one thing about me is that im eating the fuck out of motorsport guess who content. i could want the team liquidated irl but i’ll see one of these thumbnails and im seated

Mon Cher

(Spencer Reid x Reader)

Part 2 of Mon Lapin

The one where Spencer and Reader finally go on a date after pining over each other for too long. (Reader owns a French bakery)

Length: 2.6k

A/N: tooth-rotting, cheesy FLUFF! thank you to everyone who requested a part 2, i wasn’t going to write it but y’all--i think this might be my favorite thing that i’ve written so far!

masterlist

Spencer knew that across many cultures, pink lilies represented love, admiration, and compassion. All things he wished to convey to Y/N, so it really wasn’t difficult to pick a bouquet of pink lilies for her. His heart thumped against his ribcage as he neared the bakery where he told her he’d meet her. He hoped he wasn’t too forward with her yesterday, but he was getting antsy. Despite seeing her a couple times a week when he was in town, it was never enough just to chat casually. He wanted to lose himself in conversations with her. With all his ambition for knowledge, he couldn’t think of a subject he wished to memorize more than everything she is. 

He cleared his throat and made sure his tie was as straight as it possibly could be before pushing the glass door of her bakery, the chime of the small bell reaching the corners of the store. His eyes swept across the familiar scenery, but she wasn’t there. He approached the counter nervously.

“Hey, Marissa. Is Y/N here yet?” He asked her coworker and she beamed upon seeing him.

“Hey! She should be here any minute. I kind of forced her to go home to get ready and all, it’s really hard getting her out of the bakery!” She laughed and Spencer nodded, smiling, grateful for the extra minutes he needed to compose himself. 

He found Y/N’s dedication to her job endearing. He glanced down at the bouquet and adjusted the flowers in an attempt to find something to do with his hands instead of tapping nervously against the counter. Why was he so nervous? She wouldn’t have agreed to the date if she wasn’t interested. Well, then again, he didn’t really give her an option. Was that the wrong decision? 

Just before he could spiral into his thoughts any deeper, the bell chimed again, causing him to turn to face the door. The air evaded his lungs as soon as his eyes settled on her, an occurrence Spencer didn’t think happened in real life. He’s read about it, sure, but he never thought he’d ever experience it. She strolled in, a dark emerald dress flowing with her movement. Spencer had to remind himself what the function of the respiratory system was when she approached him. 

“Spencer?” She spoke softly, realizing that he hadn’t said anything. He blinked, snapping out of his daze with a prominent blush. 

“Y-yes. Hi, sorry, um,” he paused, a bashful, sheepish grin overtaking his face, “you look beautiful, Y/N.” She mirrored his smile, cheeks reddening as she glanced at the bouquet of flowers in his hand.

“Merci, mon lapin. [my bunny] You look just as dashing as ever. I see you remembered the lilies.” She sent him a sly smile. He had forgotten about the bouquet in his hand under her intense gaze. He nodded, his arm extending the flowers to her. She graciously accepted them and immediately buried her nose in the center of the bouquet, emerging with a smile that could make Spencer’s knees buckle if he wasn’t careful.

“They’re beautiful, thank you. Give me one moment.” She scurried off into the kitchen of the bakery and returned with the largest cup she could find. She settled the flowers in their new home before picking one out of the bunch and securing it to one of the bobby pins near her left ear. Spencer was positive he resembled a love-sick puppy as he took in the sight. Marissa was pretending to wipe down a table in the background, but really she was fawning over the two lovebirds. 

“Shall we?” Spencer managed to speak, gesturing towards the door. 

He tried to contain his grin as he stared at her ethereality. She smiled up at him and nodded, taking one last look at Marissa before she left. Her coworker sent her a teasing look and waved goodbye. Spencer offered his arm to Y/N as they stepped into the chilly air. She gladly took it and beamed up at him. He tried not to focus on the way his arm felt tingly with hers around it.

“I’m so glad we’re finally doing this, Spencer.” She spoke and he nodded.

“Me too, Y/N. So, I wasn’t sure what you liked so I settled for a reservation at an Italian restaurant. Would that be okay?” He tried to swallow his nerves.

“Yeah, that’s perfect!” It didn’t really matter, she knew she’d go wherever this man asked her to go. 

