KJC Korea
Journal Central

This article investigates translation changes in the English translation of Korean presidential speeches, especially the New Year’s addresses made during the course of presidency since 2008 by President Lee Myung-bak. It illustrates internal changes found in the original speeches during the course of presidency in order to discover how internal changes affect the translation corpus such as the use of pronouns and frequent words. It shows that methodology of Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies can be used effectively to reveal changes both in the originals and in the translations in combination of a quantitative with a qualitative analysis. It is found that changes are identified at various levels: omissions, additions, and lexical changes at word level, tense and modal changes at phrase level, and theme-rheme changes at clausal level. In addition, apparent agency by means of the first person pronouns is identified in the translation.

It is certainly through translating that a nation actively takes part in the “Global Village.” If Korean culture would like to move beyond its current status as a local culture, it is essential above all to publish Korean versions of admirable foreign literatures. Since the Independence of 1945, the translation of foreign texts into Korean blossomed immensely. Specifically after the Korean War, Korean translations, including a host of complete works series and paperbacks as well as separate volumes, have been poured out on a grand scale. At the same time, it is equally important, if not more so, to select fine literatures containing Korean characteristics, translate them through the intermediary of effective translators, and introduce them to the readers all over the world. Most of the Korean classics have been neglected chiefly due to decades of political and socio-economic hegemony, which has tended to relegate some of historically (or culturally) significant facts according to its preference. Consequently, there still remains a considerable volume of fine works written in Hanja that needs to be translated first into modern Korean and then into other foreign languages such as English or French. The effect of translation upon cultural exchanges, international tourism and the improvement of trade cannot be overstated. Yet the translation field in Korea is, in many ways, in shambles. Although they agree with the importance and necessity of translators, most Koreans do not usually look so favorably on the status of the translator. There are neither systems nor institutions in place to nurture competent translators to the level of national or societal distinction. Therefore, finding and encouraging expert translators who will actively participate in the historical task to create a global culture is an urgent affair.

This study reviews two anthologies of modern Korean literature in a descriptive way with a focus on the notion of globalization of Korean literature and translation. Through the comparison of the two anthologies, the study attempts to show how distant the previous approaches to translation of Korean literature were from the goal of globalizing the nation’s literature. In order to locate the place of translation in Korean literature, the study first reviews previous discussions on globalization of Korean literature, those related to translation, in particular. Then, two chosen anthologies of Korean literature, The Modern Korean Literature: An Anthology (1990) and The Modern Korean Fiction: An Anthology (2005), are examined in terms of their organization, preface/introduction, and contents. According to the results of the comparison, neither of the two provided a rationale for the works selected or information on translators except for their names, and both of the anthologies were more like academic textbooks than a literary book. Editions of anthologies can be an effective way to introduce a nation’s literary works, particularly at an initial stage. It is, however, not always a good strategy because an anthology may not find its use other than as a textbook and easily end up sitting on a library bookshelf.

This study aims to analyze the nature of ‘performability’ in drama translation by comparing Bruce and Ju-chan Fulton’s 1990 and 2009 translations of Jo-yeol Park’s seminal play, O Chang-gun’s Toenail. The analytical comparison of these two different translations done by the same translators demonstrates how the changes in the new translation reflect the more active incorporation of theatrical elements for performance purpose, and how much justification these changes could generate in identifying them as elements of ‘performability’ in drama translation. While the term ‘performability’ itself often becomes subject to controversy, its main function is to provide a drama text with more ‘performable’ elements on the stage. This study has found that effective modification of stage directions, enhanced colloquiality, and emphasis on register are the key facets of the changes between the two translations, which is a reflection of the translators’ intention to enhance ‘performability’. These changes not only transform the revised translation into a more professionally playable theater text with theatrical protocols, but also stress the colloquiality of the dialogue for the sake of actors' effective articulation on the stage.

Because the difference between Korean and English is so wide in almost every aspect of the language structure including phonology, syntax, and semantics the translation between the two languages raises lots of problems. Wilhelm von Humboldt (1836, 1988:54) has claimed that thought and language are one and inseparable from each other and on the basis of this Sapir-Whorf's hypothesis of linguistic relativity has developed. Thus, the study of language phenomena should be accompanied with the study of the background culture covering the social, historical, political, and economical aspects of the culture that may serve as the basis of the culture's value system. The culture's value system in turn works as a crucial factor for particular patterns of cognition and perception that lead to the establishment of the particular language structure. In this study, we will consider the cultural differences between Korean and English reflected in the structural differences of numericals and classifiers, the basic elements to be considered in almost every structure of nominals that should be counted in numbers and classified along with a certain system of categories. Classifiers and noun categorization systems have long been a particular focus of interest in functional typology because they provide a unique insight into how people categorize various entities of the world through their language. The human language shows both universality and uniqueness in accordance with the characteristics of the language itself. The two languages have similarities and differences in the structure and use of them and we will show what element of cultural differences triggers such differences. The study will shed light on the desirable direction of translation or intercultural communication including the two languages.

This paper is written based on part of the results of a project to develop an error typology to assess translations from English into Korean, which could be practically used at school. The purpose of this paper is to discuss some important aspects in translation class, by comparing the performance of student translators: the percentages of errors from each group were compared while ANOVA analysis was employed to show whether the differences among groups were significant or not. Four groups of students in two translation programs in Korea and Australia participated in the project. The results indicate that among other areas, the competence of Korean, the participants’ mother tongue, especially with regards to syntactic competence, should be considered as one of the most important factors for students to improve the quality of translations from English into Korean. The data also shows that since readability (difficulty) of English source texts have influenced the performance of students, the selection of the source text should be carefully done in translation classes.