XAP goes multi-lingual?

[SliceOfDog]

I've just had a good idea (if I do say so myself) and I'm amazed I didn't think of it before.

We're starting to get rather a few members whose first language isn't English. Just off of the top of my head I know we have Chinese, Icelandic and Polish members. Why don't we incorporate that into XAP?

If anyone reading this speaks fluently in another language and has a microphone, would you be interested in record a short bit for XAP in your native (or otherwise) language? Something along the lines of;

Hello, I am [name], and you're listening to XAP, the official podcast of scififur.net

Of course 'XAP' and 'Scififur.net' won't be translatable, so those would be left as they are, but the rest spoken in your alternate language (and for the record, XAP is pronounced "Zap"). If this gets a good response, or if we ever find ourselves getting a large amount of members who speak the same non-English language (French, for example) we could even include several minute long segments in that language!

Anyhow, I hope some of you are interested. The same offer goes out of course to our English speaking members, but as the initial idea was with non-English languages I thought I'd put that first.

[Daryn]

I think this is a good idea. THough I do think that the other language parts ought to be in their own files. Otherwise that'll get a little confusing if the podcast changes languages over the course of listening to it.

[SliceOfDog]

Oh, of course. But we'll jump that hurdle when we get there. At the moment there isn't a common enough second language to warrant it anyhow.

[macrorufus]

I've just had a good idea (if I do say so myself) and I'm amazed I didn't think of it before.

We're starting to get rather a few members whose first language isn't English. Just off of the top of my head I know we have Chinese, Icelandic and Polish members. Why don't we incorporate that into XAP?

If anyone reading this speaks fluently in another language and has a microphone, would you be interested in record a short bit for XAP in your native (or otherwise) language? Something along the lines of;



Of course 'XAP' and 'Scififur.net' won't be translatable, so those would be left as they are, but the rest spoken in your alternate language (and for the record, XAP is pronounced "Zap"). If this gets a good response, or if we ever find ourselves getting a large amount of members who speak the same non-English language (French, for example) we could even include several minute long segments in that language!

Anyhow, I hope some of you are interested. The same offer goes out of course to our English speaking members, but as the initial idea was with non-English languages I thought I'd put that first.

Well that sounds awesome. I'll get back to you about your PM. I have a mic and all, it's just that chinese is more than a little difficulty.

I've posted the issues below:

Cons:...
1 - I cannot make up a word in chinese. You want me to say 'Scififur?' [not possible] or do you want me to say 'sciencefictionfurry.net'? [In chinese sciencefiction is lit: 'science-fantasy']
2 - Ditto above re. furry. I could use 'ban shou ren' but that's literally half-animal-people, and that word has already been used for Orcs. Don't ask me why. It just has. [So the question is what fulfils the word furry? 'half-beast-people' // 'beast-people' // 'animal-people' // or 'domestic-animal-people']
3 - Ditto with XAP. ((I think I can use 'alien-broadcast')) [If I say broadcast you want 'program' // 'broadcast' or 'live-broadcast'?]
4 - The word for alien is three words long... (lit- Outsider-Star-People) [Pro: Chinese know this means alien] but my point is XAP, will not be ... so handily to say.

[macrorufus]

你好！我就是《名字》。 你现在听《XAP》，正式直播的《SFF.net》。

[SliceOfDog]

Ah, well what I meant was for you to pronounce XAP and Scififur.net as if you were speaking English, so it would be "[Chinese] "Zap" [Chinese] "scififur.net"". I had thought about what the translations might be, but I decided that they were similar to Brand names. You don't translate McDonalds or Coca Cola when they're in other countries, so I figured we'd stick with the English names for them.
But thanks for letting me know those issues, and sorry if I didn't make it clear
You'll known where to send the file once you've recorded it won't you?

[macrorufus]

((uh for the record here we do translate brand names. Coca Cola is 'ke-le' means happiness. McD's is Mai Dang Lao - er.. loosely wheat reward/service))

But ok, in english pronounciation.
Sent where?

[SliceOfDog]

Haha, wow. Well fair enough then! I'm so used to seeing those names pop up all across Europe (and even if Africa the one time I've been) that I just assumed it would be the same in China. Anyhow, that's useful knowledge for the future. Also, it sort of grates me that such an evil company as Coca Cola can call itself "happiness". Especially ironic as it's a staple of the capitalist culture in a communist state...

But anyhow! :p
I'll throw a PM your way with my email in, although it's the same one I use on MSN, so I think you'll have it already.

[SliceOfDog]

This has had a good response so far! Thanks for the two of you who have already sent in files (you'll be hearing both in the upcoming XAP instalment) but there's no need to stop here. Anyone else who speaks another language, please feel free to jump in.

Even if you just speak English, don't let that stop you. I would like as many sound bites as I can get from as many different people as I can get, especially regulars on the forums here. I currently have 6 in English (from 4 different people) and now 2 in other languages. To misquote everyone's favourite orphan: "Please scififur, can I have some more?"