Languages
Korean translation for public agencies.
A threshold language for several Southern California and state-level programs. Register and spacing are where Korean public documents show whether anyone reviewed them.
- 한국어
- Independent, in the pair
- Returned same business day
Decisions
What we settle before the first sentence.
These are choices, not defaults. Each one is agreed at intake, recorded, and carried into the next document so a set stays consistent with itself.
Honorific level, chosen for public address
Korean encodes the relationship between writer and reader in the verb ending of every sentence. Government-to-resident communication has a conventional level: formal, polite, and not deferential to the point of sounding like a sales letter. Getting it wrong is not a nuance a reader has to look for; it is the first thing they notice. We set the level per document type and hold it to the last sentence, including in headings, table captions, and button labels, which is where it usually slips.
Sino-Korean and native vocabulary
Administrative and legal terms are largely Sino-Korean and that is the correct register for a notice. Outreach material aimed at general readers takes more native vocabulary. The choice is made per document rather than applied uniformly across a set.
English terms kept where readers need them
Program names, form numbers, and office names stay in English on first reference with a Korean gloss, so a reader can act on them at a counter or on a phone line.
Hazards
Where this pair breaks.
Most errors in a translated public document are production failures that survive approval and show up in the file your reader receives.
Spacing between words
Korean spacing rules are specific and are the most reliable tell of unreviewed text: bound nouns, auxiliary verbs, counters, and compound terms each have a rule about whether a space belongs, and the rules do not follow English intuition. Text that is otherwise accurate and spaced by feel reads to a Korean reader the way randomly capitalized English reads to you.
Line breaking and short fields
Korean breaks by character rather than by word in most layout engines, which splits terms across lines in headings, table cells, and form labels. Fixed by setting break rules in layout rather than by shortening the text.
Honorific drift across a document set
When a set is split across several hands or assembled over months, the ending level drifts between documents. We record the level as part of the glossary so the next job matches the last one.
Font coverage in templates
Templates built for Latin text frequently lack an embedded Korean face, and the substituted font changes line height enough to reflow a page. Checked before layout, not after export.
California context
Why California agencies buy this pair.
Korean is a threshold language for multiple Southern California jurisdictions and for state-level programs operating under the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act (Gov. Code §7290 et seq.). For San Francisco departments it most often appears as part of a statewide or multi-county document set rather than as a citywide requirement.
Because it usually arrives inside a larger set rather than on its own, it is priced and dated on its own line. A set need not move at the speed of the slowest language in it unless you want it delivered together.
Descriptions of the law here are general. What a particular department owes in a particular case is the department’s determination, not ours.
The decisions above are what this pair asks you to settle. What it does not change is the schedule: the date in your quote is one we have already staffed, and if it will not hold, the quote says so before you order.
- Standard
- Priority
- Scheduled
Intake
What we will ask you.
These are the Korean questions specifically. Answering them in your first email shortens the quote and removes the round trip.
Notice, form, or outreach material? The honorific level differs.
Is there an existing Korean version from your program whose register we should match?
Are we producing the final layout, or returning text into your template?
Send us a Korean document.
Attach the file, tell us the deadline, and answer whichever of the questions above apply. A written quote comes back same business day.