The Routledge Handbook of Korean Interpreting [1 ed.] 9781032394374, 9781032394343, 9781003349723

Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Series
Title
Copyright
Contents
List of figures
List of tables
List of contributors
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I A historical perspective
1 From whence do we come? A panoramic view of interpretation in Korea with a focus on educational institutions
2 A study on the activities of interpreters and translators in politics, diplomacy, and society of the Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties
3 History of interpreting in the Joseon Dynasty: six selected interpreting officials
4 In search of interpreters on the demarcation line
5 Interpreters portrayed in Korean news media (1948–2022)
6 Theoretical constituents of interpreting research in Korea: a meta-analysis of research publications from 1998 to 2022
Part II Education
7 What’s next? The status quo and challenges of undergraduate interpretation and translation education in Korea
8 Redesigning the learning experience for the consecutive interpreting classroom
9 Flipped learning in the undergraduate interpretation and translation classroom
10 The use of interpreting textbooks: a survey study
11 An analysis of conference interpreting practices for effective pedagogy: considerations for simultaneous interpretation between Korean and French
12 The present and future of Korean MTI education in China: a case of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
13 Let them talk: rethinking learners’ roles in interpreting performance assessment
14 A case study on student interpreters’ self-assessment in interpreting training
15 Systemic functional grammar of Korean and its application to interpreting studies
Part III Community interpreting
16 Healthcare interpreting for Korean immigrants in Australia: linguistic and cultural perspectives
17 Australian healthcare interpreters’ perceptions of the challenges in intercultural communication
18 Analyzing the motivations for self-repairs among Russian police interpreters in South Korea
19 A study on the status of interpretation for Arab refugees in South Korea and interpretation improvement
20 On training sermon interpreters: with reference to interviews with sermon interpreters and surveys on user-expectations
21 Unwritten rules and indispensable tools: cultural aspects of Korean interpreting
22 Korean court interpreting in the US: history, obstacles, and advanced techniques
23 A study of interpreters’ speech acts based on a corpus of Chinese-Korean diplomatic interpreting
Part IV Opportunities for the future
24 Research on interpreters’ and translators’ cognition in Korea
25 Exploring the possibility of using speech-to-text transcription as a tool for interpreting
26 Market demand for professional interpreting services in South Korea
27 A study of technological competence for remote interpreting and current status of competence among Korea’s interpreters
28 Remote interpreting during COVID-19: a case study of an in-house interpreter in Korea
29 Evaluation of Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation quality
Index

Citation preview

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF KOREAN INTERPRETING

Professor Riccardo Moratto and Professor Hyang-Ok Lim bring together the most authoritative voices on Korean interpreting. The first graduate school of interpretation and translation was established in 1979 in South Korea. Since then, not only has the interpretation and translation market grown exponentially, but so too has research in translation studies. Though the major portion of research focuses on translation, interpretation has not only managed to hold its own, but interpretation studies in Korea have been a pioneer in this field in Asia. This handbook highlights the main interpretation research trends in South Korea today, including case studies of remote interpreting during the Covid-19 pandemic, Korean interpreting for conferences, events, and diplomacy, and research into educating interpreters effectively. An essential resource for researchers in Korean interpreting, this handbook will also be very valuable to those working with other East Asian languages. Riccardo Moratto is Professor of Translation and Interpreting Studies at the Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation, Shanghai International Studies University, China; Chartered Linguist and Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIoL); Editor-in-Chief of the Interpreting Studies series for Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press (外教社); General Editor of the Routledge Studies in East Asian Interpreting series; and General Editor of the Routledge Interdisciplinary and Transcultural Approaches to Chinese Literature series. Professor Moratto is a conference interpreter and renowned literary translator. He has published extensively in the field of translation and interpreting studies, Chinese translation and interpreting and Chinese literature. Hyang-Ok Lim is Professor at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea, since 1993 and is currently Dean of the same institution. She is a founding member of the Korean Society of Conference Interpretation, the first academic society for translation studies in Korea, which publishes FORUM, an international translation studies journal. She is also on the editorial board of InContext: Studies in Translation and Interculturalism. She has written numerous articles and books regarding interpretation.

ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOKS IN TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES

Routledge Handbooks in Translation and Interpreting Studies provide comprehensive overviews of the key topics in translation and interpreting studies. All entries for the handbooks are specially commissioned and written by leading scholars in the field. Clear, accessible and carefully edited, Routledge Handbooks in Translation and Interpreting Studies are the ideal resource for both advanced undergraduates and postgraduate students. THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF SIGN LANGUAGE TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING Edited by Christopher Stone, Robert Adam, Ronice Quadros de Müller, and Christian Rathmann THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF TRANSLATION AND RELIGION Edited by Hephzibah Israel THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF TRANSLATION, INTERPRETING, AND BILINGUALISM Edited by Aline Ferreira and John W. Schwieter THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF LATIN AMERICAN LITERARY TRANSLATION Edited by Delfina Cabrera and Denise Kripper THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF TRANSLATION THEORY AND CONCEPTS Edited by Reine Meylaerts and Kobus Marais THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF KOREAN INTERPRETING Edited by Riccardo Moratto and Hyang-Ok Lim For a full list of titles in this series, please visit https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbooksin-Translation-and-Interpreting-Studies/book-series/RHTI.

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF KOREAN INTERPRETING

Edited by Riccardo Moratto and Hyang-Ok Lim

Designed cover image: courtesy of Minjung Koo First published 2024 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Riccardo Moratto and Hyang-Ok Lim; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Riccardo Moratto and Hyang-Ok Lim to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-032-39437-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-39434-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-34972-3 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723 Typeset in Bembo by Apex CoVantage, LLC

CONTENTS

ix xii xv xxii xxiv

List of figures List of tables List of contributors Foreword Acknowledgments  Introduction Riccardo Moratto and Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

1

PART I

A historical perspective

11

1 From whence do we come? A panoramic view of interpretation in Korea with a focus on educational institutions Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

13

2 A study on the activities of interpreters and translators in politics, diplomacy, and society of the Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties Jung-Hwa Yu 유정화 and Hye-seung Lee 이혜승

24

3 History of interpreting in the Joseon Dynasty: six selected interpreting officials Nam Hui Kim 김남희

33

4 In search of interpreters on the demarcation line Hyo-Eun Choi 최효은

v

47

Contents

5 Interpreters portrayed in Korean news media (1948–2022) Soyoung Park 박소영 6 Theoretical constituents of interpreting research in Korea: a meta-analysis of research publications from 1998 to 2022 Ho-Jeong Cheong 정호정 and Hyun-Kyung Lim 임현경

77

99

PART II

Education

113

7 What’s next? The status quo and challenges of undergraduate interpretation and translation education in Korea Daejin Kim 김대진

115

8 Redesigning the learning experience for the consecutive interpreting classroom Silhee Jin 진실희

130

9 Flipped learning in the undergraduate interpretation and translation classroom Haeyoung Kim 김혜영

146

10 The use of interpreting textbooks: a survey study Mingri Jin 김명일 and Andrew K.F. Cheung 11 An analysis of conference interpreting practices for effective pedagogy: considerations for simultaneous interpretation between Korean and French Hyewon Pyoun 편혜원

164

177

12 The present and future of Korean MTI education in China: a case of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies Mei Jin and Cheng Zhan

190

13 Let them talk: rethinking learners’ roles in interpreting performance assessment Najung Shin 신나정

200

14 A case study on student interpreters’ self-assessment in interpreting training Kyongjo Woo 우경조

215

15 Systemic functional grammar of Korean and its application to interpreting studies Mira Kim 김미라 and June Lee 이주은

225

vi

Contents PART III

Community interpreting

243

16 Healthcare interpreting for Korean immigrants in Australia: linguistic and cultural perspectives Jinhyun Cho 조진현

245

17 Australian healthcare interpreters’ perceptions of the challenges in intercultural communication Sophia Ra 소피아 라

258

18 Analyzing the motivations for self-repairs among Russian police interpreters in South Korea Seoyeon Hong 홍서연

279

19 A study on the status of interpretation for Arab refugees in South Korea and interpretation improvement Soonlei Gwag 곽순례

296

20 On training sermon interpreters: with reference to interviews with sermon interpreters and surveys on user-expectations Hayne Shin 신혜인

309

21 Unwritten rules and indispensable tools: cultural aspects of Korean interpreting Anastasia Guryeva

323

22 Korean court interpreting in the US: history, obstacles, and advanced techniques Robert Holloway

342

23 A study of interpreters’ speech acts based on a corpus of Chinese-Korean diplomatic interpreting Min Li, Zhu Zhu, Xin Yu, and Xin Chen

351

PART IV

Opportunities for the future

365

24 Research on interpreters’ and translators’ cognition in Korea Hye-Yeon Chung 정혜연

367

25 Exploring the possibility of using speech-to-text transcription as a tool for interpreting Juriae Lee 이주리애 vii

387

Contents

26 Market demand for professional interpreting services in South Korea Jiun Huh 허지운

413

27 A study of technological competence for remote interpreting and current status of competence among Korea’s interpreters Jimin Lee 이지민

432

28 Remote interpreting during COVID-19: a case study of an in-house interpreter in Korea Juyeon Lee 이주연

457

29 Evaluation of Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation quality Pum-Mo Ryu 류범모 and A-Young Kim 김아영 

470

Index

490

viii

FIGURES

4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7

Transcript of the Proceedings on October 25, 1951 The list of participants of the Armistice Conferences in the explanatory note of the Proceedings The summary of the Proceedings on August 17, 1951 The summary of the Proceedings on August 20, 1951 The summary of the Proceedings on October 27, 1951 Cross-references among interpreters The summary of the Proceedings on April 23, 1952 The summary of the Proceedings on June 11, 1953 The summary of the Proceedings on August 5, 1952 The inside cover of Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea [sic] and the Great Loo-Choo Island, 1818 by Basil Hall The 11th and 12th articles of the treaty between Korea and US The number of incoming missionaries from 1884 to 1956 The number of Koreans in the US before 1940 The sample trend of translator’s nationality in case of Christian literatures (Choi, 2016, p. 200) Number of articles Gender of interpreters marked in news articles Media attitude toward interpreters The taxonomy of theoretical frameworks for interpreting studies employed The taxonomy of methodologies for interpreting studies employed Interpreting papers published in Korean journals, 1998–2022 Theoretical frameworks employed in articles published in Korean journals by period Methodologies employed in articles published in Korean journals by period Theoretical frameworks employed in articles published in Korean and international journals over the last decade Methodologies employed in articles published in Korean and international journals over the last decade ix

52 53 53 54 54 58 60 61 62 63 65 67 68 68 79 80 81 101 102 104 105 106 107 108

Figures

7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 19.1 20.1 20.2 24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 24.5 24.6 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 25.5 25.6 25.7

The change in the number of international conferences in Korea The change in the number of student admission to the department of English The change in the number of departments of English Employment rates by major as of 2020 Global translation market Global machine translation market The cycle of a content-based topic preparation model Gradual release of responsibility from instructor to learner The scaffolded classroom: focus lesson example Sample of contents in e-class—video and texts for key concepts An instructional model for GRR-based topic preparation The traditional classroom: before class The traditional classroom: roles and resources The scaffolded classroom: roles and resources The scaffolded classroom: before class Subtitle translation guidelines and examples Subtitle Edit subtitle work screen Handbrake software work screen Microsoft Video Editor work screen Demographic data Preferred speech mode Most difficult speech mode Main speech mode during the Congress Interpretation mode when the speaker is an Anglophone Preparation method for interpretation into French with English documents Mode of interpretation into French when documents are provided simultaneously in English and Korean Levels of language The correlation between grammar, semantics, and context The system network of theme in Korean Three types of thematic progression MoJ’s professional refugee interpreters by language Most important quality condition of sermon interpreters Most important eligibility requirement of sermon interpreters Cognitive science From aptitude to expertise Prefrontal cortex (PFC) Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) Inferior parietal lobule (IPL) Caudate nucleus (tail of basal ganglia) Example of screen providing subtitles in Trial 1 Experiment scene for simultaneous interpreting trials Example of subtitled video screen provided through Zoom URL in Trial 2 Example of subtitled video screen provided through Zoom URL in Trial 3 Response trend to questions regarding the use of STT Topic analysis-based network analysis Degree centrality map x

116 122 123 123 126 126 132 134 137 138 139 140 141 141 141 157 157 158 158 180 181 182 183 184 184 185 229 230 231 232 297 315 316 368 376 378 378 379 379 392 393 393 394 395 398 398

Figures

25.8 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 27.5 27.6 27.7 27.8 27.9 27.10 27.11 27.12 27.13 27.14 27.15 27.16 28.1 29.1 29.2 29.3 29.4 29.5 29.6 29.7

Response to closing questions (closed-ended) Process-specific technology-related activities for RI Interpreting technological competence for RI Process-specific technological sub-competences for RI RI device installation is complicated Using a computer or an application is NOT easy Accessing cloud storage is NOT easy The increase in audiovisual materials makes preparation more complex Meeting clients’ RI requirements (equipment and environment) is NOT easy Operating an RI application during interpreting is complicated Resolving technical problems by myself is NOT easy Communicating with my interpreting partner is NOT easy RI is more tiresome (than onsite, in-person interpreting) Checking the chat window during RI is tiresome I understand RI technologies well Training or education on RI technologies would be helpful In which area(s) would education help you the most? Language interpretation function on Zoom Classification of translation and interpretation involving humans and machines Communications units and automatic interpretation Example of learning corpus by communication units for automatic interpretation Design of Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation demonstration Example of Google’s automatic interpretation Example of Papago’s automatic interpretation Example of LLSOLLU’s automatic interpretation

xi

403 438 439 440 444 444 445 445 446 446 447 447 448 448 449 450 451 461 471 473 474 475 476 477 477

TABLES

2.1 2.2 2.3 4.1 4.2 6.1 6.2 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 13.1 13.2 13.3 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 15.1 17.1 17.2

1882–1903: Invited foreign advisors Types and quantity of books published by Cheonryeong Hyeon family The types of science books published by Cheonryeong Hyeon family Interpreters in the Korean Armistice Negotiations Previous studies that present the timeframes and student counts regarding how many went to US in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth The selected Korean journals on interpreting studies (1998–2022) The selected international journals on interpreting studies (2013–2022) Steps of the GRR instructional model Weekly focus lesson topic examples for a note-taking class GRR components in an introductory class in note-taking Course topic and setting examples GRR components in an introductory consecutive with notes class Highlight of changes in the redesigned classroom Improvements to the instructional model Respondents’ language combinations Textbook usage Use of textbooks by language combinations Purpose of interpreting textbooks If something is missing from the textbooks currently in use Interpreting assessment criteria and methods used by teachers Learners’ general opinions about teachers’ assessment Learners’ first impressions of the teachers’ assessment criteria and methods Student information Quantity of student self-assessment Self-assessment format Self-assessment components SFL-based interpreting studies Levels of NAATI accreditation for interpreters Demographic characteristics of the participating interpreters xii

27 29 29 51 67 103 104 134 134 135 136 138 142 143 169 170 170 171 172 203 206 207 218 220 221 221 227 260 260

Tables

18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.6 18.7 18.8 19.1 19.2 19.3 20.1 20.2 20.3 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 25.5 25.6 25.7 25.8 25.9 25.10 25.11 26.1 26.2 26.3 26.4 26.5 26.6 26.7 26.8 26.9 26.10 26.11 26.12 26.13 26.14 26.15 26.16 26.17 26.18 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4

Participants’ background information Interpretation data Intraclass correlation coefficient related to interpretation evaluation Self-repair distribution Correlation between interpretation performance and number of self-repairs Number of self-repairs according to directionality Types of self-repairs by group (overt vs. covert-repairs) Share of self-repair types by group Profile of respondents Respondent’s education background Difficulties in conversation interpreting Important quality condition in sermon interpreting Eligibility requirements for sermon interpreters Basic outline and contents of the sermon interpreting courses Overview of experiment participants Overview of audiovisual materials (Korean) used in the experiment Difference analysis by experience Differences analysis by age Degree centrality analysis Advantages of using STT for interpreting Disadvantages of using STT for interpreting Gaze management during STT-aided interpreting Know-how on using STT for simultaneous interpreting Training for using STT in interpreting Abilities deemed necessary for interpreters in the future Questionnaire design Respondent profile Credentials Work experience Interpreting quality Price Price breakdown Interpreting as a business service Recommendation Ethics Promotion Appearance and celebrity interpreters Age Participant profile Fictitious resume profile Resumes with most votes for the first place Resumes with most votes for the top three places Resumes with most votes for the lowest three places Survey respondents by age group Language pairs Years of experience RI experience in the past three years xiii

282 283 284 285 285 286 286 287 300 301 302 314 315 319 391 392 396 396 399 399 400 401 404 405 406 417 418 418 418 419 419 419 421 421 422 422 422 423 424 425 425 426 426 440 441 441 441

Tables

27.5 27.6 27.7 27.8 27.9 28.1 29.1 29.2 29.3 29.4 29.5 29.6 29.7 29.8 29.9 29.10

Source of information Methods used in terminology management Transcription method Speech-to-text tool used for RI Correlations between RI experience and knowledge about RI Categories and themes Summary of studies on usability improvement in a real-time lecture interpretation environment BLEU-4 scores for three human translations BLEU-4 scores of Google, Papago, and LLSOLLU: MT BLEU-4 scores of Google, Papago, LLSOLLU: automatic interpretation Manual evaluation criteria for MT in translation studies Manual evaluation criteria for automatic interpretation of this research Accuracy evaluation results by commercial I&T systems Fluency evaluation results by commercial I&T systems Simultaneity evaluation results by commercial I&T systems Usefulness evaluation results by commercial I&T systems

xiv

442 442 442 443 451 461 472 478 478 478 480 481 481 482 482 482

CONTRIBUTORS

CHEN Xin is currently a student of Master of Translation and Interpreting in Korean at the Department of Korean Studies, Dalian University of Foreign Languages. CHEONG Ho-Jeong is Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), Korea. She received her PhD in Interpretation and Translation Studies in 2004, the first such degree conferred in Korea, on the topic of “Translated Text Expansion and Contraction Phenomena: A corpus-based study of quantitative target text changes as reflective of translator mediation.” She has coordinated large-scale government-funded translation projects and organized multiple translation policy fora. She has authored three books and two edited volumes and has served as Editor-in-Chief of the international journal InContext: Studies in Translation and Interculturalism and on the editorial board of the international journal FORUM. CHEUNG Andrew K.F. is Associate Professor at the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He was trained as a professional Mandarin/English conference interpreter at the Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation of Fu-jen Catholic University. He received his PhD from the University of East Anglia of the United Kingdom. His research interests include pedagogy of interpreting, corpus-based interpreting studies, and quality perceptions of interpreting services. He is also an active member of AIIC—Association Internationale des Interprètes de Conférence. Dr. Cheung sits on the editorial boards of multiple journals and publications. CHO Jinhyun is a senior lecturer in the Translation and Interpreting Program of the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Her research interests are primarily in the field of sociolinguistics with a focus on intersections between interpreting, language ideologies, language policies, and intercultural communication. Jinhyun serves on the editorial board of Multilingua and has authored two monographs: English Language Ideologies in Korea: Interpreting the Past and Present and Intercultural Communication in Interpreting: Power and Choices. CHOI Hyo-Eun is currently an Academic Research Professor granted by National Research Foundation of Korea and Adjunct Professor of EICC (English for International Conferences and xv

Contributors

Communication), College of English, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. She received her doctoral degree in Translation and Interpretation from Ewha Womans University in Seoul. CHUNG Hye-Yeon is Professor at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation (GSIT) at HUFS in Seoul, South Korea. She has a PhD in Linguistics and Transtology from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and an MA from the GSIT at HUFS. She is a former director of the Interpretation and Translation Research Institute at HUFS and works actively as a conference interpreter as well. Her research interest concerns interpreters’ competence, such as mental lexicon, memory, as well as translation technology, such as automatic evaluation and more. Her works include “Wie übersetzt NMT Eigennamen und Zahlen? (2018),” “Automatische Evaluation der Humanübersetzung: BLEU vs. METEOR (2020),” and “Phonological memory in Interpreters (2023).” GURYEVA Anastasia is Associate Professor of the Department of Korean Studies, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia. Specializing in Korean literature, she published Songs of the Great Peace at South Wind (the Russian translation of Namhun taepyeong-ga verse collection (1863) with an introduction and comments). In addition to research articles, she has co-authored monographs on Korean antiquarian books collections (with A.F. Trotsevich), Korean language manuals (with A.A. Vasiliev, ed. Jeong Yang-Ok), and various literature translations. A board member of several associations/journals, she has elaborated several study-courses on interpreting and translation and has published extensively on the topic. GWAG Soonlei obtained a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Interpretation & Translation (GSIT) at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea, and a PhD in Arabic linguistics from the same university. She is currently working as a professor in the Korean-Arabic Department at GSIT. She is Editor-in-Chief of The Arabic Language and Literature, the journal of the Korean Association for Arabic Language and Literature. She is a member of the translation committee of the Korean branch office of PEN International. She co-authored Muslim Society’s Norms and Realities Represented by Fatwa I, II, and III and co-translated A Flower, at the Moment, a selection of Sijo Poetry by Kim Min-Jeong, and A Balloon Flower, a selection of Sijo Poetry by Lee SeokSoo, as well as Sijo Festival, a collection of Sijo poems by the Sijo Division of the Korean Writers Association. HOLLOWAY Robert is a native English speaker-turned-Korean-interpreter. Inspired by his Korean-adopted mother, he set out to learn Korean, a language his mother didn’t have the opportunity to learn because she grew up in the United States speaking English. Determined, Robert left the US for Korea in 2008 and never looked back. Now, he works as a professional Korean court and conference interpreter, interpreter trainer, and motivational speaker with a mission to be a model of a person who’s using the tools of their culture to build their life. He is the founder and CEO of Midwest Korean Translation, a Black-owned language services firm based in Chicago, IL. HONG Seoyeon is a Korean-Russian interpreter and translator. She earned her PhD in Interpretation and Translation Studies from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in 2019. She teaches at Dankook University in South Korea. Her research interests include legal and community interpreting and conversation analysis. Her research work has been published in the peer-reviewed journal, Perspectives, and in Korean journals, such as Interpreting and Translation Studies, Interpretation and Translation, and Translation Studies.

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Contributors

HUH Jiun is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation of Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. She received her MA in interpreting and PhD in T&I studies from the same school. Her research interests include market demand for interpreting, metaverse, gamification, interpreter training, and World Englishes. Her research work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, Translation & Interpreting, FORUM, and Perspectives. She is also a freelancing conference interpreter, with Korean and English as her working languages. JIN Mei is Associate Professor at Faculty of Asian and African Studies, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. She obtained her PhD in Korean language and culture. Her main research interests are Chinese-Korean translation and interpreting, and Korean language teaching. She has extensive experience in teaching Korean as a foreign language and has been a member investigator of twelve research and teaching innovation projects. Her major publications include a dozen journal articles and ten textbooks. JIN Mingri is a lecturer in the Department of English at Yanbian University, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, China. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate interpreting courses. He received his professional Mandarin Chinese/English conference interpreting training at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is working on his doctorate at Yanbian University. His research interests include interpreting pedagogy, qualitative approach in interpreting research, quantitative approach in interpreting research, theories of interpreting, and cognitive aspects of interpreting. He is also a professional conference interpreter working with Mandarin Chinese, English, and Korean. JIN Silhee is Associate Professor at the Chung Ang University’s Advanced Interpretation and Translation Program. Currently, she serves as the president of the Korean Association of Translators and Interpreters (KATI). The topics of her research include Educational Technology for Teaching & Learning, T&I Pedagogy, and Curriculum Reform. As a member of the editorial board of T&I Review, she is also the research director for the Korea Association for Translation Studies (KATS) and the recipient of the KATS award for the best researcher in 2020. Recent research includes “A Model of Live Subtitling Using Respeaking Technology,” published in Babel. KIM A-Young received a PhD from SNU, Korea, in 2008. From 1997, she has been working as a conference-interpreter. Currently, she is a professor at the Busan University of Foreign Studies, Busan, Korea, from 2003. Her research interests include contrastive analysis, interpretation and translation education, and automatic interpretation. KIM Daejin, PhD, is Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Seoul National University of Science and Technology in Seoul, Korea. His research interests and publications are creativity, bilingualism, brain in language learning, interpretation and translation education, and expertise in interpreting and translation. KIM Haeyoung is Professor with the School of English Language and Literature at the Catholic University of Korea. She received her PhD in language education and has been conducting research on foreign language education at the undergraduate level. She also took part in authoring English textbooks for middle school and high school students and a wide range of reading textbooks for

xvii

Contributors

secondary school students. As a professional interpreter and translator, she has also published research on interpretation and translation methodologies for undergraduate courses. Her recent research interest is subtitle translation teaching in the classroom. KIM Mira is Associate Professor in Translation and Interpreting Studies in the School of Humanities and Languages, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Australia. Her research interests include three categories: Translation Studies, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), and personalized autonomous language learning. The three main research fields are synergistically integrated, which empowers her to expand her research areas and share her knowledge across these boundaries. Her major publications include Systemic Functional Linguistics and Translation Studies, co-edited with Munday, Wang, and Wang (2021) and Korean Grammar: A Systemic Functional Approach, co-authored with Martin, Shin, and Choi (2023). KIM Nam Hui has a PhD in General Translation and Interpreting Studies from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (in Germersheim), Germany, where she taught from 2007 to 2013. Since 2015, she works as a professor at the Department of German Language and Literature, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea. Her major fields of research are history of interpreting, translators and interpreters in historical publications, literary translation, and the pedagogy of interpreting. She is also a translator in German and Korean (lyrics, novels, and fairy tales) and a conference interpreter. Kim is a member of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) for German-Korean. LEE Hye-Seung is Associate Professor at the Department of Russian Studies and Dean of The International College at The University of Suwon, South Korea. She received her PhD in Interpretation and Translation Studies at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, specializing in the translation of metaphors. Her current research interests include translation and ideology, comparison of translations from different eras, the role of interpreters in history, and curriculum development on online platforms. She translated in Korean Lectures on Russian Literature, written by Vladimir Nabokov, and Text Typology and Translation, edited by Anna Trosborg. She served as the president of the Korean Society of Interpretation and Translation, and with the support of national research funds, currently gives online lectures on interpretation and translation on the KMOOC (Korean Massive Open Online Course) platform. LEE Jimin is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Department of Interpretation and Translation at Keimyung University, Daegu, Korea, where she teaches translation studies courses. She received her PhD in interpretation and translation studies at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Korea. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, including Perspectives, and has been serving as Editor for various wellknown journals, including the A&HCI indexed Acta Koreana. Her area of interest includes netizens’ translation motives, interpreting competence, and multimodal translation. LEE June is a freelance interpreter and translator. She earned her PhD at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Translation Studies in 2013 and her Masters in Communication at Johns Hopkins University. She has interpreted for the Korean government since 2013 and taught translation and interpretation at Busan University of Foreign Studies and Pusan National University. She also works as a subtitle translator and conducted research in the field of audiovisual translation, SFL, and translation pedagogy. xviii

Contributors

LEE Juriae is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Ewha Womans University, and a Korean-Japanese interpreter/translator for international conferences. She served as Editor-in-Chief of T&I Review, a journal specializing in interpretation and translation. Focusing on the field of interpretation and translation education, she is currently conducting an interdisciplinary research project on the construction of an evaluation system for interpretation and translation education. Past research includes studies on article translation, translation feedback, post-editing guidelines for Korean-Japanese machine translation, acceptance of machine translation by Korean-Japanese translators, interpreting and language education using voice recognition, and sight translation. LEE Juyeon is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS). She is also a practicing conference interpreter and a member of AIIC. Her main research interests include interpreter education and processes of interpretation. She has written papers on diverse topics, including consecutive interpretation training, in-house interpreters, teaching of note-taking skills, and situated learning for T&I education. She received her EdD in language education at Rutgers University in the US, MA in interpreting and translation from HUFS, and BA in English language and literature from Yonsei University. LI Min is Dean of the Department of Korean Studies, Dalian University of Foreign Languages. She is a supervisor of the Master graduate program. She obtained her MA from Seoul National University and her PhD from Peking University. She specializes in Chinese-Korean translation and interpreting studies and teaching. She is the lead investigator of “the study on interpreters’ professional ethics in Chinese-Korean liaison interpreting,” a research project funded by the Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation Program of the Ministry of Education of the PRC. LIM Hyang-Ok is Professor at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies since 1993 and is currently Dean of the same institution. She is a founding member of the Korean Society of Conference Interpretation, the first academic society for translation studies in Korea. She graduated from ESIT and holds an EdD from Illinois State University. LIM Hyun-Kyung is a lecturer at HUFS. As a translator, she works on translation, transcreation, and localization. Besides translation, her previous career includes terminology management at CLS Communications and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). PARK Soyoung is Assistant Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages at Korea Military Academy. Her research interests are theater translation, minorities like women and LGBTQ in translation, and history of translation and interpreters. She has published research on diverse topics, including translator/interpreter education, female interpreters in history, and reception of Spanish, Latin American, and American theater in Korea, translation of sexual minorities in literary translations in journals indexed in KCI, Scopus, SSCI, and A&HCI. PYOUN Hyewon is a conference interpreter and has been interpreting for heads of state and governments as well as for international organizations such as the United Nations. As adjunct professor, she teaches simultaneous and consecutive interpreting at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation, HUFS, Seoul, in Korea. She obtained her PhD in Conference Interpreting. Her research interests include simultaneous interpreting, simultaneous interpreting with text, consecutive interpreting, note-taking pedagogy, interpreting training, and interpreting technologies. xix

Contributors

RA Sophia, PhD, is a NAATI-certified interpreter, translator, subtitler, and researcher in the Translation and Interpreting field. She received her PhD degree in Interpreting Studies at the University of New South Wales in Australia with a research project on Communication Challenges for Healthcare Interpreters Within a Multicultural Society. Currently, she teaches community interpreting, conference interpreting, and translation between Korean and English at the University of New South Wales and Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Her work has been published in research international peer-reviewed journals and presented in international and national conferences. RYU Pum-Mo received his PhD from KAIST, Korea, in 2009. From 2009 to 2015, he worked as a principal researcher at the department of natural language processing of ETRI, Korea. Currently, he is a professor at the Busan University of Foreign Studies, Busan, Korea. His research interests include natural language processing, artificial intelligence, knowledge representation, and cybersecurity. SHIN Hayne is Visiting Professor of the GSIT at Handong Global University (HGU), Korea, where she developed church and sermon interpreting courses in 2005 based on her experience as sermon interpreter. She earned her PhD at Ewha Woman’s University with her thesis titled A Research Survey on Sermon Interpreting in Korean Churches (2013). With her research interests on interpreting in religious context, she presented and joined related panels of international conferences; namely, NPIT in 2014 (Germersheim, Germany), the EST Congress in 2016 (Aarhus, Denmark), FIT in 2017 (Brisbane, Australia), and InDialog3 (ID3) in 2019 (Antwerp, Belgium). She continues to raise awareness on sermon interpreting both as a profession and academic studies. SHIN Najung is a Korean-French conference interpreter since 2006 and a lecturer at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies since 2008, where she received her master’s degree in conference interpreting and her PhD in translation and interpretation studies. Her main research interests are interpreting performance assessment, interpreting strategies, and interpreter education. WOO Kyongjo is an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation (GSIT), Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea where she is also the lead researcher of the Interpreting and Translation Research Institute (ITRI) at HUFS. She holds a PhD in Interpreting and Translation Studies from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and a master’s degree in Interpretation and Translation Studies from GSIT. Her current research and publications focus on quality assessment, gender translation, pedagogy in T&I education, SFG, text analysis, and simultaneous interpretation training. She has experience teaching interpretation and translation between English and Korean to graduate-level students. YU Jung-Hwa is Assistant Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages at Korea Military Academy in Seoul. She received her PhD in interpretation and translation from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea. Her research focuses on translation and interpreting history in Korea, including translator/interpreter education, intercultural communication, and education of Russian as foreign language. She is a contributor of Translating and Interpreting in Korean contexts (2019) and her research work has been published in major academic journals in translation and interpreting in Korea. YU Xin is currently a student of Master of Translation and Interpreting in Korean at the Department of Korean Studies, Dalian University of Foreign Languages. xx

