Scaling the "one-inch tall barrier": translating figurative language for subtitles presents some unique challenges

(No Squid Game spoilers in the comments please, I've still not seen it)

As Bong Joon-ho, South Korean director of Parasite (2019), accepted his Oscar for best picture, he told the audience, "once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films." (Groskop, 2021).
The number of us using streaming platforms has exploded over the last decade, and as their popularity continues to grow, the sentiment of Joon-Ho's claim is resonating with viewers across the world more, and more. Literally thousands of films, box-sets, animated pictures that have been written, produced and initially released in countries on the other side of the globe are readily available to consumers basically everywhere. 
As anyone who has recently binge-watched Squid Game on Netflix will tell you, this new way of consuming visual media means we can easily enjoy top-class art made by international talent, that we would otherwise likely never have even heard of. But for me, it's really interesting how most of us seem blissfully unaware of a caveat that accompanies all this, and that's the reliance on subtitles. And whilst I'd never wish to question Joon-Ho's mastery over filmmaking, I think he's downplaying the unique but sizeable challenges that 'one-inch tall barrier' can present.

Subtitles - English [CC]

Interlingual subtitles, made by a subtitler who crosses over from the spoken language to the translation they produce for the screen, are a whole different kettle of fish from intralingual subtitles, usually made for viewers of domestic programmes who are deaf or hard of hearing (Kontenytė, 2016)
On paper, subtitles themselves can and often do work perfectly fine, even in this international context. That's because, despite what certain breeds of "political commentators" will have you believe, intercultural communication is not inherently problematic. Writing subtitles, dubbing scripts and closed captions for media that play a crucial role in cross-cultural interaction (Blum-Kulka & Olsthain, 1984); they facilitate a type of relationship between the viewer and the creatives behind a Netflix show, who likely have cultural identities that are quite different from one another. 
When we are looking at how well people with different cultural backgrounds can consume audiovisual media, the biggest hurdles are often presented by the working practices of the industry more broadly. 

The effects of the "talent crunch" are being felt in full force

From a technical perspective, there are three main constraints on the effectiveness of interlingual communication: space, time, and presentation. These are all really important things to consider, because their impact the way language is used as cross-cultural tool:
  • space: the viewer isn't going to be able to digest massive paragraphs in one go; ideally, subtitles should only be featured at about a sentence at a time
  • time: most lines of dialogue last between one and six seconds, so subtitlers have to make sure their transcriptions can be read in the target language in roughly the amount of time it takes the person on screen to say it
  • presentation: subtitles shouldn't take up more than 20% of the screen, as not to disrupt the viewing experience, but also need to be the right size and typeface if they're going to be legible to you or me at home.


Perhaps even more importantly, the rapid expansion of programming on streaming sites means there is quite literally not enough subtitlers to go around. Dubbed the "talent crunch" by Max Deryagin, chair of the Subtitler's Association, Subtle, the shortage of people producing subtitles has had a profound effect on the industry, and is likely playing a part in the examples of poor translations of Netflix shows that regularly populate TikTok. 

Cross-cultural communication is really quite complex

Learning a new language is more complicated than just cramming-in the exact translation for each word you already know and remembering the correct way to reorder the parts of your sentence. Languages don't map that neatly onto each other. Instead, you'll soon discover that you're regularly encountering words or phrases that embody a concept, which represents a key part of the cultural values of the native speakers, that just can't be conveyed using a word or two in your mother tongue.

 Cay Dollerup (1974) suggested that translators "need a complete knowledge of the subtler shades of meaning in foreign words or phrases and should remember the pitfalls of failing to recognize them"This intercultural pragmatic awareness (Kecskés, 2004), which is a fancy linguistic term for the knowledge of how human beings from different cultures navigate social interactions, is vital. Without it? Really impactful and well-crafted pieces of dialogue that aren't translated effectively pack less of a punch for viewers abroad, and sometimes just don't make sense.

'It's raining cats and dogs' doesn't work the same way in Urdu

Let's talk figurative language. Imagery, personification, metaphor all draw on a shared understanding of members belonging to the same culture, that often don't exist in the same way elsewhere.

It could be argued, for example, that idioms help make up cultural-scripts, defined as  "tacit norms, values and practices widely shared, and widely known (on an intuitive level) in a given society." (Wierzbicka, 2010) Idioms and other sayings commonplace in the speech-routines of members of the same culture, even though their grammatical salience is often questionable, and regularly refer to things that just aren't true in the real world. Ask a robot if they were 'in the know' as to whether or not they had a 'sweet tooth', and they might just blow a fuse; grammatically and factually these idioms are nonsense, but native English speakers wouldn't bat an eyelid if they cropped up in a conversation.

As such, if a subtitler wasn't privy to the meaning of an idiom that appeared in a line of dialogue and instead translated it word-for-word, or wasn't aware of a similar one that would work in that context, we would likely see a cross-cultural mishap that leaves the target audience feeling baffled.

(Kontenytė, 2016) found that more often than not, translators just chose to omit idioms that appear in dialogue, and instead opt for a variety of techniques to substitute the meaning (in the table extract below, ST is the original language, TT the subtitles).



What's important to remember is that this doesn't suggest that the language that the subtitles are translated to isn't at a deficit to the original language a show was produced in. The use of language to evoke emotions, create moods and add humour to a script is a phenomenon that encompasses all cultures. 

When a character in Inglorious Basterds uses an idiomatic phrase and says that "we're all tickled to hear you say that", the Lithuanian subtitles reduced the dialogue to its meaning, and even used language more appropriate for a formal setting (Kontenytė, 2016). Evidently, the viewers in Lithuania are just as aware of irony as English speakers, but the subtitles stripping away the idiom and using a more formal form meant that were less likely to be able to appreciate the sarcasm the screenwriter had intended, hampering the Lithuanian viewers' experience of the movie (which I have also heard is quite good, but I've also not seen it yet, so keep the comments spoiler-free. Please.)

What does this all mean?

Writing interlingual subtitles relies on the subtitler understanding how screenwriters originally meant for their words to be consumed, but also on their ability to effectively draw on cultural norms and scripts in the target language. This way, they can best co-construct this intercultural experience between themselves, the audience, and the creative talent behind the scenes. 


Interested in learning more? 

I hope you guys found this little insight even the slightest bit helpful (and, ideally, enjoyable). 
Throughout this blog entry, I've added the in-text citations for any sources I've used. If you want to read a bit more into any of the articles I've referred to, the authors' names and publish date are all hyperlinked to the resources online. 
I'm hoping to get my next blog post up as soon as possible (I'll be looking at how mistranslations in subtitles can impact on audiences' understanding of themes and deeper meanings in TV and Film), so I'm sure you'll see me around here soon.

Thanks! 
- Kunaal😉

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