Translations: New Translations Added to the Database

[RHDNBot]

Update By: RHDNBot

This is an automated message generated by ROMhacking.net's RHDNBot.

The following Translations have been submitted and approved to the database (in submitted order oldest to newest):

• Donkey Kong (Norwegian)(Fully Playable)(NES)
• Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Finnish)(Fully Playable)(NES)
• Momotarou Densetsu (English)(Fully Playable)(NES)
• Wonder Project J: Mechanical Boy Pino (Polish)(Fully Playable)(SNES)
• Tales of Phantasia (Finnish)(Fully Playable)(SNES)
• Chrono Trigger (Finnish)(Fully Playable)(SNES)
• Choro Q 2 (English)(Fully Playable)(PSX)
• Chef Cookie in Gourmet World (English)(Fully Playable)(NES)
• Arabian Nights (English)(Fully Playable)(SNES)
• Shenmue II (Spanish)(Announced)(DC)
• Tales of Phantasia (English)(Fully Playable)(PSX)

Relevant Link: (http://www.romhacking.net/translations/)

[akualung]

If you allow me this little offtopic, I just want to say that I don't understand why any game which is already in English language should be translated to Finnish. I would understand that some games are translated to Spanish, because there's a huge lack of people understanding English here (I know what I'm talking about, I'm from Spain and the problem with essential foreign languages such as English, French or German is shameful). But in Finland, as far as I know, almost everyone is bilingual due to the stress that their educative system puts into having a population with a nearly perfect English level.

[BRPXQZME]

- Translating into your own language is a fulfilling (if not always fun) personal exercise of your own rhetorical abilities, even if your grasp of the source language is lacking.
- Even if 90% of people who would know one language would know the other, it'd be worth doing it for the other 10%.
- A lot of these games are best played in one's childhood, at which point the education system isn't likely to have taught enough of the other language to make the games all that enjoyable (well, assuming the languages don't have mutually intelligible parts to them).
- A lot of the subtleties and hard details of language (such as non-standard dialects; e.g., English speakers alone will run into Cockney, Ebonics, Scots, Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe...) make it unreasonable to expect a non-native speaker to have learned it, unless they have lived in the native-speaking environment for some time or otherwise have a lot of exposure. Some of these details can't be looked up anywhere and you would have to ask, even when it might just be a question of usage and the answer might be "well, that's not wrong, but nobody would ever say it that way."

So even though some translations seem technically pointless at first glance, I don't think they are.

(Now, I know some people have tried game translations into conlangs, but at that point I'm willing to write it off as an art project ;P )

[Bregalad]

I completely disagree with what aqualung said.
I think the more languages a video game is translated in, the more people will have access to it, and after all, some video games are great classics which anyone should be able to play.
Also even if everyone learns english at school in remote countries, they might not know the language very well, and some may just suck completely at it too. I know this because I learned german at school by force because the system in my country requires it, but I'm completely unable to write anything meaningful in German language. I am only fluent in english because I practiced it, if it was just school I'd suck at it too.

Finally, even if you know one language very well, you'll still be more "at home" with your mother language, and will be able to read the text quicker, the chances of misinterpretation of the text are reduced, etc...
So if a decnet french translation if available I'd pick it over an english one any time just because it would make me feel more at home. I'd only play in english if there is no french version available, and usually I am not handicapped at all by English language - but it's not always the case - I tried to play Phoenix Wright in english but with all the complex language it was almost like chineese to me so I had to find the french version of the game. I can perfectly see this happen with simpler games to people which have a simpler level of english.

[akualung]

I think you both are right, maybe I rushed a little bit when I wrote my previous message, I hope I haven't offended anybody 

It's just that sometimes I feel a little sad about the low level that "my" country has when it comes to master foreign languages and I think that, with more incentives, we'd be a lot more competitive. My gf and I have been chatting online regularly with people from North-european countries (Finland, Sweeden, Norway...) and the difference is fairly noticiable. You can meet, for instance, students on their 17-18 with a higher English level than many Spanish adults, even having careers. I have to confess, I feel a little bit jealous of these countries that make such enfasis in having people with competent skills when it comes to something as important as being able to comunicate with the rest of the world.