Contributors

ZHAN Cheng is Professor at the School of Foreign Languages, Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, China). He obtained his MA in Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies from the University of Warwick and his PhD in interpreting studies at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. An active member of AIIC, his research interests focus on interpreting practice and interpreter training as well as on translation studies. He has published five monographs and ten interpreting textbooks. Currently, he is the lead investigator of “the effect of audio description training on cognitive processing competence in interpreting,” a research project funded by the Chinese national humanities and social sciences council. ZHU Zhu is a lecturer at the Faculty of English Language and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. She obtained her MA in Applied Linguistics (Translation and Interpreting Studies) from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. She has been teaching at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies since 2005. Her main research interests are translation and interpreting studies.

xxi

FOREWORD

Korea is an ancient civilization. Long before the twentieth century, it had close diplomatic and trade relations with China, and later, with Japan. These exchanges required language mediators; in other words, interpreters. During the twentieth century, South Korea opened up to the West and now plays an increasingly important role in world affairs, political, economic, and cultural. The range of tasks taken on by interpreters has widened accordingly. They operate both internationally, mediating diplomatic, industrial, and commercial ties and, more recently, at national level, with the increasing demand for community interpreters. Readers will find in this welcome Handbook an extensive account of numerous aspects of interpreting and interpreting research in South Korea, from historical perspectives to future opportunities. Today, a good number of Korean universities offer courses in interpreting. Many of their instructors were trained abroad, in Switzerland, in Germany, and quite a few in Paris, at the Ecole Supérieure d’Interprètes et de Traducteurs (ESIT). Training in both the theory and practice of interpreting is a must for would-be interpreters to be able to practice their chosen profession with a high degree of proficiency. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the most extensive section of this handbook focuses on Interpreter Education. The other two largest sections cover Community Interpreting (a fairly new development the world over) and Opportunities for the Future. Although several papers deal with interpreter training in general, some languages are covered specifically, like English, Arabic, Chinese, French, and Russian, although these are certainly not the only ones required in a combination with Korean. The section on Opportunities for the Future discusses the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, like the increasing use of remote interpreting. It also broaches the subject of automatic interpreting—surely a futuristic development. Most contributors to this volume come from Korea but, interestingly, one is from Russia, four from China, and three from Australia. (Community interpreting first developed in Australia, a country of immigration. It is therefore logical that Australians author two of the papers in this section.) This diversity illustrates the importance of Korea’s relations with its most immediate neighbors.

xxii

Foreword

Overall, this Handbook gives an invaluable overview of the history, development, and teaching of Korean interpreting and interpreting research. It is an important reference tool for both students and scholars interested in this region of the world. Marianne Lederer Professor Emerita, Université Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle (ESIT)

xxiii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are truly indebted to all the contributors of this volume, who provided the erudition and wisdom of each chapter. Thank you for answering with patience our editorial queries and responding to our suggestions. Working with you has been a pleasure and, notwithstanding the names on the spine of the book, this volume is really yours. We would also like to extend our most heartfelt gratitude to the editorial team at Routledge, in particular Katie Peace, Simon Bates, Khin Thazin, and Payal Bharti for your unwavering support, and all the copyeditors at Routledge for your patience and professionalism. Our immense gratitude also goes to all past and future interpreters for your enormous, yet oftentimes underappreciated, efforts. This volume is dedicated to all of you.

xxiv

INTRODUCTION Riccardo Moratto and Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

Due to its geopolitical situation, Korea has a long history of interpretation, dating back to the Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392) and, more systematically, during the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910). Interpreters classified as jungin, or middlemen, were so not only according to the caste system but also in the work that they did and that we still do. However, during the Joseon Dynasty, they did a lot more than just interpret; they acted as protocol officers for both the Chinese and Korean courts; they were exporters and importers bringing and selling goods at a time when people could not travel freely; they were conduits for new—often Western—knowledge; and negatively, they also acted as spies. After a hiatus during the Japanese occupation, the first modern educational institution to be established was the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in 1979. Since the curriculum included simultaneous interpretation, there was much resistance, both inside and outside the institution, because it was deemed an impossible feat to simultaneously interpret between Western and Asian languages. After enjoying a monopoly for eighteen years, today there are eleven graduate schools of interpretation and translation and countless undergraduate programs that have interpretation and/or translation courses or a separate track. Compared to its heyday, when more than 800 students would apply, there are considerably fewer applicants these days. However, this is not only due to the fact that the profession has lost some of its luster with more people in the general public becoming fluent in foreign languages and people becoming concerned that AI and machine translation and interpretation might make the profession obsolete, but also because there are more graduate schools of interpretation and translation, which has caused the applicants to spread out. Despite the advances in machine translation and interpretation, it has been proven time and again that interpreters and translators are irreplaceable . . . at least for the moment. The Routledge Handbook of Korean Interpreting brings together the most authoritative voices on Korean interpreting. The first graduate school of interpretation and translation was established in South Korea in 1979. Since then, not only has the interpretation and translation market grown exponentially, but so has research in Translation studies. Though the major portion of research focuses on translation, interpretation has not only managed to hold its own, but interpretation studies in Korea have been a pioneer in this field in Asia. This Handbook aims to highlight the main interpretation research trends in South Korea today. The present volume is going to be the first international volume focusing exclusively on Korean interpreting from a theoretical, pedagogic, and practical 1

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-1

Riccardo Moratto and Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

standpoint. Compared to other monographs or edited collections on the same topic, this book presents a wide variety of voices from Korean interpreting scholars and practitioners. This book is divided into four sections; namely, Historical Perspectives, Education, Community Interpreting, and Opportunities for the Future. This volume also contains a Foreword by Professor Marianne Lederer, who argues that “this Handbook gives an invaluable overview of the history, development and teaching of Korean interpreting and interpreting research. It is an important reference tool for both students and scholars interested in this region of the world.” We grouped the chapters, for the reader’s convenience, into four sections, but many of the chapters speak to more than a single aspect. This book contains 29 chapters, six providing a historical perspective, nine focusing on education, eight on community interpreting, and six offering opportunities for the future. These final chapters somehow lead the way into future trends. To facilitate reading, the abstracts of the authors will be presented as a summary to each chapter. The first section comprises six chapters offering historical perspectives on interpreting issues. In Chapter 1, Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥 argues that interpretation and translation (I&T) have a long history in Korea. Dating back to the Joseon Dynasty, I&T was taught systematically through the Sayeokwon, and its graduates played a vital role in relations with the Chinese dynasties. Following a relative hiatus during the Japanese occupation and subsequent chaos during the modern era, systematic teaching of interpretation and translation began in earnest in 1979, when the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, was established. For over eighteen years, it had a virtual monopoly on interpretation and translation education; currently, there are eleven graduate schools of interpretation and translation across the nation. Lim sets out to look at the background and development of interpretation in Korea with an emphasis on the educational institutions of interpretation and translation. In Chapter 2, Hye-seung Lee 이혜승 and Jung-Hwa Yu 유정화 aim to examine the role of interpreters in Korean politics, diplomacy, and society, focusing on the Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties. Korean interpreters played a very important role in foreign relations, including diplomacy. They served not only as interpreters but also as diplomats in charge of foreign relations and trade experts in charge of trade with other countries. Since the Goryeo Dynasty, a government-led interpreter training institution had been established, and this continued into Joseon. There were not many social restrictions on those working as interpreters in the Goryeo period, but during Joseon, this changed, and limits were imposed on status and area of residence. In this chapter, the authors examine the contributions of interpreters to the development of the country from various perspectives by highlighting the roles that they played in politics, diplomacy, and society during the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties. In Goryeo, the role of interpreters in politics, diplomacy, and society as a whole will be examined, and in the case of Joseon, the role of interpreters in terms of politics, diplomacy, institutional reform, military, economy, literature, art, education, and social movements will be highlighted. Lastly, Lee and Yu comprehensively consider the kinds of contributions the interpreters of Goryeo and Joseon made to the development of the country. In Chapter 3, Nam Hui Kim 김남희 argues that, in neighboring China and Japan, Joseon had a specialized institution called Sayeokwon for diplomatic affairs, teaching foreign languages and training interpreting officials, which lasted until almost the end of the Joseon dynasty. Established at the end of Goryeo (1389), this institution temporarily disappeared from history with the fall of the kingdom. In 1393, it reappeared in the annals of the Joseon dynasty in a sentence that calls to “install Sayeokwon and teach Chinese.” Mongolian, Japanese, and Jurchen (later changed to Manchu) were included subsequently. Interpreters played a practical and important role in diplomatic relations from the beginning of the dynasty; they taught foreign languages and left behind textbooks. The royal court was well aware of the importance of foreign languages and communication, but the 2

Introduction

status of yeokgwan or interpreters was not high because they mainly handled tasks involving words, public trade, and commerce, and stemmed from the middle-class or lower. Promotions were strictly limited, although there were some exceptional figures. This chapter outlines the path to becoming an official interpreter in the Joseon dynasty following a brief historic background of that time. From an estimated 3,000 and more interpreting officials, six extraordinary yeokgwan are introduced. Kim attempts to chart a new approach to present a socio-cultural history of interpreting officials. In Chapter 4, Hyo-Eun Choi 최효은, unsettled by the imbalance between the knowledge of the Korean War and that of interpreters who participated in the War, took on a quest to find them. Narrowing the research scope to those who served in the process of the Korean Armistice Conferences, Choi charted a search route to primary sources. The explanatory note that the National Institute of Korean History (NIKH) presented to give basic understanding on the Proceedings of Korean Armistice Conferences (PKAC) functioned as a guide, and a group of interpreters was confirmed through individual pages of PKAC and crosschecked with first-hand accounts written by those on the scene. Four interpreters on quest are Horace G. Underwood, Richard F. Underwood, Sul Chun Sik, and To Yu Ho. This finding alone adds to what previous studies had found, which are themselves rare cases of looking into the interpreters in the Conferences. However, while investigating further through secondary sources, potential interpreters emerged. Choi again resorted to the most reliable primary source, PKAC, and so far, has added to the list three more Korean-and-English interpreters, who all seem to be Korean nationals who joined in the latter stage of the Negotiations: “K M Chung,” “Bill Yu,” and “Y P Kim.” This second finding inevitably demands a rewriting of the explanatory note that is presented by NIKH for PKAC. In Chapter 5, Soyoung Park 박소영 explores the social perception of professional interpreters in the Republic of Korea. Recognizing that the media play a role by driving a society’s general perception about a particular profession, newspaper coverage of interpreters was chosen as the focus of the study. News articles published during the past 74 years (1948–2022), from the establishment of the Korean government to the present, were analyzed to examine how interpreters have been perceived in Korean society. A quantitative analysis was conducted on the total number of articles, their subjects (gender), and media attitudes, while a qualitative analysis was performed on six categories: medium, setting, mode, language, interpreter, and problem. The results of the study show that there was a gender shift in interpreters from male to female in the 1980s. During the shift, newspaper articles about interpreters became more favorable, thereby raising their professional status. In more recent years, a major change has occurred to the status of human interpreters on the back of the rise of AI translation algorithms. In particular, negative articles on the profession have increased since 2010, plausibly because of market saturation, emergence of non-professional interpreters, uncertain job prospects of human interpreters due to the advancement in AI, and a decrease in international meetings due to the pandemic. Through an in-depth analysis of the news articles, Park shows changes in the perception of interpreters in Korea during the past seven decades and discusses challenges currently faced by professional interpreters in Korea. In Chapter 6, the last of the first section, Ho-Jeong Cheong 정호정 and Hyun-Kyung Lim 임 현경 provide a meta-analysis of how interpreting studies in Korea have evolved over the quarter of a century since the introduction of formal education in interpreting in Korea and how it compares with or differs from the recent international research trends under consideration. Following the analysis of all interpreting research papers published in five accredited Korean journals for the entire period of the present research (1998–2022), the data from the last decade (2013–2022), in particular, were compared with those collected from the three representative international journals in interpreting in terms of theoretical frameworks and methodologies employed. The findings show that the last quarter of a century has witnessed significant improvement in interpreting studies in 3

Riccardo Moratto and Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

Korea in terms of both the quantity and quality of papers produced. While early manuscripts by practice-oriented educators often lacked consolidated theoretical/methodological background, the next generation of theory-oriented researchers has increased academic rigor and diversity in the discipline. The comparison with international journals indicates that further diversification is required in theoretical frameworks and methodologies. The main contributions of the present study include a diachronic, meta-research view of research trends, a data-driven diagnosis of problems, and the precise identification of historical trends and proposals for the next steps of academic growth. The second section focuses on education and comprises nine chapters. In Chapter 7, Daejin Kim 김대진 argues that I&T education in Korea has made spectacular progress in quality and scope since its inception in the early 1980s. Buttressed by political and economic incentives, many graduate schools of interpretation and translation have been established, producing numerous competent interpreters and translators. In light of Korea’s rapid globalization, conference interpreting has become one of the most honorable professions among college students in the country. This popularity stimulated the establishment of undergraduate I&T programs in the English language and literature departments. However, the market for interpreters began to saturate in recent years, and the number of applicants to GSITs started to slide. I&T education has been challenged by the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence-based translation and the onerous task of devising adequate teaching methods for low-language-proficiency students. As such, this study examines the status quo of undergraduate I&T education and its challenges through a review of the development of the I&T industry and teaching, as well as interviews with instructors and students in undergraduate I&T programs in Korea. In Chapter 8, Silhee Jin 진실희 reports on an ongoing action research on a content-based learning experience design of a post-graduate consecutive interpreting training course in Seoul. An instructional scaffold was designed and embedded into the sixteen-week, intermediate-level course to offer guided instruction on topic preparation using the university’s learning management system and tutors. To identify the pedagogical implications of this progressive learning model, the instructor’s observation journal, tutor reports, and student surveys were analyzed. Guided by two research questions, “What is the difference in learning experience in the redesigned classroom?” and “How can the instructional model be further improved?” the goal of this article is to present the transformation of experience from a product to a process-oriented method of learning the art of consecutive interpreting. Jin closes with suggestions to further leverage on the affordances of educational technology. In Chapter 9, Haeyoung Kim 김혜영 argues that the educational purpose of undergraduate interpretation/translation courses is different from that of the graduate program in that the former has to create a class that offers authentic interpretation and translation training and, at the same time, improve the learners’ English competence. Kim presents flipped learning as an effective instruction method for the interpretation and translation classroom at the undergraduate level. I&T courses offer an optimal environment for flipped learning, as they involve unfamiliar skills and techniques that may require time and repetition for students to internalize. In addition, recent advancements in instructional technology have made possible such student-centered instruction, resulting in improved level of motivation, autonomy, and performance for both instructors and students. An overview of flipped learning is presented, followed by literature on the efficacy of this methodology in the instruction of interpretation and translation. Examples of instructional designs for flipped lessons are presented: note-taking for interpretation and subtitling for translation. Issues and challenges related to note-taking and subtitle translation in courses at the undergraduate level are explained in detail, followed by an instructional design for a series of preview activities to be carried out by the students. Potential for further expansion of the use of flipped learning is also presented. 4

Introduction

In Chapter 10, Mingri Jin (Myung-Il Kim) 김명일 and Andrew K.F. Cheung report the survey results on the use of interpreting textbooks in China. Most of the respondents were from Chinese/ English, Chinese/Japanese, or Chinese/Korean language combinations. The survey results indicate that the textbooks were mostly used in sight translation subjects. Trainers and trainees used the textbooks to check their understanding of the source language and compare their renditions to the suggested interpretations. The trainer-respondents also suggested what should be included in future textbook editions. In Chapter 11, Hyewon Pyoun 편혜원 argues that, with the advent of new technologies such as voice recognition and machine translation as well as of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global landscape of conference interpreting has changed. In this article, we propose to take stock of current practices among conference interpreters between Korean and French. A survey was conducted among eighteen interpreters of this language combination working in the Korean market. The survey shows how the interpreters prepare for meetings, how they work during the meeting, the support material they use, and whether they employ relay interpreting or the use of a pivot language. The questionnaire sheds light on the work of bilingual interpreters who must juggle three languages in the interpreting booths. Based on these practices, Pyoun wishes to provide some suggestions to bring interpreting courses closer to field conditions. In Chapter 12, Mei Jin and Cheng Zhan argue that Korean MTI (Master of Translation and Interpreting) education in China began in 2009. By 2022, a total of 28 institutions have set up Korean MTI programs. With the inception of the Belt and Road Initiative in China and the Eurasia Initiative in South Korea, the demand in both countries for high-caliber translators and interpreters keeps growing. The establishment of Korean MTI at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS) echoes the call of the times. Despite some progress made in areas such as faculty development, curriculum design, practicum training, and degree thesis supervision, China’s Korean MTI education is still in its infancy and can be further improved. With the Korean MTI program of GDUFS as a case, the authors discuss the status quo, challenges, and solutions of Korean MTI education in China, and put forth some suggestions for cultivating high-caliber T&I professionals for China’s communication with the world. In Chapter 13, Najung Shin 신나정 contends that, although the assessment of interpreting performance fascinates researchers, such research seldom addresses students’ perceptions toward teachers’ evaluation. Therefore, Shin examines learners’ general perceptions of the interpreter trainers’ assessment and their views toward the assessment criteria and methods shared for this study and seeks to derive pedagogical implications. To this end, focus groups with eleven students in the Korean-French T&I MA program were conducted. They revealed intergroup differences between the first- and second-year learners regarding teachers’ assessment and their first impression of teachers’ criteria and methods. Furthermore, students raised questions about the rationale and definitions of the teachers’ interpreting performance criteria and weighting. These results show that trainers should provide learners with detailed information about interpreting performance assessments in class and engage in discussions about it. In Chapter 14, Kyongjo Woo 우경조 argues that student self-assessment has been widely used as a learning tool in interpreting training in overseas interpretation and translation institutions. Despite its effectiveness as a tool to enhance students’ interpretation performance, self-assessment has not been given much attention in the domestic academic community. Against this backdrop, Woo aims to remind interpreting instructors and students of the importance of self-assessment in interpreting training by examining its positive effects and implications in interpreting training curriculum based on the analysis of self-assessments of students at a post-graduate level. To this end, this study analyzes students’ self-assessments of their mid-term exams during the first semester and fourth semester over 5

Riccardo Moratto and Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

the course of two years to examine how their self-assessments developed over the same period and what implications the analysis can offer in terms of interpreting pedagogy. The findings of this study can be summarized as follows: a dramatic increase in quantity of students’ self-assessment, diversified assessment components, and more structured assessment format, which indicates that students develop their self-assessment skills while being trained through the interpretation curriculum. This study has limitations arising from a relatively small data set; however, despite such limitations, this study holds significance in that it extends our knowledge of self-assessment in I&T education and offers interpreting instructors’ tangible implications for encouraging students to better assess their performance. In Chapter 15, the last of the second section, Mira Kim 김미라 and June Lee 이주은 argue that Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) has served as a robust research framework in translation studies in a number of languages. It has been adopted in many Korean translation studies as well. However, such studies have a methodological limitation due to the absence of a systemic functional description of Korean. This limitation may be addressed by the publication of Korean Grammar: A Systemic Functional Perspective in 2023. Kim and Lee explore how the first comprehensive systemic functional grammar of Korean might be used as a theoretical framework to explore various issues in the discipline of Interpreting. Section Three comprises eight chapters focusing on community interpreting. In Chapter 16, Jinhyun Cho 조진현 examines communication challenges that arise in interpreter-mediated healthcare consultations for Korean patients in Australia. From the perspectives of language and culture, it explores interpreting issues reported by nine healthcare interpreters from Korean backgrounds in Australia. As for linguistic challenges, data analysis identifies three specific issues: the untranslatability of certain emotions and feelings in Korean; medical concepts specific to Korean contexts; and medical terms that are simple in English but are not straightforward to Korean patients. Cultural challenges include negative perceptions of mental illnesses among Korean people, patients’ tendency to view doctors as authorities, and a lack of cultural sensitivity in cognitive assessments for elderly patients. The findings reveal that cultural challenges are more challenging to deal with, compared with linguistic issues due to the principle of interpreters’ role boundaries, healthcare practitioners’ lack of cultural awareness, and the general perception of interpreters as translation machines. Cho highlights collaboration between interpreters and healthcare practitioners as a critical element in ensuring communication success and concludes with several key suggestions to achieve the goal. In Chapter 17, Sophia Ra 소피아  라 argues that, as one of the leading countries in community interpreting service provision, Australia provides a range of professional interpreting services within the public health system; interpreters who work in this system must be nationally accredited/ certified and should abide by a professional code of ethics. Despite the national standard, in reality, healthcare interpreters still face various challenges due to different reasons. As part of a larger PhD project exploring the existence of intercultural issues that can cause interpreting challenges and the interpreters’ perceptions about the extent to which they can offer cultural brokerage, semistructured, one-on-one interviews with Korean–English interpreters were conducted. This chapter highlights the results of the interviews and presents a synthesis of findings from the qualitative data collected in the interviews. In Chapter 18, Seoyeon Hong 홍서연 quantitatively analyzes the motivations for self-repairs among Russian police interpreters and their retrospection-based causes to examine the difficulties encountered by interpreters. The study found that interpreters make fewer self-repairs as their competency increases, but the number of repairs was not related to directionality. Competent interpreters are more likely to make overt-repairs, while inexperienced interpreters tend to depend on covert-repairs. The higher the interpreting skills, the higher the share of Appropriateness repairs 6

Introduction

(A-repairs) and the lower the share of Error repairs (E-repairs), Different information repairs (Drepairs), and covert-repairs. A-repairs were used frequently to reduce ambiguity and deliver the speaker’s intention more clearly. E-repairs were used to correct errors due to the lack of knowledge of legal terms. Covert-repairs were used to conceive the content of interpretation and to buy time to make overt-repairs. D-repairs were used to rearrange the order of information in the original text to match the grammar of the target language. Hong shows that participants make self-repairs as a strategy to address difficulties encountered in interpretation, including legal terms, Korean investigative culture, and characteristics of the Korean language. In Chapter 19, Soonlei Gwag 곽순례 examines the current status of interpretation for Arab refugees in South Korea based on the statistical data reported by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). Gwag analyzes the results of a survey conducted on professional Arabic refugee interpreters and evaluates the quality of their interpreting, thereby suggesting measures for the improvement of interpreting services in refugee settings. In South Korea, interpreting services for Arab refugees were launched after the Refugee Act was enacted in 2013. Subsequently, demand for such services soared due to the sudden rise in the number of Arab applicants for refugee status, including 648 applicants from Syria in 2014 and more than 550 from Yemen in 2018. At that time, interpreters for Arab refugee applicants were appointed without a proper certification process, which, as many pointed out, resulted in poor interpreting quality. In order to address this issue, the MoJ has implemented the Professional Refugee Interpreter Certification System since 2021. According to the MoJ, there were only eleven professional refugee interpreters for Arab refugees as of November 2022. This chapter offers suggestions for the improvement of interpreting services for Arab refugee applicants: first, Arabic dialects education for Korean interpreters and Korean education for Arab interpreters, in combination with cooperation between the two groups; second, education on the circumstances of Arab countries and Arabrelated background knowledge; third, education on Arab and Islamic cultures, particularly differences with Korean culture; and fourth, training programs for interviewers of refugee applicants to enhance their understanding of Arab countries and cultures, while also promoting the social recognition of the difficulties such interviewers face and offering them some benefits in performance evaluation. In Chapter 20, Hayne Shin 신혜인 uses the interview results of some of the well-known Korean sermon interpreters in Korean churches and user-expectation surveys on effective sermon interpreting, both of which concern consecutive interpreting mode, to confirm conditions for effective sermon interpreting and look into the implications they have on training sermon interpreters. The interviews, including Rev. Billy Kim, who interpreted for the world-famous American evangelist Rev. Billy Graham during the Billy Graham Crusade in Korea 1973, and the extensive questionnaire surveys responded by 495 people, show the importance of both the sermon aspect (faithrelated) and the interpreting aspects (interpreting skill) of sermon interpreting for high-quality sermon interpreting service. In line with such findings, Shin introduces a model curriculum of sermon interpreting developed by the author that is based on 3Fs, or “Fidelity, Fluency, and Faith,” at a graduate school of interpretation and translation in Korea. In Chapter 21, Anastasia Guryeva argues that mediating cultural specifics is one of the most important elements of any interpreting activity. The author focuses on cultural aspects of Korean interpreting and aims at tracing and systematizing several principal points an interpreter working with the Korean language should be concerned with, as a guidance toward making proper linguistic decisions. The text has a primarily practical orientation and may be used for educational purposes. Notions related to the theory of intercultural communication are illustrated with concrete language examples, and cultural/linguistic features are explained with the help of actual cases, mostly borrowed from the author’s experience of interpreting and communicating with Korean speakers. This chapter briefly introduces some basic concepts of Korean communicative culture (chemyeon (체면), 7

Riccardo Moratto and Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

gibun (기분), bunwigi (분위기), and nunchi (눈치)). Some aspects of nonverbal communication (e.g., handshake intensity as a part of touch-related tacesics, protocol perception as a part of time-related chronemics) are also discussed, which can help in forming a general approach to meetings with Koreans, especially at the stage of forming a partnership. This is followed by a more detailed examination of various aspects of verbal communication: etiquette and phatic expressions, lexeme semantics, grammatic tools, and so on. Background knowledge and extra-linguistic activity are tackled in relation to the performance of the interpreter. Understanding of the special respect for text in Korean culture, of attention to collective meals, and of some specifics of written correspondence, are also commented to be important elements of the required competence. Applying the foregoing aspects of communication not only enhances the professional skills required for Korean interpreting but often serves as the determining factor in successful intercultural communication. In Chapter 22, Robert Holloway aims to examine how Korean court interpretation has developed across time and space in the United States as well as the findings of a research study into challenges faced by active Korean court interpreters and interpreter trainers. The court interpretation research included an online survey as well as a phone interview. Three active trainers/court interpreters were interviewed or surveyed. Respondents were asked about the greatest challenges Korean court interpreters face in the courtroom while interpreting, including legal terminology, the speed at which individuals in the courtroom speak, emotional cases, etc., and were also asked about country-wide court interpreter exams. These responses, together with the author’s experience, were used to generate the following report, which identifies the top three challenges as well as methods Korean court interpreters in the US can employ to overcome these challenges. The section on deposition interpretation presents findings of interviews with six different active Korean deposition interpreters in which they were asked about the greatest linguistic challenges they face when interpreting at depositions. Current and aspiring Korean court interpreters must take these results into account in order to maximize their expertise and survive in the US court interpretation market. In Chapter 23 Min Li, Zhu Zhu, Xin Yu, Xin Chen describe the interpreter’s speech acts in Chinese-Korean consecutive interpreting and attempt to explain the locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts of interpreters in the process of conveying “sense.” Section Four presents six chapters offering some useful insights on opportunities for the future. In Chapter 24, Hye-Yeon Chung 정혜연 argues that research on interpreters’ and translators’ cognition in Korea has a short history of around twenty years. The topics of Korean researchers in this area are, however, diverse, including language acquisition, directionality, interpreters’ memory system, as well as their brain. In the early phase, Korean cognitive translatologists began their research by reviewing relevant theories and models from Europe and the Americas and applying them to language pairs including Korean (i.e. English-Korean). They also revised them to fit the Korean context. Their next move was to develop their own theories and models focusing on individual aspects of interpreters’ and translators’ cognition. They conducted various experiments on interpreters’ lexical competence and memory or they analyzed authentic interpreting products of conference interpreters to examine the relationship between lexical features of corpus and interpretation patterns. The second generation of researchers exploited more advanced tools and methodology (fMRI, eye-trackers, and software used in psychological experiments) in their empirical research and produced more elaborate results. Unlike in Europe or the Americas, however, cooperation between neuroscientists/psychologists and transtologists has not (yet) come about in Korea, even though a handful of researchers who investigate interpreters’/translators’ brains and cognition seek the opportunity for joint research. In the era of brain and artificial intelligence, the encounter of translatology and cognitive science is inevitable. Trans- or interdisciplinary research from Korea has the potential to contribute to this development in the future. 8

Introduction

In Chapter 25, Juriae Lee 이주리애 argues that recent advances in the field of speech recognition have led to the development and use of a variety of related tools, leading to new research into possible applications of Speech-to-Text (STT) and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology. This study explores the use of MS PowerPoint speech-to-text transcription as a means of Computer Assisted Interpreting (CAI) for simultaneous interpretation by conducting a series of experimental trials and analyzing the responses of participating interpreters. After three trial rounds, a survey questionnaire with closed- and open-ended questions was provided to participating interpreters, the responses to which were compiled and analyzed. Responses to open-ended questions were classified into categories for analysis, with some responses presented as examples. Usage patterns and attitude changes were observed and examined throughout the trials. Finally, participant responses are used to suggest some prospects regarding the possibility of STT-assisted interpretation, along with some implications regarding interpreter education and training. In Chapter 26, Jiun Huh 허지운 seeks to explore the market demand for professional interpreting in South Korea. Demand for both conference interpreting and staff interpreting are studied to gain a comprehensive understanding of users’ demand for and perceptions of professional interpreting services in South Korea. Huh adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore the topic by conducting a questionnaire-based survey and an in-depth interview using fictitious resumes, with participants who are users of professional interpreting services. The findings suggest that conference interpreting, and simultaneous interpreting, in particular, is well appreciated by users for the high level of skill required for the job. Users considered interpreting quality and domain-specific interpreting experience very important and expected professional interpreting to be provided as a business service. In-house interpreting, on the other hand, was not highly respected and was even viewed as a cost center. Based on the result, this study underlines the need for improving users’ perceptions of professional interpreting services and for recognizing their contributions to the final business or organizational outcomes. In Chapter 27, Jimin Lee 이지민 argues that the advancement of technology and the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated the development of remote interpreting (RI), which is affecting interpreting processes and competence. Against this backdrop, Lee aims to define the process of RI and RI competence from a technological perspective, see how Korean interpreters are using RI technologies, and identify training and educational implications. To this end, existing literature was summarized, and interviews with four professional interpreters and a survey of 77 interpreters with RI experience were conducted. The RI process can be divided into pre-process, in-process, and post-process, with each step involving different activities related to different technological sub-competences, such as RI device application, information retrieval, terminology management, machine interpreting, and other interpreting technologies. The survey findings reveal that interpreters in Korea seem to have successfully adapted themselves to RI: they are generally comfortable with setting up and using RI devices (although they have some difficulties with multi-tasking), actively use the Internet to gather information, and use office software (especially spreadsheets) to maintain and organize terminology. Almost half the respondents use speech-to-text applications to transcribe, and over 80% of all respondents use machine translation. After interpreting, activities unique to RI were found to be occurring, such as taking minutes using a speech-to-text application, re-recording of some parts of the interpreting due to technical issues, and subtitling speeches. Although less than 20% answered they do not have much knowledge of RI technologies, over 80% support providing RI training and education. Educational areas they recommend are RI applications, voice recognition tools, terminology management software, machine translation, and cloud storage usage, in that order. 9

Riccardo Moratto and Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

In Chapter 28, to develop an understanding of remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI) experience of an in-house interpreter in Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic, Juyeon Lee 이주연 collected qualitative data from a Korean-English in-house interpreter working at an e-commerce platform company. Thematic analysis of in-depth interviews and journal entries collected over the span of one year revealed unique challenges associated with RSI in the in-house interpreting context. While technology has enabled in-house interpreters to continue to provide RSI via Zoom while working from home during the pandemic, several challenges have also emerged. The participant in the present study struggled with the perceived downgrade of the status of an in-house interpreter due to invisibility on Zoom. She felt less appreciated and less empowered in conducting her job as an interpreter. Due to the unique technical setup of the language interpretation functionality on Zoom, she was not able to communicate with her listeners effectively. In addition, as an in-house interpreter, the participant did not receive necessary technical support but instead was asked to assist meeting participants concerning technical setup of the meeting and the interpretation function. Finally, she experienced physical discomfort in her throat and ears due to poor quality of audio input. While some of these challenges may be commonly experienced by freelance interpreters, the intensity and frequency of such challenges can be greater for in-house interpreters who provide RSI daily. Key findings as well as pedagogical implications are discussed. In Chapter 29, the last chapter of the present volume, Pum-Mo Ryu 류범모 and A-Young Kim 김아영 argue that Automatic Interpretation has been increasingly in the spotlight in the field of engineering studies. To fill the gap in interpretation and translation studies, this research explored prior literature and recently published case studies. In conjunction with the evaluation of the current quality of automatic interpretation, researchers produced demonstration videos of KoreanChinese automatic interpretation of graduate course-teaching materials through three commercial interpretation and translation systems. This research also analyzed the evaluation results of automatic interpretation from both automatic and manual evaluation perspectives. We would like to extend our most heartfelt gratitude to the editorial and production team at Routledge; in particular, Simon Bates for his patience and to all the editors at Routledge. Thank you for your support and invaluable guidance. Last, but not least, we are truly indebted to all the contributors to this volume, who provided the erudition and wisdom of each chapter. Thank you for enduring with patience our editorial queries and suggestions. Working with you has been a pleasure and, notwithstanding the names on the spine of the book, this volume is really yours.

