The International Thread

[AppleJack]

This thread cracks me up! How awful can translations be done? And what were those people thinking when they did that?!

I have nothing funny to add since we don't translate titles that much here in The Netherlands. Subtitles are mostly pretty good translations of what's being said.

As a kid I watched a lot of German TV (we didn't have that much diversity and good shows back then) and as already has been said, they dub almost everything. I loved to watch dubbed movies with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. They are funnier then the original version. :lol:

 

[keich]

It's so cool that CSI's global! I'm from the Philippines, by the way.

And if they did a Tagalog dubbed CSI episode here, I'd die of laughter. LOL

 

[kayfeb]

It's so cool that CSI's global! I'm from the Philippines, by the way.

And if they did a Tagalog dubbed CSI episode here, I'd die of laughter. LOL

uy, kabayan!:lol: yeah. better not - It is hard to translate it (Paano yun, TAGLISH?)...remember when they dubbed 24 years ago? man...

 

[keich]

It's so cool that CSI's global! I'm from the Philippines, by the way.

And if they did a Tagalog dubbed CSI episode here, I'd die of laughter. LOL

uy, kabayan!:lol: yeah. better not - It is hard to translate it (Paano yun, TAGLISH?)...remember when they dubbed 24 years ago? man...

Kabayan! Yeah, I remember that. Couldn't stand 30 seconds of it. :lol:

 

[CSIsMANIAC]

Evening everyone! It's 803pm here in Singapore. Yeah I live on this little dot on the map. Hahaha! Asia's okay. As far as anyone knows, it's pretty safe except for that tsunami disaster.

We get all three CSI here pretty steadily. It's an advantage that English is our first language. Or else it would have been Malay and many people would suffer.

Anyway, good to meet all you international friends of mine from other continents! Some of you from the other side of the globe. It's pretty exciting isn't it? Knowing that we're all communicating like this.

 

[kayfeb]

hi!...yeah, we're all cool right here. great to meet yah

 

[Fighter]

Hello, I guess I will be the second Polish in that thread I live in not-so-small town called Kielce (location given for Deirdre, the only person here that may have heard about it :lol
I didn’t have enough time to read that discussion about dubbing and subtitles but I’d definitely love to have subtitles in Polish TV. You can get used to lector (I prefer that to all movies being dubbed, at least you can still hear the actors) but it may be annoying sometimes. Not to mention that, when they make some stupid mistakes in translation (very often), it would be better if the dialogues were written, maybe you wouldn’t notice but when lector says something…. :scream: btw, I recently heard of one of the most hilarious translations ever – the original was like ‘put the gun to your temple’, so it seems pretty easy but unfortunately for poor translator in English ‘temple’ has two meanings – a part of your head (and it’s ‘skroń’ in Polish) and a place for worship (‘świątynia’). As you can see, those words are by no means the same in Polish so the translator must have been drunk, for he chose the second option - ‘przyłóż pistolet do swojej świątyni’ (put the gun to your holy place, I think it may be understood that way :guffaw: )

 

[Brinchen]

As a kid I watched a lot of German TV (we didn't have that much diversity and good shows back then) and as already has been said, they dub almost everything. I loved to watch dubbed movies with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. They are funnier then the original version. :lol:

:lol: I don't even know if there's anything we don't dub in one way or another. The best are the documentations when you can hear the original voice and then the translator. :lol: I'm so used to never watch the originals, I was totally surprised when I watched my first CSI:NY episode. It was so different. Sometimes they even change the meaning of the sentences.

As you can see, those words are by no means the same in Polish so the translator must have been drunk, for he chose the second option - ‘przyłóż pistolet do swojej świątyni’ (put the gun to your holy place, I think it may be understood that way :guffaw: )

It's funny, isn't it? :lol: I know, translating and dubbing must be difficult, but sometimes it just makes no sense what they say.

 

[Deirdre]

Hello, I guess I will be the second Polish in that thread I live in not-so-small town called Kielce (location given for Deirdre, the only person here that may have heard about it :lol

Witaj Fighter! Wow, mogę tutaj coś powiedzieć po polsku!:lol: Może to pierwszy raz w historii forum? Miło Cię poznać Aha, i wiem gdzie są Kielce, ale mam kawał drogi ze Szczecina:lol:

I didn’t have enough time to read that discussion about dubbing and subtitles but I’d definitely love to have subtitles in Polish TV. You can get used to lector (I prefer that to all movies being dubbed, at least you can still hear the actors) but it may be annoying sometimes. Not to mention that, when they make some stupid mistakes in translation (very often), it would be better if the dialogues were written, maybe you wouldn’t notice but when lector says something…. :scream: btw, I recently heard of one of the most hilarious translations ever – the original was like ‘put the gun to your temple’, so it seems pretty easy but unfortunately for poor translator in English ‘temple’ has two meanings – a part of your head (and it’s ‘skroń’ in Polish) and a place for worship (‘świątynia’). As you can see, those words are by no means the same in Polish so the translator must have been drunk, for he chose the second option - ‘przyłóż pistolet do swojej świątyni’ (put the gun to your holy place, I think it may be understood that way :guffaw: )