The nervous energy in the air was lighthearted and it made her feel like she was a teenager going on a date for the first time again. They caught each other up on their lives as they walked. Both of Y/N’s hands ended up around Spencer’s arm and he found himself relishing in her warm touch as well as every little squeeze she gave when she got excited about something she was saying. He wanted to pay attention to the direction they were walking in, but it was too damn hard with the way the lamp lights reflected in her irises. He’d almost walked right past the restaurant.

“Oh, we’re here.” He laughed lightly, leading her to the entrance and they were seated immediately.

Dinner went smoothly. She’d known that he was an interesting man, but he made it so easy for her to get lost in him, what he was saying, his eyes- oh man, those eyes. She knew all about eyes being the windows to the soul, but she didn’t know how one man’s eyes could possibly convey so much emotion. She watched him talk about his work family and his real family, although not in great detail. They were so captivated by each other, the waiters had to make noises with either their throats or mouths to get their attention.

Once they were out of the restaurant, they continued walking down the same street, still deep in conversation about a topic probably wouldn’t interest anyone else. Spencer hadn’t really planned the night out, he didn’t know what exactly she would like, so he decided he’d let the leaves fall where they may. All he did know was when she giggled, his heart skipped a beat. Suddenly, they stopped in their tracks and she let out a loud gasp.

“Oh! You know what I just remembered?” Spencer stared at her curiously, “There’s a tiny theater up ahead that plays some really cool foreign films, you probably know about it. I know the owner, she texts me whenever they add a French movie. Tonight they’re playing one of my favorites, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg! [The Umbrellas of Cherbourg] Oh, you would love it! Would you like to go? It’s totally fine if you have something else planned, though.” Spencer grinned at her excited nature and nodded eagerly.

“Are you kidding? I always have to beg my friends to come see foreign films with me, I’d love to go.” Spencer couldn’t believe this was happening. They arrived at the theater soon and she was disheartened to hear that they didn’t have subtitles for the movie.

“It’s okay! I don’t mind if there aren’t any subtitles.” Spencer said once he saw the smile dissipate from her face. He hadn’t had the heart to tell her that he’d already seen the movie before anyway. The gleam in her eye was much too precious when she spoke of the film.

“Are you sure? I can probably whisper-translate to you, uh, i-if you’d like.” She stated somewhat shyly, a blush creeping up to her cheeks.

“I’d like that.” Spencer smiled as he realized that the roles were usually reversed and he’d usually be the one whisper-translating a movie to someone.

And so they sat in the small theater, arms tangled in each other over the arm of the chair between them. She had one hand on his bicep as he leaned the top half of his body closer to her. They were probably sitting closer than they normally would have sat, but she used the excuse of whisper-translating to her advantage. She felt a strand of his caramel hair tickle the tip of her nose as her lips whispered in his ear. Spencer fought to regulate his breathing every time she came near. He was glad he’d seen the movie before because he was sure that if this had been his first time seeing it, he’d have absolutely no clue what was going on. She also fought to resist the urge to press her lips to his clean shaven jaw--and basically everywhere else. 

The movie ended before they knew it and they could finally see each other in the gentle light of the theater. Spencer turned his face to send her a grateful smile just to find her face inches away from his. His eyes involuntarily flickered down to her lips. The same lips that were by his ear a few moments ago. She smiled back softly and they enjoyed the closeness for a short moment before Spencer shyly broke eye contact. They broke apart, both blushing from head to toe. Both far too shy to initiate anything. He cleared his throat before standing from his seat. Y/N followed him out of the theater.

“So, did you like it?” She asked as they stepped out, noticing that the streets were a lot darker and quieter than they had been prior to entering. It must have been late. 

“Yeah, I loved it.” Spencer said, almost breathlessly, but he wasn’t talking about the movie, of course. She grinned with triumph and courageously slipped her hand into his as they walked back in the direction they came from. He took it one step further and laced their fingers together. She swooned over his smile. 

An aggressive gust of wind suddenly washed over the two of them on the sidewalk, which made them instinctively close their eyes to brace themselves against the dust in the air. She only opened her eyes as she felt the lily in her hair slip out of its secure place from in between the prongs of the bobby pin.

“No!” She gasped and Spencer quickly -and ungracefully- leapt to catch it before it flew too far. She laughed as he turned to face her with a pleasantly surprised expression, almost in disbelief that he actually caught it. He approached her again and gently returned the lily to its rightful spot just above her ear. He moved a stray strand from her face and she gazed up at him with a certain type of adoration. His hands moved to cup the plumpness of her cheeks as they relished in each other's tender gazes. She let her hands rest right under his ribs and pulled him impossibly closer.