10

PART I

 

A historical perspective

1 FROM WHENCE DO WE COME? A panoramic view of interpretation in Korea with a focus on educational institutions Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

1.1

Historical background

Only one year after the foundation of the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910), Sayeokwon, the Office of Interpreters, was established to train interpreters in Chinese, Mongolian, and later, Japanese and Jurchen.1 Just as the competition to enter a school of interpretation and translation today is fierce, it was certainly not any easier back then. First, the candidate had to receive a recommendation from a practicing interpreter with whom he—they were all male— did not have any connection. If it was discovered that there was a connection, the recommendation became invalid, and the person who had made the recommendation was also reprimanded. Following the first screening, there was a second, extremely arduous background check, which included not only the parents but also the grandparents on both sides. The review board consisted of fifteen interpreters, who would decide whether the candidate could even sit for the exam. If there were more than three dissenting votes, the candidate was disqualified. The exam consisted of four parts, including reciting from memory a passage that one of the examiners read, analyzing the classics, conversation in the relevant foreign language, and general knowledge. But, for the most part, interpreters came from a family of interpreters with generations working as interpreters (Chang, 2016, p.  125). In order to attract more candidates, even exemption from military service was offered. The maximum entrance age was fifteen, but the apprentices became younger and younger as time went on. For the three-year apprenticeship, they were taught by instructors including foreign instructors, using textbooks that contained practical conversation situations, which they had to repeat and memorize. One of their main duties was to accompany the huge delegations, which paid regular and timely tributes to China. The interpreters played multi-faceted roles, since they were the only ones who could communicate with China. They were not only interpreters but also protocol officers advising the entourage as well as traders, bringing goods from Joseon, such as ginseng, silver, raw silk, and woven silk and trading or selling for books, dress materials for the royal family, luxury goods, and medicines. A proportion of their trade was public trade condoned by the court, but there was a considerable portion—perhaps a larger portion—that was for their own profit (Kim, 2014). Oftentimes, they would also go on to sell the goods they brought from China to Japan, until

13

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-3

Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

direct trade between China and Japan opened up. Needless to say, they made a hefty profit from their side deals. After 502 years of existence, the Sayeokwon was closed in 1894 as a result of geopolitical pressures that the Joseon dynasty was unable to thwart, consisting mainly of Western nations’ demand for an open-door policy and trade. The trade treaties that East Asian countries, including Korea, concluded with Western nations in the second half of the nineteenth century are well known as unilateral, unequal treaties. Because the Korean government’s failure to understand the negotiating language of the partner countries emerged as the main cause of the of the unequal treaties (in addition to inferior physical forces), the government sought to cope by establishing a modern interpreter and translator training school. (Yu, 2019, pp. 46–47) Another major change that occurred was that the jungin2 were no longer the only ones allowed to become interpreters and translators, but rather, the doors were opened to children of high-ranking government officers who later moved on to a variety of government positions. Just as in Japan, westernization was synonymous with modernization, and so, material from the West was channeled through interpreters and translators. As was mentioned previously, the foreign language focus was mainly on Chinese, Mongolian, followed by Japanese and Jurchen. But, as Korea or Joseon began to slowly open its doors to Western countries as well, English language teaching was introduced to Korea in 1883, when the Korean government opened an English language school to train interpreters. For the next twenty years, English, with government backing, started to grow into the status of the most popular foreign language. (Kim-Rivera, 2002, p. 263) Following the signing of the Treaty of Peace, Commerce, and Navigation between Korea and the US on May 22, 1882, the first treaty between Korea and the US, Dongmunhak, was established, mainly to train English interpreters. Forty young students were selected and taught English, Japanese, and calculations. This school was initiated by Paul Georg von Möllendorf, a German diplomat who came to Joseon via China. He was “the first-ever foreigner to be taken on as an adviser by a government of the Chosŏn dynasty, the Korean dynasty dating back to the year 1392” (Lee, E.J., 2018, p. 1). Though he was in Korea for only three years, he initiated numerous projects to modernize the country. Three years later, it was closed down and it was replaced with Yukyeong Gongwon, considered to be the first modern-style school. Literally meaning “public school to educate young talent,” 35 children of government officials and yangban were taught at this school, which focused mainly on languages in order to be able to assimilate Western culture. In fact, the instructors were from the United States—namely, Homer B. Hulbert, George W. Gilmore, Denzel A. Bunker—and later, from the UK—namely, W.F. Hutchison and T.E. Hallifax. Though it was the supposed to be the first modern type school, it was criticized for its inordinate emphasis on English language education instead of offering a more well-rounded education. Moreover, since the students were limited to children of yangban, it could not fully develop as an educational institution for all the people. Faced with financial difficulties, it closed down in 1894, just eight years after its establishment. However, subsequently, the number of private schools increased exponentially. There “were 14

Interpretation in Korean educational institutions

Korean private schools founded by patriots who worried about the future of the nation. . . .The second group consists of Christian private schools founded by foreign missionaries” (Lee, K.S., 2015, p. 40). This all came to an abrupt halt during the Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945), when Korea lost its sovereign status. Since English was the “language of the enemy,” it became language policy not to teach English in schools. “The forty years of Japanese rule, especially that last decade when Japan was at war, was a major interruption in English language education in Korea.  .  .  .  The mobilization of Korea, its society, and its educational system in support of the Japanese war effort had a serious impact on English-language education” (Kim-Rivera, 2002, p.  279). Needless to say, the schools of interpretation and translation were closed. Though there were no schools, the need for interpreters and translators still existed, and one interpreter stands out, and her case can be considered unusual. Following the collapse of her family, Bae Jungja ended up in Japan, where Ito Hirobumi, the first prime minister who negotiated the treaty that turned Korea into a Japanese protectorate, took her under his wing. Having been born in Korea but studied in Japan as a young child, Bae was fluent in both languages. Turning her back on her home country, she almost fanatically sided with Japan and embraced Japanese ideology. Consequently, when she returned to Korea, she gained access to Emperor Kojong, who became enamored with her, and acted as his interpreter, while at the same time being a spy for Japan (Park, 2015; Bae Jungja, 2022). Though it is not usual for an interpreter to become well-known outside of the discipline, in the case of Bae Jungja, she became infamous for being pro-Japanese as well. For the general public, almost all Western knowledge came via Japan, so all translations of classics, regardless of the source language, were done from the Japanese version, in the form of “relay translations,” meaning that if there were any mistakes in the Japanese translations, they could not be filtered out by the Korean translators, since the Japanese version was the “original”—so to speak. Following Liberation on August 15, 1945, it was basically a “free-for-all” where, for the most part, anybody who knew a little bit of a foreign language could get by saying that they were interpreters and/or translators. One aspect of Japanese education policy in Korea was to prohibit the use of Korean in schools and later even in everyday life, and even though only 15.567% of Koreans were able to understand Japanese, including “those who can understand a little” and “those who could converse without difficulty” (Choi, 1995, p.  242). Therefore, those who could speak Japanese as well as those who had had some exposure to foreign languages, including English, had an advantage in finding work as interpreters. But, just as the country was in complete disarray, so was the educational system for interpreters and translators. During the Korean War (1950–1953) there were very few Korean soldiers who could speak English3 and so the only resource that the US Army and United Nations command had access to were the university students, mainly from prestigious universities, who had studied English. It turned out that they played a very important role because they could understand what the North Koreans were saying; they knew the terrain; and they interrogated POWS, acting as the eyes and ears of the American army. After the Korean War, the armistice talks, which brought together South and North Korea, China, and the US, lasted for two years. Before even considering the intricate nature of the content of the negotiations and what was at stake, the logistical aspect was also complicated and perhaps a reflection of the negotiations themselves. The sites of the negotiations kept changing with the alteration of the actual areas controlled by the two warring sides. The negotiation was first held at Kaesong, a border city on the 15

Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

southern side of the 38th parallel of latitude under the control of the Republic of Korea. As the negotiations continued, ground action continued and the actual areas controlled by the two sides changed with the movements of war. (Wang & Xu, 2016, p. 191) The interpreters themselves were seated behind the main conference table, and they also had an assistant who would help with finding terminology, using dictionaries, translating texts that had been read out loud, and finding relevant documents that were being referred to in the negotiations. Just as there were no professional interpreters during the Korean War itself, the situation had not improved during the armistice talks. They had to make do with anybody who could speak any of the three languages, and there were also missionaries or the sons of missionaries who helped out with the interpretation. Richard Underwood was assigned to interpret from English to Korean for the initial liaison team of UN command officers who flew into Kaesong to do the groundwork prior to the truce talks. Having first joined the US Army in 1945, he served as an intelligence officer and later, in 1950, returned to active service, being sent to Korea at his own request because he felt that there might be an urgent demand for Korean-speaking officers. In personal communication, Richard Underwood admitted he was not a professional interpreter and that he had always felt inadequate because he had had no formal training in the Korean language: he had just learned Korean naturally while growing up and playing with Korean children. (Sánchez, 2012, p. 121) Right from the start, there were numerous difficulties: one, there was a difference in approach to the armistice talks. The US/UN wanted to focus only on military matters, while China/North Korea were looking for a political settlement as well. Two, the negotiators were military men and not diplomats or politicians, so they were unfamiliar with the intricacies of negotiations. In addition, they could not make decisions on their own but needed to receive orders from the White House or State Department and Beijing, which did not help in expediting the entire process. Three, there was a deep-seated mistrust between the two sides. For the interpreters, all speeches had to be interpreted into three languages—Korean, English, and Chinese. The interpreters would only interpret for their delegates, so after the US delegate spoke, the US interpreter would work from English into Korean and Chinese. Needless to say, it was a tedious process, and sometimes the negotiators would become irritated because it was so time-consuming and speak without even waiting for the interpreters, who had not been trained professionally. “Although the dominant modality of interpreting was consecutive in the Panmunjom Negotiations, it was also common in the meetings that when the opposite side was speaking the interpreter would whisper to his principal about the general nature and purport of the speech, so that the principal would learn the purport of his enemy in a short time and begin to write out the reply and pass it to his interpreters for rendering consecutively into the other two languages” (Wang & Xu, 2016, p. 193). Following the Korean War and armistice talks, those who had had some previous exposure to foreign languages had an advantage in finding jobs that involved those languages, with some ending up working as translators and/or interpreters. However, regarding educational institutions for interpretation and translation, there were none to speak of.

16

Interpretation in Korean educational institutions

1.2 1.2.1

Educational institutions

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Following the Armistice talks, the country was busy rebuilding and recovering from the war. There was little time for concerns about interpretation and translation, with all the country’s efforts focused on reconstruction. When the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation (GSIT) of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) was first established in 1979, it was actually called the Graduate School of Simultaneous Interpretation, and seven languages in combination with Korean were offered—English, French, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic—with German being added the following year. When the GSSI was first established, there was a lot of resistance, even within the university. Simultaneous interpretation between Western languages and Korean? Many people were extremely skeptical that such a feat could be possible. Some of the arguments against interpretation between Korean and foreign languages was that the word order was different, with the verb coming at the very end of the sentence and the culture being so different that it would be impossible to convey such ideas in simultaneous interpretation. However, HUFS sent a Frenchspeaking professor to ESIT (Ecole Supérieure d’Inteprètes et de Traducteurs) in Paris, France to benchmark their program. When GSSI was first launched, there was government funding, which made it possible to spend the second year of the three-year program abroad. Needless to say, it was extremely popular right from the start. This was a time in Korean history of export-driven economic growth where people who could speak foreign languages, especially English, were sought after; it was also a time when foreign travel was restricted, and so the second-year abroad had great appeal. GSIT was not only a pioneer as an education institution, but in other aspects as well. Interpretation and translation, on the one hand, is a practical discipline, in which graduates go out and apply what they have learned to their job. On the other hand, it is not a certificate program but a veritable degree provided by a graduate school. As such, it is important to balance the two aspects of translation studies. Similar to interpreting agencies, the Center for Interpreting and Translation was established in 1983, just four years after the graduate school opened, because there was a need to manage all the inquiries for translation and interpretation. It started out as an informal organization, with graduates volunteering their time; but then, it took on a more formal structure, and today, it is part of the university organization and a major agency for those looking for qualified interpreters and translators while at the same time protecting the rights and working conditions of interpreters and translators. In order to stimulate research in Translation Studies, the Interpretation and Translation Research Institute (ITRI) was established in 1997, just two years before the GSIT doctorate program. It currently publishes Interpreting and Translation Studies, one of the first journals in translation studies to be cited on the Korea Citation Index,4 four times a year. ITRI also holds two conferences annually—in the spring/summer, one mainly aimed at the Korean audience, and in the fall/winter, one for international scholars. Spearheading research in interpretation and translation at a time when people did not even think it was a veritable discipline, ITRI laid the groundwork for research in this field of studies. Following the success of GSIT, numerous other educational institutions, most notably Ewha Womans University, pushed for authorization to establish their own graduate school of interpretation. The Ministry of Education resisted for quite a while, stating that there was no need to have multiple graduate schools of interpretation in such a small country as Korea. But in 1997, Ewha Womans University was authorized to establish a graduate school of interpretation and translation, which opened the floodgates for other universities to follow suit. There are currently eleven

17

Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

graduate schools5 and numerous undergraduate programs, which consist of a few courses in interpretation and/or translation or sometimes even a major. Further elaboration on this will come in the next section. What spurred interest among the general public were major international events. The first were the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988, which were a landmark event for Korea to show off to the rest of the world its remarkable economic progress. Regarding interpretation and translation, the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee (SLOOC) commissioned ESIT to set up a program to train interpreters/translators for the Seoul Olympic Games. Since the candidates had to be fluent in three languages—Korean, English, and French—only four people passed the entrance exam in Seoul (but one student decided not to go to Paris), and four more were recruited in Paris. ESIT set up a special program for the Olympic interpreters that was the similar to their regular program, except that Korean was taught as an A language; after the training, they returned to Seoul to work for a minimum of one year until the end of the Seoul Olympic Games. Their work involved mainly translations, building up to the Olympic Games, interpreting for IOC visits and during the Games themselves, interpreting for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, as well as all the press conferences. For interpreters, however, the 1991 Gulf War, in particular, could be said to be a major turning point. It was the first time that live broadcasts of war scenes and war reporting were broadcast directly from CNN on Korean national TV. Since CNN is in English, the real-time reporting had to be interpreted simultaneously. The general audience had never really been exposed to simultaneous interpretation, and so the reactions were negative to begin with because they felt that the interpreters did not sound like professional announcers, since they were not reading from a script. A few untrained “interpreters” who professed to speak English, and therefore could interpret, attempted to jump on the bandwagon and gain a name for themselves but failed miserably. Granted, the conditions were not optimal with noisy gunfire, bombs, and other background noises, nor were the TV stations equipped with soundproof booths or other equipment needed for simultaneous interpretation; nevertheless, this was truly the test of fire in which the trained interpreters shined while those who had not been trained did less well. This was also an opportunity for the general public to realize that just speaking a foreign language does not mean that you are able to interpret— especially simultaneously.

1.2.2

Graduate schools of interpretation and translation in Seoul 1.2.2.1

Ewha Womans University

As was mentioned previously, the second graduate school of interpretation and translation to be established was the one at Ewha Womans University. Seeing so many of its graduates leave their alma mater and go to another university was extremely frustrating for Ewha Womans University, and consequently, they petitioned the Ministry of Education to be allowed to set up their own graduate school of translation and interpretation; authorization was granted in November 1996, and it was established with just the Korean and English department the following year. It subsequently added Korean-French as well as Korean-Japanese and Korean-Chinese. It is also the only other graduate school of interpretation and translation besides HUFS to have a doctorate program, which was launched in 2005, together with the Ewha Research Institute for Translation Studies, which publishes the T&I Review, a peer-reviewed journal cited on the Korea Citation Index. One way in which Ewha is different compared to other graduate schools of interpretation and translation is that students have to choose between interpretation and translation from the moment

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Interpretation in Korean educational institutions

they apply, with a minimal number of crossover classes, while most other schools teach both, as it is deemed necessary to meet the demands of the market.

1.2.2.2

Seoul University of Foreign Studies (SUFS)

The year after Ewha Womans University established its graduate school of translation and interpretation, the Seoul University of Foreign Studies (SUFS) received authorization, and it started to accept students in 2004. SUFS, often confused with HUFS—even in Korea—was established exclusively as a graduate school for interpretation and translation, with no undergraduate program. The languages offered are English, Chinese, and Japanese. Recently, SUFS launched a joint program, with Western Sydney University in which students are required to spend the first year at SUFS and the second year at Western Sydney University, and at the end of the program, they receive two diplomas, one from SUFS and the other from Western Sydney University. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students were unable to go to Australia and had to take online classes.

1.2.2.3

Other graduate schools in Seoul

Graduate School of International Studies, Chung-Ang University: Chung-Ang University does not have a freestanding graduate school of interpretation and translation, but rather, it is incorporated in its graduate school of international studies; their philosophy being that languages are a portion of the larger international studies discipline. The advantage of this program is that there is greater access to subjects within the graduate school. The languages offered in combination with Korean are English, Chinese, and Russian. Korea University–Macquarie University: Within the umbrella of the KU Foreign Language Center, the joint program between Korea University in Seoul and Macquarie University in Australia is slightly different from the other graduate school programs. First of all, it allows students to study for the first year at Korea University, followed by the second year in Australia. Furthermore, students can choose between the certificate (one semester), diploma (two semesters), or master’s program (three semesters), meaning that, within three semesters, students are able to obtain a master’s. Also, it conducts the entrance exam twice a year, in the spring and fall, since it is more of a semester-based program. The focus is mainly on translation rather than interpretation, and they also have weekend classes to accommodate students who are working. International Graduate School of English6: The most recent addition is the International Graduate School of English. As its name suggests, the IGSE tries to encompass other areas, including interpretation and translation. The Department of English Education focuses on two majors; namely, TESOL and ELT materials development. With the increase of bilateral exchanges between Korea and Vietnam, the Korean-Vietnamese interpreting and translation department aims to meet those needs. It is the only graduate school that offers a program in Korean-Vietnamese interpretation and translation. Another advantage is that the IGSE has day and night classes from which to choose.

1.2.3

Graduate schools of interpretation and translation outside of Seoul

Starting from the institution the farthest away from Seoul, the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation of Jeju National University was established at the turn of the century. It was authorized to set up Korean-English, Korean-German, Korean-Chinese, and Korean-Japanese departments; however, the Korean-Japanese department was launched in 2003. Each year, fewer than ten

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Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

students graduate; and for the most part, they absorb the translation and interpretation work in the area. It is the only national university to have a graduate school of interpretation and translation. Established twenty years ago in the second largest city of Korea, the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation of Busan University of Foreign Studies offers a master’s degree in Korean-English, Korean-Japanese, and Korean-Chinese—the three most popular languages in Korea. Students are required to write a thesis in order to graduate. More students graduate majoring in translation than in interpretation, and they mainly work within the vicinity of the city of Busan. Keimyung University, located in Daegu in the central region of Korea, offers Korean-English, Korean-Japanese, and Korean-Chinese, though the Korean-Japanese is offered only when there are more than three students. In the case of Keimyung University, the interpretation and translation department is included within the graduate school and is not a stand-alone graduate school, which is why there is an additional graduation requirement: the master’s thesis, which can be waived if students take nine more credit hours. Very few students opt to write a thesis and prefer to take the additional classes, which also gives them an opportunity to practice interpretation and translation more. At the master’s level, students graduate with a degree in consecutive interpretation and translation or translation, depending on their grades. Keimyung University also offers a doctorate, with coursework in interpretation, translation, simultaneous interpretation, and theory. Students who are working toward a doctorate degree have to write a dissertation, but a number of students simply opt for the two years of coursework, as it provides them with more practice with interpretation and translation, and especially simultaneous interpretation. Graduates from Keimyung University, for the most part, satisfy the interpretation and translation needs of the Daegu area. Located in the port city of Pohang in the eastern part of the Korean peninsula, Handong Global University stands out from the other graduate schools of interpretation and translation in a few ways. While there are universities, such as Ewha Womans University, that have a Christian background, Handong Global University has included sermon interpretation and translation and other such courses in its curriculum. While applicants do not have to be Christian, they are advised to the fact that they will have to take religion-related courses. In addition, this year, Handong Global University has announced that they will be accepting only five students, which they say contributes to their “family-like” atmosphere. After the first year or two semesters, students choose whether they want to major in interpretation or translation. Most of the graduates find work in the vicinity, especially with POSCO, the major steelmaker in Korea, absorbing a large portion of the graduates. The graduate school of interpretation and translation at Pyongtaek University was established in 2017 in order to meet the interpretation and translation demands of the region, especially those emanating from the US 8th Army headquarters, which has been moved from Seoul to Pyongtaek. In order to attract students who are working, they offer night classes twice a week; in addition, they also offer translation and interpretation of Christian texts, dialogue interpreting—mainly community interpreting, business English, and text analysis. Sunmoon University, affiliated with the Unification Church, had a graduate school of interpretation and translation with Korean-English, Korean-Chinese, Korean-Japanese, and Korean-Russian departments, but it was discontinued and they stopped recruiting students from 2020.

1.3

The future of interpretation and translation in Korea

According to Statistics Korea, the number of translation/interpretation companies have nearly doubled from 364 in 2010 to 712 in 2019 and more than tripled in 2020 to 2,429; while the number of translators/interpreters has more than doubled from 1,505 in 2010 to 3,610 in 2019 and almost doubled to 6,251 in 2020. However, it should be noted that, since translators and interpreters do 20

Interpretation in Korean educational institutions

not need to have a license to practice, anybody can identify with the profession. Given that, in 2021, Korea held 4737 international meetings, the second most international meetings in the world, according to UIA (Union of International Associations), it is encouraging to see that the interpretation and translation market is picking up again and becoming vibrant. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the interpretation and translation market like no other calamity. SARS, MERS, and the Asian financial crisis left interpreters unscathed, but since meetings were not being held at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, interpreters were not being hired. For the first year of the pandemic, the interpretation market was almost completely decimated, with some interpreters even applying for unemployment allowance. After the first-year shock, companies and clients started to realize that the pandemic was not going to go away any time soon and business had to go on; and so Zoom, webinars, and other online platforms became the new meeting place. This led to other difficulties for interpreters; the carefully protected work conditions suddenly started to crumble, and some clients asked interpreters to work solo and/or at a lower rate. Fortunately, the situation has been redressed, and that no longer seems to be the case. However, requests for subtitling instead of interpretation, working in different time zones, and poor audio quality are some of the problems that interpreters still have to face. From March 9 to 15, 2016, Lee Sedol, an eighteen-time world go champion, played for the best of five games with AlphaGo, a computer go program developed by Google Deep Mind. The score was one to four in favor of AlphaGo. The general public followed the games as if they were football matches, and when AlphaGo won, everybody was in complete shock. In the aftermath, interest in AI exploded, not least in translation. There was a flurry of activity—interest, investment, and development—in translation apps. It is no longer possible to categorically dismiss translation apps, saying that they can never surpass human translators. The most widely used apps in Korea are Papago and Google Translate. Choi, E.S. (2022), in a Joongang Daily article comparing the two apps, concluded that both apps had voice, image, and conversation translations of which for voice translation there was little difference between the two; for image translation from Korean into English, Papago was slightly better; and for conversation translation, Google Translate had a slight advantage because it was faster. However, overall, for Korean into English translations, Papago was considered to be the preferred choice because it takes into account the cultural aspects of the Korean language, such as honorific forms. This is also backed by a 2019 study conducted by UCLA and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which used Google Translate for medical instructions and found that in the case of Korean, it was 82.5% accurate, compared to a 94% accuracy rate for Spanish (Taira et al., 2021). Enormous strides have been made that have opened the doors for new areas; namely, postediting or proofreading what the machines translated. With improvements in translation, redundant documents are often machine translated and the translator is entrusted with the task of post-editing the document. Quick to pick up on this trend, there are not only university classes that teach postediting, but also private institutes that give courses and teach post-editing. The same cannot be said for machine interpretation. For tourists visiting another country and needing directions, mobile phone apps can often do the job extremely effectively, but at the conference interpretation level, the situation is quite different. In a keynote speech given at the 21st ITRI International Conference, Cheung (2022) described a pilot study that he conducted in Hong Kong to test machine-aided interpretation, which is gaining traction. He found that the participants of the study “felt that caption could help improve accuracy.” While machine-aided interpretation is barely being tested in Korea, we must nevertheless be prepared for new developments. When machine translation first appeared on the scene, there were those who, on the one hand, said that it would replace human translators, and on the other, those who said that it would never happen. 21

Hyang-Ok Lim 임향옥

What did happen instead was somewhere in between—for relatively simple, straightforward texts, machine translation does a decent job; for the more complex, post-editing by a human is imperative. Interpretation will probably take a similar route and not remain unscathed. It is up to educational institutions—not only in Korea, but around the world—to grow and develop to incorporate such changes in the curriculum. Schools of interpretation and translation must prepare their students for the real world or else they would not be fulfilling their mission.

Notes 1 Prior to the Sayeokwon, the Tongmungwan was established in 1276 at the suggestion of a government official who felt that the interpreters at that time were low class, did not have sufficient knowledge, and worked for their own personal gain. However, as “non-professionals” began to make a name for themselves, the Tongmungwan lost its raison d’être. 2 Literally meaning middle person (中人in Chinese), the jungin, consisting mainly of clerks, skilled workers, doctors, and government and military officials, were a class below the yangban, or noble class, but above the pyeongmin, or commoner. 3 This is not an unusual situation. As Baigorri-Jalon (2010, p.  7) stated, “People who participate in wars as interpreters respond to the rules of supply and demand. They are rarely professional interpreters and end up playing that role by chance, simply because they have a functional knowledge of the languages involved. . . . In an overwhelming majority of cases, the date before they started interpreting they were not interpreters, translators or linguists.” 4 Other journals are The Journal of Translation Studies published by the Korean Association for Translation Studies (2007); Interpretation and Translation, published by the Korean Society of Interpretation and Translation Studies (2006); the Journal of Interpretation and Translation Education, published by the Korean Association of Interpretation and Translation Education (2013); and, most recently, T&I Review, published by the Ewha Research Institute for Translation Studies (2021). 5 Not including HUFS and Ewha, in Seoul, there is the Korea University-Macquarie University program; Seoul University of Foreign Studies; Chungang University; the newest addition is the International Graduate School of English. Outside of Seoul, Pusan University of Foreign Studies; Jeju University; Keimyung University; Handong University; and Pyongtaek University. 6 Though IGSE was established in 2002, it opened its Korean-English interpretation and translation department in 2018. 7 In 2019, Korea hosted 1,113 international meetings, and in 2020, 256.

References Bae, Jung-Ja. (2022, November 6). In Namu.wiki. https://namu.wiki/w/배정자 Baigorri-Jalon, J. (2010, December). Wars, languages and the role(s) of interpreters. Les liaisons dangereuses: Langues, traduction, interpretation. Beyrouth, Lebanon, pp. 173–204, 2011, Sources-Cibles. . Chang, I. J. (2016). A study of the lineage of translators in the late Choson dynasty – with a focus on the ‘genealogy of Geumsan Lee family Choson’. Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, 94, 121–172. Cheung, A. (2022). RSI, ELF, ASR, COVID and the future of T&I curriculum [Keynote presentation]. The 21st ITRI international conference, Seoul, Korea. Choi, E. S. (2022, January 11). Which translation apps do you use? If you see this, the answer will come . . . a comparison of Google translate and papago [beonyeok app mo sseuni? Igeot bomyeon dab naonda]. https://www. joongang.co.kr/article/25039782. Choi, Y. R. (1995). Ilje Malgi Hwangminwha jeongchaekeui seongkyeok: Ilboneo bokeub undong jungsimeuro. (일제말기 황민화 정책의 성격: 일본어 보급운동 중심으로) [Characteristics of the Japanization policy at the end of Japanese rule: With a focus on the spread of the Japanese movement]. Hankuk Keundaesa Yeonku [Studies in Korean Modern History], 2, 234–258. Kim, N. H. (2014). Historical approaches of translation and interpreting III (Late Joseon Dynasty). Interpreting and Translation Studies, 18(1), 1–39. Kim-Rivera, E. (2002). English language education in Korea under Japanese colonial rule. Language Policy, 1(3), https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021144914940

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Interpretation in Korean educational institutions Lee, E. J. (2018). Paul Georg von Möllendorff: A German reformer in Korea. In: J. Cho & L. Roberts (Eds.), Transnational encounters between Germany and Korea. Palgrave series in Asian German studies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95224-3_3 Lee, K.-S. (2015). History of foreign language education in Korea. Foreign Language Education Research, 18, 37–52. Park, S. Y. (2015). Female interpreters in colonial periods: La Malinche and Bae Jeong-ja. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 19(1), 127–146. Sánchez, M. M. F. (2012, January). A bilingual officer remembers Korea: A closer look at untrained interpreters in the Korean War. In H. Footitt & M. Kelly (Eds.), Languages and the military. London, New York and Shanghai: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137033086_9 Taira, B. R., Kreger, V., Orue, A., & Diamond, L. C. (2021, March 5). A pragmatic assessment of Google translate for emergency department instructions. https://link.spring.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11606-021-06666-2.pdf Wang, B., & Xu, M. (2016). Interpreting conflicts and conflicts in interpreting: A micro-historical account of the interpreting activity in the Korean Armistice Negotiations. Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series: Themes in Translation Studies, 15, 186–204. Yu, J. H. (2019). Interpreter and translator training in late nineteenth-century Korea. In J. H. Kang & J. Wakabayashi (Eds.), Translating and interpreting in Korean contexts: Engaging with Asian and Western others (pp. 31–49). Oxon & New York: Routledge.

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2 A STUDY ON THE ACTIVITIES OF INTERPRETERS AND TRANSLATORS IN POLITICS, DIPLOMACY, AND SOCIETY OF THE GORYEO AND JOSEON DYNASTIES Jung-Hwa Yu 유정화 and Hye-seung Lee 이혜승 2.1 Introduction Interpreters were trained in Korea systematically at the national level. According to records, fullfledged training of interpreters began in the Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392) with the establishment of the Tongmungwan in 1276 just before the start of the Yuan Invasion Period.1 Since Goryeo had close diplomatic relations with China and neighboring northern countries after its founding, interpreters were very important. In particular, as Goryeo began to receive interference from Yuan, the function and activities of interpreters began receiving attention in earnest. Systematic interpretation education continued in the Joseon Dynasty, which was established following Goryeo, but Joseon renamed the Tongmungwan the Sayeokwon, and further systematized interpretation education. For study prior to admission to Sayeokwon, a preliminary school was established to increase the number of interpreters, to spur growth in language education in proportion to the expansion of diplomatic relations and to attempt to educate interpreters with native speakers, despite the closed international ties. The caste system was reasserted in Joseon, reversing the trend of increased social mobility during Goryeo. “Yangban,” or high-class scholars, were in charge of politics and diplomacy, and “jungin,” people in fields requiring special knowledge such as commerce, medicine, and science, belonged to the middle class, and included interpreters. These middle-class interpreters can be further divided into two categories. The first is that of interpreters who passed yeokkwa, the interpreter certification exam, and were schooled at the Sayeokwon. The other is that of hereditary interpreters who inherited their position without taking the test. These hailed from a few specific surname families, and they monopolized the interpreting business, passing it down from generation to generation. This hereditary succession of interpreters led to professional pride and some families with surnames became widely known as prestigious interpreters. Representative among these were Hyeon Cheonryeong, Kim Ubong, Byun Miryang, Oh Haeju, and Ko Jeju. As members of the middle class, those not permitted to advance to high-ranking positions established an economic foundation by actively participating in import and export trading. They began to voice their political and social DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-4

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concerns using their collective wealth and the influence of prestigious interpreter families. In the early nineteenth century, when contact with Western culture began, they began to play a leading role in diplomacy and politics. In this study, focusing on the activities of interpreters from Goryeo to around the nineteenth century, I would like to take a closer look at their contributions to all fields of society.

