Lost in subtitle translations: The case of advice in the English subtitles of Spanish films

It is not uncommon for students in the U.S., after viewing movies from Spain, to comment that Spaniards seem vulgar and rude. In part, these negative reactions may stem from the use of colloquial speech, especially swearing, which often leads to unnatural translations in English subtitles. However, in addition to purely lexical issues, other factors may contribute to the students' negative impressions; one being the different manifestations of linguistic politeness in the two speech communities. For example, concerning the speech act of advice, Hernandez-Flores (1999) found that in Peninsular Spanish, politeness is often based on enhancing the relationship between interlocutors and not necessarily, as in English, on mitigating the face-threatening act. Therefore, when transferred from Spanish to English, the lack of mitigation may seem impolite. In subtitles, negative stereotypes about rudeness in Spain can be exacerbated if the Spanish style of politeness is transferred to English. Furthermore, subtitles often reduce the language of the original script, a process that tends to eliminate key pragmatic features of politeness (Hatim and Mason 2000). Thus, the factors that potentially jeopardize perceptions of (im)politeness are compounded, leading to speech that can appear blunt to Anglophone sensibilities.