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Before You Translate…

So you want to subtitle VTuber content? That’s great! There’s endless amounts of content out there, and far too little of it is translated.

There’s just one thing you should remember.

You’re speaking for the VTuber

As far as your viewers know, what you write is what the VTuber said.

What happens if you make a mistake? What if you translate something wrong? Well, now everyone watching thinks the VTuber said that.

• If your incorrect translation offends people, they’ll be angry at the VTuber.
• If your incorrect translation makes it sound like the VTuber holds an opinion, people will believe it.
• If your incorrect translation goes viral, the VTuber may become famous for something they never said.

In short: translating is a very big responsibility. You are handling another person’s words. Another person’s opinions, ideas, and emotions. If you mess up, it will affect how people look at that person.

So what should you do? It’s quite simple:

Don’t make mistakes

Great! Sound simple enough? Think you can do it?

If you answered yes, stop right now, close Aegisub, you should not be translating.

If you’re now terrified of messing up, worried that you’ll misrepresent your favorite VTuber to the rest of the world, not sure if you should even bother doing this, then good.

Remember that feeling. Be careful. Look things up when you’re not sure. Ask people for help. Double check. Triple check. Know what you know, and know what you don’t know.

Now get out there and make some subtitles.