ETS Translating "Animals United"

MUNTHIR AL-SIYABI

College of Arts and Social Sciences, Translation

"Translating A movie" was one of the English & Translation Society (ETS) main projects to be conducted this year. The project started in October, 2011 with 11 participants. It went through three main stages. After selecting the movie, "Animals United" the first stage was to translate the movie. The team was divided in which each took part to translate. At the second stage, the participants started editing the translation with the help from  Dr. Abdul Gabbar Al Sharafi and Mr. Abdulrahman Al-Hashmi from the English Department at SQU. after two months of translation and editing, the third stage was to transcribe the translation into the movie using some programs designed for subtitling which took one month.

Dr. Abdul Gabbar Al Sharafi shares his experience in the project saying "the translation of the movie entitled "Animals United" by the ETS at SQU is a great achievement that we should all celebrate. The translation shows a high level of translation performance of our translation students at the English Department. It is one of the first attempts of its kind in Oman and should be encouraged. Subtitling is not an easy translation skill. It has been restricted to a few translation firms in some Arab countries. The fact that Omani translation students are venturing into this culturally crucial enterprise has a number of indications. One of these is that the subtitling industry could be a new emerging business in the Sultanate and these students will surely herald the birth of this cultural industry."

The translator, Khadeeja Al-Shibli believes that she should expose herself to all various types of translation to sharpen her translation skills.  In addition, she explained how helpful the project in terms of enhancing various skills; for instance, reading, listening, observing, identifying and analyzing the text. Khadeeja said that she faced some problems in understanding the accents of some of the characters as they had French and Spanish accents; however, through consulting some experts and using the internet, problems were reduced.