Korean Language Translation Services

 

An Accent on Accuracy

The highest quality translations, brisk turnaround schedules, competitive rates, and sharing of our knowledge, are all requisites for ALT's success. The complete and accurate translation of your company's communications is vital to your success. That's why ALT is obsessed with providing the best translators for YOUR project. High-quality translations are the product of a highly talented and experienced translation team with expertise in your industry. ALT puts all the pieces together to make it happen.

Why choose us for English to Korean or  Korean to English Translation?

Advanced Language Translation’s Professional Korean translation services utilize only native speakers to ensure quality and precision translations for your target audience. With Korean in particular, a deep understanding of Korean culture is needed for translation to be successful. When doing business in Korean Republic, professional human translation is a must. Do not expect to close a business deal or impress your clients with spotty software translation. Only through human translation, edited and customized to your target audience, can your meaning be honestly conveyed and your audience not be offended.

We are proud of our excellent reputation for reliable and high quality Korean to English and English to Korean translation services. We have assembled teams of translators from around the world, with an array of skills and specialties and can custom fit the knowledge and strengths of our teams to your specific projects. To demonstrate our commitment to quality and our dedication to our clients, we offer free consultations and provide an industry leading 180-day warranty on translation!

We provide quick and easy custom quotes for your Korean translation and localization needs.

Need to get the “gist” of Korean?

Although professional translation is highly recommended for any business, legal or sincere correspondence in Korean, sometimes it’s necessary to use machine translation (via software or the internet) to get the gist of an e-mail or web page. By no means is machine translation an acceptable substitute for professional translation—the technology is not there yet. But it is great for quickly getting the general idea of an article, e-mail, or web site.

Interesting Facts about the Korean Language

Korean is the official language of North and South Korea. Divided into multiple dialects, the primary dialect of South Korea is based on the local dialect of Seoul, while the primary dialect of North Korea is based on the local dialect of Pyongyang. Diversity between dialects is minor, with most being mutually intelligible- the primary difference between them being the use of stress. On the other hand, the small island of Jeju (pop. 550,000), off the southern coast of Korea, has a unique and largely unintelligible dialect. Many Korean linguists consider it to be a different language altogether.

Korean largely utilizes Honorifics, or the use of special nouns or verb endings to specify the subject’s social status (similar to Japanese). Verbs are not conjugated as in European languages, but are modified for tense and also relationship between the people speaking. The use of Honorifics must be paid attention to closely when translating in Korean. Improper use could insult your audience.

History of the Korean Language

Korean is commonly thought to be in a family of its own (not closely related to other languages). Some believe it to be part of the Altaic languages and many Japanese linguists consider it to be closely related to Japanese. Due to the diverse landscapes, islands and mountain regions of Asia, it is not uncommon to have language-isolates such as Korean and Japanese in geographically isolated regions. Although one can easily see the similarities between Korean and Chinese, they are only superficial (the two languages are not related). Close contact between the two nations over thousands of years has resulted in great influence over both the Korean spoken language and writing systems long after the Korean language was developed.

Written Language

Due to its geographical proximity to China, Korea’s writing system, like many others, began as a borrowing of the Chinese writing system to record the local spoken language. Chinese characters (Hanja) were used to write Korean based on both pronunciation and meaning, leading to a complex system more often used by the rich and elite.

It wasn’t until the middle of the 15th century that King Sejong ordered a group of scholars to create the Hangul writing system, an alphabet (Jamo) consisting of 10 vowels and 14 consonants which are written in blocks of 2-5 letters.

The Korean Alphabet (Hangul)

In the example below, you can see that the korean word for Hangul is comprised 2 character blocks which are then made from 3 letters (Jamo) each.

 =   +  +    and    +  + 

Hangul did not become popular until the mid 20th century. Today, like with Japanese, Hanja (Chinese characters) is still used side-by-side with Hangul. Today, well over 50% of Korean vocabulary is made up of Sino-Korean words, derived from Chinese characters. Modern terminology is usually derived from Japanese and European languages such as English and German.

Unlike Chinese and Japanese, Korean is written with spaces in between words and punctuation marks are used similarly to European languages. Like with Chinese and Japanese, modern Korean has left the old style of writing top-to-bottom, right-to-left in favor of the more western left-to-right system. 

Korean Language Statistics

• Chinese words are still considered prestigious and elite within the Korean Language, primarily due to the rich literal history – generally recorded in the Hanja script.
• South Korea still uses Hanja in its writing. North Korea has completely eliminated Hanja.
• Jamo consonants were designed to illustrate the general morphology of the mouth and throat for that sound. Vowels were designed to represent man’s place on earth under heaven.
• Like Japanese and Chinese, Korean can still be correctly written top-to-bottom, right-to-left.
• South Korea has a 98% literacy rate.

 

Translation and Localization Issues with Korean

Advanced Language Translation Inc has extensive experience with the in and outs of the Korean Language and we have a long and flawless record of success with complicated Korean translation projects. Here are some of the common issues with English to Korean translation and desktop publishing that we have learned: 

• Not all applications support Korean text and great care must be taken when using  Korean in complex layouts.
• The greatest trouble with typesetting Korean is that there are so many loose standards for compatibility. Advanced Language Translation recommends the Unicode standard.
• There is no hyphenation in Korean.

 

Korean Language Vital Information

Speaking Population:  78 Million
Where Spoken: South Korea, North Korea, China, Japan, former Soviet Union, United States, Canada 
Writing Systems: Hangul 
Unicode Supported: Yes 
Common Phrases:  
   Hello:  (ah nyuhng) 
   Good-bye (leaving):  (ah nyuhng hee geh say yo) 
   Good-bye (being left):  (ah nyuhng hee ga say yo) 
   Thank you:   (go mahp s'm nee dah) 
   Yes:  (neh) or  (yeh) 
   No:  (ah nee oh)