How many time have you read translated text and wondered how the hell did they came to that translation? The countless time that I have wondered about the stupidity of the translator who is supposed to be thousand times better then me at grammar/spelling.
Just today I was watching ‘Friends’ on tv and somehow the subtitle translation of “…have a hubba-bubba birthday” became “Have a mummified birthday” in dutch and “Who else wants one of my special homemade brownies” became “Who else wants my last chocolate cookies” in dutch.
Stay away from Harry Potter books that are translated. When I saw Harry Potter the first movie I couldn’t get what they where talking about when reading the subtitles. Names, places, spells, most of them where completely changed. To me it just loses meaning, I mean what other name/word could level with: ‘Dumbledore’ or ‘Quidditch’. They are made up so why translate them?
And this happens in all translations of all languages. People should start taking languages more seriously.
“…have a mummified birthday”, I mean, really??
A Gmail account for the one that can guess:
- In which episode of ‘Friends’ where those sentences said? TOW The Giant Poking Device
- Who said them? Rachel and Chandler
Should be a piece of cake.
Update: The Gmail invite is gone …
