Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Eliška Kratochvílová
Subtitles and Dubbing: Translation in the TV Series “The Big Bang Theory” Bachelor‟s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek
2014
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
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Author‟s signature
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the supervisor of my thesis, Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, for his valuable advice and guidance. I would also like to thank Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D., Kristýna Routnerová, and MartyCZ for providing information necessary for this research.
Contents
1. Introduction ...... 6
2. Translation in general ...... 7
3. History of subtitling and dubbing ...... 10
3.1. The history of subtitling ...... 10
3.2. The history of dubbing ...... 12
3.3. Subtitling and dubbing in European countries and the Czech Republic ...... 13
4. Subtitling ...... 16
4.1. Types of subtitles ...... 17
4.2. The subtitling process ...... 20
4.3. Code of good subtitling ...... 21
5. Dubbing ...... 25
5.1. The dubbing process ...... 26
5.2. Translation for dubbing ...... 27
6. Subtitling vs. dubbing ...... 29
7. Amateur subtitling ...... 30
8. The Big Bang Theory ...... 31
9. Why The Big Bang Theory, and methods used ...... 32
9.1. Methods ...... 32
10. The processes of creating official subtitles, dubbing and amateur subtitles ...... 34
10.1. Official subtitles and dubbing ...... 34
10.2. Amateur subtitles ...... 35
11. Linguistic issues of the subtitles and dubbing ...... 39
11.1. Omissions in the translation ...... 39
11.2. Different expressions for the same thing ...... 42
11.3. Changes in syntax and sentence divisions ...... 45
11.4. Colloquial language ...... 51
11.5. Different accents ...... 53
11.6. American culture in the Czech translations ...... 53
11.7. Songs in The Big Bang Theory ...... 57
11.7.1. Theme song ...... 58
11.7.2. Other songs ...... 59
11.8. Mistakes ...... 60
12. Conclusion ...... 63
13. Bibliography ...... 65
14. Résumé ...... 70
15. Appendix ...... 72
1. Introduction
Compared to literary works, movies and TV series are quite new within the world‟s culture. Therefore, there are not as many scholarly works focusing on movies and TV series as those dedicated to books. In the same way, subtitles and dubbing can also be considered new, because they originated from the need to translate the films and TV shows. This Bachelor‟s diploma thesis will discuss the differences in translating from
English into Czech for dubbing, official subtitles and amateur subtitles. This will be shown on the contemporary American TV series “The Big Bang Theory”. When translating movies or TV series, several different versions come to being. This depends on who does the translation and for what purpose, i.e. whether he/she translates in order to create a script for official dubbing, or subtitles. Subtitling may be further divided into official and amateur one. When dubbing and official subtitles are to be created, proffesional translators participate in it. Amateur subtitles, on the other hand, are made unprofitably by amateur translators, who may be less skilled than the professionals. This is where a number of differences originate. This thesis will attempt to do a research into official subtitles, dubbing and amateur subtitles of the TV series, and the differences among them and their possible reasons. Certain attention will be paid to the process of creating amateur subtitles, since there is not much research done in this particular field.
It will try to discover whether it is possible for the amateur subtitles to be better than the official ones in certain respects.
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2. Translation in general
This period has become characteristic for its tendency that the ultimate majority of affairs in the world are shared by the whole population. Thanks to significant advance in science and technology in recent centuries, which resulted in a large number of possibilities in trav societies, people are now able to get in touch with each other over any distance. In this period, it is possible for a person to get or connect with almost any place on this planet. These new opportunities led to a mass development of international relations and trade. For this reason, translating and interpreting have gradually become needed more and more.
There are several types of translations, each of them fulfilling a different purpose. A basic difference could be made between literary and technical translations, the latter being used, for example, in international politics. Mona Baker for instance describes the role of translation and interpreting when there appears to be a political conflict. She argues they “play a major role in the management of [the] conflict.” (Baker, 2006, p.2)
She explains that translation and interpreting are used for various purposes during such conflicts. These may be, for example, the actual declaring of war, mobilizing armies, which often tend to be formed of smaller armies from different countries, keeping the ordinary people informed, and finally holding talks, meetings and conferences leading to peace treaties. All these events require participation of professional translators and interpreters. (Baker, 2006, p.2) This type of translation will naturally require different translation strategy than a literary text. As Baker mentions in another of her works, the purpose of translation, besides other things, determines the strategy of coping with non- equivalence of the source and target language. (Baker, 2011, p.18) These translations will have to be as accurate and faithful to the source text as possible.
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Apart from this type of translation, there is a second extensive branch, literary translation. This field has also a very long tradition since books were widely translated also in the past, not only at present. There have been many studies written and much research done on the types and ways of literary translating. Experts and professionals all over the world try to contribute to the knowledge and advancement in this field.
Probably the best-known Czech translation theorist, Jiří Levý, is an author of a large number of writings dedicated to the translation skills. He is generally considered to be the founder of Czech translation theory. One of his works called “The Art of
Translation” deals with this subject. In this book Levý addresses himself particularly to the literary translation. He describes the process of creative translating. He lists three phases – the comprehension of the source text, the interpretation of the source text, and its rewording. He puts forward the difference between mechanical and creative translation, with the latter meaning that during the first phase, the translator needs to gain an insight into the text, get behind it and then interpret it whereas mechanical translator perceives only the text and words. For the creative translator, three levels of comprehension are necessary. He/she must understand the text itself, but he must also understand the esthetic values and artistic units which he/she then conveys to the target language. (Levý, 1998, ch.2)
The variance between technical and literary translation is, therefore, quite significant. Each of them requires different approaches and strategies. However, these strategies are also heavily influenced by other factors, such as if the person translates a novel, poem, newspaper article, or, for example, a movie. Each of these types of texts carries certain limitations that will have an impact on the final translation. For instance, if a person translates a presidential speech in television, he/she will have to make the
8 translation as accurate as possible, whereas translation of a film or television series will more likely follow the style of literary translation.
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3. History of subtitling and dubbing
The history of subtitling and dubbing dates back to the invention of film, since film producers wanted their works to be presented not only in the countries of origin, but also abroad.
3.1. The history of subtitling
As Jan Ivarsson in one of his works reports, the subtitles became demanded with the very beginning of film production. At first, it was due to the intention of filmmakers to provide the dialogues of film characters to viewers. This resulted in the invention of “intertitles”, i.e. written sequences of characters‟ dialogues on a paper that were then placed between individual sequences of the movie. The intertitles first appeared in the movie The Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1903. A few years later, in 1909, they started to be called “sub-titles” and from time to time people could even see them being shown in the moving image. Translation of such movies in this case was relatively easy because it only required someone to remove the original intertitles/subtitles, translate them, film them and reinsert them into the movie. With the invention of sound film, however, the issue of subtitling became present again. One possible solution was to make several language versions of one film. (Ivarsson, 2004) This method is mentioned also by Sylva Talpová in her writing “Chapters about Dubbing”, who says that in
America, various language versions were created, but she also points out this tended to be very expensive. (Talpová, 2013, p.8) Because putting subtitles in the picture was much cheaper than dubbing, subtitling began to develop. The key area of this
10 development were Scandinavian countries, such as Norway, Sweden, etc. (Ivarsson,
2004)
According to Ivarsson, several methods of creating subtitles evolved over time, such as an optical method, film subtitling using mechanical and thermal processes, a chemical method, and laser subtitling. Some of these procedures are also described in
Oldřich Kautský‟s work Dubbing, yes and no. Compared to contemporary subtitling, these methods were significantly more difficult and time demanding. Another Czech subtitler, Miroslav Pošta, who is an author of the latest Czech book dealing with professional subtitling, says that Kautský‟s description of these old-fashioned methods reminds a person of purgatory. (Pošta, 2011, p.11)
Nowadays, subtitling has a completely different form. Thanks to a significant progress in information technologies, translators now use various computer programs for subtitling, which make their work a lot easier. Today‟s professional subtitlers could not do without computers and internet. They are also often expected to manage much more aspects than in the past. Several decades ago, it required a number of professionals to create subtitles, each of them having a different task. At present, a professional subtitler needs to be able to not only translate the actual text, but also work with timing
(or spotting), etc. This is because clients usually search for someone who will do the whole work rather than more people with different skills. They need somebody who will both translate the text and set the subtitles. The other possibility is that a spotter will set the translated subtitles. It is important to say, though, that a close co-operation of these two professionals is necessary.
Pošta claims: an ideal subtitler is able to create subtitles from a scratch, i.e. he/she
can do the translation, divide it into individual subtitles, set them, adjust them
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accordingly, save and pass them on for a check-up, and supply the finished
subtitle file to the client. (Pošta, 2011, p.12; my translation)
The more of these skills a translator has, the easier it is for him/her to find a job.
(Pošta, 2011, p.12)
3.2. The history of dubbing
One of the areas that Sylva Talpová deals with in her work is the history of dubbing.
She describes how this art started to evolve around 1930 when the first sound movies appeared. When the first American sound films were screened in Paris, people demanded that the characters spoke French, not English, because they could not understand them. One solution would be to make subtitles inserted in the movie but this would not preserve the artistic experience of the combination of image and sound. As mentioned earlier in this work, various language versions started to be made, but they were costly because actors usually did not speak several different languages and thus a large number of European actors and actresses had to be paid travels so that they could participate in creating these language versions. Talpová argues that the first real dubbing began shortly before the Second World War and that there were mixed reactions to it. Some people rejected it because the technology was still of a too low standard to produce high-quality dubbing, and because they were not willing to accept this still quite a primitive transfer from one language to another.
The first Czech dubbing came into existence in 1933 when Ing. Miroslav Gebert translated and directed the dubbing of Herman C. Raymaker‟s movie Trailling the
Killer. The second one was Disney‟s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1938.
