Speaker (Japanese)
すみません、このお店のおすすめは何ですか？
저기요, 이 가게에서 뭐가 제일 맛있어요?
こんにちは 안녕하세요
Live translation
Japanese ↔ Korean
through one pair of earbuds.
Share an earbud. Pick Japanese and Korean. Each of you hears the other in your own language, live.
A sample exchange
Three turns between Japanese and Korean, the way they'd actually go. Each card shows the original line above the translation.
Speaker (Korean)
오늘은 숯불구이가 제일 맛있어요.
本日は炭火焼きが一番のおすすめです。
Speaker (Japanese)
では、それを二人前お願いします。
그럼 그걸로 2인분 주세요.
What metcha supports for this pair
| Japanese | Korean | |
|---|---|---|
| Apple on-device translation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deepgram cloud STT | ✓ | ✓ |
| iOS built-in voices | ✓ | ✓ |
| ElevenLabs premium voices (Plus) | 4 voices | 4 voices |
| Voice cloning (Plus, your voice) | ✓ | ✓ |
Why metcha for this pair
Japanese and Korean are unusually close in structure: both are verb-final (SOV) and both carry elaborate politeness systems, Japanese keigo and Korean 존댓말 and 반말. That closeness makes word order easy and register the hard part, since a sentence can be grammatically right but pitched at the wrong level of formality. These are also each other's nearest neighbors, with enormous mutual tourism between Seoul and Tokyo and Osaka. metcha's Better Translation path on metcha Plus keeps the politeness level matched on both sides of the conversation.
Common phrases
Hand-picked phrases for everyday Korean-speaking situations. In metcha you don't need to memorize these — but they're useful to anchor what the app sounds like before you try it.
- Greeting
-
Japanese: こんにちは、はじめまして。
Korean: 안녕하세요, 만나서 반갑습니다.
- Thank you
-
Japanese: 本当にありがとうございます。
Korean: 정말 감사합니다.
- Apology
-
Japanese: すみません、わかりません。
Korean: 죄송해요, 잘 못 알아들었어요.
- Directions
-
Japanese: 一番近い駅はどこですか？
Korean: 가장 가까운 역이 어디예요?
- Ordering
-
Japanese: おすすめをお願いします。
Korean: 추천 좀 해 주세요.
- Allergy
-
Japanese: 甲殻類アレルギーがあります。
Korean: 저는 갑각류 알레르기가 있어요.
- Bill
-
Japanese: お会計をお願いします。
Korean: 계산해 주세요.
- Hotel
-
Japanese: [名前]で予約しています。
Korean: [이름]으로 예약했는데요.
- Pharmacy
-
Japanese: 頭痛の薬はありますか？
Korean: 두통약 있어요?
- Taxi
-
Japanese: この住所までお願いします。
Korean: 이 주소로 가 주세요.
Where you'd use it
- Korean travelers in Tokyo and Osaka See the Tokyo guide →
- Japanese travelers in Seoul and Busan
- Restaurant counters and izakayas where ordering happens face to face
- Business trips between two of Asia's closest economies
Common questions
- Does metcha translate Korean to Japanese as well as Japanese to Korean?
- Yes, both directions run in the same session. When someone speaks Japanese, the other person hears it in Korean; when they reply in Korean, you hear it in Japanese. There is no direction to configure and no turn-taking button. See how it works for the full walkthrough.
- Is Japanese ↔ Korean translation in metcha on-device or cloud?
- Both. metcha's free tier uses Apple's on-device Translation framework where supported (available for both Japanese and Korean). metcha Plus optionally routes through a Better Translation cloud path for more natural phrasing, with a quiet fallback to the on-device path when the network is slow.
- Do I need both AirPods to use metcha for Japanese and Korean?
- No. The simplest mode is one earbud each — you keep one, the other person keeps the other. metcha handles both directions through that single shared pair. If you'd rather both wear your own earbuds, you can pair a second phone in seconds via a QR code (still no app install for the other person).
- What about regional accents within Korean?
- metcha's Deepgram STT path handles major regional variants of Korean robustly. The on-device path is more sensitive to accent — if you find the free path missing words, switching to the metcha Plus cloud STT usually fixes it without changing anything else about the conversation.
- Does it work without internet?
- The free on-device path works fully offline once the relevant Apple Translation language packs are downloaded. metcha Plus features that depend on Deepgram, Better Translation, or ElevenLabs voices need a network connection.
- How many voices does metcha ship for Korean?
- 4 curated native-Korean voices on metcha Plus, plus all iOS built-in voices on the free tier (and any Enhanced or Premium voices you've installed in Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content).
- Are conversations private?
- metcha does not store conversations on our servers, and none of our providers retain audio for training. The free on-device path never sends audio off your phone at all. See the privacy policy for the full data-handling story.