Korean Voiceovers

Korean voice over and the speech level your brand speaks in

Korean verbs change their endings according to the relationship between speaker and listener. For commercial work the choice usually comes down to two levels: the formal -hamnida style, heard in news, announcements, banking and official communication, and the polite -haeyo style, which is warmer and dominates consumer advertising.

Both are correct. They say very different things about your brand. A delivery app in -hamnida sounds like a public service announcement; an insurer in casual speech sounds like it is not taking your money seriously. Translators often choose by habit, so we make it an explicit decision before the script is locked.

Seoul standard, and when to leave it

Standard Korean is based on Seoul speech and is the default for national campaigns, corporate and e-learning. Gyeongsang dialect, associated with Busan, and Jeolla dialect are instantly recognisable to Korean audiences and carry strong character associations. They are used for comedy, regional pride and drama, not as a neutral alternative.

English inside Korean scripts

Korean advertising absorbs a lot of English vocabulary, respelled in Hangul and pronounced the Korean way. The question for every script is which English terms your audience expects to hear in Korean pronunciation, which should stay in English, and which should be translated. Getting it wrong either sounds dated or sounds like a foreign company that has not localised. We flag every case at script stage.

Pace and delivery

Korean commercial reads tend to be bright and fast, and a delivery that would sound confident in English can sound flat in Korean. If you are adapting from an English master, tell us the reference read, but expect the Korean version to be directed to Korean norms rather than imitating the original.

Where Korean voice over is used

• Commercial voice over for TV, online and connected TV
• Online ad voice over for social and pre-roll
• Corporate voice over and elearning voice over
• Video game voice over, a major category in Korea
• Animation voice over and explainer voice over
• Dubbing and subtitling

What you get

• Custom demos from native Korean voices, read to your script
• Speech level agreed before recording and held across the campaign
• English loanwords reviewed line by line
• A native reviewer checking the delivered audio
• A fixed quote covering recording, direction, editing and usage

Send the script and the target duration. Demos and a fixed quote usually within 24 hours, or see how hiring works.