Quiet Pro - Le plus calme au monde

[BucklingSpring]

Hey Matias,

As I posted in the other thread. This is related to the French translation on the Mini QP box. 

"Calme" in French is more about sedation/tranquility/relaxation  than noise. Did you do that on purpose?

It sounds like - world's most Zen keyboard

Which is not bad at all... Just different than the English counterpart. 

[Matias]

Hey Matias,

As I posted in the other thread. This is related to the French translation on the Mini QP box. 

"Calme" in French is more about sedation/tranquility/relaxation  than noise. Did you do that on purpose?

It sounds like - world's most Zen keyboard

Which is not bad at all... Just different than the English counterpart. 

Thanks, I'll pass your comments along to our translator.  Perhaps she was feeling tranquil when she wrote it...  :-)

[BucklingSpring]

Ok for the record I just brought my Mini QP at the office and dropped by the translation department with the box.

They did have a good laugh. In a bad kind of way. I turned red and tried to defend my beloved brand. It was a hopeless fight. I ran away crying when they started to stack woods while yelling - Burn the witch!

Thanks, I'll pass your comments along to our translator.  Perhaps she was feeling tranquil when she wrote it...  :-)

[Matias]

Perhaps I won't pass that along...  :-)

BTW, where are your translators from?  Quebec?  France?  Some other place?

Edgar

Ok for the record I just brought my Mini QP at the office and dropped by the translation department with the box.

They did have a good laugh. In a bad kind of way. I turned red and tried to defend my beloved brand. It was a hopeless fight. I ran away crying when they started to stack woods while yelling - Burn the witch!

Thanks, I'll pass your comments along to our translator.  Perhaps she was feeling tranquil when she wrote it...  :-)

[BucklingSpring]

The translator team is a mix bag of French Canadian and French from France.

But it doesn't really matter in this case. Just have a peek at http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/calme

I would bet hard money that your translator is native English.
If you want a good French to English translation - You hire an English person who speaks French.
If you want a good English to French translation - You hire a French person who speaks English.

Otherwise you end up with basic errors that are hard to catch.
Even in English, quiet and calm can be interchangeable when it refers to tranquility but not when quiet means silence.

This exhaust is quiet - Sounds nice. (pun intended)
This exhaust is calm. Sounds as silly as saying this is the most calm keyboard in the world. :-)

Calme in French is exactly the same thing as calm in English.

Perhaps I won't pass that along...  :-)

BTW, where are your translators from?  Quebec?  France?  Some other place?

Edgar

[cactux]

You are so funny giving a hard time to matias regarding this crapp. He makes a nice keyboards which is the most important part. Really who gives a **** about typos. Just for the record I am French from France

[BucklingSpring]

Giving a hard time is a bit harsh. It is more on a humorous tone.

I own 2 Matias boards and will probably own more. I highly recommend this product. I'm a fan.

"Really who gives a **** about typos." You'd be surprised. And some people appreciate when you tell them they have a booger on their face. If you tell them nicely. Maybe that's where I failed...

Anyway.  You call it a typo. I'm fine with that... So I rest my case ;-)

You are so funny giving a hard time to matias regarding this crapp. He makes a nice keyboards which is the most important part. Really who gives a **** about typos. Just for the record I am French from France

[Matias]

No offence taken.  Our translator is bilingual from Northern Ontario.  Perhaps they have different standards of calme-ness up there.  :-)

Interesting insight on choosing translators.  Makes sense.  Just curious, what industry does your translation dept operate in?

[BucklingSpring]

No offence taken.  Our translator is bilingual from Northern Ontario.  Perhaps they have different standards of calme-ness up there.  :-)

Interesting insight on choosing translators.  Makes sense.  Just curious, what industry does your translation dept operate in?

Glad to read it... And "Banking" to answer your question. They translate for the marketing, e-commerce and legal dept just to name a few.

[Matias]

No offence taken.  Our translator is bilingual from Northern Ontario.  Perhaps they have different standards of calme-ness up there.  :-)

Interesting insight on choosing translators.  Makes sense.  Just curious, what industry does your translation dept operate in?

