MAMAMOO’s Hwasa (화사) is one of the few K-pop idols who have never been afraid to express themselves and speak up for what they believe in which, of course, could draw potential controversies. She has faced a lot of backlash over the years for her performances or choice of outfits.
Thankfully, this latest incident is not one of those times. Over the weekend, the “Maria” vocalist posted a carousel of photos on Instagram that showcases her time on the road as she’s currently on her first solo “Fancon” tour. This time around, it wasn’t the set of images that caught netizens off guard but rather what was written in the post’s captions.
In Korean, the singer meant to say “To the Moomoos who have been waiting” or “To the Moomoos who were thirsty,” in her captions but the app’s translation feature displayed an entirely different sentence that could’ve cost the idol her career. As seen in the screenshots above, the MAMAMOO member’s captions were horribly mistranslated to, “For the dumb mfs that would be choked.”
This obviously had English-speaking fans taking a second glance as they were not sure if the translation was accurate. Thankfully, most found it humorous, saying how the Instagram feature did her wrong. Some were kind enough to provide the more accurate translations of the idol’s caption so that she would not be further misunderstood.
According to Koreaboo, the literal translation for her Korean caption, “목이빠졌을무무청이들에게” would be: “For the Moomoos whose necks fell out.” The phrase “neck falls out” is used to describe people who have been patiently waiting for a long period of time but somehow, yet not surprisingly, the singer’s post got quite literally lost in translation due to the cultural differences between the two languages.
We’re glad that everyone was aware that this was a case of a machine’s mistranslation or otherwise, this could’ve ended very badly. Have you experienced anything similar?
