The UCLA Subtitle Project, sponsored by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, has recently launched a video captioning service on English and Arabic websites. The goal of this project is to teach students how to understand and translate spoken language while also helping filmmakers, journalists, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) reach a broader audience.
The translators are UCLA graduate and undergraduate students with an interest in Arabic and knowledge of various dialects, including Egyptian, Levantine, Iraqi, Gulf, and Moroccan. Working in groups under the supervision of Michael Cooperson, UCLA professor of Arabic language and literature, the students provide accurate and idiomatic English subtitles free of charge for culturally significant or newsworthy Arabic-language videos. The website features a selection of videos subtitled by the students which are uploaded from their YouTube page.
If you’re a producer of an Arabic-language video or an English speaker looking to request captions for a video, you can fill out a Subtitle Request form online. If you’re a student interested in joining the project, please reach out to Professor Cooperson at cooperso@humnet.ucla.edu or fill out the Contact form for general inquiries.