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Severus
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2017 10:00 pm

Greek translators: are they checked?

Sun Sep 17, 2017 12:10 am

Recently I watched the movie "Mr Brooks". Since my girlfriend doesn't understand English too well, I downloaded the greek subs. The "diorthomeno" srt (means "corrected").
"Horrible" doesn't begin to describe it. Phrases that weren't even there had been put down as a translation in Greek, whole meanings of phrases have been altered, by someone who obviously has no idea whatsoever about the English language.
"I'm afraid that you won't catch a bullet for me" has been translated into "I think you like books too much"
The next phrase was "I won't take a bullet for you, but I will push you away from it", translated into "Maybe I won't bring my book with me next time".
This is a mere example out of hundreds (yes, hundreds) in this particular movie.
And since I've been downloading greek subs for some time now, I can't help but to notice the poor translations. In every film, most of the time the translation is bad. Phrasal verbs translated in the actual words they consist of, words translated into ones that sound alike (womb into wound etc), making the comprehension of the dialogues impossible to someone not familiar with the English language.
My questions are:
1. Why does someone with poor knowledge takes up such a task? Have they no respect or sense of responsibility?
2. Is there no cross checking, no editing, nobody to say if the final result is a sound one?
Is all this really so arbitrary? A bunch of people who have time to spare, decide to "translate", and you host their translations without making sure of their quality?
You might tell me "You get all this for free so shut your whining". And I tell you that this is no excuse. If someone is not up to a task, they should not undertake it. Best leave it blank. There is no point in having such terrible translations...better none at all.
I really am hoping for an answer to this post, and I 'm also hoping to see some quality change.

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