Millions of people around the world watch more movies because nowadays, movie translations allow them to enjoy foreign movies in their own language. Foreign films are a tool to convey a country's culture, especially food, behaviour, events, celebrations or fashion styles. Truth is always hoped for in art but always mixed with other factors such as a country's economy and culture into film.
Cinema is considered an art as well as an industry. It is an important factor for the survival of continental and national cultures. Furthermore, foreign films are said to be an important learning tool for understanding people, cultures, countries, etc.
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Whatever movie you watch, it has a bit of material in it because the movie is packed with information and images about the country the movie is about. Through film translations (dubbed and subtitled), it can reach a large audience and moviegoers are likely to see the customs, cities and fashions and landscapes of the country. places they have not been to.
When a film is translated or dubbed, it becomes a product of two cultures, for example, an Italian actor speaking their language and using their expressions and slang. The film translated today has several additional features. First of all, images from the original source cannot be replaced and the new language may differ depending on the countries where the subtitled or dubbed films are released.
Movie Translation Strategy
Film translation is a difficult and demanding job. Translators don't just need to be trained in the language. Knowledge of cultural languages is essential. This is the only way for the translator to convey the right message and perform the translation properly. This is one of the reasons why cultural knowledge is so important in translation. Film and audiovisual translation projects are becoming more and more demanding as the translation and images should complement rather than be unrelated.
When watching a movie, viewers don't often understand the social and cultural implications of the dialogue. It is therefore essential to have a translation strategy in place to have an equivalent standard. Some strategies include having to adapt to the culture of the target language, interpreting or using borrowed words. In general, the most used strategy is cultural adaptation, but in some situations it can be confusing.
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One of the important things to remember in a foreign translation is that the translator needs to understand the context of the film carefully. The translator must analyze the accuracy and closeness of the original culture to the target culture. He or she should know the target audience's amount of knowledge about the original culture depicted in the film.
Film Translation Method
Each country has a different way of translating movies, but you can consider at least two of these three methods. Dubbing and subtitles are often used to translate movies, while the third way – recording is often used for TV shows.
Deciding which method to use to translate movies is not an arbitrary choice. There are a number of factors to consider, like cost, what methods are popular with your target audience, traditions, and historical circumstances. In some cases, the position of the target cultures in the international context must be considered. It is important to understand the difference between the two methods used in film translation – dubbing and subtitles.
What is voiceover?? In dubbing, the source text is modified so that it becomes familiar to a Western audience. In this method, the foreign dialogue must match the character's mouth and movements. The goal is to make the viewer feel that the actors are actually speaking the local language.
What are subtitles?? In the subtitles, the dialogue is translated into the target language. Subtitles or captions must be synchronized. They are located at the bottom of the screen. The target audience feels the film's "foreign language" throughout the program.
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National Classification
Very few foreign films are imported by English-speaking countries such as the UK and the United States. If there are foreign films shown, most of them have subtitles. It doesn't matter much because many of the films exported to other countries originate from these two countries.
Popular dubbing countries are Spain, Germany, Italy, and France. Most of their films are dubbed. It is rooted in history, when the dubbing tradition began in the 1930s.
There are countries known to subtitles as well. These countries import a lot of foreign films, so they often require the services of translation companies. These include Croatia, Portugal, Slovenia, Denmark, Greece, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden. There are also some countries outside of Europe that also like subtitles. Did you know that in countries where the majority of people speak two languages, such as Belgium and Finland, they offer double subtitles? On the other hand, Poland and Russia prefer to record because they cannot afford subtitle services.
The Social and Economic Impact of Movies
Film translation has evolved throughout history, influencing people and industry. It used a lot of the influence of global societies in different ways. In the silent film era, there were only subtitles (title tags), so titles could easily be translated and inserted faster.
But when speaking film appeared in the late 1920s, American companies produced different versions of the films in different languages. But it was not profitable, as the versions using different actors and directors did not have the same artistic quality as the original. As a result, companies produce alternate dubbed versions. With spoken films, moviegoers understand the culture and nature of the film.
As the cost of film production goes up, smaller countries feel the crisis, so the movies they produce cannot compete with the larger countries, reducing production for domestic patronage, leading to import movies. It is also reflected in the movie translation mode. Film dubbing became common for larger countries, while smaller countries resorted to subtitles.
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1. Rise of Vietnamese film companies
The film industry in Vietnam has developed rapidly in recent years. The UK, Japan, Korea, Spain, Germany, Italy and France are also investing heavily in Vietnam. Entertainment films, movies or blockbuster movies are increasingly attracting young people at home and abroad and bring huge profits to today's studios.
2. National pride
Although larger countries can improve their film production, smaller countries have chosen to import films from the United States and other European countries. Situations affecting the choice of dubbing or imported movie subtitles.
France chose to dub imported films, for different reasons. First, the country feels that it has a cultural mission in the film industry, which is seen as an art form. They want to keep their culture pure, keep it from foreign influence. They think the French have successfully used cultural and political centralization. French speakers still believe that French is a preeminent language and will still enjoy a lingua franca status.
The same is true in Spain, Italy, and Germany, where leaders of nations believe that hearing the local language affirms their nation's supremacy and increases a sense of autonomy and national identity.
3. Economic reasons
In some smaller countries like Portugal, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands, they have opted to insert subtitles for movies. Some reasons include:
- Lower cost
- Dual languages spoken in a few countries
- Number of imported films
- Smaller popularity, but ticket sales are limited
4. Promoting the American Way of Life
At the beginning of the 20th century, the United States was recognized as a world power. But while other nations made conquests of other nations, the United States approached its global reach differently, using economic and cultural similarities. It still tends to take advantage while they can run local economies through their multinationals. The country has fostered democracy and a free-market economy, which is a cultural icon of the United States. The films they produce are managed to spread American values across the globe.
In this era of globalization, film translation takes place between cultures instead of between words. This is a cross-cultural transfer and the choice of film translation mode currently depends on the cultural perspective of the individual. goals, mixed with some political elements. American products are widely accepted in countries in Western Europe. Resistance to American habits and norms confronts resistance in Arab countries. Bollywood films are widely patronized in their own country as well as locally, where anti-American sentiment has faced strong opposition.
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Film is a very powerful and influential tool for transferring information, ideas and values. They present different cultures orally in a natural and intuitive way through pictures, music and dialogue.
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Nguyen Trung Khang - Talented interpreter and translator, passionate about translation
Nguyen Trung Khang is a talented interpreter and translator, with many years of experience in the field of translation and linguistics. He graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, majoring in Linguistics in 2015.
After graduating, Mr. Khang participated in a professional interpretation and interpretation training course at the University of Foreign Languages - Hanoi National University. He achieved a high-level certificate in interpreting and interpreting, and was also awarded a master's degree in linguistics.