AS A KOREAN, THE DANGERS OF MISTRANSLATING “BLACK”
First of all, I would like to start off by giving myself a little credit. I was born in America and am fluent in English. Both my parents were born and raised in Korea, and I lived there for almost eight years before moving back to America. I am also fluent in Korean. I pride myself a little bit in my very clear understanding of both cultures, and would like to explain to anyone who wants to listen, what this ongoing debate about the Korean usage of the word “black” has been.
In America, the word “black” has many meanings. Of them, there are two predominantly popular uses. One of the uses is “black” as in the color black as opposed to blue or white or yellow. In Korean, this word is gum jong saek. The other definition is “black” as in pertaining or belonging to any of the various populations characterized by dark skin pigmentation, specifically the dark-skinned peoples of Africa, Oceania, and Australia (dictionary.com). In this case, the word would be used as a slang term for a racial identifier. In Korean, this word is heu-gin
Now moving on to the usage of the word “black” in Korean. There are three ways to say black in Korean. One way refers to specifically and exclusively the racial identifier: heu-gin. Unlike the English word, the Korean word for “black” referring to race does not have dual meaning. I REPEAT. IT DOES NOT HAVE DUAL MEANING. THE WORD HEU-GIN ONLY REFERS TO RACE. IT DOES NOT MEAN ANYTHING ELSE.
The second word for “black” in Korean has dual meaning. It can mean the shade of black as opposed to yellow, as in that cabinet is painted black. This is one meaning of the word ggamatah.
It’s other meaning of ggamatah is dark, as in “his skin is tan.” Notice, that ggamatah has two meanings whereas heu-gin only has one.
The third way to say “black” in Korean is gum jong saek. This only has one definition. It is black as in the color. Black as in “I wear black shoes,” and “funeral clothes are black”. Now, to review, the word heu-gin only has one meaning-race. Ggamatah has two meanings- tan/dark & color. Gum jong saek only has one meaning-color.
Now, translators do the best they can, and I totally respect them for what they do. Their job is probably very difficult, and most of the time, they do a great job. However, when they translate all of these diverse meanings into one word, it confuses the reader. All three of the words ggamatah, gum jong saek and heu-gin are translated into English as “black”, and you can see how that would be a problem.
When rap monster was calling them “too black”, he did not have a detailed enough grasp of the English language to realize that the word “black” in English does not mean the same thing it does in Korean. He said “black” meaning tan, not “black” referring to race.
This is an ongoing joke among idols and general Korean culture because Koreans tend to find pale skin more aesthetically pleasing. It has nothing to do with race. Namjoon makes fun of “black skin” not because he dislikes black people, but because Korean culture dislikes tan skin, regardless of the race of a person. It is the same way that American culture like tan skin, and makes fun of people who cannot get tans, but instead get sunburned.
To clarify, EXO making fun of Kai for his dark skin is as harmless and playful as me making fun of my Irish Biology teacher for not being able to get a tan (he’s so pale, he almost reflects light). He makes fun of himself about it too, and the joking is wholly consensual. Of course, pale skin and dark skin both have separate merits, and every skin type is beautiful. Namjoon’s joke is just a friendly jab at his friend, which is accepted by BTS judging on the laughter it elicited.
Now, does this mean that cultural whitewashing is healthy? Probably not. It’s just another unrealistic expectation of body being distributed by media, but it is no more racist than American media making our celebrities “tan” or “sun kissed”.
For those of you who thought the other members look offended, I highly doubt that any of them spoke and understood english well enough to understand the difference between “black” in English and “black” in Korean. They laughed because what Namjoon said means something different in Korean than it does in English. In Korean, it is a light joke. Namjoon did not understand that he was saying a racist slur.
This is a common problem with all translation of the term ggamatah to English. The only way to fix this problem is to create separate words in English that mean ggamatah, heu-gin, and gum jong saek. The confusion arises from the fact that the word “black” has so many meanings, and is thereby confusing in translation.
For anyone who did not know the distinction between heu-gin, gum jong saek and ggamatah, I understand your misunderstanding. It is honestly an easy mistake. I encourage those of you who made it to the end of this insanely long post to share it, to end more misunderstandings about the word. I hope we can be more rational about this in the future!!
Just to end on a light note, I think everyone’s skin is lovely, no matter the color, and I’m sure BTS thinks so too!!! I hope this was helpful!!!!
dededos
tangentwithtanner
romaincrisis
areudirty
andulkaphoto
