# Still alive Portal 1



## keretceres (May 7, 2011)

Ok, so lately I have been getting into portal again, (reasons include portal 2 etc)
And as a musician and fan I always enjoyed the music, apart from having already performed the Turret Opera for a computer game music concert we held at uni. I found that there are translations of 'Still Alive' from the original Portal. Being a bit of a linguist I immediately wanted to try my hand at translating the lyrics into other languages that I speak and have not been posted yet. 

My question is has anyone translated lyrics before, pros cons and advice please =]


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## CannotWait (May 7, 2011)

You have to understand that in order for the lyrics to rhyme in another language you have to use alternate phrases and maybe even change the line entirely.


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## Captain Howdy (May 7, 2011)

Yeah that. It's why lyrics are usually in their origin language, or made in English, because of translation issues. You can hear some lyrical issues of foreign bands writing in English like Eiffel 65 and Donkeyboy for sure :v


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## keretceres (May 7, 2011)

Yeah, I heard some issues before with songs that are released in multiple languages, for example Nena's 99 Red Balloons; they [the balloons] weren't even red in german >_< I have been working on the lyrics, and they fit the rhythm of the music but some phrases are almost impossible! I feel though that by changing the line completely I would be defeating the object of the exercise entirely, yet if it is only one or two lines that should still be okay provided I keep some subject continuity?


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## CannotWait (May 7, 2011)

Here's ten examples of bad translations:

1.) *Locum *is a Swedish company. As most companies do  at Christmas they sent out Christmas cards to customers. In 1991 they  decided to give their logo a little holiday spirit by replacing the "o"  in Locum with a heart. The "L" was also uncapitalized and looked like an "I". The result: l <3 cum.

2.) The Japanese company *Matsushita Electric* was  promoting a new Japanese PC for internet users. Panasonic created the  new web browser and had received license to use the cartoon character  Woody Woodpecker as an interactive internet guide. The day before the huge marketing campaign, Panasonic realised its  error and pulled the plug. Why? The ads for the new product featured the  following slogan:
 "Touch Woody - The Internet Pecker." The company  only realised its cross cultural blunder when an embarrassed American  explain what "touch Woody's pecker" could be interpreted as! 

3.) The Swedish furniture giant *IKEA* somehow agreed upon the name "FARTFULL" for one of its new desks. Enough said..

4.) In the late 1970s, *Wang*, the American computer  company could not understand why its British branches were refusing to  use its latest motto "Wang Cares". Of course, to British ears this  sounds too close to "Wankers" which would not really give a very  positive image to any company.

5.) There are several examples of companies getting tangled up with  bad translations of products due to the word "mist". We had "Irish Mist"  (an alcoholic drink), "Mist Stick" (a curling iron from Clairol) and  "Silver Mist" (Rolls Royce car) all flopping as "mist" in German means  dung/manure. Fancy a glass of Irish dung?

6.) *"Traficante"* and Italian mineral water found a great reception in Spain's underworld. In Spanish it translates as "drug dealer". 

7.) In 2002, *Umbro* the UK sports manufacturer had to  withdraw its new trainers (sneakers) called the Zyklon. The firm  received complaints from many organisations and individuals as it was  the name of the gas used by the Nazi regime to murder millions of Jews  in concentration camps.

8.) *Sharwoods*, a UK food manufacturer, spent Â£6  million on a campaign to launch its new 'Bundh' sauces. It  received  calls from numerous Punjabi speakers telling them that "bundh" sounded  just like the Punjabi word for "arse". 

9.) *Honda* introduced their new car "Fitta" into  Nordic countries in 2001. If they had taken the time to undertake some  cross cultural marketing research they may have discovered that "fitta"  was an old word used in vulgar language to refer to a woman's genitals  in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. In the end they renamed it "Honda  Jazz".

10.) A nice cross cultural example of the fact that all pictures or  symbols are not interpreted the same across the world: staff at the  African port of *Stevadores* saw the "internationally  recognised" symbol for "fragile" (i.e. broken wine glass) and presumed  it was a box of broken glass. Rather than waste space they threw all the  boxes into the sea!


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## CynicalCirno (May 22, 2011)

CannotWait said:


> Content


 
That's amazing..
What about vehicles under the name "Nova"? While it may sound almighty, I heard it actually means something different in Spanish. Apparently "No Va" means "Will Not" in Spanish - Will the vehicle not move?


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