This is Why I Hate Fan Subs/Translations

Discussion in 'TV/Movies Discussion' started by Wujigege, Apr 20, 2022.

  1. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    upload_2022-4-20_19-22-51.png The character says 'dorobo neko'
    But the translator felt that it did not carry enough punch so he butchered the translations to fit what he wanted and opted for 'fkn slut'

    I believe some novel translators are guilty of this too. It is so annoying

    @otaku31 @youseiki @mir
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2022
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  2. Senros

    Senros Well-Known Member

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    Maybe it was the same person? Or their child? Though the keikaku one feels more professional. The translator saying "whatevs"... brah... that really is just doing whatever they want. But sadly, professional translation don't guarantee, that it will be the most accurate translation. They are, on average, a lot better, but some are still pretty crappy.
    [​IMG]
     
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  3. Undying Winter

    Undying Winter ❅ Avid Enjoyer of Trash ❅

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    Adding on to that, why do some of them choose like the most garish colour-combinations for the subtitles?

    Just imagine peacefully watching a drama at night and it has [​IMG]
    that makes you want to gouge out your eyes right then and there:blobsleepless: honestly though, what do they have against that simple white text with black background colour-combo? ​
     
  4. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    Yeah, I watched a drama subbed by Dramafever and with my poor Chinese, I could point out mistakes.
    Netflix subs usually have sentences summarized which is just horrible. I don't get how people claim that they learned a language through subtitles.

    I do not expect a perfect job but changing what the characters say is just annoying
     
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  5. aegis062

    aegis062 Chaotic Demon Emperor

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    the true goal of a translator is to covey the authors work with as little changes as possible making the translator invisible as if it was written by the author himself.

    The reality is that most translators use words they like instead of the correct word and that basically changes the context of that sentence or it's true meaning entirely.
     
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  6. SwordEmpress

    SwordEmpress Well-Known Member

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    Ikr!! It feels horrible when sometimes I see the characters talking and talking but only one sentence for the whole 30secs!!
    And then their is butchering Xiao or little all the time in the novels and sometimes adding the original names or sometimes something so strange, every time I get *bruh wutt???!!!* feeling
     
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  7. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    I kind of feel for them messing up pet names like Xiao but Noona means big sister. It is not rocket science.

    The character says: 'Noona'
    The subtitle says :' Hong Nanhee'
    I use to get so confused.

    I saw it recently in a drama where the character definitely says 'Hajima..'
    It means don't.. I believe she says 'don't follow me'
    But instead the translation is :

    upload_2022-4-23_10-52-29.png

    If I was learning Korean from this then I would really be screwed

    https://myseouldream.com/2013/02/05/hajima-and-kajima/
     
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  8. SwordEmpress

    SwordEmpress Well-Known Member

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    Ikr!! I have noticed many similar things across KDramas, CDramas, JDramas, and ThaiDramas. But thank god I know Hindi so some of the bizarre translations don't get to me except for roasting the subbers. You know people could edit the subs in Youtube before but now they closed that thing
     
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  9. Kaylee

    Kaylee Well-Known Member

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    Sometimes, when I watched jdrama and confused when I read the sub. A called B with B's family name, but the sub was B's first name. Or when a subordinate called his supervisor with -san or title like chief, but the translation was the direct name.
    I got annoyed.
     
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  10. phobos

    phobos Well-Known Member

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    if you are totally reliant of the translations like me
    its mostly about is it fluent to read 2nd to that might be does it make sense but thats a rather weak point
    first point mostly matters with mtls (unendited) if i could tell if they are exact or bullshitting me i wouldnt need subtitels at all ;)

    also im never sure if something sounds bad/doesnt make sense is it because of the author, the translator, the editor or perhaps a hard to translate term/idiom
    thought thats mostly for novels as they are often sold with chapter unlocks etc
    while fansubs are mostly free done in their free time they arent payed for it alow me to watch something and mostly get whats its about so i wouldnt be so hard on them if its about taking fansubs and selling them or bad "professional" translations i wouldnt be so forgiving
    (than again you would need to be able to tell good from bad translations apart)
     
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  11. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    My example is not about being ungrateful.

    It is just the subber being an ass.

    The character said"dorobo neko" which means "you thieving cat"

    But the subber entered "you fking slut"

    This has nothing to do with me not being appreciative. It is just disrespectful to the content to change things as you see fit.
    It is fanfiction at this point
     
  12. phobos

    phobos Well-Known Member

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    there are quite a few other annoying things too i almost found it impressive when every male was a she and ever female a he full 100% error rate even worse for me are inconsitencies "they are on good terms" 30 secs later "they are on bad terms" just to be on "good terms" again another 10 sec later so what was it ? in chinese there seems to be a problem with numbers/sizes sometimes it feels like it was "huge" originally and someone just entered some random "huge" mumber just to choose another huge number the next time
    today i had to read a 3m tall bear wouldnt have much pelt at most enough for a single armshine ...
     
