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Ever find yourself reading a subtitle and listening to the words but you know they don’t match? I know there are many ways to say something or meanings behind what was said, not to mention a little side stepping for the sake of the plot but this was no where close to matching. I think the real shocking part wasn’t that they didn’t line up but rather that I knew that’s not what was said. It kinda made me wonder what else I’m really missing in the story and if other people have found themselves in this situation.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very new to this all but it was a shock when the light flicked on and I went “that is not what she said, not even close”. Any one else experience something similar?
So many words have multiple meanings it’s really easy to disagree with a translation, especially if you don’t know every possible meaning for a word, some are more context based and easier to tell the difference between. It’s a bit weird, you can understand what is meant, but the translating part is somewhat open to interpretation.
I can understand what you mean there. I was watching a movie and with one of the lines the first thing that popped into my mind wasn’t what was written but thankfully it was along the same lines. I don’t know enough to say that they were wrong there but some of the others I’ve run into were totally off.
To put this example into context the two were talking about why someone did something. The person new to the scene asked the other person why and they said “それが。。。 わからないんです”. The person new to the scene replied “わからない” which they translated to “that’s obvious” when it should be “you don’t know?”. The pitch and everything about the line says it is a question, not a statement.
Another show I ran across the error by accident she I was changing the audio to Japanese and English audio with English subs came up for some reason. Anyway, they were complaining about the one girl being too ‘Tomboy’ and she came back by grabbing his arm and saying ‘is this more feminine?’ (from what I can gather the sub seems to be right, but again I’m very new still) but the English comes up as “I bet you’ll be dreaming about this tonight”. That sure seems way off to me.
I seem to be running into this more and more but I wrote some off to the fact I’m still learning and maybe there is another meaning that I don’t know yet. Although, this kind of thing did get me thinking that maybe there is a bit of ‘play’ here with the story line when they translate it. I know I was in a bit of shock when I realized it wasn’t right. It made me wonder if anyone else has seen this as well.
I’ve noticed that a few times myself, actually. More than just inflection changes and modifications for a more “natural” conversation flow, I’ve occasionally spotted times when the subtitles are just flat out wrong. Can’t think of any examples off the top of my head, though.
That said, I think listening is probably still my weakest area…
Dubbing changes, incidentally, are more often for reasons of matching lip-flaps rather than conversation flow.
“わからない” which they translated to “that’s obvious” when it should be “you don’t know?”. The pitch and everything about the line says it is a question, not a statement.
Just my 2 cents here, but the translation sounds correct to me… わからない? in this sense is rhetorical, so it’s the same as saying “that’s obvious.”
I’ve also seen the opposite scenario, where idioms were translated way too literally into english and flat out ruined the flow of the story.
Maybe it’s because it isn’t something I’d say in English, and that the next line was an elaboration of why they didn’t know, that I wouldn’t have thought it to be correct or a rhetorical statement. I’m only taking a small part out of the scene and not the whole conversation so maybe there being another line after wasn’t fair to post with it missing… or I could just have quite a way to go yet, lol.
I wonder if there are also cultural differences as well as the whole scene that are taken into account when translating. I mean, maybe they try to get the same story development at the end of the scene even if it wasn’t what was said. I dunno, just seems wrong though.
@Joel I never thought of that but it makes sense. Too bad it kinda takes away from the story some times.
I’ve also had “that’s not what they said” moments, except that they have been from translated visual novels. (Mind you, I’m talking about ones officially licensed for the English speaking world, not the sometimes iffy fan translated ones.) Strangely, both cases that stand out in my mind immediately have to do with food.
Audio: ええと、ええと、あの、たこ焼きサンドと、もんじゃ焼きサンドと、それとお好み焼きサンド。。。
Text: Err, so, that’s one salmon, one beef and….. one ham sandwich?As you can see, all the food items have been grossly mistranslated. However, I can understand why. They wanted the English speaking audience to be able to relate to the story and not get sidetracked by Japanese food they may not have heard of before. The next example, however, makes no sense at all.
Audio: 海老フライだろう。
Text: It’s fried eel.The text might not be exactly right, but it was something along those lines. They turned fried shrimp/prawns in to something less familiar. In my book, that’s plain and simple a mistake.
On the subject of mistranslated foods, Pokemon was rather notorious for turning onigiri into… donuts, if memory serves.
Another one that bugs me is badly transliterated proper nouns…
Edit: Just had a closer read of your post, Yuuma, and… okonomiyaki sandwich? Ew?
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