Two different jobs get confused here. One is clipping source that is not in your language. The other is taking a clip and making it reachable by an audience that does not speak the original. The second is where most of the untapped reach sits.
Clipping source in a language you do not speak
Harder than it looks, and not because of the transcription. Moment selection depends on hearing tone, sarcasm and emphasis, and a translated transcript strips all three. You can identify the topic of a passage but not whether it lands, which is the actual skill.
If you do attempt it, work from a transcript with timings, pick moments that are structurally strong — a clear question and answer, a specific number, a list — and avoid anything that depends on delivery. And accept a lower hit rate.
Translating clips for new audiences
This is the more promising direction. A clip that performed in one language has already been validated as a moment worth watching; adding translated captions gives it a second audience with no editorial risk.
- →Burned-in translated captions are the standard approach, and the only one that works in a muted feed.
- →Keep the original audio. Dubbing is expensive and usually sounds worse than reading.
- →Post to a separate account per language where possible, so the recommendation system learns a consistent audience.
- →Translate the caption copy and hashtags too, not just the on-screen text.
Where translation breaks
Humour, idiom and wordplay rarely survive, and a literal translation of a joke reads as a non-sequitur. If the moment's strength was in how something was said, it will not travel — pick the moments whose strength is in what was said.
Why the reach is worth it
Most short-form competition is in English, and the same clip often reaches further in a less saturated language market. Campaigns that count views regardless of language make this directly worth doing, since a translated clip earns on the same terms as the original.
Caption every clip, in whichever language you post it.
Subtitles guide