I’m happy that there are translation editors and that people don’t make a big deal out of the fact their subs are edited by a translation editor. I’m around on Viki for quite a while now and I know that in the past people where really angry and upset when others edited their subs. It was a really sensitive thing because some where like “ok go ahead if mine is wrong” and some went “you should’ve contacted me so I can edit my sub” and stuff like that.
Editors in general can make a huge difference in quality and overal experience when watching a drama.
I agree. In addition to the more acceptance, things have changed a lot. A year ago, I was so fearful to correct mistakes because of the complaints and understanding the edition rules is a long process. That has changed for the better. Now, while staying true to the translation, I can look at the sentence flow which helps keep translations from being too choppy.
I am also glad that Ninja Academy foresaw the need to also train subtitlers and editors. Eventually, all dramas will be more systematic, of course, depending on the amount of volunteers.
I just wish that viki gave credit for each person’s work, not only the segmenter and the translator, but also the translation editor, the general editor and the final editor. Just as a translator and segmenter must do every segment, so does the editor. Even though the editor may not change a subtitle, each subtitle must still be checked, so an editor must go through every segment. I wish viki would have three categories: Segmentation, Subtitles and Editions. Maybe someday.
I know segmentations and translations are really important and probably most important, but if it weren’t for all editors in general, the quality of the drama subtitles would not be as good. Anyway, just my 2 cents. As for editors–translation editors to final editors…
Editors are the decorative icing to a most delicious cake.
As an English speaking editor, with only basic Korean in my repertoire thus far, a translation editor is a very valuable person to me. Even if the TE is not going to go through the whole episode and edit on the projects that have more fluent subbers, it is still good to have someone available for ‘rescue’ when the translation is not making good sense in English.
Besides fixing the obvious grammar, punctuation and spelling errors, editors can make a whole project a cohesive finished product so that all of the individual ‘voices’ (different subbing styles or word choices) become one. A translation editor can help in that process by being a sounding board for an Anglophone editor that needs clarification in order to make the best editorial choices for the viewers.
OK…I think I have a better understanding now. It irks me when people load up the comments section of an episode with “Please sub” and can’t wait.on new dramas. However, I started on a video that was loaded 2 years ago and first two ep only have partial subs. So, basically, if you can’t find subbers who like the drama and are willing to watch it and sub it doesn’t get finished? Or if there is a more popular drama, they move on to that? I wish there was a way to know if a drama is fully/partially subbed right up front, so we don’t start watching, get interested and then have to drop it because only the first couple episodes are subbed. Is there a way to do that or are there just too many dramas and too few subbers? God bless you all for the volunteering that you do.
@joongkijunkie We are all volunteers so we work on whatever Kdrama (or other content) we like. I don’t want to spent countless hours on something I don’t like myself and sometimes there is so much you would like to work on but you don’t have enough time so then you decide where you like to work on the most. To me that has nothing to do with unpopular or popular stuff. There is some popular stuff I don’t like and some unpopular stuff I really like.
Viki never says go work on this or that first and the moment a CM asks me to drop channel A and go to channel B I drop out for both because nobody decides for me what I work on.
And for some older series, don’t know which you are talking about, Viki only got a license for it recently so the already busy volunteers sqeeuze it into their already busy schedule on Viki.
Go to this page where you can look for people who volunteer n the language you are interested in. In the bottom left enter Burmese and you will find 4 people. Perhaps you can contact them and explore your interests.
Thank you didie. Each time someone like you responds, I get a better understanding of how it works. Currently watching Hearts are Beating…an awesome reality series…and the subs went from 87% to 1% to 93% on each episode, even though there are comments/requests from 2 years ago. Between your response and the original note from ajumma above, I now understand better why we can see some fully subbed and some not so subbed. Ahhh…I guess I better learn Korean faster so I can help!
I so wish viewers would read Ajumma2’s explanation or understood the Viki process. It is very disheartening to read negative comments in dramas and viewers treating us volunteers like we owe them anything. One even said “fire them.” Fire volunteers, ok. Anyway, I’m just feeling down after reading so much negativity. So discouraging.
From my own experience, I see that you have to repeat you are a volunteer three times even, before it reaches someone’s brain that they should be more thankful and less critical of your work. Of course, some people are plain stupid and can’t be reasoned with, but others are just way, way into the show they’re watching.
I’m innately impatient, so for me it helps if I consider them as a bunch of 6-year olds who want to play a video game.
I think one of the ways to combat this is to explain how viki works.
I normally bullet out the process and then people are amazed at how it works.
Yesterday, I was certain viki was magic!
It would really help if viki required all newbies to read the viki rules when they join. It would help the newbie a lot and spare them from making so many mistakes. They could also contain the viki process.
