Netflix has been pivotal in extending the life of classic American TV shows, from NBC’s “The Office” to AMC’s “Breaking Bad.” The streaming site has also shown the ability to do this internationally, with the recent success of the Japanese show “はじめてのおつかい” (“Hajimete no otsukai,” “Old Enough!”).

Last October, the service finally made available what one Japanese Twitter user appropriately called “テーマZEROの伝説シットコム” (teema zero no densetsu shittokomu, the legendary sitcom with zero theme): “となりのサインフェルド” (“Tonari no Sainferudo,” “Seinfeld,” lit: “My Neighbor Seinfeld”).

As the show has become available for streaming in Japan, it seems to have struck a chord with many viewers. Some Japanese are using it to study English, but a close look at the Japanese translation provides revealing language lessons in the opposite direction, too.

As is usual for Japanese television shows and movies, the translations for the subtitled and dubbed versions differ significantly. Often the dubbed version is far superior and reflects more natural Japanese, thanks to extremely talented and hard-working 声優 (seiyū, voice actors).

For example, in one episode titled “The Soup Nazi” (Season 7, Episode 6), the well-known line “No soup for you!” is “スープは売らん！” (Sūpu wa uran!, I won’t sell you soup!) in the subtitled version and “スープはお断り！” (Sūpu wa okotowari!, I refuse your soup!) in the dubbed version, which I would argue better captures the tone.

Another quick example from “The Strike” (S09E10) shows that the フェスティバス (Fesutibasu, Festivus) “feats of strength” is rendered as 力自慢 (chikara jiman, boasts of strength) in the subtitled version, while the dubbed version feels more contextually accurate and natural as 力試し (chikara dameshi, tests of strength).

The dubbed version also has some great examples of natural speech patterns. In “The Contest” (S04E10), and many other episodes, as the character of Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) arrives at the coffee shop, she greets Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) and George (Jason Alexander) with a simple “どうも” (dōmo, hey), and they respond with an even simpler “よ” (yo, hey). This effectively conveys how close they all are and is a great reminder that words like こんにちは (konnichiwa, hello) are often unnatural in very casual interactions.

There are also good examples of 倒置法 (tōchihō), which is the grammatical construction in spoken Japanese that places 主題 (shudai, topics/themes), 目的語 (mokutekigo, direct objects), 副詞 (fukushi, adverbs) and other words after the verb of the sentence rather than before it.

For example, in “The Contest,” George pledges to give up a certain act of self pleasure after being caught by his mother. The Japanese dubbed version inverts the topic of the sentence: “もう二度としない、あれはね” (Mō nido to shinai, are wa ne, I won’t ever do that again). The result is the translator and voice actor working together to produce a beautifully natural Japanese effect that conveys all of the italics in George’s line “I am never doing that again.”

The dubbed version of “The Yada Yada” (S08E19) provides an effective solution to avoid topics you don’t want to talk about. Just deploy なんだかんだ (nanda kanda, yada yada) to fast forward over anything uncomfortable. You can use it in constructions like なんだかんだやっているうちに (nanda kanda yatte iru uchi ni, while we were yada yada’ing).

The real test of the “Seinfeld” translation, however, is whether they’re able to capture the absurdity of the humor and the running jokes.

The dubbed version creatively translates George’s “milky white” hands in “The Puffy Shirt” (S05E02) as お餅みたい (o-mochi mitai, like mochi), whereas the subtitles go with a more literal 乳白色 (nyūhakuiro, milky white) that doesn’t really capture the absurdity of George’s mother yelling something like “I said milky white!” as "お餅みたいって言った！" (Omochi mitai-tte itta!, I said like mochi!) does.

In “The Opposite” ( S05E21), George decides to do the 真逆 (magyaku, exact opposite) of all his normal decisions, while Jerry finds that his life is strangely in balance. Both the subtitle and the dubbed version translate the English term “even-steven” as トントン (ton-ton), and this language is maintained throughout the episode, such as with “Everything’ll even out,” which is “すべてトントンだ” (Subete ton-ton da, Everything’s even) in the subtitle and “いづれトントンになる” (Izure ton-ton ni naru, It’ll even out at some point) in the dubbed version.

However, not all the jokes get carried over. In “The Contest,” the line “master of his/my domain” is given accurately as “領土の主” (ryōdo no aruji, master of the domain). The translator who must have worked on the “The Puffy Shirt” episode didn’t recognize the callback to this line, though. When the director of the hand modeling shoot tells George about the demise of legendary hand model Ray McKigney, he says, “He was not ... master of his domain.”

The subtitled translation eschews all nuance here: “自慰にふけってた” (Ji’i ni fuketteta, He was addicted to masturbation). The dubbed translation goes for a more indirect line but fails to maintain the “domain” vocabulary: “彼は、我慢するのが苦手だった” (Kare wa, gaman suru no ga nigate datta, He was not good at being patient).

And the absurdity of all the characters yelling “このプレッツェルは喉が渇くな” (Kono purettseru wa nodo ga kawaku na, These pretzels are making me thirsty) in “The Alternate Side” (S03E11) is something that can only be captured in the dubbed version.

So if you find yourself in the mood for another Seinfeld binge, it can be worth turning on the subtitles to learn some random Japanese phrases, but ideally you’re watching the dubbed version for a more natural experience. You never know when a phrase like “心に平穏！” (Kokoro ni heion!, Serenity now!, lit: “Tranquility for my heart!”) will come in handy, especially if you’re finding life in Japan stressful and need a coping strategy.