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Subsequently the Czech dubbing evolved and it experienced its “golden days” at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. This was for the most part because excellent translators, adjusters, directors and top-class theatre actors and actresses co-operated on the dubbing production. In 1970s and 1980s, there were four studios for the dubbing production in
Czechoslovakia. At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the Czech dubbing can be said to be on the top level. In 1990s, however, a wide range of private dubbing studios of various quality levels came to being. Moreover, one studio in Brno was closed and the production moved largely to Prague to the Czech Television Studio. Dubbing has a long tradition in the Czech society, which places high demands on it. (Talpová, 2013, p.7-13)
A Czech translator and dubbing director Olga Walló says that “in Czechoslovakia, dubbing had wide professional base and good quality, which had prerequisites for its rise because dubbing was not perceived as second-rate artwork, but as artwork of translation.” (Walló, 1987, p.6; my translation)
3.3. Subtitling and dubbing in European countries and the Czech Republic
It is important to say that people in different countries have different opinions and preferences about movie translations. In some states they prefer subtitles, whereas in others dubbing is generally more in demand. In 2007, European commission carried out a research whose aim was to track the distribution of such preferences in the countries of the European Union and European Economic Area. It should find out in which countries people preferred dubbing, subtitles and voice-over. It was discovered that in
TV broadcasting, dubbing prevailed in the majority of states, whereas in cinema distribution, subtitles were preferred. Moreover, subtitling was found to be on the rise when speaking of the cinema distribution. On the other hand, in TV broadcasting, the
13 countries are much more conservative and unwilling to change their habits, so there still remains a clearly visible variation between “subtitling countries” and “dubbing countries”. (Pošta, 2011, p.26)
Pošta also shows a table of the countries‟ preferences:
Preferred ways of language conversion in the countries of the EU and EEA
Cinema distribution TV broadcasting dubbing: almost exclusively in Italy dubbing: French-speaking part of dubbing and subtitling (in diverse ratio, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Italy, often two movie versions): Spain, France, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Slovakia,
Germany, Austria* Spain, Switzerland subtitling: other investigated countries voice-over: Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia,
Poland, partially Estonia
subtitling: the Flemish part of Belgium,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland,
Iceland, Cyprus, Netherland, Norway,
Portugal, Romania, Greece, United
Kingdom, Slovenia, Sweden
* also the Czech Republic and Hungary to a certain degree
(Pošta, 2011, p.26; my translation)
As can be observed from the table, in the Czech Republic, there is a discrepancy between TV broadcasting and cinema distribution, with dubbing prevailing in the first one and subtitles in the latter. The same situation is in Slovakia and Hungary. In Poland, for example, it is voice-over that dominates the TV; subtitles can be seen in cinemas.
(Pošta, 2011, p.27)
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Such variations have a considerable effect on the quality of the subtitles and dubbing. As Talpová mentioned, The Czech Republic is a “dubbing country”, thus, the
Czech dubbing is of a high quality, especially the one of the 1980s and 1990s. She even calls former Czechoslovakia and today‟s Czech Republic a dubbing power. She argues this is because of Czech language patriotism and the participation of famous actors and actresses in dubbing films at the very beginning. However, this golden era passed and was replaced by the establishment of private studios, which produced lower-quality dubbing. (Talpová, 2013, p.37-38) Compared to subtitling, though, Czech dubbing is still much better. Pošta criticizes the quality of Czech subtitling, saying that publicists, researchers or even production companies do not pay adequate attention to subtitling.
(Pošta, 2011, p.7) The quality reflects off the remuneration for the work, which is according to Pošta very low. This is connected to the effort to make all the expenses as low as possible. The gap between subtitles and dubbing is immense. The overall expenditure of a studio on creating dubbing is on average 11.6 times higher than on subtitles and still they try to shorten the time for translation as much as possible which consequently leaves its marks on the quality.
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4. Subtitling
In the book Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling written by two professional
translators Jorge Díaz Cintas (Spain) and Aline Remael (Belgium), subtitling is
defined as: a translation practice that consists of presenting a written text,
generally on the lower part of the screen that endeavors to recount the original
dialogue of the speakers, as well as the discursive elements that appear in the
image (letters, inserts, graffiti, inscriptions, placards and the like), and the
information that is contained on the soundtrack (songs, voices off). (Díaz Cintas
and Remael, 2007, p.8)
Talpová makes an observation that it is very important to capture the factual content as accurately as possible in the translation. Equally important, though, is to preserve maximum of the original content‟s authenticity. This work is made even more difficult because the translator is limited by the maximum number of character per one subtitle in order to make it possible for a viewer to read all the subtitles within the time given by the length of individual utterances and scenes. (Talpová, 2013, p.50) Díaz Cintas and
Remael confirm this by saying that there are three components forming the basis of each subtitled program, such as the spoken word, the image and the subtitles. They say that “subtitles must appear in synchrony with the image and dialogue, provide a semantically adequate account of the source language dialogue, and remain displayed on screen long enough for the viewers to be able to read them.” (Díaz Cintas and
Remael, 2007, p.9)
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4.1. Types of subtitles
Karel Kameník, whose work Subtitle in an Amateur Film (my translation) was published in 1961, divides subtitles only into four basic categories, such as the head and introductory subtitles, monologue and dialogue subtitles, the closing subtitles and a test subtitle. All these are characteristic for the past era of silent movies, with the monologue and dialogue subtitle being the mediator of characters‟ speech in such films
(Kameník, 1961, ch.2).
However, the technology has developed since that time, a large number of subtitle types have come into being, and contemporary subtitles can be now divided according to much more features. For instance Díaz Cintas and Remael sort them according to several aspects, such as linguistic parameters, time available for preparation, technical parameters, methods of projecting subtitles, or a distribution format.
According to the authors‟ linguistic perspective, there are following subtitle types:
Intralingual subtitles
o For the deaf and the hard-of-hearing (SDH)
o For language learning purposes
o For Karaoke effect
o For dialects of the same language
o For notices and announcements
Interlingual subtitles
o For hearers
o For the deaf and the hard-of-hearing (SDH)
Bilingual subtitles
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Intralingual subtitles are characterized by the change of mode from spoken to written, but the language remains the same. Interlingual subtitles, on the other hand, carry the change of mode, as well as the language, and they are the focus of this work. The third type is bilingual subtitles, which are produced in countries where two languages are spoken.
The time available for preparation can determine another set of subtitle types:
Pre-prepared subtitles (offline subtitling)
o In complete sentences
o Reduced
Live or real-time subtitles (online subtitling)
o Human-made
o Machine-translated
Pre-prepared subtitles are created after a programme has been shot and before it is released, whereas online subtitling is performed at the same time when the programme is being broadcasted. The reduced form of offline subtitling is used, for example, when translating news or interviews in which only a gist of the original text is considered relevant.
The division with regard to the technical parameters brings the following two types:
Open subtitles
Closed subtitles
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The difference between these two is that open subtitles cannot be removed or turned off.
In the case of closed subtitles, it is possible to turn the on and off as the viewer wishes
(e.g. on DVDs).
Díaz Cintas and Remael distinguish subtitle also according to the method of projecting:
Mechanical and thermal subtitling
Photochemical subtitling
Optical subtitling
Laser subtitling
Electronic subtitling
The overview of these methods may remind a person of the history of subtitling as the majority of them was used in the past. The most recent method is the electronic subtitling, which is used, for instance, in television and DVDs.
The last criterion for the division (which probably also occurs the most to laymen) is the distribution format, that is determined by what purpose are the subtitles made for:
Cinema
Television
Video, VHS
DVD
Internet
These distribution formats differ mainly in the length of individual subtitles, i.e. in the number of characters allowed to appear in one line. The television production usually follows the “six-second rule” that determines how many characters is an average viewer
19 able to read within this time. For various languages, different numbers of characters are stated. This reading speed, however, varies in subtitling for cinema, DVDs, festivals, etc. (Díaz Cintas and Remael, 2007, p.13-25) Pošta mentions that for television broadcasting, in Czech, 30 to 37 characters per line are allowed. For DVDs, it is usually about 40. (Pošta, 2011, p.43)
4.2. The subtitling process
The following description will answer the process of subtitling movies, which is the kind of subtitling most relevant to this work. First of all, a client (most usually a production or distribution company) contacts a subtitling company and applies for a translation. The subtitling company then chooses a particular translator who will do the translation. Someone has to watch the copy of the given movie to make sure there is no damage to it or other problems. There needs to be a working copy of the film made. The client may, for example, provide only certain scenes with dialogues to the subtitling company in order to preserve the movie from illegal copying. Next, spotting/timing takes place, which means that a professional determines when subtitles will appear and disappear. Sometimes the film can be provided already with a spotting list. Then the translator is given the copy of the film and a dialogue list (sometimes only one of these two is actually sent and the translator has to work only from the written dialogue or from the images and soundtrack). It is very useful for the translator to watch the whole movie before starting to actually translate, because it is good to think about several issues first, such as the actual meaning of some words that tend to have polysemous meaning in the source language, realizing the gender and number of certain nouns or pronouns (e.g. “you” in English), deciding whether formal or informal form of address
20 will be used in the target language, etc. When this all is done, the translator may proceed to the translation itself with due attention to acoustic and visual elements, that need to be translated as well (songs, pictures, signs, etc.) The translator is often asked to do the spotting as well, in which case he/she will produce the final version of the subtitles saved in special format typical for subtitles. When the work has been done, the translator hands in the finished subtitles. In case he/she was not asked to do the spotting, a technician or adaptor will do this, and adjust the subtitles. One of the last steps is proofreading of the subtitles. This part is absolutely necessary if the subtitles should be of high quality. Then a simulation of the movie with the subtitles takes place. The client is present at this event, so that he/she can demand some changes if needed. When the client is satisfied, the subtitles may be put into the film. The movie is then screened in a cinema, broadcasted on television or sold on DVD. (Díaz Cintas and Remael, 2007, p.30-34)
4.3. Code of good subtitling
In order to be considered professional and of high quality, every subtitles have to follow certain rules connected not only to the literary aspect of translation, but mostly to the technical one, since there are certain time and space restriction given by the original.
Díaz Cintas and Remael say that: as far as space is concerned, the dimensions of
the actual screen are finite and the target text will have to accommodate to the
width of the screen. Although the figures vary, this means that a subtitle will have
some 32 to 41 characters per line in a maximum of two lines. (Díaz Cintas and
Remael, 2007, p.9)
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In 1998, the European Association for Studies in Screen Translation published a guide dealing with the subtitling rules Code of Good Subtitling Practice written by Mary
Carroll and Jan Ivarsson. It consists of 26 rules concerning spotting and translation that should be followed by any professional subtitler. They are the following:
Subtitlers must always work with a copy of the production and, if possible, a
dialogue list and glossary of atypical words and special references.
