I happen to recall that in this scene, she’s speaking nonsense Italian words (she doesn’t actually know Italian) but the first time they show it (and the viewer doesn’t know she can’t speak Italian) they show Speaking in Italy… and later when they’re showing that she’s saying words, but they’re nonsense, it still says ‘Speaking in Italy’!
This is not a big deal but it is entirely wrong. Why do I care so much about this?!
(The close caption is wrong in a lot of places on this copy of The IT Crowd, but that’s the most ridiculous.)
Edit: Later in the episode they show a speakerphone, on which, an Italian man is speaking. The caption for this? “Voicemail in Italy.” What!
This is not a big deal but it is entirely wrong. Why do I care so much about this?!
IMO it is a big deal, and you’re right to care.
Most obviously, and most importantly, this is a big deal because it excludes people who may require the subtitles in order to watch the show.
But it also points to some sort of speech to tech automation being used and then not checked by a human. Which implies poor quality control and a reliance on machine learning instead of employing someone.
Yes, it IS a big deal. Someone was hired to do the translation. Either by hand, or quality-check machine translation.
That someone is either not very good at English, or don’t have time to do it right.
And this is where my nostalgia kicks in. Why aren’t people doing it right anymore. Why is it so often just good enough to not get too many complaints. And why do we keep buying for these low quality services and products, instead of spending our money on fewer better products.
And yes, I know I’m part of the problem. I can get an X that seems good. Or I can get another X that seems almost as good, and the savings is enough to pay the airplane ticket to see my family on another continent. At least if I use the cheapest airline…
Maybe it’s a wink to deaf people? They might think she’s speaking actual Italian without the mistake.
It would have been funnier to say ‘speaks random Italian words’ for the people relying on CC
Maybe… But I kind of doubt it 😁
Tangentially related: there are a lot of moments in Firefly where the characters speak Chinese. Instead of captioning it properly, they just write “[speaks Chinese]”.
Which is especially jarring when you have a whole [speaks Chinese] sentence with a [speaks Chinese] phrase in the middle.
I wish.
In my (official dvd) box set, they caption it as “[SPEAKING GALACTIC LANGUAGE]” as if it’s some made-up sounds and not plainly an existing language.
I take comfort in knowing there are web sites that explain every phrase in detail.
Edit: Check out https://fireflychinese.kevinsullivansite.net/index.html
Do you have a website recommendation that’s accurate? Or are they all pretty much the same?
Here’s one that’s ugly but thorough: https://fireflychinese.kevinsullivansite.net/index.html
Is it subtitles in english though?
Yes. They do occasionally transliterate, and I think it’d be nice if they’d done so across the board.
It says “speaking in Italian” on my pirated copy.
All I know is I have the hots for Jen so bad.
Well good luck, she’s in Italy now.
😘👌
So goddamn agree
This is my favorite episode thanks to the “fire in a SeaParks” subplot
“It just seems like a weird place to go on fire” was the best, I agree entirely!
“In a Sea Parks??”
A fire? At a Sea Parks? It’s wrecking my head! If she had said that her parents drowned, I’d be the happiest man in the world!
Are you watching it from a legitimate source? You could probably send an email if so, and have them fix it—most streaming services are at least trying to not alienate deaf audience members these days.
If you’re watching a less than legitimate copy, get on opensubtitles and find some better ones, you probably just ended up with a bad fansub in this case.
I would find it funny if the voicemail thing didn’t also happen. The voicemail saying “Speaking in italian” and her caption saying "Speaking in ‘Italy’ " would be funny. IN any case, you don’t Speak in Italy, you speak in italian.
Theoretically, one could be speaking in Italy, but that’s only if Italy exists
… I’ll see myself out
I wanted to be pedantic and win by a technicality and I missed the most obvious one. You are absolitely right and I made a fool of myself. Well played.
