I decided that as I have a lot of DVDs that have both English and German soundtracks I'd watch a couple in German, just for the practice. I am after all rather rusty and what could be a better way to brush up than watch, say, a couple of episodes of Stargate in German? Because I'm so rusty I decided that I'd also put on the subtitles. After all reading the words would overcome any difficulties in identifying the spoken dialogue AND give me some additional practice.
The first oddity was that the episode entitled "A Hundred Days" in English had mysteriously become "O'Neill und Laira" (O'Neill and Laira). It didn't take long for me to realise that watching AND reading in German was worse than useless as they appeared to be two entirely different translations.
Take this short exchange.
First, English.
O'Neill: Please. Don't suck the fun out of this.
Carter: Sorry, sir.
Pretty straightforward, isn't it.
Here's the German as in the subtitles.
O'Neill: Bitte! Das verdirbt uns den Spass.
Carter: Tut mir Leid, Sir.
That's fairly close meaning, in back translation,
O'Neill: Please! That spoils the fun for us.
Carter: I'm sorry, Sir.
On the other hand the translation on the soundtrack was the completely different. Although it doesn't make much sense it sounds as if it's
O'Neill: Wir waren noch jetzt nicht da von Anfang.
Carter: Enshuldigung, Sir.
Or, in English (something like)
O'Neill: We weren't still there from the beginning.
Carter: Pardon me, Sir.
Five minutes later I gave up on the subtitles. None of them bore any resemblance to the spoken dialogue and my head had started to ache trying to reconcile the two.
The first oddity was that the episode entitled "A Hundred Days" in English had mysteriously become "O'Neill und Laira" (O'Neill and Laira). It didn't take long for me to realise that watching AND reading in German was worse than useless as they appeared to be two entirely different translations.
Take this short exchange.
First, English.
O'Neill: Please. Don't suck the fun out of this.
Carter: Sorry, sir.
Pretty straightforward, isn't it.
Here's the German as in the subtitles.
O'Neill: Bitte! Das verdirbt uns den Spass.
Carter: Tut mir Leid, Sir.
That's fairly close meaning, in back translation,
O'Neill: Please! That spoils the fun for us.
Carter: I'm sorry, Sir.
On the other hand the translation on the soundtrack was the completely different. Although it doesn't make much sense it sounds as if it's
O'Neill: Wir waren noch jetzt nicht da von Anfang.
Carter: Enshuldigung, Sir.
Or, in English (something like)
O'Neill: We weren't still there from the beginning.
Carter: Pardon me, Sir.
Five minutes later I gave up on the subtitles. None of them bore any resemblance to the spoken dialogue and my head had started to ache trying to reconcile the two.
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