Dealing with New Subbers

When I’m the moderator of a drama, usually I have a mixture of new and experienced subbers. For each project I write a “doc” with google doc and send the link to every member. This doc contains the rules, the cast with the correct names, some special expressions, how to adress and use formal and informal speech, the partition of the episodes. the deadline and the lyrics of the OST. The rules are a guideline, how to write subs, the do’s and don’t do’s. And we have a chat at kakaotalk, where we talk about the subtitles, where everyone can ask anything, where I announce the release of the new episodes. And I’m often the editor, too. When I find mistakes, which appear often, I point them out in the chat, but anonymously, I don’t mention names. If someone would not take account of the doc and the rules, I would talk to him/her directly and in private. I don’t think if you talk to the subbers polite and point out the mistakes, that someone would be crossed. But if, just in case, I would let them know, that they can leave the team anytime. The moderator is responsible for the good quality of the finished and edited subs, so he/she has to ensure, that the subbers work correct and in time, if neccessary, I jump in and help to finish the parts. But I never had to kick out a subber, the new subbers are usually very diligent and hardworking and “absorb” any kind of advice.

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Very organized way of moderating. Wish all moderators were like that.

I agree that each individual language team needs additional rules that don’t necessarily apply to other languages. In English, we don’t deal with formal/informal speech as much as Spanish, for example. When I moderate in Spanish, my biggest issues are formal/informal speech and accents. I’m a bit strict with accents, because it may change the meaning of a sentence. I have found subbers who don’t follow grammatical rules and accent rules in Spanish and that adds a lot of work for the editors.

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It’s the same in Italian and Greek, exactly. (and French, and Russian, and German…). The formal/informal is the worst nightmare.
I stretch my ears for -ya’s and -yo’s but they are not easy to spot. Given the fact that there are at least 7 levels of formality in Korean… I frequently pester Sophie and other Koreans to tell me about those characters I’m not sure about.

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tip for all: Korean default is formal, at first meeting unless the person is rude.
formalities follow age for the most part.
If in professional setting, the formalities might never be dropped (e.g. between Bong Seon Hwa and Jeong Jin). Yes they had kissed (broke irmar’s rule right there).

It is also a balance betweeen that and what makes sense in target language. Someone said in German you never talk to your father in law formally.

In Korean you never ever ever ever use “you” unless all formalities are dropped. For the sake of the English we put you. Also superiors who are family and teachers refer to themselves in 3rd person (Dad thinks… Mom thinks… Teacher thinks…Grandpa thinks… Aunt thinks…Oppa thinks (yes in the lover sense) and the older brother sense too)

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I do know about the general rule. But there are so many variables!!!

I just made another thread about this, because nobody is going to look for it here.

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In Germany normally the father/mother-in-law talks with his/her new son/daughter-in-law and officially allows them to talk informal. I had a six years relationship with my husband and only after the marriage, they allowed me to speak informal. It depends on the level of affection afterwards, how to adress them. Some say Mom and Dad and Daughter/Son, some use the given name, some say Mother-in-law…My grandmother was born in 1896 and she had to adress her grandfather formally. This is a joke between my children, who often adress my mother just for fun as “Frau Omi” which means Mrs. Grannie. :slight_smile:

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Thank you :slight_smile:

And yes, one of the biggest issues is the formal/informal speech. And that the subbers should use the german structure of sentence and comma placement. You don’t use a comma after the prepositions and conjunctions at the beginning of a sentence, but so many subbers use them. :slight_smile:

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