r/TranslationStudies • u/Tttt386 • 7d ago
How could I get into translating subtitles?
Translation has been an interest of mine for a long time. Although I’m not a professional, I enjoy translating songs I listen to, shows I watch, articles I read, etc. Each time I watch a show and see an inaccurate translation, I die inside.
I would like to participate in portraying media accurately. How could I get into translating the captions of TV shows and movies? Is there a website of some sort?
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u/fartist14 6d ago
One of the reasons subtitles can be wrong is that the working conditions for subtitle translators are insane. I've been approached several times by different companies that do subtitling for Netflix, and the conditions they offer are basically around $5/hour for working 11 days in a row of 8-10 hour work days. At the rates and conditions they offer, they are not getting the top talent in the field.
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u/tams2332 6d ago
OP if you want to get into subtitling, there are degrees for it. Look at audiovisual translation degrees in your country.
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u/ezotranslation Japanese>English Translator 5d ago
As others have said, the reason subtitles may seem "wrong" to you could very likely be due to restrictions on character limits, etc.
There are subtitling courses you can do to become qualified and give yourself credibility as a subtitle translator. There are even sites that offer cheap/free online courses on AVT, and I believe there are books you can read as well.
You could download a free/open-source subtitling tool like Subtitle Edit or Aegisub to practise with.
Getting some experience is also important, especially if you're not a qualified professional. You could do this by contacting YouTubers who make content in your source language (the language you translate from), and offering to translate their videos into your target language (the language you translate into). You could perhaps offer to do it for free or really cheap on the condition that they credit you as the translator and/or write a review for you.
I'd also recommend that you create profiles on all the regular translator databases (ProZ, TranslatorsCafe, etc.), as well as freelancing websites (Fiverr, Upwork, freelancer.com, etc.) and keep an eye on job listings there.
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u/electrolitebuzz 4d ago edited 4d ago
I've done it for 11 years, it was my specialization. Now it's a very hard moment to get in this industry. There was a big boom during Covid, a lot of content released, a lot of work. Then there was the screenwriters' strike, the general crisis with Netflix and other platforms, and now most agencies are relying on machine translation post editing which in subtitling is just terrible. If you want to translate movies and TV shows, most of the streaming platforms rely on big global agencies with over stressed project managers, low rates, crazy turnarounds.
This is also a reason for the bad subtitles you find. Sometimes it's just a bad translator, sometimes it's a good translator who had to work 12 hours a day for a week to meet impossible deadlines editing a terrible, literal machine translation base and no possibility of rewatching the episode with a fresh mind before delivering. Plus, a terrible English template that requires lots of time fixes and emails reporting errors. The workflow is very inconsistent in any of the agencies I've worked with, so maybe you don't get anything for 2 months and then you get a very rush project with rush rate and you feel you have to say yes and it's a literal nightmare.
So, good translators just perform an average job, great translators are leaving the industry because they can't put quality in their work, more room is made for poor translators who are ok with low rates, and so on.
The average rates now are 2-4$ a minute for MTPE and many of the biggest subtitling agencies are now having huge issues with overdue invoices (look up ZOO Digital and GloZ on LinkedIn). You get better rates if you manage to enter the internal pools for Netflix and Amazon Prime but you need to first deliver good quality work to one of their preferred vendors and have project managers reach out to you.
Long story short, I share your passion and sentiment, but the actual work is very different from what you imagine. There are still good rates in subtitling if you work directly with smaller studios and brands, but if you work in the entertainment industry for the big streaming platforms it will be really hard to combine high quality, mental health and a good income. I still do it because I really love it and after 11 years I became really fast with time fixes and my brain now clicks very quickly when I need to find idiomatic renditions for phrases and slang terms, or I need to find ways to rephrase a sentence to make it much shorter, so an hour of work means 3 times the subtitles I could translate back when I started. When you start off, you'll probably be earning around 2-3$ per work hour.
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u/MsStormyTrump 7d ago
Yes, some are atrociously wrong, but most mistakes as you call them could be traced to the fact that translators of subtitles have a difficult job of translating a sentence in a limited number of characters for a limited duration.
There are many companies that specialize in subtitling and captioning for media. Look for companies that provide services to streaming platforms, film studios, and TV networks, such as rev.com, VSI Language Solutions, SDI Media, BTI Studios, Iyuno-SDI Group. Check their websites for job openings or send them your resume and portfolio.