Squid Game: Korean Speaker Says “You Didn’t Really Watch The Show” If You Don’t Understand Korean (Photo Credit: IMDb)
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Lost in Translation! The new Netflix hit series Squid Game’s translated subtitles have changed the meaning behind the show for English-speaking viewers. Released on 17 September 2021, the show garnered huge success just within two weeks and became the most-watched show in around 90 countries. As per several reports, the streaming giant believes that the show will surpass their current most-viewed series, Bridgerton.
Even though the series has become super popular amongst fans all over the world, many people have claimed that the English subtitles have changed the meaning behind the original dialogues.
According to some South Korean fans, the subtitles of Squid Game are “botched.” A Twitter user, Youngmi Mayer, who speaks fluent Korean claims that the English closed-caption subtitles in a few episodes of the series do not accurately represent the actual Korean lines. “Not to sound snobby but I’m fluent in Korean and I watched squid game with English subtitles and if you don’t understand Korean you didn’t really watch the same show,” she said.
not to sound snobby but i’m fluent in korean and i watched squid game with english subtitles and if you don’t understand korean you didn’t really watch the same show. translation was so bad. the dialogue was written so well and zero of it was preserved
Mayer added while writing about the English subtitles of Squid Game, “Translation was so bad. The dialogue was written so well, and zero of it was preserved.” She also shared a video where she points out some errors and mentions the right meaning behind the lines. The Twitter user says that the lines spoken by Han Mi-nyeo, played by Kim Joo-ryung, are “very sterilised.”
“She says ‘what are you looking at’, it’s turned into ‘go away’ which might seem arbitrary but everything she says is not really aligning and you’re missing a lot of this character and what she stands for,” the user adds. “Almost everything she says is being botched translation wise.”
Despite its bad translations, the series has become a hit show. It has also been reported that the creator of the show Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote the story way back in 2009 but was rejected by the studios, leading him to sell his laptop due to financial struggles.
Squid Game stars several famous South Korean celebs such as Train to Busan fame Gong Yoo, Deliver Us From Evil’s Lee Jung-jae, South Korean model Jung Ho-yeon, Midnight fame Wi Ha-joon and many more actors.
