Iâm Shirley, someone whoâs lucky enough to be making and translating subtitles for Shoot From The Hip.
While Iâm having fun translating, Iâve met so many challenges. As expected, translating comedy is never easy. Word plays are among the hardest parts, thatâs for sure, but aside from that, humour is a very cultural thing. Some jokes are very specific to Western cultures, for example, the yo mama joke, or the âThatâs what she saidâ joke, or even bald jokes. Why? Vietnamese men donât go bald that early or that often, so we just donât see young bald people on a daily basis, and we just donât have that type of joke, at least not as much as Westerners.
Real footage of me with SFTHâs contents, restored, colourised.
There has been fun, there have been tears, there have been sleepless nights trying to figure out how to translate Tomâs word plays and AJâs mistakes. Thatâs an exaggeration for sure, but thereâs some truth to it. Iâm starting this blog to share my experience in translating comedy, specifically SFTHâs improv. Each language has its own quirks, so itâs hardly transferable to another language, but Iâm sharing regardless, maybe itâll spark some interest in Vietnamese? đWorst case scenario, weâll be having interesting conversations, so thatâs a win.
Letâs get started. First episode coming up soon: Translating Letters.
Hello. Itâs very late but I just want to say I received some anonymous love in the ask box đ„° I donât want to post them here because itâd look⊠vain đ¶âđ«ïž But I donât want to leave you guys hanging either, so thank you very much! đ„° I hope youâre having a nice day đ§Ą
Oh and hello fellow Vietnamese fan! I was so surprised to see other Vietnamese folks on Tumblr. ChĂ o bá», chĂșc bá» má»t tuáș§n tháșŁnh thá»i vĂ khĂŽng pháșŁi Äi Äá» xÄng :D
You might have heard YouTube has stopped allowing stylised subtitles, including our beloved coloured subtitles. Sadly, itâs true, and nobody has the slightest idea why.
The good news is, weâve found an alternative solution! Itâs nowhere near as good as what we had before, but at least weâll still have colours.
My lovely teammate is testing out the new format in tonightâs play, and weâre bracing ourselves for technical issues. So if your device had colours before but not today, or if you spot anything that doesnât display properly, especially after the premiere, please let us know. If you see any public SFTH videos going barefoot, also let us know.
Feel free to reach out, either here or on Discord. I use the same handle across all social media platforms. My DMs are always open.
Itâs been more than a year since our subtitles came out as gay colourful, and Iâm so happy to see you guys welcome them with open arms 𧥠I sincerely hope they donât have to go back into the closet to white.
As you might have noticed, we found some workarounds and the uploading was never disrupted. The workarounds were of course not as good as our usual methods, but we managed to have our coloured subtitles uploaded on time and that was a win!
The good news came today when YouTube re-enabled uploading for stylised subtitles and I just want to keep you guys updated :D
Itâs still a bit unstable and there are some limitations that werenât there before, but I think (and pray) SFTH channel wonât be affected by those.
Thanks everyone for your kind words and support during the chaos. Now, letâs enjoy our beloved subtitles đ§Ą
To people saying Max Fosh need to come back. Itâs a no. He was disrespectful and didnât seem the understand the games. He didnât match the boys energy at all. You could see it on their face that there were annoyed at some of the joke.
I really need anyone who shares this energy to take a step back and reflect.
First of all, itâs completely fine if you donât like guests, or Max. I didnât enjoy some of the guests either so I get it.
However, whatâs not okay is speculating about how SFTH themselves feel about their guests, especially to justify your own feelings towards them, thatâs just obnoxious. You donât know them, you donât know what they think. âYou could see it on their faceâ no I couldnât. They were performing, what you saw could have been a part of their performance.
Iâd like to remind everyone that SFTH invite the guests themselves, and itâs their job to be good hosts and make their guests feel welcomed. Youâre painting them as terrible hosts who donât know how to be professional and helpful towards someone completely new at improv.
Of course if any of the guests was hateful or crossed the line, they wouldnât have to tolerate them, but Max surely wasnât, they wouldnât have posted his show at all if he had been.
Iâd also like to ask everyone to be more hospitable towards guests, because weâre also their hosts in a way, theyâre entering our space. You donât have to like them, you donât even have to tolerate them, but donât be rude. SFTH wants to go bigger, which means they need to build connections. Inviting guests is one of the ways to do so. Respect their decisions and their agency.
In short, be nice, be kind, be welcoming. I donât think thatâs too much to ask.
