57562


There are some scenes in anime which show language barriers. For instance, one
character speaks fluent English (because he/she has lived in a foreign country
and has recently came to Japan) and another character(who is listening) is
having a difficult time comprehending it. Some examples include _Kiniro
Mosaic_ (the anime is all about characters dealing language barriers),
_Azumanga Daioh_ etc. Now, how are these scenes dubbed in English? How do
dubbers deals with these scenes? Are these scenes even dubbed? Or is the plot
changed conveniently to match with the English dub?

Consider the following scenes:

  * The [famous coffee scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaFcaemVodM) in _Kiniro Mosaic_.
  * ["oh my gah" scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlLhw1mtCFA) in _Azumanga Daioh_
  * The "no speaking English" scene in _Nichijou_

How are these scenes dubbed in English?


CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-14T15:54:14.400
57556
2021-07-20T17:58:55.510
2020-06-22T14:55:34.393
19307
48011
question
voice-acting
How are Engrish/language barrier jokes dealt with in English dubs?


The answer for Kiniro Mosaic is that ... the anime was never dubbed in English
so they never had to worry about it.

More generally, it will depend a lot on the way the dubbing company chooses to
localise it, which in turn often depends on the expected audience for the dub.
In the case of Azumanga Daioh, for example, the English jokes were made into
Spanish ones instead, capturing the same general idea of the joke.

Another example I wanted to dig up was Excel Saga, which has a couple of
scenes with notoriously (and, given the nature of the show, almost certainly
deliberately) bad English (e.g. "General, she got it!" which in the English
subtitles of the Japanese subtitles is translated as "General, I think she
understands what we're saying"). The ADV dub treated these in different ways
in different scenes, which feels quite on-brand for the show - some of the
lines were just dubbed with proper English, losing that part of the joke;
other lines were switched into another language, like in Azumanga; one line is
given a complete non-sequitur joke that actually refers back to the Japanese
version; and one section, where the joke in the original is that the English
doesn't even relate to the scene (and is mostly made up of clichéd sentences
that Japanese speakers might recognise, like "Give me chocolate") is left in
its original form with the original voice actors.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-15T00:00:15.113
57562
2020-05-15T00:00:15.113
8843
57556
answer


I know Assassination Classroom had an issue with this.

In the original Japanese the plot has the characters facing off against
American foreign exchange students in a sports festival game. The US students
are explained to have a very basic grasp on Japanese. As part of their
education the main students have been learning English and so one of the
smarter kids switches to English to taunt the foreign exchange students out of
formation.

In the English Dub the character throws on a thick, southern accent and uses
local slang like "pardner" and "y'all". The joke kinda falls flat in the dub
because the US students respond in much the same way as the original Japanese
dub (in which the kid insulted their intelligence because they're mono-
lingual) which doesn't make sense when in the English Dub he just tries to
goad them by saying "Why don't y'all come over here pardner" or something
similar.

Overall it varies from company to company.

Another one I've recently watched was Kabanari of the Iron Fortress which has
a character that frequently switches entire lines in English or Japanese. The
show did well enough so I imagine it'll get a dub in a few years time, but for
now I'm left wondering how they'll handle that character.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-20T17:58:55.510
64250
2021-07-20T17:58:55.510
61632
57556
answer