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Message no. 1
From: Martin Steffens <BDI05626@***.RHIJ.NL>
Subject: Languages and roleplaying
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 15:17:31 +0100
The poll about languages reminded me of a question I wanted to ask to
the non-English speaking members of the list: How do you play
Shadowrun, in English or in your native language?
I always have the problem that the pieces "Tell it to them straight"
are mostly untranslatable, at least without losing much of the
athmosphere (how do you translate chummer?). But when I read it out
loud in English my players tend to miss a few words here and there,
and interrupt my speach, which again destroys the athmosphere.
Also a lot of the terms are also in English, so most of the time
we speak some bizarre version of Dutch/English (BTW, Inquisitor
your Dutch has improved, nice discussion you started there :).
Has anyone out there have the same problems, and/or what have you
done to solve it?

Your comments would be very welcome

Martin
****************************************************************
Martin Steffens |"There is no stress like distress"
E-mail: bdi05626@***.rhij.nl |
****************************************************************
Message no. 2
From: John Fikouras <feanor@**********.UNI-BREMEN.DE>
Subject: Re: Languages and roleplaying
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 15:37:11 +0100
> I always have the problem that the pieces "Tell it to them straight"
> are mostly untranslatable, at least without losing much of the
> athmosphere (how do you translate chummer?). But when I read it out
> loud in English my players tend to miss a few words here and there,
> and interrupt my speach, which again destroys the athmosphere.

We started out like that, and I tried very hard to convey the
atmosphere of the original text, but alas this is close to imposible.
After a while I gave it up and just did an on the fly translation -
this however is even worse. So I have come to the decision that
doing a complete writeup/translation is the only way.

> Also a lot of the terms are also in English, so most of the time
> we speak some bizarre version of Dutch/English (BTW, Inquisitor
> your Dutch has improved, nice discussion you started there :).
> Has anyone out there have the same problems, and/or what have you
> done to solve it?

So what ? :) I mean that doesnt happen only when we play SR, it
happens all the time :)

--
"Believe in Angels." -- The Crow

GCS d>- H s+: !g p? !au a- w+ v-(?) C+++ UA++S++L+>++++ P-- (aren't we all?)
L+>+++ 3 E--- N+ K W(+)(---) M-- !V(--) -po+(---) Y+ t++ 5+ !j(-) R+++(--)
!G tv(++) b++ D+ B- e+ u++(-) h*(+) f+ r- n!(----) y?
Message no. 3
From: Sebastian Zoellner <zoellnea@**********.UNI-MUENCHEN.DE>
Subject: Re: Languages and roleplaying
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 15:41:29 +0100
> The poll about languages reminded me of a question I wanted to ask to
> the non-English speaking members of the list: How do you play
> Shadowrun, in English or in your native language?
I mostly paraphrase the tell it to them straight section. IMO this sections
are very useful for getting the GM in the right mood, but most players
do not fit in the Adventures Frame anyway.

> I always have the problem that the pieces "Tell it to them straight"
> are mostly untranslatable, at least without losing much of the
> athmosphere (how do you translate chummer?). But when I read it out
> loud in English my players tend to miss a few words here and there,
> and interrupt my speach, which again destroys the athmosphere.
> Also a lot of the terms are also in English, so most of the time
> we speak some bizarre version of Dutch/English (BTW, Inquisitor
> your Dutch has improved, nice discussion you started there :).

This happens with every RPG; we mostly speek Role-German in this Situations.
Translations are an other Problem. Many terms that sound very well (especially
to foreigners) become totally stupid if translated (Everybody who ever read the
German SR-Supplements knows what I mean!

> Has anyone out there have the same problems, and/or what have you
> done to solve it?

> Your comments would be very welcome

> Martin
Sebastian
Message no. 4
From: Fredrik Nyman <fredrik@****.NET>
Subject: Re: Languages and roleplaying
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 17:56:54 +0100
> The poll about languages reminded me of a question I wanted to ask to
> the non-English speaking members of the list: How do you play
> Shadowrun, in English or in your native language?

Both. That actually part depends on my players and part depends on
the volume of the section to be read. I mean, if my players aren't
that good at understanding english, I usually translate on the fly.
Dialogues and descriptions of places I usually always translate into
swedish. Long chunks of descriptions, such as a Tell it to them
straight section that goes on forever I read to them in English.
Unfortunately there's a bunch of expressions that are just
untranslateble. Swedish is kind of a boring language, translating
"chummers" just gets ridiculous. And using different Swedish dialects
instead of American-English, Spanish-English, German-English, well,
last time I tried they more or less all exploded in laughter on the
floor.

I think much of the atmosphere in the game is lost if you switch
between the languages, but there's not much choise on my part. I
still haven't managed to pursuade my players into an all-english
session.
Message no. 5
From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject: Re: Languages and roleplaying
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 1995 12:33:23 +0100
>The poll about languages reminded me of a question I wanted to ask to
>the non-English speaking members of the list: How do you play
>Shadowrun, in English or in your native language?

I got asked the same question by someone in the UK last summer :) The answer
was, and still is, Dutch and English, but mostly Dutch.

>I always have the problem that the pieces "Tell it to them straight"
>are mostly untranslatable, at least without losing much of the
>athmosphere (how do you translate chummer?). But when I read it out
>loud in English my players tend to miss a few words here and there,
>and interrupt my speach, which again destroys the athmosphere.

An **&* DM I played with a few years back had the same irritating habit of
reading the things we saw out loud in English without making an effort to
translate (what I found most irritating were his pronunciation errors, which
he made a lot of :), and I found that ruins the atmosphere more than trying
(and partially failing) to translate.

>Also a lot of the terms are also in English, so most of the time
>we speak some bizarre version of Dutch/English

Same here. I translate most of the stuff on the spot, though it doesn't
always work as well as it could. In those cases where I can't think of an
adequate translation I just read the English line from the book :)


Gurth@******.nl - Gurth@***.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Oooh! Smells like a job for ... TOILETMAN!!
Geek Code v2.1: GS/AT/! -d+ H s:- !g p?(3) !au a>? w+(+++) v*(---) C+(++) U
P? !L !3 E? N++ K- W+ -po+(po) Y+ t(+) 5 !j R+(++)>+++$ tv+(++) b+@ D+(++)
B? e+ u+@ h! f--(?) !r(--)(*) n---->!n y?

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Thwap!