I’m mainly talking about watching a TV show or movie that’s originally in English enabling subtitles that’s either in Spanish, German, Russian, Finnish, etc. and can mistakes in translation still occur? I recall watching Lie to Me with Japanese subtitles during a scene involving an interrogation but a key word within the dialog was not translated correctly based on context.
For example, the protagonist said “You’re an accessory for murder” towards the suspect but subtitles used the wrong word choice 小物 (which means “accessories” as in small goods, i.e. stationery or trinkets) when the intended meaning for “accessory” from that context leans more on being a conspirator (共犯者 or 共謀) of a crime (like as in aiding the criminal).
Finnish here.
Since nothing is dubbed, people here understand English quite fluently and only read subtitles occasionally when the speech is unclear. Switch is mostly unconscious.
Mistakes are actually rare and fun when you spot one. It’s usually due to translator not being familiar with idiom or proverb. Sometimes they are an interesting reminders how finno-ugric and germanic languages handle things differently.
Only times it can get annoying is when there’s something untranslatable like puns or other kind of wordplay. Translator just wings it and pulls something really stupid.
It also depends on the genre which can affect subtitle quality and difficulty on translation:
For instance, Japanese has honorifics: so something like “Your Honor” (as in refering to the judge) is subtitled as 裁判長. Also when watching let’s say US Crime / Legal stuff: there’s concepts that do not cross over in Finnish (i.e. Plead the Fifth) that are specific within their region, so translators will have to look up what that means and convey it correctly while retaining the “legalese”.
Like this, how are you going to subtitle “FBI” / “ATF” / “ICE” into Finnish since those acronyms are specific to the American system? That’s where the real challenge begins via translation, also accounting with their own terminology (i.e. police slang).
I remember reading something funny via subtitles: the caller dialled 911 as the victim was being attacked but the Japanese subs changed it to 110 (which is Japan’s equivalent). Although the main setting of the movie literally takes place in the United States so they could’ve just left it as it is.
I didnt think acronyms got translated. Like majority of world knows what the FBI is, even without knowing what the letters represent. Like I know what the KGB is but I have no idea what it stands for.
What I’ve seen on some translations where the subtitles were German is if a person said OH my God! Rather than ACH de meine gutte! (Or however you’d say it in German) the translator put Jesus!.
In those cases it might get tricky, like the character didn’t say that, but maybe it’s a colloquial equivalent in some regions that expresses the same astonishment.
In Jap, they replace that with 何てこと (Oh mein Gott). TV shows are unique since the subtitles temporarily formatted vertically from right to left but legible during opening credits of each episode after the intro in order not to obstruct the text (which isn’t possible in German). Like this:
Hofstadter, Le ton beau de Marot. For anyone who wants to read deeply about this kind of translation problem.