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understand why Monica mentioned these.
In Season 3, Episode 15, Scene 5 we find another reference to an American
institution. In this scene, Monica and Phoebe are having dinner with two Frenchmen.
Monica wants to show off the French she learns elsewhere, but it turns out to be
something embarrassing when she is told that she in fact just asked if one of them
wanted to go to bed with her tonight. Monica replies: “Oh, my god! No wonder I get
such great service at Café Maurice.” The Chinese subtitle reads: “难怪我在莫立斯餐厅
得到那么好的服务.” Here, repetition is used as a strategy and Café Maurice is
translated directly. The translation can be said to be reliable because the translator
provided the name of the restaurant, however it is not effective, as Chinese viewers do
not know where Cafe Maurice is and what service it is providing. Chinese viewers are
puzzled about why Monica receives the best service at Cafe Maurice because she says a
French sentence “If I wanted to go to bed with you tonight”.
My own suggested HPTE would be :
“难怪我在莫立斯餐厅(纽约的一间著名法国饭店)得到那么好的服务.” “No
wonder I get such great service at Café Maurice (a famous French restaurant in New
York).” In this HPTE, creation, rather than repetition, is used as the translation strategy.
Extra information is provided about the restaurant, so Chinese viewers will understand
why Monica receives good service after saying that French sentence.
Season 3, Episode 19, Scene 10 contains a reference to a commonly used idiom in the
English language. In this scene, Joey is unhappy because the actress he is working
with in the play looks down on him primarily because Joey is not a famous actor and
does not have college qualifications. Joey says: “Just because she went to Yale drama,
she thinks she‟s like the greatest actress since, since, sliced bread! In the subtitle this
appears as: “她在耶鲁念戏剧,就自以为是切片面包机发明以来最好的演员。”
Repetition is used as the strategy, since the translator has translated sliced bread directly.
This is reliable because Joey did mention “sliced bread”, but not effective, since the
Chinese viewers are unlikely to understand why Joey used sliced bread right here.
My suggested HPTE would be:
“她在耶鲁念戏剧,就自以为是史上最好的演员” which can be translated back as:
“Just because she went to Yale drama, she thinks she‟s like the greatest actress in
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