“You are so beautiful.” He whispered, his breath washing over her face. He felt the skin under his fingertips warm up.

“Merci, mon cher.” [my dear] She whispered back, a definite level-up from mon lapin. That he did know the meaning of.

Spencer grinned slightly before finally leaning down to close the gap between both their lips. It was gentle and sweet, neither of them rushing it. To many onlookers, they were just a young couple sharing a kiss on the sidewalk in the middle of the night. To them, it was a silent declaration. A statement that conveyed more emotion than any of the thousands of words that existed in all the languages they spoke between them could. Y/N found herself following through after Spencer reluctantly pulled away for air. She stopped herself, blushing profusely at her involuntary movements. He only grinned wider in response before stepping back and grabbing her hand again.

“Let me walk you home.” He told her as they began walking again.

“Actually...the night doesn’t have to end yet, if you don’t want it to, I mean.” She smiled up at him.

“I don’t want it to, what do you have in mind? Everything’s closed down.” Spencer pointed out.

“Um, I might know a place.” She said in a teasing manner with a slight smirk, “The owner and I go way back.” She giggled.

“Oh really now?” Spencer played along, laughing.

“Mhm, we’re practically like this.” She laughed as she crossed one finger over the other on her free hand to represent a bond.

She unlocked the door to her bakery and pulled him in, closing the door again behind him. Before Spencer could even register what was happening, she had grabbed a hold on his tie to gently guide his face back to hers and enveloping his lips with her own. Spencer responded immediately by wrapping both arms around her waist securely. The kiss was significantly more passionate than the first, but just as sweet. She pulled apart first and bit her lip sheepishly.

“Sorry, I couldn’t help it.” She admitted and Spencer stood in a daze. 

She giggled and moved away to turn the lights on, but only some. The soft light illuminated the empty bakery and he realized then just how beautiful the place really was. Or maybe he thought everything would look ten times more beautiful after a kiss like the one he’d just received. The thought had extended to her, of course. Spencer didn’t think it was possible that she could look any more beautiful. But there she was, in all her glory, proving him wrong as each second passes.

“Come with me, I have something to show you.” She hooked her pointer finger around his and dragged him to the kitchen. He was in awe as he took in the sight of all of the kitchen appliances. It wasn’t a large kitchen, but it was oddly spacious and organized. 

She smiled wide at his reaction, “This is quite literally where the magic happens. Ooo! Come look, I made these right before I left, Marissa must have taken them out of the oven before she locked up. They’re for tomorrow.” She pulled him to a tall bakery rack and he spotted his favorite treat, pain au chocolat. She took one off the tray and gave it to him. It was still warm on the bottom. He couldn’t hold his excited grin back as he took a hefty bite out of it. She giggled as she watched him close his eyes dramatically.

“I’m truly at a loss for words, Y/N. They’re so good. How do you get them right every time?” He asked with fascination and she propped herself on the counter of the kitchen, taking one for herself.

“Well, it took time and effort to perfect the recipe, Dr. Reid.” She giggled, biting into it. “I can show you how to make them one day. Maybe our next date?” She looked at him hopefully and he nodded eagerly.

“Yes! You can finally show me how to make pain au chocolat.” He tried to imitate her accent, he really tried. She burst out laughing at his cuteness.

“Pain au cho-co-lat.” She emphasized, separating the syllables.

“That’s what I said! Pain au chocolat!” He laughed, although the pronunciation was still slightly off.

“Alright, close enough.” She giggled again as she pulled him closer, locking her legs at the ankle behind his waist. They’d have plenty of time to perfect his accent later.

“Embrasse-moi, mon cher.” [Kiss me, my dear] She whispered. 

Right then, he thanked himself for having the foresight to brush up on the language enough to do exactly what she asked. 

Half-eaten pains au chocolat were long forgotten.

Mon Lapin (part 1)

(with Eng subtitle)

These 10 people come from Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Canada, US, UK, France, Italy, Sweden respectively, and they are staying in Taiwan atm. No matter how they tried, they can’t go back to their home country because of the travel ban. Here’s what they want to say to their family and their people. 

