Annoying subtitles that bothers Me/Myself and I/ to see them here at this site

General Discussion
249

@choitrio

No honey I have no hope whatsoever to learn Korean. Much less after seeing that…

차려 also has multiple meanings depending on the context.

If I had the ‘‘youth’’ and ‘‘brains’’ I had back then, I’d say I had a chance, but those brain cells are fried by an autoimmune disease called Lupus, and age doesn’t forgive. You know the saying: ‘‘La edad no perdona.’’

PS. Finish the interview with your daughter in the other thread…please! You left us all hanging. You are one amazing person, and I’m glad to have met you through here, although in person would have been so much better.

3 Likes
250

I think you’ll be able to understand a lot of context and meanings because you watch so many dramas… i didnt even know how to spell 정신 차려 but i knew what it meant because I’d seen so many kdrama characters say it… and singers sing it.

The one on my mind is Think of You by Taemin
“정신 차려, 바보야”
Really good song, btw :sweat_smile:

4 Likes
251

I got my hand slapped tonight in this thread already, lol.

4 Likes
252

Es verdad.

2 Likes
253

Even on NFLX they hav to keep the OL in mind cause even there they often use the english subtitles to translate. And not all of the translators are good with colloquialisims. Somtimes I have the feeling they know less than myself. :unamused:

3 Likes
254

even though we are aware of all those, we have to stick to some guidelines.

255

I love this song :heart_eyes:

3 Likes
256

Hi!
The simplified Chinese subtitle on ‘Go Go Squid!’ is out of sync in learn mode.
I’ve reported the issue several times and to several people who have worked on it. What else can I do to have it corrected?

3 Likes
257

@bl90scndr_486

I’m so sorry I can’t be of much help with that issue. I didn’t even know they still had the learn mode here. I can tell you to report it to the HELP CENTER, but I know that’s just wasted time since no one answers or resolves problems/issues in dramas like they used to do in the past. I’m really missing my dear old viki… Good Luck! I hope someone can help you with this issue.

1 Like
258

Hi! I’ve just checked the first episode and the C simplified subtitles look fine and in sync. However, I could not activate Learn Mode. It’s unavailable for this drama, at least for now and for me. Were you able to activate Learn Mode?

What you can do:

  1. Send a group message to the CM, CE, English and Chinese moderators.
  2. Open a ticket at the Help Center and they will look into it at some point in time.
    https://support.viki.com/hc/en-us

Good luck!:four_leaf_clover:

PS: @angelight313_168 It’s an OT (sorry about it) but I thought I’d respond as well.

3 Likes
259

@jadecloud88

Thank you so much! No, is not off topic at all. I was going to ask you before when I wrote the comment if you could help us with that issue, but I felt bad to impose of you, on your precious Sunday (well is Sunday still over here).

My Sunday is a painful one today since the flares are up today. All this packing is going to kill me. lol

The fact that he/she says they can see the Learn Mode baffles me bc I miss seeing those to learn Korean, Chinese, Japanese. They keep things I feel dont benefit much and remove the ones that can benefit the viewers so much more.

2 Likes
260

@choitrio @oriya

I just realized that we have no idea what the scene was all about since it was only mentioned ppl. seating at a table, and the conversation wasn’t even discussed except that @oriya was looking around for the coffee mentioned in the saying/subtitle. :rofl:

PS. I did learned something useful that in the Korean Language one word can mean so many other things depending on the scene playing. No wonder when I hear ‘‘I’m sorry’’ I get so confused when in the subtitle they don’t write ‘‘I’m sorry’’ and sometimes they write ‘‘it was my fault’’ or they write something totally different from the word ‘‘I’m sorry’’ They same goes with the word ‘‘it hurts’’ omg that word never gets the same meaning in the subtitles :rofl:.

1 Like
261

I can activate learn mode. Help Center got back to me:
"We’re really sorry to hear this and we appreciate you for highlighting this issue around the Learn Mode feature.

The team has been made aware of this, along with other known issues of Learn Mode. We are, however, unable to provide an estimated date for a fix as there are other issues that the team is currently prioritizing. Rest assured that this remains an important issue we will address in the future.

With any updates or changes around Learn Mode, we will definitely keep you informed.

We appreciate your understanding in this matter. Meanwhile, please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with today."

2 Likes
262

The subs that really annoy me are of this type:
“I will go recently.” (eternal champion, always comes up, in every single episode)
“The river left” (they translate the name of the hero, even in modern day dramas)

Some subtitles are clearly google-translated with no editing at all.

However, many times it makes sense to translate in a different way, because it makes more sense in the target language. I’m not talking about grammar mistakes or blatant mistranslations, just idioms and expressions that, if you translate them “correctly” they will make the viewers laugh or need a couple of seconds to “get it”.

“One sec, please” (Give me one second, please) --> In Greek, I’ve never heard “1 second”. We usually say “half a minute, please”. So, what do I do here? I respect the “1 sec”?

