Translating dramas isn’t just about changing words from one language to another, it’s about capturing emotions, cultural nuances, and untranslatable expressions that make each scene come alive. Volunteer translators on Rakuten Viki face unique challenges, especially when dealing with complex phrases, wordplay, or culturally specific terms that don’t have a direct equivalent in another language. Some terms leave translators scratching their heads, while others require deep dives into historical or linguistic research to get just right.
Curious about the trickiest terms our community has encountered, we asked fellow translators from VCC: What was the most challenging term you had to translate? The responses were both insightful and entertaining, showcasing the dedication, creativity, and problem-solving skills that go into every subtitle. Below, we’re sharing some of their most memorable experiences, perhaps you’ve faced similar challenges yourself!
💙 shraddhasingh
Not a term, but an entire drama. Melancholia was my toughest project. Melancholia is a high school drama focusing mainly on math prodigies. I studied in English medium schools. So I never got any exposure to Hindi mathematical terms. As a translator there, I could not just leave English mathematical terms in subtitles knowing my audience. I know my audience well, and I know that majority of them would have studied in Hindi medium schools.
Prior to working on Melancholia, I was not well educated enough to know Hindi terms. I only knew "integrals", "formulas", "theorems", "axioms", "equations", "graphs,", "square roots," etc in English. What are they called in Hindi? I had no idea.
I went and searched for my Finals question paper of Class 12th Maths, because the Class 12th Finals in India are conducted at a national level, and the question papers are in Hindi and in English to accommodate for different language medium schools. Luckily, I still had those question papers. That saved me a lot of time, but I still had difficulties. I sometimes used to search the entire Internet for a single term. I would go through multiple dictionaries, Wikipedia pages, PDFs of Govt school books to get one term right.
The project was difficult, but I learned a lot. It opened my eyes about how little I know about my own language.
No matter how much you know, you always know so little.
💙 dimghro
Given the specifics of our activity, namely subbing so many different vocabularies from various domains, I can't think of just one specific term. But I can say for sure some categories of terms are always tricky to translate into Romanian. And those are usually about birds/animal/fish species and plant families. The most recent one was ”Myna” (a bird native to Iran and Southern Asia), with no official translation into Romanian, but thanks to the ChatGPT and some personal research I could find a proper and logical translation.Most of the time, I can find the Romanian correspondent, but there is always that one term that makes me become a researcher 😂. Before the ChatGPT era, it was always an adventure since there were not so many up-to-date Romanian websites with all the needed material about the mentioned categories. Also, for a long period already, many foreign websites have offered translated versions of their websites so I must be very careful with the source to make sure that it's actually a Romanian one and not just a translated one with no link with an official translation for Romanian. But as I mentioned, now we are in the ChatGPT era, and this part of subbing has become much easier. Of course, I never go blindly with what AI gives me but I always do a second verification on Google to see if what AI gave me is official or at least a very used translation in my language.I can also add the category of abbreviations, especially when there is no documentation from the English team in the Team Notes section of the Viki editor. Even though I have ChatGPT now, this category continues to be complicated. Sometimes I take a look at other subtitles, like Spanish and Italian which are the most similar to the Romanian language and I can get an idea of what could be, but usually, I end up searching on all kinds of websites from Google to find the full form of an abbreviate term.So yeah, it's never just one term, but it's always many terms and I think that each responsible subber should take their time to do research, especially now when we have so many AI apps around us and we can easily be tricked that any of their answers is the right one. I can share from my experience that even these AI apps can give you the wrong answers. So I always encourage everyone to also make their own and a proper research. And there are only 2 very important reasons for this: providing high-quality subtitles and enriching your overall knowledge.
💙 tony83n_283
Challenging? It was my nightmare: Falling Into Your Smile. I'm not so young, so the game terminology is way too much for me. I am sure dimghro burst into laughter many times, as I was asking „Hey, how can I translate this one?” 🤣 I don't think I will try again this kind of tv show.
