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Toaster
Bread Alert
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Posts: 5475
Location: Sweden |
Even if they translated G2 to Swedish, I would rather buy the english version. Huh, Swedish speaking NPCs. 
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Wed May 21, 2003 2:13 pm |
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Kiwi Boy
High Emperor
Joined: 03 Jan 2003
Posts: 1086
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quote:
Originally posted by Toaster
Huh, Swedish speaking NPCs.
Why not? Isn't it nice to have everyone speaking in your home tongue? Then there'll be no need to "translate" everything back to your own language. |
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Wed May 21, 2003 9:16 pm |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
quote:
Originally posted by Kiwi Boy
quote:
Originally posted by Toaster
Huh, Swedish speaking NPCs.
Why not? Isn't it nice to have everyone speaking in your home tongue?
Good translations are expensive, so they unfortunately are the exception. Some problems:
-other languages are 'longer' than English. --> the window size has to be reconfigured.
-some stuff is simply untranslatable.
-lip synchronity is hard to achieve
quote:
Then there'll be no need to "translate" everything back to your own language.
This sentence tells us you can only speak English. 
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Wed May 21, 2003 10:56 pm |
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Kiwi Boy
High Emperor
Joined: 03 Jan 2003
Posts: 1086
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quote:
Originally posted by Gorath
Good translations are expensive, so they unfortunately are the exception. Some problems:
-other languages are 'longer' than English. --> the window size has to be reconfigured.
-some stuff is simply untranslatable.
-lip synchronity is hard to achieve
Agreed. This is why it IS nice to have the entire game professionally translated, especially for Mr. Toaster himself.
I still don't understand why he would rather to have an English-speaking NPC instead of a Swedish-speaking one, even though "good translations are expensive," as Gorath just has said.
quote:
Originally posted by Gorath
This sentence tells us you can only speak English.
Chinese is my home language (OMG just look at my use of language--do I really sound like a native English speaker?) and that's exactly the way how I understand English: translate every single word you've said back into my language before I even try to understand them.
Most of my friends are not native speaker. That's the way how they attempt to understand the official language as well.
EDIT: Mistakenly pressed the Submit button instead of the Preview button |
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Thu May 22, 2003 12:29 am |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
quote:
Originally posted by Kiwi Boy
Chinese is my home language (OMG just look at my use of language--do I really sound like a native English speaker?) and that's exactly the way how I understand English: translate every single word you've said back into my language before I even try to understand them.
Translating English to Chinese is of course an extreme case. All those European languages are based upon the same set of 26 letters (plus a few country-specific additions). Furthermore itīs normal to have English at school for many year, for example from 5th to 12th or 13th grade in Germany. Scandinavians and people from Benelux hear English whenever they turn on their tv to watch an American show.
They are used to listening and understanding English. Itīs no longer necessary to translate at all! They are simply switching from their native language to English. From that moment on they think and talk in English.
I have no problem at all with a good translation. 'Good' means that the translation has to be at least as good as the original. In 9 of 10 cases the German translation loses atmosphere through unadequate voices (--> Unreal 2, Baldurīs Gate 1), lack of qualified voice actors (--> a general problem; for example Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Travolta have the same German voice! ), mistranslations (-->Neverwinter Nights) or a too aggressively changed sound mix (--> the last 2 Star Wars movies). The new sound mix thing is only relevant for movies. Germans prefer a smaller noise delta between voice, background sounds and sound effects while US movies usually have low voice and sound but extremely loud effects.
So the main problem is the loss of quality.
Another aspect: the other language always sounds cooler. Germans use Anglicisms, Americans use Germanisms.
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Thu May 22, 2003 7:30 am |
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 8376
Location: Australia |
A most interesting thread; I have enjoyed reading it.
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Thu May 22, 2003 10:37 am |
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the mighty stamar
High Emperor
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 602
Location: arcata ca, humboldt county |
In Scandinavia a large percentage of the people speak english.
But in the benelux countries the common language is french. I dont believe english is third most common or even fourth... I believe more of them speak german for what it matters.
You would think, that if the game does get released in a french version they would all buy that.
I have a feeling though most games are just not translated into french. Do the French get an english version of games?
I am curious. |
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Thu May 22, 2003 2:37 pm |
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Jaz
Late Night Spook
Joined: 20 Jan 2002
Posts: 9708
Location: RPGDot |
In Belgium and Luxemburg, French is spoken (at least partially), but in the Netherlands?
