Improvement of Korean Translation Quality (Multiple Contextual Errors)

Request
1

Hello team,

First of all, thank you for creating such a wonderful platform for language learners.

I’m posting to request an improvement in the quality of the Korean translations. Currently, many sentences seem to rely on raw machine translation without context, leading to literal translations that severely distort the original meaning or miss key phrases entirely.

In particular, these issues were found in the example sentences on Language Reactor’s own PhrasePump feature:

Here are a few concrete examples I came across recently:

  1. “He bailed on us just when we needed him.”
  • Current Translation: 그는 우리가 필요할 때 우리를 구제해 주시곤 했습니다. (He saved us when we needed him)
  • Issue: bail on means to abandon or break a promise, but it was translated as “rescued/saved.”
  • Correct Meaning: 우리가 그를 가장 필요로 했을 때, 그는 우리를 저버렸다.
  1. “It’s an equity issue.”
  • Current Translation: 그것은 주식 문제입니다. (It’s a stock market issue)
  • Issue: equity was translated literally as financial stock instead of “fairness/justice.”
  • Correct Meaning: 그것은 형평성(공정성)의 문제입니다.
  1. “He was convicted on trumped up charges.”
  • Current Translation: 그는 혐의로 유죄 판결을 받았다. (He was convicted on charges)
  • Issue: The crucial phrase trumped up (fabricated/false) was completely omitted, altering the entire context of being framed.
  • Correct Meaning: 그는 조작된 혐의로 유죄 판결을 받았다.
  1. “Many inmates on death row say they don’t want to die.”
  • Current Translation: 죽음의 행에 많은 수감자는 그들이 죽고 싶지 않아 말한다.
  • Issue: death row was literally translated word-for-word as “row of death,” resulting in unnatural phrasing.
  • Correct Meaning: 사형수들 중 많은 이들이 죽고 싶지 않다고 말합니다.
  1. “The old woman knitted her brows.”
  • Current Translation: 노인은 눈썹을 뜨개질했다. (The old person knitted their eyebrows with yarn)
  • Issue: knit one's brows is an idiom for frowning, but knit was mistranslated as actual hand-knitting.
  • Correct Meaning: 할머니는 눈살을 찌푸리셨다.
  1. “That pick-up line is really lame.”
  • Current Translation: 그 픽업 라인은 정말 절름발이입니다. (That pick-up line is physically crippled)
  • Issue: lame (cheesy/cringe/unimpressive) was translated using its literal physical disability definition.
  • Correct Meaning: 그 작업 멘트는 정말 유치하다/구리다.

These types of literal machine translation errors can cause significant confusion for Korean learners studying English. It would be greatly appreciated if the translation engine could be updated or contextual processing improved for Korean.

Thank you for your hard work and continuous support!

2

Hi @kimhwana0213, thank you very much for the detailed report!
We checked several examples (“bail on,” “death row”), and they are now translated correctly. You may have noticed these errors before the fixes were made.

However, we’ve confirmed that there are still similar cases of incorrect translation (the example with “lame”/“cool,” screenshot 3), so this type of contextual translation issue hasn’t been fully resolved yet. I’ve passed this information on to the team for further improvement.
Thanks again for taking the time to report this in such detail - it really helps a lot!
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