The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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@Linguist_CIOL APRIL/MAY The Linguist 11 FEATURES case. In Ghost Wars, for instance, a word-for- word translation led to this nonsensical exchange in the Italian subtitles: A: Via, via! B: Che sta dicendo? C: Credo dica: Ron, Ron B: Chi รจ Ron? From the English: A: Run, run! B: What is he saying? C: It sounds like: Ron, Ron B: Who is Ron? Though we may never know how these mistranslations reached the screen, we can gain an understanding of gaps in the system that may lead to such errors. High competition, low rates Translation for dubbing is mainly carried out in the country of the target language. Practices vary from country to country, and working conditions can be far from ideal. I tried to gain an insight into the situation for those working into Italian and discovered a varied landscape. In Italy, competition for work is high and an increasing number of studios are fighting to get a share of the market by offering low prices to potential clients. As a consequence, AV translators are receiving lower rates, and are increasingly drawn towards accepting more assignments and rushing through them. This is especially true for those who have limited experience. "Although it is hard to make a living working for these agencies, we need to gain the experience before we can offer our services to the good ones and compete with well-established colleagues on the same level," said one newcomer, who wished to remain anonymous and will be referred to as Sarah. Fansubbing (i.e. subtitles made by fans, free of charge) can drive down fees for professional subtitlers, but for freelancers working on big productions, this is not usually a concern. These companies rely on qualified translators to get subtitles ready for release simultaneously in all the languages they cover. A bigger problem for many Italian AV translators is the working conditions. They report that they regularly receive scripts for translation that differ from the video footage. Sometimes parts of the script are missing or the time codes are wrong, so the material on which the translator is working is not as broadcast. When this happens, they rely on the footage they have been given as a reference to fill in the missing parts. Morris Lugato, from the studio Erazero based in Milan, explains that it is common for time codes on the scripts to be different from the video: "Time codes (the numbers indicating the minute and photogram in the video) might refer to a different video format. Or maybe the script is not updated after the video is edited," he says. "It is a minor issue for me, because I could not work relying on the script alone; I check my translation against the video all the time to make sure my text corresponds to the picture." In Italy, working conditions are regulated by Collective Agreements (Contratto Collettivo Nazionale del Lavoro; CCNL) negotiated by representatives of the workers' national unions and of the confederations of employers for each industry. CCNLs define the general guidelines of employment in terms of salary, minimum leave entitlement and legal obligations. There might be additional agreements between the parties regarding specific issues, but these are not binding, so companies adhere to them on a voluntary basis. According to these voluntary agreements, time-consuming tasks, such as filling in the missing parts of an incomplete script, should be paid as an extra. Some studios do adequately compensate translators for this work, or give it to technicians to work on, allowing the translators to continue with their actual job. However, the common practice in Italy is to extend the deadline for delivery (to give the translator time to carry out this additional work) without increasing the translator's fee. "In my experience, not many agencies pay for the extras," says Sarah. "There are good agencies out there and when we find them, we stick to them, because we know our time is valued and we can spend more time working on the project to deliver a high-quality service." In subtitling, too, the quality of a translation can be affected by several factors: out-dated scripts; inexperienced translators; fast turnaround, leaving little time for the review process; and low rates, which force the translator to work quickly to finish the task and start another. In some cases, translators do not have the context or video to refer to. Subtitles for the Italian market are almost always translated by freelancers, usually AV translators are receiving lower rates, and are increasingly drawn towards rushing through assignments translation errors? Oppedisano reports rong