ive recently realized that finnish subtitles are ruinging some of the movies. im not sure why but the translators really cant always keep the subject same and you miss some fun parts and might not get the movie at some parts.
is this same thing appeard in other lanuanges? i find it really annoying and stupid. on some cartoons and so i get that why they need to chance it abit(To get the words fit into mouth movements) but its just plain stupidness to do the same thing on subtitles

Yes

Its because some languages don't have the same abbreviations and sayings as the English do. Thus if they tried to get the same meaning into your language word by word it wouldn't make any sense what so ever.

If you know what I mean

Quote from DevilDare :

Yes

Its because some languages don't have the same abbreviations and sayings as the English do. Thus if they tried to get the same meaning into your language word by word it wouldn't make any sense what so ever.

If you know what I mean

thats not what i meant, especyally finland cant be word to word. but you can still keep the meaning of the sentence, even if they arent word to word

Not really. Because as I was saying, some countries don't have the same sayings, or the humor in general.

Lets take the speech ‘If I'm not back in five minutes... wait longer!’
(Ace Ventura: Pet Detective)

Translate into Lithuanian "Jeigu negrysiu uz 5minuciu.... lauk ilgiau"

It completely changes the sentence, taking it from a humor kind of side into a plain statement.

Thus they have to change the words, and sometimes the meaning of the sentence to make it sound at least a bit funny.

Yeah I know its a crap example.....

Quote from DevilDare :

Not really. Because as I was saying, some countries don't have the same sayings, or the humor in general.

Lets take the speech ‘If I'm not back in five minutes... wait longer!’
(Ace Ventura: Pet Detective)

Translate into Lithuanian "Jeigu negrysiu uz 5minuciu.... lauk ilgiau"

It completely changes the sentence, taking it from a humor kind of side into a plain statement.

Thus they have to change the words, and sometimes the meaning of the sentence to make it sound at least a bit funny.

Yeah I know its a crap example.....

than translate that back to enlgish, what would it be then?

Well it would be the same as Enlgish. But the point I was making is that it doesn't sound funny at all in Lithuanian.....
(Nor does it in English to be honest; hence why I said its a bad example)

Quote from DevilDare :

Well it would be the same as Enlgish. But the point I was making is that it doesn't sound funny at all in Lithuanian.....
(Nor does it in English to be honest; hence why I said its a bad example)

yeh i get the point, doesnt sound that good on english either. maybe it is that this book-lanunage in finland sounds very stupid and that way the subtitles suck

That's why I would love for the whole world to adapt to English and make it the main language

Quote from DevilDare :

That's why I would love for the whole world to adapt to English and make it the main language

never, i think finland should overpower the world. finnish is such a great and so complicated lanuange:lovies3d:

Everytime I'm going to the cinema and there are no subtitled movies I go into rage mode, like "WTF! I'm not going to hear dumb people dubbing the movie! nononono!!! >:C!"

It's awful to watch a movie that's dubbed to spanish, the voices suck and the jokes are meh, I only watch movies with subtitles because that way I get to hear what the people is saying and laugh at the subtitles makers ^^

Quote from Blas89 :

Everytime I'm going to the cinema and there are no subtitled movies I go into rage mode, like "WTF! I'm not going to hear dumb people dubbing the movie! nononono!!! >:C!"

It's awful to watch a movie that's dubbed to spanish, the voices suck and the jokes are meh, I only watch movies with subtitles because that way I get to hear what the people is saying and laugh at the subtitles makers ^^

well, i go rage pechause we see 2 subtitles at the same time and that blocks some of the screen(swedish+finnish)

nearly 95% of all movies in cinema are dubbed (so, no subtitles). But as pointed out usually the localized version kills most of original intention / subtle jokes and sayings.

if possible go and watch the movie as OV (original version) and you end up with not so full cinemas and more fun. You also learn the language better and for most of the english movies you can say it's quite easy to understand the stuff that is going on (unless it's some heavy accent movie like trainspotting)

I also hate dubbed movies, subtitles ftw(although personally i prefer listening to english ). We could all speak the same language, it would be so much easier . English ftw . Here in Poland subtitles in cinemas are usually simplified a little, really long sentences in English are being made a little "simpler" in Polish(so people can read it all?), that's why some of those fan-made subtitles rock . And yeah.. there are no dubbed movies in Poland, except films for younger audience .

The thing about subtitles is that a lot of the time the people writing the subtitles didn't really watch the movie or series so don't really know what's going on. As a result they're translating everything literally, and sometimes you get a completely different meaning because of that.

And yeah, obviously, a lot of subtle jokes that only work in English (or any other language for that matter) will either be lost in translation, or the translators will turn it around a bit so that the joke still works more or less but you'll have a slightly different meaning.

Last week I was watching an episode of Top Gear - an old season from a couple of years ago - and they had translated "heel and toe-ing" as double clutching As a simracer obviously I knew what Jeremy Clarkson meant, but people who don't have a clue about that kind of stuff are taking the subtitles as truth and are thus misinformed.

