Some had been watching the often-autogenerated "closed captions," subtitles intended for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, providing descriptions of sounds, such as gasps, and prompts as to who's speaking.
Yet Deryagin, who also works as a proofreader, says that Squid Game's English subtitles are in fact at a decent standard. Not to mention the other discrepancies in translations of honorifics, such as oppa (translated in the show as "baby") and yeonggam-nim (translated as "sir"). Then there was the lead female character, who came across more intelligent in Korean. Yet, the line "Call me hyung" was translated as "Call me Sang Woo." A rare moment of compassion and humanity, amid all the gloom and gore, was lost. The Haunting of Bly Manor came with a unique set of subtitle challenges. Subtitlers have become a dying breed.Īnd this had been the predicament before the world started watching a little show called Squid Game. Yet the art of subtitling is on the decline, all but doomed in an entertainment industry tempted by cheaper emerging artificial intelligence technologies. Without skilled subtitlers, movies such as historic Oscar winner Parasite are lost in translation. "and they would say we need it by 8 a.m." Sometimes Uludag would be sent a file to translate at 11 p.m. Often, their work goes underappreciated, under the radar. Subtitlers contend with unrealistic expectations, tight deadlines and competition from clunky machine translation. "As you can imagine, with inflation, that's not good." "The rates have not been increased in around 20 years," says Max Deryagin, chair of the British Subtitlers' Association, Subtle, and a representative of AudioVisual Translators Europe. Her extraordinary passion for the work sustained her through the harsh conditions and low pay she would face for the next 15 years. "I'm kind of ashamed to say that the first place I went to was a really bad outsourcer," Uludag says.īack then, Uludag wasn't aware of the "exploitation" prevalent in the subtitling industry. Only later did she discover what that really meant. Sometimes they construct their very own made-up terminology for fantasy worlds or superheroes. Sometimes they take special requests from filmmakers. Sometimes they study the reference material of adaptations. Subtitlers toil for months over the length, timing and nuance behind little words so they unobtrusively run across our screens and allow us to enjoy content from all over the world.
She begged and begged to be taught the art of translating international movies and TV shows for local viewers. Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of movies and a heavy dose of youthful enthusiasm, she knocked on the company's front door. Inspired by a translator uncle, the then second-year university student set out, in person, across the bustling streets of Turkey, determined to get herself a job at a small subtitling company. At 18 years old, Doga Uludag knew she wanted to become a subtitler.