The Italian girl Rosa in this video is a friend of a friend, there are several times she’s too emotional to speak. One don’t need translation to know how suffering it is to be separated from their loved ones, watch them facing such a dangerous threat but find no way to help them.

We don’t have compulsory quarantine order here in Taiwan, most business remain usual (except certain industries like tourisim, airline ofc), but it’s the fourth month since most people have avoided to go out autonomously. Some people are staring to let their guard down and some are simply brainless and selfish. 

The number of confirmed cases in Taiwan have spiked by 200 for the past two weeks to more than 300,  Most of them are tourists, residents and students overseas while the number of domestic cases is relatively small, but I really worried about the possibility of local transmission. Especially the news report said the bookings of hotels are all full during this holiday weekend (4/2~4/5, traditionally it’s a time for people to go home and sweep the tombs of their ancestors).

The situation is getting worse, we can’t stop people from doing stupid things but we must keep ourselves in control.

At this stage, most countries have seen how serious this pandemic is. Please follow the “social distancing” rule, quarantine is necessary to keep you and your loved ones safe. The more people do so, the sooner the outbreak can be contained, and our life can go back to normal.

Be careful with anything coming from outside your home. Coronavirus can survive for 24 hr on paper, 2~3 days on plastic or steel surface. Make sure you have sufficient supplement, especially with imported products. With so many industries shut down, people could soon feel the shortage. 

＊What to Do During Quarantine (with Symptoms Shown)

Also, you might want to try to use a piece of bendable transparent plastic as a helmet to keep you safe while taking care of your sick family like this:

If you must go out, please put on your face mask, or at least use a scarf to cover you mouth and nose. Please note, the virus could still be transmitted via your eyes. So the best way is to keep a safe distance from others. Wearing glasses also helps,  remember to wash them with soap after returning home.  

Coronavirus droplets could travel 27 feet, warns MIT researcher

Coronavirus transmission video shows why we should all be wearing masks 

The face mask can’t provide 100% protection, not like quarantine, but it do help to reduce the risk and allow the society to function normally. 

＊Correct way to put on/take off your mask and how to DIY one with fabric. 

I would recommend to use the waterproof fabric from an umbrella as the exterior cover with a cotton one on the inside. Put a panty liner/ maxi pad/diaper between the them. Add two rubber bands or hairbands on each side. That should work as an interim alternative before you get access to the real medical masks. Remember to clean the cloth mask and replace with a new pad every time after using.

Yesterday our president announced that we have sufficient amount of mask production in Taiwan and will soon donate 10 million masks to other countries, including 7 million pieces to 11 European countries (Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Czech, Poland, UK and Switzerland), though 10m is not much compared to the population there. So don’t be surprised if you find your new mask is made in Taiwan. :D

New update info about Coronavirus (no scientific conclusion yet, FYI):

Hi there, a big goal of mine is to become fluent in Greek. Do you know of any good sources that could possibly set me on that path? Thank you!

Hey! Well, I never needed to look into it so I’m not sure what would work best. I assume you mean Modern Greek. Here’s a video of a Belgian man who learned Greek and he now speaks fluently (not perfectly but impressively well) so the method and the courses he followed may be helpful to you too. 

Since I can’t help much with sources here’s some general advice on what to expect, what’s easier and what’s harder. I agree with everything the man above says except maybe for one detail:

Like the Belgian also says, Greek is challenging but NOWHERE as hard as it is stereotypically believed. I’d say, Modern Greek is like difficult German that sounds like ancient Spanish (whatever that means lol). Maybe rated 3,5-4 max out of 5 in difficulty. Definitely not a 5.

If you watch youtube lessons, DON’T watch lessons by Non-Greeks or Greek Americans etc. Always opt for native Greeks otherwise you’ll never get accurate exposure to Greek pronunciation and accents. English speakers traditionally have a hard time using correct pronunciation in Greek no matter how well they know the language and vice versa. These two languages have entirely different phonetics. Greek sounds more like Spanish or Italian. Watch a lot of Greek TV shows and movies. A lot is available on youtube.

