Lost in translation…

As a foreigner here in Norway I sometimes get irritated, but more often quite amused by the SNAFU‘s they make in the translations/subtitles.

Some are simple measurement screw-ups, like replacing ‘100 pounds’ with ‘100 kilos’ (correct: ‘45 kilos‘). These are probably just because the guy/gal writing the subtitles isn’t exactly a math-whiz…
Sometimes however, instead of just not doing any calculations, they seem to use a random number generator instead, and ’20 miles’ turns into ’24 kilometers’ (correct: 32 kilometers)

And then there’s the totally humorous ones, like the one I just spotted in a James Bond movie:

  • Spoken English: ‘Dont worry,we’ll whip you into shape!’
  • Norwegian subtitles: ‘Ta det med ro,jeg skal nok slikke Dem i form!’
  • For any non-Norwegians who read this, the English translation of the Norwegian subtitles is: ‘Don’t worry, we’ll lick you into shape!’… And with that one bodged translation the movie turned into softcore porn… 😉

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