Speaker 1: Korean speakers watching the Netflix series Squid Game were quick to point out that the English translations didn't always match up to the dialogue. Wired reached out to Korean language professor Joo Won Seo to see what English speakers might be missing out on.

Speaker 2: This part, the translation is definitely sanitized. Two main differences I noticed in translations are address terms and the swearing expressions.

Speaker 1: Today we're going to be talking about English subtitles, not the dubbed version. Do you know where your son happens to be now?

Speaker 2: On business in the United States.

Speaker 1: That's a whole nother video. So let's start with the address terms. Pay attention to the translated word, sir, in this scene in episode two, between Ali, the Pakistani immigrant, and Sangwoo, the stockbroker.

Speaker 2: The meaning of Sajangnim is the president of company or CEO of the company. The meaning itself is extended to many different situations. So anybody who looks like in a suit and then a little bit older, and then everybody starts calling that person Sajangnim. So Ali is using that Sajangnim in calling a lot of male characters in the show.

Speaker 1: Korean speakers use honorifics constantly when speaking to each other. You can hear it here. Here. And here. It would be impossible to translate all of these in Squid Game because they're so ubiquitous. But the way the characters address each other shows the evolution of the relationship. Listen carefully when Sangwoo asks Ali to call him by his first name. He's actually using this term.

Speaker 2: Sangwoo asks Ali to call him Hyung. Then he's using intimate ending. In the Korean language, we don't call each other by our first names. We are not really first name based society. Hyung refers to older brother or elder brother of a man. That Hyung word is a big brother, is extended to other social relationships. So that means that we are close. Before, we didn't know each other well, but now we know each other and we are getting closer. That's why that Marvel scene, it was really heartbreaking when Ali keeps calling Hyung, Hyung, Hyung. So basically, he thinks that Sangwoo is almost like a brother to him, that he was betrayed. In that sense, it's more heartbreaking if you know what Hyung and Sajangnim mean in the Korean language.

Speaker 1: Another example of an honorific sharing relationship is Han Miho's use of Oppa.

Speaker 2: I don't think Babe is an accurate translation for Oppa. Oppa means older brother to a woman. Oppa is definitely a family term, a family relationship term. But at the same time, it's extended to a romantic relationship between a man and a woman. So when you start, like, between a man and a woman, a woman starts calling the other man Oppa. That means that it's kind of like, okay, we are getting closer as a woman and a man. Han Miho's character was trying to do that with the Jang Deok-su character.

Speaker 1: Because Oppa implies the woman is younger than the man, when Deok-su says, is that right? He's actually saying he's not older than her.

Speaker 2: That, oh, it's not like I'm not a man or you are not a woman. It's more like, you look older than I am. It's a switch to age difference. And she asked him, like, how old do you think I am? And then he's like saying 49 and 39, 29. And he was playing with that age thing. Address terms are extremely difficult when you have to translate Korean into English.

Speaker 1: Next up, let's talk about swearing.

Speaker 2: In some translations, Korean cursing words are translated into like scumbag, jerk, and idiot. They don't really convey that harshness of the Korean cursing words, cursing expressions. The word 새끼 is translated as jerk most of the time, but I don't think it's the right translation. 새끼 literally means the baby animal, like a baby of any animals. If you do that, you are basically cursing at your mother. So that's the whole idea. But I think it's a little bit more serious than jerk.

Speaker 1: One of the difficulties of translation is conveying meaning quickly because subtitles are rarely over two lines. But what's lost in translation when a swear word is translated to a PG term?

Speaker 2: It's not just about swearing words. And some expressions are very vulgar. And that's also kind of stands out to me. Let's take a look at the character, Han Mi-myoung. This part, the translation is definitely sanitized. That's definitely not scumbag. 시발놈아 is like a... Okay, I just said it. Oh my gosh, on camera. Okay, it's like a F word. It's a... I'll stay f***ing bastard. That kind of thing. No one even says scumbag anymore. An interesting thing is her background was really not explained in the show. I think the cursing and using all these low class expressions, the way she's expressing that I got to go to the bathroom in a kind of very vulgar way. It's not cursing word, but the way she describes her state was just really very bad. Linguistically, it's kind of interesting to see her background through her use of language.

Speaker 1: Translation is an incredibly difficult job. And the success of Squid Game shows how well the show did overall.

Speaker 2: Overall, it's pretty accurate in terms of conveying the storyline. I could ask a little bit more in subtly and a little bit like a nuance. If you don't know the language and you have to depend on the subtitles, of course you miss a lot of things. It's not because it's the Korean language and English translation. It's any kind of language and translation.

Speaker 1: Netflix international language series continue to gain in popularity. Squid Game's success likely means we're going to see more and more translations. So what can audiences take away from discussing the nuances of the original Korean?

Speaker 2: English is the lingua franca, so everybody speaks English. Even if you go to France, then you can travel speaking English. Sometimes the English-speaking people think that the other languages are not as sophisticated because you don't know and you don't speak that language. Through subtitle shows, you can say, okay, the other language, I don't know, but it has a lot of cultural, you know, nuances and richer in its own way.