▲ This photo, provided by Netflix, shows Korean survival drama series "Squid Game." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

 

SEOUL, Oct. 5 (Yonhap) -- Since making a sensation as Netflix's most-watched drama series, the English subtitles for "Squid Game" has been receiving continuous criticism for awkwardly translating Korean lines.

The nine-episode thriller follows a group of people entering life-and-death survival games to win a 45.6 billion won prize money, however viewers claim that some of the unnatural English subtitles do not accurately convey the original meaning of the drama.

On Tuesday (Korean time), BBC have brought attention to a particular Twitter user named Youngmi Mayer who claims "the closed-caption subtitles in English are 'so bad' that the original meaning is often lost."

"The dialogue was so well written and zero of it was preserved [in the subtitles]," Youngmi wrote on a Twitter post on Oct. 1.

Youngmi also pointed out that the subtitle which read, "I'm not a genius, but I still got it worked out," properly translated into English means "I am very smart, I just never got a chance to study."

However, the closed-caption subtitles Youngmi had initially commented were known to have been automatically generated in a video for the hearing-impaired, and the Twitter user clarified that the English language translations provided elsewhere were "substantially better."

Another user commented on Youngmi's post, saying, "Me and my flatmate both watched Squid Game on two different laptops and our English subtitles were different," adding, "The distinctions were subtle but even that made it feel like we were watching different shows."

A Twitter user named Yasmin also said, “I also watched it in Korean and as a multi-lingual speaker with translation and subtitling experience I just noticed a lot of messy areas and it was so basic,” adding, “I also (just to see what it was like) started to watched the dubbed version- it was worse.”

Although BBC has asked Netflix about the claims, the global streaming entertainment giant did not respond.

In Korea, it has also been pointed out that the names that different characters call each other in “Squid Game” are also awkwardly translated in English.

The term “oppa,” which is used when calling an older brother or a close older male friend, was translated as "old man" and “ajumma," which translates to "ma'am" in Korean was simply written as "grandma," failing to properly express Korea's unique names.

 

[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]