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Merely remaining relevant
Aug 12, 2016 14:13
7 yrs ago
1 viewer *
English term

The Duck is coming

English to French Other Other Joke, expression ?
This is the title of a notice addressed at the employees of a company to tell them that they should register quickly to a new healthcare reimbursment program.
Proposed translations (French)
4 +1 Nous volons à votre secours.
5 -3 le Canard arrive bientôt

Discussion

Yoann Peyron Aug 17, 2016:
I agree with Gallagy Une traduction littérale ne fait pas sens ici. J'aime bien "nous volons à votre secours", surtout si c'est pour souscrire à un contrat de santé/mutuelle. Ca fait sens.
Yvonne Gallagher Aug 14, 2016:
The fact is (as I confirmed Sheila's suspicion) that "The Duck" is a proper noun, a nickname referring to this gamer and some of his videos and the "in-joke" would only be understood by his followers so there is absolutely no way a literal translation can work here at all as it would make no sense. The expression makes no sense to English natives (who are not followers of this guy) so how on earth would it make sense as a literal translation in French? It's one of those things that must have a non-literal translation.
Your solution, using a reference to flying, works well as far as I'm concerned
Daryo Aug 13, 2016:
it's not impossible that someone made a silly pun linking this financial product visually represented by a bird with this stupid fade, but still "The Duck is coming" would simply be "the financial product the logo of which is a duck will soon be available to all employees" // Occam's razor not good any longer?
Yvonne Gallagher Aug 13, 2016:
The expression "The Duck is coming" apparently comes from the Swedish millionaire YouTube gamer PewDiePie suggesting to his followers they enter a contest posting pictures of themselves with the image "The Duck is coming" and the best images are chosen to be included in his book "This book loves you". It seems it started when he made jokes about being a duck on some of his vlogs. But what it has to do with signing up to healthcare reimbursement is anyone's guess. I have absolutely no interest in watching the videos to try and find out! However, it seems to be an "in" joke and trending virally and he certainly has lots of fans...

http://emptylighthouse.com/youtuber-pewdiepie-wants-fans-be-...
http://pewdiepie.wikia.com/wiki/Ducks

and more about the gamer here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PewDiePie
Sheila Wilson Aug 13, 2016:
Assurance complémentaire? Do you have references to back that up, Abel? After all, that type of insurance doesn't exist in the UK (but maybe that isn't where this company is located).
HERBET Abel Aug 13, 2016:
C'est plutôt en cas de danger que généralement on utilise cette expression, ici ???!!!!???? pour s'inscrire à une assurance complémentaire ????!!!!
Yvonne Gallagher Aug 13, 2016:
"Nous volons à votre secours" looks like a good solution
Florence Thierry Denison (asker) Aug 13, 2016:
Thank you all I found the solution :
Nous volons à votre secours. And the client validated it. I will never know the meaning of this sentence and i also found several references of this exact sentence on the Internet, without being able to have a precise idea of it.
patrickfor Aug 13, 2016:
This expression must have some sense. I found plenty of hashtags #theduckiscoming and other references to "the duck is coming" on tweeter so it has to be related to something... I was not able to find what exactly...a game? a charity? anything trendy ?

