How to send a PM to Oleg and the BoB team ?

[SaQSoN]

I've seen a lots of aviation-related books, translated into Russian from foreing languages by Russians, which were completely unreadable, because translators had no idea about special aviation and military terminology.

I guess, there was similar trouble with French version of the IL-2.

As for the translator selection... Well, shame on Ubi, what can I say?

[Feuerfalke]

Got to agree. I found the French version unreadable, too.


Maybe related to my poor French, though.

[C6_Krasno]

There are some weird things, in the French trad., yes, but it really remains correct in my opinion.

[Skoshi Tiger]

As an aside... I worked as a database programmer for Eurotunnel many moons ago. They hired some French Canadians as French speaking developers. The French French were always laughing at the Canadians translations and use of language. Apparently it was the equivalent of someone speaking 18th century English to a modern Englishman. ( Almost as bad as wot us Australians butchered the English language )

Cheers!

[QVWFQ]

Thank you for your comments

Yes, SaQSoN, we have in France the same problem as you have in Russia, of books, manuals, etc., translated by people who don’t know anything to the matters they deal with – aviation or else – ; in fact they don’t now the French itself ! It’s very humiliating, as it makes feel ourselves and our language as second rank people, not worth the effort to be given the same quality as the English-speaking people.

And yes, Chivas, it’s particularly surprising – and outraging – as Ubisoft is a French company.

It denotes, too, a total lack of consideration for the authors of the original work, i.e. Oleg and the people working with him. They took care to provide well documented descriptions of the planes and other objects: all we French users get of this work is an incredible rigmarole.

Just one example: “Waist gunner” is translated in the “French” version by “mitrailleur d’étranglement” (literally “strangulation gunner” !!!). The correct translation should be : mitrailleur latéral. Most of the texts in the “view objects” section are of the same ilk.

Of course I’ve been trying to contact Ubisoft, I even got in touch with somebody there. Gave him a few examples of irrelevancies (to use a moderate word) I found in the “view objects” section. He was shocked but… he’s not in charge with BoB/SoW. He told me he would transmit… Trouble is Ubisoft is a big corporation. Hard to know who is responsible of what (and if somebody is responsible of anything).

That’s why I try to contact directly Oleg and his people – to alert them on this problem (I’ll try the address you give, SaQSoN – thank you). Of course I know 1C Maddox won’t deal themselves with the localization (the making of the French version). But I imagine Oleg can be more influential than me upon Ubisoft.

To those who read French, I can send you a little anthology of just a few examples of the “charabia” (gibberish) you can find in Il-2.

Thank you Skoshi Tiger for the anecdote. I personally love the French Canadian, it’s the only foreign language I understand, apart from English. The French Canadians are proud of their tongue, and they’re right. But it’s decidedly different from French French. In fact the only fools in your story are the Eurotunnel’s guys, who were too ignorant to know it, and hired Canadian for to do this particular job.

Merci à tous !

[Igo kyu]

Originally Posted by QVWFQ

Just one example: “Waist gunner” is translated in the “French” version by “mitrailleur d’étranglement” (literally “strangulation gunner” !!!). The correct translation should be : mitrailleur latéral. Most of the texts in the “view objects” section are of the same ilk.

This is a problem with the English as well, I guessed, apparently mistakenly that it might have been translated into English by a Frenchman, whoever it was didn't know English military jargon, my favourite example was anti-submarine underwater bombs (or some such tortuous contraction, it was years ago it annoyed me) which should be depth-charges. There were several others, I don't remember the details any more.

I do remember when Sven Hassel started writing in French, and suddenly in the English translations all pistols were revolvers.

Good translators with a military vocabulary are quite apparently exceedingly rare.

Good Luck.