One of the real senior editors I’ve worked with says that the mods have a pretty good idea what to use?
She said she only notes it when the speech pattern is important. English team has gotten real good at placing the Mr. Misses, Pleases + selecting polite language to recreate the feeling.
But sometimes when something gets lost in translation (because English fail) I write it in TD. For example there are 5 types of you in Korean: objectification < non-Human < you (like the one in English) < formal (you) < superformal (you) (for grandparents, spouse, people you respect)
I note them and the timing when I sub because some languages like Spanish have vosotros, you superformal.
I just remembered the problem with these genderswap dramas, I am never quite sure if certain characters already know that the guy is a girl because I can’t yet understand if the Korean sentence is neutral or if they really said he/she 
Might just be me overthinking the English subs though 
OMG I hate Korean for this and because we work as a team we often make this mistake…
Korean doesn’t have an explicit subject or object at times so we’d have to hunt like 20-30 subtitles back to find them. Uh… we get lazy or sometimes we think it is a different subject because not everyone goes back 20-30 subtitles! It’s hella annoying!
Me and this other subtitler at least we like to stick to ambiguous pronouns because we lazy at times.
I think?? for the most part the subject once mentioned doesn’t switch until it is explicitly pointed out again. In Korean there is no neutered gender nor do objects have gender like in German.
There are also context clues that show you what the subject is. To the Korean speaker of all levels, these subjects and objects are clear again… if we are subbing and you didn’t sub or check several subs before you might get the subject wrong. I changed an i to a we before for example. This sort of thing is common.
I fully agree that even when knowing what’s going on in Korean we sometimes will have to ignore it. But it will be an informed decision, not one out of ignorance, but out of careful consideration of how faithful to be to the Korean culture or to what sounds natural to the viewers.
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I think the info about the formal/informal terms in Team Notes is a good approach, perhaps not 100%
but at least some support, for as me not understanding Korean, and I won’t probably be able to
hear the difference, this would be helpful.
As for the German close relationship informal usage this is true but I think in many dramas I worked with we try to preserve the cultural terms, meaning if a couple still uses informal then I would use that in German as well, because these are Korean/asian dramas not German and it just shows the cultural
aspect so I would stay true to it. Some Mods who understand a good portion of Korean actually put the formal/informal terms and at what time in googledocs which is really helpful!
I noticed that in Switzerland and Germany the adaptation of English/American “you” informal “du” has found its place in daily life like at workplace and among younger generation where it used to be the formal “Sie”.
As for the gender, now I understand when I see “he said” when it refers to a female, must be a mishap…for that reason.
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There is a post about how to listen to formality levels and recognize them. I thought I would link it here, maybe it is useful for someone
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Good topics like these always get buried. I had been searching for a formality guide of OLs.
Hindi has 4 + 1 (many treat super super formal and super formal equally) levels of politeness (can be 6 if we also include “gangster-language” which is the rudest).
The Super-Super Formal - आप हैं/आप कीजिएगा/आप जाइएगा
The Super Formal - आप हैं/आप कीजिए/आप जाइए
The Formal - आप हो/आप करो/आप जाओ
The Casual - तुम हो/तुम करो/तुम जाओ
The Informal - तू है/तू कर/तू जा
The rudest gangsta in town - (For this one, instead of “you”, “I” changes. Just like difference between “俺” and “私” in Japanese. However, unlike “ore”, normally people won’t use this form.) - अपुन
- The Super super formal/super formal is used between politicians, celebrities (on-screen), on debate shows and news channels. In real life, I use this one with complete strangers and when I want to be sarcastic.
- Formal is used by juniors for seniors, children for parents, wives to their husbands (older couples), acquaintances. I use this with my parents, neighbors, teachers, really young kids (2-6 yrs old) and alike
- Casual is used between new friends (more than acquaintances, less than good friends), by teachers to students, by seniors to juniors, by husbands to wives (older couples), lovers (when they just fall in love), older siblings to their younger siblings. Casual can be used in the same manner as informal but by people in 30s or 40s. I use this with my classmates I am not close with, not so close friends, teenagers, and my siblings
- Informal is used between best friends, young couples, older to younger sibling, when talking to yourself. It is used mostly by teens and people in their 20s. However, it isn’t uncommon to see elderly people using this form. This form is even used in patriotic songs and prayers. I use this with classmates, my siblings and with me.
- Rudest form would be great for loan sharks, criminals and gangsters.
When I was new, I faced severe backlash from my team for having used informal and received this statement as the reason, “We’ve never used this, and never saw anyone else using “tu”. So we won’t use it in this drama too.”
