Let's talk translations and other languages

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Oh, translation is hugely cultural, maybe entirely cultural. This has bedeviled translators all the way back to when Martin Luther first wrote seriously about translation. You have to recreate the meaning of something that exists only in the source culture, in a language that has no words for it, or that has to express it in an entirely different way.

"Some American reviewer of Foucault’s Pendulum said something nice about the translation, but then said, “I feel that the translator has taken a lot of liberties with the original,” and then he put in parentheses, I’d like to know what the Italian for “couldn’t tell shit from Shinola” was!"
[William Weaver, Umberto Eco's longtime translator]

Another more concrete example from William Weaver.
"Some of the hardest things to translate into English from Italian are not great big words, such as you find in Eco, but perfectly simple things, buon giorno for instance. How to translate that? We don’t say “good day,” except in Australia. It has to be translated “good morning” or “good evening” or “good afternoon” or “hello.” You have to know not only the time of day the scene is taking place, but also in which part of Italy it’s taking place, because in some places they start saying buona sera (“good evening”) at one p.m. The minute they get up from the luncheon table it’s evening for them. So someone could say buona sera, but you can’t translate it as “good evening” because the scene is taking place at three p.m. You need to know the language but, even more, the life of the country."

I can see how there may be no equivalent for a certain idiom, or how social rules can alter the meaning of things, but I don't see how that will lead to a need to dispense with the original meaning of the conversation entirely and just aim for the feel of it.

Maybe I just need to be bedeviled by it myself in the role of a translator to understand.
 
When to announce the Chinese Edition

the witcher series are my favorest games. I hope to pre-order the wild hunt early
 
I think it will come out the same day as the other versions, since it will only have Chinese subtitles.

From the official information at GOG.com:
What languages will The Witcher: Wild Hunt be localized in?
Full voiceover and subtitles: English, Polish, German, French, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese. Subtitles only: Arabic, Italian, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Czech, Hungarian, Latin America Spanish, Korean.
 
I think that the problem is that there's been no mention of who the distributor will be for Asia (which is why I ordered my CE from Europe).
@JaneXiong - Which version are you looking for? Play Asia are advertising the game for pre-orders.
 
I think that the problem is that there's been no mention of who the distributor will be for Asia (which is why I ordered my CE from Europe).
@JaneXiong - Which version are you looking for? Play Asia are advertising the game for pre-orders.

the distributor may be Bandai NAMCO, I hasn't decided which version to buy
 
the distributor may be Bandai NAMCO, I hasn't decided which version to buy

It may be them, but there's been no announcement. If you're going for digital, then are you able to buy from GOG or Steam? If you want retail, someone like Play-Asia is probably your best option, but without any regional distributor, I don't think they can guarantee delivery on the release date.
 
It may be them, but there's been no announcement. If you're going for digital, then are you able to buy from GOG or Steam? If you want retail, someone like Play-Asia is probably your best option, but without any regional distributor, I don't think they can guarantee delivery on the release date.

oh~~no~~~ I hope the date of delivery is not delay too much, I will wait. I want to buy retail. on most occasions I buy games from Taobao.
 
oh~~no~~~ I hope the date of delivery is not delay too much, I will wait. I want to buy retail. on most occasions I buy games from Taobao.

I agree, it's annoying. I'm expecting a week's delay in getting the retail version here, unless I pay really high shipping costs to courier it from Europe. I suggest you just check around the retail outlets you trust to see what's available, and what promises they're making about delivery.

If there is an announcement here about an official distributor, it'll appear in the News section.
 
I agree, it's annoying. I'm expecting a week's delay in getting the retail version here, unless I pay really high shipping costs to courier it from Europe. I suggest you just check around the retail outlets you trust to see what's available, and what promises they're making about delivery.

If there is an announcement here about an official distributor, it'll appear in the News section.

ok,thanks for the suggestion
 
Some thoughts on the Chinese Edition:
I'm just hoping there won't be translation errors in TW3 like there were in TW2. I mean obvious ones.
Personally I could play with the English version, but I'd really like to enjoy the game with Chinese since it would be a lot more fluent and comfortable.
And for those Chinese players with poorer English than me, a Chinese version with translation mistakes would be the last thing they want with this game.
 
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Hey guys,
I'm wondering if the Witcher 3 wild hunt PS4 North American version contains all language packs like GTA5? I'm living in Canada, but I really want to play this awesome game on my PS4 with Chinese subtitles and interfaces. No dub is acceptable, but correct translation is essential. I played Witcher 2 Chinese version too, but there is some translation error which seems very unprofessional. Hope CD project can give this important mission to a better translating group or company this time. You guys should know there is a huge population of Witcher fans in China too, you may not know them since they don't speak English at all, neither will they post here, but they're truly exist. And as a Chinese Canadian, I'm giving my gratitude to CD project for giving us a Chinese version of this remarkable game. And I'm also hope the Witcher 3 wild hunt PS4 North American version contains Chinese subtitles and interfaces so that I can just go to EBgames after work and grab a physical copy as a collection. Otherwise, I have to order it from HongKong which usually takes one and half month to ship to Canada.

Is anyone here know anything about this? Thanks for answering and chatting here.
 
Hey guys,
I'm wondering if the Witcher 3 wild hunt PS4 North American version contains all language packs like GTA5? I'm living in Canada, but I really want to play this awesome game on my PS4 with Chinese subtitles and interfaces. No dub is acceptable, but correct translation is essential. I played Witcher 2 Chinese version too, but there is some translation error which seems very unprofessional. Hope CD project can give this important mission to a better translating group or company this time. You guys should know there is a huge population of Witcher fans in China too, you may not know them since they don't speak English at all, neither will they post here, but they're truly exist. And as a Chinese Canadian, I'm giving my gratitude to CD project for giving us a Chinese version of this remarkable game. And I'm also hope the Witcher 3 wild hunt PS4 North American version contains Chinese subtitles and interfaces so that I can just go to EBgames after work and grab a physical copy as a collection. Otherwise, I have to order it from HongKong which usually takes one and half month to ship to Canada.

Is anyone here know anything about this? Thanks for answering and chatting here.

Based on this post earlier from Marcin, possibly not:
http://forums.cdprojektred.com/thre...er-languages?p=1521051&viewfull=1#post1521051

You may want to send him a PM to double-check before ordering in HK though.
 

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Either Warner Bros are talking through their collective hat, or they got somebody to do an independent dub. Not sure what "español latino" means: mexicano, rioplatense, some attempt at a neutral dialect?
 
Years ago (around 50), all warners and Hannah & Barbera cartoons were dubling is the US studio with a such named español neutro. I don't known the marketing they followed then (I guess politicals censure in Spain might help for taking wrong decisions) , but after the 80's iin Spain, all dubing has been made in Spanish studios for Spanish actors for Spanish market. Among others argues, because the R.A.E. claims for protecting the Official Language of Spain in Spain.

Today, the "español neutro" (maybe now named español latino if I'm guiding by Windows, google, etc make in their language options in their software, is barely used in Spain, specially when local languages as Catalan or Euskerra are fighting for having more presence in digital media software. I'm barely conviced this version of "español latino" will make sales raise in Spain.
 
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Then, will the game have latin american dubbing like Warner Bros says, or is just a text subtitles?
 
Then, will the game have latin american dubbing like Warner Bros says, or is just a text subtitles?

Warner Bros. released the ad copy without explanation. So it's hard to say what we will really get. All CDPR planned to provide is subtitles.
 
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