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August 2000, Week 2

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Subject:
From:
David Skreiner <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 14 Aug 2000 21:06:40 +0200
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"W. McCarthy" wrote:
[Translation issue]
> Well, "Schloss" means several things, and one certainly is "lock."

The sequence where the guards realise they've got their gadget locked
onto a target and go for it is very quick. IMHO, they would have had
to do a rough translation instead of a literal one: "Wir haben den
Kerl"
("we got the guy") seems to be almost perfectly in sync with "I got a
lock", and would have communicated the meaning better. AFAIK,
"Schloss"
in german has nothing to do with electronics locking onto stuff.
"Ortung"
or "Peilung", as you suggested, sound about right.

But then, this was only one of many examples... no matter whether in
print or in film: Garfield newspaper cartoons in newspaper were often
translated so literally that it actually hurt to see a perfectly good
english joke mangled into german so directly and badly. Computer
games, which I sometimes review or translate the manuals for, are just
as bad: If we hadn't alerted the product managers, a car racing
game would have had the user select between "Automatische oder
Manuelle
Kardanwelle" [Kardanwelle = transmission shaft, the long rotating
stick
that transfers energy to the (rear) axle...]

Or take these, all from computer games. A difficult topic - the
programmers all too often work with a lost of words, not complete
sentences:

"What's up?" - "Don't know, the ceiling?"
"Was ist los?" - "Weiss nicht, die Decke?"

"Extreme close up"
"Extrem schliessen auf"

"Now it's your turn"
"Jetzt ist es Ihre Umdrehung"

> And gosh, wouldn't "they" clear such
> details of the Übersetzung w/ Arnold himself? ;)

I'm not sure whether having Arnold check a translation would help much
-
his German by now is a mixture of American and Southern Austrian
sounds and words. Or, at least, was, when they opened the premiere
of "Total Recall" with an Arnold interview that had the audience
laughing out loud. Apparently, they have him dubbed for the german-
speaking market (do they dub him for the US market too?)

The newspapers even used the term "Äkschn" [hope the Umlaut-A doesn't
mess up your screen] to describe Arnie-type action films...

Regards,
Dave Skreiner

--
David Skreiner - [log in to unmask]

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