Keys to successfully hiring Korean<>English translation services
Advertising and communication agencies have very specific needs when requesting translations from Korean or into Korean. Whether press releases or advertising texts, this type of translation requires not only an extensive linguistic knowledge, but also a good cultural background of each country or region (South Korea, in this case) and how words are used.
A good advertising translation is paramount to expanding your target audience of Korean-speaking users. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.
Remember these tips when translating your marketing content from or into Korean:
Know your audience
Before you start translating, decide who your target audience will be. Who do you think will be most responsive to your services or products?
Find out and limit who your target audience is going to be. In this case, if you intend translating into Korean, think about which markets you want to reach. Only South Korea…? Or maybe into other territories with large Korean-speaking communitites? Always consider the local and dialectal variations of Korean and how this may impact the recipient.
Also consider the age of your audience, as this will determine the style in the translation. The more you narrow your focus by directly targeting a niche market, the more likely it is that your translation from Korean or into Korean will attract potential buyers.
Consider all types of publications
There are many ways to enter local Korean markets. Expand the type of advertising and informational content to cover all of your company’s social channels.
Press releases and printed advertising material are a classic, but translating your website content into Korean and start publishing articles about products or services can be a great way to reach thousands of readers in South Korea.
One option is to start a profile on a social network such as Twitter or Instagram, and specifically target Koreans. You can also start an email marketing campaign targeted at Korean!}-speaking countries. Remember to always include these new communication formats in your English-Korean strategies.
Translate and localize (i.e. culturally adapt into Korean)
In the marketing world, localization refers to the adaptation of all elements (from design to cultural references) for a specific audience. A small change in an audience type will increase the response rate and the number of sales.
Even if two groups speak the same language, such as Korean, we may need different translations for each region or country (South Korea).
A good localization in Korean helps us solve these problems: from everyday expression to date formats, weight units or forms of address used in South Korea, etc.
Take every aspect into account
In an advertising translation into Korean, not everything is text. Remember that there are also graphics, presentations and drawings that can be important to attract the attention of your Korean-speaking users.
Changes in graphics and pictures not only affect the content, but are sometimes necessary for the readability of the translation. Sometimes we will need to make changes to accommodate the reading direction of a language (left to right or right to left), the spacing of a particular alphabet, or any features such as those specific to the Korean language.
Always keep in mind that the space taken up by a translation may increase or decrease with respect to the original text when translating from English into Korean or vice versa.
Do not limit your imagination
When looking for translations in Korean for your advertising content, your initial idea in English may not work when translated into Korean.
It is important to maintain consistency throughout the campaign: it is what will identify your brand, company or product in countries like South Korea… Remember that a literal translation of an English witty expression will most probably not work in Korean.
Throughout the translation project, always think about which types of Korean-speaking users your campaign is targeting. Be open to new ideas so your message does not get lost in translation.
How do you say “Korean” in Korean?
75 million people in North and South Korea speak Korean (한국어 in Korean) The 25 million North Koreans play no role in either the Internet or the global economy, while in South Korea, which represents 2% of the world economy, over 80% have access to the Internet.
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A quick overview of the Korean language
Until the 7th century, Korean was written in Chinese characters, which are not suitable for agglutinative languages, and so a syllabic alphabet was developed. In the 15th century an alphabet was created that is still used today, Hangul, a completely new creation that finally prevailed in the 20th century.
Korean is spoken by about 63 million people in South Korea, North Korea, China, Japan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. The relationship between Korean and other languages is uncertain, although some linguists believe that it belongs to the Altaic languages. Grammatically, Korean is very similar to Japanese and about 70% of its vocabulary comes from Chinese.