A thick envelope from the district office landed in Jonas's mailbox, all in Korean, with a red stamp and a date two weeks away. He photographed it with Papago in the lobby.
It was a reminder to pay his resident tax. Five minutes later it was paid, and he stopped worrying about deportation.
Papago (파파고) is Naver’s free translation app, built with a strong focus on Korean. Point the camera at a menu, letter or sign and it overlays English. Use conversation mode to talk face to face, and the honorifics setting to sound polite. For contracts and legal papers, use it to understand the gist, then get a human check.
Papago vs Google Translate for Korean
Both are good now, and it’s worth having both. Papago tends to handle Korean word order, casual chat, slang and polite speech more naturally. Google Translate is handy for less common language pairs and works inside Google Lens. When a sentence matters, run it through both: if the two translations agree, you can trust the meaning; if they don’t, rephrase or ask someone.
| Task | Papago | Google Translate |
|---|---|---|
| Menus, signs, letters (camera) | Yes, with English overlaid on the photo | Yes, via Lens |
| Face-to-face conversation | Yes, both people speak their own language | Yes |
| Polite Korean output | Honorifics option | No separate setting |
| Website translation | Paste a URL in the app | Chrome built-in |
| Offline | Text translation, with improved offline voice added in 2026 | Downloadable languages |
| Handwriting | Yes | Yes |
Papago supports 14 languages, including Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Russian, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Arabic.
Camera translation: menus, signs and letters
Open Papago → Image (이미지). Take a photo or pick one from your gallery, and Papago replaces the text with your language on top of the picture. Tap any line to see the original Korean and copy it.
For menus: take the photo straight on, in good light. Dish names often come out literal (“budae jjigae” may appear as “army base stew”), so tap the Korean name and search it in Naver images to see what the dish looks like. Watch for 맵다 (spicy), 돼지 (pork), 소고기 (beef), 해산물 (seafood) and 땅콩 (peanut) if you have allergies or diet rules.
For official letters: photograph one page at a time, flat on a table. Find the four things that matter:
- Who sent it: 구청 (district office), 출입국 (immigration), 국민건강보험공단 (health insurance), 세무서 (tax office), 경찰서 (police)
- What they want: 납부 (payment), 제출 (submission), 출석 (appearance), 신고 (report)
- The deadline: 기한, 까지 (until), dates written like 2026. 11. 15.
- The amount: 금액, 원 (won)
The image limit is 100 photos a day in the app, which is plenty.
Want text, not an overlay? After the camera scan, tap "select all" and copy the Korean. Paste it into the text tab for a cleaner translation, or into Naver Map if it's an address. See our Naver Map vs Kakao Map guide.
Conversation mode: offices, clinics and repairs
Tap Conversation (대화). The screen splits in two: you speak English, the other person speaks Korean, and each sees the translation on their side. Turn the phone so they can read it.
Tips that make it work:
- Speak in short, complete sentences. “I have had a fever since Monday” beats “fever, Monday, still bad.”
- Avoid idioms and jokes. They come back strange.
- Let the other person finish before you tap. Overlapping speech confuses it.
- In loud places, use the text tab and type instead.
At the clinic, Jonas typed before going in: "I have had a sore throat and fever since Monday. I am allergic to penicillin." He showed the Korean to the receptionist and the doctor. No back and forth needed.
Prepare the important sentences in advance and save them as favorites (the star icon). For the immigration office, also have your passport, residence card and application details ready, since staff work from forms, not chat. Hospitals in big cities often have international clinics; see how hospitals work in Korea.
Honorifics: sounding polite
Korean changes with who you’re talking to. Papago has an honorifics (높임말) toggle for English to Korean. Turn it on when you write to your landlord, your boss, a teacher, a delivery driver or anyone older or unknown. Without it, Papago can produce casual Korean that sounds rude from a stranger.
Users have noticed it often gives the soft 요 ending rather than the very formal 니다 style. That’s fine for landlords and shops. For a formal email to a school or company, ask a Korean colleague to read it.
Short sentences translate best. Compare:
"Hey, just wondering if maybe someone could swing by sometime to take a look at the boiler thing, it's been kinda acting up."
"The boiler is not working. There is no hot water. Can someone come and check it this week?"
Websites, documents and keyboards
- Website translation: paste a Korean URL into Papago’s website tab (or papago.naver.com) and read the page in English. Useful for apartment listings and school notices.
- Document translation: upload a file and Papago keeps the layout. Monthly limits apply.
- Naver’s keyboard (Naver SmartBoard) has a translate button, so you can type English and send Korean in any app.
- Inside other apps: Naver Map shows translated reviews. KakaoTalk has a translate button in its message input, and newer versions can translate received messages from a long press. If you don’t see these options, copy the text into Papago.
Landlord and work chats
Most landlords, real estate agents and employers will message you on KakaoTalk. A simple routine:
- Long-press the Korean message, copy it, translate in Papago.
- Write your reply in short English sentences, honorifics on.
- Paste the Korean back. Keep the English in your notes so you know what you said.
- For anything about money, dates or the deposit, ask them to confirm in writing.
If you're arranging a meetup on Karrot or giving an address to a delivery rider, the same copy, translate, paste loop works. See our Karrot guide and Coupang guide.
Limits: when not to trust it
Machine translation is great for meaning and bad for legal precision. A single word like 갱신 (renewal) vs 연장 (extension), or who pays 관리비 (maintenance fees), can change your rights.
Don’t sign on Papago alone:
- Lease contracts (임대차계약서) and deposit terms. See protecting your rental deposit.
- Employment contracts. See our E-2 contract checklist.
- Police statements, court papers and immigration forms.
- Medical consent forms for surgery.
Free human help:
| Help | What they do |
|---|---|
| 1345 Immigration Contact Center | Visa and daily-life questions in 20 languages, weekdays 09:00 to 22:00 (after 18:00 Korean, English and Chinese only). Can join a three-way call with an office |
| 1330 Korea Travel Hotline | 24-hour interpretation, including help talking to a shop, taxi or clinic |
| Seoul Global Center | Counseling and help with documents for Seoul residents |
| Free legal aid | Contract and dispute advice; see free legal help |
More numbers in emergency numbers and helplines. For anything you sign, a certified translation or a check by a center that helps foreign residents is worth the extra day.
Common questions
Is Papago free?
Yes, the app is free with ads. Naver also offers a paid Papago Plus subscription for heavy work use, which you don’t need for daily life.
Does Papago work offline?
Text translation works offline after you download the language pack, and Naver improved offline quality and added offline voice in 2026. Camera translation needs data.
Can I use Papago without a Naver account?
Yes. You only need to log in to sync favorites and history.
Is it good enough for a doctor?
For describing symptoms, usually yes. For a diagnosis or surgery, ask for an interpreter; many large hospitals have international clinics, and 1330 can help by phone.
Sources: Naver Papago App Store listing and version history (2025 to 2026); Naver Help Center (Papago image translation); Korea Immigration Service (1345 hours and languages); Design Compass on KakaoTalk translation.
All the apps we recommend for life in Korea: essential apps guide.
Written from the laws and official notices in force on the date above. Rules change and every case is different, so check with the office named in the article before an important decision. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.