By Kim Ji-myung
On Sept. 1, 1979, the Graduate School of Simultaneous Interpretation had its first matriculation ceremony on the campus of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) in Seoul. As it was the first master's degree course in Asia to train professional conference interpreters in nine languages, fully financed by the government, it seemed quite an overshot at that time.
It was amidst the Cold War period (1945-1991) when the two blocs of the East and the West were locked in confrontation. Korea, in particular, had relatively few contacts with the outside world diplomatically, scholarly and economically.
Then HUFS president, the late Dr. Park Sul-eum, and school leaders must have had a vision for the upcoming detente in the world's politics. Avowing a goal of nurturing international conference interpreters and professional translators "who are equipped with international perspective and expertise," courses covered English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Malay and Indonesian.
By succeeding in achieving an unparalleled reputation based on its high level of expertise and rarity from the very beginning, many Asian students, including those from Japan and China, attended the program. In the 1996 admission period, international students from 70 universities around the world also applied for admission. Later, the school changed its name to the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation (GSIT).
Even before the first batch of graduates walked out of the school in August 1981, students were being commissioned to take the responsibility of interpreting major international conferences since 1980. Since then, have colleges and universities across the nation opened professional language specialist courses.
Over the past four decades of the program's history, graduates totaled 3,539 including 1,381 English, 502 Chinese, 409 Japanese, 305 French, 219 Spanish, 212 Russian, 200 Arabic and 191 German.
Notable are 52 graduates who have two or more foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue. There are 34 English-French majors followed by eight English-Spanish, five English-Japanese and five German-Japanese.
Sixty-eight students pursued theoretical research in translation and interpretation, to earn doctorate degrees. Most of them became professors at their alma mater and many later established translation schools.
Translator-interpreters find that the world of their trade in Chinese-character-based Asian countries, in terms of both required skills and market, is enormously different from that of the Western world. The job seems to be fundamentally more challenging while their role is underappreciated, especially to Korean professionals.
Partly because of these differences, not many Korean translator/interpreters join in international bodies such as the two 1953-founded organizations of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) and International Federation of?Translators (FIT). However, the threat of artificial intelligence and machine translation, which may take a big chunk of work from humans, seems to call for pooled efforts to face it together.
In 2007, the Korean Association of Translators and Interpreters (KATI) was launched for practicing and proven language professionals, endorsed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Regardless of membership in organizations, translators and interpreters have shared colleagueship often working together through relay interpretations.
As one of the first-generation interpreters and the founding president of KATI, I have treasured our hearty collaboration with colleagues from Japan, China, Pacific and ASEAN countries on the venues of APEC, ASEM and G20 leaders' meetings as well as Olympics and World Cup events.
I am proud of my junior interpreters who have continued to enhance our professional reputation through numerous international conferences on boundless, borderless ever-sophisticating technical themes.
On July 5 to 7, the 9th Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum (APTIF9) was co-hosted by KATI and GSIT in Seoul. FIT President Kevin Quirk expressed thanks to KATI and FIT Council member Professor JC Kwak for coordinating all aspects of APTIF9.
More than 40 leaders of FIT and APTIF, 290 presenters and more than 220 researchers from academia in Korea and abroad shared ideas at the meeting. Statistics show that the biggest team came from China, followed by Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the United States, Switzerland and New Zealand. Ten volunteer interpreters and 50 staffers working behind the curtains ensured the smooth running of conference.
As pointed out in the FIT newsletter, most encouraging was the enthusiasm displayed by many of the students present, who showed no fear of being replaced by machine translation in the near future.
The writer (Heritagekorea21@gmail.com) is the chairperson of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage).
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It was amidst the Cold War period (1945-1991) when the two blocs of the East and the West were locked in confrontation. Korea, in particular, had relatively few contacts with the outside world diplomatically, scholarly and economically.
Then HUFS president, the late Dr. Park Sul-eum, and school leaders must have had a vision for the upcoming detente in the world's politics. Avowing a goal of nurturing international conference interpreters and professional translators "who are equipped with international perspective and expertise," courses covered English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Malay and Indonesian.
By succeeding in achieving an unparalleled reputation based on its high level of expertise and rarity from the very beginning, many Asian students, including those from Japan and China, attended the program. In the 1996 admission period, international students from 70 universities around the world also applied for admission. Later, the school changed its name to the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation (GSIT).
Even before the first batch of graduates walked out of the school in August 1981, students were being commissioned to take the responsibility of interpreting major international conferences since 1980. Since then, have colleges and universities across the nation opened professional language specialist courses.
Over the past four decades of the program's history, graduates totaled 3,539 including 1,381 English, 502 Chinese, 409 Japanese, 305 French, 219 Spanish, 212 Russian, 200 Arabic and 191 German.
Notable are 52 graduates who have two or more foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue. There are 34 English-French majors followed by eight English-Spanish, five English-Japanese and five German-Japanese.
Sixty-eight students pursued theoretical research in translation and interpretation, to earn doctorate degrees. Most of them became professors at their alma mater and many later established translation schools.
Translator-interpreters find that the world of their trade in Chinese-character-based Asian countries, in terms of both required skills and market, is enormously different from that of the Western world. The job seems to be fundamentally more challenging while their role is underappreciated, especially to Korean professionals.
Partly because of these differences, not many Korean translator/interpreters join in international bodies such as the two 1953-founded organizations of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) and International Federation of?Translators (FIT). However, the threat of artificial intelligence and machine translation, which may take a big chunk of work from humans, seems to call for pooled efforts to face it together.
In 2007, the Korean Association of Translators and Interpreters (KATI) was launched for practicing and proven language professionals, endorsed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Regardless of membership in organizations, translators and interpreters have shared colleagueship often working together through relay interpretations.
As one of the first-generation interpreters and the founding president of KATI, I have treasured our hearty collaboration with colleagues from Japan, China, Pacific and ASEAN countries on the venues of APEC, ASEM and G20 leaders' meetings as well as Olympics and World Cup events.
I am proud of my junior interpreters who have continued to enhance our professional reputation through numerous international conferences on boundless, borderless ever-sophisticating technical themes.
On July 5 to 7, the 9th Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpreting Forum (APTIF9) was co-hosted by KATI and GSIT in Seoul. FIT President Kevin Quirk expressed thanks to KATI and FIT Council member Professor JC Kwak for coordinating all aspects of APTIF9.
More than 40 leaders of FIT and APTIF, 290 presenters and more than 220 researchers from academia in Korea and abroad shared ideas at the meeting. Statistics show that the biggest team came from China, followed by Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the United States, Switzerland and New Zealand. Ten volunteer interpreters and 50 staffers working behind the curtains ensured the smooth running of conference.
As pointed out in the FIT newsletter, most encouraging was the enthusiasm displayed by many of the students present, who showed no fear of being replaced by machine translation in the near future.
The writer (Heritagekorea21@gmail.com) is the chairperson of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage).
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