Hello Nayun!

Good question! Let's see if I can explain this.

So, since you are asking why I didn't translate the word "when", I guess I should ask how you would add "when" in this sentence first! We could say "하지만 모든 것이 나와 관련된 일이라고 '느낄때'..." to emphasize the usage of the word "when" in this situation, but I am not sure if this is necessary!

When we are translating or interpreting, we keep it as meaning-for-meaning rather than word-for-word. Understanding the sentence "But when it’s always all about you, that’s virtually impossible to do" is really saying, when you are the centre of everything, it is impossible to do things that a true leader should do.

How about we talk about a sentence that has a simple structure?

"When I say "go!", you will run, okay?"

- 내가 "가!" 라고하면 그때 뛰는거야, 알았지?
- 내가 "가!" 라고 했을때 뛰면 되는거야, 알았지?
- 내가 "가!" 라고 할때 뛰는거야, 알았지?

Is any one of above translations wrong? No, not necessarily. I understand that the word "when" means "언제" in Korean, but translating between two languages often doesn't work that way. What we really need to do is to make sure that we understand the connotation of the original sentence and focus on delivering the correct meaning in a different language without making any omissions, additions or altering meaning.

I hope this makes sense!

Kind regards,

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