Translation Styles

I have noticed there are two main ways to translate things; the first being literal 'word for word' translations and the other being 'sentence for sentence.'

The first one is the worse of the two. Languages are not all the same, that is why they can be such a pain going from one to the other.
Korean and English have completely different sentence structures. Example:
Korean: 내일 난 학교에 갈게요.
English: Tomorrow I school to the will go.
I have seen a number of subtitled movies and a few time it is in this method. This is also what happens when you translate subtitles using a translation program. Despite it looking odd this can actually be really benefitual if I am trying to learn the language; I can see how it flows and how it thinks.

The other method is 'sentence for sentence' or 'thought for thought.' The structure may have to change, the words used may have to be changed, but the thoughts get across; which is the point of translating.
Korean: 내일 학교 가요.
English (word for word): Tomorrow school go.
English (thought for thought) Tomorrow I will go to school.

If someone does not know another language needs more or less (or different words) then they might change the structure, but the words will be misleading.
-Korean in a group society, so words like "my" "I" "me" are not really used. So in many sentences the subject is dropped; in English you cannot do this.
-English needs the tenses to be correct, Korean is more lax. In English you must use verbs in the future tense even though you have already stated it will be in the future ("tomorrow," "next week"). But in Korean, if you have already told the person "next week..." you don't need to conjugate the verb to the future tense; they already know it is in the future.

Another example of how literal translations can be misleading is what responce will a person have when they do not understand. In Korean, if you do not understand what someone is saying and you want them to repeat it, you simply say "yes?" This can really be a problem when, to English speakers, it sounds like the person agreed with me (by stating "yes") when really they were trying to tell me they didn't hear me.


"Okay" has really bugged me until I understood how Koreans use this word. In English it can be used as a form of confirmation or if things are good they are 'okay.' Examples:
"Are you okay?" "Is the food okay?" "My head feels okay now."

In Korean "okay" is used also as "yes." Example:
Rick: So you saw a movie last weekend?
Student: Okay!
This really confused me as students used "okay" = "yes."

I may not be in a Korean Language class or studying vocab as hard as I should be, but I am learning alot about how the language works~