That’s brilliant! I never knew …
Thank you for the suggestion! 
I never knew such a feature existed so that’s useful! The episodes are already locked, but I’ll think about dropping the moderator or CM a message. I’m just so afraid of giving them more work to do though, since they’re already so busy!
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I never knew of the Bulk Translation feature! Thank you so much! It’s much easier to copy lines these way, so I’ll probably do that for the coming episodes since the previous episodes were already edited (and thus, cannot be compared). I can’t believe I failed to notice the “recent” in “recent contributions” (whatever went wrong with my eyes?!). I would have done this earlier if I had known. 
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I see…well, I really can’t tell if this happened when I subbed in the past years bc I never paid attention to that. Thankfully, you was able confirm that your subtitles were there in the show/drama you worked in, which is a good thing. I always do/did that, too. When I see/saw a change in my sub I don’t/didn’t agree with, I always contact the moderator/editor, and request an explanation. I just hope she does contact the moderator and get helped with retrieving her older subtitles (if that’s possible now bc with so many changes at this point I have no clue if that’s possible).
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It’s so good to see your keen interest to learn. This is an excellent way to learn what you may have done incorrectly, grammar-wise (post-Eng edits), or how it could have been translated better (post-TE). In fact, I believe this is the best way to learn and improve in both the source and target languages.
I think the least time-consuming way is to download the subtitles as soon as you are done, and download them again post-release to compare both sets. Another step further is to “copy-paste-compare” both sets of subtitles on a google sheet, in two columns.
Btw, I (and likely others) have suggested to Viki (several times) to enable an option to auto-send edited subtitles for contributors who opt in. I still believe this is the best way for every contributor to learn, or to alert (in a civil and respectful way, not to confront or disparage) any editor or moderator of any typo error or any edit that the original/previous contributor disagrees with. After all, we are here to help/learn from one another. Not to lord over or “boss” anyone around, regardless of seniority, whether in one’s role (in the team), or in years of one’s contribution, or in years of one’s age.
I can already see you improving in leaps and bounds in the near future. Way to go! 
Jia You! 
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You can ask the Editor to not lock the episode immediately, to leave it open for one day so that you can check.
But if you don’t want to ask that, or if you want to keep a record to revisit now and then, there is only one really good way. Saving your subs before and after, just as helenawang5717_57 suggested above. I’ll show you how.
Preparing a Google sheet for all your Viki projects
Of course, to create and save a Google sheet you have to have a Google account and a Google drive. You can use a sheet created by other people and saved in their own drives, if they enabled editing by whoever has the link, but it’s not yours and you can’t save it on your own drive online.
Create a new Google sheet from here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/
I am a moderator and I have one for each project because I don’t only have the subs but all the necessary info for the subbers (Status, character names, OST, terms etc.), but if you’re a subber, one Google sheet for all your projects, one page/tab for every project is plenty.
Rename each tab with the name of the drama (Right click the tab title and then choose “Rename”).
Inside each tab, make two columns for each episode number: one column is Original, the next is Edited.
In the “Original” will go your English before the editing, just after you did it and in the “Edited”, the English after the edits.
See here
The upper row, with the episode numbers, has two cells for each episode, which then I have merged into one, so that each episode has two columns below it. (To do this, you go to Format, choose “Merge cells” and then “Merge horizontally”).
You may also want to give different colour backgrounds to the original and the edited columns OR a different colour for each episode.
Just in case you’re not very comfortable making Google sheets, I’ve prepared one for you. Feel free to save a copy in your drive. I made the access public for anyone with the link, but I will delete it in a short while, after you tell me you’ve copied it.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Hy2jsyOI4noDnLpPc8jnDPuo-BEnERhWI1_ESLvxalI/edit?usp=sharing
It’s convenient, instead of preparing the tab for each drama afresh, to make copies of your first, nicely formatted tab, to have several ready for your next projects. To do this, right click on the tab and choose “Duplicate”. Do this several times.
This way all the work you did, merging, choosing font and writing episode numbers, maybe giving colours etc., is done only once, and not again and again with each new drama.
