Why don't subtitles match dubbing?

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🌐 TRANSLATION CREDITS
FRENCH
Dubbing Translator: Noreen Ropers, Aurélia Naamani
Dubbing Director: Stéphane Valverde
Voice Talent: Pascal Nowak
Subtitle Translator: Justine Derhourhi
HINDI
Dubbing Translator: मीनल वि. पाटिल (द स्क्रिप्ट शॉप )
Dubbing Director: अनुज सुरेका
Voice Talent: राजेश शुक्ला
Subtitle Translator: संवाद अनुवादक: हिमांशु पाल
JAPANESE
Dubbing Translator: 琢磨 有香里
Dubbing Director: 工藤 美樹
Voice Talent: 橘 潤二
Subtitle Translator: 大渕 誉哉
LATIN AMERICAN SPANISH
Dubbing Translator: Regina Barajas
Dubbing Director: Aureliano Castillo
Voice Talent: Jesse Torres
Subtitle Translator: Andrés Negrete
BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE
Dubbing Translator: André Conchon
Dubbing Director: Gilberto de Syllos
Voice Talent: Vitor Paranhos
Subtitle Translator: Pollyana Tiussi
Translation Studio: Iyuno
Operations Manager: Coolbe Hung

[@TomScottGo]

The comments, however, are not translated! ■ AD: 👨‍💻 NordVPN's best deal is here: nordvpn.com/tomscott - with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

[@Oncopoda]

Tom. No. You're taking VPN money. 🥹

[@kamixae263]

YOOOOOO

[@alanmott-smith9358]

Close, but no. It's because people are lazy and incompetent.

[@jtgd]

Thank you in French

[@random-uploaders]

Yoooo what up my guy

[@emilyc1282]

I'm an American who watches a Norwegian show which became popular in multiple countries thanks to a dedicated fanbase who translated the show themselves. I remember one case where there was a pun based joke that they knew wouldn't work in English so the subtitles said "bread based pun" "bread pun continues."

[@charliegnu]

A lot of old amateur translations for Japanese animation had translation notes for things they couldn't translate. Lots of memes came out of that, including the infamous "All according to keikaku" / "TN: keikaku means plan"

[@TestTestGo]

Sometimes it's best not to translate a word. I'm reminded of One-piece, a Japanese show I used to watch fan-subs of. They used to leave the word "Nakama" untranslated. Translated it means roughly "a friend that you share a path in life with" but in that show the main character used the word in a unique way, to describe a life defining philosophy for him. Realy he had hijacked the word for his own purpose, so having it be effectively a new word for the audience to learn was less confusing than translating it.

[@flamingpaxtsc]

“Bread based pun” is so unnecessarily funny to me and I don’t know why 🤡

[@shoo_be_doo]

ooh, what show is this?

[@alexhajnal107]

​@@flamingpaxtsc I tried a bread-based pun (in German) on an Austrian acquaintance but it fell flat (no pun intended). I later half-seriously suggested that the trams running on viaducts (common in Vienna) must be called the U-Bahn (for Über-Bahn) and they found it hilarious. German humour, go figure. :^)

[@ryantorchia3202]

My favorite example of localized puns is for a Canadian generic cheese spread. It's named "Cheese-tastic!" in English, and translated into the far superior "Fromidable!" in French.

[@sev1120]

That is an AMAZING pun

[@kategaringer789]

Can't forget about "Lait's go!"

[@jenniferpearce1052]

I love the Choixpeau in the French Harry Potter! Some other things couldn't have a joke, so the translator created the same feel with this sort of addition. So well done.

[@DanDaMonkeyMan]

I always think of Cheesus Christ and Formagesù Cristo in Italian

[@snowleopardseal]

​@@kategaringer789 lait's aller

[@boopsnoot3142]

Love the part where Tom praises the Japanese VO and the actual VO has to effect giving glowing praise to himself.

[@sarahprunierlaw9147]

I went to listen to that exact part!

[@robertolanzone]

I didn't think about that 😂 unless the VA changed

[@Wrincewind.]

@@robertolanzone or they had to do a ring-around, so the Japenese VO's translation was praising the German VO, who was praising the Italian VO... who was praising the english VO. :p

[@ezekiel0606]

what's the time stamp, please

[@Bukki13]

@@Wrincewind.there is no german vo

[@spectrumspectre]

As someone with Auditory Processing Disorder, I cannot thank you and the crew enough for doing proper subtitles for all of your videos, every single time.

[@moosetwin9023]

I KNOW RIGHT!? I remember being so angry when youtube remove community captions!

[@TheGregcellent]

I've been in and out of hospital with a hearing loss condition that can vary how much I can hear. Creators like Tom who always ensure they have subtitles are a godsend 😊

[@MFsyrup]

Same here, it’s really been a godsend. Nobody *has* to do it but I’m really grateful for those who do.

[@KOTYAR0]

As not a native English speaker, - I can't agree more. It's heartwarming

[@ZaphodTHEBeeblebrox]

same!!!

[@CharlieTheAstronaut]

Translator here, I worked with Tom on translations for a previous video. I also do voiceovers and translate subtitles. Both dubbing and subtitling is an art in itself, you have a lot of restrictions to consider in order to create a clean product.

[@xondisco]

Thank you for your sterling work! - an happy Deaf fan of Tom Scott ❤

[@CharlieTheAstronaut]

@@xondisco Thank you for reminding me why they are important! :)

[@RaymondHng]

Where do we find dubbed versions of Tom Scott's videos?

[@CharlieTheAstronaut]

@@RaymondHngClick on settings and change the audio track. Not sure he does that for all videos tho.

[@ddbsiblings7265]

What are some of the videos you've worked on?

[@cisium1184]

There's a French comedy film called _Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'Tis_ that features the best job of English subtitling I've ever seen/heard. To describe as succinctly as I can: several scenes in the movie turn on misunderstandings of pronunciation and accent between people from different regions of France. The subtitlers (or maybe the scriptwriter) re-scripted these scenes in English using new differently-pronounced words and speech - e.g., _chien_ versus _sien_ became _fish_ versus _office_ pronounced as "offish". They did this WHILE keeping all the jokes functionally intact AND maintaining the comic timing AND keeping the lip-syncing more or less true. Somebody really "laid out" to make that movie as funny as it could be for the broadest possible audience.

[@VickyVixen16]

Yep! Same! I did pause the movie while showing it to other people purely for highlighting the joke in French (not my native language either). Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'Tis is amazing!

[@jamiejones8508]

I’ll second that! One of my favourite films, but hard to watch in french because some of it isn’t exactly french!

