Well, this is an eye opener. I had hoped to find some sort of idiom list but your advice is good.
Cheers, Bernie -- Bernie Monette InterActive Arts Internet Presence Management http://www.iaai.ca [email protected] 416 469 4337 > From: "Charles B. Kreitzberg" <[email protected]> > Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:48:03 -0500 > To: "'Jordan, Courtney'" <[email protected]>, 'live' > <[email protected]>, 'Bernie Monette' <[email protected]> > Cc: 'Ixda Design Ixda' <[email protected]> > Subject: RE: [IxDA Discuss] French shopping cart terminology... > > Courtney Jordan said <Just knowing French is not enough to actually localize > to the particular French culture that is your target market... Even some of > the words differ, for example, blueberry is "bluet" in quebecois but > "myrtille" in French>. > > It's an interesting example. I had a discussion with couple of native > French speakers this summer over the correct word for "blueberry" and it > turned out that neither of them knew it. Perhaps you have solved the mystery > for me. > > But you are very right about having to get someone from your exact target > audience. > > Some years ago I was designing an ATM interaction for a large bank. Someone > translated the phrase "insert your card into the slot" into Spanish and in > one country (at least) it turned out to be a very insulting slang phrase. > I'll leave it to your imagination. > > Another time we created an interactive product in Japanese and used a > Japanese scholar from a local university to translate the text. When we took > it to Japan, I asked a local physician to review the screens and she > immediately said "this was written by a non-native speaker." The words were > correct but something was not quite right. We edited it and received > compliments on the quality of the language. > > So I think your point of using French speakers of the target dialect and > recruiting experts for specialized language expertise is on target. It makes > a real difference and shows respect for your audience. > > Best, > > Charlie > ============================ > Charles B. Kreitzberg, Ph.D. > CEO, Cognetics Corporation > ============================ > > > > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
