How many ways are there to translate a word from one language to another? Sometimes it’s as simple as translating Dora the Explorer’s "¡vámonos!" (let’s go), but in Aberdeen’s Multi-Language Department, often times it’s a bit more complex than that.
I regularly work with Spanish translations from very competent people, and although these translations are already great, my job is to make them better. When reading them, it seems that I’m always faced with the same challenge: How do I make certain words neutral enough so that most Spanish-speaking people will understand them? The Spanish language is spoken in 20 different countries worldwide, making the task of choosing one single word very challenging.
A word that I came up with a couple of weeks ago was the translation for “hangover.” It was originally translated as “enguayabado.” When I first read this I was clueless as to what it meant. I had never heard this term before. It turns out that it’s pretty popular in South America. My supervisor, who lives in Spain, mentioned they use the word “resaca,” which I wasn’t familiar with either. Growing up in Mexico, I always heard people use the word “cruda” when talking about a hangover, so obviously I was leaning towards using that term.
Here at Aberdeen, every challenge is thoroughly analyzed before making a decision, and that’s why, after taking in consideration the audience that was going to be reading the subtitles, we decided to go with “cruda (resaca)”. Luckily we had enough time and space in the subtitles to use both terms!
Translation is definitely an art. Now let’s see how artistic I can be at translating this blog! Spanish version.
It is safe to say that most people who speak more than one language understand that there are certain idiosyncrasies inherent in each language. Sometimes it is difficult to accurately translate certain sayings and the end result can be comical.
In an Athens hotel there is a sign that reads: “Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 a.m. daily.” A sign for a Copenhagen airline reads: “We take your bags and send them in all directions.”
The most common errors in translation occur when attempting to translate idioms and sayings word for word. For example, “A quien madruga Dios le ayuda” would equate to the English expression “the early bird gets the worm,” but if translated word for word it would be “he who gets up early is helped by God.”
There also can be ambiguity with words. For example, an address can be a location or a speech. Many English words are homonyms, which can also lead to errors in translation. The word polish can be a verb meaning to make smooth or glossy, but it can also refer to the inhabitants of Poland or the Polish language.
Translators and subtitlers need to be aware of popular idioms and ambiguity of certain words in order to avoid an inaccurate translation. Here are a few humorous subtitling blunders that were found (information taken from Subtitling Worldwide).
In a subtitle "They sicked the dog on me" became "they caused the dog to be nauseated by me.”
In a subtitle where a man is sitting in a car someone said, "he cracked the window," meaning he opened it just a little bit. According to the subtitler, the man “smashed the window.”
“Wish him many happy returns for me.” This was translated as, "Wish him many more reincarnations."
A soldier was shot dead and another soldier closes his eyes and says, "Rest easy." The Dutch subtitle said: "Take a nice little break."
Have you ever noticed how fast you speak sometimes? I know we all notice the speed at which we drive down the freeway, even if we pretend not to, but have you ever stopped to think about the speed at which you speak? And more so, could a dragon help you realize this?
I don’t know about you, but I had never thought about any other way of typing than to actually use my fingers and strike the keys on a computer keyboard. I know I’m not the fastest typer out there, but I’ve always felt proud of my 70 wpm typing speed. Somehow I managed to write all my college papers without ever missing a deadline. Granted, some of those papers were written the night before they were due and sometimes even printed out 30 minutes before class started, but they were always on time. Then, of course, I was left walking like a zombie throughout campus for the rest of the day; nothing a good cup of coffee could not fix, right?
About 2 months ago I applied for a transcriber/caption editor position at Aberdeen Captioning, and while going through the interview process I was asked to transcribe an 8-minute long video. As soon as I opened the video and saw the length of it, I thought, “Piece of cake,” so I started typing away. After half an hour of changing back and forth between Microsoft Word and Media player, rewinding the video several times, and being nowhere close to being done, I found myself talking to the computer and saying, “Hold your horses!” Needless to say I needed a break, but I kept thinking, if only I could type faster, or even better, if the people in the video could speak slower, this task wouldn’t be as frustrating.
