Non-English Shows Lost in Translation

Many non-English films or television shows have gained immense popularity in the past few years; specifically, through films such as ‘Parasite’, which was released in 2019, and the most recent globally recognised South Korean television show ‘Squid Game’, released September 2021. As entertaining as they are, some people have noticed and picked up on language and subtitle differences between the original language and the English translation, leading to multiple misinterpretations that can affect the public’s understanding of the films or shows they are watching.

Each film and television show has its own set of themes, and these are usually portrayed through the use of language and imagery, which subsequently does not reach every member of the audience due to the translation work between the original language and the target language. Key aspects of, not only the plot, but the characterisation can be lost too, which was pointed out by Youngi Mayer, who is a comedian and co-host of the ‘Feeling Asian’ podcast alongside Brian Park.

Youngi Mayer discussed the global success of ‘Squid Game’, having hit Netflix’s top spot in 90 different countries, been subtitled in 31 languages, and dubbed in 13 languages. She sparked an online debate saying that people who are not fluent in Korean did not “really watch the same show.” 

She later went to TikTok and gave an example of what she meant by her tweet, pointing out a scene from ‘Squid Game’ where one of the characters in the show mentioned how she was not a genius but could still work it out, regarding one of the deadly games. However, Youngi Mayer called this “a huge miss” in translation, because what the character had actually meant was, she was really smart but she never had a chance to study, which reinforces the idea of how poor she is, why she is participating in the games, and how this creates the kind of person that she is now. The difference in translation may not have been major to some people, but the English translation had definitely lost a little bit of the character’s reason for being where she was amongst other players.

In addition to this example, the long-running series of ‘The Simpsons’ also had a translation error pointed out in the Norwegian version. The original dialogue has been, “Look, it’s Matt Groening, creator of Futurama! Could you sign my Bender doll?” Instead, the Norwegian version of the television series had been, “Look, it’s Matt Groening, creator of Futurama! Could you sign my transvestite doll?” The difference here, again may not be big for some people, but the change is definitely there and each word can create different kinds of ideas in people’s minds, whether they are similar or not.

Translation work can have more impact than people would think, as they not only cause minor misunderstanding, but can lead to cause further misinterpretations due to a snowball of errors. Although, people who speak both languages are able to see the difference, it still ends up taking away from the experience of being captivated by the film or show.

Nevertheless, if you are one of the lucky people who can speak more than one language and are able to pick out differences, you may begin to notice how often this happens now that you will be consciously aware while watching something on TV.