For my last cultural post, I came across a video on my YouTube recommendation page called “Korean Language Professor Breaks Down Squid Game’s Subtitles.” Since I am Korean, and I am proficient in my listening skills, I watched the drama without any English subtitles. In fact, I actually turned on the Korean subtitles, so that I could hear as well as read every word the characters were saying. I chose to watch this YouTube video because I thought it would be interesting to hear what other non-Korean speakers thought of the subtitles. I also wanted to see if there was a difference in how we interpreted the meaning of the show and our understanding of the different scenes depending on how the script was translated. According to Professor Joowon Suh, English speakers were definitely missing out on deeper meanings throughout the series because the translations were sanitized to be less vulgar. Squid Game itself is a very harsh, symbolic, and satirical show that depicts a very dark view of human nature in an ironically childish-looking game zone. The contestants are fighting for their lives as they try everything to win the games against each other. Therefore, there are varying levels of profanity used in the show, however, many of the cuss words are incorrectly translated into English. The reason why this is important to note is that the mistranslation of these cuss words results in a different tone and meaning of the plot. There is a scene where one of the characters gets betrayed by another character, and she says one of the most hateful swear words, however, this is translated into “asshole” which is a very minor cuss word in the English language.
Additionally, the professor also mentioned how there were translation differences in the address terms or honorifics. For instance, a character named Ali meets Sangwoo, a posh, well-suited gentleman for the first time, and calls him “사장님.” It was practically impossible to translate a lot of the honorifics because they were so ubiquitous which is why all of the translates use the word “sir” instead. However, the way the characters address each other shows the evolution of their relationship. For example, later on in the episodes, Sangwoo actually asks Ali to not call him “사장님" and actually “형” which means “older brother,” an intimate language side of Korean. This shows that Ali and Sangwoo have gotten closer. This is why the marble scene where Sangwoo betrayed Ali was so heartbreaking because Ali kept calling for Sangwoo as “형.” This meant that Ali considered Sangwoo as family and like an older brother who has protected him throughout the games. In this sense, it is more heartbreaking if you know what “형” and “사장님" mean. It is these minor linguistic details that truly transform the film from a good one to a great one. However, with subtitles, there are words that just do not exist in another language, so it is very difficult to 100% accurately translate these kinds of films.
Comments
Hi Vivian, this is such an interesting topic to learn about! I've noticed the same thing when I was watching Chinese dramas on YouTube with English subtitles on, and sometimes the translation is not as precise since there is no such word or culture in English. I will definitely be more aware of this and pay more attention to listening to what the characters are actually saying when I watch Korean dramas in the future.
Hey Vivian, thanks for sharing more insights into Squid game! I really enjoyed the series and noticed small discrepancies in the translations but I did not notice how big of an issue it was prior to reading this post and reading more insights that give the characters and plots more depth!