If you have a look at the side bar here you'll see 10 things I like about Korea. One of them is reading English written in Hangul, the Korean writing system.
I suggest you learn to read it some time. It's a really easy and nothing like Chinese or Japanese. It's an advanced writing system and actually makes sense. For the most part one letter is one sound. There are a few exceptions, but nothing you can't get your head around within a few minutes.
Not surprisingly at all, you see it around here all the time. The best part, however, is that they write things like film name and products in Hangul as well. When you can read the script it ends up being an endless supply of entertainment, for me, at least.
Enough of that and back to the topic. You know how, at the beginning of a film, the name often doesn't come up straight away? First they have the production company's name, the director's name, a scene or two and THEN the film name. Very often on TV they have the name written small in the corner. Here, in South Korea at least, because you already know the North has no electricity, they do it just as often, but not using the Roman Script.
Imagine this. You're sitting on your bed, looking at the new film starting and wondering what it might be. You notice in the corner they have the name written and do quick bit of translation. The result is "Jugi Deureadeu" (sounding something like Jaugy Daudeadau).
What can this be? The images on the screen don't give you much of a clue. It looks like it might be set in the future, but you're not sure. You don't see anyone you know. You don't see anything you've seen before. You just don't know.
Just when you think that you will never get it they turn the light on and the original title comes up. It says "Judge Dread"!
Judge Dread! Not Jugi Deureadeu. Jugi sounds like a little Sissy Boy. Sylvester Stallone played a Bad Ass, Gonna Kick Your Butt From Here To The Wastelands action hero. We'll ignore the stupid costume that includes spandex and high sole steel tipped boots. He didn't play a Jugi.
I swear I will never get enough of this. It is more entertaining than anything happening in the actual film.
Something I don't get is why they need to translate the name like that? Shouldn't they just give it a new Korean name? Also, it seems pretty much everyone had English to some level in school. Surely they can read the name using the Roman alphabet.
Normally in South Africa we don't translate English names because we understand the language so well. We do however translate other language in to English. I can only imagine what we get up to ourselves.
We do have a habit of translating directly in to Afrikaans. It is just for fun and it leads to some strange result. It works even better if you do it with animals. As an example, a Leopard will become a Lazy Horse. The things with Afrikaans it that it is the same Language Family as English and we are mostly the same culture, to it is normally very easy to translate titles between the two if you really have to.
Keeping that in mind, just for fun I went and looked for a few actual translations of films in too other languages (and then translated back in to English). The ones I found are mostly from Europe, but a quick search will give you more from all parts of the world.
Here goes...
Dying to Live - Die Hard
Die Hard - Mega Hard - Die hard with a Vengeance
The Eighth Passenger - Alien
Deadly Assignment - Terminator
Forever Man - Highlander
Dangerous Sex - Species
The Gun Died Laughing - The Naked Gun
Raging Max - Mad Max
Just As We Were Falling in Love - Serendipity
Dancing Hero - Strictly Ballroom
I suggest you learn to read it some time. It's a really easy and nothing like Chinese or Japanese. It's an advanced writing system and actually makes sense. For the most part one letter is one sound. There are a few exceptions, but nothing you can't get your head around within a few minutes.
Not surprisingly at all, you see it around here all the time. The best part, however, is that they write things like film name and products in Hangul as well. When you can read the script it ends up being an endless supply of entertainment, for me, at least.
Enough of that and back to the topic. You know how, at the beginning of a film, the name often doesn't come up straight away? First they have the production company's name, the director's name, a scene or two and THEN the film name. Very often on TV they have the name written small in the corner. Here, in South Korea at least, because you already know the North has no electricity, they do it just as often, but not using the Roman Script.
Imagine this. You're sitting on your bed, looking at the new film starting and wondering what it might be. You notice in the corner they have the name written and do quick bit of translation. The result is "Jugi Deureadeu" (sounding something like Jaugy Daudeadau).
What can this be? The images on the screen don't give you much of a clue. It looks like it might be set in the future, but you're not sure. You don't see anyone you know. You don't see anything you've seen before. You just don't know.
Just when you think that you will never get it they turn the light on and the original title comes up. It says "Judge Dread"!
Judge Dread! Not Jugi Deureadeu. Jugi sounds like a little Sissy Boy. Sylvester Stallone played a Bad Ass, Gonna Kick Your Butt From Here To The Wastelands action hero. We'll ignore the stupid costume that includes spandex and high sole steel tipped boots. He didn't play a Jugi.
I swear I will never get enough of this. It is more entertaining than anything happening in the actual film.
Something I don't get is why they need to translate the name like that? Shouldn't they just give it a new Korean name? Also, it seems pretty much everyone had English to some level in school. Surely they can read the name using the Roman alphabet.
Normally in South Africa we don't translate English names because we understand the language so well. We do however translate other language in to English. I can only imagine what we get up to ourselves.
We do have a habit of translating directly in to Afrikaans. It is just for fun and it leads to some strange result. It works even better if you do it with animals. As an example, a Leopard will become a Lazy Horse. The things with Afrikaans it that it is the same Language Family as English and we are mostly the same culture, to it is normally very easy to translate titles between the two if you really have to.
Keeping that in mind, just for fun I went and looked for a few actual translations of films in too other languages (and then translated back in to English). The ones I found are mostly from Europe, but a quick search will give you more from all parts of the world.
Here goes...
Dying to Live - Die Hard
Die Hard - Mega Hard - Die hard with a Vengeance
The Eighth Passenger - Alien
Deadly Assignment - Terminator
Forever Man - Highlander
Dangerous Sex - Species
The Gun Died Laughing - The Naked Gun
Raging Max - Mad Max
Just As We Were Falling in Love - Serendipity
Dancing Hero - Strictly Ballroom
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