This said, it should be noted that this is not the subtitlers’ choice, it’s the policy of the organization. They have specific guidelines.
As for the condensation and omissions, they also have a rule about how many characters per sub. Which relies on old-fashioned data about the speed with which viewers can read subtitles. More recent studies have raised the number of characters one can read in one second. Maybe the newer generations of viewers have become more accustumed to foreign content and subtitles, so this may be a factor too.
As for the subtitle length, maybe there should be a differentiation between TV content and streaming digital content. The former you cannot rewind, so the sub makers have to err on the side of caution, whereas on streaming platforms as Viki viewers have the luxury of being able to go back if they didn’t get something.
comparisons? I discovered NF has a different sub beside Viki, and for people for doing the voice subs, I noticed some sounded different, the other one is Prime time too, some their voices didnt match
I just finished binge watching “Arthdal Chronicles” on NFLX. I rather enjoyed Season 1 and I am now looking forward to Season 2.
As I was watching the last episode where Tanya gives the name “subjects” to refer to the people of the newly formed nation, I was thinking, if the show was on Viki and I were the subber, I would have added a Translator’s Note to give more depth to the scene.
백성 (baek-seong) does mean “the people”, “the commoners”, “the subjects” but it can also mean “hundred stars” in Hanja. I think this information would have given more depth to the scene. Tanya was thinking back to her conversation with her mother and also her own conversation with the village kids about how you can be anything, like the more than 100 stars in the sky.
I love so much your expertise in the korean language. Sadly, I don’t think we’ll be able to see Arthdal Chronicles here at RViki, and is really a shame that this site is denying us of that for whatever their reasons are for doing that (too expensive maybe?).
[Kingdom] has 3 awesome part series, and although is scary as hell, is definitely worth watching. I admire such a great story of zombies in the Joseon Era? Hope you watch if you are not squeamish bc it does has scenes that are hard to watch.
Arthdal and Kingdom did an AWESOME job in the make-up and wardrobe Department respectively. Arthdal has a wardrobe choice that was so admirable, and Kingdom had a souch real make up done on the extras that it blew me away with fear of how real it looks.
I also like the mastery in special effects in ‘‘Memories of the Alhambra.’’ Hope you check it out.
I forgot to mention that I was FURIOUS beyond words on how badly ARTHDAL series on Netflix was translated from K/E bc they used too many informal speech, modern day words, and even slangs/sayings that didn’t belong in that Era. I did send a feedback, and they changed the subber so it got a little bit better. I’m going to see if they fixed the subs bc that really bothered me, but I completely forgot about it.
I usually don’t like to watch kdramas on NF and I’m not a fan of their subbs. I watched my first kdrama on NF, it was my first contact with korean culture and it made me really confused with the language and the names because they use the first name and I couldn’t hear them saying the name. I kept thinking “How is the pronunciation of this name that I simply can’t hear ir?”.
Sometimes it creates some inconsistencies, for example, in Romance is a bonus book, the FL is a single mom who just divorced, is broken and trying to get a job after a lot of years being a housewife. During those years everyone called her, unnie, omma, jagiya… but never by her name. When she gets a job and a business card she says to the ML that she is really happy because there are people who are calling her by her name and this moment is really beautiful and important to her and I just didn’t understand it because in the subtitles everyone was calling her by her name all the time. I just understood this after a second view recently.
Moreover, as a segmenter the flashy subtitles really bothers me.
I agree that there are a lot of inconsistencies with how they sub names and how people address each other. Like you said, sometimes they use the person’s actual name when the person speaking to them is using other means to address them, or sometimes they put the surname first as they do in Korea, but sometimes they format names in the western style of surname last. It’s never the same from one drama to the next.
I have noticed they don’t put a lot of effort on Asian drama’s subtitles, but I mainly blame the one that is doing the translation, in other words, the subber. If they know the Korean language and culture; why they don’t do what is suppose to be done right when they are subbing an Asian drama/movie etc?
I have noticed SK dramas/movies have the worst translations compared to dramas from other countries. I consider the Japanese subtitles to be very close in their translation, and even the Chinese dramas, too. So this issue with Korean dramas/movies has become very disconcerting to me, and I keep sending feedback messages when I’m able (On Netflix).