2.2 The activities of interpreters during the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties 2.2.1 2.2.1.1

Goryeo dynasty Politics and Diplomacy

In Goryeo, interpreters were mainly commoners, but there were also interpreters from other classes, such as the lowest class and monks (Lee, 2009). This diversity in the backgrounds of interpreters meant that Goryeo prioritized skill over status. In fact, depending on one’s ability, interpreters could be promoted to high-ranking positions, even that of prime minister, so it seems that there was no major restriction on the advancement of interpreters in society. It was from the beginning of the Yuan Invasion Period2 that interpreters made conspicuous advances into high-ranking positions. Traditionally, communication with China had been carried out using Chinese characters. Yet unlike before, the relationship with Yuan required interpreters who could speak Mongolian, not Chinese. These interpreters had to accompany officials when they were dispatched to or themselves received envoys from Yuan. Since there were only a few people who could speak Mongolian at the time, the role of interpreters was inevitably very important, and their advancement to high-ranking positions became more commonplace. During meetings with the Yuan, they pursued national interests through espionage activities and countermeasure preparation in order to strengthen relations between the two countries or to decipher the Yuan’s true intentions. Interpreters were also directly dispatched as envoys, to reduce friction with the Yuan through smooth communication. In particular, when Yuan planned to conquer Japan and made unreasonable tribute demands of Goryeo, interpreters acted to alleviate conflict. In addition, when the Goryeo royal family went to Yuan, interpreters also accompanied them to prevent incidents caused by the language barrier and to protect the Goryeo royal family (Lee Meesouk, 2015, p. 214). Interpreters were able to make their presence felt in Goryeo politics, not only because Goryeo had a close relationship with Yuan, but also because the role of interpreters became more important at the time and their political influence also increased.

2.2.1.2 Society Beyond their impact on politics and diplomacy, the influence interpreters had on society was considerable. Above all, as mentioned previously, interpreters played an important role in changing the caste system of Goryeo. Though most interpreters had been from the commoner class in the past, during the Yuan Invasion Period, interpreters from diverse backgrounds such as the lower class, monks, and slaves appeared. Regardless of background, they advanced to high rank, and this affected the caste system in Goryeo, which continued even after the end of the Yuan Invasion Period. In contrast to this seemingly positive development, however, some interpreters negatively impacted Goryeo society. They allied with the Yuan, pursued individual interests, and even directly tried to weaken the power of the Goryeo royal family (Lee Jung Shin, 2014, p.  385). For instance, there were those, such as Cho Ingyu, who used his position to commit economic plunder, destroying the economic foundation of Goryeo society and causing social controversy (Goryeosa, Vol. 105 25

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biographies 18, Cho Ingyu). However, despite the deviant behavior of some interpreters, the activities and achievements of the interpreters at the time in the field of politics and diplomacy continued to benefit the country throughout the history of Goryeo.

2.2.2 2.2.2.1

Joseon dynasty Politics and diplomacy

In Joseon, as the caste system became stricter, the social advancement and status of interpreters decreased significantly, in contrast to the relative freedom they enjoyed during the Goryeo period. However, this doesn’t mean that the activities or performances of interpreters were entirely feeble. Most importantly, Joseon never ceased fighting large and small wars with Japan and with China’s Qing Dynasty. Thus, interpreters were employed to influence the stances of the two sides and to ease conflicts whenever a national crisis occurred, such as a war. As a representative example, Hong Sooneon solved the conflict with China that had lasted for 200 years, caused by misrepresentation of historical facts about Lee Seonggye, who had founded Joseon. He also explained away the groundless rumors that Joseon was trying to topple China by colluding with Japan before the outbreak of the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. He overcame the crisis of war with China and worked as an interpreter for the king during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592, actively communicating with China and striving for a speedy end to the war (Kim, 2011). This Hong Sooneon, who came from a family of three generations of interpreters, was recognized by the king for his contribution to national interests and was appointed to a high-ranking position. Afterward, interpreters began to show outstanding activity in the field of politics and diplomacy, as mentioned before, when international relations started to change rapidly due to contact with the West in the nineteenth century. Existing high-ranking officials failed to actively cope with the new environment, while interpreters, who had worked abroad for generations, began to emerge as new talents in politics and diplomacy by mediating conflicts or suggesting new policies in diplomacy. At the time, most interpreters were those who had studied Chinese because communication was mainly conducted through writing in Chinese characters in Asia, including Korea, China, and Japan. Representative examples include Oh Gyeongseok (1831–1879), Baek Chunbae, and Byeon Wongyu. Oh Gyeongseok, a Chinese interpreter, visited the Qing as an envoy thirteen times between 1853 and 1874. He was dispatched to Beijing right before the French campaign against Korea in 1866 and, based on the information he found while intensively contacting Chinese personnel, prepared and reported against the French military. He had been carefully observing changes in China’s external environment, and when the United States entered the territory of Joseon requesting diplomatic ties, he proposed to the king to abolish the closed-door policy, which was the basic framework of foreign policy in Joseon, and to open ports. Even when Japan occupied Gangwha island and demanded a full-fledged trade treaty, he acted as an active mediator to settle the situation through a treaty without going to war. Baek Chunbae (1844–1887) was also a Chinese interpreter, and when the political situation became unstable due to rumors of Russia’s invasion of Joseon, he was dispatched to Russia to report on the situation in Russia and propose countermeasures against the invasion. Byeon Wonkyu was from a family of hereditary Japanese interpreters and was fluent in Chinese as well as Japanese. He was fluent enough in Chinese to get the highest score on the test. As an official, he actively proposed a polity of national prosperity and defense while taking charge of actual affairs in the overall diplomatic arena. He thought that, to cope with the rapid external environment, it was necessary to strengthen the military, so he insisted on sending students to the Chinese 26

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arms manufacturing department. He did not stop there, and later took charge of the Machinery Manufacturing Department, one of the new culture departments of Joseon.

2.2.2.2

Reformation of the system

Because the basic principle of the foreign policy of Joseon was the closed-door policy, contact with other countries was not free, and as a result, only a few people could travel to other countries or know overseas situations. Since interpreters belonged to this minority, they could relatively easily come into contact with new ideas as well as new cultures brought from abroad. They insisted on expanding and diversifying exchanges with other countries and had progressive thoughts against conservative ruling powers. Interpreters played a major role in forming the early enlightenment sect by introducing books on Western culture and systems, such as Haegugdoji, the world geography book by the Chinese commissioner Wei Yuan, and Yeonghwanjilyag, the world map by Chinese historian Shiji Wu. In addition, basing it on knowledge learned through the interpretation and translation process, Kim Gyeongsu, an interpreter at the time, wrote a book called Gongbochoryak, on the direct path to enlightenment. With their practical experience, interpreters gradually advanced to central and local government positions and began to actively participate in Joseon’s reform policies. Under their influence, Joseon reorganized the systems of control, and new administrative organizations emerged. The Tongnigimuamun, a representative example, was established after the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, mainly out of the need to respond to changes in foreign relations. In addition, it was given full authority, not only in foreign relations but also in military relations, to be in charge of reform. That is, although it was a department created to respond to foreign relations, it was also in charge of importing new weapons and learning how to use them. Considering that, under the Tongnigimuamun, there were the Gimucheo,3 Jeonhwanguk,4 Bangmunguk,5 Ujeongguk,6 and Jeajungwon7 (“widespread relief house”), I can tell its role was not only to reform the system but also to adopt Western medicine and culture. Interpreters can be seen as politicians, administrators, diplomats, educators, and national security chiefs who expanded foreign relations, led overall reform of state affairs, and acquired new knowledge. In 1881, the Tongnigimuamun dispatched official inspection teams to China and Japan to observe how these two countries accepted new cultures and established the Byeolgigun to conduct new military training. In 1882, the following year, the Commerce and Navigation Treaty between Korea and the US were signed and the military system was reformed. Joseon, which wanted to train soldiers armed with new weapons, invited Western instructors to teach them new military training methods and how to use weapons. The recruitment of foreigners, which was initially done in

Table 2.1 1882–1903: Invited foreign advisors (Kim Hyunsuk, 1998, p. 45)  

US

UK

France

Germany

Russia

Advisors Administrators Technicians Educators Military instructors Unknown Total

6 13 27 4 4 0 54

2 23 7 6 3 0 41

1 13 15 8 0 0 37

1 21 7 4 0 1 34

2 5 5 2 31 0 45

27

Qing

Japan

2 4 3 2 0 0 11

16 43 23 9 1 0 92

Unknown

etc

0 1 1 0 0 2 4

1 10 1 0 0 0 12

Jung-Hwa Yu 유정화 and Hye-seung Lee 이혜승

the military sector, later expanded to the maritime and the mint, and then to various fields such as education, technology, and administration.

2.2.2.3

Military

Trade in raw materials, such as buffalo horn, gunpowder, and sulfur, which were widely used as weapons materials at the time, was closely restricted. As mentioned earlier, Byun Wongyu, by participating in the arms negotiation with the Qing and personally visiting the firearms and gun warehouse of Qing’s Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing department, realized the importance of new weapons. Kim Gyeongsu gained knowledge of the latest devices and technologies, such as astronomical meteorology, Chinese geomancy, geography, optics, and printing technology, while writing the Gongbochoryak. He explained the function and performance of new weapons, such as guns, torpedoes, and cannons, in his book, emphasizing their importance. The Gongbochoryak had a great influence on establishing the Gigichang, a new weapon manufacturing institution.

2.2.2.4

Economy

Until the middle of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, intermediary trade, or trade activities centered on interpreters participating in foreign official visits and external spaces, called envoys, was prosperous. Accordingly, trade led by interpreters was called interpreter trading, and interpreters were sometimes referred to as commerce interpreters. Using their privileges as interpreters, they led trade with Qing and Japan, which was strictly controlled at the time. At the time, silver was the international currency that connected the triangular trade between Korea, China, and Japan, and interpreters played a big role in the passage of silver from Japan to China through Joseon.

2.2.2.5

Culture and arts

Interpreters, who, in the Joseon period, had limitations in advancing to high rank, channeled their frustration and resentment into demonstrating their talents in various other fields. One of them was culture and the arts, and interpreters became the main axis in establishing an independent field called Wihang literature. “Wihang” means a small road in the middle of a village, and it was a village where the common people of Joseon lived together. The characteristics of Wihang literature are the following: first, it sublimated realistic expressions of objects and terms used in everyday life into artistic language and emphasized the vitality and scenery of nature. They formed a group of writers, published a collection of poems, wrote biographies of great interpreters, and organized the history of the Jungin centered on interpreters. The “Yukgyosisa” is a representative example, a group composed of famous interpreters of the time, such as Kim Gyeongsu, Kim Seokjun, Ko Youngju, and others, whose main purpose was to compose poems and appreciate them together, but it was also a political association to discuss the future and fate of the country (Yu, 2019). Interpreters traveled back and forth to China, paying great attention to advances in painting style in China. The “Shanghai School” and the “Songhu School” had a great influence on domestic painting styles and painters in Joseon. They did not stop at simply introducing foreign painting styles to the country but served as a vehicle for domestic art as well. Thanks to them, the works of famous painters and calligraphers, such as Kim Junghee and Lee Eonjin, were introduced overseas and exchanges with foreign artists were made possible. Interpreters such as Kim Seokjun, Lee Sangjeok, and Oh Gyeongseok not only mediated art but also exposed their artistic talents through interaction with foreign writers. 28

Interpreters and translators, Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties

2.2.2.6

Education

Among the prestigious interpreter families, the “Cheonryeong Hyeon” family made many achievements, especially in education. Hyeon Chae was in charge of translation work at the editorial department, which is currently the Ministry of Education, and worked hard on compiling and publishing books. The Cheonryeong Hyeon family published as many as 318 books. The topics and types of books are wide-ranging, encompassing nearly all fields of study, including philosophy, art, and science. Aside from literature, another field they devoted their efforts at translation and publication was science. There are many other types of books that were written by them, but in the case of science books, there were many books that were published after translating foreign books. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Korea’s potential as a force in science and technology began with the books they translated and published. 2.2.2.6.1

MODERN EDUCATION

Interpreters made achievements in education based on the new knowledge gained through interpretation and book translation. They were active as teachers at national foreign language schools, following Dongmunhak, Yukyeonggongwon, Korea’s first modern educational institutions, and interpretation and translation institutions, respectively. These schools were established because Western language experts were needed due to the expansion of foreign relations, and at that time, in Joseon, there were few able to speak the languages of Western powers, such as the United Kingdom, Table 2.2 Types and quantity of books published by Cheonryeong Hyeon family (Park Jongseok, 2009) Subject

Qty

Percentage

General Philosophy Religion Social Science Pure Science Technical Science Art Linguistic Literature History Total

18 19 0 44 26 12 10 32 105 52 318

5.66 5.97 0 13.84 8.18 3.77 3.15 10.06 33.03 26.35 100

Table 2.3 The types of science books published by Cheonryeong Hyeon family8 General Science Chemistry Mineralogy Biology

Revised Science textbook, The latest Higher Elementary Science textbook, The New Science Textbook Revised Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry Secondary Mineralogy Secondary Physiological Hygiene, Secondary Physiology, Higher Botany, Botany textbook, Botany, Higher Elementary Botany, Zoological Catechism, Secondary Zoology

29

Jung-Hwa Yu 유정화 and Hye-seung Lee 이혜승

France, and the United States. On account of this lack of talent, Joseon was forced to sign unequal treaties with these countries one after another, and to stop this, Joseon began to train personnel to translate Western languages such as English, French, German, and Russian. Accordingly, some of the interpreters who had received traditional interpretation education and played an active role now entered a new educational institution and received new language education. In other words, for example, a Chinese interpreter would learn German or another Chinese interpreter would learn French. After graduation, they worked as interpreters or became teachers at the school themselves. Some interpreters also went abroad to teach Korean. Kim Byungok, a former Russian interpreter, visited Russia as a member of the Korean delegation to Russia. He remained in St. Petersburg waiting for the official opening of the Korean legation in Russia after the delegation schedule was over. In the meantime, he began teaching as a Korean language professor at the suggestion of Saint Petersburg State University. Kim Byungok was the first Korean to start a Korean language course at an overseas university, and a year later, he gave lectures with the first Korean language textbook that he himself wrote.9 2.2.2.6.2

SOCIAL MOVEMENT

1. The “Rise in Status” movement As mentioned earlier, it was difficult for interpreters to advance to high-ranking positions in Joseon society, as they belonged to the middle class. Interpreters, who gradually accumulated collective power centered on their families, led the movement to rise in status, i.e., to overcome the limitations of their social status, which is called the “Tongcheong movement.” In Joseon, high-ranking positions were called “Cheongjik.” Cheongjik means an official in a general government office, not a technical officer, and the meaning of the Tongcheong is advancing into a government office. 2. Development of the Enlightenment movement Interpreters recognized the importance of educating ordinary people in order to change society. As mentioned earlier, the interpreters translated and published not only Western technical science but also social science books, including philosophy. At the time, most of the communication among the educated class was done in Chinese characters, but interpreters published books, newspapers, and dictionaries in Hangeul to enlighten the public. Korea’s first modern newspaper was published by Dongmunhak, a modern interpretation and translation educational institution. 3. The Independence movement As Korea became a Japanese colony in the late nineteenth century, the Enlightenment movement slowly transformed into an independence movement. Many interpreters, led by the Hyun family, participated in this independence movement, though in the process many of them suffered hardships, such as arrest or imprisonment. Nevertheless, they published articles on sovereignty and independence in newspapers, informing the public of the injustice of Japanese rule and preaching the need for independence and restoration of sovereignty. Their articles were read by many people and contributed greatly to the spread of the independence movement. In particular, students of the first Russian school,10 which was established in Seoul before the Japanese occupation started and closed due to the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, were admitted to a Russian military academy with the support of the Russian government and received military training. Later, they participated in the anti-Japanese battles and shared information with the Russian military about Japanese troops, contributing to the success of Russia’s anti-Japanese battles 30

Interpreters and translators, Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties

in Hamgyong-do Province. Even after the Russo-Japanese War ended, they devoted themselves to the independence movement and continued to the anti-Japanese movement (Yu, 2012).

2.3

Conclusion

For a long time, Korea maintained limited foreign relations with neighboring countries, including China, so there were only a handful of interpreters, including Chinese and Japanese, but they played a very important role in foreign relations, including diplomacy. Accordingly, a government-led professional interpreter training institute was established during the Goryeo Dynasty, and it endured into the Joseon period. Considering that Joseon was a long-standing country that lasted for 500 years, it can be said the interpretation and translation education in Korea has a time-honored tradition that is difficult to find anywhere else in the world. This shows that Korea recognized the importance of language, even though it was limited to a few languages. In Goryeo, interpreters improved their standing in society in spite of their birth status, but as the caste system was strengthened in Joseon, such social advancement was restricted, and their social status had to remain within the middle class. To compensate, they put their energy into activities in various fields such as business, security, culture, art, and education. However, in the nineteenth century, as the external environment of Joseon changed rapidly, starting with contact with the Western powers, interpreters were again able to advance to high positions. Based on their experience and insight, they actively participated and even intervened in various government policies, leading the government’s reform policies. They also carried out enlightenment campaigns to change and improve public consciousness by translating and publishing newspapers and books for the public. During the Japanese colonial period, they devoted themselves to the anti-Japanese Independence movement and worked hard to restore national sovereignty and independence. In the history of mankind, it has always been those who accepted and took the lead in accepting new foreign cultures to break the chains of closed societies and lead to a new society (Park Seongju, 2006, p. 250). Despite their many activities and contributions in various fields, interpreters, who had not received attention due to the social discrimination and limitations of their social status, began to reveal their existence by standing tall as leading actors in politics and diplomacy as the external environment rapidly changed in the nineteenth century. It was because there were interpreters who did not stop at expressing frustration and dissatisfaction with their current conditions, but instead demonstrated their talents in various fields and developed curiosity about new cultures and artifacts, that they were able to become the driving force for reform, despite the chaotic situation of the time.

Notes 1 There were interpreter training institutes called Yebinseong and Yeokeodogam before the Tongmungwan, but it is difficult to estimate the exact year of establishment. Therefore, the Tongmumgwan is considered the beginning of institutional interpreter training in Korea. 2 In 1231, the Mongol Empire invaded Goryeo, and after about 28 years of war, Goryeo and the Mongol Empire signed a peace treaty in 1259. Afterward, the Yuan Dynasty’s interference and economic exploitation continued, and around 1356, King Gongmin’s anti-Yuan movement freed Goryeo from the Yuan influence. Generally, the Yuan Invasion Period refers to a period spanning about 100 years, from 1259 to 1356. 3 In late Joseon, it refers to a temporary government office in charge of all affairs related to politics and the military. 4 State institution that minted currency, established in 1883. 5 An institution established in 1883 to manage affairs related to printing and publishing. It was also in charge of publishing the newspaper of Korea’s first modern interpretation and translation institution, Dongmunhak. 6 An institution established in 1884 to take charge of postal affairs.

31

Jung-Hwa Yu 유정화 and Hye-seung Lee 이혜승 7 Korea’s first Western-style national hospital opened in 1885. 8 The contents of the study of Jung Eunkyung (1997) were charted. 9 The Korean language textbook written by Kim Byeongok is currently in the library of Saint Petersburg State University. 10 It was the first Russian interpreter training school that opened in 1896 and existed until it was closed in 1904 due to the Russo-Japanese War.

References Jung, E. 정은경. (1997). Gaehwagi hyeonchaegeui jeo yeogsul mich balganseoe gwanhan yeongu 개화기 현 채가(玄采家)의 저(著) 역술 (譯述) 및 발간서에 관한 연구 [A study on the writings, translation works, and publications of family of Hyun Chae]. Seojihag-yeongu 서지학연구 [Journal of Studies in Bibliography], 14, 303–334. Kim, H. 김현숙. (1998). Hangug geundae seoyang-in gomungwan yeongu(1882–1904) 한국 근대 서양 인 고문관 연구(1882–1904) [(The) politics of foreign advisers in Korea: 1882–1904]. Ihwayeojadaehaggyo bagsahag-winonmun 이화여자대학교 박사학위논문. Doctoral thesis. Ewha Womans University. Kim, Y. 김영숙. (2011). Yeoggwan hongsun-eon gwa jomyeongoegyo 역관(譯官) 홍순언(洪純彦)과 조명 외교(朝明外交) [Interpreter Hong Sooneon and Joseon-Ming diplomacy]. Chungguksa yongu 중국사연구 [The Journal of Chinese Historical Research], 70, 195–222. Lee, J. 이정신. (2014). Golyeohugiui yeoggwan 고려후기의 역관 [Official interpreters in the late Goryeo dynasty]. Hangug jungsesayeongu 한국 중세사연구 [The Journal of Korean Medieval History], 38, 373–403. Lee, M. 이미숙. (2009). Golyeosidaeui yeoggwan yeongu 고려시대의 역관 연구. [A study on the Yuk-kwan of the Koryo period]. Hangugsasang-gwa munhwa 한국사상과 문화 [Korean Thought and Culture], 46, 201–234. Lee, M. 이미숙. (2015). Won ganseobgi yeoggwan-e gwanhan ilgochal 원 간섭기 역관에 관한 일고찰 [A study of interpretation officer in Yuan Dynasty interference period]. Hangugsasang-gwa munhwa 한국사상 과 문화 [Korean Thought and Culture], 79, 197–228. Park, J. 박종석. (2009). Gaehwagi yeoggwan ui gwahaggyoyug hwaldong: hyeonchae leul jungsim-eulo 개 화기 역관(譯官)의 과학교육 활동: 현채(玄采)를 중심으로 [The activity of an interpreter on science education during the enlightenment period in Korea: Focus on Hyun Chae]. Hanguggwahaggyoyughaghoeji 한국과학교육학회지 [Journal of the Korean Association for Science Education], 29(6), 741–750. Park, S. 박성주. (2006). Yeomalseoncho tongsaui jigneung-gwa geu seong-gyeog 여말 선초 통사의 직능과 그 성격 [Study on the organization of an office and its character of Tongsa in the period of late Koryo and early Chosun dynasty]. Kyongjusahak 경주사학 [Kyongju History], 25, 249–267. Yu, J. 유정화 (2012). Choecho leosia-eo tong-yeogsadeul-ui deungjangbaegyeong-gwa yeoghal 최초 러시아 어 통역사들의 등장배경과 역할 [Appearance background and role of early Korean-Russian interpreters]. Tongbeon-yeoghag-yeongu통번역학연구 [Interpreting and Translation Studies], 16(3), 135–156. Yu, J. 유정화. (2019). Geundae gaehyeoggi han-il tongbeon-yeog gyeolsa bigyo yeongu – yuggyosisa wa meilokusya leul jungsim-eulo 근대 개혁기 한일 통번역 결사비교 연구 육교시사(六橋詩社)와 메이 로쿠샤(明六社)를 중심으로 [A comparative study on associations of interpreters and translators of Korea and Japan in the modern reform period]. Tongbeon-yeoghag-yeongu통번역학연구 [Interpreting and Translation Studies], 23(2), 139–162.

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3 HISTORY OF INTERPRETING IN THE JOSEON DYNASTY Six selected interpreting officials Nam Hui Kim 김남희

3.1

Introduction

It is gratifying to observe a growing number of publications highlighting activities of interpreters as actors and players in the history of Korean interpreting (Baek, 2019; Choi, 2019; Kim, 2015; Kim & Wakabayashi, 2014; Ko, 2020; Park, 2019). The absence of historical records has often been mentioned as an issue for interpreting history researchers (Baigorri-Jalón, 2006, p. 102). While documents from the Goryeo1 dynasty (918–1392) are scarce, the Joseon dynasty (1392–1897/1910) provides sufficient material for study. Official historians of the Joseon court and its institutions left behind many documents, such as the annals of the Joseon dynasty (joseonwangjosillok), the Journal of Seungjungwon (seunjungwonilgi), lists of successful candidates of civil service examinations for interpreting (yeokgwabangmok), and compilations of official reports by interpreting officials (yeokgwansangeondeunglok), to name a few. In fact, yeokgwabangmok, permits us to even estimate the number of interpreting officials: there were 2,976 between 1498 and 1891 (Lee, not dated http://people.aks.ac.kr/) and there must have been even many more, since the introduction of the yeokgwa (examinations for civil servants, i.e., interpreting officials) was in 1399. In addition, there are many personal records or less public documents written by (interpreting) officials, including tongmungwanji2, or travelogues and diaries, especially written by yeokgwan. Such abundance of historical documents is relatively rare elsewhere in the interpreting research field. Therefore, difficulties for researchers lie not in the scarcity of historical sources, but in the language of the sources. Even after the creation of Hangeul in 1443, documents from the Joseon era are almost always written in Chinese, and some even use special Koreanized Chinese characters and grammar, so that only specialists could read them (Lee, 2016, pp. 97–102). Thanks to the increasing number of translations into modern Korean, historical sources are becoming more accessible, enabling us to understand interpreting officials in their context. The current study is indebted to the meticulous translations of historical sources into modern Korean.3 Yeokhak was used during the Joseon dynasty as a term for studies on interpreting. The term also referred to people who were engaged in foreign language learning, research, or interpreting. Yeokeo or yeokgwan were often used as synonyms to refer to a foreign language or foreign language officials (Kang, 1966, p. 522). The term yeokgwan refers to an interpreting official and is used in this chapter as a collective term for persons in charge of interpreting as an official. There have been many “names” for interpreting officials, sometimes pejorative, such as yeokbae (interpreter herds), yeokgsang 33

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-5

Nam Hui Kim 김남희

(trading interpreter), and yeokseol (interpreting tongue). Other terms stress activities; for example, tongsa (interpreting official for envoys) or eojeon tongsa (interpreting official for the king), jiljeonggwan (official for requesting particular agendas for the Chinese court), in which the yangban government officials normally engaged. The first part of this chapter presents a compact overview of the Joseon dynasty. The second part is devoted to a general introduction of the sayeokwon institution and official interpreters of the Joseon period. This is followed by a biography of six interpreters to illuminate their impact and activities as actors in the profession. A short outlook on a history of the socio-cultural history of interpreting concludes the chapter.

3.2

The Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)

Joseon was founded in 1392 and lasted for over 500 years before Korea officially became a colony of Japan in 1910. The period saw the rise and fall of two empires in China, the Ming (1368–1644) and the Qing (1636–1912). With the founding of Joseon dynasty in the fourteenth century, administrative and bureaucratic systems for ruling the nation were established with Confucianism as the central ideology. Diplomatic relations with (Han) China were important for political, ideological, as well as economic reasons, while relations with Japan were more focused on trade activities. National affairs were carried out in productive interplays between the royal court and the yangban literary bureaucrats. The core principles of foreign relations were sadae to serve the Great (Han) China and gyorin to maintain amicable relations with neighbors viz. the Japanese, Mongolians, and Jurchen. Based on the Sinitic world order, sending tributes to the Ming dynasty and receiving rewards from China were the customary honorable means of diplomacy and trade with the Chinese Ming empire. (Ir-)Regular envoys were dispatched and received. An official diplomatic relationship with Japan was established in the early fifteenth century, but diplomatic relations with China were accorded greater importance. Following roughly a decade of Japanese invasions (1592, 1597–1598), relationships with the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868) in Japan were incrementally cultivated in the seventeenth century. When the Manchus came to power and founded a new empire in China, the newly founded Qing dynasty forced Joseon to enter into a new relationship with them (Manchu invasions of 1627 and 1636). Within the Joseon court, there was resistance and reluctance to accept the Qing dynasty as equivalent to the Ming. The Joseon elite yangban bureaucrats and court members considered themselves true successors of the Sinitic world order. However, they were forced to accept the real power of the Qing, although the Joseon court initially did not welcome diplomatic relationships with the new dynasty. In this situation, technical staff of diplomatic affairs, yeokgwan, were practically given charge of handling of envoys to and from the Qing, including trade matters. In the Joseon dynasty, where literature and rituals were valued, the chungin middle-class, skilled technicians did not enjoy a high status in court, and promotion to and above the upper third-grade was systematically limited. Court members above the upper-third-grade enjoyed special privileges, like attending meetings with the king where state affairs were discussed and decided. Some interpreter families amassed great wealth through trade activities and the resources they acquired while working in diplomacy and trade (Kim, 2003). By virtue of their wealth, interpreting officials strove to be incorporated into the stronger mainstream and literary activities. Their efforts included forming literary groups; by doing so, they were also cultivating their symbolic power. Despite various political debates and disputes within Joseon in the eighteenth century, the dynasty regained stability from the aftermath of wars and invasions with Japanese and Manchus. In the nineteenth century, direct and indirect exchanges with various Western countries in China 34

History of interpreting in the Joseon Dynasty

and Japan occurred voluntarily and/or by force. Changes in neighboring countries were apparent, and Joseon was becoming aware of the changes. There were power struggles in the dynasty on forming the future of the nation. New institutions for teaching Western foreign languages were established: dongmunhak (1886-), yukyeonggongwon (Royal English School 1886–1894), as well as other state-run foreign language schools (1895 for French, 1896 for Russian, and 1898 for German).4 At the end of the nineteenth century, the Joseon court implemented a reform (1894) and, amongst other, reshuffled its bureaucratic system. This was accompanied by a gradual decline in the political, economic, and ideological orientation to China. In 1897, Joseon proclaimed itself to be the Daehan empire and officially announced that it was no longer part of the Sinocentric world order, since the term “empire” was traditionally reserved for Chinese dynasties. The constitution of the Daehan was drafted and proclaimed two years later (Annals of Kojong, 36th year, 17th of October 1899). At the same time, dependence on Japan was increasing, as was the recognition of power of Western countries. As part of the reform in 1894, the Ministry of Rituals, to which sayeokwon belonged, was reorganized and changed into the Ministry of Academia (hakmu-amun). The sayeokwon was abolished, and responsibilities such as foreign language education for training officials were transferred to the new ministry. Until the end of the nineteenth century—the time frame of this chapter—there were official interpreters for Chinese, Manchu, Japanese, and Mongolian. As the influence of Western forces gradually expanded in Joseon and neighboring countries in the nineteenth century, official interpreters needed to speak and interpret Western languages. With growing awareness of the need for proficiency in Western languages, graduates of the later established foreign language schools also worked as government interpreters. In the early twentieth century, the 500-year-old Joseon dynasty was officially colonized by Japan (1910). Korea could no longer maintain independent diplomatic relations, and consequently had no interpreting officials and state-run schools for foreign languages.

3.3

Sayeokwon, the institution, and yeokgwan, the interpreting officials

The institution for diplomatic affairs and interpreting officials was established in 1393, one year after the founding of the nation. Chinese and Mongolian were taught at sayeokwon, followed by Japanese and Jurchen (Annals of Munjong, 1st year, 26th day, 10th month, 1414 and Annals of Sejong 16th year, 25th day, 6th month, 1434). However, Jurchen was changed to Manchu in 1667. Much later in 1765 (tongmungwanji 1, 1998, p.  44), the order was changed to Chinese, Manchu, Japanese, Mongolian. The institution had around 600 staff, including interpreting officials, language teachers, and servants, but only a tenth of the staff could be paid for the maximum 90-month term (tongmungwanji 1 1998, p.  39; Kim, 2003, pp.  79–82). The education at sayeokwon took around three years and admission was possible up to the age of fifteen (Annals of Taejo, 3rd year, 19th day, 11th month, 1394). During education, students took various tests in spoken and written language proficiency. After training at sayeokwon, it may have been easier for candidates to pass the civil service examination for interpreting officials in the miscellaneous category.5 According to the existing list of the names of those who had passed interpreting examinations, yeokgwabangmok, almost 3,000 candidates passed the civil service examinations from 1498 to 1891. Including other subjects in the same miscellaneous category—i.e., Yin-Yang (astrological calculation), jurisprudence, and medicine—the number of successful candidates was 6,115. In total, almost the half of them were interpreting officials, whose grade began with the sub-ninth position (Lee, not dated). It is likely that the number of interpreting officials was higher than 3,000, since civil service examinations for interpreting officials were conducted from 1399, almost one hundred years prior to the period of existing documents. The central location of sayeokwon was the capital, Seoul; however, there local 35

Nam Hui Kim 김남희

branches existed near Chinese territories. In the south, the waegwan, Japan House, was installed for the trade and diplomatic relations with Japan. Interpreting officials were not only in charge of intercultural communication, more with the spoken word than writing, they also taught foreign languages to fellow candidates besides engaging in various diplomatic affairs in a modern sense, such as delivering diplomatic documents, serving as members of envoys’ entourages to China and Japan, collecting useful and critical information, taking care of border-related matters, and inspecting the wreckage of foreign ships. Most significantly, they were in charge of official trade by delivering tributes and obtaining rewards and extra permitted amounts of items, such as ginseng and silver. They were also engaged in private transactions for their own needs; they procured consumer goods for the royal family and high-ranking bureaucrats (Kim, 2003). Being a member of envoys’ entourages to China presented an opportunity to gain honor and build a sound material basis. Although interpreters played practical and important roles in diplomatic relations, their status was not (sufficiently) high in Joseon; their promotion was limited to a certain grade. Confucianism and literary ideology were important, and yeokgwan handled mainly things involving the spoken word but not writings and literature, which were most valued at that time. They were therefore considered mere “technicians” of a lower class than yangban. Even though some were valued for their excellent language and diplomatic skills, only a few were actually recognized and praised. As the rigid social class structure was increasingly becoming unstable in later Joseon, accumulation of wealth and literary potential gave interpreting officials economic and social power. These were further consolidated through marriage and networks of relatives within the same class or occupational groups within similar miscellaneous officials. Based on the existing data, we may sketch a typical interpreting official of the seventeenth century: he would have passed the state examination for Chinese at 22, coming from a middle-class family clan where other clan members might be working as interpreters. If he belonged to the fortunate one-seventh of interpreting officials, he had income, became a teacher, not a high post but at least one that was paid (Kim, 2015). Nonetheless, the six selected biographies will show that deviations from this model were possible.