It is the subtitler's job to spot the production and translate and write the subtitles
in the (foreign) language required.
Translation quality must be high with due consideration of all idiomatic and
cultural nuances.
Simple syntactic units should be used.
When it is necessary to condense dialogue, the text must be coherent.
Subtitle text must be distributed from line to line and page to page in sense
blocks and/or grammatical units.
Ideally, each subtitle should be syntactically self-contained.
The language register must be appropriate and correspond to locution.
The language should be grammatically correct since subtitles serve as a model
for literacy.
All important written information in the images (signs, notices, etc.) should be
translated and incorporated wherever possible.
Given the fact that many TV viewers are hearing-impaired, "superfluous"
information, such as names, off-screen interjections, etc., should also be
subtitled.
Songs must be subtitled where relevant.
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Obvious repetition of names and common comprehensible phrases need not always be subtitled.
The in and out times of subtitles must follow the speech rhythm of the dialogue, taking cuts and sound bridges into consideration.
Language distribution within and over subtitles must consider cuts and sound bridges; the subtitles must underline surprise or suspense and in no way undermine it.
The duration of all subtitles within a production must adhere to a regular viewer reading rhythm.
Spotting must reflect the rhythm of the film.
No subtitle should appear for less than one second or, with the exception of songs, stay on the screen for longer than seven seconds.
A minimum of four frames should be left between subtitles to allow the viewer´s eye to register the appearance of a new subtitle.
The number of lines in any subtitle must be limited to two.
Wherever two lines of unequal length are used, the upper line should preferably be shorter to keep as much of the image as free as possible and in left-justified subtitles in order to reduce unnecessary eye movement.
There must be a close correlation between film dialogue and subtitle content; source language and target language should be synchronized as far as possible.
There must be a close correlation between film dialogue and the presence of subtitles.
Each production should be edited by a reviser/editor.
The (main) subtitler should be acknowledged at the end of the film or, if the credits are at the beginning, then close to the credit for the script writer.
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The year of subtitle production and the copyright for the version should be
displayed at the end of the film. (Carroll and Ivarsson, 1998, p.1-2)
One may see that the majority of the rules are of technical nature. Thus, when translating a movie or TV series, it is sometimes difficult to preserve the literary aspect of the translation and adjust it to the technical rules, so that the target text would correspond to the original dialogues. This usually leads to shortening and simplifying of sentences, various omissions of certain words, etc.
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5. Dubbing
“Dubbing of a foreign language audiovisual work is in fact translation in its full meaning. Its aim is to provide artistic emotional experience to a viewer in his/her mother tongue, comparable to artistic experience of the viewer in the sphere of the original language.” (Makarian, 2005, p.9; my translation) Gregor Makarian, a sound master from Slovakia, says that dubbing must meet two criteria, such as meeting the criteria of literary translation (see Chapter 2) and it must also run together with the image, so that the visual impression would be intensified. The basic ethical principle of dubbing is its aim to convey the artistic values in as deep and persuasive way as possible. (Makarian, 2005, p.9) Talpová confirms this claim by her statement that artistic dubbing is constituted of artistic translation of the original dialogues (this translation has to take into account the factual contents and the original‟s style, and follow the characters‟ social environment, age and emotions) and of high-quality adaptation, which has to follow rhythm, intonation, etc. (Talpová, 2013, p.4)
It is important that dubbing is not confused with voice-over. Voice-over is used, for example, in Poland (see chapter 3.3), where it appears in television broadcasting (in cinemas subtitles prevail). In voice-over, the original sound is suppressed (a viewer can still hear it a little bit though) and there is one more voice over it. This second voice reads the translation. Usually, it is a man who reads it. Sometimes there are two voices – a man and a woman. The woman then reads the translation for all female characters and the man reads male utterances. In the Czech Republic, the voice-over meets absolutely no acceptance from the side of the viewers because of its extremely low quality compared to dubbing. (Talpová, 2013, p.37)
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5.1. The dubbing process
As Makarian describes in his work, the process of dubbing may be divided into three basic stages. He calls them a “preparatory stage”, “stage of realization” and “stage of approval” (my translation) Each of these consists of a number of phases and together they form a process much more complex than the process of subtitling.
In the preparatory stage, dramaturgic and technical examination of the original broadcasting copy needs to be done. If necessary, some changes are made when making a copy, which then serves as a broadcasting copy of the broadcaster (this copy is called
“submaster”). Before proceeding to the translation of dialogues, a preliminary cost estimate is done. The translation itself is then done. Editing of the translated dialogues follows along with their division into individual segments. The script is then given to an editor and put on the production. The individual segments are recorded into a computer.
In addition, an examination of “international mixing strip” (my translation), i.e. a sound strip containing all the sounds in the film except for the characters‟ dialogues, must be done. In this first stage, the actual translation is performed.
The stage of realization then follows. It is the stage in which the creation of dubbing itself takes place. A production crew is established, casting (the choice of actors and actresses for individual film characters) is carried out. A preliminary production meeting takes place. Consequently the dialogue and choir recording is done.
The editing and slight adjustment of the dialogues must be done before moving on to one of the most important steps – mixing – which involves unifying all the sound components. The last step of this stage is transcription into a broadcasting copy.
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The final product is then put to a check-up projection. If everything is in order, the product can be approved. The final production cost is then calculated, and the movie is put into broadcasting.
A large number of professionals are needed when creating dubbing, such as the script editor, translator, dialogue editor, executive producer, sound master, director of the target language version. (Makarian, 2005, p.81-114)
5.2. Translation for dubbing
Makarian further develops a discussion of how a proper translation for dubbing should look like. He describes several aspects which the translator must be aware of.
When translating dialogues, he/she ought to take into account the purity of the translation. The translator should be able to avoid Anglicisms to be recognized by the viewer. He/she must choose an appropriate register, so that the spoken text will be fluent in the same way as in the original version.
Sometimes another language may be seen in the original text. This is called the
“third” language because it is the third one after the source and target languages. There might be several different reasons why this third language is used; it is the translator‟s task to discover them and subsequently come up with an appropriate solution.
Translating how individual characters address each other might also be a tough proposition, since English does not distinguish formal and informal way of addressing.
One must consider relations among characters and decide what kind of addressing fits a given situation best.
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Interjections, vulgarisms, curses, etc. are also expressions specific to a certain language and it is necessary to find matching equivalents in the target language.
To these above mentioned expressions another language aspect is connected - slang. Slang contributes for instance to the expressivityand cultural allusions. It might be presented by certain language deformations, such as leaving out letters, shortening long words or lines, and so on that are sometimes very difficult to translate.
It is crucial that the aesthetical aspects are preserved. Thus, the translator must pay attention to metaphors, idioms, verses, proverbs, sayings, etc. (Makarian, 2005, p.83-90)
All these aspect must be taken into account when translating for subtitles as well.
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6. Subtitling vs. dubbing
Many scholars, professional translators and other specialists deal with this theme in their works, since there have always been clashes between those who prefer subtitles over dubbing and vice versa. Talpová argues that people tend to form two groups, which each prefer one of these types of language transfer. She claims that those who prefer one method usually ignore its disadvantages and tend to have an aversion to the second one. (Talpová, 2013, p.40)
One of the most frequent advantages of subtitling stated is that it provides the viewer with the authentic performance (especially if he/she does not know the original language). If he/she does know the language, the subtitles may serve as means of verifying their language skills. Subtitles allow the viewer to understand the verbal aspect of the original and subsequently evaluate the aesthetical experience.
On the other hand, subtitles cannot provide the ultimate emotional experience of the original version because a significant part of the viewer‟s attention is drawn to reading the subtitles. (Makarian, 2005, p.15-16)
Dubbing is often criticized its loss of the original dialogues and paralinguistic information. But unlike subtitles, it conveys the whole atmosphere of the film. People might easily identify with actors if they speak their mother tongue. The viewers then more easily tune in to the story. (Talpová, 2013, p.47-48)
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7. Amateur subtitling
Since the subject of this work is also fan subtitling, a short chapter will be dedicated to it. There are very few studies focusing on amateur subtitles, probably partly because it is a relatively new phenomenon among people. Díaz Cintas and Remael deal with this activity in their work and say that thanks to the recent technology development, various subtitling programs are now available on the Internet (some of them for free).
The amateur subtitling emerged in 1980s, when fans of Japanese programs, such as anime and manga, started to translate them into English because they wanted to watch these favorite programs of theirs. This activity then spread, and various programs started to be translated from and into various languages.
The main idea of this activity is free sharing of these programs along with their translations in form of amateur subtitles on the Internet (despite the obvious clash with copyright). Fan subtitling is said to be much more creative and individualistic than the professional one, but, as has been said, there has been little research done into this theme. Thus, it is difficult to come to any specific conclusions. (Díaz Cintas and
Remael, 2007, p.26-27)
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8. The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang Theory is an American situation comedy that was created in 2007 by
Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. It features 5 main characters – two physicists Leonard
Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, their neighbor Penny, a mechanical engineer Howard
Wolowitz, and an astrophysicist Rajesh Koothrappali, who live in Pasadena, California.
Leonard and Sheldon are two roommates who work as scientists at a university, also with their two friends, lascivious Howard of Jewish origin and shy Indian Rajesh. The strongest personality is Sheldon whose IQ is 187. He got his Ph.D. when he was 16 and considers himself the most intelligent man in the world. The object of the series is the everyday life of these characters with all its humorous and comical moments, which often arise from the clash between high intelligence of the four male characters and their inability to socialize with ordinary people, and the need to solve common problems of a man‟s everyday life. The difference between these four “geeks” and
Penny who is a very good-looking girl but her IQ is in no way high and she is, therefore, portrayed as “the normal” person among them, is also depicted there. The series is full of scientific and technical dialogues of the characters. Their humorous nature originates from the “abnormality” of such utterances to common people (the viewers).
