Some people translate the guidance for a personal breathalyzer into another language for a family member who has trouble reading the Korean manual or the device screen. A personal breathalyzer measures your breath before driving and shows a result you can use for reference. Some models, such as the AF-40BT, show the result on the device itself or connect to a smartphone, so a family note ends up covering what to read on the screen and how to take it.
The goal of such a translation is not only to make the sentences sound natural. The numbers and units on the screen, the conditions required before testing, and the prohibitions that keep the result from being mistaken for permission to drive must keep the same meaning as the original. The shorter the note, the more one missing word can change what someone does, so you need to review the translation side by side with the original.
First mark which product and which sentence it is
At the top of the translated note, write the target product and where the official guidance you used can be found. If you borrow an easy explanation written for another product and present it as the current device's button names, screen indications, or warnings, the note and the screen may not match in actual use. Rather than inventing foreign-language menu names that do not appear on the screen, it is better to put the original text shown on screen next to its translated meaning.
You do not need to translate the whole manual. Choose first the sentences your family member will actually encounter, such as preparation before testing, indications to read during testing, and restrictions to follow after the result. If the official documents do not clearly state the cause of an error indication or what to do next, it is safer to leave the original indication in place than to complete the translation with a plausible guess.
Keep numbers and units exactly as the screen symbols show
The official AF-40BT product specs list the display units separately as %BAC, ‰, and mg/L. %BAC is a notation for blood alcohol concentration, ‰ is the per-mille symbol, and mg/L is the unit meaning milligrams per liter. If you change all of these symbols to a simple "alcohol level," your family member may lose the reference for matching the number on the screen with the translated note.
The task here is not to convert units and decide whether driving is allowed. It is to confirm that the numbers and symbols on the screen appear in the same combination in the translation. A decimal point, %, or ‰ may look small, but if one is dropped or changed it becomes a different notation, so compare the translation with the original screen character by character.
| What to check | Problem that can arise in translation | How to fix it |
|---|---|---|
| Display units | Different symbols are all reduced to the same word | Keep the screen symbol and add its meaning right after it |
| Number notation | A decimal point or symbol is dropped | Compare the original screen and the translation side by side |
| Test conditions | Conditions required before an action are omitted | Write the condition and the action as separate sentences |
| Prohibitions | A restriction becomes a mild suggestion | State directly the action that must be prevented |
Do not turn a prohibition into a permission
A self-test result is reference information, and the result itself does not mean permission to drive. If the original says not to decide whether to drive based on the reading alone, that restriction must remain in the translation. Do not add sentences such as "if it reads low, you're fine" or "just be careful" that lead readers to treat a number as conditional permission to set off.
Negative sentences often look long or awkward in another language, so they are easy to shorten. But "do not decide whether to drive based on the reading alone" and "use the reading for reference" do not mean the same thing. If only the second sentence remains, a reader could take it to mean they may drive right after checking, so do not omit the action the original restricts.
Do not add anything that is not in the original, either. If the translator adds their own waiting times, times when driving is allowed, or criteria for judging whether someone has been drinking, the scope of the guidance changes. When someone is unsure about traveling, the family note can also include a promise to choose transport that does not involve driving, such as a designated driver service or public transportation.
Use a hypothetical case to check what people do after reading
Consider a hypothetical example. Suppose the note given to a family member explains the screen units and also says "you can set off if the result is low," and the person who reads it says they can drive whenever the number is small, regardless of anything else. The observed fact here is that the translation conveyed the result as a permission. The problem is not how natural the sentence sounds but that the direction of the prohibition was reversed.
One possible action is to delete that sentence and revise the note so it states the restriction directly, for example: "This result is not permission to drive, and you must not decide whether to drive based on the reading alone." The completion criterion is that the family member no longer understands the decision to set off as depending only on whether the number is high or low, and can explain in their own words both the units on the screen and the limits of the result. Rather than having the translator reread it, asking the actual user to say what they would do after reading the sentence makes it easier to find missing conditions.
Handle app screen explanations and personal records separately
The AF-40BT supports both standalone use and smartphone pairing, and the official specs mention a function that saves test results. When you include the app or records in a translated family note, explain them only within the range of functions you have confirmed. Adding menu names, notification methods, or screen items you have not actually seen can make the translated guidance distort how the device is used.
You do not necessarily need your family member's entire test history to translate usage instructions. Using official screen materials or examples without personal information lets you keep usage explanations separate from personal results. If you do need to share an actual result screen, decide who will see it and for what purpose, and do not keep information that the translation does not need.
Manage the revised guidance in one place
If the sentences on a paper note, a phone memo, and a family group chat differ, people may act differently while looking at the same screen. When you correct units or prohibitions, also note which materials you changed and mark which guidance is current. If you cannot delete the old sentences right away, at least make it clear that they are no longer in use, to reduce mixing them up.
Even a short translated note can record the product name, where the original was checked, the date of revision, and any expressions whose meaning you could not confirm. This is not a sign that the translation is finished but a reference that lets you compare the screen and the official guidance again later. If you check numbers, symbols, conditions, and the direction of prohibitions in order, you reduce the chance that a short guide for your family changes the original meaning.
※ Self-test results from our products are provided as reference information only. Official enforcement standards and testing methods may vary by agency and equipment, so self-test results may differ from enforcement results, and the company accepts no liability for enforcement results.
