long segments? The average segment is between 4-6 seconds long unless the person says the name with a pause and then says more. So… Ru_di… are you doing well? Something like this. I try not to go over 5 seconds, but I don’t want to have choppy short sentences either, so I normally like to have them about 4-5 seconds long.
1 Like
you know what… my ideal (longest) translation in a line of subtitle is 70 characters and adding a break into it will make it look super nice on screen… so the long segments for it probably around 2-3 second, and for me, 4-6 second long of segemnt is just for special cases only… and i also not really get why everyone are so crazy about the “choppy thing”… did anyone ever heard about dynamic-flow-of-subtitle… IMHO
“super nice on screen”… But what screen exactly? Laptop, tablet, mobile? Using one of the various partnered apps or the Viki website?
I like short subtitles, but they really are a problem.
Also, how many of the viewers do you expect to understand “dynamic-flow-of-subtitle”? 
Unless you’re referring to the Viki team, in which case implementing it would take ages.
I agree that the shortest the segment the better, but sometimes it’s impossible.
you need to check it yourself to see if its look good or not, cause its about taste and its like we have similar taste
to me, viewers doesnt need to understand about the subtitling process (technicaly), they just need to know if the volunteers are the one who working hard on it (for free) and viewers feel comfort with the sub
and if you think it’s impossible, lets play some tricks to make it possible
Exactly. You know, I make websites sometimes (for friends, for my boss etc…). Once upon a time, before the “responsive” era, when we were all doing tables inside other tables including more nested tables and so on, I was appalled when I saw how the web page which looked so perfect on my PC screen looked when seen from a small (12’’) netbook. Everything looked terrible and the proportions were screwed up. And, later on, tablets and phones.
I mean, nowadays we have to take into account all the different platforms. And it is true that many short lines may take up lots of screen space on a small device.
3 Likes
Maybe I wasn’t clear.
Because of the extra breaks sometimes subtitles look like this on various screens and apps:
Because of the
extra breaks sometimes subtitles look like this
on various
(the line below is off screen)
screens and apps.
I don’t think it’s a matter of taste.
3 Likes
70 characters with a break, its mean 2 line in a line of sub with 35 characters each (lets say so)…
(in most players) up to 40 characters, the thing you talk about would never happen
to be sure, just ask viki about the limit for each lines in a line for every platforms… or check it yourself… you know if ask viki it will take so so much time
the other case…
that’s what i dont like about viki’s autobreak, they just put it on the off screen part (so most of time the second line just have one or two word)… others, mostly, make the autobreak show up at the middle of the sentences(?)
1 Like
I just found it, in the Team Notes of a series I work on.
It’s hidden in a Google document.
Of course, who could see it there?
Viki Subbing Guidelines
To Subbers:
Please believe that we appreciate all the time you contribute to making it possible for people around the world to understand K-drama.
Before you sub on this or any other channel for any recent uploaded video, please check the Team Discussion to see who is subbing and where! Post where you will sub and post when you leave. This way, we can avoid accidental overwriting of your and other subber’s work.
These are general guidelines, based on the most common spelling and grammar errors in subtitling from Korean to English.
-
Please do your best to translate EVERYTHING in a segment. If there are two sentences in a segment, please translate both! Nearly all of the segmenters are non-native speakers of Korean, so there will be segments with partial sentences or more than one sentence in them. If you can’t translate everything in the segment, SKIP the segment so other subbers can spot the yellow blank quicker in the Subtitle Editor.
-
Please leave editing of spelling, punctuation, and grammar to the editors! Please don’t change subtitles because of personal preferences – for example - changing “okay” to “all right” or vice versa, changing a single ! to !! and similar changes.
-
Non Korean to English subtitlers – please leave the English subtitles alone – don’t touch them no matter how bad an error in translation, grammar, spelling or punctuation is – you can always pm one of the editors!!
-
The beginning of every sentence should be capitalized. A subtitle which begins in the middle of a sentence should not have its first word capitalized unless it is a proper noun.
-
Every sentence should be ended with a period, a question mark, or an exclamation mark.
