You’re probably watching Netflix’s Squid Game wrong

So many people are streaming Squid Game it’s set to become Netflix’s most-watched series. But did you experience it the wrong way? Probably.

Look, where’s no absolute “wrong” way to watch Squid Game but there are certainly different ways – inferior ways, superior ways.

The global popularity of the South Korean drama has reignited the dubbing versus subtitles debate, and yes, it is a debate because there are strong views on both sides.

Even those in the middle are sanctimoniously declaring that either option is fine and how dare anyone think otherwise, that anything which gets English speakers watching a series from a non-English language country is a good thing.

Whatever you opt for, either you miss some of the visual action while glued to reading the bottom of the screen, or you watch nine hours of a show with mismatched lips and strong American accents for a story set in and around Seoul.

Squid Game is about to become Netflix’s most-watched original series ever.

Unless you speak Korean, there’s no denying that Squid Game, a series about a murderous competition between 456 contestants for a large cash prize, is a somewhat diminished experience whether you choose to read the subtitles or choose the audio dubbing track.

Both the dubbing and the subtitles are reported to have varying levels of translation issues.

An American comedian named Youngmi Mayer tweeted that she was fluent in Korean and watched Squid Game with the English subtitles only to find vast differences in the translation.

She wrote: “If you don’t understand Korean, you didn’t really watch the same show. [The] translation was so bad. The dialogue was written so well and zero of it was preserved.”

She made a video comparing the differences, which included a dilution of the series’ focus on wealth disparity between the rich and poor.

ok i made this really fast so it’s not very good but these are the small examples i could find in ten mins pic.twitter.com/5kIsrlWDjq

— youngmi mayer (@ymmayer) September 30, 2021

However, many pointed out Mayer had watched the closed caption English subtitles, which is crafted for viewers that are hard of hearing and include descriptions of audio sounds as well as dialogue. Mayer later said that the regular English subtitles were substantially better in its translation.

Several viewers on social media said the English dubbing track was near-identical to the closed caption subtitles, which suggests that if you want to capture the richness of the series, the regular subtitles will better enable that than the dubbing track.

For what it’s worth, filmmaker Taika Waititi has obviously taken a side in the sub vs dub war.

You don't have to watch Squid Game dubbed in English.

— Taika Waititi (@TaikaWaititi) October 3, 2021

Part of the issue with the dubbing versus subtitles stems from the fact that Netflix defaults to the English-dubbing track on non-English language titles including Squid Game and other popular series such as the French Lupin or the Spanish Money Heist.

For a lot of users, the default means they don’t even know there’s the option to watch shows or films in the original language coupled with a subtitles track.

It’s only after you’ve manually changed your settings on a couple of non-English titles does Netflix change the default on your account.

The reason for the dubbing default is because Netflix has found that users in the US are more likely to finish a series or film with the dubbing track rather than with subtitles. Make of that what you will.

How to change the default audio settings on your Netflix interface. Picture: Netflix

In the past, Netflix revealed that 78 per cent of viewers watched the German series Dark with a dubbing track rather than its original language track. Ninety per cent of Dark’s audiences were outside of Germany, which means only 12 per cent of total global audiences watched the series in German with subtitles on.

Ultimately, whether you watch Squid Game with the dubbing or the subtitles on is up to you.

And maybe you don’t even care about the show’s searing social commentary on wealth inequality and the exploitation of the poor by the rich. Maybe you’re just there for the hyper-real violence and impressive production design.

But if you want the full experience – outside of speaking Korean – the subtitles will get you a lot closer.

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