Bad English grammar in Asian music

Ohh reminds me of this, a song has been sold twice and then something like this happens:

Duffy - Mercy:

Girl’s Generation - Dancing Queen:

TVXQ - Mirotic:

Sarah Conner - Under My Skin:

The issue with this is that some think a song is ‘stolen’ from the other artist while that’s not true.

2 Likes

Someone also suggested “the feeling of a doe” but I could clearly hear the R.
Just listen to it and tell me what you would think, LOL!

And, by the way, they call themselves SALTNPAPER (솔튼페이퍼) pronounced salt an’ paper (as in… the thing you write on).

Lasse Lindh (born 27 March 1974) is a Swedish indie pop musician. Lindh began singing in English for his second album, *You Wake Up at Sea Tac. Lindh’s relationship with South Korea dates back to 2006: his songs “The Stuff” and “C’mon Through” were used in the MBC TV series Soulmate .

In 2014, his song “Run To You” was used in the drama by SBS’ “Angel Eyes”


and in 2016-2017, his song “Hush” was used in “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God”. But I suppose you already know this one.

The last one is
Be Your Moon, OST. “A Piece of Your Mind” (반의 반) (2020)

All the stories of
The days of loneliness
Echo through your empty room
Are you alright?

I see the glisten in your eyes
The tears of a broken heart
I’m calling you home
Won’t you be here by me?

Your heart is weeping in the ocean
A lonely flower is you

Keeping your heart
Your heart in my hand
Sleep tight, good night
I will be your moon
Shining your way
To your way home
Sleep tight, good night
I’ll be here for you

I’ll keep you close
Just tell me that you love me
And we’ll be alright

Your heart is weeping in the ocean
A lonely flower is you

Keeping your heart
Wherever you go
Sleep tight, good night
I’ll be here for you
Love, I’ll be your moon
Be your sun, for you
Love, I’ll be your moon
Be your sun

3 Likes

:rofl::rofl: irmar, stop it! No more! :rofl: :rofl::rofl:

I’ve been having giggling fits all day at this misheard lyrics, trying to suppress the giggles like when actors are supposed to play serious parts but keep giggling, straight face, straight face.
It’s quite spooky that when I read your comment, I imagined it in a particular tune and upon hearing that line in the music video, it was pretty much as I imagined it just from your description

Yes, he definitely sang “a door” (instant fail from me as I hastily type it in as such)
“Shall I compare thee to a summers day? …No? How about a wooden door?” :kissing_heart:

2 Likes

I really liked A Piece of Your Mind for it’s cinematography and slow pacing. (a pace that some might have felt they needed to go on suicide watch for afterwards) I thought the slightly quirky English and signing style of Be Your Moon fitted right in there with the shows arty feel to it.

1 Like

@Irmar OST 6 Take Me On from Encounter “the feeling of adore” While “adoration” would have been more appropriate English, “the feeling of adore” is what is being said, not “The feeling of a doe” First stanza:
The morning sunrise
It takes me away
As I am staring at
The light you hold
The feeling of adore
Oh take me on to you
Saltnpaper is a Korean American singer “MYK” who explained the name "“Salt is just the oldest, simplest form of seasoning and a blank sheet of paper is the rawest form of a canvas,” said MYK. And now you see even when “English” is being sung by an American, I often leave the segment blank and wait for the publication of the OST.
Another Scandinavian group who sang OST for K drama is called “Michael Learns to Rock” I understand they sing almost exclusively in English. Sang OST in Healer.

3 Likes

Yes, I know, I said so from the beginning, in my first post I copy pasted the whole thing. I was just telling ninja about our desperate attempts before the lyrics were released.
Usually, if it’s Korean and it doesn’t make sense, it’s wiser to just not translate them until the release. But in the cases when it’s English it makes you feel lazy somehow. Like, “Come on, after all it’s English! I will crack the riddle!” And then you find out that you couldn’t crack the riddle because it was nonsense English to begin with, thus impossible to guess.

