Translation
But what were they saying? (The Good Samaritan)
Find out what they really said.
But what were they saying? (The Round)
Find out what they really said.
But what were they saying? (Baptism by Fire)
In “Baptism by Fire” one of the buyers speaks a different language. So what’s he saying?
The Subtleties of Translation
The image here shows the French and English versions of the same scene. The French uses the pronoun “on” to create ambiguity in the conversation. The equivalent “one” isn’t commonly used in conversational English, so instead, we focussed on the way Datta was killed.
Lost in translation
We’ve mentioned that we want our heroes to speak different languages in certain circumstances. This sometimes requires changes to the story’s translation. For instance, in “Baptism by Fire,” our agents travel to Bordeaux. In the image here we see them arriving at the hotel. In the French dialogue, the characters talk about missing luggage. But in the English version, we keep some of the French dialogue verbatim and then add a comment about Fabien knowing how to speak French. That wouldn’t make any sense in the French version. See image.
We don’t all speak the same language, you know!
In movies or TV shows, it may be tempting to make simplifications to make it easier for the target audience to understand. For instance, how many Nazis actually spoke English with that ridiculous German accent? This may have been acceptable 40 or 50 years ago, but in our global society, this type of shortcut can be a little ridiculous. On the TV series “24,” you see Arab bad guys talking English even when they are alone together. We use different languages in the webcomic not because we want the viewer to feel lost, but because we want to give the story setting more credibility.
