Accurate dubbing a long way off for TV viewers

By Lie Hua

JAKARTA (JP): "Thank you to his visit ...," says one character in an American film dubbed into Indonesian, to the surprise of television viewers because they are at a loss to find the situation prompting the character to express his gratitude.

A TV film lover reads to his amusement an Indonesian subti tle saying that something is hiding inside someone's sleeve, while he has just heard, unmistakably, one character warns anoth er to be careful about a Mr X because he has something up his sleeve.

A long list of such examples may be drawn if a TV viewer is observant enough to listen to the dubbing or read the subtitling. To many, these may be trivial, but to some they may be disturbing because what you hear or what you read is not related to what you watch.

In both examples above it is clear that the translator is not careful. In the first example, obviously the original version reads "Thanks to his visit ...", which is way in meaning from "Thank you to his visit ...".

In the second example, the character refers to "keeping secret for use at the right time in the future" but someone reading the Indonesian subtitle will expect to see the character busy trying to find something hidden inside someone's sleeve.

Incongruity like these are easy to find if you are listening to the dubbing or reading the subtitle. It is often hard to understand why glaring mistakes still occur as the translation for the dubbing and the subtitling have to be checked first before they are released.

Translators

Whether a foreign film is dubbed or subtitled, a translator will be needed. Obviously, the qualification of a translator will determine the quality of the translation.

In Indosiar, for example, the translators are either permanent staffers or freelancers. "Generally speaking, we have our own team of translators and dubbers. We hire freelancers only when we are underhanded," said Gufron, public relation chief of the private TV station.

He added that they had translators for English and Mandarin texts, and that in the case of Indian films, the dubbing would be handled by the importer.

A senior dubber organizer, now employed by SCTV but preferring anonymity, said that in this private TV station translators for subtitling work are regularly employed but those for the dubbing work are freelancers. He added that regularly employed translators are university graduates but the freelancers are university students, very often not majoring in English, at higher grades.

The situation is almost the same in other private TV stations. According to Inez Saptenno, first assistant to the dean of School of Letters, National University, some of the students of the English department work as freelancing translators for subtitling work.

She said in some cases the translation showed sloppy work. "The quality of translation depends on the qualification of the translator. If a translator is underpaid, as I have heard, the quality of the translation is obviously disappointing," she added.

Subtitling

Both dubbing and subtitling needs a translator. In the case of subtitling, it is sometimes the case that the translators have to depend on their ears.

"We have no script. We listen to the dialog and translate the dialog exchanges," said a translator for subtitling work in translation workshop under Rahayu S. Hidayat of the University of Indonesia, held at National University late last year.

Rahayu added that translating for subtitling work had the limited space as the main constraint. A translator has to think of the right phrases to fit the space given and at the same time convey the meaning.

In the case of translation for dubbing work, the translator will do the translation at home and then in the studio someone will break down the sentences into parts that will synchronize with the lips of the speakers.

Constraints aside, it is the qualification of the translator that will determine the quality of the translation work.

Remuneration

Saptenno said that a few years back a translator for subtitling work was paid Rp 30,000-50,000 per title.

Today a translator for subtitling work gets Rp 200,000 a title for a 90-minute film and Rp 100,000 - Rp 150,000 a title for a 60-minute film, said a senior dubber at SCTV who requested anonymity.

It would take a translator about 3 days to complete the translation of a 60-minute action film, and about 1-2 days for a 30-minute sitcom, he said. In an action film, there are not many dialogs but a sitcom relies heavily on dialogs, he added.

Usually a translator will have an English script for a Western TV or wide-screen film, a Latin American TV film or Mandarin film, either in Mandarin or dubbed in English, he said.

In the case of Indian films, he said, the English script is usually incomplete, so the dialogs have to be translated by a person speaking the language used in the film. This translator will be paid an average of 300,000 per title for a film with a 3- hour duration.

Thai and Philippines films are usually accompanied by dialog texts in English although in some cases the help of (native) speakers of Thai and Tagalog will be needed.

"The dialogs in Thai series with Racha as the main cast, now aired by ANtv, for example, are translated directly from Thai," said Saptenno, adding that the translator is married to a Thai gentleman.

In the case of translation for dubbing, the source at SCTV said that university graduates majoring in English are usually reluctant to take up the job because of its poor remuneration.

"Many of them prefer to take other kinds of translation because of the higher pay," he noted. For comparison, a translator gets paid Rp 40 - 50 a character doing business translation.

It is a pity, he added, that there is yet to be a specific association for translators for dubbing and subtitling work. This association may, among other things, help improve and standardize the quality of the translation.

Meanwhile, TV viewers may still expect to find incongruity between what they hear or read and what is going on in the film.