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Jaz |
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Thu May 22, 2003 2:50 pm |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
Okay, it seems we need to differentiate between NL (-->English) and BE + LUX (French).
I think translation is necessary if you want to sell more than just a few units in France.
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Thu May 22, 2003 2:58 pm |
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Toaster
Bread Alert
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Posts: 5475
Location: Sweden |
The reason I really don't want Swedish G2 is beacause the lack of atmosphere.
First, English is a bigger language than Swedish, and some things shuld loose their meaning in Swedish.
Second, Swedish voice actors is terrible. I can no longer take to see a dubbed movie, not even the Disney ones. They're terrible.
Third, a game in Swedish do I look at as B quality, like BF1942, which was made by Swedish developers didn't even come out in Swedish because English is better, and understanable for everyone, except pensioners.
Fourth, like Gorath said, mistranslations. I remember from The Matrix, when Neo is going to the hotel room to get back to Morpheus's ship, and the RL guy tells Neo to go left. Neo goes right because he think it's left for th other guy. Then the guy says: "No, the other left". They translated it to "No, wrong way", but in Swedish.
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Thu May 22, 2003 4:48 pm |
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Lostnumber
Head Merchant
Joined: 10 Apr 2003
Posts: 52
Location: An ugly brown desk |
Wow!! I am humbled, it seems that almost everyone else here speaks more than one language fluently. Sadly I don't, like the typical American student I took Spanish in HS. Since I rarely speak Spanish I have lost touch with it somewhat, I assume that after I graduate and venture into my planned profession I will enroll in a night class somewhere to brush up on it, as a cop in the U.S. speaking Spanish will give one a definite edge. Yet, it is only recently that I have taken up an interest in the German language. A roommate of mine speaks it well, he told me that as a fluent English speaker learning German is one of the easiest to learn. He put up a good argument, well what seemed to be a good argument, saying that there are many similarities between the two languages, and that many English words are derived from German. |
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Thu May 22, 2003 5:16 pm |
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Jaz
Late Night Spook
Joined: 20 Jan 2002
Posts: 9708
Location: RPGDot |
quote:
Originally posted by Toaster
(...)and some things shuld loose their meaning in Swedish
If you want to minimize 'translational loss', you'll have to play the original version of G2.
@Lostnumber: Both English and German have a common root. You'd be surprised at how far the similarities between Indo-European languages go if you poke around. Sanskrit, Latin and ancient Greek have similarities as well as Sanskrit and the Germanic languages... they all have the same proto-Indo-European language root.
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Jaz
Last edited by Jaz on Thu May 22, 2003 5:31 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Thu May 22, 2003 5:24 pm |
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Toaster
Bread Alert
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Posts: 5475
Location: Sweden |
I can talk and understand English just perfect, (best in class, actually) but I merely know 10 words German. 
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Thu May 22, 2003 5:29 pm |
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the mighty stamar
High Emperor
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 602
Location: arcata ca, humboldt county |
Well the reason Benelux countries are linked together, also with part of switzerland, is that the majority of those people speak french.
In the netherlands the speak dutch obviously, but the major second language is french.
So I am curious how many english translated games they buy there, and why these countries are different than france?
Just wondering if theres someone from there to throw in an opinion. Ive met a lot of people from the netherlands actually, and all of them spoke french fluently.... |
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Fri May 23, 2003 1:51 am |
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x_Noble_Paladin_x
Head Merchant
Joined: 14 Sep 2002
Posts: 61
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quote:
Originally posted by Lostnumber
Wow!! I am humbled, it seems that almost everyone else here speaks more than one language fluently. Sadly I don't, like the typical American student I took Spanish in HS. Since I rarely speak Spanish I have lost touch with it somewhat, I assume that after I graduate and venture into my planned profession I will enroll in a night class somewhere to brush up on it, as a cop in the U.S. speaking Spanish will give one a definite edge. Yet, it is only recently that I have taken up an interest in the German language. A roommate of mine speaks it well, he told me that as a fluent English speaker learning German is one of the easiest to learn. He put up a good argument, well what seemed to be a good argument, saying that there are many similarities between the two languages, and that many English words are derived from German.
My my, I also didn't happen to learn the usefull lanuage (but spainsh is still cool) but at least I learned a little bit of German when I was young so I won't have a funky accent.
@Toaster just wondering how are your accents over there?
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Fri May 23, 2003 3:02 am |
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