Working As A Subtitle Translator for Netflix And My Career Journey
Summary
TLDRSue shares her five-year journey as a subtitle translator, detailing her start in the field, the challenges of inconsistent pay and project availability, and the transition to working with major platforms like Netflix. She highlights the difficulties of freelance work, the stress of tight deadlines, and the disconnect between her significant experience and corporate job recognition. Sue's narrative offers insight into the realities of working in online translation and her decision to pursue further education over continuing in the industry.
Takeaways
- 😀 Sue has five years of experience as a subtitle translator and has worked with major channels.
- 🎬 She became interested in subtitle translation after watching movies and noticing discrepancies in translations.
- 🌐 Sue started her career in subtitle translation by volunteering at the World Youth Congress and was introduced to the field by a fellow volunteer.
- 🛠 She used the software 'Subtitle Workshop' to create subtitles and initially worked on lesser-known TV series.
- 💰 Early in her career, Sue struggled with the low pay and high workload of subtitle translation, which led her to quit for a time.
- 📚 She returned to translation work when a friend needed help with documentary episodes without scripts, which eventually led to paid work.
- 📺 Sue translated episodes for popular shows like 'The Office' and her work appeared on DVDs sold in stores, which was a rewarding experience.
- 🌐 She also worked on content for various channels including Sundance, Discovery, Travel, and Food Network, eventually translating dubbing scripts as well.
- 📈 Sue had the opportunity to work with Netflix, Turkey, translating a variety of shows including 'Gossip Girl' and 'RuPaul's Drag Race'.
- 💼 Despite the satisfaction of her work, Sue faced challenges with inconsistent pay, strict deadlines, and the freelance nature of the job affecting her personal life.
- 🏆 Working for BBC, Turkey was a highlight of her career, providing a sense of accomplishment and prestige.
- 🚫 The freelance nature of subtitle translation made it difficult for Sue to transition to full-time corporate jobs, as her experience was not always recognized.
- 📉 She decided to stop subtitle translating due to the inconsistent income, project availability, and the inability to maintain a regular schedule.
- 🔍 Netflix offers an online test for potential subtitle translators, which Sue took and scored well on, but it didn't guarantee work due to high competition.
- 🔗 For those interested, Sue recommends taking the Netflix test for subtitle translation work as a potential opportunity.
Q & A
What is the main topic of Sue's video?
-The main topic of Sue's video is her five-year experience working as a subtitle translator online.
Why did Sue initially get interested in subtitle translation?
-Sue initially got interested in subtitle translation because she was curious about the process of subtitling movies, especially after watching them in theaters.
What is the difference between 'notion' and 'word-for-word' translation according to Sue?
-According to Sue, 'notion' translation is more about conveying the overall meaning of the original text, while 'word-for-word' translation focuses on translating each word directly, with subtitling falling into the category of 'notion' translation.
How did Sue get her start in the subtitle translation field?
-Sue got her start in the subtitle translation field by volunteering at the World Youth Congress, where a fellow volunteer helped her join a popular Turkish platform as a subtitle translator.
What software did Sue use for her subtitle translation work?
-Sue used the software 'Subtitle Workshop' for her subtitle translation work.
Why did Sue initially give up on subtitle translation work?
-Sue initially gave up on subtitle translation work because it was too much work for not being paid.
What TV series did Sue translate and what was special about this experience?
-Sue translated episodes of 'The Office' (US version with Steve Carell), and it was special because her work appeared on DVDs sold in stores, which was satisfying and fulfilling for her.
What challenges did Sue face while working as a subtitle translator?
-Sue faced challenges such as inconsistent pay, strict deadlines, and the inability to have a proper schedule, which affected her personal life and health.
How did Sue's work with Netflix come about?
-Sue's work with Netflix came about when a production company she was working for started receiving projects from Netflix, and she translated various shows including 'Gossip Girl' and 'Teen Wolf'.
What was the most demotivating aspect of Sue's subtitle translation work?
-The most demotivating aspect of Sue's subtitle translation work was the realization of how much more the production companies profited from her work compared to her pay, and the lack of job security and benefits.
Why did Sue decide to stop working as a subtitle translator?
-Sue decided to stop working as a subtitle translator due to inconsistent pay, lack of project opportunities, and the inability to maintain a proper life schedule.
What advice does Sue give to those interested in subtitle translation work?
-Sue advises those interested in subtitle translation work to take the test provided by Netflix directly, as it offers a chance to work with them and potentially receive better pay.
