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Thread poster: Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 14:37
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Dec 22, 2019

Hello everyone (and those familiar with fansubs)

We all know about "all your base" etc., but that is often cited as a non-deliberate poor translation. But do you think the following fan translation from the Italian is deliberately poor? It looks so funny, I can't image that this might be non-deliberate.

deaths are speaking

What do you think? And, do you think fansubbers sometimes (often) deliberately mistranslate?

Samuel

[Edited at 2019-12-22 21:54 GMT]
 
Andrzej Mierzejewski
Andrzej Mierzejewski  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 14:37
Polish to English
+ ...
? Dec 23, 2019

Well, I do not know the original text, but...

...to my eyes (I'm Polish), it looks like a machine translation from EN into whatever language and a reverse translation into EN.



[Zmieniono 2019-12-23 10:56 GMT]
 
Robert Rietvelt
Robert Rietvelt  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:37
Member (2006)
Spanish to Dutch
+ ...
Number of characters? Dec 23, 2019

What I remember from my days as subtitler is that there was a max. number of characters alllowed per subtitle. Maybe it has something to do with that + bad translator.

PS) I am not a fansub!

[Edited at 2019-12-23 12:24 GMT]

[Edited at 2019-12-23 13:04 GMT]

[Edited at 2019-12-23 13:13 GMT]
 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:37
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Hmmm Dec 24, 2019

These subtitles are mediocre.
The character count might be okay, depending on how fast or slow the text scrolls up, but it sounds like these fansubs are trying to save some money but letting some machine translate their subtitles. Not a very good "business card", I'd say.
 
B D Finch
B D Finch  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 14:37
French to English
+ ...
Mediocrity vs rubbish Dec 28, 2019

Thayenga wrote:

These subtitles are mediocre.
The character count might be okay, depending on how fast or slow the text scrolls up, but it sounds like these fansubs are trying to save some money but letting some machine translate their subtitles. Not a very good "business card", I'd say.


A good translator should know the difference between mediocrity and rubbish. That fan translation is rubbish. It might, possibly, have been produced as revenge by a translator working for desperately low rates. It's hard to believe that a machine translation could be that bad, so the explanation must involve some sort of human intervention.
 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:37
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
That only goes to show... Dec 28, 2019

B D Finch wrote:

Thayenga wrote:

These subtitles are mediocre.
The character count might be okay, depending on how fast or slow the text scrolls up, but it sounds like these fansubs are trying to save some money but letting some machine translate their subtitles. Not a very good "business card", I'd say.


A good translator should know the difference between mediocrity and rubbish.


... that a good translator doesn't even bother to go to such sites.

Luan Erick
 
Antonia Herrera
Antonia Herrera
United States
Local time: 05:37
Japanese to English
+ ...
Re: Fansubbers Dec 29, 2019

B D Finch wrote:

Thayenga wrote:

These subtitles are mediocre.
The character count might be okay, depending on how fast or slow the text scrolls up, but it sounds like these fansubs are trying to save some money but letting some machine translate their subtitles. Not a very good "business card", I'd say.


A good translator should know the difference between mediocrity and rubbish. That fan translation is rubbish. It might, possibly, have been produced as revenge by a translator working for desperately low rates. It's hard to believe that a machine translation could be that bad, so the explanation must involve some sort of human intervention.


Most fansubbers are volunteers. A lot of them are just starting out and think good subtitles = word-for-word translation of the original lines. It's not a bad way to learn and get your feet wet, though.
 


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