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If you speak another language besides ENG, are the subtitles terrible? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) by LtDan@lemmy.zip to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I'm mainly talking about watching a TV show or movie that's originally in English enabling subtitles that's either in Spanish, German, Russian, Finnish, etc. and can mistakes in translation still occur? I recall watching Lie to Me with Japanese subtitles during a scene involving an interrogation but a key word within the dialog was not translated correctly based on context.

For example, the protagonist said "You're an accessory for murder" towards the suspect but subtitles used the wrong word choice 小物 (which means "accessories" as in small goods, i.e. stationery or trinkets) when the intended meaning for "accessory" from that context leans more on being a conspirator (共犯者 or 共謀) of a crime (like as in aiding the criminal).

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[–] LeapSecond@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

Strangely enough they're usually well made. There are cases where things are translated slightly differentely than you'd expect to get closer to the original meaning in the other language or to save space (cause this is also often a problem). But these differences are interesting in themselves, like you see a different interpretation. In the rare case where it's really bad you can tell without knowing the spoken language.