Hello! Thanks for your thoughtful comment, and can I say I love your Duke of Mount Deer posts even though Duke of Mount Deer may actually be my least favourite Jin Yong novel. I do unreservedly love the Leong/Lau adaptation though! I'm also a TVB old-school drama watcher from way back and it's great to see someone else so enthusiastic about HK media.
Having subtitled/translated various forms of media, I do think quality of translation carries somewhat less weight in e.g. dramas compared to novels, because a lot of the load-bearing work in the former is done by the non-literary visual elements, the performances, etc, while with novels, the only thing you CAN work with are the words on the page themselves. So on that basis (unsolicited advice alert, feel free to skip!) I'd think it's worthwhile for you to give subtitling a go, especially if you've got someone to beta/edit. Translating is definitely one of those things one gets better at with practice. And selfishly, if it's old-school HK wuxia dramas you plan on subtitling, PLEASE DO THAT so I can finally force my non-Cantonese-fluent friends to watch them, I mean, promote them to my friends!
The last part of your comment is depressing but very true I think. If people have access to MTL, they'll use it. And again I think that's something that disincentivises people from engaging in translation work even if they have the skills to do it.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2023-03-08 08:53 pm (UTC)Having subtitled/translated various forms of media, I do think quality of translation carries somewhat less weight in e.g. dramas compared to novels, because a lot of the load-bearing work in the former is done by the non-literary visual elements, the performances, etc, while with novels, the only thing you CAN work with are the words on the page themselves. So on that basis (unsolicited advice alert, feel free to skip!) I'd think it's worthwhile for you to give subtitling a go, especially if you've got someone to beta/edit. Translating is definitely one of those things one gets better at with practice. And selfishly, if it's old-school HK wuxia dramas you plan on subtitling, PLEASE DO THAT so I can finally force my non-Cantonese-fluent friends to watch them, I mean, promote them to my friends!
The last part of your comment is depressing but very true I think. If people have access to MTL, they'll use it. And again I think that's something that disincentivises people from engaging in translation work even if they have the skills to do it.