Korean is friendlier to beginners than it looks: Hangul, the alphabet, was designed to be learned in an afternoon, and it's phonetic. But reading fast enough to follow a webtoon or order lunch in Seoul is another matter. The right method depends on what you're looking at.
Signs, menus and the real world → camera
For anything physical — a subway sign, a café menu, a product label — point a camera translator at it and read the English in place. This is the fastest route in Korea, where a lot of signage outside central Seoul is Hangul-only.
It works offline too, which matters on the subway and away from the tourist core. See the same approach for reading a menu — it's identical for Korean.
Webtoons and manhwa → in-bubble
This is the big one. Korean webtoons and manhwa update fast, and the English versions often lag months behind — if they come at all. A general translator dumps a caption in a box; a manga/webtoon translator replaces the Korean inside the same speech bubble, so long vertical-scroll chapters stay readable.
If you read raws, this is the method that keeps you current. Full walk-through: how to translate manga and reading raws in English — both cover vertical webtoons.
Messages and text → paste it
For a KakaoTalk message, a caption, or anything you can select, paste it into a text translator. The engine reads exact Hangul instead of guessing it from pixels, so accuracy is highest here — and a good one shows the romanization so you learn the sounds.
Speaking → voice
Asking directions, ordering, a quick exchange — a voice translator listens in English and speaks Korean back (and the two-way mode lets each person use their own language). Just mind background noise, which hurts recognition more than bad lighting hurts a camera.
A word on Hangul
Because Hangul is phonetic and regular, learning to read it (even if you don't understand the words yet) pays off fast — you'll sound out brand names, station names and menu items. Reading real Korean with the English and romanization shown side by side, the way a camera translator does, is a low-effort way in.
On-device vs. cloud, again
As with any language, translating on your phone beats sending text to a server: it works with no signal (Korea's subway, a rural bus, a plane), and nothing you read gets uploaded. For the full breakdown of methods and this trade-off, see how to translate Japanese to English — the principles carry straight over to Korean.
Yomi does the camera, webtoon, text and voice sides for Korean in one app, offline on your iPhone — so a Hangul-only sign or a raw webtoon chapter stops being a wall.