It’s fair to say that you’d have had to be stranded on a desert island all alone without any means of communication with the outside world not to have heard anything about Squid Game over the last couple of months! The Korean dystopian drama has earned a place in history as Netflix’s most successful debut series, and it’s just been announced that it will return for a second series. If you’ve already binged the first series, how did you watch it – with subtitles or dubbed? And just how much was lost in translation?!
You may wonder what Squid Game has to do with transcription services but when we stumbled across this article talking about how some elements of the series are lost in translation, we realised that they have much more in common than you might think…
It’s all about context
The article highlights context, specifically in relation to the small cohort of English actors who played the roles of the VIPs. The actors had not been given any context for their roles. They were just told that they were playing “total idiots” and “dirtbag millionaires”, which made it difficult to assess how their characters should compose themselves. This had a knock-on effect with how their acting came across – especially compared to the Korean actors.
Context is everything in transcription. Without the right context there is a real danger that an accurate reflection of what has taken place or what was meant is missed, or even more worryingly, misinterpreted altogether. An excellent example of this is the differentiation between ‘I don’t, no’ and ‘I don’t know’. If you consider the number of police interviews we transcribe, and how vital the evidence from police interviews can be when building a case, the difference between those two phrases and the meaning behind them shows just how essential it is to get the context right.
The ability for us as humans to be able to accurately interpret the meaning of what’s said simply cannot be replicated by technology, certainly not in its current guise.
Lost in translation…
Sometimes when words or phrases are translated from one language to another something can be lost in translation. This can either be because an exact translation of the word or concept doesn’t exist, or because the person translating doesn’t quite understand the cultural reference or meaning! This apparently happened in Squid Game with “VIP four” who used the phrase “I’ll cut anybody some slack” numerous times during shooting. However the editors used a mistaken shot where he accidentally said the incorrect “I’ll give anybody some slack” instead.
We encounter issues very similar to this at Fiona Shipley, especially within the arena of medical transcription. Sometimes we’ve been given a rough transcription created using AI that contains incorrect or misconstrued wording – mostly because machine learning hasn’t been able to correctly identify them.
This is one of the real value adds for our transcription service for our clients. We’ve built up a specialist, detailed knowledge of the medical sector as we’ve evolved which means there’s no guesswork when it comes to the words speakers are using. And if there is ever any doubt then we research them and ensure that our work is accurate before the final product is handed over to the client.
So there you have it – Squid Game and transcription have much more in common than it may seem at first! If you have any queries about the transcription services provided by Fiona Shipley, or you would like to book in, please contact us via alex@fionashipley.com.