Naver's translation app to help foreigners at convenience stores

SEOUL, April 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top portal operator Naver Corp. said Tuesday that foreigners can shop for goods at local convenience stores through the company's mobile translation application Papago.

Under the agreement with GS Retail Co., a major convenience chain operator, Naver will update its application this month with English, Japanese, and Chinese sentences that can help foreign visitors with questions related to products and tax refunds.

GS Retail will also educate its staff at GS25 convenience stores throughout the country to utilize the app.

Papago currently provides translation services in Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese, French and Spanish.

The portal operator said it plans to continue expanding cooperation with various organizations to remove language barriers in everyday life. In February, Papago inked an agreement with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency to help police communicate with foreigners.

Naver said Papago improves its translation quality by gathering big-data. Instead of breaking down sentences into phrases, Papago takes overall context into consideration, it added.

colin@yna.co.kr
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