(no subject)
January has been dismal for interneting (neologisms ftw). I taught at least 6 hours everyday starting in December the week before Christmas and at the peak there were a few 10 hour days. I ended up being the person with gaps in my schedule that got filled whenever something when wrong, and this being Korea, that was all the time. Next week I only teach two hours the entire week.
So this weekend I was watching my Simpsons forth season DVDs and I noticed something strange. I am so used to watching with Korean subtitles sometimes I prefer to watch that way even when I can turn them off. Today I noticed something strange. I was watching the episode called "Brother from the Same Planet" and there is a scene in which Dr. Hibbert gives Lisa a "M*A*S*H* coloring book" and comments that "here's a good one. Hawkeye's antics irritate the other surgeons." The word 'irritate' is one that I have been trying to pin down in Korean because since there are so many variations on it, (짜증나다, 귀찮다, 괴롭다, and no doubt others.) it is tricky to use pragmatically. However the second sentence was translated as "아이오와 사람이 익살스레 군의관들을 괴롭히다." When I read subtitles I sight read and do not sound out the words because it is too slow. 아이 is 'child' 와 is 'and' 사람 is 'person' 익살 is 'humor' (plus -스럽다, which changes non-하다 nouns into adjectives, or rather 형용사, since Korean does not have adjectives, though in this case -스럽다 becomes 스레 because it is used as an adverbial [I wonder how common this usage is as it seems like there either should be a better way or a better word]) 군의관 is 'army doctor' and 괴롭다 is 'a pain in the ass.' So the translation looked to me like "the child and a person humorously are a pain in the ass to the army doctors." (not as funny as the original, but hey, that's translation for you.) The child thing was really confusing, especially given that there are very few children in M*A*S*H*. I stared at it for awhile before realizing that 아이오와 was not "child and..." it was Iowa, as in the American state. (This is an example why sometimes English words are often the most confusing words in Korean. When they don't look like English words, I always assume they are Korea words that I then cannot find in the dictionary.) So the translation was "an Iowa person is a pain in the ass..." which was even more confusing because everybody, especially people who have lived in Maine for six years, know that Hawkeye was from Crab Apple Cove, Maine (not a real place by the way; Maine is not really a crab state.) I was trying to figure it out when it hit me: Iowa is the "Hawkeye state." Whoever was translating, looked up "Hawkeye," got Iowa and called it a day. (Not that I blame them, though I wonder if they came across Mr . Cooper?) The ironic thing is that it makes less sense, even to Koreans, as "Iowa person" because Koreans (and many Americans) know nothing about Iowa; it would have been much better to just transliterate it into "학아이" since it would have the same meaning to Koreans as "Iowa person", which is to say, none.
This raises the fact that the greatest difficultly in translation is not the language but translation the culture. How do you translate things that are inherent in the culture? I encounter this problem every time I go home and accidentally drop the words 노래방, or 스킨십 into casual conversation. The point of the joke is not that "Hawkeye's antics irritate the other surgeons" but that a M*A*S*H* coloring book exists at all (although the Hawkeye part adds to it, given that "Hawkeye's antics" were either a part of the plot or subplot of every episode) but how do you translate that?
There is another part to all of this that I have thought about off and on during my time here. Ask ANY American to name two things about Korea and invariably the first thing they will mention is M*A*S*H* (with 김치 being a distant second.) However, I have not met a single Korean who has either seen or even heard of the show. It is strange because any other show that has a Korean in it, or mentions anything Korean, no matter how tangential, is on TV here the same time it is on in the States--as opposed to the usual two year delay. Now, some of you may say the reason Koreans don't watch it is because it is an older show. I'll grant you that but then I will add that I have seen more episodes of 'Wonder Woman' and 'The Incredible Hulk' in Korea than in the States and 'Wonder Years" is also popular (although much to my chagrin it is called '12-year old Kevin' in Korean) as it 'Airwolf' and 'Tour of Duty.' I just do not understand why a hyper-popular show that is set in Korea would be at least something that Koreans would know about. It is something that has always puzzled me.
