海外大学字幕プロジェクト

For their fifth class, the students made final adjustments to the subtitles they have worked on up until now. Here, they engaged in a discussion regarding questions that came up amidst their struggles throughout their subtitling adventure.

By now, the students have created expressive and accurate subtitles, however, a few unique Japanese expressions and phrases still left them in question.

For example, there was a line which contained the Japanese word donmai (roughly meaning “don’t worry about it”). Initially, some of the students translated it as “Never mind”, but they ended up having to discuss the meaning of it once more. In the end, the class came to a consensus that translating it as “Don’t worry” was more appropriate for the scene.

Another example is the way Tomoya sarcastically says suimasen ne (meaning “sorry”) as he jokes with his friends. The class was able to effectively translate and convey Tomoya’s sarcasm so that even an English-speaking audience could understand it. Realizing that it isn’t just a matter of translating word for word, the students continued to do their best going face to face with both the fun and difficulty of media translation.

At the end of this section, the students engaged in a discussion about renaming the English title of the film. After considering the story, how it would be interpreted by the audience, and which words would be most effective, they decided that “Beyond the Tip of Her Tongue” was more suitable a title than “Deep Tastes”, which was the original English title.

Approaching the end of their translating journey, the students finally saw their subtitles come to a completion. With thoroughly refined subtitles, “Beyond the Tip of Her Tongue” will make its international debut at Nippon Connection, the biggest festival for Japanese film worldwide.

Now that the students have a grasp of the rules for subtitle translation, they move on to exploring word choice that conveys the lines of the characters with the correct tone and nuances.

They formed groups once again and gave their translations another shot. However, this time around they had to keep in mind character limitations as well as proper line breaks, both which are unique aspects of subtitling.

Although they learned the rules of subtitling, the students found expressing the characters’ emotions more difficult than expected. For example, when Saki’s friend Ako says the word banjikyūsu (roughly meaning “all hope is lost”). They weren’t sure if they should translate it precisely how it was defined in the dictionary, or if it would be better to use a completely different word.

Here, the students looked back on the story and shared their thoughts and opinions with each other. After further sifting through their vocabulary, they were eventually successful in creating subtitles with tone and nuances that better matched the lines of the characters.

Among all of the subtitles they shared at the end, the instructors were surprised to see that some students provided excellent subtitles which really captured what the character Tomoya might actually say. The more the students learn and progress, the closer they become to completing their subtitles!

The students divided into four groups, each sharing a portion of the entire movie script. After bringing each of their script translations together, the students engaged in a discussion over parts they found difficult to translate.

One thing they all found difficult was translating the way the high school students speak. Thinking of appropriate English phrases for a conversation between members of the soccer team, or for the casual Japanese spoken by Tomoya and Saki’s friend Ako was a challenge. With so many word choice options, they found themselves confused when choosing which ones would best suit the situation.

There, the instructors suggested a different approach and focused the attention on the basic yet vital rules of character limits and line breaks in subtitle translation. After engaging in discussion with the teachers, the students learned the importance of maintaining an appropriate length of their translations when translating the message of a film for a global audience.

Learning these valuable rules of translation, the students are now more certain in their word choice and able to choose more suitable words that better fit the length of the dialogue.

In the second class, GUSP students tried their best at analyzing a film after learning about cinematic structure. Knowing and understanding cinematic structure is vital to creating subtitles for movies and dramas, so students began by watching and analyzing the story of a short commercial.

Through class discussion, the students learned that regardless of the length of the film, there is always a main character. They realized that knowing the main character’s motive or objective is the first step in analyzing any film piece, and learned about an approach to telling a story called the three-act structure.

Keeping this in mind, the students jumped into analyzing the short film they were assigned. In the course of their discussion, it grew clear that many of the students’ opinions on where the climax of the story is were quite divided. For example, some thought it was the action that Saki took after looking at Tomoya’s desk, while others thought it was more towards the end of the film.

After that, the students revisited the basics of the three-act structure and divided the film into three major parts. Clarifying the main character Saki’s objective, they searched throughout the film for scenes relevant to her motive and came to the conclusion that the climax was somewhere in the second half of the story.

The fourth Global University Subtitling Project (GUSP) has officially begun at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. Students participating in this course will learn the necessary skills required for Japanese to English subtitle translation, and work together to translate a Japanese short film called “Deep Tastes”. The English-subtitled version of the film will then be shown in Germany at this year’s Nippon Connection, the largest Japanese film festival in the world.

This time around, we have about 15 students taking the course, including two exchange students from Japan. As usual, they all took turns introducing themselves, and sure enough, everyone really likes Japanese media content. In addition to Japanese dramas and anime, many of them brought up their favorite Japanese rock bands as well as popular Japanese video games.

After a lecture on the basics of visual media translation, the students began the first exercise. They were instructed to translate the slogans of famous Japanese commercials without actually watching the commercials. Afterward, they would then watch the commercial and rewrite their translations accordingly.

Once they were done, the students shared their translations with the class after discussing them in groups. Many of them realized they were able to pick and choose words that better reflect the story and message of the commercial after they actually saw it.

After learning the basics of visual media translation and realizing that it is not just about translating words, but rather the content as a whole, the students continued onward to their next exercise of translating English subtitles for a Japanese TV drama.