Remember that the isiZulu we speak in the township or the Sesotho we speak here (in Gauteng) are not the same as those spoken purely in KwaZulu-Natal or places like QwaQwa so you may need to consult with either the actor or someone else who really understands the language. I sometimes have to consult when I don’t really understand. It’s not really a bad thing if you don’t know a lot of languages because you can always consult especially for the type of production I work for but it really makes your job easier to know other languages. With English you need to be able to pick up grammatical errors that the actors make when they speak. You just have to have a strong command of the English language and know other languages. There’s no subtitling course that you can take to get in. Is there a qualification required to perform this job? I went to the interview with an unrelated degree not knowing that I would fall in love with languages and now I’m considering taking it further. I was asked if I had ever been in the industry and coming from a completely different field, I thought that it would count against me but by the time I got home I got a call to say that I had landed the job. I went in for an interview and I was asked a series of questions by a panel of senior production people. ![]() I had left my previous job in HR after having a baby and when I went back into the job market this opportunity came up. Please explain the journey you’ve had to get where you are? It’s going to be fast paced and there’s nothing we can do about it. They’re already shooting episodes and this means that by the time we get back, the workload will have piled up. For example, we’ve been on break along with production crew but they’ve now returned to work before us. I suppose it’s when we have to work back to back and my schedule gets rather hectic. Other times I have to consult with them to understand the heart of what they were trying to get across. It also feels great when an actor comes around to see how I’ve translated something they said and they confirm that I’ve nailed it. When they speak just isiZulu or Sesotho I don’t really get to use what I like to call the artistic part of my brain. I’ve learned how to read between the lines of what the actor is saying without losing the humour or the purity of the meaning. Sometimes I have to translate for a character who speaks a more modern Tsotsitaal that I understand very little of. I love it when the translating gets challenging. By the time it’s seen on TV, many eyes have checked it thoroughly. On Tuesday I’ll spend the day making my corrections and on the Wednesday we do a preview of the episodes with the channel. She will make corrections in terms of the grammar and then she sends it back for me to implement the corrections. It takes me about two to three hours to subtitle and translate and then I send them off to the language advisor. On a Monday I receive the block of episodes I’ll be subtitling. What happens before subtitles reach our TV screens? For example, the actor will say, “I convinced Sipho to come along.” I would write, “I persuaded Sipho to come along.” This is because you persuade someone to do something and they are then convinced. Also remember that the way we speak isn’t always grammatically correct and that’s what we also correct as we subtitle. If we transcribed everything the actors said, there would be far too many words on the screen. What I do as a subtitler is simply summarising the gist of what is being said without losing the meaning. Transcribing is what you find in court where a person types word for word everything that is said as a record of the proceedings in the courthouse. What’s the difference between subtitling and transcribing? Off to sleep for me and the rest of the family. Read The Little Red Hen to my 4 year old son about 5 times before he falls asleep Play with the kids while we wait for supper. ![]() Nothing left for me to do – Home is calling. She makes corrections and sends them back following day Send off episodes to the language advisor How lucky am I?Ĭome back from lunch and start with another episode ![]() The block with episodes arrives and I start working What does a typical day look like for you? Time of Day FundiConnect caught up with Kate Mpshe, a subtitler for one of South Africa’s most popular soapies, Isidingo, to find out how those words end up at the bottom of our screens. We hardly ever think about the person behind the scenes who ensures the accuracy of those words. When we’re watching our favourite South African television show and the characters start to speak in a language we don’t understand, our eyes almost automatically begin to read the subtitles so we can keep up with the drama.
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