3.4 3.4.1

Six selected biographies of interpreting officials

Seol Jangsu (偰長壽, 1341–1399): laying the foundation of the institution

The annals of the Joseon dynasty commemorate the deceased with special merits in a section called jolgi (obituary). To have an obituary recorded in the annals (Lee, 2018, Kyunghyang), one must have made contributions to the nation, as in the case of the first interpreting official presented here, Seol Jangsu: Seol Jangsu . . . has died. . . . He was a native of Kaochang of Uighur. In the year kihae [1358] his father, Seol Son, brought his family to our country, and King Gongmin [reigned 1351–1374], who was known to him from the past, gave him an estate and the title of buwon. In the year of imin [1362], at the age of 22, he passed the civil service examination and was given the title of Privy Council of 3rd grade. . . . In autumn of year muin [1398], he departed to report the accession to the throne of the King [Jeongjong] to Beijing as a reporting envoy. By the time he arrived at Cheomsu station, the [Ming] Emperor had passed away, so the governor of Liodong held back the delegation. Staying on, Seol asked for a further assignment and received a royal decree, which made him a member of the mourning entourage and traveled to the capital of Ming. In 6th month of the first year of Jianwen [1399], he was 36

History of interpreting in the Joseon Dynasty

commissioned by a regal decree to ask permission of accession, received it and returned. He died of illness in October, aged 59. When news of his death was heard at the court, the assembly was suspended, it was ordered to offer a sacrifice; an official funeral was held and he was posthumously awarded a title. . . . He was praised as a fine and agile character by nature, vigorous and strong, skilled in rhetoric and acknowledged by the world. During his time in service to the King, he was sent to the capital of Ming eight times and repeatedly rewarded. His work, Straight Interpretation of Lesser Learning (jikhaesohak), was published around the world and he wrote several volumes of poetry. He had three sons, Seol Na (偰耐), Seol Do (偰衜), and Seol Jin (偰振) (Annals of Jeongjong, 1st year, 19th day, 10th month, 1399). While the obituary does not explicitly mention this, Seol Jangsu took charge of sayeokwon as its first official and actively worked to establish its organization and managed the institution in Joseon (Annals of Taejo, 3rd year, 19th day, 11th month,1394). The Koreanized Uighur Seol came to Goryeo when he was sixteen years old in 1357 (History of Goryeo, Volume 112, legends, number 25, officials, Seol Son), passed the civil exam at the age of 22, and became an official in Goryeo. During this time, he was sent to Ming several times as an envoy. This is first recorded in 1374 (History of Goryeo, 28th day, 2nd month, 1374). During this time, he gained the trust of the founder of the Ming dynasty, Emperor Hongwu (朱元璋, reigned 1368–1398), thanks to his excellent linguistic skills (Park, 2016, p. 386). This probably enabled him to become a member of the new Joseon court and to travel to China as an envoy to take care of diplomatic affairs. Seol was one of several Koreanized persons of Chinese origin who worked as interpreting officials, teachers, worked in border offices, or wrote diplomatic letters; others include Lee Sang (李相), Seo Sayeong (徐士英), Jang Hyeon (張顯), Jo Seungdeuk (曹崇德), Han Bang (韓昉), Lee Wonpil (李原弼), and Hong Jeup (洪楫) (Park, 2016, pp. 395–400; Annals of Sejo, 6th year, 11th day, 5th month, 1460). Although there were other Koreanized Chinese persons, it was Seol who organized and managed the institution in the early days of Joseon and probably also taught Mongolian (Chung, 2017, pp. 22–23). His book, Straight Interpretation of Lesser Learning, has, unfortunately, not been handed down, but it was used as a textbook in sayeokwon and enabled many interpreters to learn Chinese easily (Annals of Sejong, 23rd year, 11th day, 8th month, 1441; Chung, 2017, p.  35). He passed his civil official examination but not in the miscellaneous category. His literary talent was appreciated and his poems were compiled with other selected poems in the highly praised dongmunseon in the late fifteenth century (Korean Classics Database). In the early days of diplomacy, when Joseon was founded and recognition from the Ming was particularly important, Seol Jangsu, a Koreanized Uighur as interpreting official, played the role of diplomat and re-established the foundation of the institution.

3.4.2

Choi Sejin (崔世珍, 1468–1542): excelled in written and spoken Chinese

While Seol Jangsu contributed to stabilize initial diplomatic relations with the Ming dynasty in the founding days of Joseon and set up sayeokwon, Choi Sejin made a significant contribution to consolidate the institution and its educational framework by writing and editing various books, as well as his brilliance in Chinese (Annals of Jungjong, 10th year, 14th day, 11th month, 1515). As an interpreting official for Chinese, he attained the sub-second rank position. He passed the entrance examination for a literary academy in 1486 and the civil service examination in 1503 at the age of 35. Even before passing the examination, he had already been sent to China when he was 24 years old, to accompany envoys to the Ming court (Annals of Seongjong, 23rd year, 6th day, 9th month, 1492). He wrote and edited more than fifteen books, mostly related to learning Chinese; 37

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for example, sasongtonghae (四聲通解) for pronunciation; beonyeok nogoldae and beonyeok park tongsa (飜譯老乞大 resp 飜譯朴通事) with conversations; and hungmonjahoe (訓蒙字會) with various dialectal examples for teaching Chinese characters (Yum, 2015, p. 25). Although writing diplomatic documents was actually the role of yangban class in a different institution named seungmunwon, he authored these documents. In the later Joseon period, writing diplomatic documents became the sole task of yangban (Chung, 2017, p.  220). Choi collected diplomatic formulaic expressions and references for the handbook imunjipram (吏文輯覽), which was essential to prepare official documents for the Chinese court. His competence in spoken Chinese as well as writing diplomatic documents were particularly appreciated by King Seongjong (reigned 1469–1494), King Jungjong (reigned 1506–1544), as well as some yangban elite, but not everyone shared this sentiment. Only yangban noblemen could have been designated jiljeonggwan (responsible for special matters at the Chinese court); however, when King Seongjong appointed Choi as one, there were critical voices because his social standing was lower and he did not belong to the yangban class. The displeasure of other higher officials and the king’s reaction were expressed as follows, as tongmungwanji reports and comments: An official said: “It is unprecedented to appoint a miscellaneous officer as a Jiljeonggwan.” The King said, “If you really find a suitable person, how can you be bound by precedent? It is right to take me as a precedent.” Sejin is proficient in Chinese and official diplomatic writings, he has visited Beijing several times to consult and learn practically, and he is well versed in the Chinese System and proper names, so there is nothing he does not know in this matter. All the diplomatic documents for the Chinese court are from his brush. For the second time, he passed as the best in diplomatic document examinations and became a lower second-grade official, making him part of the high-ranking subject group. He has written . . . books early on and they are so helpful to those who are now learning to interpret . . . (tongmunggwanji section 7, interpreting officials 15–16). His writings in diplomatic documents must have been considered as essential, as there were concerns that he might fall ill: “There is no one else who can write diplomatic documents, if Choi Sejin falls ill, and . . . he cannot deal with important documents by himself ” (Annals of Jungjong, 23rd year, 20th day, 1st month, 1528). In recognition of his works and achievements, Choi, like Seol, received a short and plain, but nevertheless official, obituary in the Annals: Sejin was of humble background, but he studied hard from a young age and was very well versed in Chinese. After becoming an official, he took charge of all the diplomatic documents. He was recommended for promotion and became a second-grade official. He translated and annotated The Proverbial Book of Filial Piety and wrote The Book for Learning Chinese Characters and The Book of Complied Diplomatic Document Expressions; these publications were widely spread. (Annals of Jungjong, 37th year, 10th day, 2nd month, 1542). Choi has sometimes been accused of being manipulative, cunning, and accumulating wealth by using his competence in Chinese (Annals of Jungjong, 12th year, 7th day, 12th month, 1517). We do not know for certain whether he was acting in the way the records state or was framed by yangban who were dissatisfied with the king and his promotions. Choi’s books have been not only been used to train interpreters at that time, but are also valuable resources for the medieval Korean language in Korean Studies (Kang, 2000). In modern terms, Choi Sejin was not only a professional interpreter and diplomat but also an expert in (foreign) language and teaching. 38

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3.4.3

Kang Wuseong (康遇聖, 1581–n.d.): dealing with wars and invasions by the Japanese

Toward the end of Goryeo (fourteenth century), as Japanese pirates frequently invaded Korea’s coastal areas, the peaceful exchanges of the past between the two countries gradually assumed political significance. With the Japanese invasions in 1592 and 1597–1598, relations between the two countries deteriorated and official relations were broken. With the death of Hideyoshi (1536/37–1598) in 1598, the Japanese army collapsed, and the Tokugawa clan took over the Japanese government. The lord of Tsushima Island was sent to re-establish official diplomatic relations with Joseon and, in the following year, a delegation was dispatched to discuss restoring diplomatic relations and extradition. Diplomatic relations were resumed and eleven delegations were subsequently sent to Japan, mostly to Tsushima, until 1881. Trade relations were mostly dealt with via the Tsushima lords and waegwan, the Japan House in Busan (Kim & Wakabayashi, 2014). The Japanese interpreting official, Kang Wuseong, was taken to Japan during the Japanese invasions when he was a child and returned around ten years later, around 1601, when captives were brought back to Joseon. He acquired knowledge of the customs and habits of the Japanese and could speak the language well, but he initially followed family tradition and passed the civil examination for accounting officials in 1606. He passed the civil service examination for interpreting officials three years later in 1609 as the third best and worked as an interpreting official for Japanese (Lee, 2006, p. 107, Encyclopedia of Korean Culture). There were other officials who shared a similar fate of being captured by the Japanese, being repatriated after the war, and working as interpreting officials for Japanese such as Yun Daesun (尹大銑, n.d.), Park Eonhwang (朴彦璜, 1577-n.d.), and others (Lee, 2006, pp. 108–109, Lexicon of Diplomatic Relations). Like Seol and Choi, Kang also worked on foreign language textbooks and prepared ten volumes by collecting words and expressions of envoys in the form of dialogues, questions, and answers from reception officers and Japanese people living in Korea and Busan. The book cheophaesineo (捷解新語 Instant Interpretation of New Words) was published in 1676. From 1678 onward, it was used as a textbook for the study of Japanese at sayeokwon. Kang Wuseong visited Japan three times6—in 1617, 1624, and 1636—under the combined post of a military and interpreting officer, and once, as one of the key interpreters. For the first two visits, the main task was to bring captives back from Japan. The final visit took place just before the Manchus invaded Joseon and Kang managed to buy sulfur, which was useful to the military (Lee, 2006, p. 126). In waegwan, which was similar to a consulate in modern terms, he served as a Japanese interpreter five times and at the Busan office as a teacher (tongmungwanji section 7; interpreting officials, Kang Wuseung). He rose to the official rank of sub-second-grade but is mentioned only twice in the Annals of the Joseon dynasty, so he must have been less prominent in the eyes of historians and the royal court. In haehangchongjae (海行摠載, A Compilation of Maritime Travel), a collection of travel records of delegation members in Japan from Goryeo to the Joseon dynasty, Kang’s activities are described in a lively manner. A closer examination of these important sources is still pending.

3.4.4

Lee Hyeongjang (李馨長 n.d.-1651): gaining profits from wars and consequences; the Manchu invasion

According to the Journals of Seungjungwon of 1627, Lee Hyeongjang was promoted from his combined post as military and interpreting official after having been to China as a delegation member (5th year of Injo, 12th day, 9th month). He was selected to deliver official government letters to the Manchus and, in 1629, worked as an interpreting official. King Injo (reigned 1623–1649) was 39

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hesitant to include him as a special envoy, saying, “he seems like a person at a market, who might be clever, but he would dishonor the nation, if he could, he would try and profit from things (Annals of Injo, 7th year, 11th day, 3rd month, 1629).” In 1647, he was even promoted to the high-ranking position of sub-first grade (Annals of Injo, 25th year, 22nd day, 10th month). While the court elite strongly suggested granting him a reward, King Injo and the historian displayed their obvious reservations: It is painful to note that Lee Hyeongjang had no other merits to be rewarded, but the ministers of bureaus are only relying on his words to show their personal favor to Hyeongjang, and rushed to discuss the reward. Is it not natural that the King is reluctant to respond to that? (Annals of Injo, 23rd year, 5th day, 3rd month, 1645). Lee is frequently mentioned in the Annals and the Journals of Seungjeongwon in the context of resolving problems related with the Qing court through him or letting him convince Jeong Myeongsu (鄭命壽, 1653–n.d.) to do a favor for the Joseon court (Annals of Injo, 21st year, 19th day, 1st month; 28th day, 5th month; 10th day, 10th month, etc., 1643). Jeong, who was actually Korean, was held captive by the Manchus in 1627. He learned the Manchu language in captivity, worked for them, and was later hired as an interpreter by Qing. He often asked personal favors and expressed his opinions against the Joseon court (Annals of Injo, 23rd year, 6th day, 6th month, 1645, Lee, 2016, pp. 191–193). Jeong was one of total of 22 interpreters of Korean to be hired by the Qing dynasty and stationed along the route from Seoul to Beijing. He was also the most powerful interpreter among them (Lee, 2021, p. 66). Lee must have been a thorn in the side of the Joseon court, since he, together with the Qing interpreter Jeong Myeongsu, believed in the might of the Qing dynasty and demanded promotions, favors, and power. Lee informed the Qing dynasty of Hyojong’s (reigned 1649–1659) plan to march to the “North” and of the fact that the Joseon government was still using the name of the Ming dynasty. This led to a national crisis in 1650. He was finally found guilty of treason and executed (Korean Historic Figures). Annals report the execution of Lee, his wife, and his two sons (Hyojong 3rd year, 2nd day, 3rd month, 1652). After his death, Lee was repeatedly mentioned in reference to treasonous interpreters (e.g., Annals of Hyojong, 9th year, 17th of 11th month, 1658). Another criticism of interpreters expressed in relation to Lee Hyeongjang is recorded in the annals by a member of the court: After the war, previous and subsequent crimes committed during the northbound journey [to Beijing] were all due to the herd of interpreting officials. . . . It is now said that in this time, many interpreting officials were involved in misbehaviors. I thought this group would have been very cautious after Hyeongjang’s execution, but these days, their discipline has gradually slacked and it has finally reached this point. We will severely question major interpreting officials according to the law, and if anyone commits any crime in the future, we shall have to deal with them rigorously (revised Annals of Hyeonjong, 4th year, 3rd day, 11th month, 1663). Lee is remembered in history as one who dealt with state matters for his own interest in times of invasion and as being a traitor for setting the new, unwelcome relationship with Qing (Yeongjo 2nd year, 23rd, 9th month, 1726). 40

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3.4.5

Oh Kyeongseok (吳慶錫 1831–1879): seeking new orders on the threshold of the transition of the times

Oh Kyeongseok was a Chinese interpreting official who passed his civil service examination for interpreting at the age of fifteen, in 1846. Unlike Lee, he did not experience the invasions and the aftermath, but his time was again full of conflicts and the search for new orientation. Korean history remembers him as one of the forerunners of a group credited with modernizing the nation (gaehwapa), together with Yu Honggi (劉鴻基, 1831–n.d.) and Park Gyusu (朴珪壽, 1807–1877) (Shin, 1985). Like many yeokgwan during the late Joseon period, his family members, spanning eight generations, were interpreting officials, including his father, Oh Eunghyeon (吳膺賢 1810–n.d., upper 2nd grade), and his son, Oh Sechang (吳世昌 1864–1953) (Kim, 2016, p.  26). His first visit to China as a delegation member was at the age of 22, in 1853. He visited the capital of the Qing dynasty more than ten times during the late nineteenth century, where he observed how new powers from the West and their technologies were weakening the Qing court. He brought new books on world maps, new technologies, and materials, and especially new ideas, and shared them with friends and colleagues like Yu Honggi and Park Gyusu, who then supported a group of young people to learn new ideas from the West. We can find among them names of politicians who later worked on renewing the nation. They even included supporters for colonizing the nation by the Japanese, such as Kim Yunsik (金允植 1835–1922), Kim Okgyun (金玉均 1851–1894), Hong Yeongsik (洪英植 1855–1884), Yu Giljun (兪吉濬 1856–1914), Seo Gwangbeom (徐光範 1859–1897), and Park Yeonghyo (朴泳孝 1861–1939) (Shin, 1985, Kim, 2016). In the late nineteenth century, Joseon had to deal with the Western powers and various provocations, such as the French invasion (1866), the American invasion (1881), and military conflicts with Japan (1875), which led to the first international treaty on opening harbors with Japan in 1876. Oh participated in treaty negotiations as a handling interpreting official. Recent research reveals that Oh even urged the Japanese counterpart to “show their national prestige” when they came to Gwanghwa island (Kim, 2016, p.  25). In his opinion, it was essential to open up the country, and the Joseon court needed to be radically reformed, if necessary—even through military conflicts or pressure from Japan or America (Kim, 2016, p. 8). There are only two records (Annals of Kojong, 13th year, 13th day, 1st month, 1876) mentioning Oh as an interpreting official in the context of meeting with the Japanese before the Treaty of Ganghwa. Later, the Journals of Seungjungwon honor his works in various diplomatic affairs, especially those related to the aforementioned Treaty, which was the first unequal international treaty of Joseon (Journals of Seungjungwon, 5th day, 2nd month, 13th year of Kojong, 1876). Oh fell ill while the Joseon court was planning a delegation to China in the same year, and another official had to be found: After we arrive in China, dealing with state matters would be completely left to a chief interpreting official. However, since Oh Kyeongseok is suddenly seriously ill and has no hope for departing, we would like to take Han instead. . . . The King said that he would grant it. (Journals of Seungjungwon, 13th year of Kojong, 27th day, 3rd month, 1876). Oh passed away three years later and left behind books regarding epigraphy among others, but nothing related to foreign language training for interpreters. However, he supported the editing and printing work of tongmungwanji. It has been supplemented several times, since it was first printed 41

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(1720), and it was a tradition that interpreting officials financed their own historical documents as Oh did: Sayeokwon reported, “It is the intention of the Ministry of Rituals for the continuation of the tongmungwanji and it shall be printed in the original form, but editorial work and the cost of publication shall be assigned to interpreting officials. After the completion of the service, the government must not be without rewards. How about Your Majesty implementing a grace to raise the grade of these people?” The King stated that he would grant it. (Journals of Seungjungwon, 14th year of Kojong, 11th day, 11th month, 1877). Oh is remembered in the history of Korea as one of the key figures in the late Joseon era as a supporter of reform who sought to better the nation with new ideas and systems. He cultivated young politicians who became the leaders of the new Joseon (Shin, 1985). Even though he was from an elite interpreting official clan, reached high positions in the Joseon government, and acquired wealth, he sensed the limitations of his own class and strived for reform against the ruling class and to make the country stronger. This may have been for his own sake and interest, but it was also to protect the life and fortunes of the people by opening the nation to others under the name of “efflorescence” (Kim, 2016, p. 32). In this sense, he was different from Lee Hyeongjang and Ko Yeonghui.

3.4.6

Ko Yeonghui (高永喜, 1849–1916) and his sons: praising annexation with the transition of times

Similar to Oh’s family background, Ko Yeonghui was a son of an interpreting official Ko Jinpung (高鎭豊, n.d.). Father Ko had passed the civil service examination for Chinese at the age of 17, and four of his sons became interpreting officials. The first son was Yeongju (1840–1914?, official for Chinese), the second, Yeonghui (official for Japanese), the third, Yeongseon (1850–n.d., official for Chinese). The fourth son, Yeongcheol (1853–1911, official for Chinese), went to China in 1881, learned English, and worked there as an official English interpreter. He also taught at the dongmunghak, the first state-run school that taught English (Song, 2004, pp. 237–231; Kim, 2021). The second son, Ko Yeonghui, passed his exam in 1867 at the age of 18. He married the daughter of an interpreting official, became a teacher in sayeokwon like his father, and was in charge of interpreting and teaching Japanese. As diplomatic relations with Japan resumed after the signing of the Treaty of Ganghwa in 1876, Japan requested that Joseon initiate diplomatic relations. Ko Yeonghui accompanied the 76-member delegation as an interpreter. In 1881, Joseon again sent a group to Japan to inspect the modern Japanese government system, including customs regulations and taxation, at which time, Ko Yeonghui accompanied Yu Giljun and Hong Yeongsik, among others, as an attendant (National Institute of Korean History). Before and after the Treaty with Japan in 1897, there were power struggles over the future of the nation; over whether Joseon would further open its harbors, for whom, when, and how. The pro-Japanese group supported voluntarily opening the country toward Japan. Together with Oh and his supporters, the group included Ko. He started his career as an interpreting official for Japanese, and his name is stated as one of the vice-ministers of the new Ministry of Academia in 1894, the year of the Gabo Reform, when new cabinet members were announced (31st year of Kojong, 20th day, 7th month, 1894). Here, one can see changes in the status of technical staff under the reform or the weakening of the old order of the Joseon dynasty. The reform permitted an interpreter to be promoted up to the level of vice-minister and subsequently even higher. Appointments, dismissals, and promotions were repeated several times afterwards. His last recorded appointment was as the 42

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Minister of Finance (Journals of Sungjeungwon, 7.22.1910). He played a part in the abdication of King Kojong (reigned 1863–1897/1897–1907) and in the forcible transfer of power to Emperor Sunjong (reigned 1907–1910) and agreed to sign the new Korea-Japan Treaty of 1907 for the army. Ko actively cooperated in Japan’s plan for forced annexation, for which he was honored by the Japanese Government. From October 1910 to his death in 1916, he served as an adviser on the Privy Council and contributed to the colonial rulers (Encyclopedia of Korean Culture). In the Annals of Kojong and Sunjong and in the Journals of Seungjungwon, there are more than 200 records, mostly referring to his delegation activities, promotions, or granting of rewards (24th day, 7th leap month, 19th year of Kojong, 1882). Ko Huigyeong (高羲敬, 1873–1934), the son of Ko Yeonghui, graduated from the Royal English School in 1885 and passed the civil service examination for Japanese in 1891. In the early days, Ko Huigyeong served as the third-grade secretary of the Japanese Legation from 1896 to 1899, and as third-grade secretary of the Legation in England, Germany, and Italy. Thereafter, he was mainly in charge of imperial tasks as an official interpreter. When his father, Ko Yeonghui, died in 1916, he inherited his father’s title, was promoted to Earl in 1920 for urging the crown prince in the late Korean dynasty to marry a Japanese princess. In 1926, he was appointed as a central advisor to the Japanese governor-general of Korea (Kim, K. 2021). The other son, Ko Huiseung (高羲誠 1876–?), who was also an interpreting official, worked as a trainer for foreign languages. His name can be found in German political archives in which he is mentioned as an interpreting official who translated between the Joseon and German courts (Kim, 2017; Journals of Seungjungwon, 35th year of Kojong, 25th day, 3rd month, 1898). Starting with the pro-opening group, Ko Yeonghui was soon pro-Japanese, explicitly supporting the Annexation. From a former interpreting officer, Ko eventually became a collaborator during the Japanese colonial era.

3.5

Concluding remarks

This study attempted to present an integrated national, institutional, and personal history of interpreting officials by drawing from fragmented depictions of six yeokgwan. This began with Seol Jangsu, a naturalized Korean of Uighur origin who established the institution for interpreting officials and their training in the fifteenth century. The study then moved to Choi Sejin, of middle-class origin, who was highly acknowledged in a domain mainly reserved for the yangban elite and was actively engaged during the sixteenth century. The study then portrays Kang Wuseong, who was a captive in Japan and after his return to the home country, worked as an interpreting official and trainer. Lee Hyeongjang was hired by the Joseon government but worked more in his own interest and the Qing dynasty during and after the invasion by the Manchus. Kang and Lee were both engaged amidst wars and conflicts in the seventeenth century. Oh Kyeongseok and Ko Yeonghui were key players in diplomatic relations with Japan in the late nineteenth century, when Joseon was divided and desperately sought new directions and order, but failed, leading to a colonized Korea. These depictions do not present a single coherent picture of the interpreting official. Admittedly, the selection of the six interpreters has been made to show diverse facets of biographies, circumstances, and desires. The advantages of such a biographical approach to translation history are apparent. It sheds light on central but hitherto unexplored aspects of interpreting in the Joseon period and its social conditions. The political role of many interpreters, their work as writers and scholars, and the peculiarities of their social positions (often intercultural biographical background; conflicts of loyalty) are just a few examples. Written by interpreting officials, tongmungwanji can be understood as handbooks, bulletins, and to some extent, even a history of interpreting officials. These books may provide a methodological and structural orientation to write a history of interpreting in 43

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Korea. They help to understand the role and function of yeokgwan and the institution of sayeokwon in the Joseon period in general, and in particular, its actors and their aspirations with their excellent language skills, their knowledge of the respective countries, and their rich experience of diplomatic exchanges. We can learn the tasks and work of the interpreters, to understand what they, as actors, tell us through their own biographies. Finally, I would like to identify a completely unexplored field of research: it may be assumed that interpreting activities extended beyond the official realm in Joseon; for example, in the context of trade or in regions close to the border. The first task here is to create an overview of historical sources for these forms of everyday interpreting.

Notes 1 The transliteration of Korean into the Roman alphabet, including the names, has been done according to the Revised Romanization of Korean (South Korean or Ministry of Culture in 2000). This includes names of historical persons. However, personal K and P were used instead G and B for family names; for instance, Kim instead of Gim. Names of authors have been used according to their own transliteration. In Korean, the family name comes first, so cited names (from the Joseon dynasty) will follow that convention; for example, Seol Jangsu and not Jangsu Seol (where Seol is the family name). 2 In 1720, Chinese interpreting officials Kim Jinam (1654-?) and Kim Kyeongmun (1673–1737), father and son, compiled and published the first edition of tongmungwanji. It was revised and supplemented several times until 1888. Originally written in classical Chinese, the tongmungwanji was translated into Korean by the commemorative organization for King Sejong the Great in 1998 (tongmungwanji 1998, 28) and has been used for this study. The six volumes and twelve sections contain the following: 1) the organization of the sayeokwon and the training of interpreting officials (Sections 1 & 2). 2) Regulations and procedures regarding the diplomatic principle sadae toward China (Sections 3 & 4). 3) Regulations and procedures regarding the diplomatic principle of gyorin toward Japan (Sections 5 & 6). 4) Anecdotes of interpreters, whose names have been handed down (Section 7). 5) Stories relating to the sayeokwon and its assets, such as bondsmen, wooden printing blocks, and books (Section 8). 6) Brief historical records in chronological order from 1636 to 1888 (Sections 9–12). Other sources include mungyeonsamok and haehaengchongjae, which are reports and travelogues, some written by interpreting officials. 3 Most of the historical sources are accessible through the Korean classical database (http://db.itkc.or.kr), History of Goryeo, Database (https://db.history.go.kr/KOREA/) and the annals of Joseon dynasty (http:// sillok.history.go.kr). 4 For Details of dongmunhak (1886-), yukyounggongwon, and other foreign language schools, see Yu (2011). 5 For details on textbooks, various tests and civil service examinations for interpreting officials, see Baek (2019), Kim (2015). 6 According to tongmungwanji (section 7, persons) he went to Japan twice, but recent studies have confirmed that he in fact went three times (Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, Lee, 2006, p. 119).

References Baek, O. (2019). Official interpreters of the Joseon period. In J.-H. Kang & J. Wakabayashi (Eds.), Handbook of translation in Korean contexts. Engaging with Asian and Western others (pp. 17–30). London and New York: Routledge. Baigorri-Jalón, J. (2006). Perspectives on the history of translation. In G. D. Bastin & P. F. Bandia (Eds.), Charting the future of translation history (pp. 101–110). Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. Choi, H.-E. (2019). Hangukjeonjaeng jeongjeonhyeopsang tongyeogeun nuga haesseulkka? 한국전쟁 종전 협상 통역은 누가 했을까? [Who interpreted the armistice negotiations of the Korean War? Focusing on grandsons of H. G. Underwood, an early Protestant missionary to Korea]. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 23(1), 169–199. Chung, K. (2017). Yeokakseoui segye 역학서의 세계 [The world of textbooks for interpreting]. Seoul: Bangmunsa. Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/ Index

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History of interpreting in the Joseon Dynasty History of Goryeo. Database. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://db.history.go.kr/KOREA/ (History of Goryeo). Kang, S. (1966). Ijosidae yeokakjae gwanhan gochal 이조시대 역학에 관한 고찰. [Research on the foreign language scholars during the early Joseon Period]. Jindan Journal, 29, 30, 324–338. Kang, S. (2000). Hangugui yeokak한국의 역학 [Interpreting studies in Korea]. Seoul: Seoul National University Press. Kim, J.-H. (2016). Joilsuhojogyu chegyeolgwajeongeseoui ogyeongseogui makuhwaldong: gaehwadang giwonui jaegeomto조일수호조규 체결과정에서의 오경석의 막후활동: 개화당 기원의 재검토 [The behind-the-scenes activities of Oh Kyung-Seok in the Treaty of Gangwha: Revisiting the origin of Gaewha-Dang]. Korean Political and Diplomatic History Series, 38(1), 5–40. Kim, K. (2021). Kim gyuwonui yeoksasok gonggan: gaehwagi yeokgwanhyeongjeui unmyeongeul gareun ‘eoneo’김규원의 역사속 공간: 개화기 역관형제의 운명을 가른 ‘언어’ [Places in history. ‘Languages’ that separated the fates of brothers who were interpreting officials during the “efflorescence.”] Hangeoreh 21(1337). https://h21.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/culture_general/50800.html (from 31 August 2021, last access 30 November 2022). Kim, N. H. (2015). Korea. In Franz Pöchhacker (Ed.), Routledge encyclopedia of interpreting studies (pp. 224–228). London: Routledge. Kim, N. H. (2017). Sprachausbildung und Dolmetscher in den ersten Jahren der deutsch-koreanischen diplomatischen Beziehungen – Eine Spurensuche [Language training and interpreters in the early years of german-Korean diplomatic relations – A search for evidence]. Dogilkmunhak, 76, 51–72. Kim, N. H., & Wakabayashi, J. (2014). Early modern Japanese and Korean interpreters. mTm, 6, 3–18. Kim, Y. (2003). Joseonhugiui gyohoeyeokgwan – Gyohoecheongseonsaenganui bunseogeul jungsimeuro 조 선후기의 교회역관 – 교회청선생안의 분석을 중심으로 [The training group among the official interpreters during the Late Joseon dynasty: On the analysis of Gyohoecheong-seonsaengan]. Joseonsidaesahagbo, 26, 79–143. Ko, S. (2020). Hangukjeonjaenggi hyujeonhoedameseo tongyeoksaui yeokare daehan ilgochal. 한국전쟁기 휴 전회담에서 통역사의 역할에 대한 고찰 [The role of interpreters at the Korean Armistice Negotiation]. Studies on Korean History of Modern Times, Nr. 94, 173–197. Korean Classics Database. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from http://db.itkc.or.kr (The Annals of the Joseon dynasty, Diaries of the Seungjungwon, Dongmunseon). Korean Historic Figures. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from http://people.aks.ac.kr/ Lee, C. (2021). Cheongnara je1dae joseoneotongyeoksa haneo eumyeogireume gwanhan yeongu. 청나라 제1대 조선통역사 한어 음역이름에 관한 연구 [Study on the phonetic transcriptions of names of the first generation of Qing interpreters from Korea]. Korean Language and Literature in China, Nr. 4, 64–73. Lee, H.-J. (2016). Yeokgwansangeondeungnogyeongu역관상언등록연구 [Study on official documents corresponding by Interpreting Officials]. Paju: Geulhangari. Lee, J. (2018). Lee Jeongchul yeoksawa hyeonsil, joseonwangjosillok ‘jolgi’이정철 역사와 현실, 조선왕조 실록 ‘졸기’. [History and realty by Lee Jeongchul, Jolgi (Obituary) in the annals of the Joseon dynasty]. Kyunghangshinmun. Retrieved August 8, 2018; November 30, 2022, from https://m.khan.co.kr/opinion/ column/article/201808082040005 Lee, N. (not dated). 잡과방목해제 Jabgwabangmoghaeje [Annotation to the list for the miscellaneous category]. Korean Historic Figures. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from http://people.aks.ac.kr/front/haeje/ haeje.aks?h=Z Lee, S.-K. (2006). 17segi jeonban waehagyeokgwan Kang Wuseongui hwaldong 17. 세기 전반 왜학역관 강 우성의 활동 [Japanese language translator Kang Wuseong’s activities in the early 17th century]. Research on the History of Korean-Japanese Relations, 24, 101–141. Lexikon of Diplomatic Relations with Japan during the Joseon Period. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from waks.aks.ac.kr National Institute of Korean History. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from http://contents.history.go.kr Park, C. (2016). Joseon chogi gwihwa junggugeo tongyeokgwan yeongu – joseonwangjosillogui girogeul jungsimeuro. 조선 초기 귀화 중국어 통역관 연구 – 조선왕조실록의 기록을 중심으로 [Study on Chinese naturalized Korean language interpreting officials, with focus on the annals of the Joseon dynasty]. Literature in Chinese Language, Nr. 73, 381–405. Park, S.-Y. (2019). Migunjeonggi tongyeokjeongchi: Lee Myo Mookeul jungsimeuro. 미군정기 통역정치: 이묘목을 중심으로 [Interpreter politics during the US Army Military Government in Korea: Focusing on the interpreter Lee Myo Mook]. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 23(2), 93–116.