Outlines
😀 Introduction to Subtitle Translation Career
Sue introduces her video channel and dives into her five-year experience as a subtitle translator. She discusses her initial interest in the field, sparked by her curiosity about movie translations and the challenges of 'notion to notion' translation. She explains the importance of translating for a diverse audience with varying language comprehension. Sue shares her journey starting as a volunteer at the World Youth Congress, where she was introduced to the profession by a fellow volunteer. She began her career using the software 'Subtitle Workshop' and eventually faced the reality of the demanding and often underpaid nature of the work.
📚 Advancing in Subtitle Translation and Challenges
The second paragraph details Sue's progression in the subtitle translation field, including her first paid projects translating documentaries without scripts. She mentions translating popular shows like 'The Office' and her work being featured on DVDs sold in stores. Sue also discusses the variety of her work, which ranged from independent movies on the Sundance Channel to content for Discovery, Travel, and Food Network channels. She highlights the transition from subtitling to translating dubbing scripts, which was less rewarding financially but necessary for income stability. Her favorite project was translating for 'Chopped' and 'Iron Chef' on the Food Network. The paragraph concludes with her work for a production company that collaborated with Netflix, marking a high point in her career.
🌐 The Reality of Freelance Subtitle Translation Work
In this paragraph, Sue addresses the harsh realities of working as a freelance subtitle translator. She talks about the inconsistent pay and project opportunities, which led to her decision to leave the field. She shares her experience with the stress and health implications of tight deadlines, including all-nighters and the impact on her personal life. Sue also reveals the financial disparity between what she was paid and what the production companies earned from her work. She discusses the lack of recognition for her freelance experience in the corporate world and the absence of benefits such as insurance and retirement plans, which were demotivating factors in her decision to pursue further education and leave the profession.
🔚 Reflections on the Subtitle Translation Journey
Sue concludes her story by reflecting on the entire experience of working in subtitle translation. She mentions the opportunity to take a test offered by Netflix for potential translators, which she took and scored well on, but it wasn't enough to secure work directly with Netflix due to high competition. She advises others interested in the field to take the test and considers working directly with streaming platforms like Netflix as a more lucrative opportunity. Sue expresses her gratitude for the insights gained from her career and the challenges faced, and she invites viewers to share their experiences in the comments. She ends the video with a reminder to like, share, and subscribe for more content and a light-hearted note about her demeanor during the video recording.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Subtitle Translator
💡Notion-to-Notion Translation
💡World Youth Congress
💡Subtitle Workshop
💡Food Network
💡Dubbing Scripts
💡Netflix
💡BBC Turkey
💡Freelance
💡Master's Degree
💡Inconsistent Pay
Highlights
Introduction to Sue's five-year experience as a subtitle translator.
Sue's interest in subtitle translation sparked by movie experiences.
Explanation of 'notion to notion' and 'word to word' translation in subtitling.
Sue's initial challenge of entering the subtitle translation field.
Opportunity to volunteer at World Youth Congress leading to Sue's start in subtitling.
Use of software 'Subtitle Workshop' for Sue's early subtitling work.
Sue's transition from volunteer to paid subtitle translator.
Translation of popular TV series 'The Office' and its impact on Sue.
Working with production companies and translating for various TV channels.
Sue's experience translating for Food Network and her favorite shows.
Challenges of inconsistent work and pay in freelance subtitling.
Sue's work for Netflix, Turkey, and the unique opportunities it presented.
The reality of low pay and high stress in subtitle translation work.
Sue's realization of the production company's profit margin on her work.
The difficulty of maintaining a work-life balance as a subtitle translator.
Sue's decision to leave subtitle translation due to its instability.
Advice for aspiring subtitle translators and information on Netflix's online test.
Sue's final thoughts on the subtitle translation profession and her future plans.
