Hello Heejeong!

Thank you for all the great questions! Let’s see if I can help!

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1-1: A five year old boy in the same state was beaten up by ~, while a seven year old Dalit girl was thrashed by ~
As far as I know 'while' means 반면, ~동안에. I thought 반면 is 'contrast (two different things)' so I translated as 동안 because it seems like those 2 sentences still explain the same issues. When I see your translation 받았으며, it does sound more natural but I'm not sure if my translation is still ok.
Also, when you translate a sentence like this using while, does it really matter if it has to be translated in order or it is ok as long as you understand the meaning?


-> Your translation seems fine to me!

Your understanding of translating ‘while’ into 반면 and ~동안에 sounds clear to me. If you are worried about the order of your translation when you translate this as ~동안’, I would say this does not matter as we are merely talking about two events that usually happen at the same or similar time.

I ate a piece of cake while my mother ate a piece of pie.

= 내가 케익 한 조각을 먹을 동안 엄마는 파이 한 조각을 먹었다.
= 엄마가 파이 한 조각을 먹는 동안 나는 케익 한 조각을 먹었다.


This is a good example of translating ‘meaning for meaning’ rather than ‘word for word.’ Here, the order does not affect the meaning so it is absolutely okay to change the order if you think this is necessary.

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1-1: As far as the schooling system is concerned, we are still living in dark ages and acting as an uncivilized and backward society.
The first part of the sentence, my translation was ~문제가 존재하는 한 and I wanted to ask you if it is still carrying the same meaning.
I'm still not sure how to translate this part acting as because I thought this means we are 'part of' the society.
I would like to know how you get the idea to translate.


-> I think perhaps you are thinking of the expression ‘as long as’!

If it indeed said something like… “As long as the problem exists…” then this would indeed be “그 문제가 존재하는 한….”

When you say, ‘as far as ______ is concerend’, you are saying ‘______에 관한한…’

For instance,

“우사인 볼트는 손가락을 다쳤지만, 뛰는 것에 관한 것이라면, 아무 문제없을 것이다.”
Although Usain Bolt injured his finger, as far as running is concerned, he will not have any problem.

However, if you want to use “as long as ____”

You could say something like,

“Although Usain Bolt injured his finger, he will not have any problem with running as long as his feet are okay.”

“우사인 볼트는 손가락을 다쳤지만, 발만 온전하다면 뛰는 것에는 아무런 문제가 없을 것이다.”



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1-2: New equipment costs money, in the long run, though the equipment earns back its costs through increased efficiency.
This was a bit hard to translate and got the idea briefly from your video.
I would like to ask your feedback about my translation because it seems like the meaning is a bit different when I look at your translation.


-> Your translation sounds fine to me. The major difference between your translation and mine is how we interpreted the sentence. My focus was on “New equipment costs money” but your focus was on “the equipment earns back its costs.” They are both translated properly and there is no wrong answer in my opinion.




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1-4: Well, George Orwell. Big Brother has finally arrived.
I really didn't know how to translate this sentence because I wasn't sure if it's 비유.
How do you figure out if it's ok to be translated as it is or in a different way?

-> This is a tough one because there are many different factors to decide whether you should translate things word for word, or focus more on the meaning even if it means your translation now talks about something totally different. One of the most important factors is a cultural difference. (A good example of this would be  “Ram-Don” as the translation of “짜파구리” from the movie ‘Parasite’)

Still, I am not entirely sure about your translation of “Big Brother” as I feel like this passage is talking more about computer technology, virtual reality and stuff.  In my opinion, if you could not clearly understand what it was talking about when it said ‘George Orwell’ or ‘Big Brother’, you would have looked it up so that you understand what it means in English first. This is not a cultural difference where Korean people have no idea who George Orwell is; but rather, it’s just some people might not understand the reference if they have not read George Orwell’s 1984. In this case, I would simply translate it as is so that people who have the background knowledge can understand what it is saying.


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I hope this is clear!

Best regards,

Mason U, CMI-Korean
Business Interpretation and Translation in Korean (BIT-K) Instructor