Google actually offer an instant translation service that superimposes the translated words over the original on your camera screen. To test this feature, we tried it out at lunch on the menu of a local restaurant near our offices. This obviously has loads of potential to be a really useful service. One impressive feature that both these services offer is the ability to take a picture of words in Korean and have them translated into English. According to our Korean office staff, the Papago version sounds slightly more natural.Įither way, the good news is that we don't think that you would struggle to find out how to get to where you are going using either app! One slight difference is that while Google used a very formal form of Korea, Papago used a more commonly used form. Papago also translated both the questions and answers into perfect sentences.

Google accurately translated both the question and the answer into grammatically perfect sentences. We tested how each service translates the simple question 'Where is the train station' and the answer 'down the street to the left' While hand signals can often be used, wouldn't it be great if the app could provide an accurate translation for you when asking for directions? Obviously, both apps offer translation in significantly more situations than the ones listed below and the results you experience when actually using the app may differ compared to the results we found.Īnyone who has been traveling in a foreign country likely knows about the struggle of finding new things. We performed a few test in everyday situations to see just how accurate each app is. While it offers fewer language pairings, as it is made by a Korean company, would that suggest that it will be able to translate to and from Korean more accurately than Google? It is called Papago and is very similar to Google Translate. Korean company Naver also provide a translation app. It has tons of language pairings and the ability to translate both text and sound, as well as words from pictures. The most well-known translation app is probably Google Translate. If you live in Korea but don't speak Korean, there are likely to be many occasions where the help of an accurate translation would be really useful. After putting both apps to the test in everyday situations, we found that the app translation services from the two technology giants offer genuinely impressive translation services that are likely to be very useful for people in Korea who don't speak Korea.

Translate korean to english