Proposal: Real Mandarin & Cantonese Translations for DASH: Detailed

[amanda_b_johnson]

Hello, masternode owner.

We’ve thus far been approved to receive funding for Spanish and Russian subtitle translators, and we’ll begin publishing those this week (Dec 7). You can expect to see the translated subtitles available within 48 hours of each Wednesday’s video going live.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have a translator of both Mandarin Chinese (mainland China) and Cantonese Chinese (Hong Kong) reach out and offer to translate at the same rate as my Spanish and Russian guys: 0.1 Dash/video minute.

Since we publish an average of 88 minutes of video per month,

Translations Price = 88 minutes x 2 (Mandarin + Cantonese) = 18 Dash (rounded from17.6 Dash)

Here’s where some special effort comes in: as you may or may not know (I didn't know until about a month ago), YouTube is blocked in mainland China. Their version of YouTube is YouKu, where Dash has a limited presence. The Dash YouKu page (at http://i.youku.com/dashpay) has been maintained by a volunteer so far, who uploads DASH: Detailed videos from time to time. YouKu doesn’t support subtitles, so special videos must be made with the Mandarin text spliced right into the footage itself (as seen below).

Hence,

YouKu (mainland China) videos price = 4 monthly videos x 2.5 hours re-edit/re-upload = 30 Dash

All together then, this is:

18 Dash for translated subtitles
30 Dash to remake/re-upload text-embedded Mandarin videos for YouKu
5 Dash reimbursement of proposal fee

GRAND TOTAL = 53 Dash

We've proposed funding for one month only. If the Russian, Spanish, and both types of Chinese all go well, we’ll submit them all as a package deal next month. Additionally, if both we and the Dash network would like to continue DASH: Detailed after our current 6-month agreement expires, we’ll add these translation costs into our overall show proposal for simplicity.

Thanks for your consideration.

Manual YES:
dash-cli mnbudget vote-many 392b73808ae4ebfa4610b9c5e7d6927bbc2fbf44a97a7dabb95a9e1fccdaa828 yes

Manual NO:
dash-cli mnbudget vote-many 392b73808ae4ebfa4610b9c5e7d6927bbc2fbf44a97a7dabb95a9e1fccdaa828 no

 

[tungfa]

i honestly would skip cantonese !
cantonese is only spoken in the South of China + HK - and they all speak Mandarine (as taught in school , before english)
that will make it so much easier for you

 

[amanda_b_johnson]

i honestly would skip cantonese !
cantonese is only spoken in the South of China + HK - and they all speak Mandarine (as taught in school , before english)
that will make it so much easier for you

Tungfa, thanks for that suggestion. If the proposal passes, I'll for sure do the Cantonese for the first month, as promised in the proposal.

But yes -- I'll re-evaluate over the month and, like you say, perhaps going forward, sticking to Mandarin is the best bang for the buck.

If this proposal passes, only ~9 Dash of the 53 total are dedicated to Cantonese efforts -- rest is Mandarin efforts for YouKu. So I hope to still receive the votes of anyone who may also think that Cantonese is not needed.

Thanks for your on-the-ground input.