This is a request I sent to Viki’s helpdesk, but it is a topic I would like to know about others opinion. I normally translate from English to German. That’s why the examples are English/German sentences, but I think the problem is the same, if it comes to French tu/vous or many other languages. Are there a lot of mistakes, grammar issues in the ONE LINERS in your language as well?
I’ll be glad to hear your thoughts!
The use of one liners seems very limited, at least, if it is related to my language German.
For example:
A simple “Who are you?” could be the following, if you don’t have the context.
- “Wer bist du?” If it’s someone your age, or younger, or …
- “Wer sind Sie?” if it’s someone you would talk to in a more formal way.
- “Wer sind sie?” If it is more than one person.
And it leads to another problem with rating the lines, since the ones who are rating do not have the context either.
The other thing is peoples translation might be okay, but they completely neglect any given rule about writing. F.e. they start a sentence with a small letter. Or there is no “point” at the end of a sentence.
In my language all nounes are to be written with a capital letter to start, but some neglect.
So thinking about some news report of less then 5 minutes or 10 minutes it’s bearable. A song? Okay?
In a complete episode of a drama or movie?
If I would need to edit a mess like that, after 5 minutes of videoplaytime and a look what comes ahead I would apologize to the channel manager and resign. I already had the luck to edit many subs at Viki, but since it’s about 4 to 5 times the amount of time it takes compared to only subbing, it’s really something that brings your thoughts of contributing to a halt.
I beg you to remove one liners for movie and drama channels.
Btw, I tried the option of one liners and used the button to contribute, did some lines and the next day, I was back to zero. No history to be found. I tried it at least 3 times or more and then I gave up on it. Since whenever I came back it was status quo again. No fun at all. And with the grammar issues, but the translation well done. I am at a point that I do not know how to handle that. I don’t want to be “bad” old schooler, who “harasses” newbies. Or being told to be discouraging others. But do you consider how discouraging it is for people to read such translations filled with grammar issues.
Or can you imagine, when one line it’s like
“Good evening Sir”
and the next is
“Buddy how have you been?”
And it is still the same two characters speaking and it’s not the usual “code” between friends, just a lacking translation. I know many people who will not watch with German subtitle because, it is “hurting” their eyes. It’s like you would not only need English and Simple English, but you would need this different level for each language. It’s a real problem and the oneliners are not helping in getting better translation in any way.
Need some examples for real? One liners here they come!
You are a robot, right?
Du bist eine Roboter, richtig?
So what would be right?
There we go if it’s formal or unformal:
Sie sind ein Roboter, stimmts? Du bist ein Roboter, stimmts?
Of course the meaning of right, is “richtig”, but in the normal use of our language, you would normally use “stimmts”.
And a robot in German is a male word so it’s “ein Roboter” and not “eine Roboter”.
Oh, I almost forgot 72% rated it thump up, only 27% gave it a thumps down. It’s a questionable instrument for me.
This was the first try and the first hit, should we go for another?
It’s a call from your hospital.
Es ist ein Anruf vom Krankenhaus. (meaning = It’s a call from the hospital.)
Right translation would be:
Es ist ein Anruf von deinem Krankenhaus / deines Krankenhauses.
It might be a necessary point to know that it was a call from HIS/HER hospital.
Rating was 70% up and 30% down.
Should we try a third and last time? You may if you want, I already had enough of it.
I only hope you will reconsider, because if you use the one liners on drama and movies, you can as well acceppt people to use google translation to make the mess complete.
Greetings
lutra^^