6 Problematic Mistranslations That Led To Fanwars

On a good day, mistranslations can make a funny joke fall flat. On a bad day, however, they can completely misconstrue the meaning of what an idol is saying and create an uproar among international fans. Whether it was by staff or auto-translations on the internet, these idols were unfortunately mistranslated — and fans were not happy about it. Check out 6 problematic mistranslations below.

1. LE SSERAFIM’s Sakura

LE SSERAFIM‘s Sakura received praise for speaking out against HYBE‘s diet expectations for her and for her members, while HYBE was criticized for allegedly mistranslating her words in order to soften them.

Fans were upset as they made it sound like Sakura was agreeing with them while she was clearly upset.

A translation by Twitter user @TSaku1339 paints a slightly different picture from HYBE’s captions on YouTube, showing that Sakura was more critical of the company’s stance on dieting than the captions made it sound.

A more accurate trans

Not sure what's wrong with HYBE's trans team. They translated it poorly and changed its meaning, causing confusion for non-Korean speakers. Sakura's standing up for the group and opposing HYBE's diet control because they've never had weight problem bfore 🥲 pic.twitter.com/hwkKkk3bg6

— HARU|咲良単推し³⁹ (@TSaku1339) September 18, 2022

2. BTS’s Jungkook

While playing a game during an episode of Run BTS!, BTS‘s Jungkook expressed his high spirits by shouting, “Hurray for the independence of Korea!”

However, when Korean fans saw the Japanese translation of Jungkook’s cheer, they immediately expressed their discontent at the inaccurate translation that read, “Hurray for the Republic of Korea!”

Since it was accurately translated in English and Chinese, fans expressed their anger through comments such as “Are they trying to be cautious around the Japanese?” and “I can’t believe they can’t translate it as ‘independence of Korea’.” The reason for the controversy is that Korea achieved its independence from Japan back in 1945 following the period of Korea under Japanese rule. Eventually, the caption was corrected.

3. Jessi

Netizens accused Jessi of saying colorist remarks after Tzuyu mentioned wanting to have lighter skin for a day.

Jessi discussed how when she exfoliates, she becomes lighter. However, the team soon apologized for any upset it may have caused fans explaining that English translation issues caused the misunderstanding.

When providing the English subtitles for yesterday’s episode of the show with members of TWICE as guests, Jessi’s comment using the word ‘Ttaemiri,’ which holds the meaning of cleansing by scrubbing in Korean bathing culture, was mistranslated by our team as ‘dirt’ instead of ‘cleansing,’ upsetting fans in the process.

— Showterview With Jessi Team

4. Mingi (ATEEZ)

On Weekly Idol, there was a segment where fans sent in reasoning for why they would not want to go on vacation with a specific member, a viewer sent in a comment saying that they would not want Mingi because his English is “the worst.”

The comment got a strong response from the hosts and ATEEZ, who began defending Mingi.

From the verbiage used, it was clear the fan had used a translation app to convey their “joke.” However, it had come across as harsh on the show and caused fans to be upset.

idk how much this needs to be said but the mingi english talk and jokes were supposed to be left behind us since WAY BACK. his english is just fine and he’s doing well and every time this gets brought up like this i just feels like it’s really disrespectful towards him honestly

— marian – 민기 ◡̈ (@mingintro) August 3, 2022

can i just say, atinys, next time if you’re joining events like the ones they did in weekly idol, please dont use papago or google translate!! what you type is not guaranteed to come out the same, how can you guys submit that and let mg hear it?

— jase • seeing ateez in toronto! (@onlymingki) August 3, 2022

5. I.M (MONSTA X)

MONSTA X‘s I.M once received flack for a mistranslation on Bubble. His messages were auto-translated as follows:

• “I must be burnt out…”
• “I don’t want to exercise”
• “But I do it every day”
• “I must not be burnt out..”
• “I say I don’t want to, but I do it every day”
• “If it’s hot, I say it’s too hot to work out, but I still do it every day..”
• “And if it’s cold, I say it’s too cold…”
• “It’s not just me”
• “If you feel attacked, please go exercise”
• “If you have the strength to hold chopsticks, but say you don’t have the strength to exercise, that is just an excuse”
• “You say you gain weight just from drinking water? You should think about what else you consumed like water”
• “It’s because you’re burnt out from exercising that you brought you here”
• “I fully understand those words and I use it as well”
• “Work harder~”
• “But you don’t have to do it as I do”
• “I just want you all to know the importance of exercise”
• “If you like me for that, that’s enough for me”

He was accused of making “fatphobic” comments. However, fans soon came to his defense and shared how the idioms he was using do not translate literally as the translation app had done.

once and for all for everyone:
‼️ CHANGKYUN DID NOT TALK ABOUT EATING IN GENERAL OR ED

he used two Korean idioms "chopstick" (if you can do the small stuff try doing the hard stuff) and "water" (think about what you're doing everyday), which Koreans use to motivate each other!!! pic.twitter.com/v2LpzAo3qt

— purple mic 💜 (@impurplemic) July 28, 2021

6. Yuqi [(G)I-DLE]

(G)I-DLE‘s Yuqi has repeatedly been the victim of unfortunate auto-translations on Bubble — However, the only person it was problematic for was Yuqi herself!