 This video is meant specifically for Vivienne Medrano, the creator of Hasn't been Hotel, and for the rest of her team working on the second season. Although everyone else is welcome to watch it too, of course. Vivienne, thank you so much for creating Hasn't been Hotel. I love your work so much, and now I want all my friends to watch it, because when you love something, you want to share it. But of course you already knew this, you created these characters, you love them, and that's why you want to share their stories with as many people as possible. But of course, people speak many different languages, and for this reason, to share your stories, you often have to translate them. And this is where I would like to offer my help. You see, I'm Mexican, my native language is Spanish, but when I was in high school, I learned English by watching friends and Dr. Hu, and ever since I've been in love with languages and translations. In fact, I have many videos where I deciphered a main language from Magic the Gathering. In fact, that's the language in this shirt. Here it says Phyrexian language, I made this shirt. But more relevantly, in my TikTok account, you can find many videos where I translate songs from Spanish into English, from English into Spanish, and one time from Germany into Spanish. That was the ode to joy. But if you check these translations, you'll notice that I always try to accomplish two things. Staying as close as humanly possible to the meaning of the original song, and staying within the meter of the song. Okay, so let me show you what I mean. This is the beginning of Tom's Diner by Susana Vega. I know you don't speak Spanish, but if I did things right, you were able to recognize this song merely by the rhythm. And if you check my translation, you'll notice that it is nearly identical in meaning to the original song. And do I think that this was just luck, that he just translated the song and it just happens to fit? But no, it was really hard to get it right. The point here is that I have some experience translating songs. And even though the Spanish versions for Hasn't Hotel were excellent, I did notice a few things that could have been improved. And so I am making this video in the hopes that it will be helpful for you and your team so that the translations for Season 2 will be even better. There are 16 songs in the first season of Hasn't Hotel. And if I'm being honest, part of me wants to analyze their translations line by line. But I respect your time Vivienne, so I'm not gonna do that. Instead, I'm gonna boil down all my thoughts into just three tips. Number one, each translation team should be in contact with the other teams, and they should all consult each other's work. I was really enjoying the Spanish version of A Happy Day in Hell until this point in the song when Charlie says, Por que puedo salvarlos del genocidio del cielo. This is the literal translation of what she says in the English version. But the problem here is that it doesn't really fit the mirror of the song. Take a listen. The singer did her best to try to rush and make it fit, but it didn't really work, because it can't work like that. However, this was the version for American Spanish. And I mean American as in the continent, not the United States. I know it would be more standard to call it Latin American Spanish, but what's the difference? Anyway, the point is that in the version for European Spanish, Charlie says, Por que del genocidio los puedo yo librar. This is also a literal translation of the same phrase in English. The only difference is that the words are shuffled around, because Spanish allows you to do that. Spanish has a freer word for than English. And by doing this, it actually does fit the mirror of the song pretty well. I am certain that if the team who did the version for American Spanish had seen this translation, they would have recognized that this line was a better fit, and they would have used it. But that didn't happen because they are not in contact. And the same is true for French. They also have American and European versions. And so they should be in contact, so that if one version does something better, the other version can improve. In fact, all the translation teams should be in contact with each other, not only the ones for Spanish and French, because they can all learn from each other. And this might seem really weird, like what could the Polish team possibly learn from the Japanese team, because their languages are so different. But you have to remember that languages are diverse and universal, just like music. And for this reason, I cannot tell you what they will learn when they compare their work with their colleagues, but I have no doubt that they will learn something, and their translations will be better for it. Number two, give them a list of key aspects of the song. Vivienne, for each song, you should make a list of key aspects that must be preserved in all the translations. And these can be things like phrases that will come back later, or maybe pieces of information that are relevant for the plot, or certain aspects of the character that must be conveyed, because there are a few instances where this is either entirely lost in the translation, or its impact is decreased from being a dagger in the back to being just like Pentius says that right. For example, A Happy Day in Hell is an amazing title for a 9-1 song, because by definition, hell cannot be happy. It