134
votes
Accepted
How was "Hodor" adapted in other languages?
Brazilian Portuguese
"Segure a porta" ("Hold the door") → "a por-" → "Hodor"
Czech
"Drž vrata! Honem!" ("Hold the gate! Quick!"), where the evolution to Hodor is quite a stretch…
Danish
"Hold døren!"...
106
votes
Why is the spoken German in many US films and TV shows so inaccurate?
Because it's a level of detail that was considered irrelevant for the show's development
As a software developer and general IT nerd, I am constantly faced with this principle. Many, many TV shows ...
- 26.2k
77
votes
Accepted
Why is "Captain Marvel" translated as male in Portugal?
Ok, in English this is gonna be weird to explain, but as this link explains, it has to do with the official patent designation.
In Portugal, there is the woman "Primeiro-Ministro" (Prime-Minister in ...
- 14.5k
36
votes
Why are honorifics not translated in dubbed movies?
Well, first of all, that's not always the case. But for this discussion we can ignore that and just focus on movies that do use original honorifics.
Dubbing gets complicated when characters with ...
- 1,573
34
votes
Do translators get a list of jokes and/or puns when making their translations?
No. Usually the distributor tries to find a translator that "feel" certain genre so their translations will be as close to original as it can be.
In Poland we had Irena Tuwim, a very talented poet ...
- 11k
32
votes
Accepted
English translation of the temple chants in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?
Well, I am not quite sure about the background chants (something in Sanskrit language) but Mola Ram (Amrish Puri) prays to Kali Maa* (considered as goddess of power) in the "Temple of Doom's heart ...
- 481
29
votes
Subtitling vs. dubbing and vice versa
In the US, Europe, Canada and other countries with nearly 100% literacy rates, dubbing vs subtitling is certainly a matter of preference.
Subtitling allows the viewer to get a more exact translation ...
- 26.4k
28
votes
Accepted
What is the second prostitute saying in Vietnamese in Full Metal Jacket?
The actress is speaking Vietnamese but is obviously reciting the script and not a native speaker (the pimp is). She is not able to make most of the intonations sufficiently clear along with an off ...
- 496
26
votes
Why is the spoken German in many US films and TV shows so inaccurate?
There are a few potential reasons for this:
Rule of Funny. Most of the shows you linked are comedies, and someone speaking pseudo-German nonsense in a bad accent is inherently funnier than someone ...
- 22.1k
25
votes
Why are honorifics not translated in dubbed movies?
Matt has a good answer, but there's another aspect of things here.
There may be no direct translation for the honorific, causing it's meaning to change into something unintended.
By changing the ...
- 865
22
votes
Accepted
Aphorisms and idioms in The Witcher
The Polish version of 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' is 'don't check the teeth of a horse you received as a gift' ("darowanemu koniowi w zęby się nie zagląda") (source).
Similarly, devil's ...
- 5,905
19
votes
Why is "Captain Marvel" translated as male in Portugal?
Short Answer:
Translating between languages is difficult, including whether to modify the gender of words that are translated.
Long Answer
In the English language, the original language of the ...
- 5,060
18
votes
Subtitling vs. dubbing and vice versa
The debate of dubbing vs subtitles is well discussed, including numerous studies and polls of movie goers. It's an opinion that is split by demographic, by country, by certain distributors.
...
- 12k
18
votes
Accepted
The Usual Suspects what's the joke?
"...és követeli tőlem, hogy mutassam meg a biztosításomat"
means something like:
"...and she's demanding me that I showed my insurance!"
- 396
17
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of the Latin exchange between Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo in Tombstone?
Doc: In vino veritas.
Ringo: Age quod agis.
Doc: Credat Judaeus Apella, non ego.
Ringo: Iuventus stultorum magister.
Doc: In pace requiescat.
The literal meaning is
Doc: In wine there is truth.
...
- 491
14
votes
Accepted
What does Helsinki say to Oslo in Russian in Money Heist, at the end of S01E12?
Upon Helsinki seeing Oslo laying on the ground, injured, he says the following in Serbian:
HELSINKI: Hey, bro! My brother. What have they done to you, bro? What have they done to you, those dirty ...
- 14.3k
13
votes
Why is "Captain Marvel" translated as male in Portugal?
One-liner: Military ranks in the Portuguese Language (applies to almost all countries, including Portugal and Brazil) do not have a female lexical gender. Even if the holder of the rank is female, the ...
13
votes
Accepted
What makes the "Tweety Bird saw a Romulan" joke funny in the original version?
There is no deeper joke in English. It is "funny" simply because Sheldon said something nerdy yet incorrect in a confident manner.
That it apparently also makes a pun in French is une bonne ...
- 4,135
10
votes
Why is the spoken German in many US films and TV shows so inaccurate?
All of those shows you listed were created in the USA for America by Americans. Given that, you have to realize that very, very few Americans know German.
I'm talking less than half a percent of the ...
- 2,551
10
votes
Accepted
What does the Hungarian burn victim shout at Jack Baer?
Partial, as I'm still looking, but I did find this:
https://web.stanford.edu/~landy/UsualSuspectsHungarian.html
...what you'll currently find on the web -- via wiki answers, imdb, etc. -- is based on ...
- 8,232
9
votes
Accepted
Why change translation text into a picture for international versions?
Pixar expended tremendous effort to localize Inside Out for particular audiences, going so far as to re-animate whole scenes. For instance, in the American version, Riley hates broccoli, but in the ...
- 4,028
9
votes
Accepted
What did the German street thugs say to Donovan when they stole his coat?
I'll try to write it down. My German is a little bit rusty so I may be misunderstanding some parts of it.
Sich verlaufen?
Did you get lost?
I'm not really sure about this line. The best I can ...
- 2,230
8
votes
What does Helsinki say to Oslo in Russian in Money Heist, at the end of S01E12?
It has nothing to do with Russian, it’s Serbian.
I’m a Serbian myself so I’ll translate it to you from the first hand.
Before he kills him with the pillow, he says: "Kume promise me one thing: you’re ...
- 81
8
votes
Accepted
What is Geun-se (the man in the cellar) messaging to Da-song, the Park family's son?
You don't see the full message being typed out, because part of the scene shows him pressing the button. However, based on the button pressing and actual light scenes, it looks like he is spelling ...
- 526
7
votes
What is the Arabic saying behind “Angst essen Seele auf”?
Well it's one of the common phrases that is used in Arabic language and it's translation is: الخوف يأكل الروح
Update,
In Latin letters,
Al-kawf ya'kol Al-rooh.
Or can be written in this way too,
Al ...
- 203
7
votes
Accepted
What is being said in the purely Native American language scenes in Jim Jarmusch’s “Dead Man?”
Okay, I found a post on Reddit from 2015 that essentially asks the same question as this question. And there is an answer there that provides translation of some of the dialogue, but it is in a PDF ...
- 6,095
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible