Korea has become one of the largest contributors to the world economy. Due to this tremendous economic growth of Korea, a large number of interesting business opportunities have sprung up in the country and especially in South Korea which is a hub for technology. These growing business opportunities have led to an increasing demand for Korean translations.

Spoken by around 78 million people, Korean is the official language of South Korea as well as North Korea. In addition, it is also one of the two official languages of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. Korean is also used by the Korean diaspora in various countries such as Japan, the USA and others.

Various dialects in Korean language

The Korean language contains various standard and regional dialects. Seoul and P'yŏngyang are two standard dialects which are used in different regions. While Seoul is used in the region of Incheon, Seoul and Gyeonggi; P'yŏngyang is used widely in P'yŏngan region and Chagang in North Korea. Thus the standard language of South Korea is based on the Seoul dialect whereas the language of North Korea is based on the P'yŏngyang dialect.

There are several regional dialects too such as Jeju which is spoken in the Jeju province of South Korea, Hwanghae in the Hwanghae region of North Korea and so on. Several other regional dialects include Gyeongsang, Gangwon, Jeolla and more.

With the exception of Jeju dialect which is considered as a different language altogether, most of the dialects of the Korean languages are similar to each other in some ways. However the major differences between various dialects is the use of stress, intonation and the vocabulary. For instance, the words 'friend' or 'chopsticks' are written differently in the South Korean and the North Korean dialect. That is why it is of prime importance that you first figure out your target audience and then choose a professional translation company, be it translation services in Calgary or a translation Vancouver company where expert translators understand the differences between various dialects of Korean language and provide translations which suits your target audience the best.

Chinese influence on the Korean language and the Hangul script

Earlier Korean was written using Chinese characters such as Idu or Hyangchal. But now the Korean language is written using the Hangul script. Just like the Chinese style of writing, Hangul too follows the practice of writing syllables in blocks. Each block contains two of the 24 letters and one of the 10 vowels and 14 consonants. Korean can be written in two ways – either horizontally from left to right or vertically from right to left.

Korean has borrowed a large number of words from the Chinese language. In Korea, during the 19th and 20th centuries, a combination of Chinese characters and Hangul was used. However by 1945, the usage of Chinese characters in the Korean language decreased dramatically and these days Chinese characters can be found only in academic papers and official documents. The modern Korean literature hardly contains any Chinese characters and is written completely in the Hangul script.

Korean is a tough language and its translations require the services of specially trained experts. Whether your target audience is based in North Korea, South Korea or the Korean people in China; the translations for all of them will be remarkably different. Therefore it makes sense to approach a reliable translation agency be it a translation Vancouver company or Calgary translation services provider which can offer you the most professional and accurate Korean translations.