I have just finished a voice-over gig in Mandarin (普通话), Cantonese (粤语 / 广东话), Teochew (潮语 /潮州话) and Hokkien (Minnan, 闽南语) to dub over a government video that is in English.
Note: Cantonese , Teochew and Hokkien are Chinese regional languages, but are erroneously translated into and referred to by Westerners as 'dialects'. There are commonalities among the languages, but they are not variants of Mandarin, the national common language in China. The written characters however were standardised 2,000 years ago in China by the 1st Emperor of Han China Shih Huang Di (18 February 259 BC – 10 September 210 BC).
Southern Chinese languages are hardly spoken in Singapore nowadays following the Speak Mandarin Campaign in 1978. Instead, a confusing cocktail of Mandarin and English, spiced with Chinese regional languages and Malay is spoken in a single dialogue.
Therefore VO gigs in Chinese regional languages are messy, as we often have to sort out what is authentic and what is commonly spoken, but borrowed from Malay.
Here are some examples:
'Clever' in localised Cantonese is 'panlai', which is borrowed from the Malay word 'pandai'.
'To marry' in localised Hokkien is 'kowyin', which is borrowed from the Malay word 'kahwin'.
'Toilet' in localised Teochew is 'lianglang', which is borrowed from the Malay word 'jamban'.
'Lianglang' is almost always used and understood by all local Teochew speakers, as opposed to 'cesou' (厕所), so we use that in recording, since it is a public service announcement video where colloquialism is tolerated, rather than an academic video where accuracy is prime.
However, for other instances, it is important to stick to the original as far as possible.
Unfortunately for regional language VO gigs, scripts are often translated by young people who have a superficial understanding of the languages and do not speak the language in their day-to-day life. As such, they rely on online translators, which can yield hilariously wrong results, as Aritifical Intelligence (AI) in its current state still cannot pick up context and nuances properly.
As a result, my previous Hokkien VO took 11 grueling hours and I needed two days after that to recuperate and rest my vocal chords.
Thankfully, we did this one in 1 hr 45 mins, wrapping 15 mins early. Bravo!!!
ONLINE RESOURCES:
The following may help you to improve your knowledge of the regional languages, but for professional media translations, do consult a human language specialist.
Among the Chinese regional languages, only Cantonese has an online translator, though without audio output.
CANTONESE TRANSLATION RESOURCES ONLINE:
https://www.stars21.com/translator/english/cantonese/
https://tradukka.com/translate/yue
"Dreaming" is translated into "發夢" which is correct as opposed to "做梦" in Mandarin.
Curiously, the Cantonese 'discover dreams' (發夢), while Mandarin speakers 'make dreams' (做梦). Wonder why.
I also found a Cantonese online dictionary, but it is more complicated and less helpful when tested with the entry of "dreaming", as it gives a clutter of related texts. See http://www.cantonese.org
HOKKIEN TRANSLATION RESOURCES ONLINE:
There are also no online Hokkien translators online, but I found a useful dictionary instead, which yields satisfactory results. (http://niawdeleon.com/hokkien-dictionary/). The following is the result of translating the word 'dreaming':
There is also an online Penang Hokkien dictionary, but it could not translate the test input 'dreaming'.
TEOCHEW TRANSLATION RESOURCES ONLINE:
There are no online translators or dictionary online, but there is a mobile Teochew dictionary app WhatTCSay, that has audio outputs.
It could not translate my test input "dreaming".
But it does understand what is "dream".
I suspected that it did not understand verbs in continuous tense, but I was wrong, as it translated "eat" and "eating" correctly.
Cantonese:
The older ones will love this song from Cantopop star Sam Hui. You know who you are. :) It is about life's journey and destinies.
Hokkien:
This song encourages unceasing hardwork. It is so popular that it is even sung in corporate team building activities in Singapore.
Teochew:
This one is about a Teochew emigrant reminiscing about his hometown.
Sadly as the older generations die, so will the languages and the cultures, as there will be less and less in the younger generation that will have the proficiency in these Chinese regional languages.
Mandarin:
Lastly, this one is from Mandopop superstar JJ Lin, a proud Singapore son and one among the new Mandarin speaking generation.
I love working with Chinese regional languages as they remind me of my childhood and the multilingual environment in Singapore during the old days. I learned them before the age of six and therefore do not need preliminary translation from another language when spoken.
As a Teochew, it is easy for me to learn Hokkien, as they are from the same Min family of languages. I learned Cantonese (Yue language) from my neighbour which spoke the language though they are Hakkas.
I was gradually coming to grips with Hakka and Hainanese before, but lost them completely when I went to live overseas for many years. Now even my feeble abilities in French and German are probably better than my Hakka and Hainanese.
There are also the more obscure languages like Hockchiew and Heng Hua, which are Min languages, but are less intelligible to me. I suspect that some young Singaporeans today would not even know these languages exist, let alone understand or speak them.
I will post the dubbed videos later when they are released.
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