RTFM? Think Of Having To Actually WTFM!

Culture

from the cultural-differences dept

An amusing article about the people responsible for translating various technical manuals into other languages. The issues go well beyond just translating the technobabble. Each culture has a very different view of manuals, and so they need to be changed accordingly. In Japan, apparently, people enjoy reading manuals – and they often include little amusing cartoons and other fun stuff. In Italy, apparently, you’re not supposed to (ever) tell users what they should do (or should not do – because that almost guarantees they’ll do it), but rather suggest possible uses they might want to experiment with. Also, France and Italy have no problem with putting nude pictures into their manuals, but that doesn’t go over as well elsewhere.