View - Scholarly Commons Home

to be father. He had a dinner with his father and asked his father about the feeling that a
father could have when knowing that he would have a baby soon. His father replies that
Ross‟ mother did most of the parenting thing, he was busy with the business, but he
adds that there is always time to make up for that, when he says: “Cause there‟s time to
make up for that. We can do stuff together. You always wanted to go to that Colonial
Williamsburg. How about we do that? The Chinese subtitle has: “你一直想去威廉斯
堡。我们去怎么样?” Here, the translator has used repetition as the strategy by giving a
sound translation of the name Colonial Williamsburg. This translation is not really
reliable. “堡” in Chinese means “castle”, which can create confusion. Chinese viewers
might think that Colonial Williamsburg is a castle, but in fact, Colonial Williamsburg is
a place of heritage from the colonial period and located in Virginia. The translation is
not effective. Chinese viewers do not know what Colonial Williamsburg is and where it
is.
My suggested HPTE would be:
“你一直想去威廉斯堡(一个旅游胜地,离纽约很远)。我们去怎么样?” which
translates as: “You always wanted to go to that Colonial Williamsburg (a famous place
of interest far away from New York). How about we do that?” Creation was used as the
strategy for this HPTE. As Chinese viewers are not familiar with Colonial Williamsburg,
it is important to put some extra explanation. The suggested HPTE will also help
Chinese viewers to understand that Colonial Williamsburg is not easily accessible for
New Yorkers. This may help them understand why Mr Geller recommends this place.
The extra explanation does not hamper the audience‟s enjoyment in watching the
episode, because it is brief and synchronised with Mr Gellers‟ lines.
A slightly different type of cultural reference was found in the shape of a commonly
used English idiom Season 4, Episode 13, Scene 4. In this scene, Joey and Monica have
exchanged their apartments, but Joey comes back to take food away from the
refrigerator from time to time. Monica is not happy with that. Monica: “umm, excuse
me, we switched apartments. You cannot eat our food anymore, that gravy train had
ended.” The Chinese translation reads: “没有食物可以免费了。” Joey said: “Is there
gravy?” Here, deletion is used as the strategy. The translator has deleted gravy train as a
CSI and replaced it with “free food”. It is reliable because gravy train right here means
58