My wife and I deliver food to disabled elderly. We call the day before to tell them when we will be making the rounds. One couple is Korean and speaks no English. When we call, they say “No English!” and hang up.
Online translators are no help, as they translate into the Kanji characters instead of the pronunciation.
I need to be able to say:
“Hello. I will deliver food tomorrow at (time). Thank you. Goodbye.”
Any assistance appreciated.
There is at least one telephone translator service (we use one at work but I’m not sure if I can endorse a business on S.D.). You call them and they connect you to a translator for the appropriate language who then makes a three-way call for you. A quick google check shows it is $2.25 a minute.
There may be translators in your area – available through the phone book or a college/university.
Is there a Korean cultural group in your area? You may be able to get someone to tape-record a short greeting and message for you to play each time you call. Or, they may call them directly once and explain your schedule.
Good luck!
Rob
Hmmm… this is a bit difficult in that I have to type the sounds here in English, and have you read them in such a way that they sound right in Korean. I’ll do my best.
“Anyang-haseyo. (Hello) Oom-shik-ul (food) nay-ill (tomorrow) pay-doll (deliver) ha-kay-soob-ni-da (future tense ‘to do’) insert time here Kam-sa hom-ni-da. (thank you).” No need to say “goodbye”…
What time are you delivering? They will probably understand the time in English, but just in case…
I’ll do my best but you’ll need to provide the specific time too… Also, Korean has its own alphabet called hangeul so they aren’t Kanji which are the Japanese pictographs. Anyway, here’s a transliteration I’m going to seperate the individual words into their syllables.
(Ann Yong Ha Shim Nee Kaa)
(Chuh Noon) (Nay Eel) (the time) (Oom Shik) (Bay Dal Hal Guh Shim Nee Da)
(Kam Saa Ham Nee Dah)
That should get the point across and as politely as possible.
I see on preview astroboy has answered, but honestly, that transliteration is awful… and the verb construct is written entirely incorrectly (ha-kay-soob-ni-da) because <verb><gay><da> is the near future tense and thus not applicable. (Will you have a cup of coffee?) It also should be written Hah-Gay-Soom-Nee-Da for maximum accuracy.
Yup, as I said, it’s hard to write in English and have the sounds come out correct…
The major differences in the way I translated it and the way Grim Jaa translated it lie in the level of, umm, politeness, I guess… he chose Ann Yong Ha Shim Nee Kaa (slightly more polite; used for someone who is significantly older than the speaker, or to someone who is significantly higher in social position) while I chose Ann-yong-ha-say-O (used for people of roughly the same age/social position).
As for this, I will post no objection… I will just note that I consulted my wife via cell-phone (she’s in LA tonight) for the correct tense construct… she is Korean, and that’s what she told me. I’m thinking that we simply have a disagreement as to what the “near” future tense means… tomorrow, or sometime in the next week or so.
I’m gonna stick with my wife’s translation, though. My Korean is WAY less than fluent, so I trust her on this stuff (based on the fact that when we wrote and published a dictionary of English idioms in S. Korea a few years ago, we had 2 native Korean speakers to help with the Korean translations, and my wife had a better grip of the English meanings, and their Korean translations, than our other translator. Probably due to her having been dating me for a decade or so…).
For times: I’m assuming there is a structure for this, as in most languages, and that I will just need to be able to say the number preceded or followed by the equivalent of “o’clock”. For example, in French it’s “trois heures, quatre heures, cinc heures”, etc. Normally we deliver around noon.
Thanks for the help.
Yes… again, I’ll try to write them out phonetically so that when you read them they’ll sound right in Korean:
1 o’clock: han-shi-eh
2 o’clock: doo-shi-eh
3 o’clock: say-shi-eh
4 o’clock: nay-shi-eh
5 o’clock: ta-sot-shi-eh (sot rhymes with “boat”)
6 o’clock: yo-sot-shi-eh (same here, rhyme with “boat”)
7 o’clock: ill-gop-shi-eh (gop has the same short o sound as boat)
8 o’clock: yo-dol-shi-eh (dol also with the same short o sound)
9 o’clock: ah-hop-shi-eh (hop with the same short o sound)
10 o’clock: yol-shi-eh (same short o sound)
11 o’clock: yol-han-shi-eh (same short o sound)
12 o’clock: yol-doo-shi-eh (same short o sound)
If you need to say morning: achim-eh
If you need to say afternoon: oh-hu-eh
So, if you want to say “tomorrow morning we will deliver food. 9am.” it will be something like this:
“Nay-il achim-eh, oom-shik-ul pay-dal-ha-kay-soom-ni-da. Ah-hop-shi-eh.”
The grammar there is off, I know… not sure where and how to insert the time; but it will get the point across. 
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How did this couple end up in the US without knowing the English language? :dubious:
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