Chat corner 179: Translations

[annathecrow]

Welcome to the Monday chat corner!

According to Wikipedia, September 30 is the International Translation Day - so lets make the topic for this week be "translations".

Have you ever read/watched any Star Wars media in a different language than English?

There's a lot of translation happening in SW - starting with C-3PO, of course! What's your favorite translation moment?

If you could learn one Star Wars language, which one would you learn?

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

Oh that's an interesting thought. I've seen New Hope so many times I could follow along in any other language -- might be fun! I remember years ago I was doing a rewatch of Buffy in Spanish as I was curious how they could possibly translate much of the English wordplay to get the same effect. From what I recall there were definitely things lost, but sometimes amusingly added.

I used this icon on purpose as my partner and I were very entertained when Xander saw Willow in this costume and said she had a "Buen Boo."

I remember thinking it was interesting that the Falcon communicated in its own kind of language -- perhaps this makes sense given all the many languages that its organic pilots and crew might use.

[annathecrow]

I love it when translators compensate for lost jokes by making their own!

I actually only watched OT in English as an adult - the VHS we had as kids was dubbed in Czech. I sort of expected not to like the original voices tbh, but I think I actually like the original version better. Nostalgia did not win this one :D

You mean how C-3PO had to "talk" to the ship? That one is interesting. Does Falcon also have a personality, the way the droids do? Is that normal for ships? I suppose according to Solo Falcon is L3-3T, but... The Cloud City is also implied to have a mind if I remember that scene correctly (R2-D2 talks to it).

[yourlibrarian]

I was thinking of Empire when Han tells Threepio that he needs him to talk to the Falcon about whatever has been going wrong. Interestingly, this seems to have been the topic of a Reddit thread as well! https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/17x5vaq/why_couldnt_threepio_talk_to_the_falcoln_in/?rdt=44239