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9. Why The Big Bang Theory, and methods used
As has been mentioned at the beginning of this work there has been significantly less research done into the field of subtitling and dubbing compared to studies on literary works‟ translation. The Big Bang Theory, in particular, is a kind of TV series which is build upon people‟s dialogues. However, there is much more to it than simply ordinary conversations. The main characters are scientists, so their utterances very often tend to be quite complex. It contains a lot of utterances about physical experiments and inventions. The producers of the TV series even have a professional physicist who examines and edits the dialogues so that they correspond to actual scientific and physical terminology. Moreover, scientific jokes often appear in the episodes. In addition to that, thanks to the fact that Rajesh is of Indian origin, a foreign accent can be heard in the series, along with insinuations about Indian culture. Howard, then, is frustrated by his inability to find a serious relationship and he often makes depraved innuendoes on women, in which cases he uses slang of this kind.
All these aspects mentioned above make this TV series very rich in themes of various kinds, such as theoretical physics and science, relationships, different cultures, everyday life and humor. As a result, The Big Bang Theory seems like an interesting object for a translation study.
9.1. Methods
At the very beginning, a large number of episodes of The Big Bang Theory were looked through, so that the main aspects of their translations were detected. The translation types in question were the official Czech dubbed version, along with the official
32 subtitled version in Czech. The subtitled episodes were recorded from television when on air on the Czech television channel Prima Cool, and the subtitles were then rewritten into MS Word file. Another type was amateur subtitles accessible on the Internet. All the translations were then compared with each other and the original English version.
For the purposes of this thesis, four particular episodes were selected by the author (the episode 10 of season1, episode 6 of season2, episode 13 of season3, and episode 11 of season4) . All translation types, i.e. dubbing, official subtitles and amateur subtitles, of these four episodes were further examined in detail. The amateur subtitles studied were each created by different people, so that the study would be focused on amateur subtitlers in general, not on one particular translator. All the translation types were analyzed and compared.
Furthermore, the thesis‟ author contacted three translators, one of them being a professional, who spent several years translating for dubbing and official subtitles. The other two are amateur subtitlers both having experience with subtitling The Big Bang
Theory series. The translators were asked questions about their translation experience, and interviews were done with them in order to map the process of amateur subtitling and to find out their experience and opinions.
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10. The processes of creating official subtitles, dubbing and amateur subtitles
10.1. Official subtitles and dubbing
As has been described in the chapters 4.2 and 5.1, the process of creating official subtitles and dubbing is quite complex, especially in the case of dubbing. It requires a large number of professionals when making a version in another language. However, according to a former Czech translator, Dr. Martin Němec, there is a difference between the approach to movies and television series. He claims that “film is alwas paid much more attention from all sides - from a distributor, the studio which shot the film to redactors, editors, dubbing actors, or the subtitlers. Television series is considered consumer article and is approached as the consumer article.” (M. Němec, personal communication, April 17, 2014; my translation)
The actual texts of the official subtitles and dubbing in The Big Bang Theory episodes studied are very similar. This might be caused by the companies which want to save money. As Dr. Němec says, there should be two different transcriptions made by the studios, one for the subtitling and the other for the dubbing. The dubbing transcription was based on key words according to stresses, proper names, etc. The translator is then given the script with the highlighted key words and he/she translates it.
An editor of the dialogues then crosses out syllables, stresses, etc. Also, there is an actor/actress who sometimes changes the utterances according to himself/herself. The final translation is, therefore, often very different from the original translation of the translator.
Subtitling, on the other hand, has to conform to approximately 26 rules that determine the subtitle length, duration, etc. It is not bound by any key words but there
34 are lots of technical rules and restrictions (see ch. 4.3). (M. Němec, personal communication, April 17, 2014)
10.2. Amateur subtitles
Compared to the official subtitles and dubbing, the process of creating amateur subtitles is significantly less complex. There are only few people who co-operate on the subtitling of a given series‟ episode or movie. Either there is a small group of people who do the translation, or there may be only one person creating the given subtitles alone, who can do it simply for his/her own needs or because this way seems more convenient to him/her. One of the amateur subtitlers who also translated a special episode for The Big Bang Theory, MartyCZ, says that for the most part he works alone because he usually sets about projects that only few people know or want to do
(personal communication, March 10, 2014). In this case, the amateur translator must do the whole work, i.e. he/she must translate the dialogues, do the spotting and finally revise the subtitles and make corrections where needed.
If there are more people involved, each of them is given a certain task, such as the actual translation, spotting, revision and putting it on the Internet. For example,
Kristýna Routnerová, another amateur translator, who pursues creating amateur subtitles for The Big Bang Theory on a regular basis, describes her subtitling experience as co- operation of herself and one other translator. She says that she usually “downloads an episode, watches it with English subtitles and then translates the English subtitles. In the end she does (changes and adjusts) the spotting and sends it to the other translator who checks it up and uploads it on the Internet” (personal communication, March 12, 2014; my translation). The individual tasks may be distributed differently within different
35 groups of translators, but these are the basic steps, which each such translation process includes. The translators in the group may not know each other in person. It happens that sometimes the translators have met in person only once in their lives. They might communicate only via the Internet. Otherwise, they can meet regularly at various events and festivals, as Kristýna Routnerová describes. (personal communication, April 24,
2014)
Amateur subtitlers are considered translators who try to create subtitles as soon and quickly as possible for the episodes which have just come out. Generally, these subtitles tend to be done within hours (sometimes days) after a given episode has been released in its original version. However, the translators are particular about quality of their translations as well, even though they make an effort to upload their subtitles within the same day the episode gets released. (K. Routnerová, personal communication, April 24, 2014)
Just as there are certain rules for professional subtitling, the amateur subtitlers also try to follow some of these rules. For instance, MartyCZ mentions he learned some rules from a friend of his which, as he states, approximately conform to the Code of
Good Subtitling Practice by Mary Carroll and Jan Ivarsson, and he tries to follow these rules as much as possible (personal communication, March 10, 2014). Kristýna
Routnerová remarks there are rules they try to follow, but more important is using common sense (personal communication, April 24, 2014).
Both translators questioned stated they use English subtitles, which they subsequently translate into Czech. However, it may also happen that the translation is done from soundtrack or using a transcript. (MartyCZ, personal communication, March
10, 2014) Both translators also stated they use the same computer program for
36 subtitling. This program is called “VisualSubSync”. It provides the translators with easy control and includes several plug-ins, such as spelling and grammar checker, etc.
(K. Routnerová, personal communication, 2014)
Figure 1. VisualSubSync (Kaiousama et al., 2013)
Figure 1 shows the main window of the VisualSubSync program, that the translators use for subtitling. The window is divided into five sections. Section 1, which is in the upper part of the window, shows the soundtrack. A part of the video can be selected in this section of the window, and a subtitle is then added by right-clicking onto it and choosing “add subtitle”. The actual subtitle text is then entered into the text field in section 4. Section 2 consists of controls for listening and further information about the video. Section 3 shows the list of subtitles along with the timing. The fourth section includes the text field which the actual text is written into, and on the left, the number of characters in each subtitle line is shown. Section 5 presents information about the number of lines and characters in the given subtitle. Moreover, it shows the number of
37 characters per one second. This is a particularly useful tool because the translator can see if the given subtitle is short enough, or if it is too long in relation to the time given.
It is important to say that VisualSubSync is only one of many computer programs that can be used for creating subtitles.
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11. Linguistic issues of the subtitles and dubbing
11.1. Omissions in the translation
In subtitles and dubbing, one may come across certain omissions in the translations.
These are usually words that are present in the original dialogue but in the final translation, they are not. Moreover, it is not only one single word that sometimes retreats from the translated version. Often, there are whole phrases or even sentences that are left out.
04:00 Leonard? Leonard? Leonard? (Original version)
Leonarde? Leonarde? Leonarde? (Official subtitles)
Leonarde? Leonarde? Leonarde? (Dubbing)
Leonarde? (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 1, episode 10: The Loobenfeld Decay)
One example could be when a certain expression is being repeated several times, but in the subtitles, it is written only once. One may observe that in this particular case the repetition of the name is preserved in official subtitles and dubbing. However, in amateur subtitles the utterance is reduced to one word and the other two are omitted.
This is a common practice in subtitling in which expressions that are repeated are left out in order to make the given subtitle as short as possible, so that it would read quickly and easily. But it depends on the subtitler whether he chooses this possibility or not. In the Big Bang Theory series, the official subtitles usually preserve the whole utterance.
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For the most part, the amateur subtitles do as well, although there are cases in which the translator shortened it.
09:27 ...which I'm assuming is embarrassing, yes? (Original version)
Což by mě snad do rozpaků uvedlo! (Official subtitles)
Což by mě snad do rozpaků uvedlo! (Dubbing)
...což jak předpokládám ponižující je, že? (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 1, episode 10: The Loobenfeld Decay)
Question tags is another example of frequently omitted words. The reason for their omitting is mostly the effort to make the lines shorter so that a given subtitle would follow the technical rules about subtitle length. The amateur subtitles on average preserve these question and other tags more often than official subtitles and dubbing.
10:34 Okay, all right, good. (Original version)
Co? Jasně. Tak jo. (Official subtitles)
Co? Jasně. (Dubbing)
Oh, oukej, v pořádku. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 1, episode 10: The Loobenfeld Decay)
The most frequently omitted kind of expressions are words that serve as “paddings”.
They do not have any significant meaning and utterances still make sense even if these words are removed. Amateur subtitlers tend to keep all the words and make their translations as accurate as possible, whereas in professional subtitling these expressions
40 are very often omitted. Dubbing also leaves out such words in order to adjust to a certain length of a given utterance.
14:25 ...because of your initial and totally inadequate deceit. (Original version)
...kvůli tvé původní a chabé lži. (Official subtitles)
...kvůli tvé původní a chabé lži. (Dubbing)
... pouze kvůli tvé prvotní neadekvátní lži. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 1, episode 10: The Loobenfeld Decay)
Another type are words that specify other expressions. These may be, for example, adverbs, adjectives, possessive pronouns and words giving detailed information that may not seem necessary to maintain. Again, the amateur subtitles on average try to be as accurate as possible, whereas in official subtitles and dubbing one may see more of these omissions.
12:51 Leonard gets nauseous unless he sits
in front, and even then, it's iffy. (Original version)
Ne! Jak nesedí vepředu Leonard,
zvedá se mu žaludek! (Official subtitles)
Ne, ne! Jak nesedí vepředu Leonard,
zvedá se mu žaludek! (Dubbing)
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Ne, ne, ne.
