Hello Eunji!

I apologize that Grace is currently not available so I am leaving an answer to your question instead. I hope it is okay with you!

I just checked the video and I see why this might be confusing. Let’s see if I can explain this to you clearly. We are essentially comparing “approval” vs “permission” here.

The meanings are very similar as both of them mean “승인/허락” in Korean; however, I agree with Grace that there is a subtle difference between these two words.

An approval generally means you accept someone’s action and you are telling someone that it is okay to do that.
 -> some typical ways of saying this in Korean would be “승인”, “찬성”

A permission generally means you are authorizing/allowing them to do something whether you believe it is okay or not.
 -> some typical ways of saying this in Korean would be “허락”, “허가”

The sentence in question is “우리가 관제탑에서 이륙허가를 받는 대로 비행기에 탑승하게 될 것이다.”

In my opinion, this “이륙허가” is not something that the pilot has to really ASK for permission. It is simply an “OK sign” that the control tower gives, saying that you are good to go. It would be more of a particular situation if they didn’t give them an approval. That would be my reason to use approval over permission for this sentence.

To give you some examples…

If you are a 13-year-old teenager, asking your parents if you can go out at 10PM with your friends, you will need your parents’ permission. (Because it is more likely that your parents will not allow it… maybe?)

If you are a 13-year-old teenager, asking your parents to sign a field trip form (학교에서 현장학습 가는것에 대한 부모동의서) to go to the Zoo with your classmates, then you will just need your parents’ approval by having the form signed. (You don’t particularly NEED your parents to give you the “permission”… it is not something that you have to really ask especially if your entire class is going, right?)

I know this is tricky but I sincerely hope it helps!

Best regards,

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