经济学人如何报道被吹爆的《鱿鱼游戏》？｜外刊精读
公主号：如果你想学翻译
今天的外刊读这篇，经济学人报道的《鱿鱼游戏》。我找了好几篇主流外刊的平行文本，都发在群里啦。
先看原文吧
South Koreans are bemused by the global success of “Squid Game”
Yet its theme of social injustice is a globally appealing one
When “squid game” appeared on Netflix in mid-September, many South Korean reviewers were underwhelmed by the home-grown survival drama. They found the characters clichéd, the plot unconvincing and the violence gratuitous. The whole thing, they complained, was too similar to older films, such as the Japanese “Battle Royale”, and added nothing new to the survival genre, notwithstanding the striking set designs and star-studded cast. “Even though every genre has its clichés, too much in ‘Squid Game’ reminds you of every other movie you’ve ever seen,” complained one critic.
“Squid Game”, which takes its name from a common Korean schoolyard game, follows a group of debt-ridden losers, including an unemployed gambling addict, a North Korean refugee and a Pakistani migrant worker. Dressed in green tracksuits evoking those worn by Korean pupils during school sports and policed by shadowy supervisors in black masks and hot-pink jumpsuits, they fight for a nearly $40m prize—and their lives—in violent versions of traditional Korean children’s games. Rich spectators in embroidered robes watch from a vip lounge filled with exotic plants and crystal chandeliers. Hwang Dong-hyuk, the director, says the show is an allegory about modern capitalism.
“Squid Game” has taken the world by storm. It is currently the most-streamed show on Netflix in all but a handful of the company’s markets. It has entered mainstream cultural consciousness, spawning millions of videos on TikTok, thousands of memes and dozens of earnest articles dissecting the show’s meaning. Cafés all over the world have started selling their own takes on dalgona, a Korean candy featured in one episode. In Paris fights broke out as fans tried to force their way into a pop-up shop where visitors could pose with staff dressed like the pink-suited enforcers from the show.
The brutality of the competition has also rung true for ordinary South Koreans struggling with unaffordable housing and a sluggish labour market. Politicians have begun referring to the show when attacking opponents. Yet after a brief spell at the top of the Korean Netflix charts, “Squid Game” has been overtaken by “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha”, a saccharine k-drama.
The global craze has prompted bemusement in South Korea. “Nobody around me understands the global hype, and neither do I,” says In-young, a 26-year-old from Seoul who stopped watching after a couple of episodes because it disturbed her to see her childhood games depicted as a brutal struggle for survival. One Korean critic speculates that the combination of violent entertainment with a very on-trend critique of capitalism explains the show’s appeal to Western audiences, who are used to such themes from American productions such as “The Hunger Games”, set in a dystopian world of grave social injustice.
No doubt the hypnotic geometry of the design, the lush costumes and eminently meme-able stills also help—as does Netflix’s strategy of dubbing and subtitling its productions in dozens of languages. That had already created hits such as “Lupin”, a French thriller with an underlying theme of social injustice, which the Korean show is likely to dethrone as the company’s most successful non-English production.
The embrace of “Squid Game” is a reflection of South Korea’s outsize cultural power on the global stage. It may also have benefited from following in the footsteps of “Parasite”, a film about—what else—social injustice, which won the Oscar for best picture in 2020. But most of all, it shows that, like love and money, complaints about inequality have no language.
小狮子的英语笔记
1、先看标题
South Koreans are bemused by the global success of “Squid Game”
笔记：你知道关晓彤开的奶茶店名字吗，我们这边就开了一家「天然呆」
bemused 形容的就是一脸呆萌，困惑茫然的表情。【同】bewildered
a bemused expression
茫然的神情
▪搭配 [+ by ]
He looked slightly bemused by all the questions.
对所有的这些问题，他感到有点困惑。
不只是韩国人，就连被告的中国人也是啊，怎么就能这么红？
2、墙内开花墙外香
第一段：
① When “squid game” appeared on Netflix in mid-September, many South Korean reviewers were underwhelmed by the home-grown survival drama.
② They found the characters clichéd, the plot unconvincing and the violence gratuitous.
③ The whole thing, they complained, was too similar to older films, such as the Japanese “Battle Royale”, and added nothing new to the survival genre, notwithstanding the striking set designs and star-studded cast.
