chinese lingo

POSTED BY: Firefighter
UPDATED: Sunday, May 4, 2003 01:35
VIEWED: 7338
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FIREFIGHTER

Tuesday, April 8, 2003 9:44 PM

Hi everyone,

I have a simple question concerning the Chinese inspired lingo that used frequently in the Firefly series.

I am a Danish translator who is working on the Danish subtitles for the series that will soon be aired on Danish television. Fortunately, my script is equipped with translations into English of these Chinese expressions. But I don't know whether I should translate them into Danish at all. I would like the Danish viewers to be equally "impaired", so if the lingo was translated for the American viewers, I will probably do the same. But if not, I'll just leave it be. Therefore I'd like to ask you what was done when the series was showing in the US.

Thanks a lot!

The Firefighter (DK)

GROOVYAL

Tuesday, April 8, 2003 9:59 PM

hi!
nice to hear that some other(european) countries will be given the opportunity of enjoing this great show.
Looks like you havent seen it so far, didya?
Anyway, actually there were no translations in the original version neither there were subtitles so the viewers were left alone without any clue, without even knowing which language it was, and i think its a nice concept of bringing in something the people wouldnt understand, and would have to guess what it means, to my oppinion the fact the characters speaking chinese is a real nice idea and it shouldnt be translated in anyway. But this was only my view of the things, guess the answer to your question would be, "No, the chinese lines were not translated neither subtitled"

FIREFIGHTER

Tuesday, April 8, 2003 10:19 PM

Hi again,

Thanks a lot for the fast reply to my question. No, you're absolutely right that there is no need to translate the Chinese. The Danes will have to the guessing by themselves, just as you did!

And no, I haven't seen it yet. Or rather, I have just begun translating the very first episode. I haven't formed an opinion yet, but it seems to be quite amusing and the manuscript well written. I am sad to hear that the show has been cancelled (hasn't it?), just I am sad that "Dark Angel" stopped after only two seasons. "Dark Angel" was my last subtitling assignment and second season has just begun showing on Danish television.

Sincerely,
Firefighter

PHYSICSCHICK

Tuesday, April 8, 2003 10:39 PM

In any case, if you did put some of the Chinese translations in subtitles, you'd just have to censor them anyways.

LJC

Wednesday, April 9, 2003 1:53 AM

The Mandarin in the scripts was written phoenetically so the actors could pronounce it, rather than in hanyu pinyin (the proper written form), and no translations were provided.

My personal suggestion would be to simply include the Mandarin in hanyu pinyin in the subtitles. Of course, it would help if you can *get* the pinyin. Any chance your employers could get it from FOX and/or Mutant Enemy?

And if you do, could you share? We'd love you forever *grin*

--
Some take the high road. Some take the low road.
And some just go screaming down the highway, dropping flaming bits of wreckage.

GROOVYAL

Wednesday, April 9, 2003 5:42 AM

Hi!
You wouldn't mind if i'd make a suggestion concerning the translation, would ya?
Since i'm not an english native speaker it could have just my imagined all this but what i really like about FF is the language they speak. They use some really nice phrases that just sound real cool, like instead of just saying "i think you are crazy" zoe says "i think you've got a problem with your brain being missing" and stuff like that, so in order for the danish people like me, looking for some "erotics of words" () you could translate the phrases keeping their coolness.

FIREFIGHTER

Wednesday, April 9, 2003 7:06 AM

Hi again,

Well, as for the scripts, I'd really like to help you find the proper Mandarin way of writing the expressions, but I am afraid that I will have to leave them out. Subtitles are meant as an aid for those who do not understand English and so there would be no point in writing the Mandarin phrases in Mandarin. Just as there is no point in subtitling the English phrases in English. But I hope you find the scripts, though!

And as for the colorful, "erotic", expressions in FF, I will certainly do my best to make them equally colorful in the subtitles. Actually, sometimes it is easier to translate "strange" expressions than the more common ones, because the latter often seem to "work" properly only in the source language. Movie phrases like "See you in court" or "Do you feel lucky (punk)" are so familiar to American English that they tend to sound strange when they are translated. So, I am actually looking forward to the colorfulness of FF!

Regards,
Firefighter

IDEFIX

Wednesday, April 9, 2003 1:39 PM

one more suggestion from a non-native-english-speaker (in other word's I'm german and I've seen the US broadcasts without any subtitles).

for all your viewers that do speak english, but not perfectly you should include some hint, that the chinese is chinese. some of the characters of Firefly have (to non-native speakers) weird sounding pronunciation/dialects. I had to listen to some of it several times to understand all of the english. and having the hard to understand english mixed up with chinese and no hint it was chinese and not some even harder to understand english made it not really easier.

so include something like "swears in chinese" or so where appropriate. sometimes it wouldn't make any sense otherwise. when someone talks chinese and another answers in english oder so.

Idefix

LJC

Saturday, April 12, 2003 1:00 AM

so there would be no point in writing the Mandarin phrases in Mandarin

Well, in the spirit of preserving how the show was written, I imagine the point would be to add to the flavour of the universe the show created. Near as I can tell, the whole point of having the Mandarin in the show untranslated was to help create the feel of the world the writing staff had created. That these characters would all be bilingual, and would slip into Mandarin which the viewer would have to puzzle out via the context, rather than having it subtitled. That's why I assume the decisions was made to not translate the Mandarin for the English-speaking viewers.

Kidna like the whole entire scene in Italian without any subtitles in "Serpico." The point isn't what they're saying so much as the fact that they're saying it, adn the audience is left in the dark as to what exactly's being said, but has to puzzle it out...

--
Some take the high road. Some take the low road.
And some just go screaming down the highway, dropping flaming bits of wreckage.

RAVN

Friday, April 25, 2003 7:29 PM

Hey, Hr Firefighter. Hvilken kanal kommer serien på? Og hvornår?

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