I’m feeling a little spicy about this TTS auto-translate update.

Get ready for a thread, from someone who is paid to translate board game rulebooks/collateral~

I get paid to translate and proof multiple items for two game companies every month, occasionally various others, from FR->EN.

This is not to brag, but to give credibility to my perspective.

There are so many nuances to language that simply cannot be understood by automatically applying the same filter across the board (ha).

Case in point: understanding that the names for chess pieces simply aren’t the same in other languages. https://twitter.com/dwimepon/status/1355473834959376389

You’re taught about literal/figurative translations when you learn a new language.

How idioms and lexicons are shaped by culture and history.

How our “raining cats and dogs” is “raining frogs” in another tongue.

Figurative interpretations are where human skill and heart is absolutely required. Without question.

Combining heart and skill is what makes a good translation.

This is also why native speaking translators should be prioritized over someone who has just *some* knowledge of the language under their belt.

Of course, the native speaker of the target language should have more than just *some* experience in the source language as well.

This all leads to understanding:

The usage of certain turns of phrase and their /figurative/ equivalent,

The connotation of one word versus its synonym(s),

The limitations of each language and how to bridge gaps (looking at you, gender neutral pronouns)

And much, much more

Now I *have* translated from my native language (EN) into a different target language (FR), but it took so much more time and effort — and my work sure as hell wasn’t as good as my normal FR->EN work.

That’s why I made sure to ask a native francophone to proof my work.

However our industry has a habit of underpaying people and relying on quick and/or cheap options.

I’m sure we’ve all tried to learn imported games with weird phrasing that acts as a barrier to understanding the rules.

It’s frustrating right?

It’s even more frustrating knowing that it was avoidable, if the publisher had taken taken the time to hire a proofreader — or a more qualified translator, instead of hiring two different people.

Obviously these thoughts don’t apply to indie pubs with limited funds and bandwidth.

But I see this happening with experienced publishers, and I don’t see why.

Anyway, I was chewing on these thoughts and getting more and more irritated.

Moral of the story: Please work with native speakers to translate your games, as receiving a nuanced translation will go much further for you and yours fans than an auto-applied text filter.

Addendum: I have a degree in French and this is the primary way I use it nowadays.

If I didn’t enjoy marketing so much, I’d try to make translating my full time job.

I have lots of feelings about languages and games and when they overlap, my heart explodes!