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Nam Hui Kim 김남희 Shin, Y. (1985). Oh Kyeongseok-ui gaehwasasanggwa gaehwahwaldong. 오경석의 개화사상과 개화활동 [Ideas and his activities of efflorescence of Oh Kyeongseok]. Yoksa Hakbo, 107, 107–187. Song, M.-O. (2004). Ko Yeongjuwa geu hyeongjedeurui gaehwahwaldonge gwanhan ilgochal. 고영주와 그 형제들의 개화활동에 관한 일고찰 [A study about activities related to “efflorescence” by Ko Yeongju and his brothers]. Jeonjusahak, Nr. 9, 217–250. Tongmungwanji통문관지 (1720-). Translated and edited by Kim, K. &Yi, H. (1998). Vol. I, II. Seoul: The Commemorative Organization of King Sejong the Great. Yu, J.-H. (2011). 19segi han jungil geundae tongbeonyeog gyoyugjedo bigyoyeongu. 19세기 한 중 일 근대 통번역 교육제도 비교 연구 [Comparative study of translator-training Institutions of Korea, China, Japan in the 19th century]. PhD dissertation. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Yum, J. U. (2015). Hanjung eoneogongdongcheganui sotongeul wihan noryeokgwa gongheon – joseonsidae Choi Sejineul jungsimeuro. 한중 언어공동체 소통을 위한 노력과 공헌 – 조선시대 최세진을 중심으 로 [Efforts and contributions for the communication, between Joseon and Ming dynasty]. Tongilinmunhak, 5–31.

46

4 IN SEARCH OF INTERPRETERS ON THE DEMARCATION LINE1 Hyo-Eun Choi 최효은

4.1

“Out of curiosity”

Robert V. Daniels asserted, “History deserves to be studied out of curiosity if nothing else” (1981, p.  6). Concerning the characteristic of this study, this work can resort to Daniels’ proposition that provides a simple but penetrating insight on studying history in terms of its worth, motivation, and even method in the most fundamental sense. A translation historian who would like to see a “familiar” historical event from a new perspective, specifically, in the eyes of translators or interpreters, raised the question, “Who did interpret in the Korean War?” noticing the imbalance of historical knowledge between the Korean War and translating or interpreting involved in the Korean War, which was, unlike the name of the War, “multinational” from its core.

4.2 4.2.1

The Korean War

The Korean War and the birth of the demarcation line

The Korean War (June 25, 1950–July 27, 1953) is arguably the single most important event that has shaped Korea as a nation today. And the Armistice Regime that followed has determined the course of Korea’s modern history. The military demarcation line, a geopolitical and physical outcome of the Korean War Armistice Agreement, has been separating people living in the north and south of the Korean Peninsula. It has not only remained as the last remnant of the Cold War conflicts but also has bisected the Peninsula into immensely different social and cultural systems. However, this critical border line between the south and north of the Peninsula, which is largely along the 38th parallel (latitude 38° North), predates the outbreak of the Korean War. Right after independence from 35 years of Japanese colonial rule (August 29, 1910–August 15, 1945), Korea quickly saw other foreign powers thrust upon her: Russian forces to the north side of the border and Americans to the south. It was “under the pretense of disarming the Japanese military” (Hahn & Song, 2022, p. 6), which was one of the defeated in World War II. Based on the post-war reorganization discussions by the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union (Yalta Conference, February 1945; Potsdam Conference, July 1945), the United States’ General Order No. 1 provided that Japanese forces north of the border should surrender to the Soviet Union and those south of the border to United States, which effectively opened up the period of military occupation 47

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-6

Hyo-Eun Choi 최효은

on the Peninsula for three years, in case of the south of the border before it established the Republic of Korea on August 15, 1948. This involuntary division of national territory was preposterous and shameful for the Korean people. Koreans, regardless of which part of the Peninsula one belonged to, shared a national identity that encompassed the whole Peninsula. The Peninsula has been home for Koreans for many millennia and is overlapped with the only existing linguistic sphere of the Korean language. This inseparable national base was divided not by their own choice but by outside forces. At the same time, however, though it was true that the division of the nation was designed and executed by outside forces, there was no pivotal figure or organization to rally the national strength and avert the incoming challenge. Korea was internally swirling in chaos, with competing multiple views on nationalism. In the end, the Korean Peninsula could not avoid the ill fate of becoming the physical embodiment of the global Cold War struggle. And in less than five years from the independence that was dependent on outside forces and the following involuntary division of territory, a cold war turned to a fierce fight: the Korean War, starting on June 25, 1950.

4.2.2

The Korean Armistice Agreement signed by three linguistic parties

On July 27, 1953, the fire of the War that devastated the Korean Peninsula (223,646 square kilometers in size, a little bigger than the main island of Great Britain and a little smaller than the state of Minnesota in the US) was ceased by the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement. The Korean War was anything but sporadic. Numerous armed collisions over the 38th parallel were triggered by different views on nationalism that were deepened by ideological differences between those in the north and south during the military occupations by the USSR and the US. As Kim (2015, pp. 14, 21) defines, “it was an international all-out war between the Soviet-led communist block that spanned over the Eurasian Continent and the US-led liberal block that was founded on the Atlantic civilization,” with the Korean Peninsula as its battlefield. Given the multinational nature of the Korean War, the Korean Armistice Agreement was, in accordance, multilingual. The document of the Agreement was produced in three languages: English, Korean, and Chinese. All three linguistic versions, which are intrinsically translations, are recognized as equally authentic, as stated in “Article V. Miscellaneous, Item No. 63.” And it was signed by three different linguistic parties: Mark W. Clark, General of the United States Army and the Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations forces; Kim Il-Sung, Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army; Peng The-Huai, Commander of Chinese People’s Volunteers. This means the role and contribution of interpreters or translators in the process of negotiating and documenting the Armistice were inevitable.

4.2.3

The historical studies of the Korean War: the current trend

As described so far, basic historical knowledge about the Korean War and the Armistice Agreement are something anyone who goes to school in Korea cannot escape from learning. Even if one does not intentionally possess the content knowledge of it, there is a rational assumption that one can easily access it when it is needed by, for example, a simple keyword search online. Yet, the translation historian realized this was not the case concerning translators or interpreters who must have been involved in the War. They are, of course, one of many facets of the War. It is impossible for posterity to know every dimension of the War. 48

In search of interpreters on the demarcation line

However, in line with the trend of complementing macro-history with micro-historical approaches in the wider discipline of history (Schlumbohm, 2001, p. 21; Kracauer, 2012, p. 120), historical study of the Korean War also has taken up the new trend. It so far has heavily focused on political or military analysis to reveal the origin, turns, and results of the War. Or the geopolitical significance of the Korean Peninsula and key decision-makers’ varied stances as the War unfolded were the major focal point in describing the War. But Kim asserts that “the Korean War and the following Armistice Regime is a microcosm of the Cold War, so it is necessary to zoom in to and out of the War alternately in order to see both its entirety and details” (2015, p. 12). Recently, researchers on the Korean War are presenting various attempts to overcome previous ideology-or-international-politics-oriented approaches. The scope of historical materials has expanded, which effectively means the Korean War is viewed from new perspectives. The memoirs of key figures and governmental documents in operating the War were major sources in previous studies. Now, ordinary people’s oral records and notes on their own experience have contributed to “thick description” (Hermans, 2012, p.  245) of the War, deepening the understanding of the reality of war: war widows and North Korean defectors are narrating their survival stories (Lee, 2010; Korean Oral History Society, 2011); not military generals, but juvenile soldiers remember their wars (Lee, S.-H. 2021); and, even during the war, ordinary aspects of life continued, such as educating and learning (Ahn, 2010a, 2010b; Kim, 2019) and forming a community through religion (Yoon, 2018); literary works are used to reconstruct the memory of the War (Kim, J.-H. 2013; Gu, 2014), not to mention public communication tools such as propaganda pamphlets called “bbira” (Lee, 2011; Kim, E.-J. 2013; Lee, 2019, 2020) or a radio broadcasts by the US army, “Voice of America” (Kim, 2009; Chang, 2014). The historical study of translators or interpreters, too, can reveal the hidden details of the picture of the Korean War and further expand the scope of materials in describing it. Also, there are cases that see the War from the perspective of neighboring countries. The Korean War was indeed an international warfare with sixteen participant countries for the liberal side alone (US, UK, France, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, the Philippines, Thailand, Greece, Belgium, Luxembourg, South Africa, Ethiopia, Colombia), but it was undoubtedly Koreans who were hit hardest and have lived with its consequences in the most profound way because it happened in their own home. The Korean War has been unavoidably regarded as a Korean issue and seen mainly from Koreans’ perspective, except those studies concerning the origin or developments of the War, which have to maintain factual objectivity. However, recent Korean researchers are paying more attention to how “others” experienced or perceived the Korean War: literary works, media programs, and commemorative materials that produced in Japan and China, geographically and historically Korea’s closest neighbors who were also stake holders of the War, are used to remember the War (Tae, 2014; Nam, 2015; Jang, 2016; So, 2018; Yoon, 2018); the records of North Korean orphans are tracked in Mongolian archives (Oh, 2019); not only geographically neighboring countries but also distant participants—US, European and South American countries—produced texts on the War (Lee, J.-H. 2021); and the War is analyzed through school history textbooks that were used in West and East Germany, who had similar Cold War experiences to Korea’s (Park, 2019). At this point, there is no ground of restriction that translators or interpreters who worked in the Korean War were all Koreans. Thus, seeing the War through their eyes can be another way to see how “others” experience and perceived it. Out of sheer curiosity, but rightly in line with the current trend of researching the Korean War, micro-historical and increasing awareness of others’ (meaning none-Korean) perspectives, the translation historian goes on pursuing a so-far-marginalized aspect of the War: interpreters of the War. 49

Hyo-Eun Choi 최효은

4.3

In search of interpreters

4.3.1

The scope of research

As mentioned earlier, the US-led coalition for the South alone consisted of sixteen countries. Interpreters with various language combinations must have served during the War. However, this work narrows the scope of research to interpreters with the language combination of Korean-andEnglish, in order to increase the likelihood of finding a clear path to reach them. Once spotting a clear path for one language combination, other combinations could emerge along with it. Then the research question can be preliminarily stated: Who did Korean-and-English interpreting in the Korean War? The Korean War lasted more than three years and there must have been numerous operations that needed Korean-and-English interpreters. The research question that clarifies the language combination of interpreting is still too wide. It is necessary to focus on an event that clearly demanded interpreting. As shown earlier, the Armistice Agreement was signed by three linguistic parties, among which were English and Korean speakers. Thus, the research question can be restated and finalized as following: Who did Korean-and-English in the Armistice Conferences?

4.3.2

Guesswork

Compared to how it is today, Korea was a very different nation through the 1950s, especially in terms of international exchanges. Almost through the threshold of the twentieth century, it maintained a closed-door policy, which resulted in a series of shore threats (by France in 1866; US, 1871; Japan, 1876), following unequal treaties (with Japan in 1876; US, 1882; China, 1882; UK, 1883; Germany, 1883; Italy, 1884; Russia, 1884; France, 1886; Austria, 1892; Belgium, 1901; Denmark, 1902), oppressive colonial rule (by Japan, 1910–1945), and, eventually, military occupations (by US 1945–1948 and USSR) that led the division of national territory and a war between blood brothers. In this whirling midst of the early twentieth century, who was equipped with the skills and competence needed to interpret Korean-and-English communication with the highest possible level of difficulty? Given the fact that the first specialized institution to professionally train interpreters and translators (in case of South Korea) was established in May 1979,2 almost 30 years after the Korean War, interpreters in the War that was waged in the early 1950s must have been either self-taught or situationally-constructed, at least not trained in a specialized institution for interpreters.

4.3.3

Previous studies with discrepancy in historical facts

An instant answer came from Sánchez (2010), the paper titled “Understanding the Role of Interpreting in the Peacemaking Process at the Korean Armistice Negotiations” (Panmunjom, 1953). It provides valuable findings that spurred this study further. Here, Table 4.1 lists the brief biographical information of four interpreters that Sánchez (2010) presented. Three out of the four whom Sánchez (2010) introduces are descendants of missionaries who came to Korea (or China for Pu Shouchang) in the late nineteenth century through the early twentieth when Christianity was a strange foreign perspective to the Northeast Asian countries. Those three must have grown in a family whose religious eagerness led them to learn and use Asian languages. The foregoing guesswork in a way turns out to be right in direction and this path of becoming an inter-lingual communicator is well induced by one of the crucial historical roles of translators

50

In search of interpreters on the demarcation line Table 4.1 Interpreters in the Korean Armistice Negotiations (Sánchez, 2010, pp. 240–241)  

Name

Language

Nationality

Place of Birth

Note

1

English and Korean

American

Korea

Descendant of missionary

English and Korean

American

Korea

3

Horace G. Underwood Richard F. Underwood Robert B. Ekvall

English and Chinese

American

China

4

Pu Shouchang

English and Chinese

Chinese

China

Younger brother of H. G. Underwood Descendant of missionary, missionary himself Harvard doctoral student

2

and interpreters that Delisle and Woodsworth depicted in their seminal volume, Translators through History (2012): “the spread of religions” and “transmitting the word of God.” However, in terms of who did interpreting, Delisle and Woodsworth only mentioned Ekvall (2012, p. 274), a Chinese-and-English interpreter and one out of four whom Sánchez (2010) introduced. This kind of discrepancy can be easily ruled out when considering the scope and focus of study. Delisle and Woodsworth (2012) browsed through histories of many parts of the world, so details of a single event on a far eastern corner on Earth are understandably dealt with swiftly. Also, the primary focus of Sánchez (2010) is on the role of interpreters, the procedural aspect of interpreting as a task,3 so descriptions on how to find them and why they were there as they were are inevitably scarce. Actually, the only primary source that both references resorted to in order to directly address the factual aspect of interpreter’s existence was Ekvall’s memoirs, Faithful Echo, 1960. But he came to take part in the negotiating process at almost the last stage, as he wrote himself. The immediate causes and events that took me to the truce negotiation hut at Panmunjom in the spring of 1953 were sudden and short in sequence, reflecting oddly the vagaries of army routine and decision. Three weeks prior to that afternoon I had been in a hide-out, a valley sleeping in the sun, just behind the Berkely, California, hills. (Ekvall, 1960, p. 21) The Korean Armistice Negotiations spanned more than two years, from July 10, 1951 to July 27, 1953. Then, who was there to interpret before Ekvall right on the demarcation line, especially for Korean-and-English communication, which were two out of three official languages of the conference? Without being proved by primary sources, how can it be sure that Underwoods brothers who Sánchez (2010) presented as interpreters with the language combination of Korean-and-English were indeed in the armistice conferences, especially when another secondary source, Delisle and Woodsworth (2012), did not care to support it?

4.3.4

Primary sources to address a credibility issue

The quest to find English-and-Korean interpreters who worked in the process of the Korean Armistice Negotiations led to the archive of the National Institute of Korean History (NIKH).4 NIKH built a database of the Proceedings of Korean Armistice Conferences (PKAC or the Proceedings).5 The source of the PKAC database is the documents titled “United Nations Command, Korean Armistice Negotiation, 1951–1953,” and is found in the archive of “Record Group 333: Records of International Military Agencies,” which is accumulated by the US National Archive and Record

51

Hyo-Eun Choi 최효은 GENERAL HEADQUARTERS UNITED NATIONS COMMAND ADVANCE 25 October 1951 SUBJECT:

Transcript of Proceedings, 27th Session, Meeting at Pan Mun Jom, on the Armistice Proposal. Delegates Present. UNITED NATIONS

COMMUNISTS

VADM MGEN MGEN MGEN RADM

GEN NAM IL, NKA, Sr Delegate GEN PIEN CHUNG-WU, CCF MGEN LEE SANG JO, NKA MGEN CHUNG TU HWAN, NKA GEN HSIEN FANG, CCF

CT LC HK HI AA

JOY, USN, Sr Delegate CRAIGIE, USAF LEE, ROKA HODES, USA BURKE, USN Staff Assistants Interpreters Stenographers

Figure 4.1 Transcript of the Proceedings on October 25, 19516

Administration (NARA). The PKAC database is chronically stacked summaries and transcripts of the conferences. Those documents lay out conference details, including representatives who were present in the sessions. However, the PKAC database accounts for 7,058 pages in total that minutely recorded the Armistice Conferences, and a significant portion of the proceedings does not grant names of interpreters, as Figure 4.1 shows. However, luckily, it is accompanied with an official explanatory note written by Jeong Byeong Jun of Mokpo National University, which informs key features of the Proceedings. And there, he attached the list of representatives of both sides, including interpreters, as Figure 4.2 shows. All inter preters listed in the note are six as following: • •

UN: Horace C. Underwood,8 Richard F. Underwood, Kenneth Wu Communists: Sul Chun-Sik (설정식),9 To Yu-Ho (도유호), Ppi Jeulang (삐즈랑(畢致浪))

With the foregoing list as a guide, the interpreters’ names and presences were confirmed in quite a few individual pages of PKAC. For example, Figure 4.3 shows that four representatives of the United Nations Command were present in the fir st sub-delegation session on Agenda Item 2 on August 17, 1951: Major General H. I. Hodes of US Army and Rear Admiral A. A. Burke of US Navy participated as delegates; Colonel G. C. Mudgett of US Army, as a staff assistant; and, lastly, Lieutenant “H. G. Underwood,” as an interpreter. It also shows a North Korean interpreter, Major “Sul Chun Sik.” Figure 4.4 reveals another North Korean interpreter, Major “To Yu Ho.” Figure 4.5 includes an observer-interpreter, “K Wu,” who seems to mean Kenneth Wu in the list. It also carries a name of Chinese interpreter, “Ting Min,” who is out of this study’s research scope.

52

In search of interpreters on the demarcation line

Figure 4.2 The list of participants of the Armistice Conferences in the explanatory note of the Proceedings7 (lines added under the names of interpreters)

GENERAL HEADQUARTERS UNITED NATIONS COMMAND ADVANCE

Subj:

17 August 1951 SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS, First Session, Sub-Delegation on Agenda Item 2, Kaesong Armistice Conference. Representatives present: United Nations -- MGEN H.I. Hodes, USA, and RADM A.A. Burke, USN, delegates; Col.G.C. Mudgett, USA, staff assistant; Lt. H.G. Underwood, USNR, interpreter. Communists ----- MGEN Lee Sang Jo, NKPA, and MGEN Hsieh Fang, CCF, delegates; Chiu Ko An, CCF, staff assistant; Maj. Sul Chun Sik, NKPA, interpreter.

Figure 4.3 The summary of the Proceedings on August 17, 195110

53

Hyo-Eun Choi 최효은 GENERAL HEADQUARTERS UNITED NATIONS COMMAND ADVANCE 20 August 1951 Subj:

SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS, Fourth Session, Sub-Delegation on Agenda Item 2, Kaesong Armistice Conference. Representatives present: United Nations - MGEN H.I. Hodes, USA, and RADM A.A. Burke, USN, delegates; LTCOL H.H. Levy, USA; staff assistant; LJ H.G. Underwood, USNR, Interpreter. Communists - - MGEN Lee Sang Jo, NKPA, and MGEN Hsieh

Fang, CCF, delegates; Chiu Ko An, CCF, staff assistant; MAJ To Yu Ho, NKPA, Interpreter.

Figure 4.4 The summary of the Proceedings on August 20, 195111

GENERAL HEADQUARTERS UNITED NATIONS COMMAND ADVANCE 27 October 1951 SUBJECT:

SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS, Ninth Session, 3rd Meeting at PAN MUN JOM, Sub-Delegation on Agenda Item 2, Military Armistice Conference Representatives present: United Nations - MGEN H I Hodes, USA, and RADM A A Burke, USN Delegates; COL J C Murrey, USNC, LTCOL A M Butler, USA, Staff Assistants; LT H G Underwood, USNR, Interpreter; WOJG K Wu, Observer-Interpreter. Communists - - - MGEN Lee Sang Jo, NKA, MGEN Hsieh Fang, CCF,

Delegates; Chiu Ko-an, CCF, Staff Assistant; MAJ To Yu Ho, NKA, Ting Min, CCF, Interpreters; CAPT Chu Mun Sun, NKA, Secretary.

Figure 4.5 The summary of the Proceedings on October 27, 195112

The Proceedings do not specify language combinations of each interpreter, but it is not hard to presume some of them. Based on the official language of each side: English for UN; Korean and Chinese for the communists—all communist interpreters, either Korean or Chinese, must have dealt with English, the official language of the counterpart. Thus, the two North Koreans in the list were English-and-Korean interpreters in the Conferences. In search of first-hand witnesses by those at the negotiating table, based on the list of participants from the official explanatory note, two memoirs were found: How Communists Negotiate, 1955, by

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In search of interpreters on the demarcation line

Charles Turner Joy, the first chief representative of the UN side and a Vice Admiral of US Navy; Korea in War, Revolution and Peace, 2001, by Horace Grant Underwood. For our side, Lieutenants Horace and Dick Underwood, brothers, handled the Korean translation, and Warrant Officer Kenneth Wu provided the Chinese. They were impeccable linguists, adding keen intelligence to their talents as interpreters. (Joy, 1955, p. 26. Line added) At Panmunjom, we had a team of three official interpreters: Dick and I for Korean and Kenneth “Kenny” Wu, a bright, cheerful, and energetic Chinese American, for the Chinese language. I was senior both in age and in rank (I was a Navy lieutenant; Dick was an Army first lieutenant; and Kenny Wu was an Army warrant officer, later promoted to lieutenant and eventually retiring from an outstanding career in the army as a lieutenant colonel). (Underwood, 2001, p. 160. Line added) Both Vice Admiral Joy and Navy lieutenant Underwood are consistent in confirming names and language combinations of interpreters who were appeared on the Proceedings: Kenneth Wu handled English and Chinese; the Underwood brothers, English and Korean. The older Underwood also made a testimony about one of his North Korean counterparts, Sul Chun Sik, whose existence is already proved by the Proceedings. The North Korean interpreter was Sul Chang-sik,13 a graduate of Chosun Christian College who had studied Shakespeare and had once taught high school in Seoul while working as a Communist agitator. (ibid., p. 169. Line added) To sum up, four Korean-and-English interpreters, Horace G. Underwood, Richard F. Underwood, Sul Chun Sik, and To Yu Ho, were confirmed through the most reliable documents of the event, the Proceedings of Korean Armistice Conferences, with a guide of its affiliated explanatory note. (Hereafter, they will be referred to as “officially listed” interpreters in this chapter.) Three out of the four are crosschecked with first-hand accounts written by those on the scene. Then, who are they?

4.3.5

Brief life histories of the four interpreters whose presence was confirmed

Here, the family and educational background of the four officially listed English-and-Korean interpreters will be presented. Tracing their backgrounds turned out to be truly interdisciplinary: the Underwood brothers were found in the context of church and mission history; Sul Chun-Sik, in literary history; To Yu-Ho, in archaeological references.

• Underwood brothers Horace G. Underwood (born in Seoul, 1917–2004) started his recollection by saying, “Who I am, an Underwood of the missionary family in Korea, is an inescapable factor in whatever I have become” (2001, p. 4). The Underwood brothers are of the third generation of a pioneering missionary family in Korea. Horace is the eldest; and Richard (born in Seoul, 1927), the fourth. Their grandfather, Horace Grant Underwood (1859–1916), whose name is the same as his first grandson, established Chosun Christian College (later Yonhi College; now Yonsei University) in

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Seoul. He was committed to learning Korean as to publish the first Korean language dictionaries (Hwang, 2010, p.  103). He also contributed to translating the Bible into Korean. He was one of the founding members of the Permanent Executive Bible Committee and the head of the Board of (Bible) Translators (Lee, 2011, p. 237). His wife, Lillias Horton Underwood (1851–1921), recalled that her husband “worked on the Bible translation all through the summer vacation in 1915 and never again regained the strength he lost” (Underwood, 1918/1983, p. 47). The second generation, Horace Horton Underwood, the father (1890–1951), carried on his predecessor’s missionary work in Korea, but he had to endure political hardships to preserve the foundation that his father laid. He experienced detention, torture, and deportation under Japanese occupation, when the US and Japan stood hostile each other through the end of the Second World War (Seo, 2005, pp. 219–222). But in 1945, he returned to Korea in the joy of liberation from Japan and started to work as a civilian advisor for the US Army. However, in 1949, his wife, Ethel van Wagner Underwood (1888–1949), was murdered at home by a band of armed terrorists in the vortex of the emergence of two Koreas. Grief-stricken by the unbearable loss, he flew back to the US, but he came back to Korea when the Korean War broke out. However, this time, it was he who died, while working for the intelligence department of US Army in the Korean War. He was buried at the UN cemetery in Pusan (1951) and later, his second son, John T. Underwood (1919–1999), had his body moved to the Foreigners’ Cemetery in Seoul, where missionaries are buried (Underwood, 2001, pp. 117–122). Seo, a church historian, describes the Underwoods as a Western family whose family history is the most intertwined with Korean history (2005). As the eldest grandson appreciated, the firstgeneration Underwoods “lived through the opening of Korea to the annexation by Japan, leaving a significant legacy to Korean society” (Underwood, 2001, p. 5). And the second-generation Underwood was born in Seoul and died in Pusan, leaving his own personal stories in every major corner of Korea’s tragic modern history—not much different from how countless Koreans lived through that time. This extraordinary family history continued on when the third-generation brothers participated in the Korean War, enlisted in the US Army and Navy.

• Sul Chun-Sik Sul Chun Sik (born in Dan Cheon, Ham Gyeong Nam Do, a northern part of the Korean Peninsula, 1912–1953) is the third son of Sul Tae Hui (1875–1940), who was a traditional Confucian scholar serving as a government official at the end of the Joseon Dynasty and is also known as one of key figures who led a patriotic enlightenment movement that promoted the use of domestic products against Japanese growing influence on Korea (Yoon, 1992, p. 315). The first son, Sul Won Sik (1896–1942), ran a business in goldmining and farming. The second son, Sul Ui Sik (1901–1954), was a journalist who became an editor-in-chief in one of the oldest Korea’s newspaper, Dong-A Ilbo (Kwak, 2011, p. 340). Sul Chun Sik graduated from Yonhi College that his counterparts’ family, the Underwoods, had built and managed (1937). Before Yonhi, he was expelled from the Seoul Public Agricultural School due to his involvement in the Gwangju Student Movement. After Yonhi, he flew to the US to study English literature at Mount Union College, Ohio (1937–1939). He also studied at Columbia University in New York about two years (ibid., p. 342). And, thanks to his education and English skills, he was employed by the US Military Government (USMG) as a director of the public information department (1946) (ibid., p. 343). However, he joined the Communist Party in Seoul while he was working for USMG. Tibor Meray, a Hungarian journalist who covered the Armistice conferences, assumed that it was out of 56

In search of interpreters on the demarcation line

his nationalist discontent toward USMG who regarded Korea as not more than a military outpost (ibid., p. 343). Around the period, he published quite a few poems and novels that revealed his critical perspective and tone. As a literary man, he translated Shakespeare’s Hamlet into Korean, and his translation has been acknowledged as the first of its kind as well as being a good one (1946–1949) (Cho, 2013, pp. 9–15). When the Korean War broke out, he turned to North Korea, leaving his family behind (Encyclopaedia of Korean Culture14; Kim, 1989; Kwak, 2011; Cho, 2013; Song, 1991). Then, as the Proceedings of the Armistice Conferences confirmed, Figure 4.3, he emerged as a North Korean interpreter. However, his life story did not continue much further from his being a North Korean interpreter. On another occasion Dick [Richard] went out on an investigation, and the North Korean interpreter [Sul Chun-Sik] kept adding his own nasty comments to their Colonel Chang’s statements. . . . After Dick corrected him two or three times, Colonel Chang told Sul to shut up. Dick then did the translation both ways for the two sides—the only time such a cordial thing ever happened during the peace talks. Sul was later purged by the Communist regime for some reason and executed. (Underwood, 2001, p. 169. Lines and square-shaped bracket added) From the foregoing extract, Sul Chun-Sik did not seem to conduct himself professionally as an interpreter, adding his own comments to the speaker’s statements. And he died by execution in August 1953, almost right after the Armistice Agreement was signed on July 27, 1953. It was on charges of a “plot to overthrow the regime and anti-state espionage and incitement” (Kim, 2015, p. 350; Yoon, 2014, p. 216). It is said that more than ten persons were charged with him, and, except two of them, they were executed right after the charge.