Nice!:guffaw::guffaw::guffaw:"przyłóż pistolet do mojej świątyni":guffaw::guffaw::guffaw:

I have some funny story with subtitles too. One day I was zapping and hitted some romantic comedy. Everything would be ok, but... very small detail. When lector was saying about love etc. the subtitels were like "I'll kill you", "I'll fasten your head with nails". I was in small shock Then I checked telecast. On second channel was horror:lol: Probably there were texts like "I love you", "I need you":lol: (of course both channels were related).

 

[Fighter]

Yeah, we may speak Polish and the rest of people will be like::wtf: is going on? :lol:

Definitely, it’s hard to find more distant places in Poland than ours

One day I was zapping and hitted some romantic comedy. Everything would be ok, but... very small detail. When lector was saying about love etc. the subtitels were like "I'll kill you", "I'll fasten your head with nails"

It’s sooo romantic :guffaw: a very original love declaration :guffaw:

 

[Deirdre]

Yeah, we may speak Polish and the rest of people will be like::wtf: is going on? :lol:

Definitely, it’s hard to find more distant places in Poland than ours

Don't worry, just check few pages back, you'll find Russian:lol: (hmm... I'm sure it was Russian or other language with Cyrillic alphabet)
Więc co sobie będziemy żałować? W końcu ma być międzynarodowo:guffaw:

I have a question, very simple Are you a member of Polish CSI forum? (It's very easy to find me there:lol - *omg*, I'm talking with my native in English...:guffaw:

 

[Fighter]

Hmmm… till now, I didn’t even know there’s such a forum. When I was looking for some CSI news, Talk CSI popped up first and I’ve remained faithful to it.. Will probably join that Polish board soon, now I hardly have time for that one (and a few books about Tennyson to read :/ )

I finally managed to finish reading that thread (obviously, only those 14 pages, not previous 1000 posts :lol and I’d like to add a few comments, I know I’m about a month late to the discussion but still…

Does ‘Die Hard’ have only the literal meaning? ‘Cause I think I heard it also means a tough guy, and it was the meaning of that title but I’m not sure. And, I can’t really agree with Deirdre that ‘Glass Trap’ is the better translation It definitely worked with the first movie, that building was sure made of glass but the sequels? :lol: For me, it sounds ridiculous but obviously they cannot change the title now, no one would recognize it.
And about the favourite of the thread, infamous ‘Rotating Sex’ , I think that at least some of the channels came back to the English title, I saw ‘Dirty Dancing’ in a TV guide a while ago. Even if they started to think sensible, that translation will sure live long :guffaw:
And just my final comment on translating, not sure about other countries but in Poland we have an incurable habit of adding some more words to the titles, especially if they are short (I don’t know, maybe they get paid for the letters? :lol
The great example (except for ‘CSI:NY’ = ‘Kryminalne Zagadki Nowego Jorku’, already mentioned by Deirdre) is 'Alien'. It was translated into Polish as 'Obcy. Ósmy pasażer Nostromo' ('Alien. The eight passenger of Nostromo'). Geez, we wouldn’t understand if the title was only one word? With 'Aliens' we have 'Obcy. Decydujące starcie' (I think it may be translated as 'Alien. A decisive/final encounter'). It turned out not so final as there was 'Alien3' and thankfully, the translators run out of inspiration and just went for 'Obcy 3'. :lol:

 

[Deirdre]

Hmmm… till now, I didn’t even know there’s such a forum. When I was looking for some CSI news, Talk CSI popped up first and I’ve remained faithful to it.. Will probably join that Polish board soon, now I hardly have time for that one (and a few books about Tennyson to read :/ )

Yep, you can find it. It's somewhere... You still don't have 50 posts and I can't send you link by PM. But nah, it's not so fun there like here.

I hope you'll enjoy your stay!:thumbsup:

I finally managed to finish reading that thread (obviously, only those 14 pages, not previous 1000 posts :lol and I’d like to add a few comments, I know I’m about a month late to the discussion but still…

