Did you know that ChatGPT can help you navigate the language barrier in South Korea? Our volunteers and community members successfully use ChatGPT in daily life for reading and analyzing Korean. Here are some of our use cases.
What is ChatGPT?
We have met many people who have not heard of or used ChatGPT. So we asked Chat GPT to explain what it is and it gave this very wordy explanation:
“ChatGPChatGPT is an advanced language model developed by OpenAI, designed to understand and generate human-like text based on the input it receives. Built on the GPT-4 architecture, ChatGPT is trained on a diverse range of internet text to facilitate natural language conversations. It can answer questions, provide explanations, engage in dialogue, and assist with various tasks by generating relevant, coherent, and contextually appropriate responses. ChatGPT is employed in a wide range of applications, from customer support and content creation to personal assistance and educational tools, thanks to its ability to adapt to various conversational contexts and its capacity for understanding nuanced queries.” – ChatGPT
In summary, ChatGPT can help with many different things including language translation for daily life.
ChatGPT Trains on Native Korean Information
We benefit from ChatGPT in Korea because OpenAI partnered with several Korean organizations to expand the use and integration of ChatGPT in Korea. For example, OpenAI partnered with SK Telecom, one of the largest telecommunications companies in South Korea.
This means that ChatGPT trains on native Korean information and platforms. This makes ChatGPT one of the most powerful, versatile, and accurate online translation tools available. For example, ChatGPT can more accurately understand slang, Konglish, and apply the right honorifics to messages.
Here are some of the ways our volunteers and community have successfully used ChatGPT to navigate the English / Korean language barrier in more dynamic ways than a traditional translation app provides.
Analyzing and Responding to Messages
ChatGPT can be a lifesaver when trying to set up appointments or answer text messages when you can’t speak Korean. We speak intermediate Korean and still use ChatGPT to read and interpret incoming information since it’s faster and more efficient than managing the communication ourselves. It also helps us catch some hidden culture or clarify confusing language.
See example below:
Understanding Product Descriptions While Online
If you have paid ChatGPT you can put in a link from Coupang or other shopping sites and ask for ChatGPT to look for specific information or explain the product. We like to do this to see if there is any fine print we might have missed. We will also ask ChatGPT to compare two products when we have trouble picking one option.
See the examples below:
Reading Food Labels for Specialty Diets
If you are vegan or have allergies, you can upload an image of a product’s ingredients list and ask ChatGPT to analyze it for potential issues regarding your special diet.
See example below:
Sourcing Keywords for Naver or Instagram
Finding the right keywords can sometimes be a challenge. You can use Papago for simple search terms but many popular online search terms are slang or konglish. To get more dynamic search terms ask for ChatGPT’s help.
See example below:
Understand Board Games
Board Game Cafes can be a lot of fun in Korea but sometimes you need to find the game directions in English or translate a certain card. You can ask ChatGPT for help with this and it does an excellent job. We used it recently for our Jinramyeon game played similar to Ramen Fury.
See example below:
How Do You Use ChatGPT for Translation?
We would love to hear more about how others in the community use ChatGPT for daily life tasks. We know you guys must be doing amazing things with it as well.
What Other AI Tools Do You Find Helpful?
We would also love to hear about any AI tools you use for managing your life in South Korea. It’s important that international residents fully understand all of their options for communicating and navigating the language barrier.
Lanae Rivers-Woods moved to Korea in 2011 where she lives in the countryside with her family, friends, and puppies. She holds a BSSW (Bachelor’s of Science in Social Work), a MAIT (Master’s of Arts in International Teaching), and registered by the Pyeongtaek Korean Times with the Korean government as a Cultural Expert.
Ms. Rivers-Woods used her 15 years experience as a social architect, UX/UI designer, and technology consultant to found South of Seoul in 2015. South of Seoul is a volunteer organization that leverages technological tools to mitigate cultural dissonance in multi-cultural communities.
Through South of Seoul, Ms. Rivers-Woods works with independent volunteers, non-profit organizations, businesses, local & federal government, universities, and US military organizations to develop solutions to support English speaking international residents in rural South Korea.
Additionally, Ms. Rivers-Woods founded the South of Seoul smart phone app available for Google Play and iPhone. The app provides information a resources for those living and traveling in South Korea.
When she isn’t in South of Seoul development meetings or working her day job, Ms. Rivers-Woods loves to be outside at skate parks, the beach, or playing in the mountains.