• To Yu-Ho Compared to the other officially listed interpreters, To Yu-Ho’s life history has not been much circulated. It is probably because, from the present (South Korean) perspective, he is categorized solely as a North Korean, while the Underwood brothers stayed only in the South Korean side, and Sul Chun-Sik studied and worked in South Korea before defecting to North Korea. To Yu-Ho is remembered mostly for his academic contribution to the development of North Korean archaeology (Csoma, 2015; Han, 2017; Yi, K.-S. 2011; Lee, K.-L. 2011). According to the Encyclopaedia of Korean Culture,15 he (1905–1982) was born into a well-off family in Ham Heug, Ham Gyeong Nam Do, a far-northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Until 1929, he studied in his birthplace and Seoul. Then, he went to Beijing, China, to study for a year and left for Europe. In 1931, he entered the University of Frankfurt in Germany to study social philosophy and social history. In 1933, he moved to the University of Vienna in Austria, where he received a doctoral degree of Philosophy in 1935, majoring in history. Afterwards, he joined a prehistory research institute at Vienna University and studied further on archaeology and folklore. When the Second World War began, he returned to Korea, but again moved to Tokyo, Japan in hopes of exercising his academic ambition. It is known that he helped to translate Weltgeschichte Der Steinzeit (Universal History of the Stone Age, by Oswald Menghin) while he was in Tokyo (1931). In 1945, after liberation, he briefly stayed in his hometown, serving as the head of Ham Heung City Library and a lecturer at Ham Heung Medical University, but he moved to the South. In Seoul, 1946, he joined the Communist Party, serving as a director on foreign affairs and the 57

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chairperson of the scientist alliance committee. Not before long, he defected back to North Korea with his family when the US Military Government tried to arrest him. In Pyongyang, 1947, he became a professor at the Kim Il-sung University and the head of the archaeological research institute, and, in 1949, he was named as a member of the Joseon Primitive History Compilation Subcommittee. The Encyclopaedia of Korean Culture does not say anything about his life during the period when the Armistice Negotiations went on from July 1951 to July 1953. It only says, in 1952, when the Academy of Sciences was established in North Korea, he became the first director of the Institute of Material Culture (NKIMC) and continued serving as its head after it was renamed the institute of archaeology and folklore in 1959. So far, there was only one reference about his careers both as a pioneering archaeologist and as an interpreter for the Armistice Conferences, which is written by a posterity academic, Han Chang Gyun. Han, in his thick volume dedicated to describing To Yu Ho’s academic contributions, briefly adds his service as an interpreter on the demarcation line in a rank of army major (2017, p. 237). He presumes To Yu Ho probably served more than a year and half as an interpreter, and it was during that period that he was appointed to the first director of NKIMC. Han said it was probably a reward for his faithful service in a political task such as an interpreting officer (ibid., pp. 241–242), which is quite a contrast from what his interpreter colleague had to face after his duty.

4.4

Questions continued on “in search of interpreters”

This study began with a curiosity that is legitimate from a translation historian’s perspective. And, it narrowed the research scope and question to discover a clear path to reach them. And it did. Based on the official explanatory note of the most reliable primary source, the Proceeding of Korean Armistice Conferences, the list of four Korean-and-English interpreters was put forward and confirmed. However, while investigating further through secondary sources to browse through the lives of the four, names of “potential” or “self-claimed” interpreters, in a sense that their being as an interpreter on the demarcation line has not been supported by the foregoing path, kept chained after another.

First-hand accounts on interpreting in the Armistice Conferences H.G. Underwood

Why not on the primary source? Chung Kyeong Mo

First-hand accounts on interpreting in the War Kim II Pyeong

Why not? R. F. Underwood

Lee Su Yong

Sul Chun Sik

Mun Ik Hwan

Pak Hyeong Kyu

Figure 4.6 Cross-references among interpreters

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Ri Yeong Hui

Im Seok Du

In search of interpreters on the demarcation line

A liaison officer who did interpret vs one who did not In Underwood’s recollections, Korea in War, Revolution and Peace, Lee Su Yong (이수영)16, whose title was a liaison officer, emerged. We depended quite heavily on Colonel Lee Su Yong, the senior Korean liaison officer, to assist us with language. He later became a diplomat and died in Paris, committing suicide. He was a very fine man with whom we worked very closely. . . . Lee knew English well, and he often helped us out. (Underwood, 2001, p. 163. Underline added) Generally, “liaison officer” is regarded as a different name for military interpreter. In search of a liaison officer in the Korean War, Kim Il Pyeong (김일평) came up with mentions of his friends who were also liaison officers: Ri Yeong Hui (리영희) and Im Seok Du (임석두). Kim Il Pyeong later became a professor in politics at the University of Connecticut and left life recollections, simply Professor Kim Il Pyeong’s Memoirs, on his online page, which was originally a series of memoirs published in a newspaper.17 His duty in the War largely focused on interpreting or translating US staff officers’ military education or instructions to Korean officers and soldiers (Ko, 2022, pp. 77, 111–112). He can indeed be called a military interpreter. But he did not work on the demarcation line, so it is natural that this study had not found him through the primary source. However, as seen in the foregoing extract, Lee Su Yong was on the demarcation line and had a competence to act as an interpreter himself, so as to help interpreters. But, in the explanatory note of PKAC, there was a separate list of liaison officers, and he is on that list: “Colonel Andrew J. Kinney of US Air Force, Captain James C. Murray of US Navy, Colonel Don O. Darrow of US Air Force; Lieutenant Colonel Lee Su Yong of Korean Army” (see Figure 4.2). The reason why there is a list of liaison officers distinct from the list of interpreters seems to be the singularity of the context in which the ceasefire negotiations took place. The official language of UN representative was English, while, for the communists, it was Korean and Chinese. And the language of negotiators had to remain within the official language of each side when they were in the context of negotiating. Because of this, Lee Su Yong faced an awkward situation but responded commendably. In the summer of 1951, when the Conferences was in a long recess, he went to convey a message from the UN commander to the communists. He delivered the message in his official language, English, to his counterpart, a North Korean representative, Jang Chun San (Kim, 2015, pp. 326–237). When Lieutenant Underwood tried to interpret, Jang Chun San interrupted, “You are a Korean. Have you forgotten the Korean language? Speak in Korean.” Lee Su Yong responded as following: “Among the freedoms set by the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, I can use any language I want. This freedom of choice of language is not interfered with by anyone. We are fighting for this very freedom.” He said this also in English, and Lieutenant Underwood and Warrant Officer Kenneth Woo interpreted it into Korean and Chinese, respectively. (ibid.) One of UN representatives, Admiral Arleigh Burke of US Navy, highly commended his response, especially for his mention of freedom, and the episode was reported in the US, too (ibid.). From Lee Su Yong’s anecdote, the scope of interpreters’ role on the demarcation line became clearer. They were communicators primarily reserved for communication with the other side. Lee

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Su Yong must have acted as an interpreter internally, within the side, between US representatives and South Korean delegations who participated in the Conferences in an observer state. But he is not defined as an interpreter, as other South Korean liaison officers in other fields of the War are; for example, Kim Il Pyeong and his friends. Back to the search effort, Lee Su Yong’s episode was also remembered by a suspicious interpreter who claimed that he was an interpreter in the process of the Armistice Conferences and seemed to know a lot of bilingual communicators in the Korean War (see Figure 4.6). But he is not on the list of interpreters (see Figure 4.2).

“Self-claimed” interpreters who are eventually confirmed with the primary source, and more The further searching for Lee Su Yong led to Chung Kyeong Mo18 and his autobiography, A Night Watchman of the Time, 2010. He said in his book that he was assigned to Panmunjom in the early spring of 1952 (2010, p.  136). Ekvall, a Chinese-and-English interpreter, who also did not appear on the list, said in his memoirs that he was called to a hut at Panmunjom in the spring of 1953 (1960, p. 21). Kim, a posterity Korean-War historian, claimed in his volume, “In the early stage of the negotiations, the representatives of the UN forces depended on Underwood brothers and Kenneth Wu for translating and interpreting but gradually increased the bilingual manpower whose nationals were Korean or Chinese. Around March 1953, the number of those who were in charge of Korean language became five, and Chinese, four” (2015, p. 330). Kim (2015) did not give out names of those. But one of whom Kim (2015) meant may be Chung Kyeong Mo. And it turned out to be true. As seen in Figure 4.7, the summary of the Proceedings on April 23, 1952, around the time Chung Kyeong Mo said he was assigned to Panmunjom, an interpreter named, “K M Chung” appeared. The family name was pushed back in the end, as with the custom of writing names in the West and the given names came only with initials, but it seems highly probable that “K M Chung” meant Chung Kyeong Mo of A Night Watchman of the Time. And, that “K M Chung” did not come with a military rank but with “Mr” also accords with the description of Chung Kyeong Mo. When the Korean War broke out, Chung Kyeong Mo was a student in Emory University, Atlanta. And he

GENERAL HEADQUARTERS UNITED NATIONS COMMAND ADVANCE 23 April 1952 SUBJECT:

Forty-sixth Meeting of Staff Officers on Details of Agreement on Agenda Item 4, Held at Pan Mun Jom, 23 April 1952. Representatives Present: UNITED NATIONS -

COL G W Hickman, Jr., USA, and COL J C Murray, USMC, Staff Officers; COL J A Norell, USA, CAPT O W Spahr, Jr., USN, COL D S Somerville, USA, and CHSCLK G G Fuller, USNR, Staff Assistants; 1st LT T F May, USA, and Mr K M Chung, DAC, Interpreters.

COMMUNISTS - - - - - COL Tsai Cheng Wen, CCF, and COL Lee Pyong Il, NKA, Staff Officers; COL Wang Chien, CCF, Staff Assistant; Interpreters and Stenographers.

Figure 4.7 The summary of the Proceedings on April 23, 195221

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HEADQUARTERS UNITED NATIONS COMMAND ADVANCE APO 72 11 June 1953 SUBJECT: Transcript of Proceedings, Third Meeting of Staff Officers, on Revisions to the Draft Armistice Agreement, Held at Pan Mun Jom, 11 June 1953. Representatives Present: UNITED NATIONS - COL D O Derrow, USAF, Senior Staff Officer; COL D M Cairns, USAF, and LTCOL L J Dulacki, Staff Officers; LTCOL R B Eckvall, USA, and Mr. Bill Yu, DAC, Interpreters; and Stenographers. COMMUNISTS - - - - COL Ju Yon, NKA, Senior Staff Officer; and COL Pu Shan, COF, Staff Officer; Interpretors; and Stenographers.

Figure 4.8 The summary of the Proceedings on June 11, 195322

applied to and was recruited by the US Department of State when the War broke out on a request by Korean Ambassador Chang Myeon,19 (Encyclopedia of Overseas Korean Culture).20 At the same time, another new interpreter, 1st Lieutenant “T F May” of US Army, probably a Chinese-and-English interpreter, is also among the attendees. A familiar name, Ekvall was too found on the Proceedings, as Figure 4.8 shows. Ekvall was not found alone. He was accompanied with “Mr. Bill Yu,” probably a Korean-andEnglish interpreter, given his family name, as well as the fact that it was Ekvall who was in charge of communication with the Chinese communists. Bill Yu came with a civil title, as K M Chung did. He might have been in a similar situation as K M Chung/Chung Kyeong Mo—a student in the US when the War broke out, and recruited by the US Department of State. He even had an English given name, which indicates some level of assimilation to Western culture. Then were interpreters with Korean nationality who participated in the Armistice Conferences mostly civilian students recruited by the US government? Probably. But they found another way to join in the process at Panmunjom, when looking at Figure 4.9. Here, “Capt Y P Kim” appears. His affiliation, “USA” indicates US Army, while Lieutenant H G Underwood’s affiliation was “USNR,” indicating US Naval Reserve. Y P Kim’s title, “Capt” indicates nothing other than a military rank, Captain. Given his family name, “Kim,” his nationality is Korean. Given his title, “Captain,” a middle rank army officer, he probably had lived in US for some years by the time the War broke out. That is, Y P Kim may have been a Korean American or long-time resident who participated the War as an US Army officer. In line with the assumption that “Mr. K M Chung,” “Mr. Bill Yu,” and “Capt Y P Kim” had lived for some time in the US by the time the War broke out, it can also be noted that all their names are presented in accordance with a Western custom, unlike the names of North Korean interpreters’ “Sul Chung Sik” (Figures 4.3, 4.9) and “To Yu Ho” (Figure 4.4). It does not necessarily mean that North Korean interpreters were without overseas studying or living experience. UN officers who transcribed the Proceedings must have just treated North Korean names in the way they heard over the negotiating table, or based on documents delivered from North Korean representatives who would in no way have assimilated their custom to US’s. The Underwood brothers are Americans. And it was mentioned previously how these American nationals came to speak Korean, thanks to their missionary background. Then how did those 61

Hyo-Eun Choi 최효은 HEADQUARTERS UNITED NATIONS COMMAND ADVANCE APO 500 5 August 1952 SUBJECT:

Eleventh Meeting of Staff Officers on Details of Wording and Translations of Draft Armistice Agreement, Held at Pan Mun Jom, 5 August 1952. Representatives Present: UNITED NATIONS - Col D S Somerville, USA Spokesman, Staff Officer; Col O W Spahr, Jr., USN, Col S Y Lee RCKA, LtCol J J Borchert, USA (PIO), LtCol D H Robinson, USAF, CDR J A Masterson, USN, and Maj M E Sorenson, USA, Staff Assistants; Lt H G Underwood, USNR, Capt Y P Kim, USA, and 2nd Lt K Wu, USA, Interpreters; and Stenographers. COMMUNISTS - - - Col Chang Chun San, NKA, and Col Pu Shan, CCF, Staf Officers; Col O Hong Son, NKA, Staff Assistant, Maj Sul Chung Sik, NKA and Chiu Ke-an, CCF, Interpreters; and Stenographers.

Figure 4.9 The summary of the Proceedings on August 5, 195223

Korean nationals encounter English? It seems, by their overseas studying and living experiences. Was it hard to find Koreans who could interpret in Korea? As referred to earlier, Kim said that UN representatives were dependent on the Underwood brothers in the early stage of the negotiations and gradually increased Korean nationals (2015, p. 330), which means there were difficulties finding Korean nationals. Then, in terms of exposure to English, what was Korea like then?

4.5 4.5.1

How Koreans encountered English The first encounter of Korean and English

At morning daylight of September 1, 1816, the Alceste and Lyra, English frigates that went on a voyage of discovery after they landed off the ambassador to China, finally saw the land of ‘Corea’ (one of Korea’s old names, ‘Joseon’ was the official name at the time) (Hall, 1818, p.  2). They proceeded through the coastline and approached around the latitude 36.5 North and longitude 126 East (ibid., p.  8), which was then called “Maryang-jin”24 and is now a place in Seocheon, Chungcheongnam-do,25 south of Seoul, on September 3. Here is one of their first encounters with Koreans: Here we were met by the natives, who addressed several long speeches to us in a very loud tone of voice; to which we replied in English, . . . They drew their fans across their own throats, and sometimes across ours, as if to signify that our going on would lead to heads being cut off; but whether they or we were to be the sufferers was not apparent. It was suggested by one of our party that they dreaded being called to account by their own chiefs for permitting us to land. (ibid., p. 10) 62

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Figure 4.10 The inside cover of Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea [sic] and the Great LooChoo Island, 1818 by Basil Hall, the Captain of the Lyra, and the illustration that depicts “Corean Chief and His Secretary” (ibid., p. 16)

Obviously, English explorers and Korean villagers uttered the languages that were not intelligible to each other. Only some probable messages were exchanged in nonverbal communication. And here comes the following communication when the dreaded chief emerged on the scene (see Figure 4.10). The door being opened, the mat-bearer and four of the principal people were called in by the Chief; and when we were all fairly seated on the deck, the secretary was directed to prepare a writing, . . . Captain Maxwell . . . immediately called for paper, and wrote upon it in English, “I do not understand one word that you say,” and presented this paper in return, with all the forms and ceremonies that had been adopted toward himself. (ibid., p. 23, underline added) According to the Joseon Wangjo Sillok (Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty),26 which included a report on this small but significant encounter, the name of the Korean Chief on this scene was Jo Dae-bok,27 a middle-rank regional officer, and he tried written communication in two ways—Chinese and Korean—obviously neither of which worked. Murray Maxwell, Captain of the Alceste, replied in English to Jo Dae-bok, which did not get through to him either. Maxwell’s writing is regarded as one of the earliest written presentations of English that landed on the soil of Korea. 63

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The other written presentation of English that was delivered on that day was the Bible, presumably the King James Version. The Veritable Records of King Sunjo on the event does not specify what book Jo Dae-bok received. It only reports that he and his subordinate each received one of the books in the cabin of the frigate, which they declined to receive at first. But Basil Hall, Captain of the Lyra, reveals details of the scene and confirmed that what Jo Dae-bok received was a Bible. When looking over the books in the cabin, he was a good deal taken with the appearance of a Bible, but when offered to him he declined it, though with such evident reluctance, that it was again shewn to him just as he was pushing off in his boat, and he now received it with every appearance of gratitude, and took his leave is a manner quite friendly. (ibid., p. 41) Because of this gift that Jo Dae-bok gladly received from the English captains, Maryang-jin is regarded as the first place in Korea that met an English Bible (Park, 2003). In 2016, there the memorial hall was established to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the event Murray Maxwell and Basil Hall conveyed the first English Bible to a Korean.28 Though the Korean version of Jo Dae-bok’s writing to Murray Maxwell seemed lost in communication, the Chinese version was later translated at Canton, China, by Robert Morrison (1782– 1834),29 a Protestant missionary to China (Yun, 2010; Shim, 2016; Han, 2020): “Persons, of what land—of what nation (are you)? On account of what business do you come hither? In the ship are there any literary men who thoroughly understand, and can explain what is written?” (Hall, 1818, pp. 23–24). On the spot of their meeting, two distanced linguistic systems only puzzled the other, but at least the two maintained courtesy towards each other; however, Korea’s next encounter with an Englishspeaking country in the nineteenth century—the US in particular—was rather hostile.

4.5.2 The first treaty with an English-speaking country without an English speaker An American merchant ship, the General Sherman, insisted on trading with Korea until it was set on fire by annoyed people in Pyongyang30 (currently the capital city of North Korea), in 1866, which was the same year that Korea repelled the French fleet, who menacingly demanded commerce after nine French Catholic missionaries were executed, along with thousands of Korean converts. On the pretext of the General Sherman incident, the US invaded Korea in 1871 and partially occupied one of islands in the West Sea, Ganghwa-do,31 and again demanded to open the door to trade, but it only met with intense resistance so as to pull back. However, in 1876, Japan opened the way to Korea for both and many other Western countries when it dispatched artillery ships to Korea and eventually coerced it to sign a treaty that was unfairly tilted in Japan’s favor. Korea’s involuntary opening of national ports by Japan led to a series of treaties with Western countries (as listed earlier in this work), among which the US was the first one to sign a treaty. The treaty between Korea and the US was made on May 22, 1882. And the official texts of the treaty were produced in Chinese and English, with the title of the English text being Korean Treaty with the United States: Treaty of Amity and Commerce, May 22, 1882. It is also known as the Treaty of Jemulpo (currently, Incheon), after the name of the place where the treaty was concluded. The Chinese text is presented in the Gojong sillok (Veritable Records of King Gojong);32 Chinese envoys intermediated and interpreted the negotiation process between Korea and the US because, at the point of negotiating a treaty, there were practically no Koreans who could understand and speak English. The same 64

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Figure 4.11 The 11th and 12th articles of the treaty between Korea and US (1882): The Chinese text presented in Gojong Sillok34; the English text found in the library of the University of Southern California35 (colored boxes added)

was true the other way around. The 12th article of the Treaty provided that “As to stipulations not contained herein, after an interval of five years, when the officers and people of the two Powers shall have become more familiar with each other’s language,”33 which suggests a linguistically challenged situation at the time of concluding the treaty (see Figure 4.11).

4.5.3 The first state-operating English school and the first Korean student in the US Though Korea’s early encounters with English-speaking countries were perplexing and hostile, once seeing advanced civilization that the US was presenting then with the bare eyes of bo-bing-sa36 (Korea’s special envoys to the US in 1883, who were sent in response to the visit of L. H. Foot, US ambassador to Korea, after the conclusion of the Treaty in 1882) (Kim, 1985, 1986), Korea positioned itself to become an eager learner of a new culture and language, at least in the ideal, so as to establish a state-operating school that heavily focused on providing English education, Yuk-younggong-won37 in 1886, with the meaning of the name being “a school that brings up young talents” (Park, 2002, 2003). It took four years to establish the school after the need of English education had been formed by the first treaty with a Western country. But Yuk-young-gong-won only lasted eight years and closed in 1894, due to the financially feeble state of the nation (Joseon Dynasty, 1392–1910). And, around the period of operating Yuk-young-gong-won, another way of learning English was, of course, studying in the first English-speaking country with which the nation forged diplomatic ties, the US. And it was, in a literal sense, supported by the 11th Article of the Korean Treaty with the United States: Treaty of Amity and Commerce, 1882: “Students of either nationality 65

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who may proceed to the country of the other, in order to study the language, literature, laws, or arts, shall be given all possible protection and assistance, in evidence of cordial good-will”38 (see Figure 4.11). The United States was, in a way, regarded as a newly found guardian redeemer in Joseon’s struggle with neighboring powers China, Japan, and even Russia, who had awoken to the modernization race a bit faster than Joseon and, thus, were looking for a chance to politically intervene in the nation to take economic advantage of it (Lew, 2006, pp. 105–208; Huh, 2004, pp. 40–49). Despite the inner calculation, Joseon was too weak to systemically arrange and support studying in the US, as with providing English education through Yuk-young-gong-won. Yu, Kil-Chun might be the only clear case of an exception; he was one of the members of bo-bing-sa and stayed further to study Western civilization and the American political system (Encyclopedia of Korean Culture39; Choy, 1979, p. 71; Seo, 2019, p. 377). However, even he did not complete higher education in the US. He only went to a preparatory school for college, Governor Dummer Academy in Massachusetts, for less than two years, 1884–1885 (Huh, 2004, p. 48).

4.5.4

Statistics that show the outgoing trend of studying in the US in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth

Statistically speaking, the number of Korean students in the US in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth does not seem to have grown dramatically.40 Ever since Yu, Kil-Chun, the first Korean national who studied in the US, the number marked barely a thousand, 894 in total, until 1940 (Kim, 1971, p.  23; Choy, 1979, p.  78). Kim, in his volume, Koreans in America, 1971, said: “Since the Japanese treaty of 1905, severe restrictions had been imposed upon the students of Korea by Japanese authorities,” (ibid., p.  23) hinting at the reason why the number of students going overseas could not grow large, and he also refers to the report by the Education Committee of the Korean National Association of Hawaii (ECKNAH). A total of 891 students came to the United States for higher education between 1899 and 1940 in three different groups. The first group of 64 student came between 1899 and 1909, and they were successful in academic performance. Over 75 percent of them graduated from college. . . . The second group of 541 students arrived between 1910 and 1918 were known as “refugee students.” . . . Many of this group could not attend schools, and only 20 percent graduated from colleges. . . . The third group of 289 students arrived between 1921 and 1940, . . . they were successful in academic score, 65 percent of whom graduated from colleges; many received doctoral degrees. (Kim, 1971, pp. 23–24) Kim (1971)’s report is summarized in Table 4.1, with other presentations by Choy (1979) and Huh (2004). The problem is that, though Choy (1979) referred to the same primary source as Kim (1971) and Huh (2004), they subdivided the period differently and presented student counts for each section differently. What largely coincided is the student count and closing year of the first group: 64 students up to 1909. Admitting this number and its timeframe, it can be stated that there were 64; specifically, “Joseon” students who went to the US to study the language and culture. This number of 64 Joseon students is relatively small compared to that of those who went to Japan in a similar time period, 1881–1905, which amounted to 759, state-funded only: (1) 100 students in the period of 1881–1883; (2) it grew to about 160 from 1895–1896; and finally, (3) 449 in 1905 alone (Huh, 2004, p. 41). 66

In search of interpreters on the demarcation line Table 4.2 Previous studies that present the timeframes and student counts regarding how many went to US in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth Previous studies

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Period

Students

Period

Students

Period

Students

Kim (1971, pp. 23–24)

1899– 1909

1910 – 1918

541

1921– 1940

289

Choy (1979, p. 78) Huh (2004, p. 41)

1884– 1909 188 – 1905

64 students 64 64

1910 – 1924 N/A

500↑ N/A

1925– 1940 N/A

300↓ N/A

THE NUMBER OF INCOMING MISSIONARIES The number of incoming missionaries each year from 1884 to 1956

30

27

25 21

20 14

15

10 8

10 55

5

6 4

3

0

4

11 9

88 6 4

8

99 6

5

6 4

2

5

6

6 4

33

5 3 1

00

1

000

1

000000000

11

00000

211

1884 86 88 1890 92 94 96 98 1900 2 4 6 8 1910 12 14 16 18 1920 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56

1

14

12 12 10 10 10 9 9 8 7

17 15

Figure 4.12 The number of incoming missionaries from 1884 to 1956, based on UCLA Online Archive Korean Christianity

4.5.5

Statistics that show the incoming trend of foreign missionaries to Korea in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth

The influx of English speakers into Korea is certainly a crucial path toward linguistic exchanges between Korean and English, especially for a country that just opened its ports to English-speaking countries and had difficulties sending its people overseas freely. Then how many Englishspeaking missionaries came to Korea, with the profound potentials of and actual influence on linguistic exchanges? The biographies of Protestant missionaries presented on UCLA Online Archive Korean Christianity (hereafter, UCLA Archive)41 contain a total of 380 missionaries’ names, the years of birth and death, denominations, stations (mission field), and missionary service periods in Korea. Based on their service periods, Figure 4.12 shows how many new entries made each year from 1884 to 1956. Horace Newton Allen (1858–1932) was the first Protestant missionary who came to Korea in 1884,42 the same year that Yu Kil-Chun enrolled at an American school for the first time as a Korean. Subsequent to that date, there were 373 new entries for missionaries. Comparing this number of new foreign entries with the outgoing trend that was presented in Figure 4.13, the number seems smaller, 373 vs 894 (far-left-side bars of Figure 4.13). However, when comparing the number of Korean college graduates in the US (middle bars), the number of incoming missionaries is a bit bigger, 373 vs 333. Even with the simple comparison of numbers, it can be induced that incoming foreign missionaries had a stronger presence in linguistic exchanges 67

Hyo-Eun Choi 최효은

KOREANS IN US BEFORE 1940 (KIM, 1971: 23-24) Students

College graduates

600

Continue to live

541

500 400 289

300

188

200 100

100

64

0

45

33

?

1899 - 1909

?

1910 - 1918

1921 - 1940

Figure 4.13 The number of Koreans in the US before 1940 (Kim, 1971, pp. 23–24)

TRANSLATORS’ NATIONALITY: CHRISTIAN LITERATURES (CHOI 2016: 200) Foreign

Korean

Institution

140 128 119

120 100

94

80 55

60

51 41

40

32 14

20 0

18 0 1882~1889

2 0 ~1899

5

3

9

13

~1929

~1939

2 ~1909

~1919

9 4 1 ~1945

Figure 4.14 The sample trend of translator’s nationality in case of Christian literatures (Choi, 2016, p. 200)

between Korean and English through the early twentieth century. This can be further supported by what Figure 4.14 shows. Choi (2016) analyzes translators’ nationality of Christian literature from 1882 to 1945, based on the bibliography that was collected and organized in Kim (1987). In all sub-periods, foreign nationals led the task of written bilingual communications between Korean and English, as it was in verbal communications that were needed on the demarcation line few years later. 68

In search of interpreters on the demarcation line

4.6 4.6.1

Discussion

A search that justifies itself

A translation historian was unsettled by the situation where the knowledge on interpreters who participated in the Korean War is scarce, unlike that of the War in the perspective of general history or political history. Thus, narrowing the research scope to those on the demarcation line, the historian clearly charted a search route and followed it. The explanatory note that the National Institute of Korean History (NIKH) presents for the database of the Proceedings of Korean Armistice Conferences (PKAC) functioned as a guide, and the list of interpreters was confirmed through individual pages of PKAC and crosschecked with some of first-hand accounts on the scene: Vice Admiral Joy’s How Communists Negotiate, 1955; and Lieutenant Underwood’s Korea in War, Revolution and Peace, 2001. Those four proven Korean-and-English interpreters are Horace G. Underwood, Richard F. Underwood, Sul Chun Sik, and To Yu Ho. This finding overcame previous studies that are themselves rare cases of looking into interpreters in the Korean Armistice Conferences: Sánchez (2010), Delisle and Woodsworth (2012) within the discipline of translation studies; Kim (2015) from the wider historical discipline. However, while investigating further through secondary sources to understand the life histories of those four confirmed interpreters, potential interpreters kept coming up. The translation historian again resorted on the most reliable primary source, PKAC, and so far, added to the list three more Korean-and-English interpreters, who all seem to be Korean nationals and have joined in the later stage of the Negotiations: “K M Chung,” “Bill Yu,” and “Y P Kim.” This second finding inevitably demands rewriting of the explanatory note that is presented by NIKH to give basic understanding of PKAC, which reflects the current state of knowledge about interpreters who were inseparable players of the Armistice Negotiations.

4.6.2

Strong and lasting missionary presence in the early linguistic exchanges in the context of Korea

As of this year, 2022, it has been 140 years since the first treaty with a Western country in 1882, and almost 70 years since the signing of Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953. The two sets of 70 years seem standing stark contrast. For the first 70 years, Korea was bruised, oppressed, torn apart, and reduced to ashes. For the second 70 years, Korea has been a success story of modern history. So, it might well be seen that Korea has disinherited and overcome the messes of the first and transformed into something new. But the seeds of what Korea has become through the second 70 years were in that first 70 years. Especially in terms of linguistic exchanges, forces from both directions, incoming and outgoing, have never ceased. And in the earlier stage, it was the incoming force that drove the course, as seen in Figures 4.12, 4.13, 4.14. Also, it was not an exception when a group of Korean-and-English interpreters were needed for the crucial task on the demarcation line: the Underwood brothers were called first, and Koreans quickly joined the group, as seen in Figures 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.7, 4.8, and 4.9. Even the Underwood brothers were recipients of legacies that were handed down from the first and second predecessors, as seen in their family history that unfolded on the soil of Korea. They probably learned Korean words with the first Korean-and-English dictionary that their grandfather, H. G. Underwood, who was one of the founding members of the Permanent Executive Bible Committee and the head of the Board of (Bible) Translators, made. And, at some level, they came to know the structure of Korean with grammar primers that had been developed since the first Korean grammar book, Corean Primer, 1877, by John Ross, a Scottish missionary who led the 69

Hyo-Eun Choi 최효은

first Korean Bible translation project that was carried out outside of Korea in Manchuria, China, with help of early-converted Koreans.

4.6.3

Is it right to be forgotten?

