Proofreading of subtitles Thread poster: Lotta Rodin Lundberg
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I would like to offer my proofreading skills to whomever subtitles lengthy tv-series like Deadliest Catch and Law & Order:SVU. After I binged DC I was appauled by the horrifying inconsistency in translation of the ”lingo”. I would have thought that a translator looked back at a few episodes to see how previous translators had tackled the problem but no. Same with SVU. If I were to subtitle a cop tv-series I would not translate the word ”slug” with snail. I guess there are programs and to... See more I would like to offer my proofreading skills to whomever subtitles lengthy tv-series like Deadliest Catch and Law & Order:SVU. After I binged DC I was appauled by the horrifying inconsistency in translation of the ”lingo”. I would have thought that a translator looked back at a few episodes to see how previous translators had tackled the problem but no. Same with SVU. If I were to subtitle a cop tv-series I would not translate the word ”slug” with snail. I guess there are programs and tools that help with subtitling but a good proofreader will do all the difference!
Thoughts on this, and where I should turn to offer my services? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Gerard de Noord 
France
Local time: 22:30
Member (2003)
English to Dutch
+ ...
| Thanks, but thanks | Apr 30, 2023 |
Lotta Rodin Lundberg wrote: I would like to offer my proofreading skills to whomever subtitles lengthy tv-series like Deadliest Catch and Law & Order:SVU. After I binged DC I was appauled by the horrifying inconsistency in translation of the ”lingo”. I would have thought that a translator looked back at a few episodes to see how previous translators had tackled the problem but no. Same with SVU. If I were to subtitle a cop tv-series I would not translate the word ”slug” with snail. I guess there are programs and tools that help with subtitling but a good proofreader will do all the difference! Thoughts on this, and where I should turn to offer my services?
Hi Lotta,
You're not the only one who discovers mistakes in subtitles, but that’s not enough to make proofreading your profession.
Cheers,
Gerard
| | | | | apply as a translator/proofreader by all means | Apr 30, 2023 |
But translators usually cannot look back to check previous episodes, they only have access to the episodes they are working on, and sometimes the ones that are already done by another translator (a season is usually translated by a few translator in a few days/a week). But we do have access to glossaries (most of the time) and then one QCer(proofreader) checks the whole season/season. So if you find inconsistencies that's on the QCer for not doing their job well but on the translator as well for... See more But translators usually cannot look back to check previous episodes, they only have access to the episodes they are working on, and sometimes the ones that are already done by another translator (a season is usually translated by a few translator in a few days/a week). But we do have access to glossaries (most of the time) and then one QCer(proofreader) checks the whole season/season. So if you find inconsistencies that's on the QCer for not doing their job well but on the translator as well for not checking the glossary/doing a bad job in general.
Also, you cannot just start working as a proofreader right away or as someone who only does proofreading, at least I don't think so, you have to work as a subtitle translator first (for at least a year....) and prove that you know what you're doing (subtitle translation has its own set of rules too) before they let you correct others' works.
[Edited at 2023-05-01 13:53 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Thanks, but NO thanks | Apr 30, 2023 |
I wanted to get information on how subtitling is handled by different streaming companies and I thought this would be a good place to ask. I never said proofreading is my profession, does that impact the answer?
Back to my question:
Anyone know whether streaming companies usually have longterm agreements with an agency or if they have their own translators? Recently I’ve begun to suspect that it’s all made by AI - way too many sentences are just translated word by word wit... See more I wanted to get information on how subtitling is handled by different streaming companies and I thought this would be a good place to ask. I never said proofreading is my profession, does that impact the answer?
Back to my question:
Anyone know whether streaming companies usually have longterm agreements with an agency or if they have their own translators? Recently I’ve begun to suspect that it’s all made by AI - way too many sentences are just translated word by word with no consideration for grammar. ▲ Collapse
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| It´s not easy | May 1, 2023 |
I use the subtitles when watching Swedish TV, as I can read it but often have difficulty with spoken Swedish. (My language of habitual use is Danish).
Actually, I am more often impressed with how well the subtitlers find solutions to difficult problems, although admittedly there are what we call bøffer now and then. I know a couple of Danish colleagues who do subtitling, and the names of a lot more!
