[for Amara.org] [and for EurOpinion.is]
Helloo... my name is Riccardo.
And I just received an email about the "International Translation Day"...
and I do want to support it, as kindly requested:
"raise awareness about their importance" (subtitles)
The importance of subtitles, and with it...
for a wider global public...
well, important documentaries or messages (knowledge, wisdom...)
to make them available.
I do think that is very important.
And when I saw that videos were suggested as an option, I thought:
"What better than a video in Dutch and then subtitle it in English..."
[instead of always the other way around ;)]
because I think that, amongst other,
the distribution of languages should be supported as much as possible!
And that everybody should, actually, always start in their original language....
and then, if necessary, subtitle it.
My personal story...
I was born in Italy, in Milan. My father is Italian.
But I grew up in Holland, from my fourth year on.
My mother is Dutch, although she was born in Indonesia.
And so, from my youngest years,
I have had the priviledge, to manage more than one langauge.
It is enriching! You grow from it. Other languages... other cultures.
With, additionally, what we have here in Holland, the fact that at school...
you also learn the other 'great' languages that surround us: German, French and English...
with another advantage on top of that, yet another priviledge...
that here in Holland, just like in Scandinavia or Portugal,
everything on tv or movie...
is SUB-TI-TLED
so you can HEAR the other language!
Not like other countries where they are being dubbed
and which makes you loose the richness of the original language.
Just by hearing the other language you get to know the other culture...
at least in a certain way. [and thus, understand it better]
And you loose that by dubbing.
THERE is where I see an important role of subtitling.