Hi Subbers,
These hints are directed at fairly new subbers. I hope other subbers will add their comments to this discussion.
1) Read the first page of the channel because there is usually a good summary of the main characters. Note the spelling of the main characters' names so that proper names are consistent. For example, although if you hear Oh Ha Ni and Oh Han Ni, they could probably sound the same, the correct name according to the producers is Oh Ha Ni, and the two names would definitely be spelled differently in Hangul. Similarly, "Manbo" and "Mambo" may sound very similar or alike but the Hangul spelling is different.
2) Be always aware that the same word in Korean may have diverse meanings in English. For example 재미있다 means interesting or fun. But in English interesting and fun are two very different words. Pay attention to the context in which the word is said. 아네 as a preposition means, in, at, or on in Korean, but in English, the three words in, at, and on have different nuances. Consider whether "intriguing" or "enjoyable" might be appropriate translations too.
3) Try to be creative. For example if one character says a denigrating word to another character, too often I see the subtitler uses the word "rascal" which is usually not the right word for the situation -- depending on context, use jerk, punk, bad actor, B****d; loser, twit, etc. When a parent is angry at an adult child, in English, they aren't going to call the child a "rascal" -- they are going to say something like ingrate, jerk, brat, spoiled kid, etc.
4. Try your best to translate the entire segment. The segmenters most often do not understand Korean so that very often the segment is going to contain more than one sentence of Korean. Translate all -- not just the first sentence or the last sentence. If you are doing a lot of subbing on the drama, put a note out to the segmenters about your preference -- eg. do you like to put just one line of text per segment. Each subtitle can span two lines on the screen for a total of 120 characters (including the spaces between words).
Some segmenters are going to make the segments too small so there might be sentence which is broken up into several small segments -- for example I . . . . you .....love. Rather than your subtitling I . .. . you .... love, you should subtitle I . .. love. ....you.
5. Remember that in Korean, pronouns are often dropped or none existent. Very often, I see a sub which sounds stilted like "This person I like". Consider whether it would be more idiomatic to say "I love him" or "I love her" since you know that in Korean pronouns for him, her, or they are rarely used.
6. Remember always that subtitling is an art not a science. Word for word translations sometimes are difficult to understand. We need your thinking input. If subbing was merely a matter of word for word translation, we wouldn't need any human input. If the character says something like 해바! isn't it sometimes more appropriate to sub "Go for it" rather than "I will try it"?
These hints are directed at fairly new subbers. I hope other subbers will add their comments to this discussion.
1) Read the first page of the channel because there is usually a good summary of the main characters. Note the spelling of the main characters' names so that proper names are consistent. For example, although if you hear Oh Ha Ni and Oh Han Ni, they could probably sound the same, the correct name according to the producers is Oh Ha Ni, and the two names would definitely be spelled differently in Hangul. Similarly, "Manbo" and "Mambo" may sound very similar or alike but the Hangul spelling is different.
2) Be always aware that the same word in Korean may have diverse meanings in English. For example 재미있다 means interesting or fun. But in English interesting and fun are two very different words. Pay attention to the context in which the word is said. 아네 as a preposition means, in, at, or on in Korean, but in English, the three words in, at, and on have different nuances. Consider whether "intriguing" or "enjoyable" might be appropriate translations too.
3) Try to be creative. For example if one character says a denigrating word to another character, too often I see the subtitler uses the word "rascal" which is usually not the right word for the situation -- depending on context, use jerk, punk, bad actor, B****d; loser, twit, etc. When a parent is angry at an adult child, in English, they aren't going to call the child a "rascal" -- they are going to say something like ingrate, jerk, brat, spoiled kid, etc.
4. Try your best to translate the entire segment. The segmenters most often do not understand Korean so that very often the segment is going to contain more than one sentence of Korean. Translate all -- not just the first sentence or the last sentence. If you are doing a lot of subbing on the drama, put a note out to the segmenters about your preference -- eg. do you like to put just one line of text per segment. Each subtitle can span two lines on the screen for a total of 120 characters (including the spaces between words).
Some segmenters are going to make the segments too small so there might be sentence which is broken up into several small segments -- for example I . . . . you .....love. Rather than your subtitling I . .. . you .... love, you should subtitle I . .. love. ....you.
5. Remember that in Korean, pronouns are often dropped or none existent. Very often, I see a sub which sounds stilted like "This person I like". Consider whether it would be more idiomatic to say "I love him" or "I love her" since you know that in Korean pronouns for him, her, or they are rarely used.
6. Remember always that subtitling is an art not a science. Word for word translations sometimes are difficult to understand. We need your thinking input. If subbing was merely a matter of word for word translation, we wouldn't need any human input. If the character says something like 해바! isn't it sometimes more appropriate to sub "Go for it" rather than "I will try it"?
Comments
Loading ...