2004, Vol.5, No.1

The Journal of Translation Studies 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.49

pISSN : 1229-795X
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kats

This study aims at providing insights on the roles of dialogue interpreters in contrast to those of conference interpreters. While the speaker's utterances are regarded as a given text with the interpreter being viewed as a one-way conduit of information in conference interpreting, there are at least two main interlocutors in dialogue interpreting and there is a dynamic interaction among participants which produces the peculiarities of the work of dialogue interpreters. Dialogue interpreters are located between the main interlocutors and they work in both directions. The participants often change their footings during the conversation. Participants, including the interpreter, pay attention to the atmosphere in which the dialogue occurs to ensure all the participants do not lose their face. The interpreter is the person who sets the turns of talk to maintain the dialogue and avoid confusion. Furthermore, the interpreter participates in the conversation as one of the interlocutors of the dialogue. Thus the main role of the interpreter in dialogue interpreting is regarded more as a mediator than mere translator, and thus the performance of community interpreters can be evaluated by how well they play the role of mediators in addition to the role of translators.

This paper has three main purposes: first, to argue that the translation education should be introduced as a course of the liberal arts for the establishment of the sound infrastructure of translation; second, to discuss that the internet-based learning method is better than the traditional one; third and last, to show the organization of the contents of the internet-based translation education course. If a translation course is to be opened as a part of the liberal art curriculum in universities, some positive results could be achieved. It is desirable that an effective way of practising translation education involve distance education based on the internet, rather than that of the traditional face-to-face one performed at classrooms, for the special qualities of translation or translation education will harmonize with the internet-based module. From the viewpoint of software, an instructor should place a high emphasis on the different levels of student backgrounds, including other facts such as its inter-disciplinary character and its interactive dynamism of theory and practice. From the viewpoint of hardware, it is critical to make a proper balance between the content itself and technological aspect which will optimize it on the computer. In this paper, contents of the course are shown, which include the introductory level and the advanced level. Finally, some tentative ideas are proposed as a propeller to activate the internet-based translation education.

This article attempts to highlight the importance of understanding culture in which certain national literature was produced when one translates literature. I assume that in order to make a good translated work, the translator must selected good original texts to begin with and that the translator should train himself or herself to have good sensibility toward literature. However, to have a good sense of more than two languages and literary sensibility are not sufficient. One of the assets a good translator must have is full knowledge of the culture of the society in which the original texts are produced. Based on my review of the works of translation submitted to the Korean Bureau of Translation in pursuit of the grant the bureau promises to the best qualified translator of Korean literature, I draw out some patterns of common errors in applicants’ translation. I conclude that most of the errors occur when a translator is not fully aware of the cultural context in which the original text was produced unless the translator’s command of two languages, the language of the original text and the language into which the original text is translated, which are Korean and English in this case, is limited. Thus, I conclude that a good literary translation means a good translation of its culture as well. Letter to letter translation out of the cultural context, as seen in the case of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in the translation of Land by Park Kyung-Ni, results in an absurd and non-sensical mistranslation. A good translator, therefore, would mean one who can actually bridge the cultural gaps and interstices between two heterogeneous cultures, not to mention a good bilingual speaker. Good translators should be borderlanders and “both and” people in terms of culture.