If you contact the Swedish Association of Professional Translat... See more I use the subtitles when watching Swedish TV, as I can read it but often have difficulty with spoken Swedish. (My language of habitual use is Danish).
Actually, I am more often impressed with how well the subtitlers find solutions to difficult problems, although admittedly there are what we call bøffer now and then. I know a couple of Danish colleagues who do subtitling, and the names of a lot more!
If you contact the Swedish Association of Professional Translators, SFÖ -- https://sfoe.se/sv -- they can probably tell you who really knows about it in Sweden. Subtitling is still an area that the bots are not going to take over in the next five years, so it is worth looking into, but don' t imagine it is easy or always well paid! ▲ Collapse
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My daughter-in-law started her professional career as a subtitler. Dismal pay and harsh work conditions made her move to another profession: nutritionist.
| | | | Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
The problem is that the clients/agencies are supposed to provide the audiovisual translators with a KNP (key names and phrases) list to maintain consistency across episodes of a TV series. But just like the dialogue list and combined continuity document, this is unfortunately more of a luxury than the norm. When we’re talking about a series that runs for years or even decades (e.g. South Park), it’s highly unlikely the entire show was handled by the same audiovisual translator, or even the s... See more The problem is that the clients/agencies are supposed to provide the audiovisual translators with a KNP (key names and phrases) list to maintain consistency across episodes of a TV series. But just like the dialogue list and combined continuity document, this is unfortunately more of a luxury than the norm. When we’re talking about a series that runs for years or even decades (e.g. South Park), it’s highly unlikely the entire show was handled by the same audiovisual translator, or even the same agency, for that matter. These documents are such crucial pieces of information which often get ignored in way too many cases. Combine this not-so-professional practice of the industry with a linguist whose cultural literacy leaves a lot to be desired, and disasters are bound to happen.
It might be advantageous to get acquainted with AVTE and its member associations. For your target language, Medietextarna is the relevant organization under AVTE’s umbrella. You can also express your interests about subtitling in this megathread.
HTH, FWIW.
Christine Andersen wrote:
Subtitling is still an area that the bots are not going to take over in the next five years, so it is worth looking into
There have been attempts to turn subtitling assignments into MTPE. Isn’t that adorable? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Most into-English subtitling is good | May 1, 2023 |
I'm often struck by the fact that the majority of translation ranges from imperfect to downright bad, but this is not generally the case with subtitles. They must have very good quality control.
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| Thank you for your answers! | May 2, 2023 |
I really appreciate your input, it gave me some additional insight into the works of translators and QCers and the fact that there’s a KNP.
| | | | socapro (X)
United States
| I have a somewhat related question | Jun 3, 2023 |
I have a somewhat related question
I have document sets originally written in different source languages (lets say German) that I want to translate into a pretty arbitrary set of target languages (lets assume en, fr, it, sv, es, pt.
We will use DeepL as a translation engine and have glossaries setup. We will also manually review all content once machine translated to assure accuracy and tone.
My question, with the random language skills I have (de, en, es, ... See more I have a somewhat related question
I have document sets originally written in different source languages (lets say German) that I want to translate into a pretty arbitrary set of target languages (lets assume en, fr, it, sv, es, pt.
We will use DeepL as a translation engine and have glossaries setup. We will also manually review all content once machine translated to assure accuracy and tone.
My question, with the random language skills I have (de, en, es, some sv, some pt), I have some understanding of similarities and root of languages.
With that it would seem to me that there could be an advantage in the above example to first translate German to Spanish — then do a Review — and then translate the reviewed Spanish version to Portuguese expecting an outcome with less review effort.
Similarly I would directly translate from German to Swedish but also translate the German content first into English and review it there before translating it into fr or it. The latter is based on the believe that the translation engines have been most trained in English and generate the best results with English as a source language (in my case reviewed translated content from German).
Is that individual sequencing of translations and reviews indeed of value and if so are there resources/best practices/own recommendations on how to sequence?
Or do translation engines these days do all of that magic somehow internal and its just overhead in our workflow? ▲ Collapse
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