guys, and they liked the idea of using the 2chan reference.
So yeah, it’s very obscure in a super nerdy way (even for some Japanese people), but I think it’s perfect for “i can has cheezeburger.”
Oh and I translated “cheezeburger” in hiragana, instead of katakana (used for foreign food/stuff) on purpose. It’s kind of funny (to me) to see that people are very seriously criticizing the usage of hiragana for “cheezeburger” or ギボンヌ reference in the comment, but come on…
First of all, it’s originally spelled “cheezeburger” not “cheeseburger.” And the second of all, it’s Lolcatz for Pete’s sake!
They really need to check out the pictures on “i can has cheezeburger” site and relax, and stop giving Chris a hard time! kthxbai. =P
If you aren’t a hater, and love cats, cheeseburgers, robots, and want to look obscurely nerdy, you must get this shirt!
It’s only $15!! Free-shipping!!
Get your awesome robocat shirt here!
*I’m not getting paid for advertising this shirt, by the way. The shirt is just awesome, and so is Chris. 
More of Chris’ works/designs can be seen on his site. http://www.lastisle.com
EDIT: Not like it really matters, but I’m born and raised in Japan, been living in the U.S. for the last 16 years, and I do translate for a living.
I thought it’d be strange to mention my profession in this particular case, but just in case people don’t know that I’m Japanese.
I was born in Japan, lived in New York for a while and now living in San Diego, California. I love creating things with my hands in my free time whether it’s making character bento or stuffing stuff! And now I'm working for 
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
You’re awesome! I didn’t get the kibonna first, since, well, they don’t teach stuff like that at Japanese studies…>.< It's really funyn now though XD
I really have to buy it the shirt now to weird out my Japanese teachers at university XD
Thanks for coming to my aid on mighty Anna of the bento! I feared my dreams would forever be tortured with debates of Hiragana vs. Katakana while the point was entirely missed!
My message on LOLMart may be awaiting moderation forever, so.. semi re-post XD
I guess maybe I’m the only one who has watched Densha Otoko enough times that I actually got it >____>
Probably enough nerdy net-surfing people have tried to learn Japanese at some point in their life that they would expect to see “cheeseburger” written in katakana.. they don’t get ギボンヌ at all, but want to at least comment on the part they do recognize.
I just don’t know why they don’t make the connection that anyone who is throwing around 2ch-speak obviously has enough Japanese knowledge that they didn’t just accidentally slip up and forget to hit F7 on their IME when they were typing ちーずば‘－が.
Anyways, I like it at least. <3
Likely all the criticizers are just trying to show off their Japanese knowledge. The essence of a good translation not just captures the meaning, but also the style and cultural connotations of a phrase. It’s super tricky, and I applaud your awesome translation. (I loved reading about the translation process btw, but probably because I’m a linguistics geek >_< )
When I saw the shirt, I was like, "Oh, that's neat." But when I read about your translation I was like, "DO WANT!"
I didn’t get the gibonnu because I don’t speak Japanese that well, but writing cheeseburger in hiragana made perfect sense to me the moment I saw it – for all the reasons you’ve mentioned here.
Super awesome T-shirt! I speak NO Japanese and actually did very much wonder what the text said. Thank you for the totally detailed explanation. I’ll now feel even nerdier (in a super awesome way) when I wear it!
Nerdiest lol shirt EVA! Please, could you tell me how to pronounce the first line so I can be Nerdier than Nerdiest:D
I’m a lurker on your blog, who speaks NO Japanese; but I’m going to Japan in a couple of weeks to visit my military family there. I’m wondering what the response to the shirt would be in Japan?!? Thanks for the explanation, in case I choose to engage in this silliness at my advanced (read: unhip) age.
Hi Anna, I’m a regular reader of your blog though I don’t regularly comment ^^; but as an aspiring translator I did feel a need to comment on this particular post. I would agree with others who have said that those who are criticizing the use of hiragana for “cheeseburger” are more than likely just being jerks
. More importantly I wanted to thank you for sharing with us your translation process and teaching those of us who aren’t insulted by the use of hiragana an awesome new nerdy word! For what it’s worth, I also agree with the use of hiragana since I think that it’s a much more recognizable word than ギボンヌ 
As a long-time reader, never-before-commenter, and a fellow translator (though of different languages, for now), I have to say thank you so very much for this post!
It’s not only the sharing of a translation process, which I find super-fascinating, but that this will hopefully also clear up people’s misconceptions about what it is to translate something from one language and culture to another.
Ok, I’m confused. I lived in Japan for 2 years, about 18 years ago, so I was ok with the “chi-zu-ba-gaa” but the 4chan stuff made no sense, and your translation doesn’t completely help. What would you say the T-shirt says, “in English” (and I ask this knowing that the translation may be approximate)?
Thanks!
Sue
Thank you for all these comments. I’ve been meaning to reply to the comments on this post. I really didn’t expect people to care about translation process this much, so I was surprised and happy too see all the comments on this post.
For those who are confused about “gibonnu”… Japanese 2chan and American 4chan references are more of a cultural thing.
When I translate (especially anime or manga), sometimes translating the exactly what the sentence means in Japanese means doesn’t quite deliver the nuance of the sentence. I always try not to make the translation sound too Americanized but if you can’t deliver the “feeling” of the sentence, it’s not an interesting translation. I’m very sure there are so many American people who have no idea what 4chan or internet memes are, and 2chan references fall into the same category.
Not every Japanese person knows about the terms used in 2chan (such as “gibonnu”, “orz”, etc…), just like some American people don’t know that “lolcat” or “lolspeak” is.
If I just translate “i can has cheezburger” into Japanese directly, and when someone who understands Japanese sees it, the person will get what the line literally means 100%. But that’s not what “i can has cheezburger” really is. If you aren’t familiar with 4chan or lolcats, you’ll wonder why the grammar is wrong, and cheeseburger is spelled wrong, and not able to understand what’s so funny about it. Internet memes like this are like a slang among a certain group of people. So if you don’t get “gibonnu” or never heard of it even though you’ve studied Japanese or lived in Japan, there’s nothing you have to worry about!
Because of you I started to read Densha Otoko now, and the cute Japanese explanations at the beginning explained the “gibonnu” (well acshully “kibonnu” of course) too. Haha, the book is so nerdy, why haven’t I read it before? XD My fault for only reading “proper” stuff in Japanese studies like Natsume Sôseki XD”
I enjoy my Japanese lolcat shirt more and more! Great work!