Let's all join the National Guard!!!

[Aemilius Paulus]

My friend, you have to polish up on your fluent Ukrainian. The translation is spot on, they did a great job. The tune is a rap song, "Black BMW" which was released in 2005 and went multi-platinum in the former Russian states. It's about the rapper showing off his Black BMW to some girls - which is what they're mocking in this commercial. Ukraine has a 2 year conscription at age 18 where recruits go through basic and specialist training. After 2 years most recruits are discharged as sergeants, but some choose to sign a voluntary contract to stay on and make the military their career. This commercials tries to convince enlistees to do the latter.

O chim ti ghovorish? Ya rozmovliau po ukrainiski bez niyakih problem. Moya ghramatika mozhi bute ne zovsim doskonala, ale ya ymiu perevoditi ne girshe byd'-yakogho hohla

Shchozh, zvidki ti, ah? Ya prozhivav v Kyiv ta v Chernivtsah, v Ukraini. A ti yak?

'Ny!?!' does not qualify as 'WTF'. Not in this reality. Then, moving on, 'duzhe hochetsya vodichki napitis' is literally translated as 'I really wanna get a drink of water until I am sated', whereas the 'wouldn't mind a sip of water' is a rather liberal translation - a middle ground could have been reached. Furthermore, the slutty-looking blond with a pseudo-beret says 'Military/Army [contract], [pause] for now' and not 'Army stupid lol'. No 'asshole' in the end either, just the grandma reference as already translated. Additionally, Overlooking the 'hero's' instead of he proper plural 'heroes', 'zbroini sili' means 'armed forces', and not simply the 'Army'.

Overall, nitpicking aside, the translation was made vulgar, which the original was not. As the Israeli and Australian tourism ads showed, even certain minor oaths (more in the Aussie case) stir quite some controversy, something that is not true in the case of the Ukrainian ad.

Anyhow, personally, I like this version better.

Ukraine has a 2 year conscription at age 18 where recruits go through basic and specialist training. After 2 years most recruits are discharged as sergeants, but some choose to sign a voluntary contract to stay on and make the military their career. This commercials tries to convince enlistees to do the latter.

Ahh, I see. So they have not passed the bill yet. Too bad, Russia already did, and the same largely goes for most other CIS nations. I believe, though, the bill was promised to be implemented in 2010. But I suppose there are more important things to do. At the same time, it is likely that abandoning the mass conscription could be a budget-tightening measure.