is a contradiction, and so is Charlie. The whole point is that she is a contradiction, and this one phrase repeated throughout the song conveys this perfectly to the audience. So in a weird way, this is both an I-1 song and an I-am song. Try to say that three times quickly. Both in the version for European Spanish, they translated it as que este lugar se genera felicidad, which means this place will be filled with happiness, which just doesn't have the same impact, does it? I'm like, sure, by saying this place, she means hell, but why couldn't she say hell? Also, these singers say a shitty day in hell, which mirrors a happy day in hell, establishing a parallel between how singers feel and how Charlie feels. But in the European Spanish version, they just say, maybe I'll get fucked over again, which doesn't establish any kind of parallel. Well, as much as it pains me to admit it, the worst offender here is a version for American Spanish. Like, sure, they do a better job like 90% of the time, but when they make a mistake, it's a big one. For example, in more than anything, they changed completely the meaning of what Lucifer is saying. In the original, he talks about how he lost it all at one point, and now he's afraid to also lose his daughter whom he loves. But in this version, he talks about how amazing it was to fight for his dream, even if he lost in the end, which is a cool message, I guess, but it's not the message he should be saying. In Respectless, Velvet should end the song by asking Carmilla if she knows how the angel died. But in this version, she just says, you see that the angel is there, everything is against you. Which, she doesn't make sense. Like, one thing doesn't follow from the other one. And this one is particularly painful because the singer is slaying it. She's so good, especially when she says, De la guerra, con valor, de que es lo que usar más y no. She's really, really good. In fact, for me, this was the best version of the song, even better than the English one, up to this point. And this one mistake knocks it down because the song doesn't make sense anymore. Finally, when Alastor sings his solo in the last song, this version makes it seem that he is sad to have disappointed his friends. But of course, that's not right. That's not how he feels at that moment. I think that mistakes like this will be avoidable if you let the translators know what are the key points of each song so that they can anchor their translations around those things. Number three, have someone external validate all the translations. I'm not sure how this works inside Amazon Prime, but you need to hire external people to validate all these translations. Because whatever system they have in place for quality assurance, it's not working. Too many problems are sleeping past them. I've already mentioned a few of them and how they could be addressed, but this would be like an extra layer of protection, ensuring that nothing so far makes it into the recording booth. Here are some problems that I think could have been avoided by doing this. In A Happy Day in Hell, Charlie should say, I will get heaven behind my plan, but in this version she says, I will make heaven a better place. In Hell is Forever, when Adam says, when all said and done, this is translated as, and someone there is a minor. Yeah, I don't get it either. I don't know what happened there, but I know this would be easy to fix. In the reprise for More Than Anything, Baggy should say, you've already done so much, but instead she says, you can't do anything anymore. In Hell's Greatest Dad, when Lucifer says, whoa, this is missing, from both versions actually. In You Didn't Know, Charlie should say, You Didn't Know, but instead she says, it's horrible, which makes it seem like she's not surprised by this revelation, which again, lessens the impact a whole lot. Finally, I get the impression that you made the conscious decision to avoid using the word God at all, but sadly the translations do use the word God a few times, mostly as part of set expressions like, oh my God, or something like that, but if the original work made the effort to avoid using a certain word, then the translations should also do the same, and this would be super easy to check. There are many other things I noticed, but you get the idea. The point is that all of these mistakes are actually very easy to fix as long as you catch them on time, and so you should have someone whose job is precisely to catch them on time. And that's it. That's my advice, but before I go, I want to point out a few things the translators did really well. One of them is Poison. The version for American Spanish of this song is fucking incredible. It's better than the original one, especially when she says, como quieras cuando quieras, tantas veces como quieras, oh, it's so catchy and so painful. Also, in the finale, they translated after the battle, masterless cattle, as tras la batalla, vaca sin vaya, which is a nearly identical metaphor and even preserves the rhyme. Good job on that one. And in general, despite my criticism, I do believe that the translators of both versions did a really good job. And the singers and the voice actors and everyone, they all did a really good job. And I just hope that they make an even better job with the next season. Vivienne, if you're still watching, thank you so much for lending me this time and thanks to everyone else who stuck around for some reason.