Airing of Grievances: Substandard Translation Services
What is it with translation services? Can just anybody get a job as a translator? On a recent trip to San Antonio, I saw T-shirts for sale in a mall that say:
Tú eres un pendejo.
(You are my friend.)
I’ll be the first to admit (as it wouldn’t be much of an admission, coming from anyone else) that my Spanish is a bit rusty these days, but I’m pretty sure that translation is off just a tad. Did the same happen to the subtitles for this TV interview? You be the judge.
UPDATE: If you haven’t watched the above-linked video, you should. It’s NSFW, but who the hell works on Festivus?
December 20th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
After consulting an on-line Spanish-English translation site, I guess the line is an insult to those of us who didn’t learn Spanish.
And to that I say, “ASSIMILATE! Just like my ancestors did. Be proud to live in America.”
December 20th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Yes. Anybody can be a translator. There’s a little qulifying voir dire that goes: “Are you fluent in blank and in English, can you translate from blank to English and from English to blank, and how did you become this way?”
December 20th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Uh, BR — a hint: Spanish-speaking people in San Antonio have been there longer than the US has. So maybe you should “assimilate”. Hijo.
December 21st, 2006 at 12:49 am
Pendejo is one of those words that doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere.
However, it does remain an insult no matter where you go… excluding that of people who assume everything on a T-shirt is true.
This isn’t a case of mistaken translation. It’s a bit of Tex-Mex grunge culture used to show anticonformity. Since many people don’t know what it means, you can get away with it when jerkwad might get you in trouble.
December 23rd, 2006 at 1:43 pm
That interview has got to be a setup. First of all, I don’t believe that after your voice changes, it really changes back if you lose your jewels. Losing your jewels can’t change the shape and size of your throat. Second, a couple of those lines were obviously intended to be funny (like the one about the dog).
December 23rd, 2006 at 2:07 pm
My guess is that the show was real, but the subtitles were creative writing. I could easily see someone watching a talk show on a wholly unrelated topic, notice a male guest’s ridiculously high voice and a talk show host who can’t stop laughing, and then writing a whole new script around that. That’s why I referenced it as a likely bad translation – like the pendejo/friend one, an accidentally-on-purpose error.
December 23rd, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Oh.
OK, some of us need it spelled out…