[@allylilith5605]

even the german dubbing of the movie is amazing

[@WilliamAndrea]

Sort of unrelated, but that reminds me, in the Quebec dub of "Steamed Hams", they replaced upstate New York with the Saguenay area - I think the towns were Lac-St-Jean and Alma. And in the France dub, they translated the main joke as «saumon vapeur» (steamed salmon) and «jambons vapeurs» (steamed hams).

[@kalisworl]

Ooh I watched this for one of my French courses!!

[@jacksonwages]

Anyone else think Tom is just going for 600% watch time by encouraging everyone to watch the video in every language?

[@shiky_mehen6870]

He already got my 200% in french and english

[@messybark]

It's a perfectly balanced platform with no exploits.

[@SeraphArmaros]

@@shiky_mehen6870 Same here with Japanese and English. Even if it wasn't intentional, it's a fun side-effect.

[@jacksonwages]

@@messybark Someone tell the spiffing brit.

[@literallycanadian]

​@jacksonwages thats Actually genious tho. Like do some piece of comedy and do a british, a scotish, an american, ect. version and to grt all the jokes you have to listen to all the audio

[@schaffiourketaris2691]

A great example of multi lingual translation is the Asterix comics series which makes heavy use of puns and double meanings. It's a testament to the translators skill that they remain popular all around the world, rather than only in french speaking countries.

[@Squant]

They're great if you speak multiple languages and get to read multiple versions with completely new jokes.

[@dojelnotmyrealname4018]

As a belgian I still want to know what other languages did in certain situations. Like there's an entire conversation about cabbage just as a set up for a reference to a saying and I'm almost certain that joke doesn't work in french so what did they do in the french? Or in english?

[@skyorrichegg]

​@@dojelnotmyrealname4018which one is that in? I loved Asterix growing up so I wouldn't mind tracking down my English language copies to check for you. I only read the English versions but learned a decent amount of Latin as well as Celtic deities from all the times they use Celtic gods as the equivalent of using God in an interjection or swear.

[@laurencefraser]

@@Squant Even if you can't, the US and UK English versions are different, with very different puns, already. They assume very different things about what Latin the reader will and won't be familiar with, among other things.

[@reide96]

@@dojelnotmyrealname4018 Was that the one about bowler hats from Asterix in Britain? If so, they just left it out and did a new joke about the bridge falling down instead.

[@jumpywizard7665]

I’m a professional translator in French German and English but I must say, that pun at 4:54 in French was BRILLIANT. Well played to the French translators!

[@kolaflash8166]

@TomScottGo could you team up with @jumpywizard7665 to add German dubbing and subtitling for this video?

[@JonathonV]

I agree! “LeBonCoinCoin” 😂

[@greenLimeila]

I'm a bit sad that Tom didn't explain that this one also relies on cultural references that would not be understood by Non-French people (LeBonCoin being to us what CraigsList is to Americans); that's a huge part of what makes translation such an interesting job! (just to nitpick though, "canetons" should only have one n!)

[@Halberds8122]

@@JonathonV the good coin coin?

[@jenniferpearce1052]

@@Halberds8122 The good quack quack. "Coin coin" is "quack quack."

[@justrandomotaku]

The japanese VA for this video did a great job capturing tom scotts emotions and inflections while talking!!

[@gredangeo]

A Japanese Tom Scott is a sight to be heard. I wasn't expecting it to be that good.

[@jettnash5217]

Saikouuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[@oscargill423]

When Tom mentioned that there were dubs in other languages available, I switched to the French dub out of curiosity. I am currently experiencing an existential crisis. Also I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for translators who go to the effort to translate jokes effectively into other languages. That, in my opinion, must be one of the highest levels of comedic genius. And let's not forget dubbing actors who randomly just absolutely knock it out of the park. Edit: As a native English-speaking Australian, I didn't even have a clue what "have it" means until Tom explained it. Ah, the wonders of dialects.

[@MenloMarseilles]

I always assumed it was meant to be something in the vicinity of "take that!" but it got mangled on the way from his brain to his mouth by strong emotion. Had no idea it was, like, *preexisting* midlands slang.

[@abigailcooling6604]

I'm from the UK and still had no idea what it meant 😅. Regional dialects are brilliant/confusing in their differences.

[@SonniXD]

Oh god 🤯 I changed it to French too ... Both dub and sub... My brain is seriously struggling right now 😅

[@ABendzify]

"Have it!" or "Have at it!" is similar to "Get innnn!". Ever Seen Red Dwarf down in Oz? Might have heard similar phrases that way.

[@dwsparks1]

I chalked it up to a "British-ism" but apparently it's even more localized than that!

[@userfindingself]

At 6:56, "have it" translated to "ये बात" (ye baat) makes perfect sense. That phrase also doesn't really mean anything in Hindi either, but it is used in a similar manner as the English phrase. Great work by the translation team!

[@d_s_ost]

And it souns soooo similar to a russian curse word, which is also very suitable for this situation

[@transitiontransverse]

We never realised but Hindi dubbing team is very very good

[@msclrhd]

There's an example in the Japanese film Battle Royale where the characters start the film using honorifics and polite language, but over the course of the film progressively get less polite the more things devolve. That's difficult to get across in the English version of the film, dubbed or subbed.

[@Uryendel]

You said that but in french it's really easy to do, yet lately I watched an anime with french sub on prime, all the characters that were supposed to be addressed with respect (who had sama or dono suffix in japanese) where in the translation addressed familiarly, like you would talk to your dumb brother

[@error404m]

One of the older dubs of Castle In The Sky has the English subtitles transcribed from the English dub. If you watch the film in Japanese with English subs, there are long periods of silence that have swathes of subtitles, where the English dub gives exposition. I don't think it's necessarily bad, but it's a very different approach taking into account the audience expectations.

[@DomenBremecXCVI]

For a southern Slav, the Hindi synchronization of that scream is just amazing. The word "jebat" means "to f*ck" so it does kinda have the same meaning as curse words can mean anything really and I loved it. Thanks, Hindi translators and voice actor, you made a Slovenian smile.

[@AmBush2048]

Noticed this too, gave me a laugh

[@iamcleaver6854]

I thought it was someone speaking Russian with a thick accent

[@igorbednarski8048]

Not just for southern Slavs, all Slavic languages use this curse word.

[@Shulyaka]

​@iamcleaver6854 Same here! I thought Tom decided to redact the Russian text with Hindi to avoid getting into any politics even remotely. P.S. Of course the word I'd common to all Slavic languages.

[@kapiszon533]

Same in polish, there was a short moment of consternation in my head 😂

[@Lexonomo]

It was a hard (though fun) challenge to work on this project, but it turned out to be even more satisfying now that I can see the results and the good reception it is having. What a pleasure to be part of this. ❤

[@askplays]

👍

[@swergers146]

What part did you do?

