new entry from germany

POSTED BY: Lightspeed
UPDATED: Saturday, February 18, 2006 21:42
VIEWED: 10644
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PINGJING

Saturday, February 18, 2006 5:06 PM

I think it's always difficult to understand movies in a foreign language, no matter how fluent you are. (My German prof at Middlebury College spoke and understood English fluently, but she said she still didn't understand everything in American movies, even after living here for several years.) And understanding 85% of Serenity the first time through, with all the fast quips and Chinese phrases - CBY, I'm impressed.

Wilkommen, Lightspeed, and danke sehr, Kessie, for the link to the German site. I'd like a chance to practice my German sometime, and what better way to do it than by talking about Firefly?

Julia

CBY

Saturday, February 18, 2006 6:20 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by pingjing:
And understanding 85% of Serenity the first time through, with all the fast quips and Chinese phrases - CBY, I'm impressed.

I watch every DVD on English for years now (if I can) and got very used to it.

The 85%-guess is the average for movies without heavy accents. There seems to be something like a "standard movie language" so the overall pool of words isn't that big. I have the impression that they use pretty basic English most of the time.

Trip Tucker and our Badger on the other hand are two of the difficult cases. Still having problems with them even after listening to their utterances countless times.

It never hurts to have a dictionary within reach

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CHRISTHECYNIC

Saturday, February 18, 2006 6:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Kaele:
See that's why I fully appreciate foreigners learning English at all. We have all sorts of grammatical rules that half our population does not even follow.

It is because of Shakespeare. The moment he said the phrase, "Between you and I," the grammar of the English language was doomed. The phrase is disgusting, grammatically the same as, "Give it to I." Thankfully most people are far more careful than Shakespeare, but I do believe that the volume of the circulation of such grammar means it is only a matter of time before we start saying things like, "Me am going to the store."

Also there are some things that are taught which are absurd, for example the word, "ain't," contraction of, "am not," is frowned on and the phrase, "Aren't I," which means, "Are I not," is actually encouraged in most places.

Then there is what Winston Churchill pointed out, some rules, such as not ending a sentence with a preposition, are archaic and more or less pointless, he said criticism for that was something, "up with which I will not put."

Even if you know the rules, and follow the rules, the language is vague. There is an on going debate about what the word, "than," actually is. Some claim it is a preposition, "He's taller than me," others claim it is a conjunction, "You're better than I am."

Well which it is dictates grammar, if it's a conjunction that saying, "You're better than me," is as bad as Shakespeare. On the other hand if it is a preposition that is the one and only correct way.

GELASSENHEIT

Saturday, February 18, 2006 6:33 PM

I wonder who will do the voices of our heroes when they dub the movie for German, French and other languages?

Gelassenheit means Serenity

CBY

Saturday, February 18, 2006 9:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Gelassenheit:
I wonder who will do the voices of our heroes when they dub the movie for German, French and other languages?

Each actor has a German "counterpart" who dubs him as long as possible (could be several years). In the case of our show they chose pretty young "dubbers" and I think the selection is okay. Some characters sound older/younger as expected, but the voices themselves are all right.

One interesting point about the actual translation: They don't translate words like "wave", "shepard", "alliance", "companion" at all. So people watching Firefly in (claimed) German actually hear a mixture of German, Chinese AND English.

"They sent a wave!" --> "Sie sendeten eine wave!"
"She is a companion!" --> "Sie ist eine companion!"

I don't say I could have done it better myself, but the result is suboptimal. I mean, people are getting paid for this...

°°°°°°°°°°°°
http://www.byond-trax.com - my selfmade ambient/lounge/chillout music
www.botttos.de/mphillips/mphillips_vol1.exe - mphillips 100 in 1 pack Vol.1

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