Within my first week at the job I was introduced to my new dragon friend; Dragon Naturally Speaking. Doing justice to its epic name, this speech recognition software has made my transcribing experience a lot more interesting from the moment I started using it. Remember how in the movie Eragon, the dragon Saphira, could read Eragon’s thoughts? That’s more or less how this program works. Obviously Dragon doesn’t type what you’re thinking, but after a short training, the program learns how to understand your voice and you’re good to go! So instead of typing what people say in a video, you speak the words and Dragon types it for you. Pretty neat huh?
Despite being excited about using a new program, I still had my doubts. Could this voice recognition software really be faster than my 70 wpm typing? I mean, that’s a decent typing speed, right? Besides, when I type I can fix my mistakes immediately whereas with Dragon it’s easier to keep dictating and then go back and fix my mistakes later. I was skeptical about this dictation program’s effectiveness against my own. If there’s one thing I remember from my biology classes in college is that I have to test my theories to obtain an answer, so I decided to put an end to my doubts and find out if all my years of typing would help me compete with this dragon.
Two minutes of typing. I don’t remember ever surrendering so fast, not even when I ran 3 miles under 100⁰ F weather in cross-country! I had to face it; I can speak significantly faster than I can type. The Dragon Naturally speaking software is a great tool that tremendously improves your typing speed, especially if you’re typing a long paper; after all, Dragon doesn’t get tired of typing and I hardly believe anyone would ever get tired of talking. I mainly use the program to dictate what other people speak, but I can’t help to wonder how much it would’ve helped me in college when I had to write those 10-page papers. This program types words that I don’t even know how to spell, automatically capitalizes words after periods and what’s best, I can keep training it to understand me better every time I notice a mistake; that’s a keeper, if you ask me.
It's an Art.
A first-rate translation requires the know-how that cannot be rated by a translation program or a computer-assisted translation tool. Accuracy is not the only point of measurement. It's about immersing in another culture and offering words that wholly speak to the viewer.
What's fascinating about audio-visual translation is the creative authority the translator has. You must adapt the original dialogue to another culture through language. The translation turns into a new creation. This being said, the translator usually adheres to the original narration, but sometimes the translator will actually create their own dialogue to convey the same message in a better way. This new creation communicates more effectively than if the text were translated literally. If drastic changes are to be made, the translator will usually ensure to get authorization. For audio-visual translators, they usually find enjoyment in conjuring up the best way to adapt a song, a pun, or a joke into another culture, and another language.
Many subtitle viewers often complain that portions are missing in subtitles. The truth is, everything cannot be translated as subtitles are limited to around 40 characters per line. It doesn't matter how much is written in the subtitles if the viewer doesn't have time to read them. The subtitler's job is to shorten what is being said. This creates some tough decisions. They must decide which parts of the dialogue are important and which parts can be left out. If everything seems important, the extremely creative and challenging part is determining how to fit three ideas into one sentence.
I talk to people often about what kind of work I do. The general public has no idea what translation subtitles are all about. Typically, they say something like, "Isn't that for free" or "I thought that just happened by the TV or a computer." The people behind them (if they are good subtitlers like Aberdeen Captioning's team), are highly educated and markedly cultured individuals. They are usually people who have parents from two different countries or who have grown up in two or more countries. In addition to being multi-cultural, they are linguistic superstars. They have not only been brought up in a multi-cultural, multi-lingual environment, but they are extremely gifted and highly trained in writing. Take if from me, a person who bilingual in Spanish and English, but is not a translator: It takes much more than knowing a language to create a subtitled masterpiece.
Many companies in need of translation usually do not understand what they need. Given this ignorance, they may come up with the idea of getting translations done automatically by a computer software. Once this is tried and tested for the first time, it is usually the last time, because the translation does not serve its original purpose: to communicate effectively with its target audience.
Consider the following before you decide to purchase an automated translation software:
I will give you the example of Spanish, as this is a language that I am fluent in. Think first about the register the language is using. In Spanish, there are two ways of addressing people, formal and informal. In English, there is only one. Not only do pronouns change depending upon the register being used, but verbs and other words change too. The software does not know what kind of register the people are using, and therefore poorly communicates entire sentences.
