Squid Game has turned into a global hit on Netflix with the streaming platform’s co-chief executive officer (CEO) Ted Sarandos reckoning the South Korean survival drama will soon surpass Bridgerton and The Witcher as its most sampled original-series launch ever. However, the show’s English subtitles have sparked a discussion on social media after several Korean speakers termed them below par. “Not to sound snobby but i’m fluent in Korean and i watched Squid Game with English subtitles and if you don’t understand Korean you didn’t really watch the same show. Translation was so bad. The dialogue was written so well and zero of it was preserved,” wrote Twitter user Youngmi Mayer.

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The comedian and co-host of the podcast Feeling Asian also vented some of her frustrations on TikTok last week in a video that has since attracted more than 10 million views.

But, actor Edward Hong feels glad that the voice actors for the popular Netflix series “Squid Game” were of Korean and Asian descent. The 34-year-old, who was one of the English-dubbing cast for Squid Game, said having such a dubbing cast helps a great deal in not only eliminating mistranslations but also sustaining the authenticity of the original cinema.

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Hong voiced Player 244 in the series, which has become the most-watched show in approximately 90 countries. “Korean actors, even if not fluent, can call out something if it’s not right,” he told NBC Asian America. “The way Korean religious people, especially pastors, talk is a very specific way of talking. That’s something I knew all too well from being stuck in those Korean church services as a kid,” Hong added.

Dubbing is even more demanding than voice acting for animation, Hong said. He went on to add that in dubbing, the voice artist has to maintain and further nurture the original actor’s performance. The voice artist also has to make sure that the dubbing is not out of sync.

“Audiovisual translation, subtitling in particular, is limited to space constraints on the screen,” said translator Denise Kripper. “In general, subtitles can’t be longer than two lines – that’s even fewer characters than a tweet. The most perfect of translations still need to be paraphrased or adapted if they do not fit within those spatial limitations.”

Kripper, who has translated several shows to date, pointed out that each channel or platform has distinct guidelines regarding formatting, offensive language, and culture-specific references. “The audiovisual industry moves fast. Time is money on TV, so turnaround for translations can be fast. Translators work around the clock so that people can watch their favourite shows,” she said.