Newstime Misery:
I’ve recently ‘volunteered’ to translate the Romanian evening news broadcasts for my parents. Not such a tough job, but some frustration is beginning to set in. Read more…
There are two ways you can go about doing this real-time translating stuff: (1) translate almost word for word, or (2) summarise what has been said. I prefer the second method because it's easier to maintain the context of what has been said, and you don't lose track of what is being said while you're relating what has just been covered.
Unfortunately, the Romanian media tend to ramble in their coverage of a story, needlessly repeating 'fluffly' details, descriptions, quotes, and events. The presenter will, for example, read the entire transcript of a quote from some official, witness, or victim, and then cut to the video footage of the person in the process of actually giving the exact quote. In essence, you're receiving the same information twice. Wouldn't it save on air time for them to be more succinct, and have the presenter summarise what was said while showing the footage, or just show the footage, or have the summarise, and then show the footage - rather than have the -exact- same information be repeated?
The problem for me is that my translation/summary of any piece is only a fraction of the length of the article, because I only relate the pertinent information once. I regularly end up compressing 3-5 minute items to around 30 seconds. On occassion, this disparity has led to accusations that I'm not letting my foks in on the full story. Sheesh! What's a guy to do?
On a sidenote, I'm actually convinced that the repetitive nature of the broadcasts is a result of the TV studios not having enough material to cover the time slot - so they intentionally drag out each news item as long as is humanly possibly. In fact, they regularly overshoot the 1-hour time frame, by a good 15-20 minutes, then throw in 10 minutes of commercials, just for good measure. In the end, all the shows scheduled for after the news start late, and by the time all the crappy programs are finished, they are so behind schedule that they cancel the show(s) that you really wanted to see, just to get back on track. The injustice of it all I tell you!