-
Ellipsis: Either … or . . . ( three (3) periods without or with spaces between the dots) are all right for dramatic pauses or when the speaker in interrupted mid sentence by somebody else. Don’t use – or ~ for pauses in the middle of sentences. Please don’t automatically put the … at the beginning or end of every subtitle when the rest of the sentence is in the next segment. At the end of a segment which is mid-sentence where you would ordinarily use a comma, use a comma, not … Remember that the segments have been cut by non-native speakers of Korean so there might be some strange breaks!
-
“alright” and “all right” are equally acceptable. “OK” and “okay” are equally acceptable. “until”, “till” or " 'til" are equally acceptable.
-
An apostrophe should be used when it represents the contraction of a verb such as is, am, are, has, have, would, should, etc. “I’m sorry.” “He’s come.” “I should’ve done that.” You’re, not your or the omission of the “o” in not – don’t; doesn’t. This is wrong: “You’re father is a nice person.” This is right: “Your father is a nice person.” This is wrong: “Your late.” This is right: “You’re late.”
-
There is no apostrophe for a pronoun possessive – That which belongs to her is hers, not her’s. That which belongs to it is its NOT it’s. That which belongs to you is yours, not your’s. Your face is pale. Are you feeling sick? Your stomach is upset? You’re sick?
-
Let’s delete all ssi, shi, ah, yah and i unless there is some dramatic effect to saying Yeon Jae Ssi or Miss Yeon Jae. Otherwise, do NOT bother with subbing the 씨. If a son is talking to his mother and uses “씨", then do use Miss! Or a mother is taking to her son and uses 씨 --then use Mr. or Master as appropriate.
-
Romanization – We generally follow the South Korean Revised Romanization Rules except for: Kim, Park, Kang, We usually don’t put hyphens in given names per a survey of subbers’ preferences taken several years ago – they didn’t want to type the “-”. We follow the romanization rules for place names.
Instead of translating, you may use: Ahjumma (Ajumma) , Ahjussi (Ajusshi), Agasshi (Agassi) , Noona, Oppa, Hyung, Sunbae, Hoobae, Unni (Eonni) may be used instead of lady (aunt), mister (uncle), young lady, sister, brother, brother, senior, junior, sister You may also write Aigoo or Omo as appropriate or Jeez, Gosh, Oh my, etc. [Jeez is short for Jesus so should be capitalized] -
Relatives should be capitalized when the relative is being spoken to but if the person is the subject of discussion and the title is modified, then do not capitalize. : I am thankful to my mother. Hello, Mother. His father is the president of a corporation. Hi, Dad! This is my brother. Hyung!
-
Titles should proceed the proper name. Not Cha Bong Man Chairman but Chairman Cha Bong Man. Not Lee Eun Jae Attorney but Attorney Lee Eun Jae, Oppa Do Yoon, not Do Yoon Oppa.
-
Although Korean does not have articles such as “a”, “an” and “the”, please insert them where necessary. In general “A/an ” are indefinite and “The” is specific or definite. I am going to a school vs. I am going to the school – a school is any school, the school is a specific school.
-
For the benefit of subbers from English to other languages, please try to avoid using abbreviations such as “prbly” (probably), “tty” (I’ll talk to you later) or “ltr” (letter or later?).
-
We use Italics [the < and the > with an i in the middle (sorry, if I did the real thing, you wouldn’t see the marking) for any printed material, text messages, and flashbacks of what was said, unspoken thinking, unspoken reminiscing and unspoken dreaming, song lyrics when the singer is not visible live; and speech where the voice is being transmitted over the telephone, radio, or television. Eg. Person A speaks (live, no italics) and Person B’s voice is heard over the phone (put B in italics). Then screen shows B saying next part of conversation (no italics) and we hear A’s response to B over the telephone (Put A’s response in italics).
Please don’t automatically italicize dialogue just because the speaker is momentarily off screen – italicize only if the words fall in one of the categories described in the prior paragraph.
-
For money, you can use either won or dollars. Don’t get hung up on checking the daily currency rate. Rounding won to dollars by knocking off the last three zeroes is okay.