[@Lexonomo]

I directed the spanish version.

[@renegadetla9331]

Congrats! 🎉 Fabulous work, to you and the whole team❤

[@Ryu-hx5yy]

As someone who is bilingual (Japanese and English), this was a very fun experience The interesting thing is that the Japanese subtitles is more formal then the spoken words, even though it's from the same script

[@Scott-i9v2s]

@Ryu-hx5yy That more formal version is not really a surprise to me. I use formal English when translating to for instance Vietnamese, because otherwise GoogleTranslate produces a back-translation that makes no sense. I know nothing of the Vietnamese language, so must rely on the back-translation as verification of a halfway-decent translation. そのより正式なバージョンは、私にとってはそれほど驚きではありません。 たとえばベトナム語に翻訳するときは、正式な英語を使用します。そうしないと、GoogleTranslate で意味のない逆翻訳が生成されるからです。 私はベトナム語については何も知らないので、中途半端な翻訳の検証として逆翻訳に頼らなければなりません。 I am sure that you will tell me that this translation into Japanese contains at least 3 major errors. That is what I get from its back-translation... GoogleTranslate is (usually) good (enough), but its output quality depends on the precision that a to be translated language allows. Native speaker's Englsh is too lacking in precise to allow decent translation.

[@myspleenisbursting4825]

​@@Madmaximus101yes, that's how it works, your culture shapes the way your language works. Not the opposite like Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Oops 🤭

[@Sumitra___si]

Same for hindi , subtitles are very formal and use a lot of Sanskrit words , while dubbing is very casual talk and uses a lot of Persian words !

[@yashwantrana8813]

Same for Hindi as well

[@The-NSA]

@@Madmaximus101such a deep insight 🙄

[@lucyshnyr5647]

I am an interpreter and a translator, and it’s soo comforting to see and hear from Tom that we humans are still unbeatable! :) agree on that! Now imagine, I mostly do simultaneous interpretation and often have to translate puns, jokes, metaphors on the spot… human brain is and will hopefully long enough stay the best and most flexible tool because of it’s complexity, agility, “built-in” cultural expertise, and oftentimes it’s unpredictability… we still don’t quite know how it works and it’s ok that way😄

[@vitoc8454]

There's a story about a US President (Reagan?) who had a translator "translate" his jokes during an international visit only to later find out that the guy was telling the audience *"the President has just told a joke. Please laugh."*

[@InsideInterpreting]

There's actually a really good book about what humans and machines can and can't do. It's called Interpreters vs Machines.

[@liquidmagma0]

​@@vitoc8454 i feel like that would acutally work though, random and unexpected, would make me laugh that the translator just straight up said that.

[@tezzaract365]

As someone with sensory processing issues but technically normal hearing - sometimes understanding what i'm hearing comes with a short delay, and accurate subtitles help bridge that gap so I can still keep pace with what i'm watching! If the subtitles don't match, however, it can COMPLETELY throw me off because of the conflict in information and I end up more confused than if i'd only read the subtitles or only listened to the audio. Accurate subtitles are an accessibility feature!

[@chesh1rek1tten]

Same here. On my phone I use auto caption, it helps a lot with that for channels like this.

[@boginoid]

I'll have to play the devil's advocate: there are plenty of people who need subtitles for one reason or an another. It is simply impossible to accomodate all of them in one script, and realistically speaking studios won't pay for multiple versions for the same language, while the vast majority of content creators couldn't afford it even if they wanted to. The best they can do is to maximize the understadability of any script (which professionals already do). Simply speaking accomodating one type of need will always come at the expense of an another. We all fall through the cracks sometimes.

[@hanahomemadepizza1424]

I had to translate a poem my grandma made from Dutch to English for my Aunt's wedding. That experience made me appreciate professional translators and subtitlers so much

[@myself2noone]

And that's the language that's closest to English.

[@noisnecsa995]

​@@myself2nooneThat's actually Western Frisian, or Scots if you consider them separate

[@unifromhokkaido]

I have been a Turkish subtitle translator for 10 years and I don't think there's a single other source on the internet as accurate as your 8 minute video in describing this issue. You've explained the challenges of subtitle and dubbing translation perfectly. Well done Tom!

[@anonimmouse17]

Merhabalar , burada bir Türk görmeyi çok beklemiyordum.Sakıncası yoksa size bir şey soracaktım genelde videoları sorunsuz anlıyorum ama gene de ingilizce seviyemi yetersiz görüyorum (b1-b2) geliştirmek için neler önerirsiniz?

[@cemxwekta358]

@@anonimmouse17Vallaha ben de aynı şeyden muzdaribim. 7-8 Senedir bu kanala aboneyim sanki son 5 senedir hep B1-B2 düzeyindeyim gibi hissediyorum.

[@larrybrowser8286]

@@anonimmouse17 Yeni bir şeyler mi öğreniyorsun? İngilizce kaynak kullan. Roman mı okumak istiyorsun? İngilizce oku. Makale mi yazıyorsun? İngilizce yaz.

[@themisres]

​@@cemxwekta358 günlük hayatında konuşurken söylediğin her şeyi kafanda ingilizce de söylemeye çalış. Gramer ve kelime eksiklerini çok çabuk fark edeceksin. Konuşmak için de pratik olsun istersen yalnızken iç sesin yerine dışından ingilizce söyle düşüncelerini, bir şeyi söyleyemediğinde üşenme aç google'u ve bak nasıl söyleniyormuş. Bir süre sonra eksiklerin kapanmaya başlayacak

[@alex.g7317]

I’m feeling left out, what’s everyone talking aboot? 🥺

[@jblen]

I do find it really cool when translation teams find new puns to fit ones that don't make sense in the translation. Another cool example is the Harry potter translation where "Tom Marvolo Riddle", an anagram of "I am Lord Voldemort" had to make sense in every language Harry potter was translated to, which is a lot.

[@RobotGuy76]

Somewhere, there is a quite comprehensive webpage on the translation of Harry Potter into the different CJK languages and all the ways that the translators managed (or didn't manage) all the work play jokes that occur.

[@MrMIIMARIO]

Does anyone know that webpage? 🤔

[@loopit_3]

In German for example it's "Tom Vorlost Riddle"

[@MarcelVos]

In Dutch it's "Marten Asmodom Vilijn", which anagramizes to "Mijn naam is Voldemort".

