Are you being honest in your advice to channel managers about moderators and translators in your language?!

There are tons of funny translations I encounter while editing. For example, in one show it said: “Are you nervous? I’m Ying Ying, I do not lack suitors.” ← Ying Ying is a pop star, so she referred to men adoring her/ being interested to be in a relationship with her. In German, one of the translations for suitors is a word for a man that buys sex from women. They used it instead of the correct word, so the singer turned into a sex worker.
In another example, “being related” was translated into “related by blood”, so the lover of the protagonist suddenly turned into his relative by translation.
Or “He asked me to straighten up his daughter who just broke up.” was translated into “He asked me to straighten up his daughter who just broke down.” :sweat_smile:
Anyway, what irritates me most as a viewer is weird grammar. Really weird grammar. If the grammar/orthography is rather bad, I tend to turn off a series within 5 minutes or switch to English. E.g. there was this KDrama where I pm’ed the Moderator for the first time and asked to fix repetitive sentences such as
“Ich habe dich auf dem Telefon über das Gehen zum Klub mit deinem Freund gehört”.
I think they meant smt like
“Ich habe gehört, dass du am Telefon darüber gesprochen hast, mit deinem Freund einen Club zu besuchen” or
“Ich habe gehört, dass du mit deinem Freund am Telefon darüber gesprochen hast, einen Club zu besuchen.”

Whatever. But not this. It’s like “I have you on the telephone about going to club with your friend heard”. Just as horrible. :disappointed_relieved: And I think I had a similar experience when I watched another popular drama here on Viki. Later on it was edited though according to my knowledge.

Lately, I’ve reported someone for translating in a language they obviously didn’t know (and Viki removed them after we collected some evidence). However, that person returned and just continued under the very same name with partly the same projects in another language (I’m unable to verify since I don’t know it). Still, such person runs around again now claiming they can translate into Portuguese, Dutch, Catalan, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish… Of course.

In a different case, I’m doubtful that the translator understands German or English very well (it’s difficult to determine, but they simply don’t seem to understand some things) and they became very unreliable (meeting one out of 5 deadlines in various cases without explanation, no improvement, nothing). Instead, the person started taking a bunch of moderator projects (and did nothing in one of them for a while). Maybe no one was surprised why they got removed from 7-8 series, but as a CM I’d probably be surprised.

Just like I’d wonder if a part of the English team will be able to meet the requirements if they take up tons of projects. I’m aware that some of those manage fine with 10 projects, but others don’t. If the edit of one episode takes me 14 days, I’m not in a position to take up another project. If I’m as a OL moderator are unable to manage all projects I’m assigned to at once, I’m unable to meet the requirements.

And I will avoid accepting projects where 2 episodes per month get released in the future. By all means, I’m aware that there’s not enough people for this and that everyone hopefully wants to do a good job - but everyone should still know their own limits.

Of course anyone could commit mistakes, just like I think about how I can improve my own shortcomings as well (for example by providing an even more detailed spreadsheet, earlier edit etc.). There’s a lot to do.

Someone in 2019 elaborated here about people being manipulative. In fact, I thought about my position as a newbie moderator when I worked on my profile. I wondered how I can show that I’m determined and reliable, that I do a good job, though I only did a few projects previously. :thinking: Usually, I don’t just submit a one-line-application either. I don’t like to read those either. Still, I’m aware that people rather value built-up trust and experience. Viki is similar to working with Japanese firms. It’s about long-established bonds, pleasant conversations and reliability.

Nowadays, there’re even less of those I guess, except for a bunch of single subtitlers. One project without a schedule now turns out to be only half-finished after 5-6 months, and only one person still feels obliged to continue. It’s similar with editing. Without a deadline, it’s pushed back all the time and there’s a delay. I suppose, it’s the same with those unscheduled projects.

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