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06-22-2022, 09:47 AM - 1 Like   #16
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QuoteOriginally posted by Digitalis Quote
yikes...
I don't know about Japanese but in other East Asian languages they would use a certain connector word that doesn't have a good English translation.

For example if you were saying "a man and his wife and children" you could in theory use those connector words which in that language can have more than one connotation depending on how they are used.

Those same connector words in other contexts can also be translated as "even" but depending on the context that translation could be technically correct (or maybe not).

Particularly in the West we have a tendency to underline the word "even" and look at it through our own lens even though the original context says nothing like that at all.

I'm pretty tempted to put up a meme of Ron Burgundy with the caption "I am your translator now".

06-22-2022, 09:59 AM - 6 Likes   #17
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QuoteOriginally posted by csa Quote
"I think what Pentax is trying to say is that this event is for everyone, not just experienced users or male users."

No, what they are trying to say is that women do not have the sense to use a camera. Statements like this, sour all my Pentax gear for me.
Please try not to let it bother you, Carol If the translation - and the message its trying to convey - is accurate (and I'd say that's a big if), you can bet it's based on culture that would be the same within most Japanese companies, and not specific to Ricoh. It grates with us here for good reason, but our cultural frame of reference is very different. We could choose to buy products only manufactured in the West by Western companies, but that would rule out most cameras and lenses. The best way for us to change regional perceptions - over time - is to have folks like yourself using the equipment, taking photos and participating on a strong, equal footing in communities like this one. Like many here, I'm sure, I'm proud to have you as a fellow Pentaxian and forum colleague, and fully aware that you know what you're doing around photography gear

Last edited by BigMackCam; 06-22-2022 at 10:19 AM.
06-22-2022, 10:01 AM - 4 Likes   #18
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QuoteOriginally posted by slartibartfast01 Quote
It still seems to imply that a woman wouldn't be able to cope with a more advanced camera. It might have been wiser to leave it at beginners.
Actually, no it doesn't imply that at all. Not in the original language and context it doesn't.
06-22-2022, 10:14 AM - 3 Likes   #19
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There remains an enormous amount of what we would call egregious sexism in Japan. It's ingrained to an astonishing (to us) degree. And yet in a lot of ways in TV and movies it's not so egregious....very odd. Certainly traveling in Japan I didn't get the sense that women were oppressed as they are in a lot of countries in the Middle East. And the Japanese women I've worked with tend to roll their eyes at the men when they do stupid stuff, and view them as dinosaurs.

06-22-2022, 01:23 PM   #20
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QuoteOriginally posted by Mooncatt Quote
Case in point, check out TranslationParty - Find the equilibrium You can type out a phrase in English and it'll automatically translate between English and Japanese over and over until the translations reach parity. Sometimes the translations are still relatively understandable. Sometimes they are... Interesting. A good starting phrase is the classic line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

"What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?"
Try Heart, “Let me go crazy on you…”.
06-22-2022, 01:32 PM - 2 Likes   #21
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A lot is lost in translation. Long time ago, there was Dutch brand "Electrolux" who produced vacuum cleaners. One of there salesmen thought he could speak good English and translated there slogan "Niets zuigt zo goed als een Electrolux" (nothing vacuums as good as a Electrolux) to "Nothing sucks like a electrolux"

They didn't sell much vacuum cleaners in the UK at that time
06-22-2022, 01:46 PM   #22
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QuoteOriginally posted by alamo5000 Quote
Actually, no it doesn't imply that at all. Not in the original language and context it doesn't.
How would you translate it then?



06-22-2022, 01:59 PM - 9 Likes   #23
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A lot of westerners get their panties twisted really tight simply because they lack understanding of the nuances of other cultures combined with a potentially bad translation.
Before we get offended we need to ask ourselves if it is our own ignorance causing the affront.
06-22-2022, 02:47 PM - 1 Like   #24
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QuoteOriginally posted by Sakura Quote
A lot is lost in translation. Long time ago, there was Dutch brand "Electrolux" who produced vacuum cleaners. One of there salesmen thought he could speak good English and translated there slogan "Niets zuigt zo goed als een Electrolux" (nothing vacuums as good as a Electrolux) to "Nothing sucks like a electrolux"

They didn't sell much vacuum cleaners in the UK at that time
Just for the record: Electrolux is still and always has been a Swedish brand …
06-22-2022, 02:53 PM   #25
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QuoteOriginally posted by Sakura Quote
A lot is lost in translation. Long time ago, there was Dutch brand "Electrolux" who produced vacuum cleaners. One of there salesmen thought he could speak good English and translated there slogan "Niets zuigt zo goed als een Electrolux" (nothing vacuums as good as a Electrolux) to "Nothing sucks like a electrolux"
I like the botched translation better. It's both witty and rhyming!
06-22-2022, 03:19 PM   #26
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It's a lost in translation thing like already stated.

But yeah. It would be nice if we got some "walk around" events in the USA. I'd definitely go to them, well, provided they were held in SoCal. Hahaha!
06-22-2022, 04:53 PM - 3 Likes   #27
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QuoteOriginally posted by Sakura Quote
A lot is lost in translation. Long time ago, there was Dutch brand "Electrolux" who produced vacuum cleaners. One of there salesmen thought he could speak good English and translated there slogan "Niets zuigt zo goed als een Electrolux" (nothing vacuums as good as a Electrolux) to "Nothing sucks like a electrolux"

They didn't sell much vacuum cleaners in the UK at that time
Not quite.

The real story is as follows:

Electrolux was founded in Sweden in 1919 by entrepreneur Axel Wenner-Gren. Electrolux sold products successfully in the UK using the slogan “Nothing sucks like Electrolux” in the 1970s. The slogan was crafted by a British ad agency. At that time, the word ‘suck’ had not implied the meaning ‘to be bad’ in British English. While Electrolux did not sell products in the USA at that time, USA readers of the British slogan found it funny as 'suck' had already come to mean 'bad' in the USA by that time.
06-22-2022, 07:18 PM   #28
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QuoteOriginally posted by alamo5000 Quote
I don't know about Japanese but in other East Asian languages they would use a certain connector word that doesn't have a good English translation.
This is the most likely cause of the gaffe, that and bad auto-translation. I speak a few other European languages than English but I suspect in the east gendered language is complex: the use of auto translators wouldn't help with that.
06-22-2022, 09:55 PM   #29
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It may be a marketing ploy that ended instead raising on eye brow on T'Pol's face (Star Trek: Enterprise). No reason to feel offended, ladies and gentlemen. The composite advertising photo of an off-proportions KS-1 being held by a young woman caused me more uproar: not because of the woman (i know quite a few excellent woman photographers), but because of the off-proportions camera photo insert.
06-22-2022, 10:06 PM - 1 Like   #30
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QuoteOriginally posted by Sakura Quote
A lot is lost in translation. Long time ago, there was Dutch brand "Electrolux" who produced vacuum cleaners. One of there salesmen thought he could speak good English and translated there slogan "Niets zuigt zo goed als een Electrolux" (nothing vacuums as good as a Electrolux) to "Nothing sucks like a electrolux"They didn't sell much vacuum cleaners in the UK at that time
The legendary example I know of is when Chevy released it's Nova automobile in Mexico and South America, without realizing that "no va" translates to "it doesn't go" in Spanish, and had trouble selling the vehicle as a result. How true the story is (that it actually affected sales significantly) has been called into question, but it's still fairly funny as a story.
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