Lost in Translation: Drama Titles That Steer You in the Wrong Direction

 ~ To start with, I am going to assume that the audience for this article is English-speaking, and neither Chinese, Japanese nor Korean is your first language. This is necessary in order to enjoy the full benefits of subtitle-dependence and appreciate this article. ~

Poor translations are nothing new for Asian drama lovers, and drama titles are one of the most common victims of this disease. When you read dramas (because you cannot just watch and understand dramas when you have subtitle-dependence), there are too many instances of words losing their subtle meaning or significance as they get translated. This phenomenon is called 'lost in translation'.

Nothing hits me worse - (obviously there are a lot of things, but for this instance let's assume it's nothing) - nothing hits me worse than seeing the amazing names that drama-land comes up with for its shows. 

The Chinese Entertainment Industry is one of the major culprits because we all know there are so many idioms in Chinese which really cannot be translated into English. Also, Chinese is the most spoken language in the world (source). The English-speaking audience is NOT their target viewer. What doesn't help matters is that they have a very strict censor board. So, when you compare the local/national viewership with us meager international audiences, the numbers tell the truth. It's a tough place we are in. TBH, I'd have preferred the Chinese title over their attempt at English, but more on that later.

That is not to say that the Korean Drama Industry doesn't suffer from the same problem. There are some remarkable1 K-drama titles as well, and Japanese doramas – well, what do I say about the Japanese! Sometimes I think they have arrived at a brilliant strategy as opposed to their Chinese counterparts, in the sense that they don't even bother to translate their titles! Most (not all, mind you!) Japanese titles are in Japanese, which is a safe bet since we don't have to be bothered with whether they make sense in English or not. And yet there are some unforgettable J-drama titles too!

Just to be clear, I don't blame any country per se for its garbage translations. I 'blame' no one, but do believe that a lot of fault lies with the English language itself. 

Another very common occurrence is the scarce use of punctuation in the English translations, and there is a good reason for this. It is only in the 20th century that punctuation began to be used in Chinese. In Japan, some years after the Meiji Restoration, the Ministry of Education finally passed a bill letting people know how to use punctuation, like the period and the comma. Korean traditional punctuation marks were developed in association with learning Chinese. This is why there is a conceptual gap between the traditional punctuation and the current punctuation marks, which are more westernised (sic).

And this all proves why punctuation has always been a source of contention when translating these languages to English, where the placement of a punctuation mark makes a world of a difference to the intended meaning.