[@jakistam1000]

In Polish, this part just wasn't translated. Instead, at the end of each book, there was an explanations of some of the nuance of translation, mostly with regard to names of people and places. For example, Hogwarts was, in the main text, "translated" to Hogwart (having s at the end would mess up the declination), but the explanation at the end included separate translations for "hog" and "wart".

[@JuliuszCovers]

One note from a subtitler! I suppose the "put every word on screen" approach is indeed often used in some Internet videos, but it is definitely not the modern standard for movies, streaming services etc. Style guides usually include highest reading speeds allowed expressed as a number of characters a viewer is expected to be able to read per second. The limits are indeed higher than they used to be in the past (typically around 17 characters per second, in the past more like 10-15 cps, depending on the country), but condensing text is still a crucial element of good translation for subtitles. After all, creators want viewers to be immersed in the story, not pausing constantly to read and figure out what's happening. And even if pausing wouldn't be necessary, we subtitlers want to give the viewers time to actually watch the movie, not just read the text at the bottom of the screen! When you're focused on the subtitles, you're not taking in as much of the rest of the screen as you would otherwise. Of course, it's more important when things are happening on screen, and less so when it's just a person sitting and talking, like often on KZbin. Anyway, with good subtitles, you stop noticing them after a while, and that won't be the case if you're struggling to keep up.

[@TheRealHNA913]

if I were hard of hearing, I'd feel vastly patronised and condescended to by only being allowed access to the simplified version of the dialogue. And I constantly notice subtitles cut down even for short lines with plenty of time to read them. I generally need to put CCs on when I watch things at home - I live directly under a flight path - and the dumbing-down is irritating every single time, on top of the fact that I put the subtitles on precisely *because* I want to catch the details that get eaten by passing planes. If I didn't have the ability to go back and listen again to the actual line, I think I'd be too annoyed to sit through it at all.

[@ThreadBomb]

If you are a subtitler, I hope you are not one of those who feel the need to describe every sound effect when they don't affect the story.

[@SolomonUcko]

@@TheRealHNA913 It would be more work for the subtitlers, and it would require the subtitle selection menu to adapt, but maybe there should be multiple different subtitle options depending on the experience you want?

[@whatthehelliot]

​@@TheRealHNA913yeah I have to use subtitles and its so annoying when someone is clearly saying a much longer line, but the subtitles are just a simplified version. I wanna know what they're actually saying!

[@martijn9568]

​@@TheRealHNA913Keep in mind that subtitles are also used by people that can't read as fast as you. They're trying to aid as many people as possible with subtitles.

[@kunaljt]

Watching it in Hindi, the dubbing and subtitling teams did such a great job here, and goes so well to prove the point about the differences because the dubbing team would use English loan words as we use in colloquial Hindi, but the subtitles generally avoid it.

[@galaxybird8063]

i never knew there was a dubbing option for YT and i see why now, looking at the credits it takes 1 person to translate subtitles but a team of 3 or 4 to do an accurate dub. I wonder how much Tom spent on this video for 6 languages

[@bighamster2]

I do wonder whether it might be worth it for a few very big channels (who get millions of views). Perhaps they're missing out on an audience somewhere. Doubt the ROI would work for very many very often, though.

[@UserCommenter]

@@bighamster2 I’m curious about ROI as well

[@stevethepocket]

Betcha anything it was added specifically for movie companies that put their stuff on KZbin and wanted to be able to upload the dubs they'd already gone to the trouble of making.

[@f1reman237]

​@@bighamster2 i know mr beast dubs his videos into multiple languages, because its just that profitable.

[@lucbloom]

@@f1reman237 I was wondering that exact thing. I suspect all lifestyle vloggers and creators targeting youngsters could make a positive ROI.

[@alexandrebier4581]

As an ESL teacher, I'm looking forward to using this video, not to belittle not knowing another language, but to encourage pople on learning a second one, in as far as to not miss anything in translation. As a native portuguese speaker, I'm about to have a lot of fun turning on the portuguese subtitles when watching your vids from now on.

[@mathewchild2492]

A very good idea - I remember watching a German Show with English subtitles, I know a little German, enough to know that the subtitles were not an accurate translation.

[@baylinkdashyt]

German is particularly interesting, because German speakers of English tend to speak it with interesting tics like "that has been going on since a week".

[@SemiHypercube]

This video taught me that dubbing KZbin videos with separate audio tracks is actually possible, I have never seen this before. How long has this feature even existed?

[@Eustres]

about 3-4 years

[@Croz89]

It's fairly rare, because subbing is fairly cheap, and even then the automated tools aren't half bad, but dubbing is expensive.

[@itzfaridz2229]

I hope they do the same on HDR and SDR video

[@Nadia1989]

A couple of years, Netflix anime, Chubbyemu and ThioJoe use it.

[@benrainwolf3856]

the only spot I've spotted it before this video is Ultraman Blazers KZbinr release

[@RvB_Fan_since_8]

Props to all dubbing teams shown in the rollercoaster video, they all sounded like something someone would shout in that moment.

[@RockyRoadPie]

Watching this video in a different language, it's also impressive how the voice acting script not only tries to match the lip-sync as close as possible, but also tries to enunciate words in such a way that Tom's hand movements make sense.

[@EggyB]

Props to the Portuguese subtitles team, that joke translation was brilliant

[@1gorSouz4]

People usually do well in this kind of adaptation, at least in Brazil

[@svenskahugo3199]

Getting the spirit of a translation across reminded me of Jay Foreman's "What's wrong with London's boroughs?", where the subtitles in Esperanto for the logos song was made so that they still rhymed e.g: "eight blobs no one understands" rhymes with "oh it's hands!", and was changed to "ok glutoj strangaj aǔ nanoj" (eight odd swallows or dwarfs) to rhyme with with "oh, ok manoj!" (oh, eight hands!)

[@amadeosendiulo2137]

Ho, saluton! Tiuj subtekstoj estas el la epoko, kiam la komunumo povis krei ilin, ĉu ne? Mi tiam ankoraŭ eĉ ne sciis pri Esperanto.

[@Pinka13]

*Dub:* "I AM SO PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW!!!" *Sub:* "I feel very much annoyed, good sir."

[@Slugsie1]

This made me think back to the dubbed Japanese movies we got in the 70s and 80s, where there would often be several seconds of dialog which would be dubbed to 'Yes' or similar. They didn't even slightly bother to match the mouth movements or overall dialog. It usually ended up being quite funny and because a 'bit' for comedy shows to mock.

[@korenn9381]

This was especially a thing in those old kung fu movies that got dubbed over. To the point where it became a thing other movies would make fun of, with a character making motions as if they're speaking much longer than they actually were.