-
Although a date in Korean is year, month, day, we usually sub the American way: Month Day, Year. If you are translating a written date on the screen. If the screen says 2015 년 – just sub it 2015, not 2015 year.
-
“Gonna” and “wanna” are usually not standard English – may be used if a child said it, but otherwise, avoid them both!
20) Breaks. Put a break in a subtitle only if more than one person is speaking in the dialogue or the subtitle segment contains both transcription of text on the screen and dialogue. Don’t put breaks into the subtitle for appearance’s sake only.
-
If a segment is unnecessary—DON’T WRITE ANYTHING – not even the < br >! Leave the unnecessary segment blank please. If no words can be heard or be translated do not write your description such as “sobbing” “moaning” “singing”. If you cannot read the text on the screen, do not write a break or “undecipherable” – Just leave the blank blank! If you wish, you may post in Team Discussion the time of segments which can be deleted.
-
Use of English words – if you hear an English word in the Korean dialogue, use the word in the subtitle except that be mindful of the different usage of certain words such as “schedule” which is very often used when in English we would use “appointment;” – Instead of “ I have schedule tomorrow,” sub “I have something scheduled tomorrow” or “I have an appointment tomorrow.”
“Grand open” when we would use “Grand opening”, etc. -
If more segments are needed, please post in Team Discussion. If the video suddenly goes out of sync, post the information and stop subbing – It’s temporary and usually is fixed within a short time. Do come back later!
5 Likes
I think this happens a lot though…
1 Like
When using
for breaks in subtitling, do we also use the dash (-) for the sentence by the next speaker? For example, I have seen all three, not sure which to use.
Are you happy?
-Yes!
OR
-Are you happy?
-Yes!
OR
Are you happy?
Yes!
Which is correct?
Thank you!
with two or more speakers I use the 2nd version, meaning each speaker has a - (dash and one space before the dialog):
- Are you happy? (the break coding "< br >")
- Yes!
3 Likes
When there are two or more people, I think it’s much neater to put a dash for both. And, unlike your example, always with a space between the dash and the sentence:
- Are you happy?
- Yes!
I always use the first one, because I think putting two dashes is not necesarry. The dash is there only to make it clear that there are two people talking in one segment and putting a dash for the sentence means that now person B is talking in stead of person A.
Maybe guidelines for other countries are different, but I’ve seen for Dutch that you should only use the first construction as in your example. Also I’ve never seen two dashes in official subs in Dutch.
@emmelie96
At school I was taught that we put one dash for each speaker, on separate lines.
- Hi!
- Hi!
- How’s things?
- Fine.
If we don’t do that, it’s considered reported speech and needs “…” (<<…>>) and verbs like “they said”. Maybe it’s different in other languages.
1 Like
Yes, I’ve read about Dutch subbing on a forum and there someone said the rules can be different from English or other languages. There was also a link to guidelines set up by a professional subbing company. If you like here is the link see it.
I don’t agree with everything, for example they say you should never ever use an exclamation mark, but I think it’s ok to use it when someone is screaming.
[quote=“christina_, post:31, topic:10456”]
At school I was taught that we put one dash for each speaker, on separate lines. If we don’t do that, it’s considered reported speech and needs “…” and verbs like “they said”. [/quote]
Well you’re right, of course, but what they taught us in school was for writing of essays, articles, novels and such, not for subtitles. In subtitles you know that it’s direct speech anyway.
I like to put a dash for each speaker because it looks much neater and more balanced, and it immediately says “this is dialogue”. I don’t remember what happens in films you see in cinemas, it’s been such a long time since I’ve been to an actual cinema!
2 Likes
I have no idea. Personally, until I see a dash, I consider it’s the same person speaking.
1 Like
We have a Dutch subbing team at Ninja Academy that is up and running. They have a subbing guide in Dutch as well. You might wish to check this out.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wRQApR1q_fMIw7ZZI7C1xizhN4_e7gbRhkdp9clJ0zI/edit
there is just empty space, what were you trying to post?