Making Thai Subtitles: Culture, Slang & Curse Words [S7.E72] (Classic ReCast)

In this month's Classic Recast, 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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