Your lists are pure gold, thank you!
Like many of you, one of my biggest headache is the formal/informal speech we use in French. I finally got some idea about Korean level speeches after working on it, but they are still difficult to translate, since people sometimes use -yo then not then again while speaking to the same person. I have heard itās because they relax the speech a bit, but still a headache. XD And sometimes, the Korean speech doesnāt correspond to what modern French people would use. For example, it happens that a couple uses a formal level to talk to one another (and I am not particularly talking about period dramas of high society), but thatās simply not how it is in French.
In turn, in Chinese, itās almost the same as English, no particular formal/informal language (except the āning,ā but itās used in very peculiar circumstances) so itās up to us to decide which speech we should use, and when to change it.
Like @stained_rose I also see my French getting wonky after working on English and Chinese simultanously. Especially about songs. No better way to lose all sense of French grammar. Thank god for all my second editors. ^^
The third huge headache while subbing is in regards to subs length. English has the ability of condensing everyrhing into few words, but to have the same meaning in French, it needs to be longer, twice longer sometimes. Itās never fun when itās the case, because it becomes a pain to read on screen. Unfortunately, there is no way we can reduce the sub without losing something.
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I feel so relieved Iām not the only one with this problem.
http://www.itchyfeetcomic.com/2013/09/revolving-dictionary.html#.Vw7IMTB97IU
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When I edit in Spanish, my biggest headache are formal vs. informal language. Since English doesnāt have that need when translating, we find a lot of errors in the use of formal/informal. When subbing we follow specific rules that the moderators give each team before we begin but they are not always followed.
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About informal-formal, actually i have 5 categories for itā¦
So formal, formal, casual, rude, too rude (but i usually omit the āso formalā and ātoo rudeā). i distinguish it from the speaker, interlocutors and especially the speaker tone of voiceā¦
and even i not really good at translating but biggest heacache when i subbing is the technical issue of subeditorā¦ itās so turn me off 
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O I got the some problem recenly with getting in the Korean subbing editor. thought I was the only one.
Oh Sophie! You and Ajumma2 are gold! Ty!
Iāve been wanting to do this for Chinese dramas for a really long time, but never got round to it.
We have specific chinese dictionaries for the idioms, but there have been more modern ones that canāt be found in dictionaries.
Also thinking of doing one to familiarize viewers with chinese terms like our versions of oppa/unni, etc. I will never forget that one scene where a princess was crying over her family and I had to translate every term like āImperial Father, Eldest Brother, Fourth Junior Brother, Third Eldest Sister, etc.ā Ridiculous. What a mood killer. If any other Mandarin subbers wanna join in, let me know!
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A mood killer indeed. Also, a great way to make a long sub unreadable.
Maybe we should stop translating relationship terms that are not common in our cultures (Fourth Junior Brother! ) and just write the phonetic equivalent after episode 1 or 2.
At some point, the viewers will get used to it, just like with āBroā and āOppaā.
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Using what poor Mandarin I know from BBJX and LZH and Imperial Doctress i subbed Chungāer and Zeāer in Pied Piper!!! Because I knew about 'er!
So pleased.
I think we can train the audience to know them when they watch a lot of shows in a particular language. We do this with Korean too.
For example, Daebak is jackpot or wow. But sometimes the effect isnāt the same so I italicize the Daebak (jackpot/authorās note).
I actually got the idea for authorās notes off of Imperial Doctress. Every show I sub has them somewhere especially Reply 1988.
Those sheets are all Ajumma2ās!!! I add things when I come across stuffon their respective category docs. Sheās lovely isnāt she?
I tend to refer to her links and docs and then go to google. If I find stuff I add a comment to the relevant doc (itās how Iāve been contributing).
I think if you should ask Ajumma2 if you can download her Sageuk terminology one to preserve the format to make a doc for Chinese historicals!
I will try to put in the corresponding Chinese chars so that Mandarin subbers can find the ģ¬ģģ±ģ“ (4 character proverb tab) useful!
P.S. a lot of the words are transliterations! fu-ren is boo-in just like fu mo is boo mo. Xiaoju is So-ju
tai hou is tae hoo etc.
Quite amusing to me to hear the cognates when i watch Chinese historicals
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The techs made it purposely hard to do so because then youād have people (newbies) accidentally subbing in Korean. I used to use lolspeak but I figured out how to get in.
I guess it happened often enough that tech team made it overly annoying.
Do yo need to learn how to get in?
Some shows, not all have a Korean subber where the show will essentially be closed captioned in Korean. I also like to do that for parts I sub or parts where the sentence itself is broken among multiple segments.
You can view the Korean as well and google translate will give you the literal word for word translation. Another option is the Korean-English dictionary. I like to use Naver. Press English and you can see examples along with definitions.
(Iām assuming you might know how to read written Korean).
If you know how to, please let me know.
Iām glad you were able to realize that. On Legend of Qin, I have a lot of viewers who are confused by the use of Xiao and 'er in names. I think a lot of the author notes of Imperial Doctress might have been mine. Haha.
A lot of people know ganbatte or hwaiting, but fewer people understand jiayou. English translations just donāt them justice. Iāve always wondered, is hwaiting supposed to be a korean pronunciation of āfightingā or is it an actual korean word?
Thatās ok! I think Iāll do a google spreadsheet for idioms and phrases, but I kinda wanna try making an infographic for basic mandarin terminology. I think that would make it a fun read.
And yes, as a chinese viewer, Iām always so intrigued to hear similar sounding words in korean. Like our mandarin chufang (kitchen). Or even japanese words that sound similar to their korean counterparts like yakusoku (promise).
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Hwaiting is Korean pronunciation for fighting.
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Infographic! Great idea!
ask your CM/chief segmentor to create one segment in Korean in the segment timer. That should do the trick.
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Al right thank you
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About maternal uncle and stuff.
We got that too but we tend to go for thr title: Prince Kyeongchang and sub the hardsub in when it tells you he was the prince deposed and second son of current Empress Dowager lol.
Just remembered!
In modern shows we tend to go with very generic Uncle! orā¦ we debate about how to call older and younger sister (big vs. little would be the literal translation).
When itās said in a beautiful way in english, but it sounds horrible in your language.
Also, needing to put words in italics. It doesnāt work.
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My only big problem is the formal/polite/informal. I have to pester the Korean people I know for answers.
I have made a thread requesting the English team moderator to post info about that. General, and updated if the relationship changes.
Otherwise I have no qualms in changing the English as much as necessary to make it sound natural in my language. Being careful, of course, to maintain all the original meaning. This includes all idioms.
(Sometimes Ko-English subbers donāt do that, and we have really awkward English sentences, for instance a sentence 3 subtitles long, with the verb at the end, which in English doesnāt work at all.)
But I also try to avoid the dangers of localizing too much. For instance, I never translate āaigooā as āamanā, because aman is a Turkish loanword, with very specific connotations. And if there is a saying/proverb which gives a nice exotic flavour, I often keep it, instead of substituting with a proverb particular to my country (with reference to our local history etc), which would sound weird coming out of Asian mouths.
I also like cultural notes in parenthesis. I have learned lots from them.
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