The number of people who have difficulty reading or writing in the Netherlands is rapidly increasing. However, movie and series subtitles are clearer, faster and worse than ever. How is this possible?
Two out of five young Dutch people do not read. This is worrying, according to experts, because the low literacy rate in the Netherlands is increasing rapidly. An estimated 2.5 million Dutch people have low literacy. This means that they have difficulty reading, writing and/or arithmetic.
With this knowledge, you would expect that many of the films and series that attract the attention of these young people will be translated and translated simply and clearly. But Marielle Steinbach, the film’s translator and board member of the Authors’ Union, tells NU.nl that is not the case.
“In recent years, the speed of reading subtitles has increased significantly, especially with major streaming services,” says Steinbach. So you’ll read more in a shorter time. “We assume one line of text when someone talks for three seconds. With streaming services, that quickly turns into two lines. So, you’re asking people to read twice at the same time, when in reality you want people who read a little slower to be able to “Follow him.”
Translations should be readable at a glance
Text comprehension also suffers from this. “Normally you would have to shorten the text significantly to meet speed reading. But if you can fit all of the spoken text, this sometimes creates awkward sentences.”
Steinbatz explains that translations should be readable at a glance. “Because in addition to reading, you are also watching and listening.”
According to her, cuts in the translation industry have hampered this in recent years. “So training of people is very minimal. Then inexperienced and poorly trained translators make unnecessary rookie mistakes and translate texts too literally.”
Artificial intelligence is not working well yet
Remco de Bruijn of translation agency Het Vertaalcollectief agrees that there is a dearth of good translation. “The growth of films and series is huge and companies also want to subtitle more and more videos.”
According to him, they want to receive those text messages as quickly as possible and for the lowest possible amount. Because of the shortage, they sometimes start working with artificial intelligence (AI) themselves. According to De Bruyne, this is reflected in the quality. “This technology is not ready yet. This is actually only possible if the sound quality is top notch, there is no background noise and only one person is talking.”
Steinbach also believes that “machine translation can be a tool, but only if you are very good and know exactly what you are and are not using it for.” “For many people who have received little guidance, it is difficult to eliminate grammatical errors or crooked sentences.”
According to the board member, the Authors’ Union is committed to ensuring the quality of translation. They did it Translation guidelines They are working to develop a quality mark for translators.
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