If it doesn’t say which drama it’s from, I think that only the “culprit” will identify it, but not many others - unless it’s an “iconic” scene with very well-known actors.
Because… many people here don’t really watch much outside Viki. I watch wherever I find what I’m looking for, and if there’s a choice, I prefer Viki, but if Viki doesn’t have it, I watch elsewhere. However, I know many people who are hesitant to do that because they don’t know how to navigate those waters, for fear of sharks.
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I saw manganese’s comment earlier and understood his concern about Viki titlers, who are not necessarily commissioned, but this is a Netflix drama and it is fair to take issue sometimes on a commercial drama where one is paying a full subscription.
As it is, this is not what I’d call a subtitling fail. It’s a commonplace across all Nfix dramas and in all likelihood ‘translate signage’ will be an instruction in the ‘style guide’ that is sent to translators.
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Yes, with the prefix con- which means “with” (the final N gets absorbed in compound words). So = to speak with someone.
“Colloquio” is a very common word in Italian, and it’s used for any private, slightly more informal, meeting/conversation: including discussion between heads of political parties, job interviews, informal oral examinations in university (that have more of a dialogue format rather than a question-answer format), even parent-teacher meetings.
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Oh, wow, that’s really surprising actually. You usually hear translators having problems with not being allowed to translate swear words and having to find a replacement that’s considered “polite” rather than the other way around. Thanks for the link. I’ll check out the thread, because now it’s really piqued my curiosity.
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Oh, I can only imagine. I’d say interpreters are the topmost level of the translating career. Our professor used to be an interpreter as well and she’d always tell us all kinds of stories about unexpected things that might happen when you’re on the job. Since you’re doing it in real-time, you don’t really have the luxury of sifting through dictionaries while on the job and have to do all your preparation beforehand, which is also somewhat guess-work really because you can’t know for sure what the people there might end up saying and if you’ve covered all the terms you need. You really have to have laser-focus and nerves of steel for that job. Just translating really technical stuff tends to be a lot of work, let alone having to do it at the very same moment that the original piece of language is produced. Interpreters are a whole a different breed and I applaud them. But on the bright side, with translation and interpretation work like that you do end up with a bunch of extra knowledge on various topics, because it definitely forces you to do a lot of pretty in-depth research as you prepare.
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What you say would be certainly true for Western content. But Asian content is pretty tame in comparison (again, the TV content).
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To be honest, I actually really like that. I don’t mean to generalize when it comes to Western content, but I have noticed that in certain instances they do tend to go overboard with the swear words. I don’t mind them, per say, but also the plot can easily go on without that much swearing and as viewers we do get the point. Plus, coming from a country where translators who translate for TV aren’t really allowed to use the crudest variety for certain words even if they’re the correct translations and have to opt for something tamer, I have to say it would certainly make it easier on them. Hahaha! But I’m just really surprised that some of the English subs for Asian content are using swear words where there aren’t any or making certain things sound more crude where there isn’t a need for it.
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I think this might perhaps be due to a rule at Netflix where they must translate everything on the screen. Honestly, I’ve heard of a bunch of stuff like this happening due to certain rules or barriers. For example, the sentence structure in my language, in certain instances, tends to be slightly longer in English. We heavily use prepositions, so noun phrases in English like, let’s say, “Information packet” have to be “Packet for information” when translated into my language. Sometimes this tends to cause a problem for commercial translators, because in certain cases the segments provided to them are shorter and they’re not allowed by the company to do their own segmenting or there just isn’t room for a longer segment. In cases like this, the translation can end up being something like “Packet” just to be shorter or something that’s strange-sounding if they really tried to keep all the accuracy of the statement. I’m assuming this, too, might have to do with a company-wide rule. But I do understand the frustration as a viewer, because it can take away your attention from the subtitles you actually do need and it can even cut them down just so this unimportant name fits on the screen.
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I think it’s more like “you’re killing it” vibe.
I’m an OL translator and I wouldn’t have any trouble translating it, but I don’t think it’s the right word to use.
It is mostly used by people of colour and/or lgbt+ people (I’m with the second group so that’s why I know that). It’s getting more and more popular, but I wouldn’t say that it’s a “mainstream” word and I don’t think it should be used in a kdrama as a substitute for “wow” if the situation doesn’t suggest any involvement of the mentioned groups XD
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Isn’t that just called a “coffee maker” in English?
In Dutch, we call it a “koffiezetapparaat.”
In my translation classes (which were mostly about translating from Finnish and Swedish to Dutch and vice versa and not specifically directed toward subtitles), we used to learn to find swear words in the target language that were just as rude or polite as those used in the source language. Not literal translations, just something with approximately the same level of shock (or lack of it).
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You would think, but sadly, no. We use those too for filter coffee, but we make a different kind of coffee in this particular one. Although, I am sure someone in that class definitely called it a coffee maker or a coffee pot for lack of a better word. It’s funny, because the word itself is a loanword from Turkish from way back when, but now it’s domesticated itself (It makes sense since we use it to make what we call “Turkish coffee”). Hahaha! I believe in Turkish it’s called “cezve”, while we write it as “ѓезве” (pronounced “gyezveh”). I think my team eventually ended up translating it as “kettle” or “pot” or something like that with a translator’s note, because there was really nothing else that we could come up with to come close to the actual word as the novice translators that we were back then.
