WHY TRANSLATOR APPS
Hardcore language learners and teachers may scold you for using translation apps. This is because best-case scenario, they become a crutch, and worst-case scenario they teach you incorrectly.
However, while translation apps were originally unreliable, in recent years (as of 2021) they have advanced to a usable level. Let’s review some Korean / Hangul translation apps, why you’d want to use them, pitfalls of translation apps, and better alternatives for learning.
GOOGLE TRANSLATE APP
After Google translate app patched advanced functions, it seems to play a partial role of human translator. The advanced user experiences can be checked with your MOBILE PHONE. That is because phone camera and microphone are required. The advanced functions are named "Camera" and "Conversation" respectively.
CAMERA in GOOGLE TRANSLATE
Google’s mobile camera translation gets you not only photo translation but also a real-time interpreting. With this, Camera translation is pretty useful when reading food menu or instructions written in Korean language, for example.
Hit the camera button, and aim the camera to text. In a sec or two, the app would begin to function like photo below.
One check point is language settings. It's shown at the top of window. Oftentimes, original language and target language are switched unintentionally. With wrong language positioning, the camera translation looks errortic, or not running even. Make sure left side language is the original (foreign language), while right side one is for the final (your mother tongue)
APPLICATION OF CAMERA TRANSLATION
Reading food menu might be just one of many uses of Camera function. Other than that, reading Korean web comics, or shopping in Korean online stores could be in your next considerations.
CONVERSATION in GOOGLE TRANSLATE
Vocal translation tech has been developed over decades. With progresses of AI vocal recognitions, Google translate's "Conversation" functions appeared to get to "practical" level.
It's hard to say you will run Conversation function of Google Translate app in order to ask way in the middle of foreign country travel, as it would look like isntant street interview things.
Despite of that, this function is usable in conferences or language exchanges. I wish I could have smooth conversations with foreign business partners only through Google Translate app on the table.
If you're ready to giving it a shot, check the language setting first before turning on “Conversation”. As soon as the conversation window pops up, the left speaker’s language would get activated automatically. (You could dismiss it though) Once language setting is done, press the “people” icon in the app.
Unfortunately, the app still need your help to recognize which language is going to be next input. (I guess Google developers got solutions already) Tap the circle button at your side with generosity and speak.
You could want to deliver your questions to foreign locals through this Conversation translation. In that case, you might need to give locals a help to hit another side of button for answering.
APPLICATION OF CONVERSATION TRANSLATION
Let's try a dialogue translation. As if a picture paints a thousand words, you better try it once rather than reading only explanations.
At first, I'm going to question a way to bathroom, following that, a way to get to Seoul station from airport. The conversations were composed with Korean language and English.
A WAY TO BATHROOM
EN : Where is the restroom?
KR : 문 밖으로 나가셔서 바로 왼쪽에 보시면 있어요.
A WAY TO GET TO SEOUL STATION
EN : How do you get to Seoul station?
KR : 지하로 내려가서 지하철 4호선 타시면 됩니다.
EN : Thank you!
Google Translate isn't perfect yet. In particular, translations between Asian languages and Latin-based languages are not perfect. However, it could help you at least when you really need to find a restroom while traveling. It will also help in wayfinding with locals. Even though the translator isn't flawless, it could bring you the feeling of a friend from my hometown who came to help you in the field.
PAPAGO APP
Papago is a traslator developed by Korean search portal Naver. This also has certain level of accuracy in Korean-English translation like Google.
Papago tends to translate Korean in a more natural way compare to Google, as well as, the food menu interpretion seems be more accurate thanks to the developers' understanding about Korea's circumstances. To tell the details, Koreans eat wide range of mountain herb and seafood, which does'n exist in Westerns' background. This context-based details can be handled better in Papago than Google.
This app offers sentence corrections for "honorifics", as well as "photo translation". Since honorifics is important in Korean language, the unique function would be more valuable especially for Korean translator finders. At the same time, "photo translation" has patched in Papago before Google Translate as far as I know.
However, getting through several times of update, Papago app got a little broken as of now. I guess Naver is suffering from workforce shortage in translator app department. I hope Papago has solved out all errors, and provide beautifully working "Honorific" function again around the time when you are reading this article.
OTHER TOOLS
NAVER DICTIONARY
A better alternative to translation apps is to look up the words yourself, then consult a native speaker. In that case, another app to keep in mind is Naver dictionary. Naver dictionary began as a website and had been establishing dictionary service over a decade.
Undefeatable quantity of examples, practical idioms from the service would fill your scholastic thirsty. You would clearer understandings of Korean expressions you are learning through the dictionary.
On top of that, you can repeat native Korean's pronounciation for each Korean word until you manually stop it. Even though Papago is unstable yet, Naver dictionary is rigid.
FINISHING
So far, we have looked at the translation functions of Google Translate, Papago, and Naver Dictionary. Based on its strong capital, Google Translate not only improved its accuracy with each generation, but also developed convenient functions using cell phone cameras and microphones. On the other hand, Papago, a translation app made by Naver corp. in Korea, introduced functions specialized for Korean translation by first trying a photo translation function and a "honorific" sentence correction function, but many errors are being detected in recent updates. Lastly, the Naver Dictionary is also a service of Naver corp. that has been developed over a long period of time. Since the Naver Dictionary provides a large amount of example sentences and audio clips recorded by native Korean speakers, it has the advantage of being able to convey the clearer usage of words/phrases to Korean language students.
Like the errors of digital translators, tools for foreign language learning are not yet perfect. Therefore, it is still left up to the user to cross-use various services and find the best foreign language translation method that suits one's own purpose.
BYE
'Korean Language' 카테고리의 다른 글
| Mastering Korean Money Counting (0) | 2022.04.07 |
|---|---|
| 16 Popular Korean words w/ emojis (0) | 2022.02.27 |
| Korea vegetarian - Reading beef, pork, chicken, seafood in Korean (0) | 2021.10.21 |
| Why NOT to ask "How are you" in Korean (0) | 2021.10.13 |
| Ordering Coffee in Korean | Why google translate MAY NOT work (0) | 2021.10.11 |
댓글