[@maevethefox5912]

I've always appreciated when I've come across shows that have separate subtitle tracks. It was so nice to see "subtitles" and "captioning for English dubs" as separate choices.

[@danmur15]

I always assumed you had translated subtitles, but I had no idea that your videos were dubbed too. Love seeing these behind-the-scenes videos

[@aykrivwassup]

I think this is his only video that's dubbed. The others just have translated subtitles

[@lhamil64]

The flip side of this is audio description. I have enough vision to watch stuff if its close enough, but ive tried audio description a few times and it always impresses me. The narrator has to figure out what's relevant in the scene and describe it succinctly in between dialog. It does lead to some interesting moments where you hear what will happen before it actually happens though.

[@NonJohns]

on a different but similar level sports commentary, you have to understand the game well enough to make sure the average viewer isn't lost but not cut it down too simply

[@firestorck1341]

Your dubbing and subtitling teams are insane, you gotta love them doing a very good job!

[@punionrings]

In Latin American Spanish, the dubbed version is "¿Alguien quiere comprar gansitos? Son 'cuasi' gratis." 'Cuasi' is a play on the sound ducks make (cua cua) and "almost" (casi). So the joke is "Does anyone want some ducks? They're almost free." Good job, Spanish dub team!

[@sohopedeco]

As a native Portuguese speaker, I really forgot the word in Spanish was "casi" while watching, given it's "quase" in Portuguese. 😂

[@jefferyspurlock4272]

One of my favorite examples of "Passing meaning" in a translation happens in My Hero Academia. In japanese Deku can mean either "Wise" or "Nothing". Bakugo uses it to mean Nothing when talking to Deku. Ochoco when she first hears the name takes it to mean Wise. This does not land well in English. So the chose to reference the "The Great Deku Tree" from Zelda in the dub instead

[@pancakeser]

Thank you so much for making this video, Tom! It's so cool and fun to hear about our field of work from you in such detail!

[@paulbrooks4395]

We started learning Japanese recently and have been watching shows that are subtitled. I have noticed many times pausing and saying: “wait, that’s not quite what the character said”. Because we are learning how to speak formally, the slang or truncated words don’t make sense until we look them up and we learn the meanings.

[@nope.0.]

If you watch Ghibli movies subbed, sometimes there are subs where there is literally nothing being said in the Japanese version. Disney seemed to decide some moments of silence needed filling in with extra dialogue.

[@sergalaktionov]

Seems like all Slavic audience can agree with your Hindi translation of “have it!” on 6:58 :D

[@LelouchVee]

Well that's one way to exclaim your excitement alright

[@Mark_Es]

😂

[@pxolqopt3597]

Absolutely

[@MustNotContainSpaces]

As a western anime fan who prefers to watch with the original audio track but does not speak japanese, I rely on subtitles a lot. There are some instances - like the international Releases of many Studio Ghibli movies - where the subtitles are in fact just captioned from the dub. It's often called a "dubtitle" and many people are very annoyed when they encounter it.

[@MagicGonads]

on the flipside, I'd love if they explicitly included 'dubtitle' every time a dub is present so I can at least be sure they match up when watching a dub with subtitles on (if they do not match up it is *infuriating*/cannot be ignored and I instantly disable the subtitles in that case)

[@Cdoggle]

Oh yes exactly! It makes sense why they don't do this, but it'd be really nice

[@pattheplanter]

Fansubs used to be so much fun, especially when they got carried away and felt the need to add footnotes to explain the deep cultural reasons for the use of one word.

[@JanTuts]

​@@pattheplanter "Just according to keikaku." (Translator's note: keikaku means plan)

[@sethanix3969]

@@pattheplanter The original Gintama Fandub.... Holy Moly....

[@nigelthursday5052]

as someone who wants to go into a career in translation and watched this video with Japanese dubbing and both Japanese and English subs for comparison, it both feels incredibly validating to have a larger KZbinr who is a known language nerd to highlight and empathize with the human art of navigating these restrictions, and was also incredibly enlightening on certain techniques i'd never put much consideration into before myself. when it comes to larger projects that reach larger audiences, i have seen case after case of certain types of language learners or fans over protective of their favorite series (although this might be specific to my interest in Japanese culture, as video game and anime fans tend to be more self-centered, haha) bringing up how certain translated or localized lines aren't one-to-one recreations of their original versions, which is exactly the largest issue translators face. i know from my own experiences that coming up with a great translation for a line that carries meaning, nuance, and naturalness is half the battle, as if it doesn't fit in a subtitle slot or a speech bubble, it needs to be tweaked and rearranged. i have had to cut small quips in some places, which fills me with a desire to add jokes elsewhere that specifically utilize the English language, but then that leaves me conflicted over how much i feel like i'm "putting words into someone's mouth" in a sense. essentially, the main point i hope a lot of people take away from this video is that every subtitle you read or every line of dubbing you hear--sometimes even the simplest, shortest lines--has had probably way more thought and time put into it than you'd expect!

[@arlwiss5110]

One of my favourite things about your legacy on youtube is that you've brought a decent bit more attention to these crafts of accessibility and communication - as well as that you've just normalised quality subtitling at least somewhat, even if big channels didn't really catch on after your most famous rant about it.

[@azpcox]

Yep. Watched the dubbed Spanish version and was seriously impressed by the mannerisms and inflections they made in matching Tom. Down to the “Whew” And laugh-speaking. Fantastic work dubbers!!!

[@JesseActor]

AQUÍ JESSE!!! UN PLACER SER TU VOZ PARA LATINOAMÉRICA!!! 🎉🎉🎉

[@JustN4n0]

As a Spanish speaker who uses subtitles a lot when watching videos, I really want to thank you to the people that makes the subtitles, and also I lost it when (Spanish dub) Tom shouted: "A huevo!"

[@realcupojoe]

It was entirely unexpected and absolutely hilarious

[@fredericapanon207]

I did wonder about that. IIRC, huevo means egg, yes?

[@fairygrove3928]

@@fredericapanon207 I had to look it up, because my 2 years of Spanish only let me know it meant "eggs," which made no sense. But, typing "huevo slang" into google let me know that eggs seem to be to Spanish what "balls" are to English...

[@singerofsongs468]

Proud of my high school Spanish skills today! Yo se poné los subtítulos en español. Tuve que pausar el video algunas veces para comprender el chiste de los gansitos, pero conseguí entenderlo después de un poco tiempo :) I’m happy that I caught that, and I’m extra happy that you shouted it out!

[@Otis151]

I'm a native English speaker from the US, and I didnt get the goose joke nor understand what he meant by "have it". I can only imagine the challenges the dub and sub teams face across not only different languages but different cultures. Thank you all for your work!