Are there any Korean/Korean-speaking sfth fans who would be interested in translating the subtitles with me? As far as I know there aren't any Korean ones and I'd love to share the content around with the people around me more :3c
Itâs really possible to translate Letters into other languages actually, and once youâre used to it, youâll find Letters easier than a lot of other stuff, because it tends to have less wordplay to worry about, and wordplay is probably the biggest nightmare when it comes to translating comedy, and SFTH has tons of them!
You might have heard YouTube has stopped allowing stylised subtitles, including our beloved coloured subtitles. Sadly, itâs true, and nobody has the slightest idea why.
The good news is, weâve found an alternative solution! Itâs nowhere near as good as what we had before, but at least weâll still have colours.
My lovely teammate is testing out the new format in tonightâs play, and weâre bracing ourselves for technical issues. So if your device had colours before but not today, or if you spot anything that doesnât display properly, especially after the premiere, please let us know. If you see any public SFTH videos going barefoot, also let us know.
Feel free to reach out, either here or on Discord. I use the same handle across all social media platforms. My DMs are always open.
Itâs been more than a year since our subtitles came out as gay colourful, and Iâm so happy to see you guys welcome them with open arms 𧥠I sincerely hope they donât have to go back into the closet to white.
Hello! I've only been watching SFTH for a month and I've noticed their videos are now translated into many languages, but not yet into mine. I was wondering how you gets involved in doing this? I'm quite busy right now, but I hope to be able to help one day as well. Thank you for your advice!
Hello! Thank you for your interest!
The translation team is managed by Vanessa, you can contact her on Discord :D (DM me if you have difficulty finding her account, my handle is the same across platforms.)
To start a new language, itâs preferable to have at least two translators so you can proofread for each other. So, look around for someone else who might be interested, then you can contact her to start your team :D
Welcome to the team, and good luck with translating! Itâs fun, but itâs also very challenging!
Feel free to DM me or send more Asks if you have any further questions.
i don't really like the type of jokes of like "think of the gifs" (dog romance flurry), "that would be difficult in-jokes to edit into a yt video" (screams of the damned), "i already feel bad for the translators" (sins of the gardener), etc
like, i guess it makes sense that they make these kinda jokes but it just makes me a little bit sad? like, i want them to feel free to be chaotic and weird without worrying about how the gifs would look. i want them to feel free to make cllabacks to the first half of the show without worrying about the people who weren't there. i want tom to feel free to make puns and word games (one of the things he's literally most known for) without worrying about the translators, who chose to translate these videos knowing the challenges that may come with that.
i just hope they don't put too many restrictions on themselves for the sake of their online viewers.
As a SFTH translator, let me put this straight: They are NOT worrying nor holding back for us at all. Tomâs joke in that play is, you guessed it, simply a joke, or an acknowledgement at best. They proceeded to make like 5 more puns after that. They are not putting restrictions on themselves for translators, and they never will. Tom is more than free to make any puns he wants, and he knows that, do you know that?
If thereâs anything to worry about their craft, this is not one of them. They are doing comedy, theyâre making jokes, including meta jokes like these. Donât take everything they say on stage seriously.
If youâre active in the fandom, you may have seen the Shoot From The Hip Wiki site with this squiddy patterned logo and the little egg flannel icon around. Itâs the Shoot From The Hip Wiki on Wiki.gg!
I started this project one summer's day back in 2024, after seeing that the fandom needs a place to look for information about our wonderful plays and beloved characters.
More than a year has passed but I still havenât really shared or talked about it. Every time someone finds it, shares it, or makes edits to it, Iâm still a bit surprised, and also a bit scared, but in a positive way.
I think now is the time for the Wiki to be seen, and to be built stronger.
If youâre interested in editing the Wiki, please go and create an account on the Wiki, and join our Headquarters.
Youâre cordially invited!
I hope the Wiki has been helpful to you. But if you havenât seen it before, welcome to the Wiki đ„°
For anyone wondering when Luke got the book in last nightâs play, you can see him running off at 20:05. He came back at around 20:25, you donât see the book at that point but when he ran off again at 21:12, you can see him holding it. He came back shortly at 21:33 with the book behind him, which is seen on the chair when he swept the scene at 21:58. AJ saw the book at 22:05, picked it up, put it in his pocket, took it out, had a look, and put it in his pocket again. Luke then cleverly led Jimmy around to get the book at 22:58, and he was kind of âWhere the heck is my book? đ€šâ to AJ. And the rest is history đ€
Leen is the SFTH editor and the Queen Raccoon of the lofi server (AJâs Patreon film server). All the cool play title cards were made by her. Her Instagram is @leentarno where she posts her edits and more. Today is her birthday, everyone go follow her and wish her a happy birthday đ„ł
Hello đđ» Itâs been brought to my attention that there are currently some errors in displaying subtitles, and it seems to be happening to more people than I originally thought.