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  13. phobos

    phobos Well-Known Member

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    are you sure about that ? must it be translators malicious intend behind it ?
    i could also believe that there might be some missing skills involved
    or the translator tried to catch the intend rather the exact words
    take your "thieving cat" its no term or speach pattern/concenpt i ran across in english before - so what is it about ? stealing a boyfriend? the term that would be used than might be indeed as done in the translation
    is it disrespectful to try matching your audience/readers terms ? does a translation need for example every kun san etc ? as it in itself dont carry any meaning for a "normal" english reader
    so where would you draw the line? what would you expect from your audience ?

    just take a look at "tsundere" wide used term but is there the same concept in english language ? do you get the full definition (cant remember that ever being the case) so your first time watcher reader has to stop and google the term ? is it fun to watch/read if the flow gets terminated every 5 secs to google something ? would that make it a good translation? even more as the asian languages i ran about dont seems to be exact to the word but partly about interpretation anyway so a translatorchange might be a rather big crisis if no name no location etc remains the same and you go on with "whos that?" "wheres that"? etc

    im not saying there arent bad translations or translators i just dont know if everything is so "black" as you seems to paint it
     
  14. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    I am not trying to paint everything as black.

    I attached the screenshot at the top, you should look at it.

    You seem to underestimate the god complex of fansubbers. I have been involved in that community for over a decade.
    It is a slang yes but most importantly this is a drama or rather a direct quote from a character.

    Imagine if a famous line like "You are already dead" from Fist Of the Northern Star was changed to " You have been slapped as fkk" by the fansubber to add more flavor or pizzazz to the translation?

    My Japanese isn't great but I know for a fact that thieving cat doesn't mean fking slut.

    And this is not a one off, the dude is just an ass, calling characters "bitches" or "sluts" whenever he wants in the subtitles.

    The halo that you are placing on fansubbers is grossly misplaced
     
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  15. Kaylee

    Kaylee Well-Known Member

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    Maybe the subber was just too lazy to search for the correct english and just 'whatevs'.
    Do you think it should be translated literally?
    I think, if it translated to bitch is okay.
     
  16. Ral

    Ral Not a Well-Known Member ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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    How sure are you that the words translators chose wouldn't be what the authors would've used if they could?

    Call it censorship or whatever, but I'm pretty sure you can't just publish whi8chever words you like. It might be even worse with dramas.

    I remember my English teacher saying that words such as "fck" and "cnt" can't be said on TV (depending on the time slot/the show's rating, of course).
    And I remember watching some How I Met Your Mother Christmas episode where the writers made fun of these rules, really exaggerating the use of their "proper substitutes". "[something something]... [pause]... Fudge!", "She turned into a real... [pause] Grinch." (etc).
    Obviously "Grinch" isn't an actual substitute for "cnt", but since it was an X-mas episode, it was a good idea.
     
  17. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    You are both missing the point. I need to point out that I have some understanding of the language.

    1 The character says " thieving cat" and he enters "fkning slut". It's not the same as replacing" fudge" with the f word because that is what the character really meant to say.

    2 When he calls a character a " bitch" he was injecting his thoughts into the drama and giving his opinion on characters. The same way he entered "lol" repeatedly because he found a scene funny.

    You cannot defend that lol

    I know translators have a halo but I have been involved in subbing for over a decade. Many are just assholes with a god complex
     
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  18. Archy12th

    Archy12th Well-Known Member

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    :blobcry:

    now we just gotta learn the language:blobcheeky:
     
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  19. Ral

    Ral Not a Well-Known Member ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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    I didn't quote the change dialog, because I wasn't objecting to your words.

    I was only speaking in general that what's written/said isn't necessarily what the author would've used if they weren't limited by whatever rules they are forced to abide by in their countries.

    And yes, I've seen many fansubs and scanlations where editors inserted their opinions about the scene. I've even seen it in webnovels, which made me immediately drop such series (keep your opinions till the end of chapter and don't ruin my experience).
    I agree that all unnecessary changes are aggravating, but I don't necessarily mind replacing "safe insults" with more nasty ones.

    I know that mistranslations and omissions are sometimes even worse. While I wouldn't be able to tell with Asian series, I've heard plenty of such examples in the TV shows and movies translated in my country (so no- the problem isn't limited to fansubs/translations). Which is why I've stopped watching/reading OEL works translated into my language.
     
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  20. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    I am talking about this specific example not in general so it's irrelevant.
    I am calling out bad apples. Implying that I am talking in general is just whataboutism.

    It is no different from me praising a gold medalist and people start talking about the dude who came in last.

    Let's stick to bad actors.

    I was so confused by a novel translation that I came across one of my favourite articles on Japanese phrases:
    https://injapan.gaijinpot.com/uncategorized/2013/05/21/high-tension/