Poll: The attention I pay to subtitles as a language professional sometimes ruins my viewing pleasure. Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "The attention I pay to subtitles as a language professional sometimes ruins my viewing pleasure.".
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It doesn’t ruin my viewing pleasure because I avoid looking at subtitles if I know the language, I only look when I can’t understand what is being said and then I don't know if a mistake has been made. To be fair to subtitlers not all subtitles are poorly translated, some are even excellent considering the limits of time and space they have.
| | | | Thayenga 
Germany
Local time: 06:52
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Since I sometimes watch a movie in one language and choose a subtitle in a completely different language, some DVD's offer up to 8 different languages, this could happen, especially when I choose a language that I don't know much about. All for the fun of it.
Other than this, I don't turn the subtitle feature on.
| | | | | I totally agree | Nov 24, 2019 |
I rely on subtitles, even English to English, because my neighborhood is quite noisy with the sounds of cars, motorcycles and whatnot. Also, as a subtitler myself, I often pay attention to the subtitles and do an unconscious QA on them, or even try to find ideas that can help me.
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Rodrigo Alves
Brazil
Local time: 02:52
Catalan to Portuguese
+ ...
It depends on the language and what you are watching.
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I think I ignore subtitles when I don´t need them, but I am surprised how often I notice them all the same when watching English translated into Danish. Then I am usually full of admiration for neat solutions to difficult translation problems. Some years ago it was a national sport to find funny mistranslations, but I think there are far fewer of them now. I have always spotted the GOOD solutions, right from the days when I was using the subtitles to help me learn Danish. The spoken language is... See more I think I ignore subtitles when I don´t need them, but I am surprised how often I notice them all the same when watching English translated into Danish. Then I am usually full of admiration for neat solutions to difficult translation problems. Some years ago it was a national sport to find funny mistranslations, but I think there are far fewer of them now. I have always spotted the GOOD solutions, right from the days when I was using the subtitles to help me learn Danish. The spoken language is very difficult for beginners!
I often watch television and films in other languages, and find subtitles an enormous help. I can read Swedish and Norwegian, but often have difficulty with the spoken language. The same goes for German and French where dialects are involved. Whenever possible I use subtitles for the hearing impaired, so I can read the dialogue in the original language as it is spoken.
Now I am learning Italian, and the sottotitoli are an enormous help! ▲ Collapse
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On the contrary, it's a fun exercise. When I read subtitles, I often try to analyse how it was translated, why this way and not another, what I would have done, etc...
Sometimes it's clever, sometimes it's desastrous but either way, it brings a bit of interactivity to the subtitles.
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I'm hearing-impaired, so I can't rely on sound. But I don't analyze the subtitles!
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Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 02:52
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I do that naturally as a translator, and I usually criticize the (very common) mistakes. But it's not enough to ruin my viewing pleasure. It might be a bit better if I didn't do that, but "ruining" is too strong.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:52
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Mario Freitas wrote:
I do that naturally as a translator, and I usually criticize the (very common) mistakes. But it's not enough to ruin my viewing pleasure. It might be a bit better if I didn't do that, but "ruining" is too strong.
Even worse; when watching an overdubbed film (overdubbing is still alive in Italy) I watch the actors' lips trying to make out what they were saying in the original language.
| | | | Daniel Vega
Argentina
Local time: 02:52
English to Spanish
+ ...
| On the contrary... | Dec 17, 2019 |
Ironically, I avoid reading the subtitles because subtitling is one of my main specialties, and I use that as a "training" for captioning audio-only sources... However, I'd like to point out that, at least in my pair, to analyze a subtitler's job you should have in mind: 1- timing and character-length differences between the source and target words (Spanish words are tipically longer in characters than English words, but you have the same restrictions of characters per seconds and per lines and ... See more Ironically, I avoid reading the subtitles because subtitling is one of my main specialties, and I use that as a "training" for captioning audio-only sources... However, I'd like to point out that, at least in my pair, to analyze a subtitler's job you should have in mind: 1- timing and character-length differences between the source and target words (Spanish words are tipically longer in characters than English words, but you have the same restrictions of characters per seconds and per lines and you have to adapt a lot).
2- Grammar shouldn't always be "perfect": you wouldn't expect to hear i.e. two "gangsta boyz" in a movie, and read them as if they were two members of the Royal Spanish Academy (That's a thing that I sometimes discuss with my job fellows).
3- Regional "neutrality". Curses, profanities and slang. Movies and TV shows are translated to 2 variants of Spanish: European (that is, for Spain only) and Latin American, which involves 18 countries, each with its own particular usages and variants. You have to be as "neutral" as you can, and perhaps you miss a lot of subtexts and nuances from the source dialogue, because sometimes the translation that would "ring the perfect chimes", say, for an Argentinian, wouldn't make sense for a Mexican, and viceversa. So sometimes you end up delivering a hybrid that nobody really speaks. That's particularly noticeable in the case of rude language or street slang. At least, all of the above is what I say to non-translator friends who speak English and complain about the "stiffness" of some subtitles
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| | | | | There are many things... | Dec 17, 2019 |
... that ruin my viewing pleasure when it comes to films, but subtitles ain't one of them (unless they're wrong, but that's another story).
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