Translation industry role offers everything a film buff needs

Published on

Friday, February 25, 2011

Written by

Wong Yat-hei [1]

Die-hard movie fans will likely find the work of a subtitle translator attractive. "The best thing about my job is I get to watch movies before everyone else," says Chris Ling, who owns a translation service company.

"We translate the subtitles [or scripts] in Hollywood movies, and in Japanese and Korean television programmes.

"For a 45-minute episode of a Korean soap, the subtitles have to be done in a day. We usually have three to four subtitle translators handling the dialogue of the main characters."

When the translation is done, the scripts will be proofread, then keyed in to match the movement of the lips of those speaking.

Subtitle translation requires a knowledge of foreign c