Leonardovi se dělá špatně, pokud nesedí
vepředu a i tak je to nejisté. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 1, episode 10: The Loobenfeld Decay)
Also, a whole clause may be omitted in the translation, but this seldom occurs in the Big
Bang Theory translations studied. The reason for this seems to be that the accurate
Czech translation would be too long as can be seen in the amateur version.
On average, the professional subtitles and dubbing have tendencies to avoid some expressions more often than the amateur subtitles. In the case of dubbing, it is mostly because the utterances must be short enough so that they would correspond approximately to the number of syllables in the original. The professional subtitles then focus on the technical issues of this translation type which limits them significantly. Of course, there are many cases when amateur subtitles used omissions as well but according to this research, the omissions occur approximately twice less often in the amateur subtitles.
11.2. Different expressions for the same thing
In the translations there also appear expressions for which different Czech equivalents are used.
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11:29 Holy crap on a cracker. (Original version)
To mě teda podržte. (Official subtitles)
No to mě teda podržte. (Dubbing)
No to mě poděs. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 2, episode 6: The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem)
The amateur subtitles can be often found using expressions typical of teenagers and young people, which may be beneficial since these people are the main target group of this television series. It may be also thanks to the fact that amateur subtitlers are usually students and other young people who are well versed in this manner of speech. There are cases where the official subtitles and dubbing seem better at this aspect, but the amateur subtitles prevail.
00:40 I might as well explain the laws of
thermodynamics to a bunch of labradoodles. (Original version)
To bych mohl vysvětlovat zákony
termodynamiky smečce labraňoumů! (Official subtitles)
To bych mohl vysvětlovat zákony
termodynamiky smečce labraňoumů! (Dubbing)
To bych mohl zrovna vysvětlovat zákony
termodynamiky smečce labradoodlů. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 2, episode 6: The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem)
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When it comes to plays on words, the official subtitles and dubbing show much more creativity and professionalism. As can be seen in the example above, their translations tend to sound more natural to Czech people. On the other hand, the amateur subtitles preserve the Anglicism and count on a certain level of the viewers‟ knowledge of the
English language. In this particular example, the word “labradoodle” is also used in
Czech, meaning a cross-breed of two dog breeds, and therefore it is possible to transfer it into Czech with no changes made. However, the expression is not that commonly used, so only some people will know its meaning. For this reason, it might be more convenient to use the kind of solution that can be seen in the official subtitles and dubbing.
03:58 I especially liked your paper on grand
unification using string-network condensates (Original version)
Nejvíc se mi líbila
vaše unifikace
použitím kondenzátů
strunových sítí. (Official subtitles)
Nejvíc se mi líbila vaše unifikace
použitím kondenzátů strunových sítí. (Dubbing)
Nejvíc se mi líbila vaše práce na unifikaci
použitím kondenzátů strunových sítí. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 2, episode 6: The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem)
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Real-life technical terms connected with physics, science, etc. are usually translated in the same or very similar way. This is thanks to the fact that the production of the Big
Bang Theory has an actual scientist who corrects and adjusts the terminology used.
Translator‟s work is then easier because he/she is able to find Czech equivalents.
Also, there are a lot of English expressions translated into Czech in different ways, but their overall meanings in the translations seem the same - for example, using the Czech terms “noční můry” and “zlý sny” for the English “nightmares”.
Both professional and amateur translations have their merits. The amateur ones correspond more to the way of speaking of the young people but there are certain shortcomings when translating plays on words at which professional translators seem to be more skilled.
11.3. Changes in syntax and sentence divisions
When looking closely at the various translations, one may observe that very often there is a large number of changes made in the Czech versions, thus the source and target language sentences are not completely the same.
17:43 Yes. She's in the living room. (Original version)
Teď je v obýváku. (Official subtitles)
Teď je v obýváku. (Dubbing)
Ano. Je v obýváku. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 2, episode 6: The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem)
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When examining the translations, one may notice that sometimes two sentences are joined to form one in the target language. In the example above, in the original version there are two equally important sentences (in the context given, the word “Yes” does not serve as padding or any other element that could be omitted). Despite this fact, the two sentences are merged. This practice is more likely to appear in the professional subtitles and dubbing than in the amateur subtitles.
03:58 I especially liked your paper on grand unification using string-network
condensates and was wondering how you determined that three-dimensional
string-nets provided a unified picture of fermions and gauge bosons?
(Original version)
...použitím kondenzátů strunových sítí. Jak jste zjistil, že... (Official subtitles)
...použitím kondenzátů strunových sítí. Jak jste zjistil, že... (Dubbing)
...použitím kondenzátů strunových sítí a zajímalo by mě, jak jste zjistil, že...
(Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 2, episode 6: The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem)
The complete opposite is when one sentence from the original version is divided into two sentences in the translation, as can be seen in the example above. This is also more typical for the official subtitles and dubbing.
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10:37 If you're going to stay,
you'll have to be respectful and quiet. (Original version)
Pokud tu chcete zůstat,
budete muset být
zdvořilá a zticha. (Official subtitles)
Pokud tu chcete zůstat, musíte být zdvořilá a zticha. (Dubbing)
Pokud chcete zůstat,
budete muset být zdvořilí a potichu. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 2, episode 6: The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem)
The changes in tense are another issue that often occurs. This can be seen in all the translation types studied here. In the particular case showed above, the future tense is changed into present simple in the dubbing. This is most probably because the sentence is shorter this way. Otherwise, the changes in tense show the lack of accuracy of the given translations.
02:59 No,if you can talk to
them,you can ask them out. (Original version)
Ne, pokud je
dokážeme pozvat na rande. (Official subtitles)
Ne, pokud je dokážeme pozvat na rande. (Dubbing)
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Ne, pokud s nimi dokážeš mluvit,
můžeš je pozvat na rande. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 2, episode 6: The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem)
The change of grammatical person is also one of the frequent changes that occur. They mostly appear in the official subtitles and dubbing. The amateur subtitles seem to be more precise at this aspect, because changes in person are less frequent there. Moreover, there are cases when a sentence that is written in, for example, first person is turned into a sentence with an infinitive form of a verb in order to shorten the sentence. This, again, is more typical ofdubbing and official subtitles.
04:27 You know,the Pishkin-Wolowitz Liquid Waste
Disposal System is turning a few heads as well. (Original version)
Víte, Pishkin-Wolowitzův systém
likvidace tekutého odpadu
taky není zcela bez perspektivy. (Official subtitles)
Víte, Pishkin-Wolowitzův systém
likvidace tekutého odpadu
taky není zcela bez perspektivy. (Dubbing)
Pishkin-Wolowitzův systém likvidace tekutého
odpadu také není bez perspektivy. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 2, episode 6: The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem)
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Another aspect is grammatical polarity, which may be changed in the translation.
However, this does not occur as often as other changes, and the positive and negative polarities are usually preserved.
05:18 “You were terrific and I can't wait
to hear you sing again.” (Original version)
„Byla jsi báječná, už se
nemůžu dočkat dalšího vystoupení.“ (Official subtitles)
„Bylas báječná, už se nemůžu dočkat dalšího vystoupení. (Dubbing)
“Byla jsi úžasná a opravdu se nemůžu dočkat,
až tě zase uslyším zpívat.” (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 1, episode 10: The Loobenfeld Decay)
This kind of change is one of the most frequent in the translations studied. It occurs many times and is characteristic mainly of the professional translations, in which the sentences tend to be rather short compared to the amateur subtitles. In essence, it is based on leaving out a rather complex sentence element and replacing it with another, simple one, mostly a noun. In this way certain number of words can be substituted only for one.
16:52 Sheldon, I'm not going to learn
Morse code at 3:00 in the morning! (Original version)
Sheldone, já se nebudu
ve tři ráno učit morseovku! (Official subtitles)
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Sheldone, já se nebudu ve tři ráno učit morseovku! (Dubbing)
Sheldone, nebudu se učit morseovku
ve tři ráno! (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 2, episode 6: The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem)
Also, the sentence structure may be altered as can be observed from the example above.
Here the amateur subtitles, as the only one, preserve the sentence structure of the original by leaving the phrase “ve tři ráno” (“at 3:00 in the morning”) at the end of the sentence, whereas the other two translations put it in the middle.
All these changes in the sentences described in this subchapter have a significant effect on the final form of the translations. According to this research, the amateur subtitlers make a great effort to have the translations as accurate as possible and they make these changes approximately twice less often than the professional translators for subtitles and dubbing. Especially, long and complex sentences tend to be translated in much more accurate way in the amateur subtitles. Thanks to this, a viewer who has certain knowledge of the English language may find it easier to follow the amateur subtitles, rather than the official ones, because the sentences are translated more literally. In other words, in the amateur subtitles the viewers can see the translated words and expressions in a very similar order as is the order in the English sentence. It is more similar than in the case of the official subtitles and dubbing. This may not be done intentinally, though. Kristýna Routnerová says that one of the basic rules she tries to follow when creating sutitles is “to reduce as much as possible with the meaning being preserved. For example, to translate „I think that I actually don‟t care‟ as „Je mi to asi jedno‟ instead of the literal „Myslím, že mě to vlastně nezajímá‟.” (personal communication, April 24, 2014) This would suggest that the precision of the amateur
50 translations is a sign of a lower level of professionalism. But it is also important to add that it depends on the individual amateur subtitlers and their level of translation skills.
Moreover, what seems to be an attribute of unprofessionalism may actually be beneficial for other purposes, such as that the viewers may watch the word order in
English being translated very similarly into Czech. In this way, they may enrich their knowledge of the English language and its word order.
11.4. Colloquial language
The usage of colloquial language depends on a variety of factors. One of them is the character and nature of a given character. For example, Sheldon, the cleverest person in the series, almost exclusively speaks in standard language. There are only few moments when he uses colloquialism. The exact opposite of Sheldon is Penny. She almost always uses colloquial language because it is a part of her nature. Leonard, Rajesh and Howard speak in both ways depending on the situation given. For instance, when Leonard gives a lecture at a university, he speaks in standard language, but when he is engaged in a discussion with Sheldon, he tends to use colloquial language instead. Other characters are also determined by their way of speaking. For example, one of Penny‟s boyfriends,
Zack, is depicted as simple, and his way of speaking conforms to it in the translations.