You may want to save this Google sheet on the Bookmarks bar of your browser, for easy access. Just as the Bookmark of the dramas you’re currently working on.
Preparation is over. The next steps are saving your subs, and it only takes a couple of minutes.
Saving your subs
Open a Notepad text document. You know, the simple little program that comes with Windows. That is not really essential but it helps clean up unwanted stuff in case you want to keep the whole episode.
Okay, the moment you have finished your translation, start saving your subs and copying them on the Google sheet. Here is how.
Go to Bulk Editor and make sure that one of the two columns is English (the one you made) and the other is blank (one of the rare languages nobody translates, for instance Afar). Now you have two options.
Option A: You save the whole episode and then you choose the part you made deleting the un-needed parts. For this you do CTRL+A to select all, then you copy-paste (CTRL+C to copy on the Clipboard, CTRL+V to paste) on the Notepad text document, and then clean everything that is unneeded before transferring to the Google sheet.
Option B: You select only the part you made. It makes sense if you only did one part, or even two, out of six. First, while in Editor, note down the minutes where your part starts and ends, and then, on Bulk Editor, select only that part.
In this case you don’t need Notepad, you can copy (CTRL+C) on the Clipboard and then paste directly on Google sheets.
But careful! When you want to paste onto Google sheets, you shouldn’t use regular “Paste”, which is CTRL+V. You should use “Paste Special, Values only”.(CTRL+Shift+V). You can also find it by right-clicking, it will appear on the drop-down menu. Choose “Paste Special” and from that choose “Values Only”.
Because if you don’t, you will get the minutes on one row and the subtitle on another one, and in a stupid grey font. You don’t want that!
With the “Paste Special - Values only” you get this. Much better, right?
All of this really takes 2-3 minutes.
Now you can tell your Editor that you have finished translating. Wait until she edits and then go back and do the same, copying on the next column, the edited one. So you will have the two versions side by side.
You may want to repeat the operation once after TE and once after English edit. In which case you will need three columns for each episode. Just make three columns from the beginning, or, on my sheet, select a column, go to the Insert menu and choose “Add column to the right” (or to the left) and remember, in the episode name row, to merge the extra cell with the existing ones. That’s it, very simple.
The beauty of this is that you can copy paste the edited subs even if the episode is locked. Just have the English on the left column, and select as usual.
Tip:
Make text not overflow but wrap (from the Edit menu), so that the whole subtitle shows without the columns being too wide.
For Other Language Subbers
If other people are reading this, who are Other Language subbers, the process is more or less the same. But
on Bulk Editor, make sure English is on the left and your language on the right. Then in the “Original” column there will be English AND your language.
And in the “Edited” column there will be English AND the edited language.
But this won’t work if the moderator has locked the Episodes, because the subs won’t be side by side.
Therefore it is more convenient to do three columns instead of two: English, Your Language original, Your Language edited. Even if the copy pasting involves one more step.
In Bulk Editor, in the beginning make sure there is only English on the left column (right one blank, use a rare language like Afar) and copy paste that.
Then make sure there is only Your Language on the left column (the right one blank) and copy paste that.
And when the moderator has locked your language, you can still put your language on the left column (and the right one blank), and copy paste that.
Here is an example of a show where there were two Italian editors.
More resources on using Google sheets:
Paste options in MS Excel (they are the same in Google sheets)
Getting started with Google sheets. Good basic tutorial with screenshots.
Tutorial from Google.
Google sheets shortcuts
Spreadsheet Class. Useful tips and tricks.
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Wow! Thank you so much for taking your time to write this out. It’s really detailed! I really appreciate it! 
I’ve already made a copy of the “Viki Projects” Google sheets. Once again, thank you!
I have started doing this for a few episodes of the drama I’m working on and it works very well! However, this is a currently airing drama, and since I’m usually the last few to go in due to time difference, most of the parts are at least 50% or more. Therefore, my contributions are usually all over the place as I try to finish up the remaining percentages of as many parts as possible. Thus, it takes me longer to copy and paste the lines, as I would need to refer to the “Activities” tab to check which lines I have subbed. I’m still trying to think of the least time-consuming way to go about doing this, since I have around 200+ lines of contribution in one of the newer episodes, but this method is the best so far.