Also, you’re absolutely right about the swear words. We were taught the same thing. However, a lot of the TV stations in my country won’t allow crude words or swear words in their subtitles (you can get away with some of the light ones that are kind of on the border, but not the ones that are considered to be “the big ones”), so in those situations the translators have to opt for something lighter. It’s actually a running joke at this point between translators and people who deal with translations, because there’s this one phrase that’s considered light and basically universal at this point because a lot of swearing phrases get replaced with that one on TV. It literally translates to “go with the devils” and it’s always just a little bit funny to see it in subtitles, because you’ll almost never hear it in real life, but turn on anything on TV with swearing and it has to make an appearance. You hear some guy just yell out this string of the crudest curse words you’ve ever heard in your life and the subs say this relatively innocent phrase and you just have to laugh. Hahaha!
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I think that, when Viki subbers and seggers are not being harassed by Viki on the one hand and fans/subscribers on the other, the end result for all of Viki’s “Asianese” dramas is subtle, respectful, and organic.
There have been several Netflix dramas of the “Asianese” sort that I have enjoyed a lot, but I’ve spent a lot of time squirming and fuming because clearly a single subber with excellent English (who’s under a lot of pressure to produce results) ends up mapping that subject-verb-object language onto the structure of the Korean language. As a result, at times what characters end up saying makes more or less sense in English, but it’s not seamless and idiomatic.
There are moments, however, when I want to slightly bite my hand off while watching dramas on Viki. For instance, is THIS at all fixable: A League of Nobleman . . . ?
Is there a typo, or is it the English translation Tencent Video decided on?
I ran the Chinese characters through DeepL, somewhat better than Google Translate, and I got:
- Gentlemen’s League
- Gentleman’s Alliance
- Gentleman’s League
When I did the same to the AKA title, Society of Four Leaves (which I really like, the literal translation turned out to be: The Case of Zhang Gong.
I really do not understand what has happened with this C-drama’s title. I’ve watched a bit of it, and I like it, but the English-language title is plainly . . . what’s that word?
Wrong.
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The CM could ask Viki to correct it.
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Yes, like in Italy, when we make coffee at home we use something that we call “moka” in Italian. Or “macchinetta del caffè” (little coffee machine). How do you translate this in English to convey that someone uses exactly this thing and not a filter coffeemaker or any other style?
If you’re curious about how this is used, here are the instructions:
You fill the lower part with water, the holey filter with coffee, then you screw the upper part. As the water boils, it will pass through the coffee and come up into the upper part from the funnel with the holes. When the upper part stops squirting coffee, it’s ready.
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I think we call that a “percolator.”
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Yes and no. I looked it up and, wonder of wonders, in this Wikipedia article, I found the one, they call it a “moka pot”.
Quote:
Moka brewing (invented 1933, Alfonso Bialetti[9]) uses a bed of coffee grounds placed in a filter basket between a pressure chamber and receptacle. Vapor pressure above the water heated in the pressure chamber forces the water through the grounds, past the filter, and into the receptacle. The amount of vapor pressure that builds up, and the temperature reached, are dependent on the grind and packing (“tamping”) of the grounds. This is distinct from percolator brewing in that pressure, rather than gravity, moves the water through the grounds; that the water is not recycled through the grounds; and that the water does not have to be boiled to reach the brew chamber. In the South of Europe, in countries like Italy or Spain, the domestic use of the moka expanded quickly and completely substituted the percolator by the end of the 1930s.
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Something else that tickles me, is when a sign is in English, but they still put up a translation in English for it. I never quite understand why that happens?
But one thing I do love about Viki translators is when they will put an asterisk when a word or phrase can have a couple of meanings and explain what they are. For example, I have just taken a break from “Brain Works” to reply to this thread and one of the characters was having an awkward moment with his daughter and told her to “tell him” what was wrong and she replied “words” - which would have had me scratching my head, but it was pointed out underneath that “tell me” can be translated as “say words”, meaning I got the joke 
Something the likes of Netflix don’t ever do as far as I’m aware.
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It’s because Viki’s subs begin with English. The English subs are then used by translators in other languages to translate them. Subs are contained within segments and the segment is set-up by the English editing team for other languages to use.
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This is exactly what came to mind when @annabanana128 explained what she meant. My Italian flatmate in Helsinki had brought one with her from home. I didn’t remember the name, though.
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Hmm, interesting. I guess it would depend on the kind of text and how important it is for the reader/viewer to know the exact kind of pot. If it is important, for example if it’s a guide on how to make that particular coffee like what our professor gave us back then, I would probably go with “moka pot” and then add a translator’s note if I felt that the term in that particular context would cause confusion. However, if it was an off-hand comment a character in a novel or drama said and it was just important that they made coffee with no significance as to how and with what exactly, I’d probably just go with “coffee pot” or “coffee maker” just to make it easier for the reader/viewer to understand and to help with the flow of the text.
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