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

[riventhorn]

I like Lao Chu and Xiao Guo best--once I got used to them and understood them. If it was me, I would like the subtitle to read at first:

Lao Chu (Old Chu)

Do that for the first few times, and then just use Lao Chu going forward.

[solo]

That's a good option, especially since I do .ass (haha yes I know) files where I can put info somewhere else. Will defo keep that in mind!

[teaotter]

That's an interesting point. You can use the subtitles to transition people into the Chinese forms of address.

[trobadora]

Lao Chu (Old Chu)

Ooh, I like this a lot! Making it a gradual transition would help a lot for people completely unfamiliar with Chinese.