Subtitling question

[solo]

I read a really interesting sub-thread in a convo I can't find again now, but as somebody who's very interested in language, it made me think.

So far in the subtitling, I've privileged English over Chinese because I want stuff to be accessible to people like me, who don't know any Chinese. But even as I get more used to it I become more aware of the nuances and with that, the difficulty of choosing the right words/things to do.

So. Until now, I've always translated 'lao' as 'old' and 'xiao' as 'little'.

But I'm really and truly easy on this - no solution is ever perfect, and I can do a search-replace easily.

Only one question really because the rest will follow.

Poll #21652

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 32

View Respondents

Lao Chu or Old Chu?

View Answers

Lao Chu
22 (68.8%)

Old Chu
7 (21.9%)

other and I will make your life even more complicated with my comment but it's totally worth it
3 (9.4%)

*note I'm not going to turn Zhao Yunlan's 'Hei Lao Ge' into 'Lao Bro Black', that is a step too far into madness for me, and I want people to get the flavour of this thing and also, I'm ultimately doing the subs for me and I like the 'Old Bro Black'.**

**and also, also, it's softsubs so anyone who hates it can change it easily if they care enough.

Comments

[maggie33]

I prefer Lao Chu and Xiao Guo, the same way I prefer, for instance, Hong-jie and Chu-ge instead of sister Hong and brother Chu. But I don’t mind the English version.

[solo]

I'm the same, but I just want stuff to make sense to anglophones, who are generally not among the people most likely to grok foreign languages. I mean, I consider stuff I don't understand a challenge, but many consider it a turn-off, and I don't want to turn anyone off this show.

Point in case, like me, you're not originally anglophone. We need to think of those poor, limited people. :)

[maggie33]

You probably right that there are people who would consider original terms too hard to get through. You know, I often forget that there are people who find it hard to read subtitles, and for some of them all those lao, xiao, gege and didi can be an additional difficulty. :)

[qikiqtarjuaq]

+1. This is exactly where I'm at. I'm subtitling something right now, and my personal approach has been to explain it in the Translator's Notes and then keep the Chinese nomenclature. The -jie and -ge especially don't translate well to "sis" and "bro" in my opinion.

There was a hilarious tangent on this in one of the fic plotting channels (possibly #nsfw) of the Guardian discord a few months back, where someone speculated about porn with "bro" being liberally used in place of 'ge. It was cursed. Hysterically funny but cursed. Like, I just can't divorce the use of "bro" from my mental image of an early 20s douchebro drinking and getting high.

[maggie33]

I'm subtitling something right now, and my personal approach has been to explain it in the Translator's Notes and then keep the Chinese nomenclature.

Yes, I think that the best approach and definitely something I would prefer as a viewer or a reader. And I have the same reaction as you to the word "bro". For me that's just frat douchebag from American movies. :)

[solo]

Maybe I should just drop the -jie and -ge completely. They don't seem to do much, really? Hmmmm.