Re: Humor 'n' more

[Sarah Carroll <sarahc -at- INDIGO -dot- IE>]

Max,
This is a bit simplistic, Swiss humour perhaps?
(that was Irish humour).

You quipped:
>Your client has no high opinion of the non-original
>-language users. Your client is just too cheap
>to provide the non-original-language users with
>an adequate documentation.

I agree with you that a good translation will be
one where the reader cannot tell what the source
language of the original document is. However,
when it comes to humour in documentation, it
frequently comes in the form of:

Comic strips or cartoons - usually needing a
graphic artist in each target language.

Word play - clever manipulation of words in
the source language which have no corresponding
translation - e.g. Go fish! Use the net, you'll be
surprised what bytes! (Hilarious, eh?) Translate
that into something with the same tone, using
similar word-play. How much longer does it
take you to come up an appropriate, never mind
good, translation? Multiply that by thousands if
the document is peppered with such witticisms.

Funny, cute little anecdotes - here you really
have to be careful. These hardly ever travel
well, and can leave the translator scratching
their head to find an equivalent concept relevant
to their locale.

The reality of localisation, as you very well know,
is that there are billions of dollars being spent
on it. Most translations are charged on a per-word
basis. If a translator (or service provider) quotes
for a job on a per-word basis, and then comes
back and has to place a change order when they
discover that the linguistic content of the document
they are translating requires a stand-up comedian
for each language they are translating into, as
well as translator, the client is not well pleased.

Best
Sarah
sarahc -at- indigo -dot- ie