Re: WHY IS SUBTITLED DIFFRENT THATN DUB


to tenchi@ML.usagi.org
from Ryo-oh-ki <zangief@netcom.com>
subject Re: WHY IS SUBTITLED DIFFRENT THATN DUB
date Tue, 1 Sep 1998 00:08:26 -0700 (PDT)
TenchiMP@aol.com said:
:
:Somethings been bothering me.   It seems as if the subtitled words of a movie
:is always difrent than the english dub. Like in Dauter of Darkness (or MNE
:whichever you prefer)  in the subtitled version Ryoko suposedly says something
:like: "how dare you try things I dont even try"  to Myuka after one of her
:little Freudian episodes with tenchi. Ive  whatced the english dub version 11
:times (oh did i mention its my favorite movie :)   and Ryoko never says that.
:But that is just an example.  The subtitled version almost always has difrent,
:and more acurate dialog than the english version.  This doesn't really bother
:me with other series, but I watch the english dub for tenchi, because i like
:the english voice actors beter, and Tenchi is by far my favorite Anime series.
:Why the hell do they do this crap?

    The translator must determine what is spoken, understand what is
    meant, and write what is conveyed.  Subtitlers need only follow
    the first 2 prerequisites.  However, many dubbers (and a few
    subtitlers) must write out something that is as close to the
    original meaning as possible while operating under very tight
    constraints light (e.g. length/time of dialogue, body language,
    appropriate character speech, colloquialisms, social/emotional
    context, etc.).

    Simply, there's stuff that just doesn't come out sounding right
    when translated straight from Japanese to English.  To make it
    work, to make it more colloquial, to make it more appealing to
    the masses of new Tenchi Muyou fans, sometimes the dialogue is
    modified for these purposes.

    For example, all the students address the school teacher in
    Project A-Ko as "Ayumi-sensei", which literally translated means
    "Ayumi teacher" or "Teacher Ayumi".  In America and other parts
    of the English-speaking world, it is appropriate to address your
    teacher as "Miss Ayumi" or "Ms. Ayumi".

    (Sorry I can't think of a better example, I haven't done any fan
    translations in years that required this much attention to speech
    details.)


___/^_^\___ Eugene Lee
            zangief@netcom.com

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