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I agree. That said, my wife subtitles every movie which normally I don't care about, except the subtitles are -wrong-. I don't know why they do that, it seems

by axaxs 7y ago

I agree. That said, my wife subtitles every movie which normally I don't care about, except the subtitles are -wrong-. I don't know why they do that, it seems rather innocent, but drives me crazy as an English speaker. It's usually something not even so consequential..off the top of my head like replacing 'Time for dinner' with 'Time for supper'. Not an exact example, but it's usually along these lines.

dilap 7y ago
That drives me crazy too! Some shows are pretty faithful, but others are way off. The otherwise-wonderful Cuatro Estaciones en la Habana is especially bad -- it replaces all the local Cuban slang w/ standard Spanish, e.g., they'll subtitle imbécil when the dialog is comemierda. Why would you do that?! Also strongly agree w/ GP; in my experience, you've got to hide the english to learn anything. Otherwise your brain isn't working in the target language.
arkitaip 7y ago
This has been an issue with Netflix for years. It's almost as if the translators of movie or TV series don't have access to the videos themselves because every other sentence is slightly wrong.
sk0g 7y ago
Are the shows you're watching dubbed? Was recently watching How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast), which is a German show originally, and the subtitles were off in a similar way. Drove me nuts! I ended up switching the audio language to German and watching it with English subtitles, was a miles better experience for me.
- axaxs 7y ago
  Nope, original English shows. What's frustrating is that my wife uses subtitles for learning how words are spelled, but the words spoken aren't the same as the ones written!
leokennis 7y ago
It was said in a major Dutch newspaper last year that Netflix seriously underpays/over pressures the translators: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/06/07/ondertitelaars-voelen-zich-uitgeknepen-door-netflix-a3963027 https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/06/07/ondertitelaars-voelen-z... Basically in “the good old days” translating/subtitling was a serious job for serious money. But it has been turned into almost a “work from home, gig economy Mechanical Turk” thing. And the quality obviously suffers.
- ta999999171 7y ago
  I won't even try the shows whose trailers have the problem stated in this thread. It's blatantly obvious 3 seconds in. Very unprofessional.
cpdt 7y ago
From what I've heard, when dubbing shows they normally adapt the translations for the dub to fit better with the character's mouth movements and to make it more 'idiomatic' in the target language, but the subtitles keep the literal translation. It would be interesting to learn why, I find it drives me crazy as well.
- BasDirks 7y ago
  Semi-synced dubs are an early example of uncanny valley

by axaxs 7y ago

dilap 7y ago

That drives me crazy too! Some shows are pretty faithful, but others are way off. The otherwise-wonderful Cuatro Estaciones en la Habana is especially bad -- it replaces all the local Cuban slang w/ standard Spanish, e.g., they'll subtitle imbécil when the dialog is comemierda. Why would you do that?! Also strongly agree w/ GP; in my experience, you've got to hide the english to learn anything. Otherwise your brain isn't working in the target language.

arkitaip 7y ago

This has been an issue with Netflix for years. It's almost as if the translators of movie or TV series don't have access to the videos themselves because every other sentence is slightly wrong.

sk0g 7y ago

Are the shows you're watching dubbed? Was recently watching How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast), which is a German show originally, and the subtitles were off in a similar way. Drove me nuts! I ended up switching the audio language to German and watching it with English subtitles, was a miles better experience for me.

axaxs 7y ago
Nope, original English shows. What's frustrating is that my wife uses subtitles for learning how words are spelled, but the words spoken aren't the same as the ones written!

leokennis 7y ago

It was said in a major Dutch newspaper last year that Netflix seriously underpays/over pressures the translators: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/06/07/ondertitelaars-voelen-zich-uitgeknepen-door-netflix-a3963027 https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/06/07/ondertitelaars-voelen-z... Basically in “the good old days” translating/subtitling was a serious job for serious money. But it has been turned into almost a “work from home, gig economy Mechanical Turk” thing. And the quality obviously suffers.

ta999999171 7y ago
I won't even try the shows whose trailers have the problem stated in this thread. It's blatantly obvious 3 seconds in. Very unprofessional.

cpdt 7y ago

From what I've heard, when dubbing shows they normally adapt the translations for the dub to fit better with the character's mouth movements and to make it more 'idiomatic' in the target language, but the subtitles keep the literal translation. It would be interesting to learn why, I find it drives me crazy as well.

BasDirks 7y ago
Semi-synced dubs are an early example of uncanny valley