Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
Disney Plus subscribers complain about low-quality subtitles
The image shows content offered by Disney Plus / Korea Times file
By Kim Bo-eun
By Kim Bo-eun
It has only been a few weeks since Disney Plus launched in Korea, but a negative sentiment is building around the U.S. entertainment giant's video streaming service, based on sub-par Korean language subtitles.
Posts are flooding online such as on Twitter and Naver, with screenshots of absurd subtitles that were translated from English into Korean.
On a "The Simpsons show," “GOAT,” an acronym which stands for “greatest of all time” and refers to the ultimate incarnation of anything, such as an athlete, was translated into the Korean word for the animal “goat.” In Toy Story 3, the part Buzz Lightyear speaks in Spanish was not translated into Korean but was written in Korean the way the words were pronounced in English. In “Olaf's Frozen Adventure,” the line "You're welcome to join us in the castle" was translated into "Be together with crotch" in Korean. Many more posts highlighted grammatical errors and mistakes in subtitles for various other shows.
A scene from Olaf's Frozen Adventure where the line "You're welcome to join us in the castle" was translated into "Be together with crotch" in Korean. Captured from Naver
An office worker in her 30s, who subscribes to Disney Plus, said she was dumbfounded by the quality of the subtitles for the content she watched.
"The subtitles for the most important scenes were absurd. Luckily I am able to understand English, but for those not familiar with the language, the subtitles could have been very misleading," she said.
"Honestly, viewers who were expecting quality content based on Disney's name value have become disappointed and trust in Disney's quality has plummeted."
One post on Twitter said, "Why did Disney take so much time in launching Disney Plus here if they were going to make their content available without checking mistakes in the subtitles?"
Disney Plus launched in Korea on Nov. 12. Over-the-top media service providers are known to outsource subtitling translations.