Transcripts
hey everybody and welcome to my channel
again it's sue here and we'll be talking
about a very popular topic called
working online as a subtitle translator
so keep on watching like you weren't
actually watching if I didn't tell you
this but you have to know because I told
you to keep on watching and don't forget
to subscribe before you actually start
watching this video because the time you
spend here is definitely worth it and
that is this to guarantee and so let's
start rolling so today I'll be talking
about the five-year experience I had
working as a subtitle translator the how
I started the steps how I ended and why
I ended it actually and to be honest and
I I just cannot believe that I did this
job for five years although I took
breaks in between I five years is such a
long time and I had the opportunity to
work with such big channels that always
kept me going
so I actually always was interested in
subtitle translation because when I went
to the movies I after some time I just
started to get curious about the process
of subtitling those movies that I went
to hear because and I said a few times
in my other videos I'm from Turkey
actually and it it was like really
interesting for me especially there is
two versions of translation in the
translation field which is which are
called the notion two notion and two
word two word translation and subtitling
is in the category of notion two notion
translation and this makes so many of
the audience that knows the original
language of the movies that they watch
just go nuts and they cannot believe
that the translations are kind of boys
wrong in their eyes I was among those
people too until I actually started to
work as a professional in this field and
let me tell you
it there is one main reason that the
things are done that way and you have to
think about it like this those movies
and TV series that people watch the
audience of that movies and tv series
don't always have the same grasp as you
have to the language that is originally
using in the movies and the TV series to
watch so we actually translated to an
audience that has no comprehension of
the language and even though it's
sometimes looks as it is wrong in your
eyes when you compare the meaning and
the sentence that you have in your mind
when you watch these pieces it isn't it
isn't done that way so I really wanted
to start working as a subtitle
translator but I didn't know how to get
into the field because it is it is not
the same way now but back in the day it
was a really closed profession there
wasn't that many things to be translated
and you couldn't find a job online when
you wanted to find the vacancy ad for a
subtitle translator but in 2010 I had
the opportunity to volunteer at World
Youth Congress and one of the volunteers
in our team was actually a volunteering
subtitle translator on the platform in
Turkey that was the most popular one and
he was actually translating skins if I
don't recall it wrong which was a
popular TV series at the time when we
started chatting he said that he can
help me get in because they had already
closed the subtitle translator volunteer
translators subscriptions to the website
but he could get
my name from within and he could help me
out so he actually helped me start to
make my first couple of very unpopular
and unheard-of TV series episodes and I
don't even remember what the names were
and I started doing this job with using
the software subtitle workshop which you
can find online is easily found online
and it's very easy to learn to use - and
I started that way
and after some time I just gave up cuz
it was too much work for not being paid
and in one or two years the same friend
that helped me get into this website was
looking for someone to help him
translate a couple of documentary
episodes which didn't have their script
in the ready let alone their English
subtitles ready to be translated into
Turkish directly and it was too much
work but if someone started that person
would be paid and I said maybe if I take
this from here I might advance in the
area and maybe I might even see my own
subtitles being spotted on the movies
that would appear in the theaters
although I couldn't get to that point in
this five year profession that I had I
actually ended on a very good and very
motivating note which was really great
to end on but it's - I trusted this
couple of documentary episodes and they
were very pleased with my work and from
there we had a few other works and I
remember I started translating episodes
and the cutscenes from the very popular
and my most favorite TV series the
office the US the Steve Carrell version
and
it was 2011 my work actually appeared on
the DVDs that were pressed by these
companies that were actually selling
these in the big book and movie and
music stores which was a really
satisfying and fulfilling job for me
because knowing that people will buy
these things and my work will be in them
was a great thing to know actually and
after that I remember we both started at
another production company and I
remember although I took some breaks in
between I work for there for two years
in these years I translated some
independent movies that aired on
Sundance Channel I translated a couple
of episodes for Discovery Channel and
Travel Channel and then for a whole year
I worked exclusively on Food Network
channel content and that was actually
really nice after some time we couldn't
get that many subtitle pieces to
translate so we started to translate
dubbing scripts and for this whole year
Food Network channel projects I worked
exclusively on dubbing script
translations which actually took much
more time and sadly were paid a little
less it was kind of demotivating but I
didn't want to be left without an income
so I kept on going I remember that my
personal favorite that I translated
among all the Food Network channel
content was definitely chopped I loved
seeing the mystery items in the boxes
and I'm of course I'm also talking about
the Iron Chef those episodes and those
two shows were really fun to both watch
and chest ate into and after that I
remember I started another company
production company for which I
translated a whole bunch of undersea and
oceans and
seasoned like aquatic documentaries for
and I also translated a few episodes of
a cartoon that was made out of Legos I
don't actually remember the name after
that I started to put subtitles which is
sparring is the term used for us taking
the script the translated scripts and
formatting them into subtitles I made a
few movies a few movie subtitles for a
TV channel again that I don't actually
know off because I I mean you don't
actually care that much about the
channel that you work for because it's a
job in the end you just look at it as an
income source and after a few minutes
after that I had the best opportunity in
this five year profession that I had
which was working for a production
