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5th October 2021
10:50am BST

Of course, there are always going to be subtle changes and little nuances that get lost in translation - but according to comedian and podcaster Youngmi Mayer, there are quite a lot of distinctions between how the Netflix subtitles present the dialogue and how it's actually supposed to read.
The first example Mayer gives is that the 'English [CC]' setting (closed captions) reads one line as: "I’m not a genius, but I can work it out". This is fairly different to what it should actually translate to, which is: "I am very smart – I just never got a chance to study."
Furthermore, if you change the settings to just 'English' in the menu, the translation reads as the more accurate, though still not perfect: "I never bothered to study, but I'm unbelievably smart."
[caption id="attachment_292072" align="alignnone" width="1200"]
Credit: Netflix[/caption]
Mayer goes on to highlight a number of different examples and while they're not going to deliver utterly Earth-shattering changes to your viewing experience, they do impact various parts of dialogue and can subsequently alter how you perceive certain characters.
For example, the above accurate translation relates again to the disparities between classes in South Korea, and how a person who is very smart simply never got the chance to go to college, rather than her simply not being a "genius."
As with any foreign language show, non-native speakers want as much clarity as possible - so here's hoping this is something Netflix can fix soon.
Regardless, you need to be watching Squid Game - and by this point, you probably know you do too.Explore more on these topics:
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