Japanese TV Series for Those Who Are in a Rush
Hello guys ~
As an active translator of Asian shows, I can tell you that our life is NOT as easy as you might think. I know that there were articles on how to join subbing teams and help fans enjoy their marathons in their own mother tongue, but I haven't seen an article about the lifestyle of translators. So here I am with funny memes that perfectly describe translators, whether they work for official drama sites like Dramafever /Viki/Kocowa/VIU etc. or unofficial sites [including the Slovak/Czech site which I work for].
Shall we start?
1. Replay, replay, replay
If you are an active drama fan, then you may have noticed that as the characters grow with each episode, there are often flashbacks which show previous scenes that have happened. Normally, that's absolutely cool if they are not heavily done. As a translator, I always want to translate the flashbacks exactly the same as the original scenes that happened in previous episodes, which can be pretty challenging when you have 20+ episodes and are searching for THAT episode which showed in the flashback! Obviously, many times we give up and just translate it as closely as possible, although with some changes. Also, it’s up to us to decide whether the words are written in normal text or italicized like this.
2. Number of lines
Okay, so I think every translator can relate to this one. If you are working with subtitles and open the files in any translating program, you can see the number of lines the movie or episode has and… sometimes it’s frightening and other times you are screaming in joy. An average drama episode has around 800 lines but there are some happy exceptions like Kiss Me: Rak Long Jai Na Klaeng Joob which only has around 400/500 lines per episode! Keep in mind that when you complain about why the subbers are 'late', THIS can play a big role in the time it takes to sub. Every translator has a different speed and pace and you also have to keep in mind that some shows do NOT have a subbing team, but instead just one fan working solo – like me. Let’s take Viki for example. Viki always has a large Korean -> English subbing team but Spanish? French? German? They mostly work solo without teams, that’s why the long awaited subtitles can take time. Also, not every subber is fit for every drama. Even if you are FLUENT in English, that doesn’t mean that you know everything. I know plenty of English speakers who come and ask other subbers about terms which are not used in daily English, especially terms used in law, business, history and medicine.
And if you are curious which TV series was the hardest for people to translate – line wise, then it’s for sure Because This Is My First Life and Reply 1988 which were like suicide for a solo subber as both projects had around 1200+ lines!!!
3. Happy ending or sad ending?
This applies to all on-going drama translators which try to translate as fast as they can every single week! It’s not easy for solo translators to translate the drama as it airs but it’s not impossible! Just look at me. I did Come and hug me and currently Time all online – applause for me please. Since we translate every week, we DON’T know how the drama ends, which always has us on our toes if we did pick a right project or not. I personally hate sad endings and now I’m like very unsure with Time… The point of number 3 is that even subbers have mixed emotions with dramas they chose. If we translate an ongoing drama we are on our toes, but if it’s an older drama we have the privilege to choose if we want to translate the show despite the ending or not…
4. Wait, so what are we translating?!
This happened to me so many times that I lost the count. I’m still a uni student and a diligent daughter of my amazing mom @Yvette1004, so it’s a given that many people sooner or later realize that in my free time I volunteer with translating shows. The question is always easy – Which shows have you translated? The question is simple, but at the same time very hard. Of course, I tell them Rebel, Circle, EXO Next Door and of course I get the same answer – their blank face. They tell me they never heard of it and when I tell them that those are all Korean shows, their face changes even more. Now they are double confused.
‘’Hold on, do you speak Korean?!’’
‘’How did you find these type of shows?’’
‘’Are they all Asian?’’
Yeah, I often find myself awkwardly smiling and nodding my head and trust me, my inner self is already planning their funeral. I get that they don’t understand, but at least try and use your brain to figure out what I meant by my words. Also, these people are like goldfishes and I often find myself explaining it over and over and over again!
5. Asian games? Olympics? Cancellation?!
You suffer, but we do as well! This year we have witnessed Olympics and I was proudly cheering on Yuzuru Hanyu, my favourite figure skater. But what I had to give up to see him? A load of Korean TV series, which were cancelled because of this big venue going on. I get it! Korea finally held another Olympics after ‘88 and they wanted every Korean to see the broadcast, BUT did they really had to cancel so many TV series? I know that I might be a little selfish, but I would solve it in an easier way. I would air the Olympics on all sport channels and let the dramas air normally. It’s fair to both sport lovers and drama lovers.
The most recent cancellation was Time, The Rich Son, Dunia and upcoming are Sunny Again Tomorrow, Love To The End, Lovely Horribly, Your House Helper, My House husband, Marry Me Now and more... Why? Because of Asian Games 2018.
How do you handle cancellations?
6. The farewell
We, subbers, often consider the shows as our babies, because we spent so much TIME on them that we feel like they belong to us, or are simply part of us forever. But nothing lasts forever and we just HAVE to at some point translate the final episode which often makes us cry. We say goodbye to all our favourite characters and the personality we gave them. Yes, this might sound weird, but every language is unique and sometimes we have to change the original a bit and make the characters sound our way, like we speak in our daily lives. The new languages give the characters' new personalities, that’s why we grow attached to the projects we do. After the final episode, we often encounter slight depression and we even might stop subbing for some time, or another option is to start subbing another project to kinda forget the one we finished not too long ago? I hope it makes sense!
7. Time is our enemy
I started subbing when I was 12 I guess, and I was homeschooled so I can tell you that I had a LOT of time to sub, so I didn’t have any problem with finishing the series in a month, but as I grew older I realized that adult life sucks so bad! Currently I am a uni student and I have summer vacations which lasts 3 months (don’t curse me because we have hard exams) so I can translate a LOT of projects, but once the university starts the time is against my translating addiction. Since I'm at school from 8 till 6 in the evening, I have time to sub between classes, in the class or when I get home when I’m on the edge of dying from exhaustion! That’s why subbing a 20 episode Korean drama can take up to 3 MONTHS! Yeah, I’m talking about solo translators, okay? Since a show has on average 800 lines, then I do 100 lines a day and it makes what? 8 days to translate ONE episode. So yeah, you can calculate the rest. That’s why a LOT of solo subbers are very inactive during the September - June period. But don’t worry, once summer hits, we will come back with a BLAST! One time someone told me that it’s like waiting for BTS comeback. You know it comes, but you are not sure when and what it brings. We all know the midnights…
If you are reading this, then I congratulate you because you have reached the end of my article about the translators lifestyle. Of course, there are more memes which describe our lives so tell me in the comments if you enjoyed this article and perhaps want to see part 2!
P.S.: All pictures belong to their rightful owners I just borrowed them.