company that was working for Netflix
Turkey the Netflix had just came in to
Turkey and of course they had great
content they paid us more and they were
much more loose on the deadlines of our
work so it was an amazing experience I
started with a Korean drama like teen
drama series I translated a couple
independent looking things and then I
started translating a few episodes of
Gossip Girl
a few more than a few it's like maybe 10
or 15 episodes of Teen Wolf I translated
a few episodes of the yu-gi-oh zexal and
I translated a few episodes of RuPaul's
Drag Race which I didn't know about
before and it was really fun to work on
it and it was all in all a great
experience but the problem with that is
after some time the production company
that I personally worked for was not
able to get as many
Netflix projects as they used to in the
beginning so because as Netflix turkey
Netflix divided these distributed these
education projects in between a few
production companies and didn't hand it
out
all to one production company in
particular if you didn't have a
connection in the other companies that
were getting these works for Netflix you
wouldn't be able to find these
opportunities again and you would have
to be waiting for a long time before
another project comes in and you start
to work again at the very last point of
me translating dubbing scripts and
subtitles I had the opportunity of
translating a few projects for BBC
Turkey too and that was also really
satisfying and fulfilling knowing that I
work on projects for BBC Turkey was
really cool and hip for me and that was
the end because I was just about to
start my master's degree in Istanbul
University and I didn't want to both
juggle between the project translation
projects and my master's classes the
biggest problem with this type of job is
as it's totally freelance you don't get
to be seen as someone that works in a
corporate environment your experience
doesn't amount to anything when you
apply to full-time and full-time jobs
that take place in corporate
environments and that is really
demotivating I had a few job interviews
and so many of the people in these
interviews said that if I got the job
that they were interviewing me for it
that would be my first official job
because those five years didn't mean
anything for them because it wasn't in a
proper work and business environment it
was all from home and also they don't
sure you you don't have any insurance
you can it doesn't have it doesn't
amount to anything regarding your
retirement plan so five years down the
drain and then also the biggest problem
with that was I just couldn't make my
own schedule and it adhere to it at the
first four years deadlines were so
strict I had so many problems with
sleeping I would sometimes I I guess I
pulled an all-nighter for like five or
six days in my whole life and just one
or two of them were related with exams
and studying in the last night and so I
started working for Netflix the pay was
really low as well it was like a piece
of work that took at least four hours of
my time would come up to like 10 or $15
when exchanged in the rate that was
really low cuz it's not like your
machine that can do these things all day
I had a few of my friends start and try
this and all of them quit because it
isn't a type of job that everyone can
pull off it is very stressful and very
low pay for very much work and so yeah
and one of the most demotivating things
was I later learned how much the
production company is made off of my
work it was like if they paid me $10 for
a piece of work they actually gained $70
and 10 was given to me to the person
that did all the work and was stressed
was put under stress was they would even
call me in the morning like a few times
if I was late on a deadline for a couple
hours maybe and it it was really hard in
that sense
it never felt like my work and did it
was like I was working 24/7 every time
someone asked to hang out I said I have
work to do every time a family gathering
was taking place most of the times I
couldn't attend because it was like it
had sensitive timing and deadlines and I
didn't want to put these production
companies in any problem so it was
really hard actually the greatest thing
is this is the type of job for those who
want to work from home especially with
the time that we are now I recently
learned that Netflix actually offers you
a test for you to take online to see if
you can score high for them to call you
and they provide you the opportunity to
maybe be able to join them in the
language that you know to translate
projects for them the weird thing is
although I did this job for a very long
time I took the test directly from
Netflix is a hermits
website I scored like 84 out of 100 and
they said that 84 isn't the minimum
point to take when it comes to turkish
translations so i see that there is a
crazy high competition and even then
you're not guaranteed to take work take
work from Netflix but it at least
provides you to have the slightest
chance to and that is very exciting
actually working for districts directly
will also be great in the sense that
they will pay you a great amount of
money because it's nice voice in the end
and they will directly work with you
rather than making someone give you the
job and them taking a huge cut from the
work that you did for them so if you can
I would definitely recommend
taking the test for Netflix's subtitle
translation work and I will definitely
link it down below in the description
bar for you to see and if you ever if
you're actually watching this video and
you're actually working directly with
Netflix I would love to read your
comments down below because that would
be very insightful I have no one doing
that that's it for me
as I said the reason that I personally
don't go on with this rule anymore is
the inconsistent pay and the
inconsistent opportunity of getting
projects from the companies and the fact
that I cannot put my life on a proper
schedule when I have this job so I
finished that story of my life thank you
so much for watching I really hope it
was insightful and if you have any
questions definitely comment down below
I would love to get back to you and
don't forget to Like share and subscribe
cuz we'll be making other contents here
that will hopefully be insightful or at
least entertaining for you and thank you
so much again take care bye why was I so
hippy happy girly mushy in this video I
I don't understand it but and sorry I
checked a couple times like this because
I have a mirror behind the camera and I
see if it is recording or not it stops
like an idiot in every 10 minutes and it
cuts me off and I don't know where I
last stopped so I am stopping now
[Music]
and change Oh Anna I won't change bye
mommy
hey my stuff tomorrow but I'm on my way
tonight well that's real only together
oops didn't see you there
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