④ “Even though every genre has its clichés, too much in ‘Squid Game’ reminds you of every other movie you’ve ever seen,” complained one critic.
笔记：① underwhelmed 之前只知道overwhelm，一个让我感觉相当“迷妹”的单词，大概就是「（感情或感觉）充溢，难以承受」
比如：
The beauty of the landscape overwhelmed me.秀丽的风光令我深深地陶醉。
那underwhelmed就是overwhelm的反义词啦！
形容「无动于衷的；毫不激动的」 【例句】We were distinctly underwhelmed by the director's speech.主任的讲话显然令我们感觉索然无味。记一下，动词 【underwhelm】 未给…留下深刻印象〔幽默用法〕
home-grown原来不只是说植物哈「蔬菜和水果〕自家园子里种植的」；也形容「本国制造（出产）的; 本地制造（出产）的」 homegrown rock stars 本地的摇滚明星
② 三个形容词嫌弃《鱿鱼游戏》：
clichéd 陈词滥调；陈腐的套语
unconvincing 不令人信服的; 难以置信的
gratuitous 无正当理由的，无端的
③
notwithstanding 尽管（介词）Notwithstanding differences, there are clear similarities in all of the world's religions. 世界上的宗教尽管各不相同，但都有明显的相似之处。
3、所谓的无限流
第二段：
① “Squid Game”, which takes its name from a common Korean schoolyard game, follows a group of debt-ridden losers, including an unemployed gambling addict, a North Korean refugee and a Pakistani migrant worker.
② Dressed in green tracksuits evoking those worn by Korean pupils during school sports and policed by shadowy supervisors in black masks and hot-pink jumpsuits, they fight for a nearly $40m prize—and their lives—in violent versions of traditional Korean children’s games.
③ Rich spectators in embroidered robes watch from a vip lounge filled with exotic plants and crystal chandeliers. ④ Hwang Dong-hyuk, the director, says the show is an allegory about modern capitalism
.
笔记：
① 看一个后缀debt-ridden：-ridden表示“为…所苦的”，“为…所累的”，“充满…的”//...the debt-ridden economies of Latin America... 拉丁美洲负债累累的经济
② 看一下这里的evoking，是主动的哈！……tracksuits evoking those worn by Korean pupils during school sports and policed by shadowy supervisors in black masks and hot-pink jumpsuits 他们穿着tracksuits （运动练习时或作便衣穿的）宽松暖和的衣裤；运动服，evoking（让人想起）那些东东，被Korean pupils穿着，被shadowy supervisors管着（policed）。
③ embroider 刺绣；加以渲染（或润饰）；对…添枝加叶；对〔故事或报道〕加以渲染 eg. He told some lies and sometimes just embroidered the truth. 他说了些谎，有时只是对事实添油加醋了一番。
④ allegory 寓言，讽喻
4、韩国人看不起的，结果全球爆红了？
① “Squid Game” has taken the world by storm.
② It is currently the most-streamed show on Netflix in all but a handful of the company’s markets.
③ It has entered mainstream cultural consciousness, spawning millions of videos on TikTok, thousands of memes and dozens of earnest articles dissecting the show’s meaning.
④ Cafés all over the world have started selling their own takes on dalgona, a Korean candy featured in one episode.
⑤ In Paris fights broke out as fans tried to force their way into a pop-up shop where visitors could pose with staff dressed like the pink-suited enforcers from the show.
笔记：① 一句话形容红遍全球的红：take the world by storm
例句：Soon thereafter, they took the world by storm. 此后不久，他们就席卷了整个世界。
② in all but 是啥呀？看下例句：
So, these charges are headline news in all but his own newspaper.
所以这些指控都登上报刊头条，只有他的报纸例外。
所以：It is currently the most-streamed show on Netflix in all but a handful of the company’s markets. 就是除了Netflix公司的一小部分市场以外，它的播放量最高。
③ 原文：It has entered mainstream cultural consciousness, spawning millions of videos on TikTok, thousands of memes and dozens of earnest articles dissecting the show’s meaning.
spawn 使大量出现，使大量产生; 酿成 【例句】 New technology has spawned new business opportunities. 新技术创造了大量新的商机。
dissect 解剖（人或动植物）；仔细研究；详细评论；剖析：Her latest novel was dissected by the critics.评论家对她最近出版的一部小说作了详细剖析。
5、现实比剧更惨
我一直觉得，韩国的现实比电影更惨，张紫妍就是典型。卫报写过这部剧的剧评，最后一句是：
"You have to pay to watch it and I don’t know anyone who will let me use their Netflix account,” he says. “In any case, why would I want to watch a bunch of people with huge debts? I can just look in the mirror.”
