Them funny Russians... [FINAL UPDATE]
Warning: this is a long rant post, if you don't want/don't have the patience to read it, don't bother. Also, SPOILER ALERT.
I'd like to make a few points clear:
This isn't a post about those Russians being funny.
I'm not Russian, I'm Ukrainian, but Russian happens to be my first and primary spoken language.
So, in Episode 4 we encounter a Russian-speaking group. First it's Arvo, and then there are three more guys. I've seen these leaked videos with spoilers beforehand, so I knew what to expect, but that's not the point. I'll go by each point separately.
Their accents. Arvo and that woman didn't have an accent, so they're out of here. The other two men, well, let's just say that "Red Heat" isn't the best pronunciation guide. Their accents are not only strong, but they feel like they are over-exaggerated. You've managed to find a guy to play Arvo, but not the guys to play the remaining two goons, Telltale?
Their phrases. I'll give you a couple of examples, along with how those phrases look in Russian and their translation. Telltale wrote their dialogues, effectively translating the English equivalents of these phrases, without taking care of some issues that can arise from it. So, a few examples:
"Никакие оружий! Никакие оружий!" ("None weapons! None weapons!") - this phrase not only was spoken with a terrible accent but it also got the "Никаких" word (in this case it's "No", as it was supposed to be in that sentence) wrong.
"Что происходит здесь?" (What is going on here?) - while not wrong, per se, in Russian, "here" can dropped, just like in English.
"Положи оружие на землю, если ты знаешь, что хорошо для тебя!" (Put the gun down, if you know what's good for you!) - this is an example of English phrase being directly translated, and losing some of its meaning along the way. It's not a bad example, too, but Russians don't say "if you know what's good for you". I can't account for everyone, but you don't hear a phrase like in that in everyday talk.
"...Ты думаешь я хороший мужик, да?..." (You think I'm a good man/guy, yes?) - I couldn't get the whole phrase out because of the group shouting at every corner, but that's enough. Coupled with terrible accent, and the fact that you don't say "мужик" (muzhik) in a question like that (it can still be used to describe someone, like "He's a good man", but I've never heard it being used in any kinds of questions). Still, I don't account for everybody, but it's not used like that in usual talk.
As for the phrases themselves, not only they are half-assed for the most part, but the half-assed ones are being spoken by the guys with heavy accents. Have you done this on purpose, Telltale?
This stereotypical bald dude. I know you think most Russians are criminals who spent most of their time in Gulag, either guarding people or serving their time, and there are some bad folks out there (they are everywhere), and I can't really speak in favor of many Russians nowadays, but let's keep that away for a minute. You've made that guy look like he served time in prison for most of the time in his life, and you made him speak with the accent that not even "Red Heat" in it's day could sport. I swear, Arnold Schwarzenegger felt more convincing as a Russian, that ol' Austrian bodybuilder.
(UPDATE) Their names. As Kettu pointed out, Arvo is a Finnish, not a Russian name. I don't know about "Buriko", could be a surname, but I doubt that. About the other two, "Maud" is a Scottish name, for all I know. I don't know about the last guy, I think I've seen him labeled as "Vitaliy", which is a Latin name, but it is used in Russian. Whew, they at least got one name right.
Kudos, however, for Arvo. While "Arvo" is not a Russian name (if it's even a name), you've convinced me he is Russian. He speaks with clear pronunciation, and most of his phrases weren't half-assed. Good job with that. And that girl, too, she spoke mostly fine for the most part.
Since they are likely to reappear in Season Finale, I hope you will listen, or at least take a look, but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't.
I won't keep you any longer, Hackett out.
EDIT: I know this is long overdue, but if anybody is interested in actual translations, you can use these links:
http://pastebin.com/bSAHc09i - provides English originals, gives you the idea of what the Russians are saying.
http://www.telltalegames.com/community/discussion/77290/russian-conversation-translation - a thread by @stunningsugarcup, she provides translations along with an approximate pronunciation of the phrases. Recommended version.
UPDATE: This is the final update of this thread, postponed due to me being banned.
I must say that Russians in Episode 5 were handled better. There is one thing I'd like to criticize, but, overall, they were handled much better. My only criticism is this - Buricko and that couple of phrases he said.
- He says "They shot me!" ("Они застрелили меня!") despite the fact that the word "застрелили" refers more to a lethal shot, and is rarely used by a gunshot victim to refer to themselves.
- They way he says "застрелили" can be misinterpreted as "заслонили" ("covered"). And his accent was also pulling through, even though it wasn't unbearable, as the last time.