The elements of colloquialism are, for example, the suffixes –ej (“hrdej”), -ý
(“hustý”), -ama (“psychožvástama”), -ul (“zatáhnul”) and -em (“proberem”).
It is important to say, though, there are significant differences among the official subtitles, dubbing and amateur subtitles at this aspect. The dubbing is the translation type in which the colloquialisms appear to the largest extent. The reason is that spoken
51 colloquial language sounds more natural than the written one. Therefore, the official subtitles use it to a lesser extent. Amateur subtitles, then, tend to be almost exclusively written in standard language. This might be because of the lack of translation experience and skills of the amateur subtitlers, which results in the fact that they do not play with the language and translation as much as the professionals.
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11.5. Different accents
Given the fact that Rajesh is of Indian origin, Indian accent appears in the series as well.
Unfortunately, this aspect cannot be seen in and transferred to the subtitles, either to the amateur or official ones. There is no linguistic device seen which would let the viewers know that the characters speak with foreign accents. Therefore, the viewers must be able to master the English language to the degree which enables them to recognize the foreign accents from original sound.
Dubbing, on the other hand, has a great advantage in this. The actors who dub the individual characters‟ utterances have the possibility of changing and playing with their voices so that it would remind of foreign accents, which is the case of Rajesh.
11.6. American culture in the Czech translations
As in the majority of foreign movies and television series, even here there are certain expressions typical for the American culture. These words and phrases are sometimes very difficult to translate, so that the Czech viewers would understand the meaning.
When there is no Czech equivalent, the expression must be substituted for something else.
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07:06 We're coming as the
Justice League of America. (Original version)
Ovšem. Půjdeme převlečení
za Ligu spravedlivých. (Official subtitles)
Ovšem. Půjdeme převlečení za Ligu spravedlivých. (Dubbing)
Jistě.
Půjdeme za Ligu spravedlivých. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 4, episode 11: The Justice League
Recombination)
In this first example, the “Justice League of America” has an equivalent in Czech and is, therefore, properly translated in all the translation types. Cases like this are for the most part connected with names of movies, magazines, characters, etc. that are well-known in the Czech Republic as well. The names in the source and target language are
for example “Batman”, “Flash”, etc. Occasionally, one may notice that in the dubbing, the English version of a certain name is used in the translation despite the fact that it has its Czech equivalent. The reason for this is that if the English version of the name is used in the dubbing, there will be better correspondence between sound and the moves of the actor‟s mouth.
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14:39 He's the Aquaman
of the Muppet Babies. (Original version)
Je to Aquaman
mezi Muppet Babies. (Official subtitles)
Je to Aquaman
mezi Muppet Babies. (Dubbing)
Je to Aquaman
všech Muppet Babies. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 4, episode 11: The Justice League
Recombination)
When there is no Czech equivalent, as in this particular case, there are three possible options used in the translations of the Big Bang Theory. The first one, which can be also seen here, is that the foreign name is transferred to the translation and there is no change made. However this occurs quite rarely, mostly with names of movies, theatre plays, etc. which are not that well-known within the Czech society.
04:38 Junior Mints are
pretty apologetic. (Original version)
Mentosky jsou taky dobré, ne ? (Official subtitles)
Mentosky jsou taky dobré, ne ? (Dubbing)
55
Junior Mints jsou taky
vhodné pro smíření. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 4, episode 11: The Justice League
Recombination)
The second possible solution is finding a proper alternative in Czech language. The official subtitles and dubbing show their creativity at this aspect. These two translation types usually come with more original and creative solutions which, on the other hand, deprives the Czech version of the American culture. Moreover, as can be seen in this particular case, if the viewers master the English language to a certain degree they will be able to understand the joke even if the expression “Junior Mints” is preserved in the translation (the joke is that Leonard and his friends go apologize to Penny‟s simple boyfriend for having made fun of him, and they offer him Junior Mints). A similar case appears in the episode 13 of season 3 where Sheldon asks when does the “CSI team” arrive. In the official subtitles and dubbing, a typical Czech expression, “kriminálka”, is used for the “CSI team”, whereas the amateur subtitles count on a certain level of the viewers‟ knowledge of the English language because in this translation the expression
“tým CSI” is used.
01:40 Because you might have
been watching Nickelodeon. (Original version)
Protože pak ses díval na Jim Jam. (Official subtitles)
Protože pak ses díval na Jim Jam. (Dubbing)
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Protože pak ses asi díval
na Nickelodeon /kanál pro děti/. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 4, episode 11: The Justice League
Recombination)
One of the peculiarities of the amateur subtitles are explanatory notes used in the subtitles when there is an expression typical for the American culture which does not have its Czech equivalent. If this happens, the amateur translators leave the English expression in its form and add the explanatory note behind it. Thanks to this, the original American culture is not missing in the translation and the Czech version is not deprived of it, as can be seen in the official subtitles and dubbing.
When talking about the American culture in the Big Bang Theory translations, it is important to say each of the translation types have their specifics. The amateur subtitles use the explanatory notes described above, and the official subtitles and dubbing, on the other hand, try to find appropriate Czech alternatives. Dubbing also sometimes leaves the original names as they are in order to provide better correspondence between the sound and image (moves of the actor‟s mouth).
11.7. Songs in The Big Bang Theory
Another point at which the individual translations differ is songs. They may be divided into two basic groups, a theme song and other songs occurring in the series.
57
11.7.1. Theme song
In the official subtitles, the theme song is always translated into Czech. There is no episode in which this song would not be translated.
On the contrary, in the dubbing, it is never translated. The theme song is always left in its original version. This is quite understandable because it would have to be not only translated, but also recorded again in the studio. On the other hand, the Czech viewers are deprived of the song‟s meaning which is closely related to this television series, since it was composed specially for this purpose.
In the amateur subtitles, it depends on who does the translation. There are translators who re-write the song into Czech, but it also happens that they simply ignore it, despite the fact that many scholar works on translation say that songs should always be translated.
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11.7.2. Other songs
There are two basic types into which these songs can be divided.
The first one are songs sung by the characters themselves. For example, in episode 10 of season 1 Penny is singing a song from a musical she plays in. In the official subtitles and dubbing, her singing is translated, whereas in the amateur subtitles it is not. MartyCZ mentions this case in which, according to him, the amateur subtitlers do not usually translate things that are spoken outside the shot because the primary concern of the amateur subtitles is language barrier, not who is talking outside the shot
(MartyCZ, personal communication, March 11, 2014).
The second type are songs used as the background of the story. These are common songs recorded by professional artists. Unlike Penny‟s song mentioned above, these are not transferred into Czech by the professional translator. The amateur subtitles, on the contrary, usually try to cover this aspect in their translation, so that the
Czech viewers would not miss anything that contributes to the meaning of the stories.
From the examples described, it can be observed there are certain differences between the individual translation types. Generally speaking, fewer songs are translated for the dubbing and more for subtitles. But even here it varies because there are no strict rules in the amateur subtitling, so it only depends on the translators themselves.
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11.8. Mistakes
As in the majority of translations, also here a number of mistakes occur.
19:33 Not being drunk or high
or wondering
if you're a dude down there. (Original version)
Bez fetu a bez pohybností,
jestli nemáš pod tou sukní bimbase. (Official subtitles)
Bez fetu a bez pochybností,
jestli nemáš pod tou sukní bimbase. (Dubbing)
Nebýt opilý nebo sjetý a nedivit se, proč se válím tam dole. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 1, episode 10: The Loobenfeld Decay)
One type of the mistakes that occur in the Big Bang Theory translations is an incorrect interpretation of meaning. It can be seen not only in the amateur subtitles, as in the example above, but in the official subtitles and dubbing as well.
04:36 I clearly woke you up
in the middle of a REM cycle. (Original version)
Zjevně jsem tě vzbudil
během REM fáze. (Official subtitles)
Zjevně jsem tě vzbudil během REM fáze. (Dubbing)
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Právě jsi mě vzbudil zrovna uprostřed mého REM cyklu. (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 1, episode 10: The Loobenfeld Decay)
Also connected with the wrong interpretation is the change of person. In this example, there is a shift from second person (the original version) to first person (the amateur subtitles). This kind of mistake occurs relatively often in the amateur subtitles. In the professional translations studied here, this mistake does not appear at all, which contributes to their quality.
19:33 Not being drunk or high... (Original version)
Bez fetu a bez pohybností... (Official subtitles)
Bez fetu a bez pochybností... (Dubbing)
Nebýt opilý nebo sjetý... (Amateur subtitles)
(The Big Bang Theory, season 1, episode 10: The Loobenfeld Decay)
Misspellings and mistakes in writing commas also appear in the translations. As can be seen here, there is a spelling mistake in the official subtitles – there should be “ch” instead of “h”. Misspellings occur in both amateur and official subtitles. Mistakes in writing commas, however, are significantly more frequent in the amateur subtitles. It is because official subtitles undergo a lot of revisions before being published, so there is a considerably higher probability of such mistakes being found. In contrast, the amateur subtitles are not paid that much attention, which results in more mistakes occurring in them.
In total, the mistakes can be seen more often in the amateur subtitles. It may be because of the lack of revision mentioned above. The incorrect interpretations and
61 changes in grammatical person would also suggest a lower level of mastering the
English language.
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12. Conclusion
Based on the research, one may observe there is a significant difference between the amateur and professional translation branches, whereas there are only minor variances between the official subtitles and dubbing, for the translations for the official subtitles and dubbing tend to be almost the same with only few changes made, as has been mentioned earlier in this work.
Regarding language, the official subtitles and dubbing were found very similar.
One might say they are almost the same. Considering the information provided by Dr.
Martin Němec, it is most probably caused by the fact that television series is not paid as much attention as movies, for example. It seems there is only one script for both the subtitles and dubbing, and only minor changes are made in the translation for the dubbing. In the official subtitles and dubbing, individual sentences from the original version are mostly shortened during the translation into Czech. This practice results in the fact that many omissions and reductions might be found there.