2 Likes

Sadly we still see horrible transcriptions of songs “just” sung in English … :roll_eyes:

I found one song in Danish:

The problem most of the time is not even the transcription, but the lyrics themselves. Because the person who wrote them didn’t bother to ask some real native English person to check.

Sure the lyrics can become quite interesting when written by a Korean … but sometimes even songs written by native English speakers get messed up here.

Sweet Munchies had some ‘odd’ English songs as well, which on top of that where too loud so you hardly heard the people speak and was adjusting the volume all the time during segging.

The Vane - Super hero

Shoon - This Is My First Live (English version)

Shoon - What Do You Think I Am

2 Likes

If it comes to odd I think Manhole takes the lead

2 Likes

I believe that the one at fault is the person that translates the song into English.

They leave the translation as the original language (Korean, Chinese, Japanese)

When we translate into English we must fix it but the translation is staying exactly as the original language may it be Korean, Chinese etc…When we translate in English we must do it the correct way not missing words that complete the sentence in English.

I want to keep your heart in my hands//////// keeping your heart. Your heart in my hands.
Now sleep tight and good Night //////// sleep tight , good night
I will be the shining moon///////// I will be YOUR moon
on your way home ////// shining your way to your way home
Now sleep tight and good night////// Sleep tight, good night
I’ll be there with you////// I’ll be here for you.

I want to keep you close /////// I will keep you close
just say that you love me///// Just tell that you love me,
And everything will be alright ////// And we will be alright.

1 Like

That pineapple song was an overal ‘trend’ thing back then. Not only for Manhole but yes it was strange they added it…LOL

1 Like

Just when I thought I got far away from the past of hanging out with hard drug users in a nightmarish daily existence, made a clean start with a new identity. Then one of them recognised me and are now dragging me back to the drug induced hell of their world proving that what they said was correct, that you can never leave the organisation, oh wait, it’s just that pineapple pen song. :pineapple::writing_hand:

2 Likes

Maybe it wasn’t the native English speaker’s fault. It could be they ordered the person to write lyrics exactly as is bc it could be a ‘‘copyright infringement’’ when that won’t be the case.

An incomplete sentence in English happens all the time because some/most moderators insist to the subbers, that they translate exactly the mess that was translated from Korean to English. It doesn’t happen when the Korean to English translation it’s a good/decent translation. But if the Korean to English translation sucks/ is really bad, the English can’t be helped at all, and the Spanish? A total nightmare. I have been there…:slight_smile:

In the case I had in mind the English subbers just transcribed the English song with different words than were actually sung …

1 Like

Yes. Coming back to our thread subject, which was ENGLISH-LANGUAGE SONGS SUNG IN ENGLISH BY KOREAN SINGERS IN THE ORIGINAL KOREAN SOUNDTRACK,
there is an interesting dilemma when you transcribe: do you leave the English grammar mistakes as they are in the original or do you try to correct them? If you leave them as they are, the viewers who didn’t hear the lyrics will think that you made a mistake. If you try to correct them while the original is heard and is different, you’ll be the one who “patronizes” and “criticizes” the songwriters, and you’ll have the role of the bad guy, the grammar Nazi who alters the original.
Whatever you do, someone will not be happy.

“The grammar Nazi”

I know that we shouldn’t take everything to the first degree, went to comedy shows where we could laugh of many things.

This being said, people almost never use this term in everyday life in my country, though we heard it. In a conversation, people will be shocked or find it odd that someone uses this expression. For the one saying it and for the one receiving it, it is strong.

1 Like

I see your dilemma. If you would be translating a book I would say: “Don’t give the author a bad name by reproducing his mistakes”, but in this case the original is out there to hear for everyone who watches the drama. :thinking:

This is not the kind of wrong translation I was referring to, though. I just meant the subbers mishearing the lyrics and writing whatever they heard instead of what was actually sung. Something like this:

2 Likes

lmao Just let me state for the record/ Just Let me staple the vicar?