jawtheshark's Journal: Languages

I've been postoning this "rant" a while. I feel that it is the right moment now (it might also be the 2 liter beer I have in my body, but that is besides the point) You see, I've been using computers since, what?, 1989 or so. Back then software was in english. So for me software should always be in english. Unfortunately I have to cope with the fact that the uneducated masses don't care about learning another language than their mother tongue. (Yeah, I do speak five languages, so I might be a bit biased)

Anyways, I want my software in english! Simple. Back in the Office 97 day we had to pay 25% extra to import the UK version. Just to give you an idea. Windows here is in french of german, and you won't believe how hard it is to explain someone to click on "Mein Computer" or "Mon ordinateur". Anyways... the big problem is: major software is nearly unfindable here in english. It just isn't... I think we have the whole "Need for Speed" series in german. "Need for speed" is a particulary bad one because often they give you the choice of "French", "German", "Italian" or whatever. I had to fight to find Halflife and Unreal2 in english. Really.

That's only PC games. As you know I own a playstation2. I can make two stacks of my games: those that offer a choice and those that don't. Everytime I buy a playstation game it's a gamble: will it be french or german, or will it be english or multilingual? The cover is usaually french or german, there is absolutely no way to know what the game will be like. Today I bought "Final Fantasy X", cover art in french. I tested it and the menu's are in french... Ouch! Luckily, for the rest of the game it seems that it's just subtitled. I can live with that.

Anyways for now I have: French:

• Halflife - understandable, it is a CD edition... no DVD. It sucks to play this game on playstation. I shouldn't complain for the 10Euro I paid for it
• Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 - I bought this game for my sis. I don't like it. But really, if you get instructions about skating in french with a horrible english accent for the technical terms... I just puke

Mutilingual by choice:

• Gran Turismo 3 -- Just asks which language you want... That's the choice I want!
• Baldurs Gate - Dark Alliance -- Me and my sister are addicted to this game and want the sequel. They offer choice of language
• Ico -- The spoken language is Japanese, but the rest is what you choose at startup. Truly remarkable

The surprising:

• Final Fantasy X -- I started this game and cursed! Menus in french! Blasphemy. But the game itself is english with french subtitles. Not ideal, but the game is not spoiled as in Tony Hawks

The outstanding:

• GTA3 -- I didn't play this game much yet... However I have been impressed by how it handled the languages. I set my PS2 to "english" by default. The GTA3 box is french, I can assure you. The game however does not ask what language you want, it reverts to the language you specified in the PS2 setup. This is how it should be! All games! Pay attention.... GTA3 got it right!

Sorry for the rant. I guess most of you won't get my complaints.... Wait until you live in a multicultural country, then you'll get back to me ;-)

Interesting

[buffer-overflowed]

Considering I'm going through and brushing up on one language (French) and trying to learn the basics of about 3 more before my grand 2 week friend visiting euro tour sometime next year.

I would think text based oses would be immune from the whole translation thing just for the sake of simplicity. Is that correct?

Re:Interesting

[jawtheshark]

would think text based oses would be immune from the whole translation thing just for the sake of simplicity. Is that correct?

Incorrect. I can assure you that I have worked with MS/PC DOS in English, French, German and Dutch. It isn't that tragic, because the commands stay the same.

I don't know for Linux/FreeBSD/FreeDOS... I've only seen those in English, but I would not be surprised.

Mac OS X

[sulli]

You can select your language of choice -- piece of cake.

Re:Mac OS X

[jawtheshark]

I run OS X. I have not much games on it, and my software is mostly opensource. Since I am in "english" mode. I cannot say if your statement is correct. I would not hold my breath over it though. Will Mozilla turn french when I set my machine to french? Who knows.....

Besides, this was mostly about playstation games.

ah....

[frozencesium]

but can you select H4X0r as a language???

-frozen

Re:ah....

[jawtheshark]

Uhm.... Oh, I would not be surpised if someone did that for KDE or so....

Besides, how do you actually *speak* H4X0r? I though it sounded like someone talking english and occasionally whistling modem tones... ;-)

Well, it sounds like this:

[Ethelred Unraed]

TR1N1T33!!! 3Y3 0WN j00!!!!!

;-)

Cheers,

Ethelred

Re:Well, it sounds like this:

[jawtheshark]

Trinity can come and own anything she want on me ;-)

I feel for you

[Ethelred Unraed]

Living in Germany, it's much the same here. You pretty much only get badly dubbed videos on cassette, even worse dubbed video games and so on. (Mercifully DVDs are almost always multilingual, with at least English and German, though the menus are normally in German.)

My simple solution: order everything from amazon.co.uk. Usually cheaper and easier than fighting with local stores (since they have to "import" English-language stuff), and German service is an oxymoron anyway. Sometimes amazon.de will also or

Re:I feel for you

[ces]

Thing is, in smaller countries like Holland and Norway, they don't dub much at all (usually subtitled). And surprise surprise, their English skills tend to be a lot better than in Germany.

Hmm interesting. Finland doesn't dub much either. Most stuff is subtitled or is just the English version (DVDs and video).

According to the Finns I know they tend to buy things like books, magazines, and software in English (or sometimes Swedish) as well since it is usually a long time before a Finnish translation is ava