Also, they changed Maud's name to "Natasha", which is good, for "Maud" wasn't a Russian name, but neither is Arvo, but Arvo is way more plausible than Maud.
As for Vitaliy and Arvo, they (especially Vitaliy) were speaking like Russians, without accent, nonsensical phrases and overall without mistakes in their speech. Kudos to Telltale for that.
Fifth Fleet out.
Comments
Bump.
I find clems "Struggle" noise annoying. They reused it like 6 times.
Hardly a place to discuss it, but I happen to agree.
Well I read your post and it made me think about things like that.
So I just said what was on my mind.
but you're right.
Well, thanks for stating your opinion, anyway.
I get it. I cringe when people from the American South try to speak English.
My bad. It's kind of hard for me to relate to this post because I don't understand Russian.
Well, at least you've been bumping this post a bit, and I can appreciate that.
Oh, boy, I don't know how did you get through the St. Johns, and Bonnie (even though her redneck accent got weaker over time, strange).
I didn't think the accents were that horrible.
I reckon you don't speak Russian, you would've thought otherwise if you did.
Only speakers of russian will have the problems you are having. as someone who can't speak it and never will, sounded pretty intense to me.
Oh, I know. But this is something I needed to address, just so Telltale (or at least other users) would know, what a shoddy work this was.
Arvo means value in Finnish, and is a name here too, so I nearly assumed that he would've been Finnish or at least Estonian. Anyways yeah I noticed that accent thing, as living in the middle of Russians I heard the difference
Well, it is a name, good. Still doesn't fit a supposedly Russian guy, unless he's of Finnish descent, which is, of course, never stated and most likely will never be stated.
Another bump.
The bad accents of the two goons might be justified 'cause they're probably gonna get killed in the shootout and have only those lines, the broken russian is just a fail on telltale's part.
It definitely is. If they do die immediately, then, whatever, in my opinion, it would be for their terrible accents.
yeah i think they just hired cheap actors.
Or didn't find actual Russians (yet they've managed perfectly fine to do so for Arvo). I guess you're right, they're just redshirts for the next episode and their lifespans won't be long.
Thanks for translating it man, I wanted to make a thread about it.
Really? It bugged you, too?
With the stereotypical bald dude... I dunno, times have changed... I mean, this is set in about 2003-2005
I wanted to know what they said, but yeah you could say it bugged me a little, they didn't have to cake them with tattoos head to toe just to emphasise they're Russian, but I was more bugged about not knowing what they said xD
I don't really get your point, Juicy.
She means that back in 2005(ish) it was more common(?)
I don't know shit about it don't get me wrong, but I think that's what she meant.
http://pastebin.com/bSAHc09i
Here are the full phrases, already in English.
I don't know about "times have changed", because the last time I've seen a guy like that in an American production was the Rhino in "The Amazing Spiderman 2". Almost spot-on resemblance.
Arvo is played by Michael Ark he is a native russian then the bald guy name is "Burriko" this is russian Lingvort ?
And the woman name is "Maud"
Could be a surname like "Бурико/Бурыко", but I doubt that. I has it is another example of Telltale's shoddy work.
Totally agree, Im Latvian so Russian is my third language after native Latvian and English but I speak well enough to see how odd some of the stuff they said was. Im surprised you found Arvos speech okey, I did notice that he was talking unusually slowly and kinda forced, Russians, at least here, dont tend to speak like that.
It was very funny that I understood everything they said but the only meaningful answer was - what are they saying? Could have made Clem having some surprise Russian skills
"Maud" is a Scottish name, for all I know. Actually, thanks for giving me their names, I've added another point to my OP.
Hey y'all best not be disrespectin' my native way of talkin' now. Ain't ever seen someone so disrespectful, don't got no place for that nonsense here.
Yeah, Arvo was still kinda off, but he sounded way more naturally than the other Russians out there did.
Go back to Jawjuh, or I'm gonna get mah friends and beat ya'll folks till you're dead!
Well he could be from a mixed Estonian Russian family, thats not so unusual in Estonia, never seem a Russian named Arvo, he also seems to be in the wrong group, the other people look like some kind of a biker gang or White Power guys, doesnt seem likes hes fitting in with his phisique and broken glasses.
When the them funny russians showed up and I saw the bald guy with tons of muscles and tatoos, I thought to myself that he was just like the alive stereotype of a russian xD. I mean, it's like having an overweighted american, a tall blond german or a french with a beret and a mustache, just stereotypes!
And thank you for translating some of the dialogues, I was curious about what they said
When I saw Arvo...
Did anyone think what is Harry Potter doing out here?