How a simple title can confuse perceptions: English to Spanish

Movie Tittles

Retrieved from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/home_alone

 Translations don't only seem to be confusing or misunderstood inside movies and shows, but the title of them can also become misinterpreted at some points. 

  

The aim of this tittle is to reflect the main ideas of a movie and also to attract the viewer into giving an insight of what the movie may be about and something that can be related to it. When it comes to translating these, it can be quite challenging, as each culture and language have their own adaptation of word meanings and can even have no sense if it is translated exactly word by word. An article written by Mathew A on cultures suggested that for example, in French, "the title of a film must not exceed nine syllables". So, many times it can become really hard to express the exact same meaning because of cultural barriers and norms. Titles need to communicate with the potential viewer, and the problem comes when they change the wording or meaning of the words, and therefore, a different message is delivered to people.

 

Retrieved from https://events.liveit.io/el-patio-auto-cinema/mi-pobre-angelito/

For example, the world known movie "Home Alone", where a boy lives a series of anecdotes while his parents are away on a trip, has an eye catching title that can be straight away identified as Kevin (the little boy) being alone and something happening due to this. Only by the title, the audience have an insight into what the film may be about. However, when this title is translated into Spanish, people get a very different perception of it. When converted, it is known as "Mi pobre angelito", which in English means "My poor angel".

The aim of this tittle is to reflect the main ideas of a movie and also to attract the viewer into giving an insight of what the movie may be about and something that can be related to it. When it comes to translating these, it can be quite challenging, as each culture and language have their own adaptation of word meanings and can even have no sense if it is translated exactly word by word. An article written by Mathew A on cultures suggested that for example, in French, "the title of a film must not exceed nine syllables". So, many times it can become really hard to express the exact same meaning because of cultural barriers and norms. Titles need to communicate with the potential viewer, and the problem comes when they change the wording or meaning of the words, and therefore, a different message is delivered to people.

There are several problems with this title. Firstly, people no longer get the same sense of the films content, as now people can't really detect and insight that the film will be about a child being alone at his house. It actually now provokes tenderness for him as someone will become worried about him. The feeling that the title provokes is different in both languages because it communicates different things. Also, in spanish, the word "angelito" is to actually angel, but a diminutive from this word. It makes people understand that he may be very little or very innocent, as by adding "ito" to the word, the perception of the title can also become totally different. 

This title translation can have cultural barriers as well as show different connotation when it is changed of language, because it is actually a complete different wording!

The easiest translation would've been "solo en casa", which are the same words as "home alone", but would've it had the same effect on Spanish-speaking cultures that on English ones? Due to marketing purposes they decided not to put this title, so maybe people wouldn´t of have understood the title in the same way! 

In other occasions titles are just translated different because there are no words which mean exactly the same, and In this article you can check up on 20 untranslatable words: https://culturesconnection.com/abc-of-impossible-words-in-translation-part-2/ and have a quick look in case you ever come across them!

By Amina