BDHs speak French!

POSTED BY: Rednax
UPDATED: Monday, December 12, 2005 02:27
VIEWED: 16414
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CYBERSNARK

Wednesday, November 2, 2005 4:05 PM

"The skill that works the translation of the many languages is being shamefully used." --Usenet (anon).

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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

PAISLEY

Sunday, November 20, 2005 12:14 AM

Quote:
Runa27 wrote: Friday, October 28, 2005 19:06
This makes me wonder now whether there are different Spanish dubs as well, as there are a LOT of different accents. I wonder what the R1 Spanish dub is like for the film or series, anybody know? *doesn't speak French, but is interested in dubs to begin with* A better question, actually - how well does it/do they match up to the translation/feel of the English dialogue? Because I've learning Spanish and would like to practice it, but I'm not 100% capable of keeping up with Spanish dubs yet (I'm usually lucky to get the gist of of a scene or single line in a scene), so I'm wondering if it would work if I watched the Spanish dub with English subs (I have the box set now, so I could do that)?

Hi-
I had written on this on the Firefly Talk podcast forum, I'll include it here since it seems appropriate:

*********
One thing that I haven't seen or heard mentioned in any Firefly medium- most likely because it doesn't affect the general English-speaking Browncoat community- is the dubbing on the Firefly DVDs. While I can’t comment on the French dubbing, I am fluent in Spanish so I can say a few things about that particular rendering.

After watching the DVD set a couple of times in English, I thought it would be fun to listen to how things were referred to in Spanish. Generally, I don’t do this- I like watching programs in the original language and read the subtitles if I need to. However, being a recently converted Browncoat, I just had to know: Would our beloved series be lost in translation? Or would a Spanish-only speaker “get” the show? Sadly, the former is true while the latter is unlikely. There are little of the quirks of the ’verse left over by the time the Spanish version tramples through it. An unacceptable portion of the translation is unclear, changed unnecessarily, or simply wrong. This can be very confusing and ruins the flow of the script. While it would be impossible for me to go over every single mistake, change, and omission here, I’ve thought of a few to share.

First off, if you ever wondered what they do to the Chinese in Firefly DVD translations, the words are kept in Mandarin only if what is said can’t be guessed. This means that the longer phrases are in Chinese, but most of the other words are not. Thus, there is no “gorram,” no “dong ma,” and no “pieces of go-se.” All these words are translated to Spanish directly from the Chinese.

The translation also affected some character names. The most obvious is Mal, which changed to Mel. Strangely enough, Malcolm stays the same. I understand that this is because “mal” [pronounced mahl] means bad in the Latin as River pointed out; this holds true for Spanish as well. Still, all they had to do was to keep the original pronunciation, and problem solved. Also, it is curious to note that Jayne’s name changed to Jay-nee which makes no sense since it only adds a syllable to the name, and makes things a little more difficult for the Spanish-speaking actors to lip sync. The worst of the name changing, however, is River’s. Her name stays the same, but is pronounced in Spanish, making it sound exactly like “Reaver.” Now in some episodes the word Reaver keeps its English pronunciation, so the River/Reaver use is quite confusing. In other episodes, such as Bushwhacked, “Reaver” is translated as a derivation of “to rip” or “to tear” so this isn’t a problem. But it does confuse people who had first heard of bad guys called Reavers and then suddenly started hearing of “Rippers.”

Sloppy translation is rampant. As examples, the “Tam Estate” in Safe is the “Tam State.” “Captain Tightpants” becomes “Captain Formal” in Shindig. Zoe’s famous line “I think you have a problem with your brain being missing” becomes “I think you have an enormous brain tumor.” There are mistakes in just about every scene- the ones that bother me the most are fundamental changes in the script. For example, according to the Train Job- Spanish version, Inara has been on the ship for 18 months, not 8, as in t

PAISLEY

Sunday, November 20, 2005 12:55 AM

Oh, and RUNA27, since you made such a nice effort on translating that article, here are the full translations of your quotes. Nice work! I've taught Spanish so I can really appreciate a hard-working student. So, just for you:

***
"Y ahora... los chalecos marrones."
And now... the Brownvests.

I'm not sure about Spain, but over here in the Americas, a chaleco is a vest. A coat here would be abrigo. Hmmm... maybe we can use Abrigospardos? Too long... I'll have to think on that one.