I hope that anyone who stumbles across this thread will find this as useful as I did!
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Thank you so much for your encouraging words! 
I believe I have still much to learn for English and Chinese, and I would love to improve in them through what I love best - dramas! I had actually wanted to compare the original Chinese captions, my subs, and the edited subs, but that’d be way too much work for me to put together. If there were Chinese captions for the drama, I might actually consider putting in the effort.
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Then just copy the whole thing, no? If you don’t remember which ones are yours, you can also check the corrections done on other subbers’ work, which is also useful anyway.
To select the whole episode, go with CTRL+A and then copy the whole thing to Notepad, then eliminate the useless stuff at the beginning and end before copy-pasting to the Google sheets.
Once it’s there, IF you remember which parts you did, you can give them a special colour, but frankly I wouldn’t bother doing this.
That’s true too! I guess I wanted my own contributions because I wanted to have a quick way to look at my own mistakes so that I could make a summary, spot any recurring mistakes, etc.
Of course, like you mentioned, it’d be most beneficial if I could look through everyone’s work and learn from everyone’s mistakes. I am currently stuck at home now, so I have more time on my hands, so I can afford to do so. However, I won’t be stuck at home forever, and when quarantine is lifted, I don’t think I would have the luxury to do so.
There’s another way, IF you can enter before the editor locks the episode.
From Subtitle Editor, start a search with CTRL+F, and input the editor’s username. Then you’ll get all the subs she changed. Yes, there will also be corrections to other people’s subs, but at least you won’t have to go through all of the unedited/unchanged subs
If you can convince the editor to leave the episode open for a while, this is the quickest method.
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what do you mean wtih copyrights?
do you mean the subtitels or the episode itself?
because as far as i know there isn’t really copyrights on the subtitels, because we make them ourself.
or do you mean a copyright on the subs of someone else? because i don’t know if there is copyrights on those.
could you maybe explain what you meant with copyrights?
Try to find an editor who will explain you or try to ask if they can send you a quick feedback of your main mistakes after they edit your part.
When you receive it, review your subtitles.
It is more effective when the editor will tell you exactly why and where it is wrong or could be improved.
Could be instances where you don’t understand the correction or needs tips to learn how to remember. The editor can help you in that and give you more targeted links where it would be complete and easy to understand.
+having someone to explain you and talk to you makes you memorize it and be more attentive for next times.
Normally, the people with whom we experimented it in French (the nssa academy+outside) and who followed the feedback or the links provided, they progress really fast on 1 drama or 1 course. Could change + 50 % of a part at the beginning.
At the end of the drama, a lot less, a very few mistakes.
What can help you is looking at how good subbers are subtitling. Look at their parts in the subtitle editor. Good ones are the ones who have a very few corrections from the editor.
If your editor is competent, if he gets to subtitle a part, try to look at how he subtitled the part.
If you’re a Chinese-English subber, I would suggest for you to look at Skybluebluie_281’s subtitles (I hope the numbers in her username are correct). She mostly has worked on historical dramas. There are a few others too who are superb, but I don’t know if they are active right now and I don’t remember their full username.
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Not about subs, about ideas.
Irmar will understand.
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Thank you for your suggestion! I’ll consider doing that. I really appreciate your replies; they’ve helped me a lot!
I’m always afraid of being a bother, so I had never thought of dropping the editors a message. However, after reading both yours and @irmar’s replies, I do think that it’s the best way to go and will consider doing that soon.
You’ve got her username correct! She’s actually the editor for an “old” drama that I had just joined and I’ve been watching the episodes that had already been edited by her to aid me in my translations of the later episodes. I’ll take a look at her profile and try watching the dramas that she had worked as a subber too.
Thank you so much for your suggestions! I’m grateful for them - they’re very helpful.
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It was by chance, she’s someone we would recommend to anyone with closed eyes. There are a few other names too.
You can ask her the list of the current projects where she is subtitling and editing, you’ll see later.
