Lost in translation: Kaspersky's "German" website.

[pne]

So I'm using Kaspersky Anti-Virus since I'd heard fairly good things about it, especially the speed with which they issue updated signatures.

And I had bought two licences a year ago with our then-new PCs (for Stella and me), and updated them a couple of days ago.

And apparently that created two separate accounts in their system, which is a bit useless.

So I tried to see whether I could import the key from one account into the other, but it said that the number was already in use.

So I looked through the FAQs a little and started submitting a support request, but quickly lost the will to continue because of the quality of the translation there.

It was extremely tiring to read the broken German they had there on their Internet site. Is it really so hard to get hold of a decent Russian–German translator? Or so expensive to pay for one?

It looked as if it was made by a Russian who had learned some German—not a professional translator (let alone someone who's experienced with website localisations specifically, which I wasn't expecting). Heck, even a native German who had learned some Russian would have been better, since he would, at least, be translating into his native language.

I may phone Arvato Systems (who distribute Kaspersky in Germany), since they helped me out with my last problem, and see whether they can do anything about it. But I don't feel inclined to navigate their website again, at least not in German.

(And I wonder what goes on in the heads of people who order translations like that done.)

Comments

[edricson.livejournal.com]

This is probably part of a general Russian trend of saving money on all the useless things like good translating and, God forbid, editing (as an erstwhile translator and editor, I should know). No one is willing to pay any decent amount of money, especially to freelancers, so the money often goes to people unprincipled enough to take it without admitting they don't know the language. Not a week passes by in the Russian LJ without a widely-circulated link to another sad-but-hilarious mistranslation.