In the practice of translating Korean to English [EXPIRED LINK REMOVED: https://uz9.25e.myftpupload.com/korean-to-english-translation/] , it is often necessary to leave some meaning out. That’s right; I can’t translate everything,. In this case, I’m referring to Korean respect in translation.
When translating business correspondence, I have to leave out all the parts that go overboard (from an English perspective) in expressing respect.
Consider this Korean sentence:
“2011년 한 해 동안 귀하가 폐사에 보내 주신 사랑에 감사드립니다.”
I translated it this way on a Korean translation [EXPIRED LINK REMOVED: https://uz9.25e.myftpupload.com/] project I worked on:
“Thank you for the interest you showed our company during 2011.”
But this is what it really says:
“Thank you, with respect, for the love which you, the esteemed, have shared in a respected way with our humble company during the 2011 year.”
Kind of weird, huh?
Best-Practice Tip – Korean really does have this much respect and humility embedded in the language, and it comes out most obviously in formal communications. However, it gets tedious to read all that in English. I generally tone it down when expressing Korean respect in translation.
Oh, and by the way…
Thank you, with respect, for the love which you, the esteemed, have shared with humble ol’ me over the many years that humble ol’ I and my humble team have handled translation work for esteemed you…
