Translation for ‘Squid Game’ subtitles is ‘botched,’ Korean-speaking fan says

Popular Netflix drama ‘Squid Game’ is being lost in translation for English viewers, some Korean-speaking fans say.

The Korean-language drama is on-track to becoming Netflix’s most popular original series, according to the company’s CEO.

But Korean speaker Youngmi Mayer told the BBC that the English subtitles are “so bad” that the original meaning is often lost.

“The dialogue was so well written and zero of it was preserved [in the translated subtitles],” Youngmi said on Twitter.

The series centers on a game show in which contestants must win children’s games or face death.

Youngmi gave several examples of mistranslation in the closed-caption subtitles used by people who are hard of hearing.

In one scene a character tries to convince people to play a game with her.

The subtitles read: “I’m not a genius, but I still got it worked out.”

But Youngmi explains that the character actually said: “I am very smart, I just never got the chance to study.”

“Almost everything she says is being botched translation-wise,” Youngmi said.

Youngmi’s initial comments were about the closed-caption subtitles, which are often automatically generated for people who have hearing issues, rather than the English language subtitles.

Netflix did not respond to the BBC’s request for a comment.