Sorry, what did you mean ?
When you watch those otherwise excellent cable TV programs in the Spanish version - History Channel, National Geographics, Discovery and many TV movies - often you cannot less than wonder how little attention is paid by the producers for correct and meaningful translation into Spanish parlaments or subtitles.
Some words chosen are just funny, other hurt your ears or are meaningless.
A person who does not command English may miss the meaning of the sentence in the context of the scene at all. A bilingual person may grasp the meaning but scrap his head as to the incompetence of the translator.
Is it for reasons of cost saving that the producers do not resort to proof-reading by somebody who speaks fluent everyday Spanish?
What should be the profile and the capacity of a proof-reader? In the first place somebody who after proof-reading could suggest the most appropiate term for a worldwide Spanish-speaking video audience, or for readers of a book for that matter, given the wide spectrum of different connotations and nuances in different countries. Furthermore, somebody who would interpret translated words such as a less educated average TV-viewer or reader would, to prevent him from missing the point or wondering. He should no be necessarily an erudite who chooses elaborate words but somebody who speaks good plain everyday Spanish.
Granted that you cannot please everybody. In everyday use, a car is ‘un auto’ in Argentina, ‘un carro’ in Peru and ‘un coche’ in Chile, though ‘automóvil’ may be applicable anywhere.
The overall impression is that some translations are done by people used to Spanglish or Miami-Spanish, i.e. who speak Spanish but are used to think in American-English and take the easy way to translate literally, failing to ponder the meaning of the word within the context of the action on the screen. Translators should think twice before falling into the pitfall of literal translations or just resorting to a search machine.
Mitsubishi named ‘Pajero’ a certain model of their 4WD line for export to Spain and Latin America. Only after arrival of the first imports did they realize that ‘pajero’ stands for ‘masturbator’ in popular usage in several countries such as Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Chile, and they had to swallow their embarrasment and change name and emblems to ‘Montero’ to continue their deliveries, as potential customers refrained from buying their product.
This denotes how important it is to be aware of the connotation of words in different countries and to take care of adequate translation.
When you watch those otherwise excellent cable TV programs in the Spanish version - History Channel, National Geographics, Discovery and many TV movies - often you cannot less than wonder how little attention is paid by the producers for correct and meaningful translation into Spanish parlaments or subtitles.
Some words chosen are just funny, other hurt your ears or are meaningless.
A person who does not command English may miss the meaning of the sentence in the context of the scene at all. A bilingual person may grasp the meaning but scrap his head as to the incompetence of the translator.
Is it for reasons of cost saving that the producers do not resort to proof-reading by somebody who speaks fluent everyday Spanish?
What should be the profile and the capacity of a proof-reader? In the first place somebody who after proof-reading could suggest the most appropiate term for a worldwide Spanish-speaking video audience, or for readers of a book for that matter, given the wide spectrum of different connotations and nuances in different countries. Furthermore, somebody who would interpret translated words such as a less educated average TV-viewer or reader would, to prevent him from missing the point or wondering. He should no be necessarily an erudite who chooses elaborate words but somebody who speaks good plain everyday Spanish.
Granted that you cannot please everybody. In everyday use, a car is ‘un auto’ in Argentina, ‘un carro’ in Peru and ‘un coche’ in Chile, though ‘automóvil’ may be applicable anywhere.
The overall impression is that some translations are done by people used to Spanglish or Miami-Spanish, i.e. who speak Spanish but are used to think in American-English and take the easy way to translate literally, failing to ponder the meaning of the word within the context of the action on the screen. Translators should think twice before falling into the pitfall of literal translations or just resorting to a search machine.
Mitsubishi named ‘Pajero’ a certain model of their 4WD line for export to Spain and Latin America. Only after arrival of the first imports did they realize that ‘pajero’ stands for ‘masturbator’ in popular usage in several countries such as Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Chile, and they had to swallow their embarrasment and change name and emblems to ‘Montero’ to continue their deliveries, as potential customers refrained from buying their product.
This denotes how important it is to be aware of the connotation of words in different countries and to take care of adequate translation.
