At least they have sub-titles

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Gary Allan

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This has to be old news to some of you.

I was flipping through the cable channels and hit upon a Japanese soap. I normally don't run a full inventory of ethnicity ..but the anger in the dialog ..at least from the males ..tended to sound like a bad case of constipation. Obviously the translations for the subtitles were morphed in a semi-direct way since the grammar was off for an English audience.

I often wondered why Telemudo or Univision don't do this. I would sometimes pause on either of these stations (also a soap on at the time) and wondered what the two women were saying as they escalated into a cat fight over some guy. The machine gun pace was way too hard to keep up with in the clipping ..even if I could dust off some Espanol~ from the distant past.

.badada

?bada?

badadadad!

badadbabadbadada!

BAP!
 
Asians are more inclined to assimilate where mexicans want everyone to learn thier language.
 
Originally Posted By: defektes
Asians are more inclined to assimilate where mexicans want everyone to learn thier language.


Maybe you want to learn your language well before writing about Mexicans.
 
I often wonder what people who speak other languages think of soap operas in English.

Their dialog often occurs to me as verbal diarrhea....
 
Tripped over an Indian soap on the free to air satellite dish. (Lots of foreign stuff gets beamed over our skies to make the ex-pats feel at home.) Subtitles in another language. Screechy music. Every shot had a 10:1 zoom ratio, especially when someone entered the room angrily.

Bollywood manages every filmmaking cliche. Or perhaps, this was a secret joke on me.
 
Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
I would sometimes pause on either of these stations (also a soap on at the time) and wondered what the two women were saying as they escalated into a cat fight over some guy.

for me, watching the Spanish channels is best done w/ the sound turned off. especially when watching the female newscasters.
 
One of my goals in life is never to be so bored that I'm sitting around flipping through TV channels.

Another goal is never to be so bored that I actually watch a soap opera.

I'll now add another goal-never be so bored that I flip through TV channels and watch a soap opera in a language I don't speak.
 
Or read a thread about it ....
lol.gif
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
I often wonder what people who speak other languages think of soap operas in English.

Their dialog often occurs to me as verbal diarrhea....


I think the best soap operas are the ones from Latin America. The Hollywood output is usually lame and boring. I haven't seen Indian soap operas so can't comment on them.
 
I knew this guy who taught English in provincial China around 10 years ago. He is of Italian descent, and speaks Italian and Mandarin quite well by all accounts. He was at a movie theater during his time there, and was watching an Italian mob movie. The dialog was in Italian, but with Mandarin subtitles. In the movie, as the mobsters are about to burst into a warehouse to dust off their rivals, the head mobster says to his cohorts, in Italian (translated into English as my friend recounts the story), "Come on, guys, let's go **** 'em up!". He tells me that the literal translation of the Mandarin subtitle was "Come, gentlemen, let us go forth and show them our influence!"
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Bollywood manages every filmmaking cliche. Or perhaps, this was a secret joke on me.


I also knew a fella that spent 6 months in India studying drum making. He tells me that it is common practice; almost a duty for Bollywood filmmakers to include a regular set of elements in their films: There *must* be a dance sequence, a fight scene, a chase, a love scene, etc. There *must* be involved some dimension of costume design, and the nature of the characters is such that every film must have a set of these character "templates" (think: menacing villain, handsome hero, vulnerable damsel in distress, quirky sidekick). Imagine if in North America *every* film was a thriller/ romantic comedy/ action/ drama/ musical.

My first comment to him was that it must be near impossible for the filmmakers to integrate all of these elements into their films and still retain some semblance of plot continuity. My friend replied "No, plot's not so much a concern."
 
Originally Posted By: MarkC
Japanese and Korean films are very often much better than most American ones. I'm not talking about porn, either.

I agree, Japanese porn is weird.
 
Originally Posted By: DeeAgeaux
Originally Posted By: defektes
Asians are more inclined to assimilate where mexicans want everyone to learn thier language.


Maybe you want to learn your language well before writing about Mexicans.


Who can you understand better.. an English-speaker with low grammar skills or a person speaking perfect Spanish or any other language?

You shouldn't judge a person on their grammar skills.
 
Quote:
My first comment to him was that it must be near impossible for the filmmakers to integrate all of these elements into their films and still retain some semblance of plot continuity. My friend replied "No, plot's not so much a concern."


There are a few that manage to manage to have one.

There was a decent Bollywood production about a cricket game ..it had the musical aspect to it ..but overall it was a well done film. Once Upon a Time in India?? I found it unique in that the English spoke English and the Indians (speaking Hindi, I assume) were subtitled. I assume that the opposite was true if broadcast in India ..but maybe it's not necessary there.
 
Originally Posted By: DeeAgeaux
Originally Posted By: defektes
Asians are more inclined to assimilate where mexicans want everyone to learn thier language.


Maybe you want to learn your language well before writing about Mexicans.


I would have you know I am fluent in Spanish being of latino decent. I find my first post to be correct.

I type fast and to the point and can give a rats [censored] about my grammar.
 
Originally Posted By: mpvue
Originally Posted By: MarkC
Japanese and Korean films are very often much better than most American ones. I'm not talking about porn, either.

I agree, Japanese porn is weird.

Of course Japanese films are considered great.

There are huge clubs dedicated to people who love the animated ones.

Often it is what gets people to want to travel to Japan.
 
Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
There was a decent Bollywood production about a cricket game ..it had the musical aspect to it ..but overall it was a well done film. Once Upon a Time in India?? I found it unique in that the English spoke English and the Indians (speaking Hindi, I assume) were subtitled. I assume that the opposite was true if broadcast in India ..but maybe it's not necessary there.



Lagaan
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