Korean American breaks down how terrible Squid Game’s English translation is

By this stage, we can only assume you know all about Squid Game. It’s Netflix’s most popular show ever, it’s on memes all over the internet, it’s selling Vans shoes by the f**kload, and it’s basically everyone’s favourite show. Still, not everyone’s happy with it. Yeah, nah, some are saying that despite its popularity, the English translation has let everyone down with a simplified, sanitised and sorta dull version of the screenplay. Read on to see what we mean.

All right, obviously Squid Game was filmed in Korean and English viewers get to enjoy a subtitled version. Unfortunately, one of the downsides of that is the loss of nuance in the writing. Some may say it’s unavoidable as there aren’t always direct translations on hand, but others still think the subs could have been more accurate.

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

— youngmi mayer (@ymmayer) September 30, 2021

And that brings us to social media user Youngmi Mayer. She’s fluent in Korean, but she also watched the show with the English subtitles on. To say she wasn’t too happy wouldn’t be a big stretch. Yeah, nah, she took to Twitter to say:

Credit: TikTok

“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.”

Credit: TikTok

She goes on to say, “I want to do a scene breakdown on TikTok to show you what they could’ve translated to. I might work on it today just so you can see what i mean and see what you missed. Such a shame. Translation is extremely important.”

Credit: TikTok

And we agree. Writers put a lot into making sure screenplays are top notch, and while we agree that not everything can be perfect, it’s only fair that translators apply the same high standards to their work.

Credit: TikTok

Final thought: Anyway, have a look at this and let us know what you reckon. Would you watch it again with a tighter dub? Have your say in the comments section.

ok i made this really fast so it’s not very good but these are the small examples i could find in ten mins pic.twitter.com/5kIsrlWDjq

— youngmi mayer (@ymmayer) September 30, 2021

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H/T: BORED PANDA.