Going underground in Yerevan
So, I live near the Paregamoutiun area, up at the end of Baghramian. I go through that roundabout a great deal, and, quite often, I end up thinking that, en vor asoum a Hayastanoum mart chi mnatsel, togh me hat barehachi gal ayntegh...! (All those who think that EVERYONE has left Armenia should take the trouble of visiting there)
See, here's the irritating part: I have to get from Point A, say, where the "Yum Yum" used to be, to Point B, the "Hayastan" store. Now, crossing above ground is really downright dangerous and, for Heaven's sake, the underground crossing is there for a reason. The underground, unfortunately, has stores and the stores, even more unfortunately, have shoppers. Slow-moving ones. Very slow-moving. Painfully slow...
Okay, okay, so I'm being impatient. But a thought occurred to me the other day as I was crawling my way to Point B. Why don't we have walkers' lanes ? We have lanes on highways, with fast cars on one side, slower ones at the other end. Even supermarket check-out counters have express lanes. So why can't we have, like, a "swift walkers' path" or something ?
The worst part is when you're walking at a reasonable pace, and so's the chap in front of you, and then suddenly she decides to stop at that kiosk to have a look at something, and you end up crashing into her...! Or, even worse still, when you go under from Point B JUST as the Metro's commuters are making their way out...!!
Sigh...
Yet another in a series of seemingly-practical suggestions from me that are really just venting off misplaced anger... ;-)
Okay, next pet peeve: a certain television channel. I know I'm being nasty, but this television channel has great potential and, indeed, to be quite fair, it has a few good shows, but, on the whole, it's basically glamour, show biz and superficial nonsense. Their journalistic standards are ridiculously low... And then, they announce, they're going to show "Friends".
Well, well.
Dubbed. In Armenian.
!
Yes, sir, I thought to myself. If anything, this is the chance for the channel to redeem itself and, at the very least, spit onto the faces of all those idiot translators who make kids off the street of Sao Paulo sound like they went to the Armenian version of Oxford ("Yes chapazants zayratsadz em dzezanits." "Sriga!" "Bayts yev aynbes, miyevnuynn e, douk iravatsi chek!"). So, I await, in bated breath for the first episode and, being a "Friends" fan, my expectations are quite high. And...
Sigh...
Bad, folks. That's the verdict. Very, very BAD. I mean, Ross makes his first appearance, looking very sad, proclaiming that his ex-wife just took the last thing that belonged to her after she moved out, and Joey says, in English, "How could you not know that she was lesbian ?". The Armenian version, however, goes, "How come you didn't know she had a boyfriend ?".
Aaargh! I haven't seen any more episodes after that, I can tell you, but I'm pretty sure one or two people at that good ol' TV channel have their mouths open now, because this is an ESSENTIAL plot point in pretty much the rest of the nine seasons that follow this one...
Okay, okay, I'm exaggerating, as always, but allow me at least that much righteous indignation. Let me end with a nice Armenian Abarantsi joke: So, this Abarantsi goes to watch a comedy show, and takes a seat at the very last row. Inchou ? Vorov hedev na e tsitsaghoum, ov verchoum e tsitsaghoum. ;-)
See, here's the irritating part: I have to get from Point A, say, where the "Yum Yum" used to be, to Point B, the "Hayastan" store. Now, crossing above ground is really downright dangerous and, for Heaven's sake, the underground crossing is there for a reason. The underground, unfortunately, has stores and the stores, even more unfortunately, have shoppers. Slow-moving ones. Very slow-moving. Painfully slow...
Okay, okay, so I'm being impatient. But a thought occurred to me the other day as I was crawling my way to Point B. Why don't we have walkers' lanes ? We have lanes on highways, with fast cars on one side, slower ones at the other end. Even supermarket check-out counters have express lanes. So why can't we have, like, a "swift walkers' path" or something ?
The worst part is when you're walking at a reasonable pace, and so's the chap in front of you, and then suddenly she decides to stop at that kiosk to have a look at something, and you end up crashing into her...! Or, even worse still, when you go under from Point B JUST as the Metro's commuters are making their way out...!!
Sigh...
Yet another in a series of seemingly-practical suggestions from me that are really just venting off misplaced anger... ;-)
Okay, next pet peeve: a certain television channel. I know I'm being nasty, but this television channel has great potential and, indeed, to be quite fair, it has a few good shows, but, on the whole, it's basically glamour, show biz and superficial nonsense. Their journalistic standards are ridiculously low... And then, they announce, they're going to show "Friends".
Well, well.
Dubbed. In Armenian.
!