***
"Durante años, se podía ser trekkie, jedi o incluso echar de menos al profesor Robinson de Perdidos en el espacio."
For years, you could be a Trekkie, a Jedi or even miss Professor Robinson from "Lost in Space."

***
"Ahora, existe una nueva tendencia, todavía desconocida en España: los chalecos marrones."
Now there's a new trend, as yet unknown in Spain: the Browncoats.

***
"Así se autodenominan los fanáticos de la serie Firefly."
That's how fans of the Firefly series call themselves.

***
"Su presión y su unión consiguieron que saliera adelante el proyecto de Serenity. ¡Frikis al poder!"
Their pressure and unity made the Serenity project possible. All power to the frikis!"

"Frikis" is tricky. I'm pretty sure it comes from the word "freak" so it could be translated as a really, really devoted fan.

Keep up the good work! ¡Buena suerte!

RUNA27

Sunday, November 20, 2005 6:27 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Paisley:

Quote:
This makes me wonder now whether there are different Spanish dubs as well, as there are a LOT of different accents. I wonder what the R1 Spanish dub is like for the film or series, anybody know? *doesn't speak French, but is interested in dubs to begin with* A better question, actually - how well does it/do they match up to the translation/feel of the English dialogue? Because I've learning Spanish and would like to practice it, but I'm not 100% capable of keeping up with Spanish dubs yet (I'm usually lucky to get the gist of of a scene or single line in a scene), so I'm wondering if it would work if I watched the Spanish dub with English subs (I have the box set now, so I could do that)?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi-
I had written on this on the Firefly Talk podcast forum, I'll include it here since it seems appropriate:

*********
One thing that I haven't seen or heard mentioned in any Firefly medium- most likely because it doesn't affect the general English-speaking Browncoat community- is the dubbing on the Firefly DVDs. While I can’t comment on the French dubbing, I am fluent in Spanish so I can say a few things about that particular rendering.

After watching the DVD set a couple of times in English, I thought it would be fun to listen to how things were referred to in Spanish. Generally, I don’t do this- I like watching programs in the original language and read the subtitles if I need to. However, being a recently converted Browncoat, I just had to know: Would our beloved series be lost in translation? Or would a Spanish-only speaker “get” the show? Sadly, the former is true while the latter is unlikely. There are little of the quirks of the ’verse left over by the time the Spanish version tramples through it. An unacceptable portion of the translation is unclear, changed unnecessarily, or simply wrong. This can be very confusing and ruins the flow of the script. While it would be impossible for me to go over every single mistake, change, and omission here, I’ve thought of a few to share.

Awww.

That's too bad. I had heard that since they do so many dubs, some of them were good (at least, I've heard anime dubs have been getting better in Spanish just as they have been getting better in English).

Quote:

First off, if you ever wondered what they do to the Chinese in Firefly DVD translations, the words are kept in Mandarin only if what is said can’t be guessed. This means that the longer phrases are in Chinese, but most of the other words are not. Thus, there is no “gorram,” no “dong ma,” and no “pieces of go-se.”

No gorram!? O_O You're kidding!

Quote:

All these words are translated to Spanish directly from the Chinese.

The translation also affected some character names. The most obvious is Mal, which changed to Mel. Strangely enough, Malcolm stays the same. I understand that this is because “mal” [pronounced mahl] means bad in the Latin as River pointed out; this holds true for Spanish as well. Still, all they had to do was to keep the original pronunciation, and problem solved. Also, it is curious to note that Jayne’s name changed to Jay-nee which makes no sense since it only adds a syllable to the name, and makes things a little more difficult for the Spanish-speaking actors to lip sync.

...you're kidding. WHY? You'ree right, it makes no sense at all.

Quote:

The worst of the name changing, however, is River’s. Her name stays the same, but is pronounced in Spanish, making it sound exactly like “Reaver.”

That's too funny! My god, what a horrible translation decision.

Quote:

Now in some episodes the word Reaver keeps its English pronunciation, so the River/Reaver use is quite confusing. In other episodes, such as Bushwhacked, “Reaver” is translated as a derivation of “to rip” or “to tear” so this isn’t a problem. But it does confuse people who had first heard of bad guys called Reavers and then suddenly

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