Greek is an easy language to learn on a basic level in order to communicate but quite hard to master (that’s where the notorious difficulty rumours are earned) . After you learn the alphabet and a few basic rules about double vowels and consonants and you have a lexicon next to you, you are ready to pronounce, read and understand everything. Piece of cake. Next step is listening. People think Greeks speak very quickly which is not true but it is a misonception until learners understand how syllables with open codas work in Greek. Greek words are somewhat long with usually a consonant-vowel succession and they usually end in vowels which confuses people as to where a word starts and ends. The moment you get the hang of this, the language slows down rapidly and listening becomes also very easy because Greek is spoken very clearly. Next comes syntax which is easy yet a little tricky when you have to use it yourself. Modern Greek syntax is very flexible and has no strict structure at all. You can change the place of the words based on what you want to emphasize. The tricky part is that you still need to make sense and change words accordingly with what you are trying to focus on, not just start mixing words randomly duh. Next level: vocabulary. Medium difficulty. Many words in other Indoeuropean languages derive from Greek so you’ll find similarities and it’s gonna be entertaining. Fun fact: Greek students find Vocabulary to be the easiest thing when learning other european languages exactly for that reason. What truly makes Vocabulary hard like the Belgian Greek speaker says will be my last note.Tip: when you learn a new greek word, a long one, always check its etymology. Trust me. Next level: Grammar. Okay, no lie here, you will have to work. You will have a lot of things to memorize and get used to. Greek Grammar is very similar to German Grammar, their philosophy is the same, only the greek one is more complex and harder. But both languages function in a similar way and Modern Greek has a way more flexible syntax than German. Last level: dictation. RIP. Which is why it’s much easier to understand, read and speak Greek than to actually write it. Greek dictation is a beast and most courses will probably force you to memorize all of the vocabulary with its weird as heck vowel combinations. Let me give you an example: take a word that means (he/she/it) “realises”. The word is pronounced: sinithitopií. However, it’s written “συνειδητοποιεί”. Imagine having to memorize dictation for this and words like this. However, here’s why in order to get used to greek dictation you need a good understanding of etymology and grammar. Third person verbs that end in “ee” always are written with an “ει”. From the etymology you can understand that the word is formed from the word pií which means “does”. Pií is written as ποιεἰ  so if you know this simple word you can then conclude how words that derive from it are written. Same with the first part of the word but it is a little more complex so I’m not gonna go there. In short, my advice: don’t be discouraged at all by the alphabet, reading and listening, read as many books and watch as many shows as you can (preferably with subtitles like Το Νησί (To Nisi) - The island TV show in yt) and when you start comprehending how the language works and learn words, then start delving deep into the grammar and start becoming more fluent. Lastly, Greek language does not have many irregularities and it is based on logic. Everything makes sense and has an explanation even if it initially looks weird. If you have any question on why something is like that, google it. Google is full of very good databases on greek grammar and etymology. Most sites I’ve seen are reliable. What is not at all accurate are the accent and pronunciation courses. Remember!!! ONLY Native Greek videos!!!

The Adventures in Fansubbing: Localization and the Song of La Béfana (FR Miraculous Ladybug S2)

At this point, I just have a feeling I need to write this (mainly since I think people might find this interesting). If people are ever curious about the process of making subtitles/captions and what goes on, I’ll share some of that right now.

Now, releasing subtitles to a show isn't super abnormal these days. But there are some challenges that do come with making them.

Most people these days aren't too fussed with getting a direct translation from a fan subber, but when trying to create a quality project that keeps with the spirit of the original work is much more difficult to execute well. If you want to know more, keep going. You’ve got a lot of reading under the cut.

Professional captioners have some standards to keep to which can drastically alter what you read. These can include:

Ensuring the lines only show up in a certain number of lines and within a certain percentage of the screen. (The standard is a max of two lines, with few exceptions being three.)

Making the captions easy to understand and read in a timely manner.

Format captions to flow easily and smoothly to a viewer.

Making the idiosyncrasies, jokes and cultural references of one country understandable to other cultures. Otherwise, using an appropriate cultural reference in their place. (AKA Localization)

It's a lot of work trying to stick to that list and can often result in many things being lost to translation. A lot does hit the cutting room floor and things are altered to get an idea across in a shorter form. It's the kind of stuff that people might criticize on forums or such, but it's sometimes a necessary evil that has to be done.

With that, I want to talk about the last tick on the list (localization) in relation to S02E04 La Béfana in Miraculous Ladybug. Of course we’re talking about captioning the French language version.

