| Not Yet To Become A Good Translator
I've been asked a lot by my parents and relatives what I want to do after my graduation. I am still confused with my future job. But for now, I want to get into the graduate school for translation. I am interested in translating, especially from English into Korean. To become a good translator, I have to be qualified for it first. I know that I am not fully qualified yet and these are some qualifications I am still working; good at native language, understanding in the situation, patience in digging for the right word.
First, I have to be good at my native language Korean and know much more about it. Of course I can speak Korean because I am Korean, but it does not mean that I know all the Korean words, and phrases. There are so many synonyms that can be replaced and there are also certain phrases for certain situation. And it is the translator's job to know the right one. So I have to read a lot of books so I can learn and acquire vocabulary.
Second, it is about the understanding and catching the meaning. Since English is not my first language, there are some jokes or phrases that I don't understand. I cannot just translate the sentence into Korean word for word and if I do so, people would not understand it at all. I have to get the hidden meaning and change into sentence that are familiar to Korean, or that makes sense in Korean. So I have to be good at English as well as Korean.
Last thing is that I have to control myself. I have to be patient and not give up easily. Translating is very stressful job requiring patience since it takes a lot of time to polish my texts to make it better for the reader. Sometimes I cannot think of the right adjective or verb, so I have to look for dictionary or internet. Even though I looked up everywhere and still cannot find the suitable one, all I have to do is to just leave it alone until the perfect word pops out in my head. So it is obvious that you have to have endurance.
Even though I am not yet qualified to be a translator, I am still working to be a better one. I know how it feels after finding the right word and finishing translation. It feels incredible awesome that I cannot even put into sentence. So I will do my best to meet the qualification more to become a fully-qualified person for translating. |
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Dasom Yoo/qualification for dream job/Thur34
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First of all, I`m sympathized with your feeling though I don`t wanna be a pro-translator. When I chose this major as second major, I thought only English skills could be used. But now I know the importance of Korean, and realize that Korean is much more difficult than I thought.
ReplyDeleteIts structure is nice, and it includes many cases of your experiences. So it`s good, too.
I believe that someday you`ll be a nice translator. Let`s try together!
Thank you for sharing your writing!
ReplyDeleteI too, worried a lot about my future since I'm a junior student. I also thought about getting into the graudate school for interpretation and translation. I could totally agree with everything you say in this writing.
I like that you put your own experience as a hook in the introduction and I think it draws people's attention. But I think you should change 'good at native language' into 'being good at native language' since this should be in noun form. Also, I think it would be much better if you restate thesis statement in conclusion.
I see your writing is solid and neat. It's also well organized and words you used are easy to understand. I think this writing of yours can arouse sympathy from many students who are studying interpretation or translation, like from me. It was interesting.
I really enjoyed your writing!
Not Ready To Become A Good Translator
ReplyDeleteI've been asked a lot by my parents and relatives what I want to do after my graduation. I am still confused about my future job. But for now, I want to get into the graduate school for translation. I am interested in translating, especially from English into Korean. To become a good translator, first I have to be qualified for it. I know that I am not fully qualified yet and these are some qualifications I am still working on; being good at native language, understanding in the situation, and patience in digging for the right word.
First, I have to be good at my native language Korean and know much more about it. Of course I can speak Korean since I am a Korean, but it does not mean that I know all the Korean adjectives, verbs or adverbs. There are so many synonyms that can be replaced and there are also certain phrases for certain situation. And it is a translator's job to choose and use the right one. So I have to read a lot of books in Korean so I can learn and acquire vocabulary.
Second, it is about the understanding and catching the meaning. Since English is not my first language, there are some jokes or phrases that I don't understand. For example, I did not know what “behind the bars” means. I cannot just translate the sentence into Korean word for word and if I do so, people would not understand it at all. I have to get the hidden meaning and change into sentence that are familiar to Korean, or that makes sense in Korean. So I have to be good at English as well as Korean.
Last thing is that I have to control myself. I have to be patient and should not give up easily. Translating is very stressful job requiring patience since it takes a lot of time to polish my texts to make it better for the reader. Sometimes I cannot think of the right word, so I have to look for dictionary or dig up on the internet. Even though I looked up everywhere and still cannot find the suitable one, all I have to do is to just leave it alone until the perfect one pops in my head. So it is obvious that you have to have endurance.
Even though I am not yet qualified to be a translator, I am still working to be a better one. I know how it feels after finding the right word and finishing translation. It feels incredible awesome that I cannot even put into sentence. So I will do my best to meet the qualification more to become a fully-qualified person for translating.