About the difficulty of segmenting and subbing variety shows.
It could be done only if deciding to make choices. For instance, not put the printed words unless they really add something to the conversation, which they rarely do.
I mean, youtube has those variety shows, and they seem to sub only the stuff necessary to understanding what is going on.
I fully know that viki teams pride themselves on subbing EVERYTHING, but frankly variety shows are not Shakespeare, nor is it always crucial that every single utterance gets subbed.
'Oh, look at him, he’s blushing", “Oh, right, right!”, things like that, don’t matter very much if they are missing.
About the presence of variety shows
I also like some of them. I would like viki to only include the really interesting ones, certainly not so many as there are presently. The ones with singing, such as King of Masked Singer or others like that, or the ones which feature our favourite actors giving interviews or playing fun games.
What I really don’t get are those videos of youtubbers/vloggers, like one person in front of the camera saying obvious and trite things about Korean culture. And the recently added, “Created”. These could all go, in my opinion.
The recipes are interesting, as long as they are Korean recipes (I saw some of them who just put on any recipe, fusion, American, Ameri-Korean or whatever. That’s useless to us.)
What I would like to see
What I would surely welcome is an instructional video on Korean language. Like Talk to Me in Korean, but more comprehensive, for serious learners.
State-sponsored informational documentary series. On different parts of Korea, geographical and cultural landmarks, seasonal festivals, the traditional music, theatre and dances, the folk festivals, the rituals, an exploration of the different religions. Or social issues like the position of women, racism, the drinking, the education system. Or historical, exploring Korea’s past, both remote and recent… About the Hallyu wave. About Korean gamers. About baduk!
But documentaries made by professionals, with a real crew and budget, with interviews of knowledgeable people, taking you outdoors to see stuff… not made by you me and my aunt or vloggers who speak about themselves.
BBC quality if you know what I mean. In every country there are such documentaries, so I’m sure there must be in Korea as well.
If you look at what is offered here, it’s disheartening.