I’ll start with a disclaimer: I am not a translator. I am not even fluent in a second language. I don’t even claim to be a professional captioner. I only do this for my own personal fun and education. Most of what you’ll read now is merely anecdotal and based on experiences doing this as a hobby.

It’s a pain in the butt trying to write subtitles for a language you aren't at all fluent in. What's worse, is when you run in to something that only works within the context of the original language or culture. It happens too many times to count.

I'm only going to detail a small sampling of what happens.

In this case, we have two very time consuming issues in La Béfana: the song that Béfana sings while flying around, and subsequently Chat Noir and Ladybug's responses to the song. These two are exactly the kind of localization problems that slow down jobs when you're not working on a team of multiple people. Let that be known if people are thinking of picking this up.

I won’t detail people on Miraculous Ladybug, one can easily Google the show on their own. But to set the stage for us here, La Béfana is actually based on the myth of Befana from Italy. She's a very popular figure who gives gifts to children on a flying broom, kind of like Santa. She gives candy and presents to good children in their stockings and coal or dark candies to bad children. The way Béfana in Miraculous Ladybug is portrayed is in line with this myth. Naturally, the show also has her sing a traditional Italian song while she's flying around. I wasn't able to find the original song this was based on (which may have made this easier to understand). Allegedly, it's a song that's found in a Befana opera, according to a friend of mine but I could be wrong. Knowing this background information can be helpful in understanding how to handle what we’re tackling. (Google is your best friend!)

The song in the show looks sort of like this:

La Béfana arrive sur son valle volant aus enfent j'en tiens don de bonbons aus enfent benial chet du charbons

*NOTE: I'm aware this is most likely not correct at all

This is not obvious to someone that doesn’t understand French, but this song isn't entirely in French. It's some sort of mixture of French with some thick Italian undertone and word selection. It's non-standard. The best I could do was sound it out and look through dictionaries and grammar books to figure out what Le Béfana is singing. This problem is exacerbated by the fact I know neither French or Italian and have no basis on their grammatical structure or phonetic language.

This language mixing also makes it hell for a normal translator to pick through since while it sounds like one language it doesn't line up with it (in this case it's French). It caused a lot of confusion when I asked a French translator to assist me. I spent hours trying to figure this out but I can't be spending more trying to figure this out if I'm on a timetable.

Needless to say, how do we handle this scenario for captioning?

There's two ways this can go. One is to try to bring over the spliced languages. I've actually done it before when working on No Game No Life. Of which I have and example here:

The alternative is to just play it straight and not even bother with bringing the song's language mixing over. That would look like this:

The Befana is here On her flying bike All good children get candies All the naughty ones get coal

In this case, I threw out trying to chop in multiple languages in the English caption and not bring over the idea of Béfana singing in not-Italian. Why? Because it would slow processing it when it's read.

This is just a song that La Béfana sings that (specifically) American-English speakers won't understand the significance of. Additionally, it might not even be intentionally mushed together! Trying to write the mangled-ness might even be insulting. I'm pretty sure the people who wrote the French script didn't actually intend for it to be interpreted as really terrible joke-Itali-French. And unless you live in that area of the world, the meaning of it is lost regardless of what I do and I don’t want to disrespect it.

This is a case of a functional change. I can't salvage this even if I wanted to. It felt best to not try and overstate the mixed sentences as a thing. However, I did leave the not-real spliced not-French-not-Italian caption above the English caption in case someone cares for it. (This technically is my file I make for fun. I can do whatever I want with it.)

At that point, it was just choosing between a direct translation and a more artsy lyrical one. Long story short, in this case, we (my translator buddy and I) just picked a lyrical one because we liked it more. It's not 100% what Béfana sings, but we wanted it to read as chipper as the tune. In the end, we end up with something that looks like this:

Doing alright so far! Next!

Our second issue was Chat Noir and Ladybug singing in response to Béfana in the second half of the episode. It goes a little something like this.

CHAT NOIR (singing) Chat Noir vient lui aussi Descret comme mort la nuit

CHAT NOIR (speaking; questioning tone) ...What also rhymes with "-it" [I]?

LADYBUG (singing) Il défend Paris Avec sa Lady

In this case, Chat Noir is wondering what will rhyme with "aussi" and "nuit" which end on the same phonetic sound of "-I". Ladybug jumps in and supplies "Paris" and "Lady" (which also end on the same sound in French). Oh man. This is a gag that specifically works because of how French is pronounced.