崔英秀说：“这部剧必须付钱才能观看，我也不认识能让我借用奈飞账户的人。再说了，我干嘛要看一堆负债累累的人？我自己照照镜子就好了啊。”
看一下经济学人怎么写的韩国现状( ´▽｀)
① The brutality of the competition has also rung true for ordinary South Koreans struggling with unaffordable housing and a sluggish labor market.
② Politicians have begun referring to the show when attacking opponents.
③ Yet after a brief spell at the top of the Korean Netflix charts, “Squid Game” has been overtaken by “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha”, a saccharine k-drama.
笔记：
①
ring true/ hollow/ false 释义「to give the impression of being sincere/true or not sincere/true 给人以真实（或空洞、虚假）的印象」 「例句」 It may seem a strange story, but it rings true to me. 这个故事也许显得离奇，但我却觉得很真实。
② “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” 海岸村恰恰恰 （听说这个好看） a saccharine k-drama saccharine 故作多情的; 过分甜蜜的
6、韩国人就是不懂为啥红
① The global craze has prompted bemusement in South Korea.
② “Nobody around me understands the global hype, and neither do I,” says In-young, a 26-year-old from Seoul who stopped watching after a couple of episodes because it disturbed her to see her childhood games depicted as a brutal struggle for survival.
③ One Korean critic speculates that the combination of violent entertainment with a very on-trend critique of capitalism explains the show’s appeal to Western audiences, who are used to such themes from American productions such as “The Hunger Games”, set in a dystopian world of grave social injustice.
笔记：
① prompt bemusement
prompt促使; 激励 【例句】 prompt sb to do sth What prompted you to buy that suit?什么原因让你买下了那套西装？
bemusement 困惑；疑惑
② brutal 野蛮的；残暴的；直截了当的；直言不讳的；直率的；残酷无情的；难以忍受的
看一下副词：brutally
The early-morning New York air can be brutally cold.
纽约清晨的空气会冷得让人难以忍受。（说的就是今天的天气！
③ critique 评论；评论文章
7、翻译对于传播很重要
No doubt the hypnotic geometry of the design, the lush costumes and eminently meme-able stills also help—as does Netflix’s strategy of dubbing and subtitling its productions in dozens of languages. That had already created hits such as “Lupin”, a French thriller with an underlying theme of social injustice, which the Korean show is likely to dethrone as the company’s most successful non-English production.
笔记：
这段话没啥看，我就是觉得，文化出海太重要。字幕翻译的报酬和质量都该up up！
看一个动词dethrone「废黜〔君主〕；撵〔某人〕下台，使〔某人〕失去要职」。一个很正式的词，在这里形容取代大热剧Lupin，成为网飞公司最成功的非英语剧集。
8、爱和抱怨，都无国界
① The embrace of “Squid Game” is a reflection of South Korea’s outsize cultural power on the global stage.
② It may also have benefited from following in the footsteps of “Parasite”, a film about—what else—social injustice, which won the Oscar for best picture in 2020.
③ But most of all, it shows that, like love and money, complaints about inequality have no language.
笔记：
① 为啥要拥抱呢？因为喜欢啊，举高高抱抱！the embrace of就是说喜欢xx。
比如ECO这个：
The city's embrace of high-tech has already begun.
纽约早已对高科技产生青睐。
② 学一个表达，追随xx的脚步：follow in the footsteps of
《海底两万里》：
But I catch myself following in the Canadian's footsteps.
我觉得我也跟加拿大人是同道了。
③ But most of all, it shows that, like love and money, complaints about inequality have no language.
这才不是无语哈。有部电影是《爱无国界》，这里也是，对不平等的抱怨也是不分语言和国界的。
今天想分享经济学人的这句话，平凡事做好就是不平凡。我写好了，听着《知否》写完了。啥时候中国也能有一部这么红的剧就好了。不服，就凭本事自己上呗。
