What You Need to Know for Video Dubbing into Korean

In honor of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, we’ll continue our survey of multimedia localization into Korean. Today’s focus: video dubbing. The Korean economy is particularly strong, and video localization is an important part of any internationalization effort into this market, especially as content keeps moving online and towards mobile. But there are a few particulars that must be taken into account before starting a video localization project for Korea.

This post will list the three things multimedia localization professionals must know when dubbing into Korean.

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Why Korean dubbing and video voice-over is a must for localization strategies

There are many economic reasons to localize for the Korean market – you can read about them in our previous blog post, What You Need to Know for Captioning & Subtitling in Korean. But video localization in particular is crucial as a localization service for the South Korean market. Why? First, South Korea is a media-savvy country, a pioneer in the development of video games and mobile technology. Per the Canadian Media Fund’s Trends Report on South Korea (October 2017), 90% of the population is connected online – it’s not only the most-connected country in the world, but it also boasts the highest internet speeds. Second, South Koreans consume media avidly – including films, TV and web series, and video games. In fact, per the same report, South Korea is the sixth largest gaming market in the entire world.

These two factors mean that US companies have lucrative opportunities in South Korea for their TV shows, films, web series and video games – as long as they dub them. And naturally, following this content are online and broadcast adspends, in particular marketing videos, which also have to be dubbed. Finally, various other sectors of the Korean economy are thriving as well, which means that video localization also has to be part of the strategy for corporations localizing e-Learning scenarios or other multimedia content for their in-country employees. In short, most localization strategies for Korea will require some kind of dubbing.

So what do multimedia localization professionals need to know to ensure the success of their Korean dubbing projects? Let’s jump right in.

1. Korean linguists have to be highly-specialized.

Translating scripts for dubs into Korean is particularly difficult, for two reasons. First, there are cultural considerations that linguists must take into account, including very specific norms around content which are critical to get right, especially for videos getting a wide release. Second, dubbing is a relatively well-known industry in South Korea, and there are very specific customs around the practice itself. That means that it’s very important to use expert Korean dub translators for any project, whether it’s for corporate, marketing or entertainment content.

2. The language itself is tricky to localize – especially for lip-sync.

Yes, editing translated scripts to ensure lip-sync is grueling work. Linguists must try to match the number of syllables in the translation, as well as line up major vocalizations. This is difficult in any language, but two features of Korean add extra difficulty when translating from English.

First, Korean has different syntax from English, in that verbs are generally last in sentences. That makes lining up lip-sync tricky, especially for sentences with proper nouns that don’t get localized, like character or place names on TV shows. Second, Korean adds endings to verbs, most notably in formal situations – that means that in many settings, each verb in Korean is automatically at least 2 or 3 syllables long. Since many English-language verbs are just one syllable long, this alone is a built-in hurdle to lip-sync. In short, Korean lip-sync script editors must be great at coming up with alternate phrasings for script lines, especially for corporate or e-Learning videos, which usually have trickier lip-sync to begin with and almost always feature formal settings.

3. Top-quality directors are required for successful sessions.

Professional, bilingual voice-over directors are critical to the success of any voice-over session. That’s why JBI Studios provides one for every project. But in Korean-language sessions, directors play an unusually important role. Why? Mainly for one reason – Hanja, the characters borrowed from Chinese that used to be the primary writing system for Korean, before their near-total replacement by the Hangul alphabet during the 20^th century.

While Hanja are seldom used in Korean today, they are found often in older texts, or texts that contain terms from antiquity – so much so that Hanja literacy is a requirement in many academic settings. Moreover, they are sometimes used in marketing videos as shortcuts, or as loanwords for foreign products or brand names, especially ones from China. That means that some content – like museum or gallery audio tours, marketing spots, or even corporate videos from other Asian countries – may contain Hanja characters. Because voice-over talents have varying degrees of Hanja proficiency, directors are critical to ensure proper pronunciation.

Make sure to understand your Korean audience

It’s also good to remember that the South Korean population isn’t monolithic – that is to say, that different demographics and regions will have different requirements. Dubbing covers a wide range of content, from online how-to instructional clips to CEO year-in-review videos, to broadcast TV shows and web series, or even video games – and each piece of content has a different audience. Likewise, industries may have different overall demographics and corporate cultures – keep this in mind when working on e-Learning courses, for example. Make sure that you study your target audience at project start, and get input from in-country contacts or employees – especially if you have a local production or marketing team. In short, take the time to plan your Korean video localization strategy properly, since that is the only way to ensure that your budgets and timelines stay on track, and that your project is successful.