This is also entirely a children's show joke. There's plenty of words in French that rhyme with "aussi" and "nuit". It's silly, and perfectly in line with the normal comedy line of this show. The problem was trying to get that idea and feeling across to read in English captions. If you translated this more directly, it would look something like this:

CHAT NOIR (singing) Chat Noir arrives as well Discretely like the night

CHAT NOIR (speaking; questioning tone) ...What rhymes with “night”?

LADYBUG (singing) He protects Paris with his Lady

It's serviceable. It's functional. The gag is completely lost though and it makes no sense to read.

Well. Let's try an alternative version! It might go something like this:

CHAT NOIR (singing) Chat Noir is here as well Discrete as the dead of night

CHAT NOIR (speaking; questioning tone) ...What rhymes with "-ell"?

LADYBUG (singing) Defending from the tower, Eiffel Helping his Lady fight

Hmm. This at least rhymes now in English, but it's clumsy to read. I really don't like it. We don’t want it to look like some strange archaic poetry you need a masters in English to interpret.

As a related aside, sometimes you do have to completely rewrite a cultural joke or a gag to work when bringing a work to a different culture. This happens all the time (especially in dubs) and it's definitely based on how much people would know about at the current period.

A super famous example of localizing a cultural item was turning rice balls in to donuts. One has to understand, that at the time this sort of change was made (early 90s), people didn't know much about Japanese foods. The standard was people knowing about ramen and sushi. Rice balls look similar to sushi (specifically maki roll type sushi). They might have even been interpreted as sushi. But rice balls are 100% not sushi. (joking) What a mistake one can make! (/joke) On top of that, having rice balls be retained in the context of the show had a chance of not being accessible, thus a change was made to keep the flow of the show intact.

Another one that people might not be familiar with is changing ramen in the Phoenix Wright games to hamburgers. (If you want to see an insane piece of localization work, look up articles on the localization of Phoenix Wright. It's fantastic. The amount of alterations in that game series is astonishing.)

In our case in Béfana, this is just a phonetic gag. This gag may only make sense right now in French because of the way French is spoken, but it’s still only a phonetic gag. I don't have to look up anything like French expressions or idioms or cultural lore or even specific items. I could make a completely serviceable alternative that shouldn't look as weird or insert an equivalent American-English gag.

Unlike in the case above where we couldn’t retain La Béfana’s not-Italian song, we can do something here. Our goal here now is to capture the spirit of the joke or the joking nature of the lines. If we have to toss out the direct meaning of the words to do it, we’ll have to do it.

Spend a couple of more hours with a pen and some scratch paper and end up at this:

CHAT NOIR (singing) Chat Noir is now here, you see Coming like the night on the scene

CHAT NOIR (speaking; questioning tone) ...What rhymes with "-ee"?

LADYBUG (singing) And he defends Paris Alongside his Lady

Surprise! We got super lucky here! I didn’t have to rewrite an entire section of episode dialogue!

It isn’t exact, but it’s not a full replacement of the original French lines. The same questioning of the rhyme still exists. It's working on the fact that it's pretty much all half-rhymes, but if you actually read it out loud (of course pronouncing Paris as "Par-ee" and not "Pah-ris") it sounds pretty good! The line where Chat Noir is referring to the night can also be connected to the environment transitioning to night time so that tracks as well. On top of that, there’s plenty of words that rhyme with “ee” in English. (Get it together Chat Noir!) As a bonus, this version is singable to the tune they sing to in the show. It works just fine for my purposes. We saved the joke! That’s all that matters!

Job done! Looks nice! Time to ship it out!

Now, If you survived this long reading this and you're thinking "Oh god. Is it over?" while I did just write an essay, you probably only read this in a fraction of the time it took to solve this issue. I’m heavily generalizing this process. In reality, these two sections alone took maybe seven hours to settle on. Surprised?

You don't want to imagine listening to these dialogue exchanges for that long trying to interpret what's being said and workshopping captions till you find a set you like. This is just a small snippet of what goes in to these sorts of things. It's work. It takes (a lot of) time. It's exhausting. But in the end people that do this do it out of enjoyment of the same piece of media you enjoy and to help other people enjoy it as well.

That's about all I have to say for now. I hope this was informative. I may see you all again some time in the future.