So if you see this kind of annoying mess, update your YouTube app. If it still doesnât work, let me know :D I think itâs only happening on some Android devices.
Can you help me spread words around? Thank you âșïž
So, you know, I made a video to celebrate Tomâs birthday. If you havenât seen it, you might want to, for context.
During the Murders in Space bit, when Tom said âI donât wanna hear itâ, I thought he was messing with Sam, you know, a normal daily thing in the SFTH kingdom. Thatâs why I added the comment â[wow, top-tier yes-and-ing]â.
Tom noticed that, and hereâs his response:
Me saying 'I don't want to hear it' in 'Murders In Space' was actually 'Yes anding'. If Sam implied he had bad news about my husband and I'd said 'Yes, and I want to hear all about it!', that would've been a block to the intent of his offer. The way for the actor to accept what he wanted was for the character to refuse it. Fun, right?! That was always one of my fave topics to teach in classes.
Tom taught me even more about improv today, itâs so interesting that I canât keep it to myself. Hope you enjoy my stupidity and Tomâs mini improv lesson :D
Just saw ur post abt pronouns and i was wondering how would you translate it if they had a character with they/them or it/its or even neopronouns? (Am I trying to manifest a genderqueer character? Maybe)
I will be honest I havenât translated anything with neopronouns, so I actually donât know.
When translating, we use our pronoun system and not follow Englishâs. If someone wants to be gender neutral, Iâd try to pick gender neutral pronouns for them, which is very difficult, since we use gendered pronouns in every sentence, even in first and second person, not just third person like in English.
Example: âchá»â means âsisterâ, and you use it to call someone older than you, female. Conversation between you and a woman 2 year older would go like this in English:
You: Do you want to have ice cream? I can buy some ice cream for you and me.
Her: I would love to, thank you very much.
Vietnamese:
You: Does chá» want to have ice cream? Em can buy some ice scream for chá» and em.
Her: Chá» would love to, thank em very much.
You see how itâs gendered right? Itâs a lot easier for transgender characters, but very difficult for non-binary folks. Our pronoun system is very complicated, so itâs just how the language works. Maybe later when more non-binary folks come out over here, theyâll share their preferences and translators can follow :D
So in short, I try to use gender neutral pronouns, or even use their name if I must, but I canât stick with their English preferences, thatâs not how translating work.
How is the pronoun situation over there @postrzal-z-biodra-sfth-pl? đ
You think switching pronouns in English is confusing? Welcome to Vietnamese :D
English has 7 pronouns, not counting neopronouns and combined stuff like âyâallâ or âyou guysâ. Meanwhile, Vietnamese has at least 100 I think, I canât even list all of them. In terms of âtrue pronounsâ, we donât have that many, but we use nouns as pronouns, and those do count, making the whole situation very complicated.
In English, you use the I-you pair no matter who youâre talking to. In Vietnamese, you have to choose the appropriate pair of pronouns based on many factors: your age, their age, their gender, your gender, your relationship with them, etc., And, the fun part is, choosing the wrong pronouns may offend people. There is more about true pronouns, kinship pronouns, nouns used as pronouns, and other things, but I wonât go into details here. You can check out this Wikipedia post to learn more :D
Pronouns can reflect the relationship between two people and their attitude toward each other. Itâs the translatorâs job to pick the most appropriate ones for the characters. You canât just I-you your way through the translation, because it would be stiff as heck, nobody talks like that in real life.
Pronouns among SFTH themselves
SFTH are close friends who met in university (and yes, where you meet your friends can affect your choice of pronouns: friends from school tend to have more casual, affectionate pronouns, while friends from work tends to have more polite, formal pairs). I chose the tui-ĂŽng pair for Luke-Sam-Tom, itâs casual, itâs intimate, itâs homies. I can totally see them calling each other with this pair if they ever decide to learn Vietnamese.
Itâs a bit more complicated with AJ. In English speaking countries, youâre equal with your friends, no matter how old you are. Thatâs not the case with Vietnamese people, here we have a hierarchy: You pay respect to the older, and you get respect from the younger, even when youâre only one year apart, except when there are agreements between you otherwise. Itâs not as intense as it sounds, but this subconsciously affects peopleâs dynamics.
While AJ is two year younger than the others, theyâre equal friends, with just a little bit of youngest sibling vibes from AJ at most. However, I still chose âemâ for AJ (the pronoun for the younger sibling), and âanhâ for the others (the pronoun for the older brother). The anh-em pair can be used for anyone having an age gap of up to ~20 years, not just real siblings.