Glad to read it... And "Banking" to answer your question. They translate for the marketing, e-commerce and legal dept just to name a few.

"Banking" is definitely a different standard of calme-ness...  :-)

[BucklingSpring]

"Banking" is definitely a different standard of calme-ness...  :-)

Yeah I would have bet hard money that I was going to get a wise crack on my answer. Joke aside these guys are not born "Banking Industry" Translators.

Here's what I noticed thinking of calm and quiet - If [insert word] can have moods eg People, Music, weather, etc...  Calm works.
But when it's all about noise it doesn't. (Fart, bang, muffler, firearms, lightning, vehicle, tools... keyboard ) Calm doesn't work.

Check this out just for fun
   http://thesaurus.com/browse/calm
   http://thesaurus.com/browse/quiet

Calm - adj peaceful, quiet (inanimate)
Quiet - adj calm, peaceful

You will also notice that some words listed in synonyms are the same but Calm is not listed as a synonym of Quiet and Quiet is not listed in synonyms of Calm.

Finally and between you and me (and the rest of GHers reading this) if your translator still don't "admit" it then it's no longer a semantic matter. It's more of a big ego issue and I'm not equipped to deal with it. 

[JPG]

I am a french Canadian and I confirm that "calme" is not the good translation here, unless you really want to say that your keykoard is kind off relaxing, but it's weird saying that about a keyboard and I am pretty sure you meant the keyboard to be silent, and the good translation for silent is "silencieux" (could also be "non bruyant" which means "not loud", but well, you get it).

Anyway, not the first translation error in the world, and not the last either. Let's say that I've seen worse!

[Photoelectric]

This is humorous   And it does give some "flavor" to products, like reading "Enjoy your feeling".  I've seen many reviews, such as on NewEgg and other places, subtracting points for bad translations, drawing similarities with quality.  Basically if a manual has bad English, people will be put off by it and will give a poor review, thinking the product is also subpar quality.  So I'd say just for that reason, to avoid alienating some percent of your buyers just due to wording on packaging and manuals, I'd correct any errors you can find.

[BucklingSpring]

A keyboard is very straight forward to use. We don't care much about the manuals/instructions. At least Matias got translators on their staff. Many foreign companies are using automated translation software that are producing jokes better than the best stand up comedians.

Most of the times I can't understand the French instructions for complex to use devices. I even took the habit to only read the English manual. Speaking of which. Bashing a product for its manual isn't fair when it's a straight forward device to use. But when it's a complex devices or when the procedure described can damage the device or other things if not followed carefully, then I totally agree.

This thread has more life in it than I expected

I am a french Canadian and I confirm that "calme" is not the good translation here, unless you really want to say that your keykoard is kind off relaxing, but it's weird saying that about a keyboard and I am pretty sure you meant the keyboard to be silent, and the good translation for silent is "silencieux" (could also be "non bruyant" which means "not loud", but well, you get it).

Anyway, not the first translation error in the world, and not the last either. Let's say that I've seen worse!

This is humorous   And it does give some "flavor" to products, like reading "Enjoy your feeling".  I've seen many reviews, such as on NewEgg and other places, subtracting points for bad translations, drawing similarities with quality.  Basically if a manual has bad English, people will be put off by it and will give a poor review, thinking the product is also subpar quality.  So I'd say just for that reason, to avoid alienating some percent of your buyers just due to wording on packaging and manuals, I'd correct any errors you can find.

[Photoelectric]

A keyboard is very straight forward to use. We don't care much about the manuals/instructions.

I would avoid the generalization "we".  Or else understand that you're in a camp that doesn't, but some people do.  In fact, as I've stated, some people do care, and I've seen negative reviews on something as simple as generic external drive enclosures (no RAID mode), where there are no real instructions to read either.  Same for mice.  Generic packaging or bad English are both factors for negative reviews and for the misconception that the product must be poor in quality as well among some customers.  This applies to all electronics.  I read a LOT of reviews before I buy random stuff.