© Alex Olney / Nintendo LifeLast week, it was announced that Between us, the extremely popular buddy killing game, has been localized official into Irish. For many people (mostly Irish), it’s an interesting thing; For others, the answer is mostly: “But why?”
It’s a legitimate question – Irish, or Gaeilge, is spoken only by about 40% of the population of Ireland, and is rarely spoken as a first language. It is what is known as a “minority language” – a language spoken by a minority of people in a country, such as Welsh (622 thousand speakers), Māori (157,000 speakers) and Basque (665 thousand speakers). speaker). And, as with many minority languages, its speakers are invested in protecting it, rather than letting it gradually erode by the majority language, in this case English.
But asking “why bother” is ignoring the fact that Irish is alive and well and that its speakers are interested in representing it for reasons other than being able to converse with each other. We spoke with Úna-Minh Kavanagh, who is in charge of the Irish translation project, to learn more about the reasoning behind it.
© Alex Olney / Nintendo LifeKavanagh is a streamer that plays games in both Irish and English, with all-Irish live streams every Sunday. Officially, she said, there are very few games with Irish translations, and many of them – like Anonymous Player’s Battlefield, If found…and Dicey Dungeons – created by Irish people with a special interest in their culture.
When Among Us went huge, Kavanagh knew she wanted to add it to the rota — “it’s only natural that I’ll play it, especially with my audience on the stream,” – but there’s still no major Irish translation yet awake . That’s not unusual, of course. Úna-Minh often plays games on her stream in English, with Irish subtitles – and she’s learned quite a few new words in the process.
“I noticed that there was an Irish mod,” Kavanagh said in a Discord chat, “but [I] want to improve it. “After attracting many other Irish translators – Brian C. Mac Giolla Mhuire, Cormac Cinnsealach and Mike Drinkwater – she tweeted a request at the Innersloth . account to find out if they are interested.
And they did. After five months of work, Irish was finally added Among Us in early July (along with traditional and simplified Chinese) in version 2021.6.30 – and it was a huge success, with Kavanagh’s tweet announcing the news garnered over 2,000 likes.
I heard stories about school students in Gaelscoileanna (Irish speaking school) using Among Us and putting their Irish in it and thought, this is not going to be great as a learning tool.
Making Irish translation official is a matter of accessibility, as well as a celebration of the language. “The reason we want it to be the official version rather than a mod,” she explained in a tweet, “is because installing a mod is not easy for the average player.”
This news is sure to be welcome to anyone who has to learn Irish in school, because like many minority languages, Irish is sustained by the magic of education and testing. Anyone who has ever had to learn a language in school knows that it can be a daunting process, but being able to play video games or watch movies in the target language is, at least, a fun way. to immerse yourself.
“I heard stories about school students in Gaelscoileanna (Irish speaking schools) using Among Us and putting their Irish in it and thinking, this is not going to be great as a learning tool,” says Kavanagh. ,” Kavanagh said. “For a minority language like Irish, it’s paramount to create fresh, modern and quality content and that’s what motivates me the most.”
The popularity of Among Us in Ireland may even influence how Irish is taught to young people. Like Kavanagh said in a tweet, “one of my greatest hopes is for the Irish media to see how IMPORTANT this is for the Irish language and for minority languages in general.” She even said that Among Us could be a great entry point to Ireland for most people, because “the language used in the game isn’t particularly difficult” and doesn’t include anything that’s required specific cultural knowledge.
Kavanagh herself attended a Gailscoil, and learned the language after learning it from her grandfather. “We always listened to the radio at home,” she says, and that immersion helped her score top marks in her exams, and eventually study Irish and Journalism at Dublin City University.
© Alex Olney / Nintendo LifeDespite that strong background, she doesn’t see herself diving into localization as a career – “it’s a bunch of work,” she says, “so rewarding!” Her goals in translating as a side gig are all equally ambitious: “I would love to translate something like Skyrim,” she said, “but that game was funny. “On the contrary, among us, it’s a lot easier – it’s mostly just UI elements and not a ton of lore and in-game books to read – but that doesn’t mean it does not have its own challenges.
“The hardest part is having a quick chat, because we don’t have yes and no in Irish,” says Kavanagh. “We use verbs – so if you say ‘did you drink that’, ‘you are there‘, you must answer with a verb: d’ól me (I drank it = yes) love (I don’t drink it = no). “In the end, they went with Dozen and Are not, is a type of “yes” and “no” used in things like voting. “It’s not entirely accurate,” she admits, but says most Irish speakers will understand it from the context.
But to answer that question in the first place: why bother?
For those who would ask that, Kavanagh said, “this achievement is not for them.”
© Alex Olney / Nintendo Life“Language localization is for those interested,” she said, “and that’s clear from the online reaction and hundreds of comments on Twitter and TikTok (more than 100,000 views and counting!) [that people] care, or at least care enough to say they’ll play it. “
A little personal stuff aside: I have a degree in Ancient Greek and Latin, two languages no one to speak. Many people, when researching my chosen subject, will have the same question: why? Why take a huge student loan to learn two languages you can’t speak? What jobs can you do? OK with two dead languages in your pocket? I admit, I wondered that, though the answer seems to be “game journalist or British Prime Minister“, but my real answer is: you don’t just have to learn languages to speak them.
Learning Latin and Ancient Greek is as exciting as learning History, but no one said “what’s the point of learning about things that happened?” (Or maybe they do, but that’s also silly.) It helps my writing, which means I can read stories in their original language, and most importantly: it makes me really good at quizzes.
Keeping the language alive is important to staying connected to our past, culture and identity.
Keeping the language alive is important to staying connected to our past, culture and identity. It also helps us to communicate better in general; there are things that can be expressed in one language, but cannot be expressed in another – like déjà vu, schadenfreude, smörgåsbordand tsunami. We even have some Irish loanwords, like hooligan, craic and whiskey, so without Irish we wouldn’t be able to express joy or good spirits.
Being able to talk to people around the world is important, but perpetuating the ways we used to talk can give us incredible insights into humanity that could otherwise be lost. time.
Much of that preservation work is done by a small, but proactive number. “To keep minority languages alive, people just need to stop complaining that nothing is being done and do it yourself,” says Kavanagh. “If they can’t, find someone more knowledgeable and encourage them.”
So if you’re wondering why they bothered to translate Among Us into Irish, the answer is right as Kavanagh says: if you think it’s pointless, it’s not for you. Kavanagh and the rest of the team wanted to see something, and so they made it, and the fact that Innersloth welcomes it as an official mod is a great step towards supporting multiple languages and cultures. more in the game.
“Ultimately,” said Kavanagh, “it’s a big win for a minority language.”
An update is now available that adds Irish to Among Us.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/07/feature_why_was_among_us_translated_into_irish
