English Subtitles in Tagalog Movies Don’t Do Justice! (Taglish muna tayo!)

It is such a shame when I watch a Tagalog movie with a beautiful script. Of course it’s spoken in Tagalog, but once you turn on the English subtitles, the script loses its meaning. I strongly believe if someone got these translations right, more people would understand our culture and how beautiful it is to have the humor, personality and qualities of being a Filipino. Although, I do admire that English and other languages are used to translate our language to share our movies and television shows to the world; and despite our shortcomings in actual translation, people that watch who do not speak or understand our language, and mainly rely on reading the subtitle, or better yet, voice overs; still can wholeheartedly appreciated what we have to offer.

Some examples of translations gone wrong: (And these are real actual translations in purchased dvd’s, no pun intended.)

“Kailan hahaplusin ang pusong bitin na nitin”– subtitled in English: “When will you give this heart a chance.” What it really means is: When will you comfort this let down heart.

“Dito meron sa puso ko, munting puang laan sa ‘yo, maari na bang magpakilala.” – subtitled in English: “Here in my heart. There’s a space only meant for you.” Remember what I said about grammatical errors? The first sentence is a fragment. And it really means: there’s a special place here in my heart just for you. Can I introduce myself (to you)?

“Bawat araw sinusundan, di ka naman tumitingin. Anong aking dapat gawin?” – subtiled in English: “Everyday you walk by my way Never, not once, you gaze at me What am I to do” Obviously, the punctuation marks are all wrong. This should say: Each day I follow you, but you never look my way. What should I do?

I understand that the translation cannot be literally translated word for word. But the choice of words used in these translations, being I am very very fluent in both English and Tagalog, is very difficult to stomach. When my English speaking friends watch these movies, I have to orally translate it for them while they are watching because even in reading the subtitles, sometimes it either doesn’t make sense, the subtitle doesn’t match, meaning it’s not in sequence with the acting, or due to grammatical and spelling errors. Isn’t that just sad and embarrassing? That’s why sometimes I wish they should just hire me to do the subtitles and translations; I would do it in a heartbeat for free and with pride. Even if I had to reword things over and over to suit the actual meaning of the dialogue so that it doesn’t lose its real meaning.

Taglish