💙 binesan
A most challenging term for me is not so much an single word but the phrases and figure of speech-sentences that are sometimes the one thing that make the difference between an AI and "real people" translating.I love translating those expressions into my language as I notice there are often similarities even though there is a language barrier (and sometimes there is no similar expression at all in my language so I can add a Note to explain a seemingly "funny" sentence).Sometimes I even screenshot them for my own archive of "funny sentences" or to share them with the team so everyone has a chuckle. Out of those I can offer some for your amusement (with the literal translation afterwards so maybe you can feel how weird language is sometimes 😅)."It's a close race." -> "Das ist ein knappes Höschen." ("This is a tight panty.")"She looks pretty, but she's so ugly inside." -> "Außen hui, innen pfui." ("Outside wow, inside meh.")"Yes. He's like my breath." -> "Ja. Er ist wie mein Name an der Tür." ("Yes. He is like my name at the door." [Innuendo to an old German Song about love.])And while going down memory lane there is another challenging term - the flirting. Sometimes there are wordplays in english or the original language that don't work in our language yet I want to translate as accurate to the series so I found a little gem and tried to translate literally for you too to understand."- The tea. / - Yes. / - Give me a sip of tea. / - My tea? / - Your beau-tea." -> "- Zieh. / - Ja. / - Weißt du, wie du ziehst? / - Ich ziehe? / - Du Gra-zie." ("- Pull. / - Yes. / - You know how you pull? / - I pull? / - You georgeous.")I love those little phrases. 💟
💙 trangstar888
Translating can be a wild ride, but my toughest challenges often come from historical dramas. Sometimes it takes a few hours to research and make decision on terms to use depending on genre. Modern shows? A breeze… everyone just says "bro," "boss," or "dude." But costume dramas? Suddenly, you’re knee-deep in royal titles like Imperial Father, Regal Father, Your Highness, Grand Minister of the Left/Right, which somehow needs to sound natural in English without sounding like you're reading a medieval fantasy novel.Then there's vocabulary, some languages have one word that packs in layers of meaning, while English needs a whole sentence to explain it. Take 孝顺 (Xiàoshùn), it’s not just "filial piety," but a deep-rooted sense of duty, respect, and care for one’s parents and elders. English speakers might just say "being a good son or daughter," but that barely scratches the surface. Meanwhile, grammar can be a puzzle. A phrase like "你吃饭了吗?" ("You eat rice already?") makes perfect sense in Chinese, but English smooths it into "Have you eaten?" so it doesn’t sound like a caveman talking.Here are some tricky examples where a direct translation just wouldn’t cut it:Titles & Addresses:
- Korean: 대감 (Daegam) → Instead of "Great Noble Sir," it’s more natural as "Your Excellency."
- Japanese: 殿 (Dono) → Directly, it’s "Lord," but sometimes "Sir" or "Master" sounds smoother.
- Chinese: 老爷 (Lǎoye) → Literally "Old Master," but for English audiences, "Master" or "Lord" feels more natural.
Vocabulary:
- Korean: 정 (Jeong) → A deep emotional bond, no perfect English equivalent, often reworded as "unspoken connection" or "deep affection."
- Japanese: もったいない (Mottainai) → Literally "wasteful," but English often needs extra context like "What a waste!"
- Chinese: 面子 (Miànzi) → Directly "face," but we say "saving face" to mean preserving reputation.
Grammar Differences:
- Korean: 나는 밥을 먹고 잤다 ("I rice ate and slept") → Natural English: "I ate and then went to sleep."
- Japanese: 昨日、友達と映画を見に行った ("Yesterday, friend with movie watch go"), but we’d say "I went to see a movie with a friend yesterday."
- Chinese: 你吃饭了吗? ("You eat rice already?"), but in English, "Have you eaten?" sounds more natural.
Idioms Gone Wild:
- Korean: 닭 쫓던 개 지붕 쳐다본다 → "A dog chasing a chicken can only look at the roof." (Means "someone who failed and can only watch.")
- Chinese: 骑虎难下 → "Riding a tiger, hard to get off." (We say "Stuck between a rock and a hard place.")
- Japanese: 猿も木から落ちる → "Even monkeys fall from trees." (Similar to "Even pros make mistakes.”)
The real trick? Making these sound so seamless that no one ever stops to wonder, "Wait, why is there a tiger in this conversation?" 😆The trick to great translation and overcoming challenges? It’s not just about swapping words, it’s about capturing the meaning, culture, and vibe so that everything feels natural, whether you're watching a royal court drama or a sci-fi action flick. Because let’s be real… no one wants a hero saying "Great Person, I eat rice already," in the middle of a dramatic battle scene. 😆
Language is constantly evolving, and translation is a never-ending learning process. Have you ever struggled with a term that seemed impossible to translate? We’d love to hear about it! Share your most challenging translation experiences in the comments below and join the conversation with fellow language enthusiasts. 🚀✨
