I have to agree on that. Often native speakers of the original language (Korean, Chinese etc.) don’t know good English, so it is the work of the English Editor to correct and polish the subs, but there are not that many good English editors, and they are spread thin. (The situation is much worse for other languages)
The quality varies among shows. Some are excellent, some not so much, and yes, you can also find awkward subs (I have been leading a whole campaign against awkward Korean-style word order) and also terrible subs at times.
In the case of on-air shows, it may simply mean that you have watched the episode too quickly, and the English Editor hasn’t had the time to correct the original Ko-En or Chin-En subber. In this case, the only cure is to wait for another day, and the language will be corrected.
Of course it’s not the only case. All English editors are perfect, far from it. I’ve also seen some terrible syntax and grammar (Glykeria, you were mean to pick on what was obviously a typo…) on old shows, and these stay “forever”.
But, judging from the shows I’ve watched, the quality of the English subtitles has been getting better and better in the past years. I’m not sure why - maybe because there has been an increase in the overall number of volunteers, among whom probably more good editors.
Coming back again to all the other languages offered by viki… If it were to pay for translators, it would obviously be only for English translators, because if it also chose to get paid professionals for some other popular languages (say 8, like French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Indonesian, Tagalog, Romanian?), then the costs would really soar, and the poor viki cats would only see the fancy hats in their dreams. Of course you would only want them to hire English ones, because from your writings I get the impression that to you English is the only thing that matters.
Mind you, I’m not saying that it’s not exasperating when a show is not fully subtitled. It has happened to me too, and I’m not happy when it happens. But well, in that case I either find another show of the many available or, if I’m really so keen to watch this particular one, I go look for it elsewhere where it is available for free (I won’t go into details here, but we all know where to look when needed).
That I love viki and I consider it my home does not mean that I am not free to also roam elsewhere, and I frequently do when something is not available here. Even your favourite restaurant has an off day, so will you starve on that day?
Well, as I said… this makes sense, from your perspective. So…
♫ Time toooo say goodbyyyye ♫
For me ads are very annoying. Especially viki ads which come in the middle of the show. I just hate it. It may be I’m spoiled. Adblocker used to solve all this until a little while ago, but now you cannot use adblocker not only on viki but on other video streaming sites as well. So annoying for us but yeah, I understand that they need the ad revenue.
After years and years of ad-free internet I resent it when, on those other “illegal” sites, whenever I want to watch an episode, I am flooded with offers to date “beautiful Slavic girls” with enormous boobs. Because I happen to be a straight woman, so… really not interested.
By the way, and off-topic: the people choosing ads, are they stupid? How many men are watching Korean rom-coms? There are a few, I know, but surely a tiny minority. Shouldn’t I be seeing women-targeted ads there, and the big boobs only on action dramas and thrillers? (Sorry Glykeria, you’d still get the Slavic girls in this scenario) On the other hand, I get to watch the video for free, so I don’t really have a right to complain.
when I see in Viki subtitles. Briefly, subtitles are made by humans, even if a drama takes a thousand lines of subtitles, but excluding the time for segments will take more times. You may mention subtitles but you forget segments. For segmenters, I’m feel very thankful because it’s very patient job because they invest their own time in life to do timing. Segment really takes a lot of time than subtitles. Some people may ask why volunteers do the job. It’s a problem of give and take.