On the other hand, there are the amateur subtitlers, who make an effort to have the translations as accurate as possible. They do not omit or reduce as many words and expressions as can be seen in the professional translations. They make fewer changes in sentences, and although there appear to be more stylistic shortcomings and more mistakes than in the official subtitles (the reason for this is that there are significantly less people co-operating on the translations which, moreover, do not undergo as thorough revisions as the professional translations do), still they are translated in more accurate way, especially when speaking about long and complex sentences. Thus, the amateur subtitles might be said to be suitable for people who master the English language on a certain level, because they may watch the word order and the order of
63 individual clauses in the English language being translated very similarly into Czech.
As has been said, this might not be wholly intentional but still beneficial in certain respects. Thanks to this, when watching the episodes and reading the amateur subtitles, there is a better correspondence between the sound and text. In this way, the viewers may pay attention to the composition of the English sentences and broaden their knowledge of English. Also, there are signs that the amateur subtitles count on viewers‟ knowledge of the English language to a certain degree (using “Junior Mints”, etc.).
The official subtitles, on the other hand, consist of shorter sentences and thus are easier and comfortable to read. The dubbing then has the advantage of being able to provide the viewers with foreign accents being spoken in the television series.
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13. Bibliography
Primary sources:
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(Director). (2010). The Justice League Recombination [Television series
episode]. In B. Prady (Producer), Ch. Lorre (Producer), & L. Aronsohn
(Producer), The Big Bang Theory. United States. Chuch Lorre Productions, &
Warner Bros. Television.
Aronsohn, L. (Writer), Prady, B. (Writer), Reynolds, J. (Writer), & Cendrowski, M.
(Director). (2010). The Bozeman Reaction [Television series episode]. In B.
Prady (Producer), Ch. Lorre (Producer), & L. Aronsohn (Producer), The Big
Bang Theory. United States. Chuch Lorre Productions, & Warner Bros.
Television.
Baal, dArt, KaRLoS. (19 Jan 2010). The.Big.Bang.Theory.S03E13.HDTV.XviD-2HD
[Data file]. Retrieved from http://mojetitulky.com/titulky/83380-the-big-bang-
theory-s03e13/ bakeLit, Ďasík, KaRLos. (17 Dec 2010). S04E11 - The Justice League Recombination
[Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.ulozto.cz/xKHnmUE/the-big-bang-
theory-s04e11-hdtv-xvid-fever-srt dav1d. (26 March 2008). TBBT Season 1 Episode 10 [Data file]. Retrieved from
http://www.titulky.com/The-Big-Bang-Theory-S01E10-99955.htm
Deckard. (4 Nov 2008). The Big Bang Theory S02E06 (2008) [Data file]. Retrieved
from http://www.titulky.com/The-Big-Bang-Theory-S02E06-117350.htm
65
Ďásková, L. (Translator), Finkous, P. (Translator). (2010). Teorie velkého třesku:
Bozemská reakce [Television broadcast]. In Janoušková, J. (Producer),
Kolerová, A. (Producer), & Richtr. J. (Producer). Czech Republic: FTV Prima
s.r.o.
Ďásková, L. (Translator), Finkous, P. (Translator), & Michálek, M. (Czech version
director). (2010). Teorie velkého třesku: Bozemská reakce [Television
broadcast]. In Janoušková, J. (Producer), Kolerová, A. (Producer), & Richtr. J.
(Producer). Czech Republic: FTV Prima s.r.o.
Ďásková, L. (Translator), Finkous, P. (Translator). (2011). Teorie velkého třesku:
Rekombinace Ligy spravedlnosti [Television broadcast]. In Janoušková, J.
(Producer), Richtr, J. (Producer), & Sirotková, Z. (Producer). Czech Republic:
FTV Prima s.r.o.
Ďásková, L. (Translator), Finkous, P. (Translator), & Michálek, M. (Czech version
director). (2011). Teorie velkého třesku: Rekombinace Ligy Spravedlnosti
[Television broadcast]. In Janoušková, J. (Producer), Richtr, J. (Producer), &
Sirotková, Z. (Producer). Czech Republic: FTV Prima s.r.o.
Engel, S. (Writer), Haggar, D. (Writer) & Cendrowski, M. (Director). (2008). The
Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem [Television series episode]. In B. Prady (Producer),
Ch. Lorre (Producer), & L. Aronsohn (Producer), The Big Bang Theory. United
States. Chuch Lorre Productions, & Warner Bros. Television.
Finkous, P. (Translator). (2009). Teorie velkého třesku: Cooper-Nowitzki teorém
[Television broadcast]. In Donátová, L. (Producer), Janoušková, J. (Producer),
Richtr. J. (Producer), & Stegbauerová, M. (Producer). Czech Republic: FTV
Prima s.r.o.
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Finkous, P. (Translator), & Michálek, M. (Czech version director). (2009). Teorie
velkého třesku: Cooper-Nowitzki teorém [Television broadcast]. In Donátová,
L. (Producer), Janoušková, J. (Producer), Richtr. J. (Producer), &
Stegbauerová, M. (Producer). Czech Republic: FTV Prima s.r.o.
Lorre, Ch. (Writer), & Cendrowski, M. (Director). (2008). The Loobenfeld Decay
[Television series episode]. In B. Prady (Producer), Ch. Lorre (Producer), & L.
Aronsohn (Producer), The Big Bang Theory. United States. Chuch Lorre
Productions, & Warner Bros. Television.
Maxián, F. (Translator). (2008). Teorie velkého třesku: Loobenfeldův rozpad
[Television broadcast]. In Richter, J. (Producer), Sirotková, Z. (Producer),
Janoušková, J. (Producer). Czech Republic: FTV Prima s.r.o.
Maxián, F. (Translator), & Michálek, M. (Czech version director). (2008). Teorie
velkého třesku: Loobenfeldův rozpad [Television broadcast]. In Richter, J.
(Producer), Sirotková, Z. (Producer), Janoušková, J. (Producer). Czech
Republic: FTV Prima s.r.o.
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Baker, M. (2006). Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account. New York, NY:
Routledge.
Baker, M. (2011). In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. (2nd ed.). New York,
NY: Routledge.
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Carroll, M., & Ivarsson, J. (1998). Code of Good Subtitling Practice. Retrieved from
http://www.esist.org/ESIST%20Subtitling%20code_files/Code%20of%20Goo
d%20Subtitling%20Practice_en.pdf
Díaz-Cintas, J., & Remael, A. (2007). Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling: Translation
Practises Explained. Manchester, UK: St. Jerome Publishing.
Ivarsson, J. (2004). A Short Technical History of Subtitles in Europe. Retrieved from
http://www.transedit.se/history.htm
Kaiousama, Kickaha, Mirage, Nathbot, Spirit, Thyresias,...spirit. (29 June 2013).
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nc%201.0.1/
Kameník, K. (1961). Titulek v amatérském filmu: Praktická příručka pro lidové filmové
pracovníky. Praha, CZE: Orbis.
Kautský, O. (1970). Dabing, ano i ne. Praha, CZE: Publikační oddělení Českého
filmového ústavu.
Levý, J. (2012). Umění překladu (4th ed.). Praha, CZE: Apostrof.
Makarian, G. (2005). Dabing: teória, realizácia, zvukové majstrovstvo. Bratislava,
SVK: Ústav hudobnej vedy Slovenskej akadémie vied.
Pošta, M. (2011). Titulkujeme profesionálně. Praha, CZE: Apostrof.
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umění.
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Walló, O. (1987). Herec v dabingu. Praha, CZE: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství
Praha.
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14. Résumé
English résumé:
This thesis is aimed to map the process of amateur subtitling and describe the differences between this kind of translating and the translation for official subtitles and dubbing. The thesis also studies the official subtitles, dubbing and amateur subtitles for the American television series The Big Bang Theory, and tries to determine the main variations among these three translation types, and the possible causes of such differences. It is aimed to find out in what aspects might the amateur subtitles be considered better than the official subtitles and dubbing. The merits of the official subtitles and dubbing are also detected.
70
Czech résumé:
Tato bakalářská diplomová práce se snaží zmapovat proces tvorby amatérských titulků a popsat rozdíly mezi tímto druhem překladu a překlady oficiálních titulků a dabingu.
Práce dále zkoumá oficiální titulky, dabing a amatérské titulky u amerického seriálu
Teorie velkého třesku a snaží se určit hlavní rozdíly mezi těmito třemi typy překladů a také jejich možné důvody. Práce se snaží zjistit, v čem by mohly být amatérské titulky považovány za lepší než dabing a titulky oficiální. Dále jsou také zjišťovány přednosti oficiálních titulků a dabingu.
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15. Appendix
An interview with Kristýna Routnerová
Kristýna Routnerová an amateur subtitler who regularly translates and creates subtitles for, among other things, the American television series The Big Bang Theory.
How did you get to subtitling and the good level of your English? Do you study English language or something connected with it?
I got to subtitling thanks to one of my friends who had already translated and who needed someone to his team because one of the members had dropped out. So, I probably got to it because I was favored by him. I do not directly study English, but I attended a language grammar school. I think Czech language is more improtant when subtitling anyway.
Do you do subtitling on a regular basis? And for how long have you done it?
On a regular basis I translate only The Big Bang Theory. I have done it for approximately three years. Aside from this a translate various videos or movies for my own needs.
Could you describe the process of creating the subtitles? Do you work on your own or do you co-operate with someone? And who does what?
Mostly I download an episode, watch it with English subtitles and then I translate the English subtitles. In the end, I do (change, adjust) spotting. Then I send it all to Ďasík (an amateur translator) who checks it up and uploads it on the Internet.
You said you co-operated with Ďasík. Do you work with anyone else?
I used to co-operate with Baal and bakelit (other two amateur translators of The Big Bang Theory) who did mainly the spotting. But now I work only with Ďasík and I do the spotting myself.
How well do you, Ďasík, Baal and bakelit know each other? Is it only via the Internet? Do you meet?
I have seen Baal and bakelit only once. I meet with Ďasík regularly three or four times a year at various events and festivals.
Do you use exclusively English subtitles for translating or do you sometimes translate from sound or using a transcript?
English subtitles.
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What computer program do you use for subtitling?
I use VisualSubSync (VSS) because it is easy to use and there are various plug-ins (such as spelling and grammar check – it can detect typing errors and the like). However, it is rather a program intended for spotting.
Do you try to follow any subtitling rules, such as the "Code of Good Subtitling Practice"?
