I read an article about how Netflix has got a bad reputation for doing cheap subtitling - apparently Korean-speaking folks are quite irritated that it's missing the real sense of the words. That's frustrating. You'd think they could shell out for a better job - I'm sure there's some Korean-American writers out there who would be happy for the gig.
I really have to say Netflix is not the only one to blame.
Okay, Squid Game I watched with subtitles in my language so can't talk about translation to english for that case.
However, for certain phrases used in my language Netflix subtitles, I have absolutely no idea how to translate any of those on english. If the original counterpart in korean has a similar form and meaning, it might be that some parts simply got lost in translation because of language differences.
To describe it better, a word motherfucker as such does not exist in my language. Combining other words into it is possible, but it doesn't feel as an insult but as a ridiculous attempt of someone illiterate to pretend smart. Goatfucker does exist though as a word with the same meaning and is usually a cause of bans on social media.
So what do translators write when someone says motherfucker in a Hollywood lemonade? They get creative and write something else that's usually even worse insult.
Anyway not only korean, all asian shows and movies from different sources tend to have a total confusion in english subtitles.
You often play a detective and repeat a scene for example on wetv stream trying to make sense of what's written as there is no logic.
Even worse example is AsianCrush with sometimes such atrocious subtitles you'll suspect it was google translate on rampage. Additionally, subtitle fonts they use are mostly an utter fail.
On the other hand, english subtitles on viki, athough subbed by fans who do it to get premium content for free, with a typo here and there, never made me confused. I bet they have a customer feedback there so potentially wrong translations get corrected.
I wrote perhaps too much.
Netflix will continue hiring the same people for translations if noone objects.
So write to them.
A wrong sentence here and there doesn't really matter. But when it happens in key moments needed to understand the rest of the show or a movie, that's a disaster.
