You're not the only one who has watched Squid Game, or stopped watching after the first episode. Overnight, the Korean survival drama was a worldwide sensation.

Over 100 million people watched at most two minutes of the series in its first month. You might not be fluent in Korean if you haven't seen much of the series.

Flubbed Dubs and Confusing Captions

Youngmi Mayer, comedian and co-host of the Being Asian podcast, recently shared her concerns with Game's translation via social media.

Mayer continues to give examples of mistranslations. She doesn't just nitpick semantics. Subpar dubs are devoid of metaphors, double meanings and general context.

Players' Misleading Dialogue

Mayer begins with Player 212, also known as Han Mi-nyeo. In a TikTok video, Mayer states that "everything she says gets f---ed up." "I believe it's because she plays an 'low class" character, so she cusses quite a bit. The translation gets extremely sterilized."

Mi-nyeo's one example is "What are you looking at?" Mayer says it sounds arbitrary, but everything she said doesn't really match. This character and her values are missing from your view.

Mi-nyeo's translations also miss a major Korean trope. Mi-nyeo's dubbed dialogue in one scene says, "oh I'm not genius, but it's possible."

Mayer explained that she really said, "I am very intelligent, but I never had a chance to learn."

"The poor person who is smart and intelligent but not wealthy--that's a big part of her personality. All you need to know about her are the writers. This is the character's entire purpose for being on the f-ing show."

Greta Jung is a voice actor who has dubbed parts in many Korean and Chinese shows.

Jung said NBC that they should have included a parenthesis when the North Korean character speaks. "[Kang Saebyeok] has an accent from North Korea and hides it around South Koreans. This is important. This is significant.

Jung stated that accent-specific contexts could help non-Korean speakers to understand subtle differences in the language. It's not just the dialect and dialogue.

Korean Morality through an American Lens

American-washed morals and ideologies are also presented by the writers. Mayer and other social media users will tell you that they are often wrong.

Episode six's title is, for example, "Gganbu". However, the meaning of the title word is completely lost. Mayer also shows a clip from episode 6 in the TikTok video. This is where Gi-hun talks to The Old Man.

Gi-hun is told by the Old Man, "Okay, we're gganbu." It's a friend, someone you trust. They share your things, you see. All your marbles. Everything.

Mayer adds, "What that means is, 'there are no ownership between me, you,' not 'we share all'. That's the whole point of this f---ing episode. This is a huge difference in ideology and what the writer wants to convey to you.

Another example is a Twitter user sharing a screencap from a call between a character (his mother) and him. Translation: "I'm worried that you might get to me, you know? Something that's really too expensive."

Andrew Minghee Kim tweeted, "This one got my early on in my watch cuz [sp] It's his mother going. 'You don't have to buy me anything. Just take care of yourself.'
In these moments, context is critical. Some social media users believe it is intentional. Kim replied that it doesn't seem like there aren't enough translators.

Even the titles are incorrect

Mayer finally calls out the titles. Mayer's second TikTok video focuses on the first episode. The title in English is "Red Light Green Light". In Korean it's "The Mugunghwa Flower has Blossomed".

American context is provided by "Red Light, Green Light". The game is familiar to us from our gym class and we can predict what will happen in this episode. Mayers clarifies that the original title contains many metaphors specific for Korea.

Mayer states that the mugunghwa is Korea's national flower. "Metaphor alert! It's the first episode. It could have been called that in English. I believe people would have understood it if they watched it. They would have Googled it...right?

A Bigger Problem Than Squid Game

Mayer said in her original tweet, "The reason this happens because translation work and the sheer volume are not respected." Translators are often underpaid or overworked. It is not their fault. Producers who don't appreciate the art are responsible.

Mayer continued, "How stupid it is that in this country the media--run largely by white people- get to critique art?" They don't even understand what we're saying. This applies to language but also food, art and music.

Denise Kripper, a translator, blames the rapidity of the audiovisual industry's progress. She told NBC that time is money in TV so translation turnarounds can be quick.

She argues that it is important to take time to do things correctly and slow down. A lack of exposure to other cultures and familiarity with English is a major problem in the preservation of cultural references in translation.

Kripper states, "The more sub-titled films they see, and the more translated books that they read, then the better they will be able to appreciate and gain more knowledge about another culture.

Mayer's tweets and videos have been viral. The increased attention should encourage translators to slow down and produce accurate, thoughtful translations. This will ensure that we are all on the same page, and playing the same game.

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By: Melanie A. Davis
Title: Lost In Translation: ‘Squid Game’ Was Poorly Dubbed Into English, And Apparently, We Missed A Lot
Sourced From: www.suggest.com/squid-game-was-poorly-dubbed-into-english/2597156/
Published Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2021 16:45:00 +0000

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