Wish all German books were translated to English (was: Jagdgeschwader 5 - Volume 3)

[Sergio Luis dos Santos]

Originally Posted by Eric Mombeek

We are enthusiasts, losing a lot of money by doing these books, but we became rich with the contact, the friendship, the trust that we found by the veterans who told us what they lived. What an experience!
Regards
Eric

You said all in a few words !!
Hugs from Rio Eric,

[Juha]

Hello,
Meimberg's Feindberührung is translated to Finnish, the title is Viholliskosketus, and it's a good book as Ruy wrote. On the general subject, I never learned German in school but managed to read some PzD unit histories because it was and still is the only option. There are no English editions on those unit histories of the PzDs which fought mostly on the Eastern Front. That was years ago and my German skills are nowadays very limited so nowadays I bought rarely books in German, some of Prien's Jagdfliegerverbände der deutschen Luftwaffe 1934-1945 now and then and the reason is that it takes me at least 4 times longer to read a German book than a book in English. And nowadays the time is the limiting factor to me. There is more than enough good and interesting books in English and I still buy books faster than I managed to read them even if my daughter does, and has already done for some years, her best to stop that (mal)practice. Every time she found out that I have bought a new book she gives me a through scolding.

Juha

[Jukka Juutinen]

Juha, I have read the Finnish translation of Meimberg´s book. It was decent, but I have decided not to buy any of these Koala translations as long as the translator Hannu Valtonen keeps interjecting his PC agenda on almost every page of the translations. HV has competely misunderstood his work.

[Ruy Horta]

Jukka,

You seem to have some big issues.

1. You demand translations
2. Available translations must pass your approval

Perhaps you should change hobbies?

[Jukka Juutinen]

Issues? Sure! Or do you think it is the duty of the translator to comment on an author´s views by constantly interjecting his own comments (a little bit like "author: the sun was shining beatifully" to which the translator adds "this shows how extreme the author is". These kind of comments are virtually everywhere in Hannu V´s translations. So, I do have issues. If I want to read Rudel´s memoirs, I read Rudel´s memoirs, not any Schröderian pamphlet.

[Six Nifty .50s]

I sense a stalemate here. I would say that both Ruy and Jukka have a case.

In a free market system any potential customer, like Jukka, has a right to make demands for specific products. If a potential supplier wants his money, they will try to provide what is demanded at a fair price. But the supplier does not have an obligation to do that, and may not have the funds or time necessary to translate research into foreign languages.

Obviously you cannot always trust the accuracy of translation, and the most practical way to avoid that problem is to learn the language used in the original texts and documents.

[anderbe]

My two - kaksi cent.. Every transelation loos a bit of the original.. Just look at the conversion from metric to imperial measures in most of the 'mainstream' books.. Bottom line - interested in german equipment / you got to understand german.. (Fininsh I have not tried yet - as you can see.. )