sebbivism 134 Posted April 4, 2011 This has bugged me quite a bit lately, when visiting blogs, websites and forums for Korean music, I just wonder: Why do almost everybody translate all album- and song titles that's in Korean, into English? Why don't just transcript them into latin letters like we do with Japanese- and Chinese music? I don't really care what the Korean song titles is meaning in English, I want a transcription of the title instead. Anybody that know what I'm meaning? It's not like we're translating all Japanese titles into English the first thing we do. Could it be that these people do not know how to transcribe song titles correctly from Korean? Any thoughts about this? → For example, After School lead singer KAHI's EP is entitled "??아와 나?? 너" and almost everyone has translated this title into "Come Back You Bad Person". I mean, why not just write "Dol-awa nappeun neo" instead? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaye 296 Posted April 4, 2011 Yeah, I find it annoying as well. But it's the Kpop business I guess. The companies themselves often give up an English equivalent to the Korean title. (Or they give it a Korean name and put the translation into brackets) + The Korean language has 2 systems. For instance: 김형준 is Kim Hyungjun. But 형 can be written as Hyung or Hyeong while 준 can be either Jun or Joon. So I guess people just want to make it easier for themselves and just put up the English songtitles. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sebbivism 134 Posted April 4, 2011 Yes! There might be something in what you wrote! I also know that some music agencies (SM Entertainment for example) put English translation/English words being repeated in the chorus into brackets in the song title.. 미??아 (BONAMANA) for example, but I'm talking about song titles that's entirely in Korean. : 3 I can take 2NE1 for example, they have a couple of song titles entirely in Korean, why don't just write the transcripted version instead of English. "난 바빠" is "Nan bappa"... I'm thinking "fine, the title is meaning I'm Busy but how the hell am I pronouncing this song title?" There are of course also song titles that's written in Korean, but actually are an English word (similar to "Katakana" in Japanese) and that's more than OK to translate into English directly. We're already doing the same with Katakana-song titles for Japanese music. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ginHigure 22 Posted April 4, 2011 Yeah it suxs when people do that, tho i prefer the original naming of track and no translation at all. I feel it kinda looses value in some way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LIDL 692 Posted April 5, 2011 because we're Westerns and we can do that! *arrogant face* lol j/k i find it annoying too. But i somewhat agree with Kaye's points. Though, i think translating titles is already too much, we could always do with the romanji. btw, Koreans speaks English better than Japanese. I am not sure that there's Koreanized English words like Japanese does with Katakana, as they may not needed it, though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sebbivism 134 Posted April 5, 2011 Yeah it suxs when people do that, tho i prefer the original naming of track and no translation at all. I feel it kinda looses value in some way. Yes, me too.. I always use original title. But when tagging files in iTunes, you can put the transcripted title into "Sort Title" and the iTunes Library will sort the title correctly. And that "Katakana"-thing with Korean, I was meaning words like 롤러코스터 is "Roller Coaster" and if transcripting this word it will be "Lolleo koseuteo" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
