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).
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: