Please fix the 水兵 definition!

Don’t look at me. I get all my information about various armed forces from military sci-fi. :stuck_out_tongue:

Here in Australia, we don’t have “marines” per se, but the portion of the armed forces that perform the same function are part of the army. Same deal with Japan. France’s Troupes de Marine are a branch of the army. So it rather depends where you’re from.

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I definitely don’t think sailor should be the only definition, as I agree that it is not a natural term for people who aren’t that familiar with what we’d say in English.

The only reason I replied originally is because your post to Asteroth says that “if you live in the context of the navy then it’s not really that strange you would hear the preferred terms,” referring to “navy soldier.” My only point was that “navy soldier” is not the preferred term for anyone living in the context.

If “navy soldier” is the most natural thing to call the term in the minds of people who are starting w/ 0 prior knowledge, that’s fine–the answers WK should approve / disapprove shouldn’t be that high stakes. But it is also not accurate to say that it’s an effective translation of the kanji, because no one would say those words, and it would be very weird in English conversation. The fact that it’s an answer on WK is not proof that people say it–WK has been wrong before about what it calls things, and they fix it when pointed out.

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Oh, that’s exactly what I meant too. Since Asteroth lives in the context of the navy it’s not strange that they would only hear the correct terms, i.e. not “navy soldier”.

I think that it is, but we can disagree on that

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It’s proof that the person who wrote the WK said it, to write an answer.

I would have been very confused if I heard it spoken before this conversation though. And probably laughed (in a friendly way) and corrected the person that nobody says that.
Just the same as if I heard an ESL speaker call a chair a “Sitting thing” or a lamp a “room lighter”.

Of course, again this is because “sailor” or “seaman” are so familiar to me. Those slip ups might not seem comparable to you. (Though I do think pretty much any American would find “navy soldier” weird wording, or I would have heard some civilian call my dad it by now)

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This is what happens when you trust the IME lol

I think “Water Samurai” is a much better term. :+1::wink:

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