You might not be able to see her version of the subtitles and see an edited version on dramas she was subbing.
If she doesn’t have time, review your edited subtitles first:
1/ CTRL+F her username/editor’s username and your username to see the proportion she/they need(s) to correct for your part. Evaluate yourself first like that.
2/ then review the part like you’d do + at the same time count the types of mistakes she or the team of editors corrected.
Ex: sentence structure, meaning, English conjugation…
Make your own list of types of mistakes you mostly do and look the point on the internet or books.
For ex:
I remember seeing subtitlers write “Although…, but…” a Chinese sentence structure we don’t have in English or French.
Just note the point “although… but” and the link of the lesson.
If you want to progress, you have to do many researches. At one point, you will make your own guide in a document with the grammar, conjugation point + the link, because there are too many to remember and it is easy to forget.
3/ Ask her with a precise question (timing +sentence) where you don’t understand or where you see you keep doing them and needs enlightment. Limit this list. That’d be faster for her.
If it’s about meaning, it would be difficult to explain for any editor, it’s black or white.
Normally, specific terms or complicated ones are in Team notes.
There are also forums on the internet where you can just ask.
I would also suggest to look at edited parts of other subtitlers in this old drama. If there aren’t many corrections, the subtitler is also an editor somewhere else, you can just look at all the parts that subtitler will do in the future or did.
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Thank you so much for this list! It is extremely helpful! The link is also an interesting read. I have never realised that this sentence structure is specific to Chinese despite studying both English and Chinese for almost all my life.
I will start doing the points you’ve mentioned once the editors are done with an episode that I have saved my original, unedited subtitles of. I currently have the edited subtitles of the first few episodes, but without my original subtitles, I don’t really know where my mistakes are. All I can do now is to note down phrases that I thought were translated well.
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It is okay if you don’t have the beginning. You can always continue to subtitle and review your future edited subs.
If there is no more ep, take another drama to subtitle where there is Sky or try to find another editor who can give you a quick feedback or who can answer your questions. It’s better not to take a lot of dramas at the same time when you try to learn, would be harder to follow everything and you will do more mistakes.
The feedback is needed at the beginning.
Depending on your fluency in both languages:
-
very good subtitler: 1-5 main points to review. They only need to review 1 or 2 parts. Maybe more exercices on 1 or 2 points to consolidate.
These people are normally editors or mods or become ones and are easy to edit. -
from 5-10 points to review. It depends from people and the points. More than 3 parts, maybe between 5-10 parts to review and links.
-
more than 10 points. About the same and more and links.
If it’s about meaning, it is repetitive and the sense is not there, it is more about deepening your understanding of the language. What can help you is: take a course outside, read books, watch dramas, talk and note it down for things you learn.
You don’t need to go on part 1 of ep 1.
Try to review one edited recent part first.
Next time when you subtitle, try to be attentive. Always take 5-10 min to read immediately again your part when you are done subbing. Always. You’ll always see something.
After edition, go see again.
Repeat it again a few times.
Each time, do your percentage, count and categorize your mistake.
It should help you see your progress and where you have difficulties.
If you don’t progress, review again the point, ask around.
Doing it alone has its limits. You need interactions with others who are competent enough not to teach you something wrong and different dramas to meet different situations, styles and sentences.
Good luck!
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The method or process Irmar is describing is based on a creation of my mind that I implemented on a drama where we worked together for editing matters where I was watching a drama I was managing and reviewing subs after English edition.
We had to deal between different versions of the subs and I agreed to share how it works with Irmar, one of the editors of this drama, by PM. The steps are the same.
Here, it is different versions of subs between subbing and editions.
I’d like that people don’t turn this concept their own without my consent or if they share it, use it, add modifications and improve it, they don’t forget to separate clearly the author from the concept and the author of the improvement.
Even more when it is public and I am still on Viki.
As for Irmar, I apologize for the inconvenience. I respect you, but don’t forget to respect me, just for that case.
If in the future, I use something you used or helped me with, I will def put your name while thanking you as I did on this forum for the google quizz idea for the French academy and for many other things.
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