Poor understanding of dialect ruins old man’s reputation
A 90-year-old pharmacist in Maastricht is said to be devastated after popular Dutch talk show De Wereld Draait Door messed up the translation of a subtitle in their film of the elderly man.
In a segment where they show funny videos, a woman walks into his pharmacy and asked for something for her throat. He makes a charming joke, saying, “Did you sing too much?”.
Problem is, the television show didn’t air this because they thought he said “did you sing too much”, but they understood it as “did you suck too much”, which, if that had been what he said, would be kinda funny.
But he said ‘sing’ (‘gezongen’) and not ‘suck’ (‘gezogen’). The man has a Limburg accent that the subtitler didn’t understand, made an assumption and basically trashed a hard-working old man out of ignorance.
My friends also tell me that if the old man had meant ‘suck’ (blow job), he’d have used a totally different verb in local dialect.
The show sent the man a ‘we’re sorry’ bouquet of flowers, but he still claims he’ll never watch the show again.
(Link: www.limburger.nl, Photo of Old drugstore by fpeault, some rights reserved)
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