BTW @asker : What country is this company from?
Sheila Wilson Aug 13, 2016:
Mais c'est un nom propre, non ? I don't understand any of this either. OK, the company has a logo etc with a bird. But that doesn't explain why the programme is called Duck. Is it actually an acronym? And has the client actually told you to translate it literally as canard, oiseau or some such word? If not, surely all you can do to add a bit of "birdiness" in French is to use voler as the verb, or similar, but keep the name Duck as is.
katsy Aug 12, 2016:
La native que je suis ne comprend pas. Je n'y vois aucune référence/aucun sens particulier. Donald Duck? 😊 Acronym? Je n'arrive même pas a inventer une possible explicitation de l'acronyme hypothétique
HERBET Abel Aug 12, 2016:
C'est une expression interne à l'entreprise, c'est tout et l'extrait de Florence nous dit ce qu'elle signifie et je ne renie pas mon interprétation:
"...that they should register quickly"
patrickfor Aug 12, 2016:
@Abel je veux bien que ce soit intraduisible mais il faudrait déjà comprendre le sens en anglais... Moi ca ne me dit rien, mais un natif pourrait comprendre... et dans ce cas cela donnerait des idées pour une trad...
HERBET Abel Aug 12, 2016:
C'est intraduisible, sauf du genre " faut y aller" ou bien "quand faut y aller, faut y aller"
Image du canard qui soudainement plonge ??
Florence Thierry Denison (asker) Aug 12, 2016:
solution found, i think Nous volons à votre secours should be a good guest. What do you think ?
Chakib Roula Aug 12, 2016:
Are they referring to a change in healthcare policy?
Florence Thierry Denison (asker) Aug 12, 2016:
birdy logo The company uses bird to represent its activity
patrickfor Aug 12, 2016:
Is there some sort of joke with the program's name or its acronym?

Proposed translations

+1
20 hrs
Selected

Nous volons à votre secours.

Discussion

Peer comment(s):
disagree Daryo : I can't see the connection between this silly fad and your interpretation of it, nor any link to financial services// are employees supposed to add this suggested stupid picture of themselves when they register?
8 hrs
your usual tit-for-tat disagree! "fade" ???//Read discussion
agree Sheila Wilson : It's certainly a possible translation that can't do any harm. If the client can't give any reason for opting for anything else, then this fits in an insurance context and with a bird logo.
1 day 4 hrs
Thanks. Exactly. I'd say someone thought they were being cool but goofed up...
agree Yoann Peyron
3 days 19 hrs
Merci Yoann:-)
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
-3
11 hrs

le Canard arrive bientôt

le Canard est en chemin

le Canard est pour bientôt


birdy logo

The company uses bird to represent its activity


what other clue do you need?

for people who have this logo in front of them, the meaning will be obvious:

the healthcare plan marketed under the "Duck" logo will be soon made available, so start registering

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 11 hrs (2016-08-13 01:40:50 GMT)
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it's perfectly translatable, as long as you take into account the context in which it will be read by the intended audience

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Note added at 4 days (2016-08-17 03:17:15 GMT)
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reality check:

Asker is based in France
this is part of the internal communication for a company that was initially written in English (a reasonable assumption: in their branch/HQ? operating in an English speaking country) and needs to be translated into French, presumably for the employees of the same company in their branch in France;

this healthcare reimbursement program is represented by a visual logo - makes it easier to operate in many countries - as there is no need to rake your brain to translate a picture in n languages.

What can make sense for their French employees is the visual logo of proposed services, NOT some silly irrelevant fade from the other end of Europe they cannot be expected to know anything about.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 days (2016-08-17 03:22:31 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

just because it's the first result thrown out at you by Google doesn't mean automatically it's the relevant result.
Peer comment(s):
disagree Yvonne Gallagher : it's a proper noun so NOT to be translated//your usual charming self! And what on earth is "FADE"? were you trying to say "fad"? I suggest you read discussion before you answer.
7 hrs
"The company uses bird to represent its activity" --- noticed that bit??? Just ignore explanations given by Asker and keep banging on about some undefined general purpose assumed case? VERY interesting method, that I will leave to you ...
disagree Sheila Wilson : In that case we'd translate Shell, Amazon, Virgin ... // Most certainly not without the knowledge and consent of the client (or whoever it is that's commercialising it). A translator doesn't have the right to make decisions like that.
8 hrs
you are comparing apples and oranges - if the "trademark" of this financial product is VISUAL you would translate the associated words? or the French employees of this company must all learn English? What's the point of translating then?
disagree GILLES MEUNIER : seriously
1 day 8 hrs
oui, très sérieusement ...
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