Subtitles

[NguuMuu]

I know many of the copied movies range from really bad subtitles (if they are brand new) to very good (if it has officially been released in Thailand), but are the subtitles on Star/HBO accurate?

-For example, if someone in New York City said "we have to go to JFK" (at least any American would obviously know this is JFK airport), what would it be subtitled as?

-What about idioms such as "spank the monkey" (seen in Something About Marry the other night)...how would that translate into the subtitle? Literally "spank monkey"? Chak wow?

-What about when there is a sudden silence in the audio if an actor is going to say <deleted>...is there just a blank in the subtitle then?

-Another subtitle characteristic I've noticed is that "a couple hundred" and "a few" always seem to get translated as 200 and 2, respectively. Wouldn't there be something more appropriate to use in thai because, IMHO, that is a pretty inaccurate translation?

Just curious, thanks!

[meadish_sweetball]

The answer is that it depends of the skills of the translator, I guess.

If I were a Thai translator I would skip the reference to JFK and just write "rao tawng pai sanaam bin" - this is enough for the story, unless of course the name of the airport or the person it refers to has a crucial role in the story for some reason; then you might have to rethink it altogether.

As for the second, "chak wao" or another localized slang version meaning to masturbate - there is no "spanking the monkey" in Thai slang.

The 'fukc' do not get translated as a rule, instead they will be replaced with mild 'acceptable' invectives in Thai, such as 'suay', 'baa (chip)', 'baa jing jing' or something similar. Since the taboos regarding written Thai are very strong, as a translator you would not get away with replacing them with the street slang expressions 'yet mae', 'maeng'/'mae meung' etc.

If the 'fukc' does not contribute significantly to the meaning of the utterance, it will be ommitted completely, e.g. 'he's such a fukcing loser' or similar.

As for your last question I am not sure, but for 'a few' I have seen "2-3 [classifier]". If it's "only a few hundred" you can use "'mai kii rooi".

[samran]

A girl in my old office used to translate some of the west wing scripts as a side job to improve her English.

Tough gig, as there are lots of things especially in the realms of politics that need specific knowledge of political jargon in Thai and English. She often asked me, and I had a tough time of it as it is hard to translate ‘beltway speak’ even into plain English. She often had to settle for a much simpler translation as per Meadish’s description, which is a shame as the Thai viewer will miss out on some of the brilliance in a script such as the West Wing.

[tripperj]

I bought a copy of the last star wars in june. The english subtitles are halarions. One line that nearly made me wet my self was, at the start Obi wan says that the badies are attacking from behind and the subtitles said "He is coming in my rear"!!! there are just so many.

[meadish_sweetball]

A girl in my old office used to translate some of the west wing scripts as a side job to improve her English.

Tough gig, as there are lots of things especially in the realms of politics that need specific knowledge of political jargon in Thai and English. She often asked me, and I had a tough time of it as it is hard to translate ‘beltway speak’ even into plain English. She often had to settle for a much simpler translation as per Meadish’s description, which is a shame as the Thai viewer will miss out on some of the brilliance in a script such as the West Wing.

'West Wing' is actually a really good example of a show that requires a fair bit of its viewers. Even among English speakers I imagine there must be a fair few who do not fully understand what is going on. Nowadays I rarely use Swedish subtitles anymore, but in the case of West Wing I find they actually serve a purpose still - without them I miss too much of the plot.

Would 'beltway speak' mean something along the lines of 'deliberately avoiding the core of the issue'?

[ProfessorFart]

I have often seen <deleted> and s**t translated as 'ไอ้บ้า' or 'ไอ้ห่า' which are really bog standard Thai curses which I would translate as the English 'Damm!'

Of course all TV members know these should never be used in polite company!!!

[BambinA]

I have often seen <deleted> and s**t translated as 'ไอ้บ้า' or 'ไอ้ห่า' which are really bog standard Thai curses which I would translate as the English 'Damm!'

Of course all TV members know these should never be used in polite company!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

and Biatch - ee ta neaw ?? อีตะแนว

Bambi

ps .. plenty TH substile is bloody funny especially pirate dvd !!

[ProfessorFart]

Don't encourage us to swear Bambi!!