So this weekend I was watching my Simpsons forth season DVDs and I noticed something strange. I am so used to watching with Korean subtitles sometimes I prefer to watch that way even when I can turn them off. Today I noticed something strange. I was watching the episode called "Brother from the Same Planet" and there is a scene in which Dr. Hibbert gives Lisa a "M*A*S*H* coloring book" and comments that "here's a good one. Hawkeye's antics irritate the other surgeons." The word 'irritate' is one that I have been trying to pin down in Korean because since there are so many variations on it, (짜증나다, 귀찮다, 괴롭다, and no doubt others.) it is tricky to use pragmatically. However the second sentence was translated as "아이오와 사람이 익살스레 군의관들을 괴롭히다." When I read subtitles I sight read and do not sound out the words because it is too slow. 아이 is 'child' 와 is 'and' 사람 is 'person' 익살 is 'humor' (plus -스럽다, which changes non-하다 nouns into adjectives, or rather 형용사, since Korean does not have adjectives, though in this case -스럽다 becomes 스레 because it is used as an adverbial [I wonder how common this usage is as it seems like there either should be a better way or a better word]) 군의관 is 'army doctor' and 괴롭다 is 'a pain in the ass.' So the translation looked to me like "the child and a person humorously are a pain in the ass to the army doctors." (not as funny as the original, but hey, that's translation for you.) The child thing was really confusing, especially given that there are very few children in M*A*S*H*. I stared at it for awhile before realizing that 아이오와 was not "child and..." it was Iowa, as in the American state. (This is an example why sometimes English words are often the most confusing words in Korean. When they don't look like English words, I always assume they are Korea words that I then cannot find in the dictionary.) So the translation was "an Iowa person is a pain in the ass..." which was even more confusing because everybody, especially people who have lived in Maine for six years, know that Hawkeye was from Crab Apple Cove, Maine (not a real place by the way; Maine is not really a crab state.) I was trying to figure it out when it hit me: Iowa is the "Hawkeye state." Whoever was translating, looked up "Hawkeye," got Iowa and called it a day. (Not that I blame them, though I wonder if they came across Mr . Cooper?) The ironic thing is that it makes less sense, even to Koreans, as "Iowa person" because Koreans (and many Americans) know nothing about Iowa; it would have been much better to just transliterate it into "학아이" since it would have the same meaning to Koreans as "Iowa person", which is to say, none.
This raises the fact that the greatest difficultly in translation is not the language but translation the culture. How do you translate things that are inherent in the culture? I encounter this problem every time I go home and accidentally drop the words 노래방, or 스킨십 into casual conversation. The point of the joke is not that "Hawkeye's antics irritate the other surgeons" but that a M*A*S*H* coloring book exists at all (although the Hawkeye part adds to it, given that "Hawkeye's antics" were either a part of the plot or subplot of every episode) but how do you translate that?
There is another part to all of this that I have thought about off and on during my time here. Ask ANY American to name two things about Korea and invariably the first thing they will mention is M*A*S*H* (with 김치 being a distant second.) However, I have not met a single Korean who has either seen or even heard of the show. It is strange because any other show that has a Korean in it, or mentions anything Korean, no matter how tangential, is on TV here the same time it is on in the States--as opposed to the usual two year delay. Now, some of you may say the reason Koreans don't watch it is because it is an older show. I'll grant you that but then I will add that I have seen more episodes of 'Wonder Woman' and 'The Incredible Hulk' in Korea than in the States and 'Wonder Years" is also popular (although much to my chagrin it is called '12-year old Kevin' in Korean) as it 'Airwolf' and 'Tour of Duty.' I just do not understand why a hyper-popular show that is set in Korea would be at least something that Koreans would know about. It is something that has always puzzled me.