EVALUATION ON THE QUALITY OF SUBTITLING TRANSLATION

Abstract

Subtiting can be defined as a translation practice that consists of displaying a written text,
usually on the lower part of the screen to recount the original dialogs of the speakers and
the information contained on the soundtrack. There are two types of subtitles, namely
intralingual subtitles (or closed-caption) and interlingual subtitles. To achieve good
subtitling translation, there are some translation strategies that can be applied. However,
translation students still have difficulties in achieving such ideal quality. Therefore, this
paper discusses the evaluation on the quality of subtitling translation done by students in
translation class. The research method used in this study is a qualitative descriptive method.
Source data in the form of English subtitles titled Simple Leftover Tips by Gordon Ramsay
and the data in the form of translation of the subtitles are classified into three types of errors
according to the FAR model from Pederson (2017), namely functional equivalence (do the
subtitles convey speaker meaning?), acceptability (do the subtitles sound correct and
natural in the target language?), and readability (can the subtitles be read in a fluent and
non-intrusive way?). The data are taken from a randomly selected student. Most translation
errors are in the functional equivalence parameter by 8 points, which is followed by
readability at 6.75 points, and acceptability at 1.5 points. The conclusion is that students
still have a lot to learn to understand the source texts, especially for culturally bound words.