Is Secretary Kim’s name Mi Soo or Bi Soo? tvN writes it as Bi Soo in the corner screen but subbers are spelling it as Mi Soo. The actors are also pronouncing it as either Bi or Mi. Clarity, please.
See, that was the smart thing to say. *whacks forehead* I forgot about the translation for Secretary so I blabbered about how and why the “M” and “B” get mixed up.
Hahah no, your explanation made sense and helped explain why the name is so clever and confusing.
I did make a romanization mistake, though: Secretary is actually “bi-seo” (비서), not bi-so (비소). Mi-so is indeed 미소, though. The words are still close enough to be punny and confusing.
Oh, yes. *throws romanization out of the window* (Honestly though, I should stop doing explanations for things. I’ve been doing podcasts and lessons for Korean and Tagalog and French and Japanese and they’re all flying out of the window, heeeeeeeeeeeelp.)
@mindy But I get everything mixed up and then I confuse people further and it’s a messssss.. (I’m even messing up my essay, gif story, and oh shoot the fic it’s my turn shoot shoot shoot)
In general, especially when it’s the first “letter” in a word, Korean “m” can sound like “b”, because the natural way of moving their lips means that they don’t open their mouth as wide to say the letter, so it sounds a bit like “mb”, or sometimes just “b”.
So it’s Mi Soo. 🙂 Sorry for the long explanation. Are the tvN subs auto-generated Korean subs, or?
I don’t think so. I’m attempting to learn Korean and, if I like a drama enough, I’ll watch it without subs first to see if I can at least follow along well enough without subs. Bi Seo was confusing because of the similarity with the character’s name and the rule you explained above.
LookieLooWho
June 14, 2018 at 10:00 AM
Is Secretary Kim’s name Mi Soo or Bi Soo? tvN writes it as Bi Soo in the corner screen but subbers are spelling it as Mi Soo. The actors are also pronouncing it as either Bi or Mi. Clarity, please.
mindy
June 14, 2018 at 10:03 AM
Secretary = Bi-so
Her actual name is Mi-so, so when they say “Kim Mi-so” they are calling her by her name. When they say “Kim Bi-so” they are saying “Secretary Kim”. 🙂
bam 🐢🐌💖~
June 14, 2018 at 10:07 AM
See, that was the smart thing to say. *whacks forehead* I forgot about the translation for Secretary so I blabbered about how and why the “M” and “B” get mixed up.
mindy
June 14, 2018 at 10:20 AM
Hahah no, your explanation made sense and helped explain why the name is so clever and confusing.
I did make a romanization mistake, though: Secretary is actually “bi-seo” (비서), not bi-so (비소). Mi-so is indeed 미소, though. The words are still close enough to be punny and confusing.
But what even are Korean romanization rules?
bam 🐢🐌💖~
June 14, 2018 at 10:25 AM
Oh, yes. *throws romanization out of the window* (Honestly though, I should stop doing explanations for things. I’ve been doing podcasts and lessons for Korean and Tagalog and French and Japanese and they’re all flying out of the window, heeeeeeeeeeeelp.)
mindy
June 14, 2018 at 10:28 AM
LOL. No, don’t stop! I don’t even know Korean, I just know hangul and what I have picked up from K-dramas. 😂
bam 🐢🐌💖~
June 14, 2018 at 10:37 AM
@mindy But I get everything mixed up and then I confuse people further and it’s a messssss.. (I’m even messing up my essay, gif story, and oh shoot the fic it’s my turn shoot shoot shoot)
LookieLooWho
June 14, 2018 at 10:29 AM
See, I figured there was some word play going on there but I couldn’t really pick up on it.
LookieLooWho
June 14, 2018 at 10:23 AM
Thanks for the explanation!!! I thought it was a pronunciation thing. I know that B and M sounds can sometimes be interchanged or sound similar.
Mel
June 14, 2018 at 10:03 AM
It’s alt moments like these that I wish I was fluent in Korean 😞
bam 🐢🐌💖~
June 14, 2018 at 10:05 AM
In general, especially when it’s the first “letter” in a word, Korean “m” can sound like “b”, because the natural way of moving their lips means that they don’t open their mouth as wide to say the letter, so it sounds a bit like “mb”, or sometimes just “b”.
So it’s Mi Soo. 🙂 Sorry for the long explanation. Are the tvN subs auto-generated Korean subs, or?
bam 🐢🐌💖~
June 14, 2018 at 10:24 AM
Mi-So. Stop listening to me, I’m bad at explanations.
LookieLooWho
June 14, 2018 at 10:27 AM
I don’t think so. I’m attempting to learn Korean and, if I like a drama enough, I’ll watch it without subs first to see if I can at least follow along well enough without subs. Bi Seo was confusing because of the similarity with the character’s name and the rule you explained above.
bam 🐢🐌💖~
June 14, 2018 at 10:30 AM
Ohhh, I see. *high five for Korean-learning pals* Cool, cool. 화이팅 with your learning!