So it’s been 20 years since FF7 got released. Kotaku did an article on the US translation of the game compared to the Japanese. It was done by someone who claims to have known Japanese for like 10 years or so. I am here to verify at least some of what I can read through similar Japanese words.
The writer claimed that when Cloud was mocked by Barrett as “rookie,” it wasn’t a pure translation of what Cloud said. I’m not sure of the cultural context, but I can partially verify what the Japanese translation is through my knowledge of Chinese written language. The first word meaning “new guy” or whatever he wants to call it is actually new in Chinese written characters or in pinyin,”Xin” pronounced as “Shing.” The second word looks like person or “r/len,” but from what I know of Chinese definitely isn’t as it’s actually just a word that looks like r/len.
Here is the link to the Kotaku facebook video on the US translation of Final Fantasy VII 20 years later.
A website for JRPG walkthroughs 
Reblogged this on Arthouse Anime.
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That’s Tim Rogers, and he has indeed been fluent in Japanese for 10+ years, and lived in Japan for a long time as well.
Anyway, the word used in the game is 新入り (shin’iri). The literal breakdown is “new” （新）, and “entrant” （入り）. So I suppose an even more literal translation would be “new entrant,” but the shorthand for that could just be “new guy” or indeed, “rookie.” It is a slangy term applied to people new to an organization/company/whatever.
As it happens, you COULD say 新人, which would be a less slangy term simply meaning “new person.” But Barrett likes to hang loose. ^____^
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I should go ask my dad. They have that word in Chinese but I don’t know what it means.
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