Why are subtitles generally so bad?
I’m watching an Italian show and the official subtitles are mostly incorrect. I can’t quite catch all the Italian fast enough yet to turn them off, but they also distract me with how poor they are.
One day (soon).
Why are subtitles generally so bad?
I’m watching an Italian show and the official subtitles are mostly incorrect. I can’t quite catch all the Italian fast enough yet to turn them off, but they also distract me with how poor they are.
One day (soon).
Subtitles are not meant to be complete translations. Typically at least 30% of the information from the original is deleted.
So, they are simplified summaries of the dialogue aimed at a ‘typical’ viewer who is not expected to have any special knowledge of the language or culture of the original.
Theoretically they could be better but the CW is that most people can’t read fast enough for complete translations.
What I find much more useful (although they have some of the same problems of abbreviation) are captions for native speakers of the original language (formerly often available on dvds).