How can film subtitles meet an audience’s expectations? (1) Nowadays, almost every foreign film which has been shown in Japan has a version with Japanese subtitles since the foreign film Morocco with

Maggie

How can film subtitles meet an audience’s expectations? (1) Nowadays, almost every foreign film which has been shown in Japan has a version with Japanese subtitles since the foreign film Morocco with Japanese subtitles was first released in 1931. On the other hand, the rapid development of technology has had important knock-on effects for film translation practice as well as bring new challenges for translation studies. Therefore, the paper aims to identify the expectations of film audiences for Japanese subtitles and explores measures subtitlers can take to meet those expectations. At first, a questionnaire which focus on the cross-cultural items and other constrains concerning subtitles is made to figure out the audiences’ expectations. According to a survey conducted on 50 audiences, 80% of the audiences choose the subtitling version when they watch foreign films since they can hear the original voice and learn foreign language at the same time. However, these audiences tend to have a rather negative opinion on the quality of subtitles. Specifically, half of them are conscious of the space and time constrains of subtitling and the rest are not; With reference to translation of the cross-cultural items, foreignization and domestication are both acceptable for them; More than half of them have no objection to the use of catch phrases. Moreover, a interview regarding the audiences’ expectation that film subtitles was given to four professional subtitlers. There are four points about subtitling guidelines can be summarized from the interview as following. Guideline 1: In view of the fact that the audiences have to juggle subtitles and the image on the screen, subtitlers believe that excellent subtitles are easy to understand and with a strong narrative. Guideline 2: Subtitlers are supposed to follow the subtitling guidelines strictly while making subtitles. Guideline 3: To adapt to the target language and culture, subtitlers prefer the domestication which contradicts the audiences’ opinions. Guideline 4: The control of using the catch phrases indicates that subtitles are supposed to be adapted to the audiences as more as possible.

Aug 31, 2015 12:53 AM

Corrections · 4

How can film subtitles meet an audience’s expectations? (1)

Nowadays, almost every foreign film which has been shown in Japan has a version with Japanese subtitles since the foreign film Morocco with Japanese subtitles was first released in 1931. On the other hand, the rapid development of technology has had important knock-on effects for film translation practice as well as bringing (Keep in present tense) new challenges for translation studies. Therefore, the paper aims to identify the expectations of film audiences for Japanese subtitles and explores measures subtitlers can take to meet those expectations.
At first, a questionnaire which focus on the cross-cultural items and other constrains concerning subtitles is made to figure out the audiences’ expectations. According to a survey conducted on 50 audience members, (more understandable) 80% of the (unnessicary article) audience members chose the subtitling version when they watch foreign films since they can hear the original voice and learn foreign language at the same time. However, these audience members tend to have a rather negative opinion on the quality of subtitles. Specifically, half of them are conscious of the space and time constrains of subtitling while the rest are not; With reference to translation of the cross-cultural items, foreignization and domestication are both acceptable for them; More than half of them have no objection to the use of catch phrases.
Moreover, a interview regarding the audiences’ expectation of that film subtitles the film given to four professional subtitlers. There are four points about subtitling guidelines can be summarized from the interview as following: (Colons are used for starting lists like this)
Guideline 1: In view of the fact that the audiences have to juggle subtitles and the image on the
screen, subtitlers believe that excellent subtitles are easy to understand and with a
strong narrative.
Guideline 2: Subtitlers are supposed to follow the subtitling guidelines strictly while making
subtitles.
Guideline 3: To adapt to the target language and culture, subtitlers prefer the domestication which
contradicts the audiences’ opinions.
Guideline 4: The control of using the catch phrases indicates that subtitles are supposed to be
adapted to the audiences as much as possible.

August 31, 2015

How can film subtitles meet an audience’s expectations? (1)

Nowadays, a Almost every foreign film which has been shown in Japan has a version with Japanese subtitles since the foreign film Morocco with Japanese subtitles was first released in 1931.

[1. Italicize movie name. 2. "Since Moroco was released" establishes the time, so we don't need "Nowadays". 3. Was Morocco released more than once? If not, we don't need "first".]

On the other hand, Recently, the rapid development of technology has had important knock-on effects for film translation practice as well as bringing new challenges for translation studies.

[To use "On the other hand," we need contrast, but I don't see the contrast.]

Therefore, the this paper aims to identify the expectations of film audiences for Japanese subtitles and explores measures subtitlers can take to meet those expectations.

At first First, a questionnaire which focussed on the cross-cultural items and other constraints concerning subtitles is made to figure out acertain the audiences’ expectations. According to a survey conducted on 50 audiences, 80% of the audiences choose the subtitling subtitled version when they watch foreign films since they can hear the original voice and learn a foreign language at the same time. However, these audiences tend to have a rather negative opinion on the quality of subtitles. Specifically, half of them are conscious of the space and time constrains of subtitling and the rest are not; With reference to translation of the cross-cultural items, foreignization and domestication are both acceptable for them.; More than half of them have no objection to the use of catch phrases. ["tend to have a negative opinion" means that the majority have a negative opinion or about 50% have a negative opinion? "More than half" is very ambiguous. Is it 51% or 90%?]

Moreover, a interview regarding the audiences’ expectation that film subtitles was given to four professional subtitlers. There are four points Four guidelines about subtitling guidelines can be summarized from the interview as following follows.

Guideline 1: In view of the fact that the audiences have to juggle subtitles and the image on the
screen, subtitlers believe that excellent subtitles are easy to understand and with a
strong narrative. [1. Does this one mean that subtitles must be easy to understand and have a strong narrative? 2. I'm not sure what strong narative means here.]

Guideline 2: Subtitlers are supposed to follow the subtitling guidelines strictly while making
subtitles. [Does this mean that guideline #2 is that you must follow the guidelines? It seems circular.]

Guideline 3: To adapt to the target language and culture, subtitlers prefer the domestication. which
contradicts in contrast to the audiences’ opinions.

Guideline 4: The control of using the catch phrases indicates that subtitles are supposed to be
adapted to the audiences as more much as possible. [What does this guideline mean? Do not use catch phrases? Only use catch phrases that make sense to Japanese?]

August 31, 2015