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Fractured TV film script translations



Polonius3Threads: 963
Posts: 4,551
Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂ 		 Mar 22, 10, 11:22    #1
Can you think of any strange, funny or erroneous translations in those voice-overs Polish TV stations use when presenting English-language films?
For instance to elope means to stealthily sneak away (even climbing down the ladder from the bedroom) and maybe drive across the state line* to get married in the middle of the night by a sleepy justice of the peace in the boonies. None of that content is reflected by the Polish word "uciec".
Or "are we having pancakes for breakfast?" in US films is routinely translated as "czy będą naleśniki na śniadanie?". Americans almost never eat crepes for brekafast, only fluffy raised pancakes known in Polish as racuchy.
I recall once hearing best man (at a wedding) translated as najlepszy mężczyzna.

* Some states allow yougner couples to be legally married.
frdThreads: 8
Posts: 1,956
Joined: Feb 3, 09 ♂ 		 Mar 22, 10, 12:31    #2
There was a pretty funny polish sketch taking a mickey out of the old tv translations when every swear word in the movies on the public tv was translated into a veeery mild form of that word. I remember one movie in which they have translated "f_uck" to "A niech to!!!".. weird..
Polonius3Threads: 963
Posts: 4,551
Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂ 		 Mar 22, 10, 13:41    #3
How would you have translated it? With the Polish K-word, P-word or something else?
frdThreads: 8
Posts: 1,956
Joined: Feb 3, 09 ♂ 		 Mar 22, 10, 13:48    #4
Polonius3:
K-word
Polonius3Threads: 963
Posts: 4,551
Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂ 		 Mar 22, 10, 13:57    #5
Other nations use the M-word (eg French), vulgar for excrement, in such situations, although on second thought so do Americans (SH-word). As an unrelated aside, Pol-Ams in SE Michigan (Metro Detroit and environs) used to joke about the 'Southern Hamtramck Institute of Technology, good old S.H.I.T!'
frdThreads: 8
Posts: 1,956
Joined: Feb 3, 09 ♂ 		 Mar 22, 10, 13:59    #6
It all depends on the context.
Polonius3Threads: 963
Posts: 4,551
Joined: Apr 11, 08 ♂ 		 Mar 22, 10, 14:31    #7
Don't you think that in most cases (anger, disappointment, frustration, etc. over something that went wrong) the F and SH-words could be used unterchangeably? Personally I don't use such expressions so maybe there's some subtle nuance I'm missing.
learn polishThreads: 2
Posts: 71
Joined: Oct 15, 09 ♀ 		 Mar 23, 10, 12:47    #8
I loved the translation of "Here's my autographed bat from The League of their own" with the guy on the screen showing his baseball bat and the voice-over saying "To mój podpisany nietoperz z filmu Ich Własna Liga". It's my all time favourite.

Other highlights I can recall include:
She's such a wet blanket - ona jest mokrym kocem
Do you like Smashing Pumpkins? - Czy lubisz rozbijać dynie? (I know, this one was quite predictable :p)

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