I imagine a conversation between them would go like this:
Tom: Do em want to compĂšre the next game? Anh can do it if em donât want to.
AJ: Em can do it, thank anh. Anh can compĂšre the next one, is that good?
Cute squid hug just for decoration purposes.
As you can see, Tom would stay as âanhâ no matter whoâs talking, because heâs the older one. Same would go for Sam and Luke when talking to AJ. I find AJ being âemâ very endearing and adorable.
Pronouns between characters
It can be a lot of headache to pick pronouns for characters. For example, the Time Warp with AJ being the creepy dad. Luke calls AJ âdadâ, but using the ba-con (father-child) pair is not realistic, since he hates his dadâs guts. My compromise is to put âbaâ in quotation marks, and use ĂŽng-tĂŽi for the rest of the video. This pair can be used for your male friend in a friendly way, but also can be used for your father or someone your fatherâs age when you donât have much respect for him.
Reverse translation:
Long time no see, âbaâ.
What the fuck are ĂŽng doing here?
In short games, itâs important to have consistent pronouns from start to finish. I have to write them all down into my note app, so the characters donât randomly change their pronouns midway through. It looks something like this:
1. Luke â Tom: tĂŽi â anh
2. Luke â Sam: tui â bá»
3. Tom â Sam: tĂŽi â anh; anh â tui
4. Tom â Sam: anh kia
Note how the third one between Tom and Sam has two pairs? Itâs because I picked one pair for Tom but another for Sam. Sam was having a German accent, I wanted to reflect that in the choice of pronouns. Yes, accents affect your pronouns too. How fun!
The fourth one is how theyâd address each other in third person, that may be for another post, Iâll focus on first and second person pronouns in this one.
The exception is when they play Genre. Sometimes when the genre changes, characters change their pronouns accordingly.
One thing unexpectedly difficult is Flurry. For the introduction, the opening line should be as open as possible, but when they use the line, itâs very specific. So the pronouns change, itâs not the original line anymore. I try to make it vague enough so it fits both situations, but sometimes we just have to accept that Vietnamese is different.
Itâs not all bad, itâs beautiful
It is very rewarding when you can express charactersâ states and emotions through just the pronouns alone. Normally, your mother would call you âconâ and call herself âmáșčâ (or âmĂĄâ, depends on each region). But when sheâs mad, she would switch to mĂ y-tao. If youâre in love with a man, you use anh-em, but after a nasty breakup, youâd switch to anh-tĂŽi, or even mĂ y-tao, depends on how much you want him to rot in hell.
I use these techniques in The Unrelenting Aubergine, especially for Titch. At the beginning, Titch looks down on James, seeing him as the lazy useless brother who only plays with the boys and doesnât pay attention to the important farming work of the family. At this point, he uses the anh-chĂș pair. âAnhâ is still for someone older, while âchĂșâ is for someone younger, but this pair is not as close or intimate as anh-em. You can find this pair in social settings rather than familial ones, and the older one is often seen as more snobbish, a little high and mighty you might say.
Well, chĂș should have been focused on learning like anh was.
Later down the line, Titch realises his brother actually has valid dreams, and farming is important for him, not his brother. A change of pronouns can reflect this perfectly, thatâs why I made him switch to anh-em to show the growth in his character.
Over the years anh was so hard on em, anh is so sorry.
The same happens between Titch and Derek. At first, Titch keeps his distance, he wants to maintain a boss-assistant relationship, strictly business (despite that one night đ) He uses tĂŽi-cáșu, which is often seen between a boss and a younger employee. Later, when he finally faces his feelings, he also changes to anh-em to be more intimate with Derek.
Derek, donât be like that. Cáșu know tĂŽi is married to job.
And anh will give em the most unrelenting aubergine on earth.
Funny enough, only Titch has to change his pronouns. James calls him anh-em throughout the play. Even though James is quite rebellious and stubborn, yelling at his brother sometimes, he still respects and looks up to Titch as the better aubergine farmer in the family. And Derek, he also uses anh-em, do I even need to explain about that simp? đ€
James addresses Titch with anh-em pronouns right from the start.
Em know em wonât be as good of an aubergine farmer as anh are.
The same goes for Derek.
Em know recently anh have been a little bit barren. But-
This post alone cannot capture a fraction of the full complexity of our pronoun system, but hopefully it gives you some insight to how it is over here and the way it affects translating SFTH comedy to Vietnamese.
What should I write about next? Anything you want to know about translating SFTH videos? My Ask is also open in case you want to stay anonymous :D
P.S.: Colour codes:
blue: English pronouns
red: pronouns with equal social status
orange: pronoun with a higher social status
green: pronoun with a lower social status
