DG's life goal and hobbies

Seeing as it's a break, anyone else not that impressed by Lezhin's "American English" translations at times? If we overlook the poor spelling in general, there are a few other grievances. They have this tokenism approach to honorifics, 'hyung & oppa" are always left in, but they always omit other honorifics which are important to the plot and the nuances of the characters dialogue. They choose to use the right grammar for some names, like Dong-gyun, but simplify/Americanise everything else, sometimes changing what the character is addressed as completely, which has no place in either Korea or English speaking countries. It's good that we can access English webtoons on their site, but they do have their little niggles. The dialogue of Killing Stalking suffered due to this especially.

More whingeing, but it does seem a trend that official translators aren't as sympathetic to the original text in comparison to fan translators. Official translators are more in the habit of localising dialogue, names, omitting details like honorifics, even simple things like keeping the original name of a dish, Lezhin translated to something completely different. Can't be the only one who has experienced disappointment over purchasing an official translation that was sub-par to a scanlator's offering? This goes beyond Lezhin btw.

I was wondering, what has been simplified/Americanised in BJ Alex? I've read both the raws and the translations, and there are no glaring differences or changes that would've affected the story to my recollection. Please do tell me if I'm wrong though since I probably don't remember the things you're talking about. Do you mean DG's username/nickname (DongDong) and stuff like that? As for honorifics, leaving in too many honorifics and other idiosyncrasies not found in English can really disturb the flow of dialogue and make it sound unnatural, making it an overall bad, as well as uncomfortable, translation. I've seen this in some other translations, not just for manhwa, but for animes, novels, articles, etc. That's why many translated works have a translation note at the beginning explaining their translation process. My guess is that any changes they did make in BJ Alex aimed for easy readability that matches common English flow while not changing the story over strict adherence to the original text. I agree about KS though, especially with regards to the last few chapters; it would've been better to have translator's notes over changing the words (it really changes the meaning and the seriousness).

It isn't as noticeable with this translation in regards to the honorifics but this can't be said with Killing Stalking, where the honorifics are integral to the plot. It's just odd how lezhin translators simplify some names and mess up the grammar of some names, and have this importance to the term hyung and sunbae but don't or rarely include any other honorifics or familial terms. Having American English "mom" etc also is a bit annoying, just write eomma and add a t/n explaining this, but concerning this manhwa, it's little details which could have been more sympathetic. BJ Alex saying thank you "Dongdong nim" as opposed to just calling him "DG". Or even how the translators turned dakgangjeong into "sweet and sour chicken" which it isn't. If the translators feel they can include honorifics like hyung, or age related honorifics which could be seen as disrupting the flow, or unnatural in English then why not go the full shebang and include all of such "additions'. This is more just a generalisation of lezhin, some of the official Japanese translations get spoiled completely by American-English localisation.

Hyeong and seonbae are incredibly well-known terms even to non-manhwa fans, just coming in with some Korean media experience would probably be enough to know what those terms are. Even looking them up, you'll get immediate answers that are easy to understand for what they mean in the Korean culture; so including them is a no-brainer (like sensei or senpai in Japanese, even -kun and -san; some of these are basic terms that even non-anime/manga fans would know from stuff like memes and the like). Other terms could be the same as well, but many of the honorifics would require translation notes, which would crowd up dialogue and disrupt flow for something that doesn't matter to the story; hyeong and seonbae don't disrupt flow since they are basically integrated into the BL vocabulary in most manhwa and other Korean media (so it doesn't feel as unnatural, especially since most readers are probably already seasoned readers). Also, -nim and other honorifics are not used as often as seonbae and hyeong are in this manhwa; seonbae is also a clear delineation of the relationship between Jiwon and Donggyun, which is important, since it's how Donggyun, one of the main characters, refers to Jiwon, the other main character, for the entire story so far. The word eomma for mom is honestly just ridiculous since we have a term for that; if you're talking about the formality of eomma or eomma-nim, we have the words mother or mother-in-law. Translators should translate everything that can be properly translated without losing meaning and clunking up the text. I'd understand maybe keeping the original word if it stemmed from dialect or something of that sort (like how Mark Twain used colloquial language in Huckleberry Finn, so translations either followed suit using their own language's versions or just kept it as is). DG and DongDong-nim is also not a big deal, explaining -nim would have been unnecessary; it's not vital to the story at all nor does it really change any sort of nuance about the relationship between BJ Alex and DG - 'the grateful idol and intense fan' relationship is still very clearly conveyed. But I can understand why some translators would want to translate in such a way that the language is still, in its essence, Korean (or whatever the original language is). Also, if they do Americanise/simplify the terms, it's the translator's style of translating. We can have several translations for one book, all telling the same story with completely different prose. If you prefer translations that stick as closely as possible to the original language, then that's the style you like. Others may prefer one that reduces verbal clutter and goes for the bones of the original meaning. Either way, we'll get the story the author is trying to tell us (especially when the story is coming from a mostly visual medium). One style is not objectively better than the other, it all comes down to preference. We can see this in Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov; there are several translations for this novel in English, and all of them have the same story with different prose coming from different translation styles. And yet there are many discussions on which is the better translation, with each person chiming in with their personal preferences or beliefs about translation. Your comment about dakgangjeong is confusing to me, I believe it IS sweet and sour chicken (the Korean version), I just had this confirmed by a Korean friend. She says it's also sweet, crispy chicken (which it also says in the official translation: "crispy sweet and sour chicken"). Maybe you're talking about yangnyeom chicken (spicy, seasoned chicken)?

