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Comment by simias | Hacker News Reader

I'm actually surprised by the french translation too. THINK sounds like an injunction, PENSONS sounds a bit mild and passive in comparison. I think you can say to somebody in english "Come on, think!" when you want them to understand or realize something but I'd never say "Allez, pense!" in french for this.

"Penser" in french has often (but not always) more to do with remembering things than actually gaining a deeper understanding. "Pense à acheter du lait" would be "Don't forget to buy some milk".

I think "RÉFLÉCHISSONS" might be a bit closer to what the english THINK evokes for me. But then again I'm not a native english speaker so maybe I read a little too much into this.

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Well, hmm, I wouldn't really say that. You can put it as, "Pensons aux victimes de la guerre." => "Let's think about the victims of war".

"Think of the children!" => "Pensez aux enfants!"

I don't know chinese, but if 认为 translates to "consider", it could work in that context. "Consider the children."; "Consider the victims of war".

Maybe it's hard to associate it with that meaning because of subconscious association with Apple's "Think different", which is definitely closer to "Imagine".

The way I think of it is "keep this in your mind". Though, I'm native English, with 9 years of classes over 20 years ago living in Western Canada. So take that with a gran of salt.

FWIW, 认为 translates to "consider" for only some values of "consider." An excessively literal character by character rendering of 认为 would be "recognize (sth.) as" (but without necessarily the excessively formal connotations of "recognition"). It'd be a suitable translation for "consider" in a sentence such as "I consider children to be brats." However, an exhortation such as "Consider the children!" would not be translated using 认为.

When translating slogan (or movie, book titles) it's not only the meaning we're trying to convey but also rhythm, intonation, mood, etc. In this framework "pensons" is way better than "réfléchissons" that is way too long especially when put near "think" and "認為". Also it conveys a collective meaning, and then you can play on brand image by displaying a different facet in each different language, and people who can read more than one will get all those meaning.

A French colleague once remarked to me that the imperative mode is favored in Germanic languages (in contrast to French).

fwiw tag lines in english are often chosen specifically for their ambiguity. i.e. for multiple meanings.

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