earticle

영어

In spite of the increase in Korean language acquisition around the globe, the dissemination of Korean culture internationally is still almost entirely dependent on translation. It is, therefore, interesting to examine translation practices to see what they can tell us about how Korean translators intend Korean culture to be perceived by the target audience. North Korean studies scholar Bryan Meyers has identified an internal track and an external track in the dissemination of North Korean propaganda: one for North Koreans and the other for everyone else. These two tracks have different objectives and contain radically different messages. I postulate that a similar mechanism can be identified in the translation of some Hallyu content. In this article I will use a comparative analysis of the English translation of Psy’s recent release Gentleman to elucidate the different aesthetic and cultural messages being conveyed to the internal (Korean) and external (international) audiences respectively. From this, it should be possible to make some assumptions as to the type of image that the producers and manipulators (including translators) of such content are attempting to present to the non-Korean-speaking consumer. In addition, the discussion will include the Korean government’s increasing influence in the production and dissemination of Psy”s (in particular but not limited to) work in an attempt to determine if translation is being used to intentionally misrepresent cultural images and messages.