Bro, sorry for the long-ass essay. I got way more into this than I originally thought I would. I just love translation, it's so interesting!

I disagree that the average joe would know what hyung/sunbae is, the point is these terms and the honorific system can be quickly picked up. From memory lezhin, or other webtoons always had a big t/n explaining what hyung meant. On another note regarding frequency, nearly every time Bum refers to Sangwoo he calls him "Sang-woo ssi" or rarely Sang-woo ya or just Sang-woo which is of great importance to the plot, yet all of this is omitted despite carrying more weight than "Ji-won sunbae'

No problem :)

I didn't say anything about the average Joe, just about the average reader coming in to read manhwa, whether they're new or seasoned readers of Korean BL; many of the readers are coming from a background with experience in Korean media or even Japanese/Chinese media, which also have honorific systems, making it easier for those readers to draw parallels within the Korean language - and lezhin knows this (it'd be bad business if they didn't know about their demographic). Hyeong and seonbae are incredibly easy to understand (older brother/older known male by another male + superior or senior in school or work, can be older or younger, etc.), while other terms like -nim and -ssi might be confusing since they really feel like they have the same meaning but are actually used in different situations. I've read a lot of lezhin translations (I procrastinate a lot...), and I've never seen translator notes for hyeong/seonbae, so maybe you're talking about a manhwa I've never seen. The terms can be quickly picked up, but the question is, is it necessary to even mention it for the story? For BJ Alex, that isn't the case, and I agree with the translators' decision on this. Using -ssi or -nim, etc. is absolutely a waste of time in BJ Alex. It's kind of like that meme about Death Note and the fan translation that decided to translate a line as, "Just according to keikaku," while also leaving a translator's note above it saying, "keikaku means plan." It's unnecessary. I agreed with you on KS in my first comment, their changing dynamics and the overall tone of what's happening is all in the language, which is incredibly important for KS, especially since it's a psychological story. Just looking at their grammar styles, overall sentence structures and the words they use, I think we're looking at two different translation teams for BJ Alex and KS, which is likely since they're two big BL manhwas for lezhin. I'm wondering if they didn't include -ya or -ssi for KS so that didn't turn off any potential readers who wouldn't like read anything that even alludes to Korean? Some readers do prefer a complete English only type of translation, but I'm not sure if they're such a big part of the readership that it's actually a thing to be considered. It's most likely just the translators' chosen style, which is really unfortunate for KS and the readers of the official translations. I definitely think that -ya and -ssi, etc. are vital to KS, and it should have been kept as is in the translations with a note (since there really aren't any English equivalents that wouldn't make it awkward for readers, like Mr. Sangwoo to Sangwoo - it's just not modern and feels weird). My point is that different stories require different types of translations. BJ Alex as a story can get away with losing the other honorifics, while KS can't and really shouldn't.