It was so uncomfortable to see teens talk like people in their 30s.
I second that.
Might sound weird, but there could be a virtual formality level to differentiate between several formality levels. A1 could mean politest form, A2 less polite than A1, B1 for casual, B2 for less casual than B1, similarly C1 and C2… However, implementation of this thought seems difficult.
For me, the general rule is seniors to juniors, parents to kids - informal
juniors to seniors, kids to parents, if the formality isn’t known - formal.
I have this extensive sheet for Imitation which contains the formality levels. Inspired by a Spanish sheet found in Team Discussions
Couldn’t agree more. Despite the fact, I can clearly see use of informal speech between characters, I sometimes have to use formal and vice versa. Or sometimes have to switch between formal and informal between same characters and switch it back after some time.
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Is this form grammatically correct?
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Thanks for bumping this topic! This is really important! 
Taking notes for when I get into leadership roles in the future 
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This is still a debatable topic. Many people in North India, still use आप हो/आप करो/आप जाओ (really common in movies, shows, songs). In Khadi Boli, both forms are correct, and is in popular use. However, Manak Hindi rejects this idea, marking आप as बहुचन। For Manak Hindi, आप हो would be grammatically incorrect, but Khadi Boli accepts this idea.
Search results for the same by Google:
However, despite knowing Manak Hindi marks this formality incorrect, I still use it in singular cases. If someone is talking with one person, I’d use आप हो/आप करो/आप जाओ. If someone is talking with more than one, I’d use आप हैं/आप कीजिए/आप जाइए.
After all, this is how languages evolve. If something is in popular use, it will, over time, become a rule.
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There are a lot of useful topics buried here. There’s one even on use of curse words.
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धन्यवाद, आप एक अच्छी शिक्षिका हैं|
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I use formal and informal based on who is talking. Mostly "aap- आप " and "tum- तुम " …"tu- तू " is used only when someone is rude. Whenever I see “bitch or wench”, I use "bad person - खराब " instead. For words like “jerk, bastard, punk, sob” etc, I use “बदमाश, गुंडे, कमीने, कुत्ते” . I am not sure if person is actually calling the other bastard or just something like jerk , because in Hindi bastard means not knowing who your father is.
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If you are referring to what sounds like “gae sekki-ya” (개새끼야! ), it means son of a dog. So nothing to do with your mother’s morals. It’s more of a generic insult, not always to be translated as bastard. Sometimes a more appropriate way would be the generic “jerk!”
And what sounds like “kicchibeh” means just “home girl”. At what point this became a derogatory term, I don’t know. Probably because in the olden days, you being a girl in itself put you in a lowly status. But it is not used only as an insult, you can hear girl friends saying that in an affectionate way, even mothers to daughters.
This was discussed in the thread quoted above by shraddhasing.
I have made a whole document on Korean insults and slang, it might help you to have a look. I have put in red the ones we encounter more often, so that you don’t have to go through everything.
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This doc is really informative! I always thought “개불” was the equivalent of “Bullsh*t” though… that’s what I’ve seen it being translated to 
The word you’re looking for is 개뿔with double B
combined word of 개 (dog) + 뿔 (horn). A dog doesn’t have horns, so…
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ohhh thanks for clarifying!^^
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I also thought “gaeshikiya” was SOB but for some reason, it has been usually translated into bastard so I just use equivalent word in Hindi like I said before. For girls, I use "chokri -छोकरी , ladki- लड़की , bcchi - बच्ची " – these are all equivalent to "Girl, Wench, Hey You…"etc. For boys, similarly "chokre -छोकरे , ladke -लड़के , bacche -बच्चे " etc .
I am sure in any old culture, being called Bastard is one of worst things.
Before in Hindi and Punjabi Cinema the worst anyone would call each other was “bastard, Sob / Prostitute” but now lot of movies have fbombs and worse. You cannot watch them with your parents!
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SOB is too harsh, it is one step further than gae sekkya.
I think in Arab “son of a dog” is an insult, but on the milder end of the scale. Parents even call their kids “ibn/bint kalb” when they’re mad at them, so it’s not too bad.
In English we also have “son of a gun”.
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SOB would be closest to “son of dog” in literal meaning but I get it that “gae-shikkiya”'s meaning is not that severe. In Hindi/Punjabi, their is curse word “saale”. It means wife’s brother and is used to address or to curse someone. I guess wife’s family was considered less than a man’s. I rather use that then using bastard anytime.
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