Making Thai Subtitles: Culture, Slang, and Curse Words [Season 3, Episode 77]

Greg interviews Palm, a professional translator of English to
Thai, but in a very specific context: subtitles for film and
television. Palm begins by explaining that she literally learned
English by being a couch potato and watching a lot of Western TV
shows and movies, surviving by figuring out the subtitles word by
word. This led naturally to an interest in doing it for a living,
and lo and behold, her dream came to when she got a job
translating for MTV Thailand. Eventually, this led to translating
for a major video distribution company (which shall remain
anonymous). 


Greg quizzes Palm on the difficulties of her job and how she can
possibly find Thai equivalents for all the weird expressions and
slang in English. Palm notes that this in fact makes her job fun,
as she often has to do research to first make sure she has the
proper understanding in her own head before she can determine the
best Thai equivalent. Unsurprisingly, curse words are quite
difficult, and Greg and Palm discuss some rude expressions and
how Palm approaches translating them. 


They also discuss the difference between simply translating a
word, and translating intentions, concepts, and context. Apply
this to, say, hip-hop culture, or RuPaul's show "Drag Race", and
you can see where it becomes difficult! 


Palm concludes with some advice for wannabe subtitlers, so listen
in for some excellent career guidance if you are so
inclined. 


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