A question for native german speakers

[oh_meow]

There's an Austrian company who sell novelty cameras and deadstock of various Soviet cameras. They have a tendency to overprice things or try to put normal items in a pricy gift set and then try to overmarket with breathless copywriting to shift them, but they do have some nice stuff too. I'm on their mailing list because I sometimes get bulk film

Comments

[a_cheshire_grin]

The wording and the choice of words are the same in German and English (I'm from Austria).
To me the German text actually sounds more silly than the English, but that's maybe because the English language/words have a nicer flow, in my opinion. For example:

Practical and sensual, good-looking, friendly, inexpensive, and a tad intellectual (but not too high-brow)
sounds better than
Praktisch und sinnlich, gut aussehend , freundlich und einen Hauch intellektuell (aber nicht zu viel, keine Angst)

The German translation just made me laugh. But the text is a bit too dramatic in both versions! ^.~

[oh_meow]

For example I wasn't sure if describing a camera as "sinnlich" in German was quite as silly as "sensual" is in English. It's common for magazines to describe something high tech as sexy, but sensual sounds more like how you would describe chocolate or silk underwear.

[a_cheshire_grin]

"Sinnlich" was one of the words that made me laugh. The others were "freundlich" and "intellektuell". Personally I would never describe a camera (or anything high tech) as "freundlich" ("user-friendly" would be a better choice) or "intellektuell", but maybe that's just me! ^.~
The whole sentence just sounds silly in both version, but much more in German.

[oh_meow]

Friendly does work in English here, becasue their products are low-tech film cameras, often reproductions of 50s and 60s models, made in bright colours like tuquoise blue.

[nanini]

Hahah I love this post. I work with one of their national representations of and I know exactly what you mean. I get to translate their texts and let's say major adaptations take place.

I hope I don't get fired :P

[oh_meow]

I've noticed that in their London shops the signs and posters just say straightforward things like "Why not try panoramic photograhy?"

[nanini]

Yeah, but those are not international campaigns. We also have our own messages and writing style. But especially for newsletters and press releases it tends to be the same text for all countries.

[anicca_anicca2]

I get to translate their texts

You have my sympathies.

[lied_ohne_worte]

I distrust writing with that many exclamation marks out of principle!!!1!!

Honestly, the German is very similar too the English... rather over the top.