I inappropriately placed the following post in a cross posted thread yesterday. It made it seem like I was speaking for all the channels to which it was linked. I'm sorry for that. Let me try this again.
So far, I am the only English editor listed for this channel. If there are others, please let me know so we can coordinate our work.
I am pretty nitpicky about my editing, although I have been learning from editing other dramas about how far I should go; however, it does stick in my craw when subbers don't punctuate and capitalize properly. As many who watch these dramas are learning other languages, including English, I feel it is necessary to write them correctly.
There are a few things I have come across that I need to address. For example, most of the time, especially lately, I let missing periods go, but I will stick one at the end of a sentence if I have to do another edit on the segment where it should be. Subbers, PLEASE, remember to use them. Also, I do recognize that when people speak they can and do start sentences with a conjunction (but, and, though, etc.) but if the first part of a conjoined sentence has been used in a previous segment, don't put a period and start the next segment with a capital letter, especially when it is obvious that it's the same thought being spoken. (I decided to wear a coat today, because it is cold outside. - correct.) (I decided to wear a coat today. Because it is cold outside. - incorrect.)
I also have noted that when a family member is addressed by his/her title (Mom, Dad, Grandma, Brother, etc.) there is some confusion as to whether it should be capitalized. In this case, they should. Those words should only be lower case when speaking about them with an article (the, a) or a pronoun (my, his, her, their). I haven't changed too many of those errors, lately, considering that they might be considered too picky, but please keep it in mind.
For the most part, I try to avoid making word changes unless the word or phrase in question is not naturally spoken in English by the average layperson, or if the translation is just plain clunky. I have previously contacted the original subbers in other dramas to varying degrees of success, to try to iron out completely confusing segments. My request is, to anyone who does speak Mandarin and edits along with me, that they check over my work and ensure that I haven't changed the meaning by trying to reorganize a sentence to be more grammatically correct and to have better flow.
There are other things that bother me, but I feel as these are the major errors that I find myself correcting the most, I'll just stick with this list. Any other recurring issues will be addressed directly with the subber in question; however, if I find others making the same error, I will just add it to the list.
One thing I did forget to mention is that in order to see the Mandarin hardsubs, all segments will most likely need to be started with a <br>. One line can usually only fit on the screen at a time, so when the subtitling needs to be fragmented, please use <br><br> to ensure the next line doesn't jump up to cover the Mandarin. Now this may not be needed if the episode is loaded in HD like the last episode I edited, but to keep things standard, I'd prefer to start off with the <br>.
If what I have posted seems to be too stringent, please bear in mind that we need to be as professional as possible. I don't want to scare anyone away from subtitling. I really do like being able to see these shows and have truly appreciated the hard work done by the fansubbers over the years, but it's really distracting when the subs are full of errors and can't be understood.
Remember, I don't do this to try to get my numbers up. Under the current system, technically, my counts shouldn't be that high, and if they are, there's a problem. I do this not for personal subtitle counts or recognition. I do it to make your work shine!
So far, I am the only English editor listed for this channel. If there are others, please let me know so we can coordinate our work.
I am pretty nitpicky about my editing, although I have been learning from editing other dramas about how far I should go; however, it does stick in my craw when subbers don't punctuate and capitalize properly. As many who watch these dramas are learning other languages, including English, I feel it is necessary to write them correctly.
There are a few things I have come across that I need to address. For example, most of the time, especially lately, I let missing periods go, but I will stick one at the end of a sentence if I have to do another edit on the segment where it should be. Subbers, PLEASE, remember to use them. Also, I do recognize that when people speak they can and do start sentences with a conjunction (but, and, though, etc.) but if the first part of a conjoined sentence has been used in a previous segment, don't put a period and start the next segment with a capital letter, especially when it is obvious that it's the same thought being spoken. (I decided to wear a coat today, because it is cold outside. - correct.) (I decided to wear a coat today. Because it is cold outside. - incorrect.)
I also have noted that when a family member is addressed by his/her title (Mom, Dad, Grandma, Brother, etc.) there is some confusion as to whether it should be capitalized. In this case, they should. Those words should only be lower case when speaking about them with an article (the, a) or a pronoun (my, his, her, their). I haven't changed too many of those errors, lately, considering that they might be considered too picky, but please keep it in mind.
For the most part, I try to avoid making word changes unless the word or phrase in question is not naturally spoken in English by the average layperson, or if the translation is just plain clunky. I have previously contacted the original subbers in other dramas to varying degrees of success, to try to iron out completely confusing segments. My request is, to anyone who does speak Mandarin and edits along with me, that they check over my work and ensure that I haven't changed the meaning by trying to reorganize a sentence to be more grammatically correct and to have better flow.
There are other things that bother me, but I feel as these are the major errors that I find myself correcting the most, I'll just stick with this list. Any other recurring issues will be addressed directly with the subber in question; however, if I find others making the same error, I will just add it to the list.
One thing I did forget to mention is that in order to see the Mandarin hardsubs, all segments will most likely need to be started with a <br>. One line can usually only fit on the screen at a time, so when the subtitling needs to be fragmented, please use <br><br> to ensure the next line doesn't jump up to cover the Mandarin. Now this may not be needed if the episode is loaded in HD like the last episode I edited, but to keep things standard, I'd prefer to start off with the <br>.
If what I have posted seems to be too stringent, please bear in mind that we need to be as professional as possible. I don't want to scare anyone away from subtitling. I really do like being able to see these shows and have truly appreciated the hard work done by the fansubbers over the years, but it's really distracting when the subs are full of errors and can't be understood.
Remember, I don't do this to try to get my numbers up. Under the current system, technically, my counts shouldn't be that high, and if they are, there's a problem. I do this not for personal subtitle counts or recognition. I do it to make your work shine!
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