Thanks to aprilblossoms for being my translator buddy for this one! And thanks to all my friends for putting up with me while I was giving myself a lobotomy trying to hammer this out! (Special note to C-Note for helping me come up with the final captions for Chat Noir and Ladybug's song response.)

Language Journey Tag

Vielen Dank an @deutsian fürs Verlinken!

1. What languages are you/have you studied?

Umm that depends on what you mean by study. I’ve paid thousands of dollars to take classes in French and German. I've done free courses and read books in Esperanto, as well as gone to the 100th World Esperanto Congress and attended dozens of local meetings. Dutch is probably my next best language. I completed maybe half of the Duolingo tree, maybe more, and spent 10 days in the Netherlands. I have one Dutch friend but tbh we mostly speak in German. Woops!

I also have books for Turkish, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Klingon (a gift from my sci-fi-loving teacher), Arabic, Yiddish and Swahili, but I’ve never really done much with them.

2. How long have you been studying?

French - 7 years

Esperanto - 7 years

German - 2.5 years

3. Did you learn through class or self-study (or both)?

French - 5h / week for 4 years of high school, and now I major it in at university.

German - It’s kinda complicated. When I was young, I did three years of “German School” i.e. 3h each Saturday mostly with German expats’ kids but gave it up. Then I picked it up again in university, taught myself using loads of online resources, then I signed up for an intensive class at university, then I did

4. Why did you decide to learn this language?

French - My best friend in grade school’s dad was from France, it kinda wasn’t really a choice.

German - My grandfather was born in Germany, I‘ve always felt a connection to Germany and its language.

Esperanto - My French teacher was an Esperantist, I loved how international the language was, and how quickly I saw results.

5. What was a major highlight/milestone in studying this language?

French - Last semester, 4/5 of my classes were 100% in French with native French speakers (I study in a bilingual francophone-anglophone city). One of these classes was Histoire de la langue française, in which I was the only non-native speaker. I wrote a 20 page academic paper on the linguistic development of Alsace since the Second World War and then presented it as well. I got an A+.

German - Hmm.. I dunno! A few times where I haven’t said really long sentences, Germanophones have thought that I was German. Other than that.. I guess reading my first novel in German and no longer needing subtitles for German movies (which I LOVE now because it’s so hard to find subtitles).

Esperanto - To be honest, I don’t take Esperanto as seriously as I used to, so there aren’t as many milestones. I guess I remember after one year of Esperanto that I could read basic books meanwhile I only knew the French présent.

6. What was the hardest thing about studying this language?

French - I find French slang extremely frustrating. I get the basics of verlan, but I hate having to prononuce everyword backwards in my head to figure out what it is.

German - The regional variations, I guess. I find it very difficult to understand people who don’t speak Hochdeutsch. At the same time, I find it super interesting.

Esperanto - Esperanto doesn’t have enough native speakers to have a reference to look at when using expressions that are forumlated different in each language, like idioms and slang. For example, how could you say “to play someone”? While an English speaker might understand ludi iun, a Mandarin speaker may not. Another example is how to say “you don’t have to”. I’d say “vi ne devas” because in English that’s how it’s constructed, but a German or French person might understand that as “you musn’t,” because that’s what it would literally mean in their language.

7. What resources did you find most useful for studying this language?

French - The program Antidote is my life. It has the most comprehensive dictionary I have ever seen. It knows regionalisms, what register it’s used in, and usage examples.

German - Deutsche Welle, Goethe Institut, Deutsch.info, Mediathek.. there are SO many good resources for German. I don’t wanna list them all here cause I wanna make a post about them later. ;)

Esperanto - Lernu.net is THE site for Esperanto courses. I used that long before Duolingo was out, and now they redid the site and added new courses and functions. They have courses with exercises, forum to chat with other members, a dictionary and even jokes and poems in Esperanto!

8. Any top tips for studying this language?

Start speaking as early as possible! I honestly find that when I make mistakes in front of native speakers, I remember them a lot better.

9. What’s your next major language goal?

Hmm.. I’d like to read another novel in German, watch a French TV show and well I’d like to finish the Dutch tree on Duolingo at some point haha

10. Anything we can do in the tumblr community to get you there?

Any French-language TV shows anyone can recommend? I’m currently watching How to Get Away with Murder in French but I’d like to watch something original.

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I tag @historyandlanguages @francaise-de-coeur and @jaevla-underbart :)