Movie Subtitles

[Niko]

English is a very colorful language

Sometimes I'm amused at the incorrectness of subtitles in English movies. You can know every word in the dictionary, yet still get lost in trying to convey the intended meaning.

My knowledge of Korean has greatly improved over the years. And one thing that amuses me are the subtitles of English movies in Korea.

Often, what is being said in the movie is not what is being translated in the subtitles. But one can't complain, as English is a very colorful language and very difficult to translate.

Subtitling is harder than it looks:

• cultural in-jokes
• area-specific idioms
• and an allowance for the fact that people just can't read very much very fast

Reading the subtitles is great though as it gives me an insight to the local sense of humor and the expressions the locals use to relate to English expressions.

I also now have a better understanding of the hurdles faced by students when learning English.

Jorge L.
(Korean Student - Pusan, Korea)

[emile]

It's true! I have seen a lot of mistakes in various languages, especially when translating idioms like 'She's got cold feet (She's apprehensive)'

If you live in a country where 'pirated' DVDs are available, the subtitles are likely to be much, much worse than on the original copies. I guess the Triads don't speak good English!




Road To Grammar - Your Road to Better Grammar

[ShelleyV]

I can't believe the poor translations either. It cannot be hard to have these things translated by people who speak the language... There is no excuse for it it in my view.

For example in Val d'Isere, which is a world class ski resort where homes cost millions and X5 BMWs are two a penny the tourist office can't even be bothered to get their brochure tranlated into correct English when half the inhabitants of the town are native English speakers.

It's best to watch movies without subtitles as early as possible in the learning process. After all in most movies it is not hard to figure out what is going on!