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English translation of foreign books | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| qazwsxed Newbie United States Joined 5017 days ago 18 posts - 17 votes | Message 1 of 7 13 April 2011 at 5:53am | IP Logged | ||
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How well are most foreign-language books and movies translated into English? Do the translated versions, on average, sound natural to native English speakers?
As an English learner, I am somewhat concerned about the possibility of picking up the kind of English that might sound weird or unidiomatic if I learn from those sources. Do you think my concern is justified? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 2 of 7 13 April 2011 at 6:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Not really. Translations are made by prefessional translators and usually they are native English speakers.
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| Leurre Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5426 days ago 219 posts - 372 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, SpanishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 7 13 April 2011 at 8:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Certainly not all translations are made by professional translators, you have only to
look at any social science book to know that. But no book I have read or heard of from my experience has had any unnatural ring to it. I wouldn't worry about it overmuch. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6380 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 7 13 April 2011 at 8:49am | IP Logged | ||
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I've seen some really terrible Mandarin to English movie and tv translations. Someone told me that the reason they're so bad is that the industry often uses machine translations. Edited by newyorkeric on 13 April 2011 at 8:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cntrational Triglot Groupie India Joined 5128 days ago 49 posts - 66 votes Speaks: Hindi, Telugu, English* Studies: French | Message 5 of 7 13 April 2011 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thankfully, most English translators prefer dynamic translations over literalistic ones, the main exception being (fan) translations of manga and anime.
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| mr_chinnery Senior Member England Joined 5758 days ago 202 posts - 297 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 6 of 7 13 April 2011 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qItugh-fFgg
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| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5767 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 7 14 April 2011 at 2:42am | IP Logged | ||
They also use fan-made translations from the internet when they can find them =D I can't really judge how professional English translations sound, but something I noticed is that in overdubbed movies the pace in which is spoken changes and becomes somewhat unnatural, as the translated dialog has to more or less match the original, but the voice actors also have to match the lip movement and pace of the original actors well enough to create an acceptable illusion. (It's quite disturbing, actually.) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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