[@PoolOfTrees]

As Tom said, "Have it" a very regional thing and, even as a Brit myself, I couldn't originally work out what he'd said before the subtitle, because it doesn't make sense in my part of the country. I still remember one of my grandparents telling me how their sister was telling him once that "The milkman has been and gone and hasn't come!". This can sound very nonsensical unless you understand that "been and gone" isn't referring to movement, but is used for emphasis (usually followed by a negative action), like the "only gone and" in the phrase "he's only gone and crashed the car!". You can take it out and it has the same meaning.

[@bighamster2]

To make it even more complicated, there are also generational differences. e.g. teenagers often have a different vocabulary/word meanings from even 30 year olds. Especially on something like KZbin, that's potentially an extra challenge

[@XSemperIdem5]

It didn't make sense to me either. I'm fluent in Spanish as well and the use of that phrase in that situation didn't make sense to me. Maybe that one is regional as well.

[@ttamttam1522]

I find the differences between subs and dubs to be helpful: When neither one can convey the meaning of the original work properly, I'll often use both. Comparing the different translations usually allows me to pick up on what I'm missing.

[@tessincolor]

as someone who works in localization industry, thank you for this video. It was very interesting and also to hear the different translations and VO. I can't believe I was able to watch this for free.

[@eugeniamedina1246]

I speak spanish and I think it's interesting to note that the dubbing team and the subbing team translated the gosling joke differently. The sub team did the translation that Tom shared (estoy "gansado" de ellos) but the dub team translated it as: ¿Alguien quiere un gansito? Son cuacsi gratis, joke on the sound the bird makes (cuac, same as in English) plus the word "casi" that means "almost".

[@metropolis10]

I never realized Tom had multiple audio language tracks, AND subtitles. Bravo.

[@kevinrandlett2920]

As a french canadian speaking good spanish i had alot of fun watching this video many time with different mixt of audio-subtitlte. good job!!

[@MichaelBristow137]

I also have a auditory processing disorder and always have closed captioning on. I find it really, really irratating when "curse" words that apparently is ok to say, but they're bleeped in CC. I think CC should say exactly what is being said. I do get that occasionally an editorial decision is needed, but this happens all the time and if you can put dashes then you could put the word...

[@itskdog]

That's a setting the creator can toggle, so try asking them to change it. Whether it's censored or not won't affect monetisation (though they might use it themselves to see why they got demonetised for profanity)

[@ctom42]

As someone who has been immersed in one form of Japanese media or another for at least half my life, these translation vs localization concerns are stuff that crop up all the time. Whether it be anime, Visual novels, or even vtubers, there are many different tactics I've seen for translation. And the whole trying to match lip movements thing for dubbing can lead to some notoriously awkward phrasing in dubbed anime, though I think that's becoming less and less common as the dubbing industry has grown.

[@Yay295]

translator's note: keikaku means plan

[@CRUSTAAY]

i miss translator notes explaining jokes and other things that dont translate

[@janslavik5284]

@@CRUSTAAY I've watched some chinese drama from WW2 and the translator notes were whole history lessons, I had to pause the video for 15 minutes to catch up on my 1930's China knowledge

[@esterjulian9267]

As someone who studied audiovisual translation I loved this video, you perfectly sumarized what I have taught to do with translation and I think the examples perfectly convey what translation is, not just translating words but meaning. And I also get told constanlty "But why do subtitles don't match the dub?" and I have to explain everything you just said.

[@bopmaster404]

06:47 feels almost like an anime

[@alexdavis5766]

3:34 this also kind of works for when sign language interpreters are doing live shows, especially musicals where more than one person is singing at once, but there is only one interpreter (impressive in itself to think they are performing a whole musical on thud own in a way). Bsl has its own grammar structure anyway, different to English, but they sometimes summarise what is sung as they can’t sign two different lines sung at the same time. It’s so interesting and impressive yet sadly most of the audience have no idea this impressive feat is happening in front of them.

[@azelmamortlake4471]

I'm always impressed by sign translators, because the ability to be simultaneously listening to one language and closely matching it in another with a totally different grammatical structure is incredible to me.

[@jo3ywils0n39]

As an English-French bilingual and an auditory learner, watching sections of the video in my second language was really eye opening. Hats off to the dubbing/subtitle teams around the world.

[@Riddz._.]

As an Indian viewer I decided to given the Hindi version of the video a listen and I have to agree the subtitles and audio were vastly different. I could only keep one with one at a time.

[@AntonHDMI]

When you said your video is in multiple languages I had to try, and holy moly the french guy has a lot of energi 😆

[@lampei]

I didn't even know there were different audio tracks (dubbing) on youtube. You just blew my mind.

[@jamesisaac7684]

How do you think Mr.Beaat became so popup in such a short time? Multi language is one of the main reason

[@sanogku474]

I just got jumpscared by a french speaking Tom Scott

[@Lxtus_]

As someone minoring in Translation Studies in Leiden, it makes me surprisingly happy to see a Tom Scott video about translation. Thank you :)

[@colomban2754]

C'est génial ! J'espère que d'autres vidéos seront traduites ensuite !! Love from France ❤️🇫🇷

[@naerbo19]

A related but not to videos is manga translations. Manga is written in Japanese and there are many fan translators where some include notes throughout the manga on difficult things or have an extra page at the end where there are translations notes where they try to explain jokes lost in translation or certain cultural things that are unique to Japan. I thought it is really fascinating.

[@mateojuvera4691]

Watching Tom dubbed to Spanish broke my brain a little, but it was also incredibly delightful. Hicieron un excelente trabajo, a huevo!

[@booperdee2]

There was a line in Saving Private Ryan where Tom Hank's character says "im all ears", but the subtitles said "tell me". Which caught me on to understanding that certain metaphors and phrases can be misunderstood, so the subtitlers simply explained the meaning directly

[@jerasaurus1926]

That’s so smart making everyone watch the advert section multiple times

[@tonypang83]

Being bilingual in Chinese and English, and a massive fan of martial arts films (like Jackie Chan's early films in the 80s and 90s), I always noticed the massive discrepancies between what they said in Cantonese and what the English subtitles said. Also, back then, the dubbing could be pretty poor at times, and I'm talking about the "original" Chinese versions. 😂

[@gluttonousmaximus9048]

"i implore you to reconsider"

[@hoihai9976]

I never expected to hear Tom in Japanese but I am here for it!

[@juhasznoemi]

As a translator and someone who also works with subtitles, this video describes so much of my work and makes me hope that people will finally understand that translation is not as easy as they think it is. I have heard so many complaints from people who speak a little of this and that language, how certain phrases were not translated "correctly". But nowadays, probably because of this mindset and the fast-paced nature of streaming, I see and hear so many clunky translations that I guess you could say are "correct" because it's a direct translation, but translation is so much more than taking the original and just translating everything word from word. Thank you for this video!

