When Sanjay's story crossed my desktop, I knew I had to share it with you, especially since our economy has speedily become a global one, and as the Beatles once sang, "Hands across the water." - Patty
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The flight attendant at Heathrow airport said something to me, and I had no clue what she was saying. I knew she was speaking English, but for the life of me, I could not figure out a word she said. Another English speaking person had to ‘translate’ her English to my English. “You caan’t take the babe buggee insaaide th aeroplane.” It appeared, I wasn’t allowed to take the baby stroller inside the plane.
What? That’s what she said?!
This incident should have been an eye-opener for me (and an ear opener too). It’s not only what comes out of our mouths, but also what goes into our ears, that determines our ‘accent’. By the age of 8 or so, the way we speak and understand a language, is set for the rest of our lives. The muscles in the larynx are formed.
Ironically, I was on my way from Washington DC, where I now live, to India, where I originally come from, to start my transcription and closed captioning office. Outsourcing was the buzz word. The idea was to get US shows captioned there inexpensively and save money, and get rich fast!
I hired the best brains in India to start transcribing documentaries, sitcoms, movies, you name it. Even some Playboy videos. Nudity on screen is illegal in India so we would send only the audio files. You’d think that in the land of ‘Kamasutra’ things would be a bit more relaxed on this front. (There's still a standing arrest warrant for Mr. Rupert Murdoch, whose channel once showed a glimpse of female breasts. So what if this happened 12 years ago, we Indians don't forget breasts when we see them).
Anyway, we got started with the transcription. This is how it went:
“Hey, what ya doin’?” turned into, “Hey, what goes on there?”
“Hanna Montana isn’t Hanna Montana,” turned into, “Hanamon Tuna isn’t Hanamon Tuna.”
You f* piece of s* I’ll f* kill you”, turned into, “Sir, this is bad language, I can’t transcribe it. I am a good Indian.”
“What up, bro”, turned to “What’s up there Brooke?”
Uncle Harvey, I ain’t gonna do no boogie-woogie”, turned into, “Hey uncle Harvey, I’m late going to the Bookie Wookie.”
And so on… you get the drift.
Trying to run my company from my Washington DC office, I was pulling my hair by now. But, India was my country and these were my people. I had to deal with them with patience and compassion. So I hired an American accent expert and organized a training session for the transcribers.
It did improve things to some extent. ‘What up, bro’ became ‘What up Brow’, but things on the whole remained unacceptable for the captioning world where we strive for 100% accuracy. Compound to that, the difference in spellings: Colour, harbour, favourite, honour, analyse, centre, ageing, arguement, counselling, programme. By the end of it, I was ready to jump of an aeroplane in my pyjamas eating chilli, signing cheques and land on my brown coloured arse!
Some things did go well. Transcribing for Playboy was a breeze…after all, there aren’t too many ways you can misspell Aaaah, or Ooooh!
I felt such a relief when I threw in the towel and moved the transcription operations to Bethesda, Maryland. (We ONLY do captioning in New Delhi now WITH ALL TEXT TRANSCRIBED IN USA). Now the result is perfect, and my hair has come back (naah, not the hair).
So, the moral of the story? If you get your transcriptions done in India, or any other foreign country, then ‘Congressman in bed with enlarged prostitue' can get in a lot of trouble.
Do please have a look at our still amazing low rates (transcribed in USA and captioned in India).
Many thanks,
Sanjay Chabra
President
Talking Type Captions
Email Sanjay at sanjay@talkingtypecaptions.com