I can translate ALL cards into Portuguese and Spanish for free

That is a good idea. Specially because there are people who have prejudice against their own language. Thus, for some people, for reasons that I prefer not to discuss here, playing "Conditioning" is cooler than playing "Condicionamento."

kschaefer wrote:

Can card titles always use English? Perhaps with a translated subtitle (or vice versa). That would mean that the everyone from any language could know what card is being played.

Not all V:TES cards have English titles. The Design Team has even deliberately made cards with non-English titles and non-English-standard letters:

www.secretlibrary.info/index.php?lib=2189

I prefer to simply use the same card title for a card, untranslated, across all languages. That way everyone knows which card you're talking about and it's easier to look up a card in the various database tools.

Tangent: "Blood Turnip" doesn't even make sense in English. It'd be funny to see the looks on Brazilian players when they see "Nabo Sanguíneo".

BenPeal wrote:

Tangent: "Blood Turnip" doesn't even make sense in English. It'd be funny to see the looks on Brazilian players when they see "Nabo Sanguíneo".

BenPeal only a little correction. If translated to brazilian portuguese (slang), the correct would be "Naba Sangrenta".

Would not have the same meaning as the english, but most brazilian will evade a "Naba Sangrenta" at any cost.

Yeah, we get that "English sounds cooler" thing in Finland too.

Which is totally silly!

The golden idea in this thread is an app, which can translate cards.

We are toying with a Russian localisation and there is can of worms opening by it. It all may be solved, but it surely will take some time.

On the other hand an easy app or web service, where you can enter the name (or even better - scan) and see most recent text in native language, will solve most of the problems fast and cheaply.

Ankha wrote:

Personnally, it's a reason why I couldn't play MtG tournaments anymore (and I'm not talking about Pro Tour, just small tournaments): I don't know half of the cards, and if I can't read what they do, I'm screwed.

Sidetrack:
You have the right to ask the judge for up-to-date text of a card in a magic tourney. They will likely show it to you on their smartphone. I mean, there are full-art textless versions of cards also..

If you don't know half the cards, yes, it can be troublesome, I'm sure. But it is within your rights.

Lönkka wrote:

Yeah, we get that "English sounds cooler" thing in Finland too.

Which is totally silly!

I am guilty of that.. I just think that anything in Finnish is mundane and boring and reminds me of real life. But there is no problem as long as english cards are available.

Funny thing: Tero Aalto from our Helsinki group is an accredited translator, and has made it a principle of not having a single card with english text in his magic commander decks.

Another fun thing he has joked about: "Accredited translator" can be read "accredited bleed bouncer" in Finnish. A title he definitely lives up to, btw.