Squid Game Translation: From Missteps to Mastery
When Squid Game first dropped on Netflix in September 2021, it became the most-watched series in the platform's history, crossing language barriers in a way few Korean productions had before. But alongside the global praise came a wave of criticism, particularly from Korean-speaking viewers, about the quality of its English subtitles and dubbing.
Fast forward to Season 2, and the translation team earned genuine applause from Korean speakers for its polished subtitles and dubbing. What changed? And what can the localization industry learn from this very public evolution?
The Season 1 Controversy
Korean-speaking viewers were quick to point out that Season 1's English subtitles lost significant layers of meaning. The problems weren't random translation errors: they were systematic issues that reveal fundamental challenges in audiovisual translation.
Honorifics and Social Hierarchy
Korean language encodes social relationships directly into speech. Honorific levels (존댓말 / 반말) signal power dynamics, intimacy, age relationships and social class. In Squid Game, these shifts were central to character development.
Example: When Sang-woo switches from formal to informal speech with his childhood friend Gi-hun, it signals a shift in their relationship: a return to childhood familiarity, then later a power play. English subtitles couldn't capture this because English lacks an equivalent grammatical system.
Cultural References Lost
The children's game "무궁화 꽃이 피었습니다" (mugunghwa kkochi pieotseumnida) was translated as "Red Light, Green Light." While this made the concept accessible, it lost the cultural significance: 무궁화 (mugunghwa) is the national flower of South Korea, the Rose of Sharon. The phrase literally means "the hibiscus flower has bloomed," embedding national identity into a children's game. This layer of meaning (the irony of a national symbol associated with innocent play being used in a deadly context) evaporated in translation.
The Closed Captions Problem
Netflix's closed captions (CC) and subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) differed from the standard English subtitles, and both differed from the dubbed version. This created three different English interpretations of the same Korean dialogue, confusing viewers who compared versions.
What Season 2 Got Right
Season 2's localization showed measurable improvement. Several key changes were evident:
Earlier translator involvement: Reports indicate translators were brought in during production, not post-production, giving them access to scripts, context and creative intent.
Cultural consultants: Native Korean speakers with localization expertise reviewed translations for cultural fidelity, not just linguistic accuracy.
Consistency across formats: Subtitles, CC/SDH and dubbing scripts were coordinated to maintain narrative consistency.
Creative freedom for translators: Rather than demanding literal fidelity, the translation team was given latitude to find equivalent expressions that preserved emotional and cultural impact.
Lessons for the Localization Industry
1. Cultural Context Shapes Meaning
Direct translation preserves words but can lose meaning. The most impactful translations convey the intent and feeling behind the original dialogue, even when the specific cultural reference doesn't transfer.
For El Turco's work in Turkish, Arabic and Persian, this principle is fundamental. Arabic honorific systems, Turkish formal/informal registers and Persian's elaborate politeness structures (ta'arof) all encode social information that requires cultural translation, not just linguistic conversion.
2. Literal vs. Semantic Translation
Squid Game highlighted the risks of sticking to literal translations when the source material is culturally dense. A semantic approach (translating meaning rather than words) consistently produces better results for entertainment content.
3. Subtitling Constraints Demand Expertise
Subtitles have brutal constraints: typically 42 characters per line, 2 lines maximum and 1-7 seconds of display time. Compressing culturally rich Korean dialogue into these limits while preserving meaning requires specialised skill, not just bilingual ability.
4. Early Involvement Matters
The improvement from Season 1 to Season 2 correlates directly with earlier translator involvement in the production process. This is a lesson that applies across the industry: whether you're localizing a game, a marketing campaign or a streaming series, involving localization teams during content creation (not after) dramatically improves quality.
5. Multiple Language Versions Need Coordination
The confusion created by inconsistent S1 subtitles, CC and dubbing underscores the need for a unified localization strategy across all delivery formats.
The Broader Impact
Squid Game's translation controversy did something valuable for the localization industry: it made translation quality a mainstream conversation. Millions of viewers who had never thought about subtitling quality suddenly had opinions about it.
For professional linguists, this visibility is a double-edged sword: higher expectations, but also greater recognition of the skill and expertise that quality translation demands.
At El Turco, we work with entertainment and media clients who understand that localization quality directly impacts audience reception. Whether it's game dialogue, streaming content or marketing campaigns, the Squid Game lesson is clear: translation is not an afterthought. It's a creative discipline that deserves investment, expertise and respect.
Doğa is a Project Manager at El Turco specialising in entertainment and media localization across Turkish, Arabic and Balkan language markets.