German translation needs a bit more love

[joki]

V.265:

I have never played using german localization since usually some of the original "flavour" is lost in the translation process. However I have recently watched a let's play series where the player was using german localization. Here are my observations.

1) Overall most strings occurances have been translated word-by-word, rather than using good ("meaning first") style. For example all occurances of the form

" that is designed to "

are translated using

" mit der man machen kann"

rathern than

" zur " (known as "Substantivierung" in german)

which is better style and sounds a lot more natural.

For example:

"A beat up prybar. Useful for opening locked containers."

is translated as

"Ein abgenutztes Brecheisen. Damit kann man gut verschlossene Behälter aufstemmen."

rather as

"Ein abgenutztes Brecheisen. Nützlich zum Aufstemmen verschlossener Behälter."

This unpretentious "Damit kann man" rather using the substantivated version of the verb is used through-out the entire german localization. :?

2) Some parts are translated plain wrong:

E.g.: The book description

"Eventually, a source of knowledge. For now, something to burn when you are freezing."

is translated as

Hieraus könntest du irgendwann etwas lernen. Fürs Erste kannst du es verbrennen, wenn dir kalt ist.

which means

You could learn something from this one day (In the future). For now you can burn it, when you are cold.

rather than

"Letztendlich eine Quelle des Wissens. Fürs Erste etwas zum Verbrennen, wenn dir kalt ist."

Another example.

"Simple tools, usable for basic crafting and repair."

is transated as

"Einfaches Werkzeug, mit dem man grundlegende Dinge herstellen und reparieren kann."

which translates back to

"Basic tools, which can be used for crafting and repairing basic tools".

We are not doing basic repairing/crafting work anymore, but we are repairing/crafting on basic tools! (The tools we are working on are basic, not our working process itself. No statement is made about our working process.)

(Also "basic" in "basic tools" was translated to "fundamental", which means "laying-the-groundstone-kind-of-tools" :lol: ))

3) Some other times when there is more than one meaning for an english word, the unfitting one was chosen for translation, e.g.:

"Hood" (from a car)

was translated as

"kapuze" (garment)

rather than

"Motorhaube"

This is a hood:

This is a kapuze:

Andsoonandsoforth, there is a few thousands lines. I could go on and on, but I think you catch my drift.

[TarjaS]

That's "translating word/expression list in Excel without knowledge of context and without localized game testing" for you. Guess why I love translating this game (playtime around 500 hours before starting translation), even though I'm doing it for free.

Edit: Or, alternatively, amateur translators (if it's a Steam workshop item).

[Spottdrossel]

I agree that the German translation is a bit lacking and (much worse!) not receiving any improvements any more. (See the German subforum and my - rather angry - post there).

Using a word that wouldn't be used by a native speaker is one thing, but translating things to have a different meaning AND leaving it like that, despite being told several times AND having forum mods being able to write meaningful German sentences in the forums is a very sad combination.

However I disagree with this example.

Another example.

"Simple tools, usable for basic crafting and repair."

is transated as

"Einfaches Werkzeug, mit dem man grundlegende Dinge herstellen und reparieren kann."

which translates back to

"Basic tools, which can be used for crafting and repairing basic tools".

We are not doing basic repairing/crafting work anymore, but we are repairing/crafting on basic tools! (The tools we are working on are basic, not our working process itself. No statement is made about our working process.)

(Also "basic" in "basic tools" was translated to "fundamental", which means "laying-the-groundstone-kind-of-tools" :lol: ))

Especially with the translation back to English: "grundlegende Dinge" are not "basic tools".

I agree that the original sentence does not state what is being crafted or repaired and the German sentence suddenly introduces this, which is uncalled for.

[Scyzara]

Agreed. At the very least the most obvious mistranslations (hood, safe, register, etc.) desperately need to be changed. People have been reporting these for more than a year now and nothing has been corrected yet.

But I for one would certainly welcome a more natural and artful style of writing (Substantivierung = nominilization) as well. This is an extremely important element of your writing style in German, much more important than in English.

The current style "man kann xy damit tun" is more or less a child's way to express things. Not how an adult would put it if he/she wanted to write a text for another adult.

I thus tried to play the German translation only once. After about 30 minutes I switched back to English because I couldn't stand it any more.^^

[joki]

I agree that the original sentence does not state what is being crafted or repaired and the German sentence suddenly introduces this, which is uncalled for.

The object we were making a statement about has been changed, rather than something new beeing introduced:

My complaint here was, that instead of describing the tools we are using (they are basic!), we are now suddenly talking about the stuff we are working on (which is allegedly basic).

[Spottdrossel]

I thus tried to play the German translation only once. After about 30 minutes I switched back to English because I couldn't stand it any more.^^

Exactly this.

I wouldn't mind a well translated game and might actually prefer that, but in most cases the translation is so misleading, sometimes even wrong and almost always shallow ("a child's way to express things" is spot on) that using the original English version is the only real option.

Sadly TLD is no exception to this rule.

I feel for all the people being forced to play this in German because their English isn't good enough.

It must be a terrible experience for them.

I agree that the original sentence does not state what is being crafted or repaired and the German sentence suddenly introduces this, which is uncalled for.

The object we were making a statement about has been changed, rather than something new beeing introduced:

My complaint here was, that instead of describing the tools we are using (they are basic!), we are now suddenly talking about the stuff we are working on (which is allegedly basic).

We're on the same page here.