[@dragonproductions236]

Translations should be verbatim and direct. Signed somebody who has experienced the work of people who think translation should be something more. Stop butchering my language and the original work.

[@juhasznoemi]

@@dragonproductions236 It really depends on what you're using the translation for. As for butchering, I'm not sure what you mean.

[@istillheartheoofs8949]

Finally i can watch japanese Tom Scott with french subtitles

[@bruhgamingnl1315]

I see what you did here, Tom! This was a clever scheme to get us to watch the video multiple times (in different languages)! But I have to tell you, you didn't trick me! (Well, actually you did. I have watched this video six times now and I really love it).

[@misterchris3491]

Nunca pensé que iba a escuchar un video de Tom Scott en Español Latino. Buen trabajo, señor. Por cierto. Este video deberían verlo toda la gente que menosprecia a los doblajes y su trabajo aquí en LATAM, y que son fans fervientes del subtitulado por ser mas "fiel".

[@quetzalpollotl3000]

El "a huevo" me sacó mucho de onda, pero en contexto es perfecto

[@apgmk1970]

Pués yo vi el vídeo y sigo pensando qué los subtítulos son mas fieles, ya qué consevan la interpretación original del actor. Pero en ningún momento desprecio a los dobladores y su trabajo. Diría qué su trabajo es más difícil.

[@Sofia_834]

Todo muy lindo hasta que quien hace el doblaje cambia el diálogo para hacer política o devalorar el original

[@misterchris3491]

@@apgmk1970 Excelente. De hecho mi comentario iba para los que menosprecian al doblaje en general y lo ven de forma despectiva.

[@JesseActor]

Gracias, paps. Nos esforzamos al 100 %

[@bok1080]

In regard to translating I saw a piece some time ago about the translators of the Asterix books, and how that had to translate something that might be a pun or idiom in one language to another language, and come up with something that makes sense in the new language, all while keeping it within the speech bubble in a comic, definitely a talent all of it's own.

[@ClipCrew]

If you see this video does extra well, it's probably because a lot of us have rewatched the video in different languages and subtitle options.

[@janini1232]

I will definitely watch it in multiple languages to check 😂

[@Candlemancer]

500% viewer retention

[@Peter-gu9ph]

Fascinating - this makes sense. Also, for films and docos shot in English, sometimes the dialog audio and subtitles don't match exactly. I always thought that happened because the subtitles were built from the final script and the actors went a bit off script in their performances... I have worked in video production on and off for many years and know how tight the deadlines and budgets are, so we would often have to find the fastest, cheapest way to do things - e.g. not updating the script/subtitles because the actor changed their lines.

[@guicdesouza]

É a cara do Tom Scott usar o recurso do KZbin de múltiplas faixas de áudio como motivação pra explicar algo de uma maneira quase metalinguística. Brilliant video. A dublagem brasileira ficou bacana também. Also, we now got Tom Scott speaking the word "zueira".

[@mitchellradspinner4491]

Whenever I want to explain the difference between localization and literalizing I use anime names like 僕だけがいない街 which in English literally would be something like “The town where only I don’t exist” but in English was localized as “Erased”. This might seem like a simplification but it communicates what’s actually important without getting overly wordy.

[@SonriÁmbar]

Dios mio, adoro este video. No solo por que tiene subtitulos y doblajes a multiples idiomas (lamentablemente despues de la eliminacion de loa subtitulos de la comunidad de KZbin, es un milagro encontrarse cualquiera de esos dos en un video de KZbin moderno) si no por que explica de forma concisa y fácil de entender las dificultades de traducir cualquier medio audiovisual, como que me entraron ganas de aprender sobre estos temas.

[@trorisk]

In back in the future Biff Tannen has a pun with the tree and the tree leaves and to leave (go away). In French it was translate with the infantry and get out/shoot ("tire-toi" in french). It kept the meaning of the sentence (go way) and a play on words that matched it.

[@aureliontroll2341]

Serio , eu sou brasileiro entao so consegui ver o video em portugues e ingles . PORÉM , esse video foi dublado perfeitamente em portugues. Parabens a equipe.

[@johndododoe1411]

As someone who used to have my work translated into Portuguese , I wonder if you could tell if it things are dubbed into Brazillian or Iberian Portuguese?

[@Arthemise]

​@@johndododoe1411Yes! Super easily. Brazilian Portuguese and Iberian Portuguese are absolutely different, they differ more than American and British English. Not only words have completely different meaning (some formal words in Iberian actually mean sexual slang in Brazilian) but the accent and the pronunciation are super different. I swear, for me (Brazilian Portuguese speaker) it's harder to understand a guy speaking Iberian really fast than a guy speaking Spanish, which is a whole other language. I think we just haven't got to naming our language yet, because at this point they might as well be different

[@vcprado]

Convenhamos, a dublagem brasileira é a melhor do mundo, não só em atores/dubladores como em equipe de tradução, direção e afins.

[@aureliontroll2341]

@johndododoe1411 ​ Primeiramente , eu vou escrever em portugues porque acho que é mais fácil me comunicar assim do que tentar escrever em ingles e cometer possíveis erros.A diferença entre o portugues de portugal ( Iberian portuguese) e o portugues brasileiro ( brazillian portuguese ) são gritantes pra qualquer falante nativo principalmente na fala. A principal diferença ( na minha percepção) seria que o portugues de portugal tende a enfatizar mais ainda as silabas tonicas e falar o resto de uma forma muito mais rapida ou abafada . Além disto existe também uma forte diferença na forma que se tende a construir as frases em cada lingua em um ponto de vista sintatico, que como não sou formado em portugues ou sequer tenho o minimo interesse não vou me atrever a tentar explicar, mas para qualquer falante é notavel as estranhesas( but for any native speaker its clear the strangeness). Essas diferenças são tão explicitas que as vezes, as pessoas ,eu incluido, acham mais facil tentar entender e aprender espanhol da america do sul do que o sotaque portugues. Uma coisa a ser notada é que normalmente portugueses tentem a ter uma maior naturalidade com o portugues brasileiro do que o ao contrario , coisa que eu acredito se originar do fato do brasil ter industrias muito maiores que portugal e os portugueses terem mais costume de ver conteúdos em portugues brasileiro por causa disto. Desculpa pelo texto longo , mas queria deixar claro que realmente não é algo pequeno as diferenças dos dois sotaques e tentar mostrar um pouco do porquê disso. edit: eu coloquei no google tradutor para poder ver quais seriam os erros de tradução que ele colocaria no texto e coloquei entre aspas a versão certa em ingles ao lado.