Yes, sir, I thought to myself. If anything, this is the chance for the channel to redeem itself and, at the very least, spit onto the faces of all those idiot translators who make kids off the street of Sao Paulo sound like they went to the Armenian version of Oxford ("Yes chapazants zayratsadz em dzezanits." "Sriga!" "Bayts yev aynbes, miyevnuynn e, douk iravatsi chek!"). So, I await, in bated breath for the first episode and, being a "Friends" fan, my expectations are quite high. And...
Sigh...
Bad, folks. That's the verdict. Very, very BAD. I mean, Ross makes his first appearance, looking very sad, proclaiming that his ex-wife just took the last thing that belonged to her after she moved out, and Joey says, in English, "How could you not know that she was lesbian ?". The Armenian version, however, goes, "How come you didn't know she had a boyfriend ?".
Aaargh! I haven't seen any more episodes after that, I can tell you, but I'm pretty sure one or two people at that good ol' TV channel have their mouths open now, because this is an ESSENTIAL plot point in pretty much the rest of the nine seasons that follow this one...
Okay, okay, I'm exaggerating, as always, but allow me at least that much righteous indignation. Let me end with a nice Armenian Abarantsi joke: So, this Abarantsi goes to watch a comedy show, and takes a seat at the very last row. Inchou ? Vorov hedev na e tsitsaghoum, ov verchoum e tsitsaghoum. ;-)
posted by Nareg at 4:46 PM
7 Comments:
Nareg.. That Baregamutiun area is just madness. I lived up there a a couple of summers ago and that roundabout thing is just unlike anything i've ever ever ever seen in the world before!! Birds eye pictures look hilarious. I am sure one day something will be done. It's a free for all, but an Armenian one, which kinda works!!
Walkers lanes- nice idea but...you well know that it just wouldnt work. Theyd probably end up with cafes in them.
Its strange you mentioned Friends..I was about to run my next blogrel post on how exciting things are getting at Armenia TV at the moment..I have it here in the UK and the trailers for all their new shows really do look impressive, at least in terms of set and sheer budget. It's good to see a bit of glamour in Armenian TV I think- I'm gona comment more on Blogrel..but im damn dissappointed if they've translated it badly...
It hasn't been shown on my Armenia tv yet...odd.
Dear Nareg,
this is one of the "friends" translators writing... i am not a blogger here, but i read the blogs from time to time... i seem to have the same feelings about Armenia that you guys do, although i'm not an repatriate.. i won't go into much detail, but this is how it happened: there were three of us translating, editing, checking double-checking friends scripts.. actually one of the translators was from L.A... native speaker... so, imagine, after all that hard work translating the scripts, they give our translation to a comedian (i won't give names), who DOESN'T KNOW ENGLISH, HAS NO IDEA OR WHATSOEVER ABOUT FRIENDS and ADDS JOKES INTO THE TRANSLATED ARMENIAN SCRIPT WITHOUT EITHER WATCHING THE MOVIE OR WORKING WITH THE TRANSLATORS TO MAKE SURE THAT HIS JOKES ARE MEANINGFUL... won't go into more details, but i'm a friends fan too, and seeing the results after all hard work... i can't tell you how much it hurts... so, be aware whom to curse.. translators are not guilty... i'm not the best translator in armenia, but that bullshit translation is not our work..
Well, well, well... I must say, I'm not surprised. Armenia TV has plenty of investment, cool equipment, etc., etc., but there doesn't seem to be much depth or thought into many things that it does.
Harmick, how are the English news broadcasts ? We can't see them here on antenna, so I'd like a Diasporan's perspective.
things will hopefully change sooner or later...
This is the typical Armenian knows best case. It really annoys me - why bother translating Friends when they are going to get someone to totally ruin the key points of the series.
What makes me angry is the terribly awful comedians that we have in Armenia today - and they are actually considered "geniuses". I wont mention names but I bought THE Armenian comedians DVD this year and it was terrible.
Nareg- I can honestly say I haven't seen one English news broadcast since i've had this channel.It's just mainly the same 5 Armeniain music videos and randomly played shows. It's really bad at the moment. At least H1 has a structure and a clearly defined remit.
First of all... LOVED ur Abarantsi joke. :) haha
Also, that sucks about Friends being "presented" (I won't say translated) horribly. I was looking forward to checking it out in a couple months...
And of course.. Paregamootyoon. You're totally right.. the underpass at Abovian/Goryun is somewhat similar, on a much smaller scale. Maybe a pedestrian bridge??? :)
Hi Guys, what channel is "Friends" on? I can only get H1 on satelite and haven't come accross it yet.
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