I do have certain basic rules that I follow but I don‟t directly follow any particular guide. More important than using various manuals is using common sense.
When you translate do you compete with other subtitlers, so that you uploaded your subtitles as soon as possible?
No, we are particular about quality, not speed. Still we try to release the subtitles within the day of broadcasting.
How long does it take you to translate one episode?
It depends on the difficulty, the number of technical terms, etc., but on average it takes approximately 4-6 hour (including revision watching).
What do you think are the main differences between the official and your subtitles?
I do not know the official ones very well, but they probably do not have that much time and it is not done by such „geeks“ as we are (we also have more free time, so we go in for and watch what the heroes in the series do). But in general, i would say the official subtitles are quite good. They are simply made by someone more normal.
Do you also pursue dubbing? If yes, what do you think of it?
I do not. I do not have a television and I do not want to search for it on the Internet. I saw maybe one episode and I found it ok.
For whom do you think dubbing is the best choice, for whom official subtitles and who will prefer amateur subtitles?
Dubbing is good for those who can‟t speak English at all and do not want to learn it. Also for those who search for some „background“, when relaxing, for example. Of course, also for those with weak sight or who read slowly. The amateur subtitles are probably better for enthusiastic fans because there is certain mutual communication (if there is a mistake in the official subtitles the translator may never get to know it, for example; it is not corrected, etc.) Also, around the amateur subtitles there is certain fan base (it is possible to chat with others while waiting for the subtitles, there are collective
73 meetings, etc.) Plus, the amateur subtitles come out practically right after episodes get released (you do not have to wait several months for the television).
(K.Routnerová, personal communication, March 12-April 24, 2014; my translation)
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An interview with MartyCZ
MartyCZ is another amateur subtitler who translated, among other things, a special episode of The Big Bang Theory.
How long have you translated subtitles?
I have done it for approximately three years.
Do you translate only television series or do you also translate something else?
I translate almost anything needed. Especially, special episodes and fanfilms.
How did you get to subtitling and good level of your English?
I got to subtitling by starting to meet people who did it and they taught me basic tricks and principles. Then I simply found something that did not have Czech subtitles and I decided to create them myself, when nobody else wants to do it. When I started with subtitling my English was already quite good thanks to watching original versions of television series with subtitles, but I studied only a common grammar school and did not intend to focus on English language. However, I ended up studying teaching English language at a university in the end. Of course, good level of English is needed, but I think you need also sense of Czech language and the skills to use it in a creative way. As far as I know, none of the contemporary translators for The Big Bang Theory studied the language more in detail than I did at the grammar school and still I consider them better translators than I am.
Do you co-operate with anybody when creating subtitles?
I do it alone because I usually set about projects that few peole know or want to do.
Could you describe the process of creating the amateur subtitles. What computer program do you use?
As a model I use English subtitles that make the work work with spotting easier for me, but it has happened that I had to create subtitles from sound or using a transcript. For the subtitling I use VisualSubSync that enables me to edit the text and spotting more easily. Then it usually works like this: to translate a sentence, adjust the spotting, divide too long text, join too short texts together, move to another sentence, do it again. After that, the subtitles are checked up whether they fit well, are legible, whether ther is a mistake or whether the subtitles remained together. If there is the chance I have them checked up. Potential imperfections are corrected and the work is done.
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Do you follow any rules for subtitling?
I learned basic rules from a friend of mine. These rules roughly conform to the Code of Good Subtitling Practice and I try to follow them as much as possible.
You said you learned the rules from a friend roughly conform to the "Code of Good Subtitling Practice". Could you tell me how they differ?
I think the main difference is that the Code of Good Subtitling Practice is much detailed. It determines minimum and maximum numbers and is so to speak „idiot- proof“. The VisualSubSync takes care of most of the issues, such as the number of characters per one line, the number of lines, the number of characters per certain subtitle length, etc. The VSS is able to warn you that there is something wrong. The only thing that really differs is the rule that there should be subtitles for the hearing-impaired. Here we have a rule that the main obstacle is language barrier and things like “who is talking outside the shot“ comes amiss.
When you translate do you compete with other subtitlers, so that you uploaded your subtitles as soon as possible?
I has never happened to me so far. I translate things which noone else wants to do or is able to do.
How long does it take you to translate one episode?
It depends on the mood. I‟ve translated 10 minutes for over 3 hour, but I also translated 40-minute-long special episode in 4 hours.
What do you find the most difficult on translating subtitles?
The worst thing to translate are plays on words and "techno-nonsenses". I believe that every joke can be translated but that does not mean it will occur to me how. An idea for good translation may come in a couple of minutes or it does not have to come at all. Unfortunately, the second option means the joke gets killed. There is a problem with the "techno-nonsenses" that they do not have any proper Czech equivalent. In the case of The Big Bang Theory it is good that the series has science consultants (in fact, some of the actors have doctor„s degree), so the terms are used correctly and it is possible to find their Czech equivalents.
What do you think are the main differences between official and amateur subtitles? In what aspect do you think are the amateur subtitles better and vice versa?
Probably the only difference is that a professional creator is paid for his work and that the work should be checked up by someone. I have seen brilliant translations both professional and amateur. But I have also seen translation as if it would be done by an elementary school pupil crated by a professional and amateur. The advantage of the amateur subtitles is that if they are bad one can search for some other. But there are only one official subtitles.
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What is your opinion on dubbing?
Good dubbing is definitely better than subtitles (if one does not want to learn a foreign language, of course). Unfortunately, there are not many good dubbing versions nowadays. Personally, I do not have anything against the dubbing.
For whom do you think dubbing is the best choice, for whom official subtitles and who will prefer amateur subtitles?
I think dubbing is primarily for people who cannot speak English and do not manage or simply cannot read subtitles. People who want to learn English, can speak English and have subtitles only as a backup, do not want to wait a year or longer for dubbing or subtitles or simply have something against the dubbing, will choose the subtitles.
(MartyCZ, personal communication, March 10-April 25, 2014; my translation)
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An interview with Martin Němec
Mgr. Martin Němec, Ph.D. is a former professional translator who occupied himself with professional subtitling and translating for dubbing. At present, he works as a teacher of several translation seminars at Masaryk University.
Dr. Němec, you occupied yourself with professional translating for many years. What types of translations did dou do?
I translated fiction, technical texts, film (film as dubbing, film as a script, film as subtitles), so I translated everything possible.
Did you translate television series, too?
I translated a number of television series. Some of them I supervised under the authorization of the studio that assigned me with the supervision of the subtitles or dubbing.
As a translator, did you feel any difference between the translation of movies and television series?
Film is always paid much more attention from all sides – from the distributor, studio to redactors, editors, dubbing actors, or the subtitlers. Television series is considered consumer article and is approached this way.
?
Standardized time for film translation (approximately 105 minutes) was some 12 hours. The time 3 or 4 hours (a 20-minute-long episode).
When translating for dubbing or subtitles, it sometimes happens the translator is given only a soundtrack or a list of dialogues which he/she then uses for the translation. How often did this happen do you?
My experience is that the series or movie was equipped with everything that pertained to it. So, it had its transcription, its literary script, its technical script and I always had the use of this all.
Allright. The official subtitles and dubbing are often very similar, if not almost the same. Could you say what the reason for this is?
I think it is because they want to save money. Because this is wrong. The correct way is that the distribution companies, which do the subtitling or dubbing, are given a script and the studio itself prepares materials for the subtitles. So, for the most part, the practice was that the studio paid the attention to it, so that there already was the scriptor there was a transcription for subtitles and for dubbing. The dubbing transcription was based on the fact that they themselves and in advance marked key words according to stresses, proper names, etc.
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When it comes to language, what do you think are the main differences between subtitle and dubbing translations?
Dubbing still remains faithful to the text. The dubbing should be close to what the author wanted to say in the dialogues. Subtitles do not have to conform to the script but they have to follow basic rules, so that they would be legible and it was possible to read them within given time. There are so many technical restrictions that they already predetermine what the text will look like.
What did you find the most difficult on these translations – to get the right number of syllables or...?
No, . The translator simply translates and there may be some key words marked, but the rest is the work of the editor of the dialogues. He/she crosses out syllables, stresses, and then an actor comes and adjusts it once more according to himself/herself because he/she says they are all wrong and he/she knows it the best, So the translator rarely sees his/her original translation in the end.
And apart from the editor of the dialogues and actors, is there anything else that has influence on the final version?
Fundamental influence has the distribution company that may not desire vulgarisms or, on the contrary, adds vulgarisms and ambiguities in place where they should not be, because it will sell better. They often intervene in it, so that it would be easier to make posters, etc.
It is said that subtitlers are more and more often asked to do the spotting as well. How often did this happen to you?
It never happened to me. I was never asked to do the spotting. I only translated into the soundtrack.
subtitles and dubbing? For example, when you watch television do you see the quality has decreased, or is it still the same?
I think that in general, the subtitles are disappearing from television. On the other hand, there are many amateur subtitles that come into being and I find it interesting to watch the line of amateur subtitles and official subtitles develop. The official subtitles, they are still the same old school – minimum of subtitles, connections, etc. Whereas the amateur branch, which only seems to be amateur, is driven by the desire to explain everything, to manage to do everything, etc. There is a large number of brackets. The amateur subtitles are more complex.
What do you prefer – the official subtitles, dubbing or amateur subtitles?
I try to avoid all this, so I cannot exactly answer your question. The best is, of course, a movie with subtitles and I like the amateur ones rather for study purposes, to see how the students think about it. Because I am fascinated by the fact that they make
79 the effort to look up every single physical phenomenon that is dealt with in the Big Bang (The Big Bang Theory) and they manage to explain in time in the subtitles what the Doppler Effect is and every mathematical formula, joke, etc.
For whom do you think dubbing is the best choice, for whom official subtitles and who will prefer amateur subtitles?
Well, I do not think dubbing is suitable for anybody. I think that dubbing should be completely prohibitted. This is what is happening in Norway, Sweden and nobody misses it. And in the official distributions they should work with the classic version of subtitles, i.e. minimized subtitles, let the actors speak, listen to their own, natural voices and consider them a part of the stories. And not give them the voices of Mr Bartoška or other Czech celebrities.
(M. Němec, personal communication, April 17, 2014; my translation)
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