It’s funny because I’ve noticed what you mentioned here about that drama in regards to calling her name and all that, but I knew why it sounded wrong all along since Netflix don’t use unnie or ajuma etc. since those have no translation from Korean to English; so they avoid using them and always use the full character’s name. In the case of that story plot in the drama it didn’t work out well because they always used her name from the start so it made no sense when she said that line.lol
I have never noticed any problems with the segments on NTFX, and I call them jumps ‘‘hiccups’’ (the fast, sudden jump in the screen out of the blue). I only see segments issues when I watch RViki on my TV using the viki application, but in that case; I only blame RViki.
I HONESTLY have no preference between Netflix or Viki subs since I feel they both have many issues that need improvement, but I’m guessing both streams service don’t feel that is so important to work more on that so viewers have better quality subtitles.
That one really stands out in all the mistakes that I could see because it isn’t something that would be better done in other way, it is something that just didn’t make sense at all and it is frustrating that a professional did this.
I’ve noticed quite a lot of them, including timing issues. I think it is easier for me to see them because I use larger letters and a black box as a backgroung for the subbs (my eyes are bad) so when there is a gap a giant black box flashes on the screen. Or maybe it is just because we watch different shows.
I think one huge factor here is that most volunteers are drama fans who want everyone to have as much fun as they have while watching. We keep thinking about whether WE would like the same subs, or how we would like our subs to be. In the case of the drama example @lari_sferreira42_336 gave, I(and most volunteers I know) wouldn’t have been able to sleep peacefully at night without it bothering me “It makes no sense! It takes all the fun out of the drama!” would keep drumming around in my head. For someone who is doing it just for the pay, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. The show has been translated. Thats it.
To be fair, I think most Kor-Eng translators who are truly bilingual or know enough of Korean culture, regardless of which streaming site they are working at, would prefer to use “Oppa”, “Unnie”, “Noona”, “Ajumma”, etc. instead of proper names. However, it is not up to the translators. I believe it is NX’s policy to use proper names in lieu of these honorifics. Even here at Viki, subbing rules differ based on the CE’s preference.
I am not sure what the English subber or German subber wrote but 남궁 (Namgoong) is the surname and 찬 (Chan) the given name. It is unusual to have two character Korean surname but Namgoong is one of the more well known ones. Namgoong Min is one of my favorite actors.
This may be true, because when they talk about the boy, they only say “Chan”.
And the cast at Wikipedia lists Namkoong Yi-hwan as the father.
My bad, I should have look it up.
But for the names vs. titles thing, it’s the same as always throughout the series.
When it comes to honorifics such as “Oppa”, “Noona”, “Hyung”, etc., I think it is sometimes just as bad to use the English equivalent such as “Brother” or “Sister”. Those viewers who are not yet familiar with the terms may at first wonder why there are so many incestuous relationships in K-dramas. Also, use of the proper names instead of the honorifics somewhat disregards the hierarchies of various relationships, which Koreans are rather strict about.
choitrio Those viewers who are not yet familiar with the terms may at first wonder why there are so many incestuous relationships in K-drama
I’m so glad you mentioned this here because I was one of those people that was sick to my stomach when I first started watching Korean dramas (2012), and I thought there was an incestuos relationship in the Korean dramas.
Thank goodness that when I came to viki to watch dramas, I learned/realized they were not half bro/sister or Biologically related. It took me a while to catch up on those things. I loved when they started explaining the meaning of honorifics; like oppa they used that one for brother and boyfriend (but honestly I don’t like when girls call oppa their brothers and boyfriend too), Why they don’t have another name for boyfriend? or another name for brother instead of Oppa for both. Confusing as hell to me bc when I hear a girl saying oppa from the get go I can’t tell at that moment, if he’s the bro/boyfriend.
this is so funny. Glad we have almost the same thing here, so I never felt weird lol. It always tickles me to see people in the comments freak out asking “Wait I thought he was her BROTHER?!” The relationship is usually pretty clear depending on the body language, but I understand that people would have a hard time with it. And translating it to “Sister” either makes it incestuous or sound like the character is a nun.
“It makes no sense! It takes all the fun out of the drama!” would keep drumming around in my head. For someone who is doing it just for the pay, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. The show has been translated. Thats it.
The relationship is usually pretty clear depending on the body language, but I understand that people would have a hard time with it. And translating it to “Sister” either makes it incestuous or sound like the character is a nun.