When Learn Mode was introduced, I was happy but I soon realised it is unusable, either because the translations were too litteral or because the subber made personal choices based on morals and their views on idioms.

Cursing: it is not the translators’ choice. If the original has curses, I translate curses. I am tired of searching action dramas elsewhere, because on Viki the psycho serial killer curses “Fudge!” like a 5-year-old kid, because the subber wanted it.

Idioms: There are many ways to speak about things. I find it totally justified to use idioms that match the meaning of the original. A mourning relative may say the dead “passed away” but other people might use another expression “τα τίναξε”, “ψόφησε” (not sure how to translate them, I’d probably use things like ‘‘kicked the bucket’’)

When I watch dramas and movies, I expect three things from subtitles:
a) to be well-segmented and well-timed
b) to make sense in context, so I won’t have to hit the pause button a hundred times during the episode and use software to translate from the original language subs
c) decent spelling and grammar

I think this is true in every language and this is why subbers must not use machine-translating.

3 Likes
263

No, you can change it to “half a minute please.” Whatever is more comfortable to read in your language :smile: We usually try to remove as many idioms as possible for easy and efficient OL translating, and sometimes we have to change up the literal translation because it takes too much subtitle space.

Not always, especially when translating from source language to English. All the OL teams will be using the English translation and idioms complicate things. A commonly used idiom in the US may be unheard of in India. There’s a very wide range of people who used English subs. We either explain the source language idiom in a TN or change it into a simple sentence.

Everything isn’t supposed to be the subber’s choice. In the above case, it’s a misuse of what we were taught to do. This goes the opposite way, too. I’ve watched a lot of movies with unnecessarily harsh language…

3 Likes
264

That’s a very valid explanation and I understand that it must be possible for all teams to work and all audiences to enjoy. Translating the original to another language through english is already hard enough and every little thing we can do to help matters a lot.

However, as I am very harsh on my reviews of dramas/movies (not on viki, I mean my opinion of dramas when I speak to my friends), I criticise the scenarios a lot. Sometimes there are word plays or insinuations or slips of the tongue or character traits that are especially valuable for the plot and they are literally lost in translation. I am confused, I think that they don’t exist and I say “what a lame writer!” or “what a lame dialogue line!” or “such a horrible explanation of the storyline!”. It is not funny when I realize that the scenario and the dialogues were, in fact, excellent and that I had no idea.

3 Likes
265

Well, since this is a volunteer community, we cant always have terrific subs… but I’ve seen quite a few shows with wonderful subbers who tried their best to let the viewers get the whole fun experience of the show. It takes meticulous editing and lots of effort to keep as much of the original fun as possible, and I respect all those who try to do that. I also try to do that as much as possible.

4 Likes
266

I agree that, although time consuming and difficult for the translators, explanations of wordplays can really enhance a viewer’s enjoyment. When you have spare time, I invite you to visit the “Word Play in K-dramas” thread.

3 Likes
267

@christina_

Speaking and writing is a whole two different things, and when we write as a subtitle ‘‘Kick the Bucket’’ we are really using an idiom/slang that personally has this common meaning to me; when a person choose to commit suicide, and not when they die of natural causes, and that is why I felt it wasn’t appropriate when they used it in a subtitle where a respectful Korean elderly lady had died.

[Where does the idiom ‘‘Kicked the Bucket’’ comes from?]
The term is known to date from at least the 16th century. The more interesting and probably apocryphal/ euphemism origin relates to suicides relating to individuals who would stand on a large bucket with noose around the neck and, at the moment of their choosing, would ‘‘kick away the bucket.’’

I understand that in the Greek or in the many other language of the world ‘‘kicked the bucket’’ might be a way of saying that a person died, but to me, myself and I, I feel that is a very insensitive way of saying a person has died, and I find it so hard to believe that it would be a common way to say for example that a mother or father, any loved one we have in our life has ‘‘kicked the Bucket’’ instead of saying ‘‘my mother passed away’’ or ‘’ my father died’’ etc.

christina_
I think this is true in every language and this is why subbers must not use machine-translating.

I agree 100% that people/subbers should not use machine translating tools, but in here and many other stream services (NTFX) they do it because they might not be too proficient in the English language, and they need to use it. I don’t have any problem in people using any translating tool as long as #1 They don’t use the whole sentence given by the tool translator. #2 They HAVE to do their research, and work to make the sentence better not PERFECT, but better. It will take more effort but in the end, they will be giving a more quality subtitle.

I’m not annoyed at the person/subber for using ANY translation tool, as much as I am annoyed that these subbers/translators/editors; don’t put any effort in giving a better quality work when writing their subtitle by taking the time to do a bit more research work, and use the many other sources available to us: like the Thesaurus, Dictionaries etc.

‘‘They could do better, if only they would try.’’

1 Like
268

That’s great! Thanks for sharing the feedback from Viki.