[@aureliontroll2341]

@@vcprado bom , não conheço as dublagens das outras linguas , mais a nossa é sensacional normalmente.

[@Flameo326]

There was a recent music video I watched, for Pokemon specifically in Japanese. It contains a TON of references to past Pokemon games, anime, etc. As well as puns. I had captions on for English and despite being in an entirely different language the English felt perfectly translated with the Music video. I was extremely impressed how anyone was able to expertly translate the video while keeping all the puns and references in line.

[@Christian_Luczejko]

I put off watching this. I only discovered tom a few years ago and was bummed at the idea of not seeing these video in my feed every week. Finally watched it. What an amazingly funny send off.

[@ahmedabril8372]

Hablo español pero estoy muy acostumbrado a ver los vídeos de Tom en inglés. Su voz es tan característica que se siente raro oír otra voz. Así que seguiré viéndolo en inglés

[@crisunderscore]

Eu amei a dublagem brasileira!!!! It was very interesting to hear Portuguese and read the English subs

[@ShadyPaperclips]

sim, deu pra ver que o dublador fez bastante esforço pra apresentar as mesmas emoções e entonação do Tom Muito bem feita

[@crisunderscore]

Assisti depois em inglês com legenda em português. E por último, ambos em português. É uma experiência incrível notar as nuances de cada tradução!! Amo

[@ArthurHLI]

Ficou parecido com algo que teria no "Mundo de Beakman", ou algo assim, o que tornou ainda melhor

[@circjit]

the portuguese version of the goose joke is so good

[@James_XXIY_crafts]

most the time I'm Overjoyed that I learned to speak and understand English and still can't read because for some reason people who make subtitles for English movies do it in Royal Danish with a hint of casual Danish Danish outside the monarchy is a casual language but the subtitles is like being in Copenhagen is technically Danish but it feels nothing like Danish

[@KOTYAR0]

Jesus Christ.. And I thought we Russians had it bad with every English movie having to have Russian subtitles on it by law

[@apveening]

@@KOTYAR0 Be glad you get to hear the original English, helps a lot with learning the language. In Germany everything is dubbed over without subtitles.

[@KOTYAR0]

@@apveening I have to look for cinema showings with dub in English in an app 🤔

[@Inderinder]

Another reason why subtitles usually don't translate references properly is because of character Limitations. For example, if in English I write the word, "Lot". It will be counted as three characters but if I write it in Hindi as "बहुत" it would be Four characters. This means "ब", "ह", the diacritic below "ह", which makes it "हु" (will be counted as a separate character), and then "त". So even if the reference can be translated properly using more words, the character limitations prevent that and therefore you end up with bad or literal translation.

[@angeldude101]

If we were talking about a retro video game, then yes, internal code point count would be important, though for anything else where sacrificing an extra few bytes is nothing, then that's still 3 graphemes substituted with 3 similarly sized graphemes, taking slightly more memory, but 0 extra screen space. If you have any example of a retro video game where every byte counts translated into Hindi, I'd be very interested to see it. I don't understand Hindi myself, but it would be interesting to see how a localization would be done.

[@vaclavtrpisovsky]

​@@angeldude101Digital technology limitations of the 1980s meant that 🇪🇺Teletext and 🇺🇸Line-21 subtitles were limited to 38 and 32 characters per line, respectively. And while people mastering DVDs could use almost any text size due to its raster subtitle format, most chose large text to allow for reading at small screen sizes and resolutions.

[@Inderinder]

​@@angeldude101 Well screen space is a different measuring metric. When you get a file for translating, the client gives you guidelines and, in those guidelines, you get the character limit of the box. So, visually it may not take any more space than in English but in the file, there are strict guidelines on how heavy a subtitle box can be, and translators have to work accordingly. Other thing is, it also depends on the dialogue length of the original/source language subtitle box. The translated box needs to be exactly as long as the source box (because the longer the duration of the box the more characters allowed and vice versa) and that may or may not always be suitable for the target language if the box is small.

[@Joshoewaa]

I’m actually most impressed by the fact you dub your videos into so many different languages. I’ve been going through my KZbin subscriptions and can’t find any other creators doing this! I’d love to know if this has an impact on your overall viewership figures, and also the cost implications in translating and dubbing each video.

[@prons_gaming5083]

6:09 it seems to me like when someone yells "let's go!" from the way you describe it

[@TonyWilson615]

Really loved this one, Tom! For me, this also deftly explains why translation is not equal to localization. Jokes, formality, and even tonality are lost with a literal translation. (My second language is Portuguese by the way, so seeing those examples made me extra happy!)

[@Mergatroid]

As someone who watches a lot of Anime, and someone who likes to watch stuff dubbed into English (just so I don't have to constantly read the subtitles). It's always fascinating to watch an English dub with subtitled (translated from the Japanese script) versus English captions for the deaf and hard of hearing (which uses the English dub script) and seeing how they differ and how closely the subtitles translated from the original Japanese script match up (or don't match up) with the English dubbed audio and lip flaps. It's also interesting when specific expressions and cultural references get changed for international or localized versions, such as in Azumanga Daioh (from 2002) where the original Japanese audio and subtitles, reference a character looking like a previous Japanese prime minister, whereas the English dub changes the reference to be about Bill Clinton. Watching this video with audio in different languages and the captions/subtitles in English gives the same experience. It's super interesting and I'm so happy you made a video about it!

[@Carewolf]

I also use the dubs, because it is animated; there is no original. The Japanese version is also dubbed in a studio afterwards, not recorded live. And by having two different translations, you can get more of the original meanings out, instead of only having one translation.

[@Eiden01234]

That cat (bird) really did look like mori, the previous prime minister.

[@Mergatroid]

@@Eiden01234 true, which is why I'm kinda surprised they changed the reference to Bill Clinton, who Chiyo's father does not look as much like.

[@joshpowellmedia8022]

I'm English and learning Spanish. My phone is set to Spanish so when a Tom Scott video started playing in Spanish I was stunned 😂

[@komiteunofficialaccount9224]

3:17 the Japanese dubber is technically praising himself.

[@Polska_Edits]

He probbaly cut it out

[@FizzyChalice]

⁠@@Polska_EditsI know just barely enough Japanese to tell you he did not.

[@CarlosMorenoRuiz]

I’m a professional translator into Spanish for many years and I think this is the best source on the internet for describing the challenges we face as translators. Props to you!

[@WarmVoice]

Can confirm that everything said here is true (and funny to hear explained back to me)