@Lost Marbles  
Yeah, the actual language people use on a daily basis can be so incredibly different than what is taught in most schools.
 
I spent years learning how to conjugate every single Japanese verb into it’s 15 different forms, and sentence structure and politeness levels - all of it that I could squeeze into my head.
 
Then I got to Japan and I couldn’t understand anything. I was asking co-workers about verb forms and they were looking at me like I was insane.
 
Then I just started “saying the thing that is said” and … then it was ok.
 
Then I could order food and get a taxi ride to where I wanted to go and chat with people in bars.
 
And I never conjugated a verb ever again (that I know of)

@Ciaran  
I’ve focused more towards sounding natural with my language learning/teaching background.
 
comparing literate and loose translations can still be a headache fun

@Lost Marbles  
Most of my work has involved technical translation: printers and operating systems and applications, so focusing on the most direct “say what it is” kinds of sentences. And, fascinatingly, a lot of that is from the French, not the English OS.
 
But, that’s not the space where people usually live, so what is sometimes the most accurate translation is sometime the least “dictionary compliant” phrase.
 
It’s like being asked “paper or plastic” in the store: we all know what that means, even though it’s not really a sentence.

@Ciaran  
To me, that’s the hardest part of translating from such a different language. Make it more accurate or make it more natural?
 
Especially since Japanese is a language in which you say “you’ll look at it with big eyes (大目で見る)” when you actually mean “I’ll look away/let it slide.” They’re so backwards, they put their objects before their verbs!

Transcribed:
 
セイレーン部分どこいったんだよ 「Seireen bubun. Doko itta nda yo」 (Siren parts: where are you?)
 
@Lost Marbles translation is more natural sounding.

And here we see the three stages of siren ponies.

Translation: Where did her siren parts go?