# Oh my God! What's wrong with these Europeans?



## TraduttoreMoltoAmatoriale

Hello, I am a writer from Italy who never published any book.

But I just finished writing my first book, an adventure-comedy book in which two eighteen years old italian girls travel to Spain and end up in a lot of trouble. In one scene these two girls have just been robbed of all their belongings and they are walking down from a mountain. They are hungry, dirty, tired and thirsty. Their clothes are all destroyed, and one of these girls has even lost her shirt and is walking barechested, with her breast out. They suddenly meet a couple of korean mountain climbers coming in the opposite direction, and as the two mountain climbers see them they jump up in surprise and say something in korean like: "Oh my God! What's wrong with these Europeans?!", or something like that, as if they couldn't believe their own eyes.

After a while the koreans understand that the girls are hungry, they give them their food, the girls thank them and the two koreans say something like: "you are welcome".

I would need a translation in korean of these two sentences. The translation does not need to be literal, just simple down to earth language that people in that situation would use. Some special/funny korean expression would also be nice, if there is anything that fits well (the book is comedy so there's no need to be too serious). I would need the two korean sentences and a literal translation into english.

I would like very much to suggest a translation but unfortunately I don't speak Korean (even though I have visited the country two times).

Thank you!


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## Kross

TraduttoreMoltoAmatoriale said:


> "Oh my God! What's wrong with these Europeans?!"


 I'd like to translate this line into the following: "맙소사! 저 유럽인들에게 무슨 안 좋은 일이 일어 났나 봐요." (Oh my Gosh! It looks that something terrible happened to these Europeans."



TraduttoreMoltoAmatoriale said:


> "you are welcome".


I'd like to translate this expression into Korean: "천만예요." This is one of common translations between Korean and English. So there's no need to add the literal expression for that.


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## TraduttoreMoltoAmatoriale

Thank you very much. How would it be if instead I just wanted to say: "Oh my Gosh! It looks that something terrible happened to these two"?


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## Kross

TraduttoreMoltoAmatoriale said:


> Thank you very much. How would it be if instead I just wanted to say: "Oh my Gosh! It looks that something terrible happened to these two"?


 That would be as follows: "맙소사! *저 분들께 *무슨 안 좋은 일이 일어 났나 봐요." 

I personally think that this alternative edition without Europeans sounds more reasonable and realistic because most mediocre Koreans cannot tell the difference between Europeans and other westerns, just as westerns have a hard time distinguishing Asians by appearance.


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## TraduttoreMoltoAmatoriale

Thank you very much for your help


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## yonh

I have rarely heard a Korean says "천만에요." in real life, especially in these days. It sounds formal and old-fashioned. I think "아니에요." or "뭘요." is more colloquial. Or, they would just smile.


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## TraduttoreMoltoAmatoriale

yonh said:


> I have rarely heard a Korean says "천만에요." in real life, especially in these days. It sounds formal and old-fashioned. I think "아니에요." or "뭘요." is more colloquial. Or, they would just smile.



Thank you. Something colloquial is what I am looking for. Which one do you think is best between your two proposals? What do they literally mean? Just "you are welcome"?


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## Kross

On second thought, I believe most Korean mountain climbers were trained at school well enough to automatically say "You're welcome" in English when hearing a thank-you message. Given that those two Koreans seem to be in Spain now, they must be able to say "You're welcome" not only in English, but also even in Spanish. That's because it would be common sense that they pick up some basic expression in local languages before flying over there. so it would be unrealistic and unnatural that we think they might insist on saying "You're welcome" in Korean under the circumstance like the scene you envisioned. Even if we just pretend that they say you're welcome in Korean and hopefully these Europeans understand it, the Korean counterpart should be formal. I think that would go against customs and manners that we choose 반말 in such a setting where they hardly know to each other.


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## TraduttoreMoltoAmatoriale

I have no doubt about the fact that they would probably answer in English, but the story is a comedy and realism is not the top priority. In that specific context, I need them to answer in Korean. Thank you for your feedback, I think I will use the more formal option as you suggest.


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