Sovereignty of SeaWitch

The most hilarious translation was in a movie where a couple was having sex and she said in English "You're my buck! My strong buck!" and it was translated as "eisai to dolario mou! To dinato dolario mou!" (for english only readers...my dollar, my strong dollar) LOL

I could buy my DVDs from the UK but since we own several thousand of them...why bother? LOL

Oh my god, Thanos and I watched the movie you are talking about...your second point. The watch my back one. Even *I* noticed that. What was that damn movie? Or was it a series? Now it is going to drive me crazy...

Unless we are talking about two different things but translated by the same company who apparently doesn't understand what 'watch my back' means.

Honestly, I guess most dialogue is simple enough that I've been picking up on that a LOT lately. Thanos doesn't even look at the subtitles usually.

The most fun we had with DVD and dubbed languages was with X-Files, the way they say Mulder and Scully with the Japanese voices. We still walk around the house going "Skuleeeee!"

We get our DVDs from the US and UK but we've been trying to get them more from the UK since the in-laws like to borrow them and they dont have a region free DVD player. I honestly wouldn't know where to buy DVDs here in Greece, and aren't they expensive? Although it would be nice to have the Greek subtitles for when Thanos' family wants to watch. Still, they can get by with English subs (better than just hearing the English) or German subs (for my father-in-law).

While I was writing the blog last night, I asked my husband if he remembered which movie that was and we can't, for the life of us, remember either. But it could be just about any movie since that phrase is always translated wrong whenever it appears.

OOoooo..I never did the Japanese dubbing on voice. I'll have to try it. I think it would be hilarious watching a movie like Boyz 'n tha Hood with Japanese voices.

With regards to buying DVDs with Greek subtitles...come to one of our stores. We order several copies of the big titles and then after a month or so, we sell them for 10€. A lot of our customers like this because they can get good original movies without sacrificing sound and picture quality like they get on pirated movies. Buying a brand new DVD with Greek subtitles just isn't worth it. For example, Star Wars III sells for 33.50€. Our customers will wait till the end of the month and buy it for 10€.

The reason why you have issues with the subtitles is because you know what's being said in English. If the movies original soundtrack was I dunno Afrikaan then you'd not know the mistakes and therefore not be driven crazy by it.

The examples used are funny though, getting a lesson on the currency market while the are having sex.

But personally, I cannot watch a DVD without the subtitles. I don't know why but I'm lost without them. Subtitles can be cool though, I remember watching East is East and they translated the Urdu conversations too into Greek so I understood what was being said. Even though if you watch the English (UK) version, the Urdu remains untranslated.

Usually, the films on at the cinema are well-translated. However, the problems start when the movie comes out on video/dvd in which they get a whole new(often substandard) set of subtitles. The pay for this kind of work is peanuts and hence the low quality.

My favourite "Lost in Translation" moment comes from The World at War series.

Original.

The Nazis occupied all the land between Kiev and Moscow."

Translation.

Οι ναζι κατελαβαν ολη την Ολλανδια αναμεσα το Κιεβο και την Μοσχα.

The Nazis occupied Holland between Kiev and Moscow.

2 out of 10 for English and a big fat, zero for geography.

Could anyone please tell me how I get greek movies with english subtitles, online (I guess it would be very difficult to get them with portuguese subtitles…). And could anyone give me some suggestions, too. Thank you.

LOL Teacher! The translator probably got Holland from "all the land" and because he/she was bad at geography, it made perfect sense that Holland is between Kiev and Moscow. Too funny.

Antonio...I wish I could be able to recommend you some secure, efficient, reputable online greek sites, but I don't know any who meet those requirements so I guess you'll just have to get someone you know in Greece to send them to you. I do know that a lot of the blockbuster DVD titles already come with more than a dozen subtitled languages. You should check out your local dvd shop.

Ellas...I don't have a problem at all with subtitles...otherwise I wouldn't be able to watch a lot of foreign films...it's just the translations that bother me.

I don't think I came across in my post as I meant too. I just mean that it's the minority (i.e. us) who spot these mistakes. The rest of the population are blissfully unaware.

Well SeaWitch, I would come to your store if I lived in Athens!

It is still driving me crazy, what we were watching. Not that it matters much. I get fixated about things like that, though.

Well, after I translated Camus' L'Etranger from French into English, and realized how wrong the copy I had always read in English was, I started to doubt any and all translations, including foreign movies. I realize it can be hard to translate things accurately, especially when you use special sayings, but geez, you gotta at least get the general idea right!

Scarf, we got our region free DVD player from http://www.codefreedvd.com/

They were very reliable, we've had it for 3 years now with no problems. The prices vary, but shipping from the U.K. was about 100 euros, if I recall correctly.

We haven't yet found a place in Greece that sells them, and we are looking, since we want to get a second dvd player for the bedroom.

Eff...thanks! I didn't even realize that I'd been blogging a year. LOL

Mel...I am really going to think about the title of that movie today. I narrowed it down a bit because I watched it from the projector so it had to be something we ripped to the HTPC.

scarf...we used to sell zone free DVD players on the cheap but we don't have any left. We have to stock up for Christmas so I'll see what I can find out for you (brands/prices) today.

Scarf...you'll probably have a hard time finding a DVD player which is advertised as zone free here because it is basically illegal. The industry has the zones to cut down on piracy. Amoisonic was one brand that did have a zone free DVD player. Other brands do have zone free models, they probably just don't advertise it. JVC, Toshiba, Samsung, Pioneer and even Sony all have zone free models. Just do a search on the Net for "zone free DVD players" and you'll get a lot of returns for it. Just remember the make & models and then go to your electronics store to see if they stock any of them.

I think the issue with dubbing and subtitles in Greece is also related to economies of scale.

When I first went to work in Greece 20 years, opps, 25 years ago, I was very happy that unlike Germany, where dubbing was very common, in Greece due to the fact that dubbing costs about 30 times as much as subtitles, almost everyting wa subtitled.

I know the alphabet and could read better than I could understand from Greek school so it was helpful to me, whicle I was sitll able to enjoy the programming.

Nowadays my guess is at leat 100 times the amount of content is available meaning that there is a limit to how much time can be appleid even to subtitling.

But Ialso know if you speak two languages any subtitling is strange.

This is not limited to Greece of course. I rented Crimson River last week and watched it with both the english dubbed aurio track and the english langagu subtitles. they wer both in English and were 100% different tranlations throughout.

Anyway great blog. I sometimes visit Zorkmidden's blog which I enjoy even though I often disagree with the conclusions some of the commentators make vis a vis Greece.

Enjoy Greece, feel the beauty of the past present and future. I miss it very much.

George

Or my favorite. An old space movie where the English was "Do you remember that old saying about the Dutchman and the dike (dam), and the Greeks translated it "O Ollandos and tee Lesvi (The Dutchman and the Lesbian). A dike is a water dam also by the way.