Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2015 May 1

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May 1

"Can't be helped" and Japanese

I don't watch a ton of anime, but when I do, both in subtitles and dubs, I notice the phrase "can't be helped" coming up fairly frequently, certainly more often than in everyday English. I figure this must be coming from a more common Japanese phrase. What might that phrase be, and what are some other ways of rendering it in English? --BDD (talk) 01:08, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

Shikata ga nai. -- ToE 02:37, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

Other things English speakers might say in similar situations include "what a mess", "if you insist", "oh well", etc. I can't believe we have an article devoted to it. Contrary to what those people believe, it's not a profound commentary on the Japanese outlook on life any more than "c'est la vie" is a profound commentary on English or French speakers. It's just a cliche. -- BenRG (talk) 04:04, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

Wow, WHAAOE! I didn't even think to search mainspace for this. This is much more than I expected. Thanks! --BDD (talk) 12:57, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

Resolved

"Nader Nadernejad" may not match encyclopedic tone?

Dear Wikipedia,

PeterboroughExaminer is committed to making informed contributions to your site. After publishing our first article last night, we received the "may not reflect encyclopedic tone of Wikipedia" suggestion for the page, Nader Nadernejad. Please let us know what we can fix to improve your site and our page to the best of our ability. Just a quick suggestion, and we'll be on our way to editing the glitch.

Thank you,

PeterboroughExaminer — Preceding unsigned comment added by PeterboroughExaminer (talk • contribs) 11:57, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

I took the liberty of adding a wikilink to the question. Alansplodge (talk) 12:06, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

There are a lot of "introduction to Wikipedia" articles; this one has a section that focuses specifically on style. From there, you will also see a plethora of additional articles in the box on the right side of the page. --LarryMac | Talk 13:25, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

I have added some wikilinks to your article and taken out a couple of "...and more" phrases that don't really help. I think that the gist of the issue is that Wikipedia articles shouldn't sound like promotional material - the last sentence of your text sounds a bit like that. Somebody's future intentions are not really "encyclopedic" and we can see that he has nine credits because straight after that you have provided a table showing nine credits. Alansplodge (talk) 18:09, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

• PeterboroughExaminer has apparently been renamed BeaverTails18 (talk · contribs). —Tamfang (talk) 22:20, 2 May 2015 (UTC)