Then there is the word choice from the software. Imagine a newscaster. The language and the choice of words would be completely different than if the same words were being used while a father speaks to his son. This is because the software does not recognize who the speaker is, who he is addressing, if there is a difference in rank, social status, or the like. Think of English. Imagine kids playing soccer in the street in a low-class neighborhood. These children would not use the same vocabulary as a headmaster would who is addressing a teacher. All this is not taken into consideration by software that translates word-by-word.
Think of grammar differences between languages. In English the second person of the personal pronoun takes the same form for singular and plural: "you." In Spanish, there are four forms, two for singular (formal and informal) and two for plural (formal and informal). The software does not recognize this difference, making the conjugation of the verb that accompany the pronoun incorrect, because the verb in English almost always remains the same. Automated software does not know these nuances.
Your audience will most likely be from a given region of the target language. For example, in South America each country uses a different variant of Spanish. The nouns vary completely from one country to another. Just think of the differences between Australian, Canadian, British, and American English. Even though you still understand each other, every country has its own linguistic nuances.
Try it for yourself. Go to a website in a different language and copy some text. Go to Google translate. Paste the foreign language text and translate into English. Read the translation, and you will see my point exactly.
A good translation depends completely on the translator's ability to capture the essence of the text by using creativity--something only the human brain can achieve. Translating is an art. Software just puts words together, leaving much to be desired.
I usually don’t write about specific projects we work on, but the “Hearing Everett” project was particularly moving. One of the most unique aspects of the film for me, working for a closed-captioning company, is that the film illustrates a family helping the deaf in Mexico. Throughout the closed captioning and the subtitling of the project we worked through five different phases: transcription, caption editing, translation, subtitle editing, and quality assurance. Each person involved in creating the “words” for the film was extremely moved to say the least. While I was reviewing the subtitling, I caught myself reaching for the tissue box to wipe the tears from my cheeks pretty much throughout the entire review process. See what our Spanish translator, Enrico, had to say about his experience with the film:
Without a doubt, it is a remarkable, touching documentary.
I was blessed with the opportunity to translate this powerful testimony and I am certain it will greatly impact the people that get to see it the way it impacted us (I shared it with my wife) while working on it.
It made us realize once again the power and grace of our Omnipotent Lord. We truly believe God gave the old Everett and his family the grace and strength to keep on going after so many setbacks. He just took up the cross and followed while others (as me) just stand by and see in awe.
Best regards,
Enrico
Aberdeen was blessed to work on this project because James-Kirk Johnson, the Executive Producer of the film and Director of Operations for Strong Tower Ministries, contacted us after discovering our company through mutual contacts. Before we got involved in the project I visited one of James’ projects in Tijuana, Mexico, The Purple Palace, and was moved by the orphanage they had built and by the hearts of the children. Working on this project and seeing other things their ministry is doing helped me realize how much I can do to contribute, and the many opportunities there are right in my own backyard. Find out how you can help by visiting: strongtowerministries.info or hearingeverett.com
Subtitles differ from closed captions by the way they are presented on the screen. Words appear in upper and lower case letters and can appear in various colors and fonts. Subtitles may be in English or any other language. On tape, subtitles are burned into the video and appear at all times. On a DVD, subtitles are able to be turned on or off through the DVD menu.
Translated subtitles require a skilled blend of translation and editing supported by state-of-the-art technology.
To ensure accurate translations, subtitling providers should employ native speakers who either live in or regularly return to their country of origin to maintain fluency in the respective languages. Be sure to ask the company you are contracting with if they always use native speakers.
It takes far longer to read than to listen, therefore each translation should be carefully edited, providing a comfortable reading speed for the viewer while maintaining the meaning and impact of the programming. There are many different subtitling guidelines out there, but at a bare minimum proper names, technical jargon and industry terms should be researched by the translator to ensure proper spelling and connotation. If you need something subtitled, be sure to provide the subtitling company with a list of technical jargon, terms, scripts, lexicon, et cetera, to ensure that the translator has the needed information to create an errorless translation conveying your program's meaning to its target audience.
