Re: Humor 'n' more

[Max Wyss <prodok -at- PRODOK -dot- CH>]

Sarah,

maybe, it is a bit simplistic ... but barely Swiss Humor (that would be
Sauglattismus, about the level of certain British TV comedies).

Humor in comic strips ... that can be a tough one, I agree. However, I do
have a very nice example where cartoon characters IMHO would make it pretty
well: the good old Metafont book, which I would have to dig out. I think,
here we do agree that humor must be used like a condiment.

Word plays and cultural references are hard to localize. It is possible,
but I think you give the main reason why it is not done well or not done at
all: Translations are treated like a commodity. You say, the translator is
paid by the thousand words. Why aren't the technical writers paid by the
word? why aren't the programmers paid by the number of bytes of
executables? (well, maybe Microsoft's are <g>). No, but translators who do
have in some cases a very high responsibility over the success of a
product... Whenever I can, I set a flat fee for my translations. This is a
soft way to educate clients. OK, I have mostly direct clients, no agencies.

Anyway, one place for some kind of humor are examples. They are not too
difficult to localize, as every country has its own sample names etc.

I'm soon running out of "Zweiräppler".


Max Wyss
PRODOK Engineering AG
Technical documentation and translations, Electronic Publishing
CH-8906 Bonstetten, Switzerland

Fax:  +41 1 700 20 37
e-mail:  mailto:prodok -at- prodok -dot- ch    or    100012 -dot- 44 -at- compuserve -dot- com


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_____________





>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
>