Does ‘Die Hard’ have only the literal meaning? ‘Cause I think I heard it also means a tough guy, and it was the meaning of that title but I’m not sure. And, I can’t really agree with Deirdre that ‘Glass Trap’ is the better translation It definitely worked with the first movie, that building was sure made of glass but the sequels? :lol: For me, it sounds ridiculous but obviously they cannot change the title now, no one would recognize it.
And about the favourite of the thread, infamous ‘Rotating Sex’ , I think that at least some of the channels came back to the English title, I saw ‘Dirty Dancing’ in a TV guide a while ago. Even if they started to think sensible, that translation will sure live long :guffaw:
And just my final comment on translating, not sure about other countries but in Poland we have an incurable habit of adding some more words to the titles, especially if they are short (I don’t know, maybe they get paid for the letters? :lol
The great example (except for ‘CSI:NY’ = ‘Kryminalne Zagadki Nowego Jorku’, already mentioned by Deirdre) is 'Alien'. It was translated into Polish as 'Obcy. Ósmy pasażer Nostromo' ('Alien. The eight passenger of Nostromo'). Geez, we wouldn’t understand if the title was only one word? With 'Aliens' we have 'Obcy. Decydujące starcie' (I think it may be translated as 'Alien. A decisive/final encounter'). It turned out not so final as there was 'Alien3' and thankfully, the translators run out of inspiration and just went for 'Obcy 3'. :lol:

Yeah, I noticed somewhere Dirty Dancing - but hey, it looks funnier when is written "Dirty Dancing - Rotating Sex" :lol: With "Glass Trap" - it just sounds nice and true that it is suitable only for the first movie. Nah, I don't remember all "Glass Traps":lol:

Oh, and our habit with adding words. I've never thought about "Alien". Damn, it sounds really stupid when you're reading "Alien - The Eight Passenger Of Nostromo". We're really not so stupid and understand that Alien is alien. And nobody want him as a passenger:guffaw:

 

[Fighter]

Oh, and our habit with adding words. I've never thought about "Alien". Damn, it sounds really stupid when you're reading "Alien - The Eight Passenger Of Nostromo". We're really not so stupid and understand that Alien is alien. And nobody want him as a passenger

I don’t know, maybe they think ‘Alien’ alone wouldn’t look interesting and scary enough :lol:

Btw, have any of you ever come across a stupid example of localisation in movies/TV shows?

The most ridiculous one I’ve seen was in an episode of ‘Friends’. They were talking about some TV series that was very popular in their childhood (sorry, don’t remember its name, probably wasn’t known outside the US) and which of the characters they wanted to be then. Now, imagine that: we hear original dialogues in Polish TV, obviously a bit muffled by the lector but still you know that the characters use American English and have foreign names. And suddenly you hear the title of the well-known Polish series ‘Czterej Pancerni i Pies’ ( ‘Four tankmen and a dog’, an old black-and-white about adventures of a Polish tank crew and their dog during WWII). It was really a cult series in Poland, but I’m pretty sure completely unknown in the USA and yet you hear Monica, Ross, Rachel and the rest shouting they wanted to be ‘Marusia’, 'Janek’ (names from that series, very Polish ones :lol. I know that if the original English title was given, we probably wouldn’t recognize it but, dear translators, we’ re also not so stupid to believe that a bunch of Americans would be fascinated with a show about Polish-Soviet Union friendship :guffaw:
Sorry I keep coming back to that translation issue but it’s been bugging me a lot and finally found a place where people show understanding

I hope that some more people will join that thread again, I’m running out of ideas for discussion and I’m not actually sure if we can have only two-people chat here and it’s starting to look like this :lol:

 

[Deirdre]

Btw, have any of you ever come across a stupid example of localisation in movies/TV shows?

The most ridiculous one I’ve seen was in an episode of ‘Friends’. They were talking about some TV series that was very popular in their childhood (sorry, don’t remember its name, probably wasn’t known outside the US) and which of the characters they wanted to be then. Now, imagine that: we hear original dialogues in Polish TV, obviously a bit muffled by the lector but still you know that the characters use American English and have foreign names. And suddenly you hear the title of the well-known Polish series ‘Czterej Pancerni i Pies’ ( ‘Four tankmen and a dog’, an old black-and-white about adventures of a Polish tank crew and their dog during WWII). It was really a cult series in Poland, but I’m pretty sure completely unknown in the USA and yet you hear Monica, Ross, Rachel and the rest shouting they wanted to be ‘Marusia’, 'Janek’ (names from that series, very Polish ones :lol. I know that if the original English title was given, we probably wouldn’t recognize it but, dear translators, we’ re also not so stupid to believe that a bunch of Americans would be fascinated with a show about Polish-Soviet Union friendship :guffaw:
Sorry I keep coming back to that translation issue but it’s been bugging me a lot and finally found a place where people show understanding

:guffaw::guffaw::guffaw: I'm sure that Joey always wanted to be Janek (young and brave main character):guffaw::guffaw::guffaw:

I hope that some more people will join that thread again, I’m running out of ideas for discussion and I’m not actually sure if we can have only two-people chat here and it’s starting to look like this :lol:

Now we can even start to talk in Polish here:lol: Co Ty na to?:lol:

Ok, where's nattybatty? Nattybatty! I think you must upload the international list here