Korean Translation Tip: Use a Korean-Style Holiday Greeting; Don’t Just Translate Your English One

Today I want to help you get ready for the holidays with a Korean holiday greeting that communicates naturally…

You know how those Chinese fortune cookie messages can sound a bit quaint translated into English? Don’t you think a Korean fortune cookie (if such existed) translated into English might sound funny, too?

We are often asked to provide Korean translation [EXPIRED LINK REMOVED: https://uz9.25e.myftpupload.com/] of culture-laden English messages.

For example, English greeting cards…

Toward the end of the year, Koreans are a whole lot more focused on the New Year than they are on Christmas (though modern greetings — especially involving non-Koreans — often do work a Christmas message in). And Koreans express their holiday wishes on greeting cards differently than we do in English.

Best-Practice Tip If you are looking for a good Korean holiday greeting for your Korean clients or other contacts and are willing to depart from the text of your English card, then use or adapt a greeting from one of these two posts:


A Whole Slew of Korean Holiday Greetings for Christmas and New Year, and for the Lunar New Year Holiday

More New Year’s Greetings in Korean

Steven Bammel

Steven S. Bammel is president and chief translator/consultant at Korean Consulting & Translation Service, Inc. A graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington (B.B.A. Economics) and Hanyang University (M.S. Management Strategy), Steven has worked for over twenty years in Korean business and translation. | more about Steven

You may also like...