Keep It Close to Original

Overtime there have been many texts that have been translated into different languages. There are various instances where many people do not know that what they have often read has been translated from one language to their own. As these texts are translated, the translators generally leave out certain phrases or sentences due to the fact that it would not culturally translate to a certain culture or will not make sense in a literal context. Due to the fact that many translators do not translate texts word for word, there has been controversy over which technique of translation should be used. These techniques are: domestication and foreignization which are elaborated in the text “The Domesticated Foreign” by Paloposki and Oittinen. In the movie, “Exporting Raymond” directed by Phil Rosenthal, it demonstrates that completely domesticating or foreignizing certain scenes of the show “Everybody Loves Raymond” into Russian, would not be an effective form of translation but rather combining the two methods would be efficient.

In the beginning of the movie “Exporting Raymond” the Russians wanted to solely translate the show “Everybody loves Raymond” by domesticating it into Russian. “Domestication… assimilates a text to target cultural and linguistic values” when translating (374). For example, a discussion arose when the costume designer Elena Starodubtseva, wanted to change the costumes of the original show to more trendy styles due to the fact that Russia is more “trendy” than America (Exporting Raymond). Another example that Russia has used domestication to translate the show is by changing all the original cast member names to Russian names. Just like the text “The Domesticated Foreign” states that “the most evident change, the one...

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...ess nicely, but a point that Rosenthal brings up is that he doesn’t want to change the show to fit fashion which then changes the meaning of the show (Exporting Raymond). This attitude is also echoed in Carmen Bravo-Villasante’s view, that “the criterion by which the originals should be adapted to practices of the country in question so that they can be understood better, results in distortion of the text (381).” This better illustrates how Rosenthal had a mentality of solely using foreignization in order for the message embedded in the scenes could transfer over to the Russian culture effectively without much change or adaptation.

In conclusion we can agree that the use of both foreignization and domestication should be used when translating a text and/or movie. We can see that the successful use of mashing both techniques can lead to an accurate translation.