Thankfully I live in a country where nothing gets dubbed, and everything is subtitled, so I can enjoy all movies and series in their original language.

I hate subtitles for simply one reason: either you read or watch the movie.

Quote from batteryy :

ive recently realized that finnish subtitles are ruinging some of the movies. im not sure why but the translators really cant always keep the subject same and you miss some fun parts and might not get the movie at some parts.
is this same thing appeard in other lanuanges? i find it really annoying and stupid. on some cartoons and so i get that why they need to chance it abit(To get the words fit into mouth movements) but its just plain stupidness to do the same thing on subtitles

It goes both ways.

There was a hilarious/horrible thing with the subtitle translations (Swedish->English) for Let the Right One In, for the US DVD release. The theatrical subtitles were perfect, and then they were re-done for the DVD release and totally messed it all up. Due to massive complaints from buyers, the distribution company had to replace them with the theatrical subtitles and re-release the DVDs.

With subtitles you tend to find you are either reading and not watching the movie, or watching the movie but not understanding the movie being English this tends not to be a problem for me, as I was born as an inbred(brit), BUT I do like to watch foreign films, but I've watched Swedish and Norwegian films, and the English subtitles are dire, and are nowhere near the real story line (as I understand Norwegian and Swedish)

Quote from three_jump :

I hate subtitles for simply one reason: either you read or watch the movie.

Not really true. After watching several subtitled films you get pretty good at the quick glance reading technique. You don't really miss anything.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Not really true. After watching several subtitled films you get pretty good at the quick glance reading technique. You don't really miss anything.

Agreed.

Or I don't, anyway. Shouldn't speak for everyone.

Quote from batteryy :

ive recently realized that finnish subtitles are ruinging some of the movies. im not sure why but the translators really cant always keep the subject same and you miss some fun parts and might not get the movie at some parts.
is this same thing appeard in other lanuanges? i find it really annoying and stupid. on some cartoons and so i get that why they need to chance it abit(To get the words fit into mouth movements) but its just plain stupidness to do the same thing on subtitles

Quote from batteryy :

thats not what i meant, especyally finland cant be word to word. but you can still keep the meaning of the sentence, even if they arent word to word

Quote from batteryy :

than translate that back to enlgish, what would it be then?

Quote from batteryy :

yeh i get the point, doesnt sound that good on english either. maybe it is that this book-lanunage in finland sounds very stupid and that way the subtitles suck

Quote from batteryy :

never, i think finland should overpower the world. finnish is such a great and so complicated lanuange:lovies3d:

Quote from batteryy :

well, i go rage pechause we see 2 subtitles at the same time and that blocks some of the screen(swedish+finnish)

Never mind grammar, proper punctuation and capital letters. And you're irritated of translators making mistakes...


You should read Kaarina Suvanto's texts about subtitling, here and here (both in Finnish only, sorry). I read those couple years ago, while reading humorous subtitling errors (Kielikukkasia). After that I've come to understand and accept occasional errors and not knowing some fringe subject. They don't always have the original language subtitle or script with the program, then they have to do it by ear, which makes translating exponentially harder. Also the deadlines they have occasionally, don't allow for perfect and flawless work...

On the other hand, tpyos any spellchecker could find do annoy me.

Quote from DevilDare :

Yes

Its because some languages don't have the same abbreviations and sayings as the English do. Thus if they tried to get the same meaning into your language word by word it wouldn't make any sense what so ever.

If you know what I mean

So, pretty much exactly what google translate does then!

Quote from Krane :

Never mind grammar, proper punctuation and capital letters. And you're irritated of translators making mistakes...


You should read Kaarina Suvanto's texts about subtitling, here and here (both in Finnish only, sorry). I read those couple years ago, while reading humorous subtitling errors (Kielikukkasia). After that I've come to understand and accept occasional errors and not knowing some fringe subject. They don't always have the original language subtitle or script with the program, then they have to do it by ear, which makes translating exponentially harder. Also the deadlines they have occasionally, don't allow for perfect and flawless work...

On the other hand, tpyos any spellchecker could find do annoy me.

Quit being pedantic, hes from Finland, hes making a better effort in English than most ENGLISH people. Just because you overly-pride yourself in English as a quest to be cool, doesn't mean HE has to aswell. Trust me, I know all about your type of people who want to mix with English people like you're FROM England. Take pride man, pride in who you are, not pride in who you WISH you were and for christ sake STOP WHINING!

Quote from BlueFlame :

Quit being pedantic, hes from Finland, hes making a better effort in English than most ENGLISH people. Just because you overly-pride yourself in English as a quest to be cool, doesn't mean HE has to aswell. Trust me, I know all about your type of people who want to mix with English people like you're FROM England. Take pride man, pride in who you are, not pride in who you WISH you were and for christ sake STOP WHINING!

Don't you know that it's mandatory on the internet to correct any one's mistakes when they them self are complaining or correcting somebody else's mistakes?

Quote from Krane :

Don't you know that it's mandatory on the internet to correct any one's mistakes when they them self are complaining or correcting somebody else's mistakes?

Honestly, no, I've heard no such rule.