One thing I love about Steam (and digital distribution) is that there is the option to play in a variety of languages. My first language is English, but I often choose to play in my adopted languages Italian and French. And so I'm curious...
Do any of you elect to play games in a language other than your native tongue even though the option to play in your native tongue or first language(s) is available?
It was playing Bioshock Infinite in Italian made me realize that gaming in translation is sort of like traveling from the original universe to a parallel universe. It's all the same but only different. You have a rather unique perspective. In the back of your mind, you become aware of moments where linguistic differences necessitated painful sacrifices or difficult decisions on the part of the localization team.
Translation reveals fascinating moments of difference. Just as poetry is very much tied to, expressive of, or reliant upon the language in which it is first written, translation can reveal traits about one language that only come to the fore in moments of contact and conversion. For instance, consider how adjectives in English, a language without grammatical gender, do not have to match the gender of the person described and how dialogue written to be unisex in English won't work in a Romance-language translation of the same game. What's necessary in one language is unnecessary or unheard of in another.
Then there are other little differences, little moments of dissonance. For example, it was only until I saw an English language playthrough of Bioshock Infinite that I learned the Lutece twins spoke with a bit of British accent as the difference is not really marked in the Italian dubbing. Or a certain joke in Mass Effect 2 involving probing of a certain planet falls flat and seems a bit out of place in the Italian version.
Even in games where only subtitles in another language are available, there are still some fascinating moments of difference. The English dialogue compared two protagonists in one game to "Miami Vice" whereas the Italian subtitles described them as "Starsky and Hutch". In "Call of Juarez: Gunslinger", the English says "dime novel" but the Italian subtitles can only say "novel" because the concept of "dime novel" is perhaps difficult to translate.
TLDR Version:
Do any of you elect to play games in a language other than your native tongue even though the option to play in your native tongue or first language(s) is available?
Do any of you elect to play games in a language other than your native tongue even though the option to play in your native tongue or first language(s) is available?
It was playing Bioshock Infinite in Italian made me realize that gaming in translation is sort of like traveling from the original universe to a parallel universe. It's all the same but only different. You have a rather unique perspective. In the back of your mind, you become aware of moments where linguistic differences necessitated painful sacrifices or difficult decisions on the part of the localization team.
Translation reveals fascinating moments of difference. Just as poetry is very much tied to, expressive of, or reliant upon the language in which it is first written, translation can reveal traits about one language that only come to the fore in moments of contact and conversion. For instance, consider how adjectives in English, a language without grammatical gender, do not have to match the gender of the person described and how dialogue written to be unisex in English won't work in a Romance-language translation of the same game. What's necessary in one language is unnecessary or unheard of in another.
Then there are other little differences, little moments of dissonance. For example, it was only until I saw an English language playthrough of Bioshock Infinite that I learned the Lutece twins spoke with a bit of British accent as the difference is not really marked in the Italian dubbing. Or a certain joke in Mass Effect 2 involving probing of a certain planet falls flat and seems a bit out of place in the Italian version.
Even in games where only subtitles in another language are available, there are still some fascinating moments of difference. The English dialogue compared two protagonists in one game to "Miami Vice" whereas the Italian subtitles described them as "Starsky and Hutch". In "Call of Juarez: Gunslinger", the English says "dime novel" but the Italian subtitles can only say "novel" because the concept of "dime novel" is perhaps difficult to translate.
TLDR Version:
Do any of you elect to play games in a language other than your native tongue even though the option to play in your native tongue or first language(s) is available?