Saving a further search for identities and lives of “Bill Yu” and “Y P Kim” for another study, a life story of “K M Chung” or Chung Kyeong Mo needs to be laid out here. He clearly served on the demarcation line as an interpreter because he was not only called to the post at Panmunjom but also fired from it (Encyclopedia of Overseas Korean Culture).43 I still believe that I did not criticize US policies face to face in a situation where I was living and working among US soldiers. But I may have been not cautious enough in my word and actions or the fire in my heart was just too blazing to conceal. I guess I was draw alarming attention around me without realizing it . . . I still remember the oral notice at that day. “Your presence in such a sensitive post as Panmunjom is incompatible with the best interest of the US.” (Chung, 2010, p. 150)44 He was a student at Emory University, Atlanta, when he applied to the US Department of State on a request by the Korean ambassador in the US, in his way of service to his own country. But after he was branded as a “persona non grata” by the US government in 1956, he could never return to the university to carry on with his studies. And for the next fourteen years, he lived in Seoul in a state of need, and, opposing the then South Korean regime, he defected to Japan in 1970. Eventually, he lived most of his life in Japan as a political exile and died on February 16, 2021. His political views may have been against the US government as well as the South Korean when it was under the authoritarian regime. But, from the translation historian’s perspective, he did serve as an interpreter “in such a sensitive post as Panmunjom” from the early spring of 1952 to 1956, even longer than Horace G. Underwood, who participated in the process from almost the beginning. Underwood said he “visited Panmunjom a number of times since 1953, but purely as a tourist” (2001, p. 187). Among many decorations that Underwood received from his government, one was for his service at Panmunjom. For my work during the Inchon landings and the following period, I was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with V, and for the river crossing, the Bronze Star with V. The “V” meant in combat. Then for my service at Panmunjom, I was awarded the Legion of Merit, sometimes nicknamed the “Colonel’s Good Conduct Medal,” as it is rarely given to lower ranks. With the Freedom Medal for the time I served as a civilian with the 24th Division, along with the World War II Pacific Area Ribbon and the Victory Ribbon, I had a fair amount of fruit salad on my uniform. (ibid., p. 187) Koreans did not want an armistice, but it did bring some peace and freedom to a part in the Korean Peninsula. And, with the 70th anniversary of the signing the Korean Armistice Agreement in 2023, it is necessary to see how even an unsettled peace can benefit a country that was gravely far behind in almost every respect. And, in doing so, people who worked toward bringing that peace must be remembered, especially when they did it with a talent and skills that were rare at that time. 70

In search of interpreters on the demarcation line

Notes 1 This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2022S1A5B5A16048870). 2 Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation in Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (see gsit.hufs. ac.kr). 3 What Sánchez (2010) provides in terms of interpreters’ roles in the negotiation process is as following: firstly, drafting and editing documents; secondly, consecutive and whispering interpretation; thirdly, maintaining the distinction between the parties; lastly, a faithful echo of the negotiators (237–239, 241–246). Another recent case with a similar research focus Ko (2022), her doctoral dissertation, A Study of the Roles and Identities of Military Interpreters During the Korean War from the Perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis. 4 See http://www.history.go.kr/ 5 See http://db.history.go.kr/item/level.do?itemId=pn 6 Ibid. 7 http://db.history.go.kr/item/imageViewer.do?levelId=pn_003_0010 8 The middle name, “C,” must be a typing error. It has to be “G” in “Grant.” 9 Transliterations for “설정식” vary by references. A version, “Sul Chun-Sik” is not according to the current romanization system. But, here in this paper, this version, which resembles the version that most frequently appears in the historically most important reference, PKAC, will be primarily used. 10 Screen-captured from the database of the National Institute of Korean History. (https://db.history.go.kr/ item/level.do?itemId=pn) 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Referring to “Sul Chun-Sik” (설정식). 14 See http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0029087 15 See http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0015800 16 The transliteration of “이수영” would be “Lee Su Young” according to the current romanization system, but, here “Lee Su Yong” will be used as it appears in the historical source. 17 See https://ilpyongkim.wordpress.com/memoir/ 18 정경모. ‘정경모’ can be transliterated into “Jeong Gyeong-mo” according to the current romanization system of the National Institute of Korean Language (https://www.korean.go.kr/). But, in the older days, Korean consonants tended to be transliterated into stronger sounds. For example, ‘부산’ is now often “Busan”, but it was more “Pusan” in the past. So, it is acceptable to see ‘ㅈ’ transliterated with “C” instead of current “J” as well as ‘ㄱ’ with “K” instead of current “G”. In the same line, ‘도유호’ can be transliterated into “Do Yu-Ho” in the current system. But as already seen in the Proceeding that was produced in the early 1950s, it was “To Yu Ho”. The romanization of ‘설정식’ also is not an exception. He can be “Sul Jeong-sik” now, but, as seen in the Proceeding and Underwood’s recollections, he was “Sul Chun Sik” or “Sul Chang Sik” or “Sul Chang-sik” (Underwood, 2001, p. 169). 19 장면. ‘장면’ can be “Jang Myeon” these days, but here his name also is presented following the older custom of wring Korean names into English as others in his time. 20 See http://www.okpedia.kr/Contents/ContentsView?contentsId=GC95200334&localCode=jpn 21 See http://db.history.go.kr/item/level.do?itemId=pn 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid. 24 마량진 25 충청남도 서천 26 조선왕조실록. Specifically, the 2nd report on July 19 (Lunar calendar), 16th Year of Sunjo, the Veritable Records of King Sunjo (Sunjo daewang sillok, 순조대왕실록) No. 19. (https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/ kwa_11607019_002) 27 조대복(趙大福) 28 See https://bible1816.modoo.at/ 29 He appears as “Mr. Morrison” in Hall (1818, p. 23) and is known as the first Protestant missionary to China. He entered China through Macau in 1807 and translated the Bible into Chinese, the New Testament in 1813, the Old Testament in 1821, with William Milne. He also published Chinese grammar books and dictionaries. His English translation of the Chinese version of the Jo Dae-bok’s writing is following: 30 평양 31 강화도

71

Hyo-Eun Choi 최효은 32 고종실록. Specifically, the 3rd report on April 6 (Lunar calendar), 19th Year of Gojong, the Veritable Records of King Gojong (Gojong sillok). (https://sillok.history.go.kr/id/kza_11904006_003) 33 “ . . . 규정하지 않은 것은 5년 뒤에 양국 관원과 백성들이 피차 언어가 조금 통할 때에 다시 의정 한다.” (Ibid.) 34 Screen-captured from the digital archive of the Joseon Wangjo Sillok (Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty) (https://sillok.history.go.kr/popup/viewer.do?id=kza_11904006_003&type=view&reSearchWo rds=%EB%AF%B8%EA%B5%AD&reSearchWords_ime=%3Cspan%20class=%22newbatang%22%3E%EB %AF%B8%EA%B5%AD%3C/span%3E#) 35 Screen-captured from Korean American Digital Archive, University of Southern California Libraries (https:// digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1O0T8DCM?FR_=1&W=958&H=920) 36 보빙사 37 육영공원 38 “양국의 학생이 오가며 언어•문자•법률•기술 등을 배울 때에는 피차 서로 도와줌으로써 우의를 두텁게 한다.” (Ibid.) 39 Search ‘유길준’ at http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/ 40 Regarding this issue, only a handful of secondary sources have been found so far, which are not entirely reliable (see Table 4.1). But here they will be referred to get some ideas of that time. 41 See http://koreanchristianity.cdh.ucla.edu/ 42 Korean church historians in general regard missionaries who came the next year, 1885, as the first evangelical missionaries to Korea, because Allen’s purpose of entry was as an affiliated medical doctor to US embassy. In that case, the grandfather of Horace Grant Underwood, one of this study’s prime objects, is among the first group of missionaries to Korea with Henry Gerhart Appenzeller (1858–1902) and his wife Ella (? –1915), and Mary Fletch Scranton (1832–1909) and his son, William B Scranton (1856–1922). 43 See http://www.okpedia.kr/Contents/ContentsView?contentsId=GC95200334&localCode=jpn 44 Translated by the historian in this study.

References Primary Historical (Online) Sources The Proceedings of the Korean Armistice Conferences: http://db.history.go.kr/index.jsp The explanatory note of the Proceedings: http://db.history.go.kr/introduction/intro_pn.html Joseon Wangjo Silok (Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty): https://sillok.history.go.kr/main/main.do

Primary Sources Chung, K. M. 정경모. (2010). Chung Kyeong Mo Jaseojeon: Sidae-ui Bulchimbun정경모 자서전: 시대의 불침 번 [A night watchman of the time]. Seoul: Hangyeore-chulpan한겨레출판. Hall, B. (1818). Account of a voyage of discovery to the west coast of Corea and the Great Loo-Choo Island; with an appendix. London: John Murray, Albermarle-Street. Joy, C. T. (1955). How communists negotiate. New York: Macmillan Co. Underwood, H. G. (2001). Korea in War, revolution and peace: The recollections of Horace G. Underwood. Edited and annotated by Michael J. Devine. Seoul: Yonsei University Press.

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In search of interpreters on the demarcation line Nam, S.-W. 남상욱. (2015). Jeonhu Ilbon-munhak Sok-ui Hanguk-jeonjaeng. 전후 일본문학 속의 한국전 쟁: 한국전쟁과 전후 일본의 내셔널 아이덴티티 [The Korean War in modern Japanese literature – The Korean War and Japanese national identity in post-war period]. Bigyo-hanguk-hak 비교한국학 [Comparative Korean Studies], 23(1), 11–38. Oh, M.-Y. 오미영. (2019). Hanguk-jeonjaeng Sigi Bukhan Jeonjaeng-goa-wa Monggol. 한국전쟁 시기 북 한 전쟁고아와 몽골: 몽골 문서보관소의 자료를 중심으로 [War orphans of North Korea and Mongolia during the Korean War: Focusing on documents in MongoliaaArchives]. Bukhan-yeongu-hakhoe-bo 북 한연구학회보 [Korean Journal of North Korean Studies], 23(2), 269–297. Park, J.-Y. (박재영). (2019). Hanguk-jeonjaeng-uil Boneun Du Gaji Siseon 한국전쟁을 보는 두 가지 시선: 냉전시대 동 서독 역사교과서에 나타난 한국전쟁 관련 내용 분석 [Two perspectives on the Korean War: An analysis of the contents of the Korean War in the history textbooks of BRD and DDR during the Cold War]. Daegu-sahak 대구사학 [Daegu History], 136, 339–383. Park, S. R. 박성래. (2002). Hanguk-geundae-ui Seoyang-eo Tongyeok-sa: 1885 Nyeon-kkaji한국근대의 서 양어 통역사(通譯史): 1885년까지 [History of interpretation of Western languages in Korea before 1885]. Yeoksa-munhwa-yeongu 역사문화연구 [Journal of History and Culture], 16, 157–179. Park, S. R. 박성래. (2003). Hanguk-geundae-ui Seoyang-eo Tongyeok-sa (2): 1883 Nyeon-buteo 1886 Nyeon-kkaji 한국근대의 서양어 통역사(通譯史) (2): 1883년부터 1886년까지 [History of interpretation of Western languages in Korea 1883–1886]. International Area Studies Review, 7(1), 353–382. Sánchez, F. M. M. (2010). Understanding the role of interpreting in the peacemaking process at the Korean armistice negotiations (Panmunjom 1953). Interpreting and Translation Studies, 13(2), 229–249. Schlumbohm, J. (2001). 미시사와 거시사 Microhistory and Macrohistory, translated from Mikrogeschichte Markrogeschichte by Seung-jong Baek (백승종) et al. Seoul: 궁리 (Gung-ri). Seo, J.-M. 서정민. (2005). Underwood-ga Iyagi: Hanguk-gwa Gajang Gipeun Inyeon-uil Maekeun Seoyang-in Gamun 언더우드家 이야기: 한국과 가장 깊은 인연을 맺은 서양인 가문 [The Underwood family: A western family that has the deepest connection to Korea]. Seoul: Sallim살림. Seo, T.-Y. 서태열. (2019). Yu-Kil-chun-ui Seoyu-gyeonmun-ye Surok-duin Seogyeo-jiri Naeyong-ye Daehan Gochal유길준의 서유견문(西遊見聞)에 수록된 세계지리 내용에 대한 고찰 [A study on world geography contents included in Seoyu-gyeonmun (西遊見聞) by Yu Kil-Chun]. Hanguk-jiri-hakhoe-ji 한국지리학회지 [Journal of Korean Geographers], 8(3), 377–397. Shim, H.-Y. 심혜영. (2016). Robert Morrison-ui Junggukin-eul Baraboneun Siseon-gwa Sinang-jeongcheseong 로버트 모리슨의 중국인을 바라보는 신앙정체성 [Robert Morrison’s perceptions on Chinese people and Christian identity revealed in the Chinese repository (1832–1834)]. Jungguk-hyundae-munhak 중국현대 문학 [The Journal of Modern Chinese Literature], 76, 139–170. So, M.-S. 소명선. (2018). Jae-il-joseon-in Yesuinik-japji-wa Hanguk-jeonjaeng. 재일조선인 에스닉잡지와 한국전쟁: 1950년대의 일본열도가 본 한국전쟁 [A study on the ethnic magazine of Zainichi Koreans and ‘Korean War’]. The Japanese Modern Association of Korea, 61, 199–224. Song, G.-S. 송기섭. (1991). Inyeom-gwa Cheje Seontaek-ui Galdeung: Sul Chungsik Ron 이념과 체제 선 택의 갈등: 설정식론 [The conflict when choosing between ideology and institution]. Eomun Yeongu 어 문연구 [The Journal of Literary Studies], 22, 289–298. Tae, J.-H. 태지호, & Jung, H.-J. 정헌주. (2014). 중국의 항미원조기념관을 통해서 본 한국전쟁의 기 억과 정치적 함의 [How the Korean War Is remembered in Chinaʼs ʻmemorial of resisting U.S. aggression and Aiding Koreaʼ and its political implications]. Hanguk-jeongchi-hakhoe-bo 한국정치학회보 [Korean Political Science Review], 48(4), 297–317. Underwood, L. H. (1918/1983). Underwood of Korea: An intimate record of the life and work of the Rev. H. G. Underwood, D.D., LL.D., for thirty-one years a missionary of the Presbyterian board in Korea. Seoul: Yonsei University Press. Yi, K.-S. 이기성. (2011). Chogi Bukhan Gogohak-ui Sinseok-gi, Cheongdong-gi Sidae Gubun 초기 북한 고고학의 신석기, 청동기 시대 구분 [Establishing neolithic and bronze age in the incipient phase of North Korean archaeology]. The Journal of Hoseo Archaeological Studies 호서고고학, 25, 4–29. Yoon, H.-D. 윤해동. (1992). Ilje-ha Mulsan-jangryu Undong-ui Baekyeong-gwa Gui Inyeom. 일제하 물 산장려운동의 배경과 그 이념 [The background and ideology behind domestic products promotion movement under Japanese oppression]. Hankuk Saron한국사론 [Journal of Korean History], 27, 281–353. Yoon, H.-J. 윤혜준. (2014). 『Hamlet 』ui Beonyeok-ja Seol-Jeong-sik-gwa Yeonhui-jeonmun Mungwa-ui Yeongeo-yeong-mun-hak Gyoyuk. 『하므렡』의 번역자 설정식과 연희전문 문과의 영어영문학 교육 [Sŏl Chŏngsik, the translator of Hamŭlet and English literary education at chosen Christian college (Yonhui College)]. 동방학지 (Dongbang-hak-ji) [The Journal of Korean Studies], 168, 215–240.

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Hyo-Eun Choi 최효은 Yoon, I.-S. 윤인선. (2018). Hanguk-jeonjaeng Oeguk-in Seongyo-sa Sugi Yeongu. 한국전쟁 외국인 선교 사 수기 연구: 전쟁 중 종교를 통한 타자 만들기와 타자들의 공동체 [A study on foreign missionaries’ journals in the period of the Korean War]. Munhak-gwa Gonggyo 문학과 종교 [Literature and Religion], 23(1), 131–150. Yoon, S.-A. 윤송아. (2018). Jungguk-gwa Ilbon-eseo Jeosul-duin Hanguk-hyundae-munhak-sa-ui Hangukjeonjaeng-insik-gwa Munhak-sa Gisul-yangsang중국과 일본에서 저술된 한국현대문학사의 한국전쟁 인식과 문학사 기술양상: 허쩐후아의 『조선현대문학사』, 도시카쓰의 『한국문학을 맛보다』 를 중심으로 [Korean War recognition and descriptive aspects of Korean War literature in the history of Korean modern literature written in China and Japan]. Dongnam-eo-mun-hakhoe 동남어문학회 [Dongnam Journal of Korean Language and Literature], 1(46), 179–210. Yun, Y.-D. 윤영도. (2010). Dongasia Geundae Yijungeo-saseon-ui Giwon Sitam: Robert Morrison’s Hwayoungsajeon-eul Jungsim-uiro 동아시아 근대 이중어사전의 기원 시탐 - 로버트 모리슨의 화영자전 을 중심으로 [A study on the birth of modern bilingual dictionary in East Asia: With the focus on Robert Morrison’s a dictionary of the Chinese language]. Junggukeomun-nonyeok-chong-gan 중국어문논역총간 [The Journal of Chinese Language, Literature and Translation Studies], 27, 77–96.

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5 INTERPRETERS PORTRAYED IN KOREAN NEWS MEDIA (1948–2022)1 Soyoung Park 박소영

5.1

Introduction

When the historic North Korean–US summit was held in 2018, the interpreters got as much media attention as the leaders themselves, and were even deemed “main players” contributing to the summit’s success. In 2020, the interpreter of Academy Award-winning director Bong Joon-ho received almost as much global media spotlight as the director himself. Media reports highlight the complex characteristics and specific attributes of the subjects they cover and confer them a fixed image, shaping society’s perception as a whole (Lee & Choi, 2016, pp. 55–56). In this context, this chapter aims to analyze articles on interpreters spanning 74 years (1948–2022), from the establishment of the Korean government to the present, to examine how interpreters are perceived and appreciated in Korean society. This study is a follow-up study of Park (2020) on media coverage of interpreters during the period from 1948 to 2020. However, this study aims to take a step further by re-categorizing the themes based on Pöchhacker’s domains and dimensions on mapping theoretical territory of interpreting studies and by adding the analysis of articles during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

5.2

Historical overview

In Korea, interpreter was first classified under “translating writer” in the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations (KSCO) in 1963, and then under “translator and interpreter” in 1970. It was only in 2007 that it was separately classified under “interpreter.” In this sense, it is a relatively new occupation (Ahn, 2019, pp. 122–123). However, aside from its official categorization, the occupation itself existed from a long time ago due to Korea’s geopolitical location. The Korean Peninsula is bordered by China to the northeast and Japan across the sea to the southeast. From ancient times, interpreters were needed to accompany government delegates for tributes or to facilitate cultural exchanges, and their roles had long been recorded in historical documents. Specifically, interpreters in the Buyeo, Goguryeo, and Silla periods were called “yeok (interpreting) + ja (person),” “yeok (interpreting) + eo (langauge) + ja (person),” “seol (talking) + in (person),” “yeok (interpreting) + seol (talk),” “tong (understanding) + sa (person),” and from the end of Goryeo to the Joseon Dynasty, they were called “yeok (interpreting) + gwan (official),” and were trained in government institutions (Chung, 2017; Lung, 2015).

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DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-7

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On a mural in the fifth century, Goguryeo tomb interpreters are depicted in a smaller size than other people and “kneel down to tell stories” (Chung, 2017, pp. 175–177). As such, interpreters’ status was “relatively low,” even in the Joseon Dynasty (Choi & Lim, 2002). However, during the Joseon Dynasty, they traveled back and forth between China, Japan, and Mongolia, accumulating enormous wealth and passed on interpretation skills to their children, forming what could be deemed “interpreter families.” In this period, the languages for interpretation were Chinese, Mongolian, Jurchen, and Japanese. During the period of Westernization (1876–1909), Western studies and ideas were introduced. According to Ban (1994), an official’s “concubine (so-sil),” who requested to learn English to become Empress Myeongseong’s interpreter, became the first English school student on May 13, 1886. Then, during the Korean Empire (1897–1910), under the influence of Western advisors, interpreters were trained in English, French, German, and Russian schools (Kim, 1999). During the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945), Japanese “interpreting officials” and Korean “interpreting students” under the Japanese Government-General of Joseon were in charge of Japanese interpretation (Kim, 2021, p. 3). During the US Army Military Government period (1945–1948), the US Military Government had both an American director-general and Korean director-general who interpreted for him. The Korean interpreting officials enjoyed an era of “interpretation politics,” with power incomparable to Japanese interpreting students during the Japanese colonial era. After the government of the Republic of Korea was established in 1948, they were appointed to key positions in the government. On the other hand, “US military interpreters,” who assisted the US forces stationed on the Korean peninsula after the Korean War (1950–53), were denounced as “tong-yeok (interpreting) + bae (betrayer),” “profiteers,” and “brokers.” Meanwhile, during the national reconstruction period (1960–1970), interpretation was mainly provided by elite military officers, since most of the US economic aid was military aid. During this period, efforts for national reconstruction and domestic demand stimulation took precedence over exchanges with foreign countries, so “translators/ interpreters in other fields than literary and academic translations were essentially socially invisible except on a number of diplomatic settings” (Ahn, 2020, p. 551). Modern interpreter training began in 1979 with the establishment of the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation (GSIT) at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. GSIT was established with full support of the president, who recognized the importance of foreign languages for national development after his diplomatic trips. Around this time, Korea was going through a period of market opening, subsequent demand for foreign languages, and demand for women’s social advancement (Ahn, 2019, p. 117). From this time onwards, the era of interpreters as a professional elite began. While the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games and the 1991 Gulf War sparked Korean society’s interest in interpretation, globalization promoted by the civil government at the end of 1994 and the Asian foreign currency crisis in 1997 expanded the market for interpreters (Choi & Lim, 2002; Kwak, 2008; Ahn, 2020; Lee, J. E. 2021). In 2006, the Korean government officially declared that Korean society had become a multicultural society, with migrant workers, married immigrant women, and children of multicultural families accounting for 4% of the population (Chu, 2022, p.  2253). Community interpreting for them was initially led by the government. The government provided language services for public, legal, and medical services to support their integration into Korean society. Gradually, foreign residents in Korea were encouraged to work as community interpreters in various fields, such as medical tourism, to utilize their language skills and give them an opportunity to contribute to society. Meanwhile, the “Korean Wave,” which started in Asia in the late 1990s, was spreading in all areas, including K-pop, K-drama, K-cinema, and K-culture. Whereas globalization in the previous period required inbound interpretation—i.e., translation of foreign materials into Korean—demand for outbound translation and interpretation of Korean contents into foreign languages has also grown. 78

Interpreters portrayed in Korean news media (1948–2022)

5.3

The study

This study analyzes media reports on interpreters between the establishment of the Republic of Korea to the present (August 15, 1948–August 15, 2022). For data collection, Naver News Library, which provides past articles from August 15, 1945 to December 31, 1989, was used, and data from 1990 to August 15, 2022 were collected from the largest article database in Korea, called Bigkinds. A total of 14, 494 articles were selected as the final target, but the study excluded 4, 560 reports where the term “interpreter” was used metaphorically or were reports on foreign interpreters. This study uses a quantitative analysis on the total number of articles, their subjects (gender), and media attitudes. Also, a qualitative analysis was conducted by applying six of Pöchhacker’s eight domains and dimensions on mapping theoretical territory of interpreting studies (Pöchhacker, 2022, p. 25). Among them, this study categorizes the articles into 1) medium, 2) settings, 3) mode, 4) languages (cultures), 5) interpreter, and 6) problem. The two categories of discourse and participants are excluded from the analysis because most articles do not cover these aspects.

5.4 5.1

Results

Results of the quantitative analysis 5.1.1

Number of articles

The graph on the left in Figure 5.1 (Park, 2020, p.  85) excludes abusing articles2 which have the same news content, while the graph on the right includes them. There were many reports on interpreters around the 1970s and 1980s, but the number of news reports on interpreters has decreased since 2010. After the Korean War until the 1970s, interpretation was regarded as essential for the country’s survival to receive aid from the US. Therefore, articles on interpreters were frequent. However, in the process of national reconstruction and economic development during the 1970s, interpreting was no longer a means of survival in everyday life. Above all, under the military regime, international exchanges by individual citizens were not easy for political and economic reasons. Hence, except for media coverage on summit diplomacy, there was not much reporting on interpreters. Then, since the 1980s, there has been a flurry of news articles on interpreters since the establishment of GSIT, introducing interpreters as a “new profession.” In particular, with the hosting of large-scale international events, the need for interpretation increased (Choi & Lim, 2002, p. 633). Live satellite news coverage of the 1991 Gulf War sparked interest in simultaneous interpreting among the general public (Lee, J. E. 2021, p. 159). Press coverage also skyrocketed with market opening due to globalization (1994), the Asian financial crisis (1997), labor market opening due 250 200 150 100 50 0

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Figure 5.1 Number of articles

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Soyoung Park 박소영 100.0% 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0%

~1959

1960~1979

1980~1999 Female

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Figure 5.2 Gender of interpreters marked in news articles

to the transition to a multicultural society (2006), growth of the MICE industry with the hosting of international events, and the surge in people-to-people, such as medical tourism. However, the number of articles on interpreters has decreased, as these exchanges have stalled due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

5.1.2

Gender of interpreters in news articles

It is worth noting that the interpreter profession in Korean society went through a transition from being a predominately male job to a female job around the 1980s. In Figure 5.2, the gender of the subjects of the articles was overwhelmingly male before the 1980s and overwhelmingly female after the 1980s. This can be partly attributable to a higher level of education and social participation of women, but it may also be linked to special domestic politics, such as the US Military Government before the establishment of the Korean government and the military regime afterwards. Interpreters in the 1960s and 1970s were mainly military officers (Gyeonghyangsinmun, 1961). In some news articles in the early 1980s, especially in those that covered the admissions process of GSIT, the articles described how professional interpreters would be a prospective job for “housewives,” as in the following excerpt. A housewife surnamed Kim (32) decided to join the school after first reading about it in a newspaper on her way to the wholesale market. She said that although there are some inconveniences as a mother of two, she is doing well thanks to the cooperation of her family. The children are reassuring her that they can be patient because they know mommy is studying so hard. And her husband is also encouraging her these days to keep up with the hard work even though he was furious at first. Kim said, “Even though I am old, I feel so young going back to school. So I boast about the joy of studying.” (Kim, 1980) 80

Interpreters portrayed in Korean news media (1948–2022)

Soon, the media tended to focus on unmarried interpreters, frequently referred to as “Gold Miss.” Also, interpreters started being coveted as a dream job for women. A female student who ranked first in the college entrance exam said her dream was to be a simultaneous interpreter (Jeong, 1989). Meanwhile, since the 2000s, female interpreters have been projected as beautiful professional women in the media, such as TV dramas and movies, regardless of whether they were Koreans or marriage immigrants. Furthermore, some sports interpreters even have fans who would call them “ulzzang (pretty) interpreter,” “beautiful interpreter,” and “interpretation goddess.” They are frequently portrayed in the media, and when they decide to leave their jobs, fans would protest, as can be seen in an article titled “Fans step up demanding return of Hyundai E&C’s volleyball interpreter” (Hwang, 2015). In addition, with broadcasting interpreters increasing in number and more interpreters engaging in broadcasting activities, such as MCs and reporters, some interpreters became celebrities. Park (2020, p. 99) defines them as “Enterpreter,” a compound word of “entertainer” and “interpreter.” When news articles focused on how interpreters changed their career, more men appeared in such articles. As described earlier, there were more male interpreters in the past, but after the 1970s, “few male interpreters entered the field and even fewer remained (Choi & Lim, 2002, p. 634).” In these articles, being a former interpreter is described as a positive attribute for CEOs of foreign language academies or translation/interpretation agencies because it is evidence of their excellent foreign language skills.

5.1.3

Media attitude

Media attitude refers to an article’s positive or negative attitude toward interpreters. Figure 5.3 shows how media attitude changed over time. Before the 1970s, 93% of articles were negative, but after the 1980s, 90% of articles were positive. Negative articles saw a slight increase in number in the 2020s, but overall, there are more favorable articles toward interpreters than unfavorable ones. Negative articles about interpreters before the 1970s may have been due to the prevalent social perception of interpreters at the time, where social ills of interpretation politics during the Japanese colonial era 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

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Positive

Figure 5.3 Media attitude toward interpreters

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and the US military rule were felt by the public, leading to negative attitudes toward interpreters. On the other hand, as professional conference interpreters were produced and their expertise was widely recognized, favorable reports took over. Negative articles, however, increased slightly again after 2010 presumably because of market saturation, emergence of non-professional interpreters, opaque job prospects of human interpreters due to AI, and job loss due to the pandemic.

5.2

Qualitative analysis 5.2.1 Medium

As the title of the book Looking Back on 40 Years of Human Interpretation in the Era of Artificial Intelligence (Kwak, 2018) suggests, despite the current frenzy of AI interpretation technology in recent years, articles on human interpreters were overwhelmingly greater in number during the analyzed period. Nevertheless, 71% of total articles on the use of machines in the context of interpretation were published after 2020, which shows that Korean society is increasingly interested in the use of machine for interpreting. The first mention of an interpreting machine in the Korean media was made in an article in Gyeonghyangsinmun (1960), which stated “I wish there was an interpreting machine for Russian-Korean.” This hope was followed by a rosy outlook for automatic interpreting machines during 1994–1996. Beginning with an article titled “English, Japanese, German to Korean interpretation within 2 seconds/Voice translation system coming soon” (Kim, 1995), our society has predicted a future where communication is possible “without an interpreter.” In 1999, Seo (1999) explained that “around 2012, automatic simultaneous interpretation programs for foreign languages will be developed, and they will be better than average human simultaneous interpreters.” Kim (2001) foresaw the disappearance of interpreters in the article “Professional interpreters are disappearing from international conference halls.” Furthermore, Kim (2021, January 26) points out how machines have already replaced human interpreters, stating that “there are now AI services that can completely replace the role of interpreters and stenographers.” In addition, articles with provocative headlines, such as “AI wiping out simultaneous interpreters” (Jeong, 2021), “In the era of AI, interpreters are also victims” (Kim, 2021, October 13), and “Interpreters and stock brokers may disappear in 10 years” (Son, 2018) continued to appear in the media. Nevertheless, there are also positive outlooks as well, as seen from articles such as “Stop the hype about AI translation machines” (Kwak, 2017) and “Just as all sectors have fared historically . . . human translators will find a way to coexist by absorbing the advantages of machines” (Kwak, 2018, p. 217).

5.2.2

Setting

Interpretation for the US Military Government and US Forces Korea prior to the 1960s was mostly done in an intra-social setting to facilitate communication between Korean and English speakers stationed in Korea, except for those at the level of military diplomacy in international settings. From the 1980s to the early 2000s, interpreters served as a bridge between speakers from different language backgrounds, mainly in inter-social settings. In the meantime, articles on intra-social settings in the late 2000s reflect Korea’s transition to a multicultural society. These articles report on community interpreting involving marriage immigrants and migrant workers on matters such as refugees, medical services, legal and public services, labor, and education. In the case of medical interpreting, there is a distinction between healthcare interpreters who help foreign residents in Korea in intra-social settings and those who work for the medical tourism industry in inter-social settings. The government has focused more on training interpreters for the latter than the former.

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5.2.3

Mode

Among various interpreting modes, only 2.1% of the total articles explicitly state whether the mode used for interpretation was simultaneous (206) or consecutive (2), unless the article is a more in-depth coverage on the interpreter’s job itself. Simultaneous interpretation was first introduced in Korea at the World Confederation of Organizations of Teaching Profession (WCOTP) Seoul Conference in 1966. Simultaneous interpretation devices were borrowed from Japan for the event, and among the fifteen interpreters, eight were Koreans, including US Embassy staffs and foreign language professors. Simultaneous interpretation, in which “listening with ears while interpreting with their mouths at the same time” was tried for the first time, and the media found “hesitations and generalizations of interpreters” problematic (Gyeonghyangsinmun, 1966). The article also mentioned how much the simultaneous interpreters were paid. For the event, foreign interpreters were paid $68 per day and Koreans were paid $300 for thirteen days. From this point on, media coverage on simultaneous interpretation primarily focused on how much money interpreters would make. Han (1991) reports that simultaneous interpreters are “recognized as a promising job in the era of globalization as they can earn a relatively large amount of income per unit labor hour, as they are paid 400,000 won per six hours of interpretation a day.” The job of simultaneous interpreter, which was deemed a promising job, soon came to be known as “one of the highest-paying jobs” along with lawyers and doctors that earn “four times the average people” (Shin, 2003, “Simultaneous interpreters earn 1 million won a day”). In particular, Kim (2003) compared a female lawyer who earned 5 million won a month and a female interpreter who earned 5.32 million won. Interpreters may have become a preferred profession due to the influence of news articles that reported on both the expertise of simultaneous interpreters and their income levels, as “interpreters could earn in a single day, what a factory worker would earn in a month” (Choi & Lim, 2002, p. 633). Meanwhile, in news reports, the term “simultaneous interpretation” was often used inaccurately for services such as “simultaneous interpretation taxi” (Bok, 2001), “simultaneous interpretation phone,” and “expansion of simultaneous interpretation system at Incheon International Airport” (Kim, 2009). It is also inaccurate to say that Seosan City officials with high levels of English proficiency could even “perform simultaneous interpretation” (Park, H. C. 2009). A relatively recent article (Bae, 2019) reported on a marriage immigrant who created an embarrassing situation, as she was not able to provide “simultaneous interpretation” at an international conference, but it is also incorrect because what she did was consecutive interpreting. This confusion may have its roots in how GSIT, the first interpreting school in Korea, started out as “Graduate School of Simultaneous Interpretation” in 1979 (Ahn, 2020, p. 552). Professional interpreters and interpreting scholars have continued to correct such confusion by appearing in the media. In 1999, Choi presented an accurate categorization of various interpretation modes in her book, titled The Way to Become a Conference Interpreter. Also, many interpreters who were called “simultaneous interpreters” introduced themselves as “conference interpreters” in interviews. Simultaneous interpreter Park Seongjoo said, “In fact, there is no such thing as a simultaneous interpreter. Conference interpreter is the accurate title” (Lee, 2007). In many articles, different modes of interpreting, such as consecutive interpretation, liaison interpretation, whispering interpretation, and sight translation along with “simultaneous interpretation,” are mentioned, but even professionally trained interpreters became the victims of being inaccurately described as “simultaneous interpreters.” To illustrate, an interpreter surnamed L, chief of the Interpreting Division and the Senior Diplomatic Interpreter in the US Department of State, a dedicated interpreter for US presidents like Bush, Obama, and Trump since the beginning of her professional career in 2002, has been showered with praise as “the protagonist of

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the North Korea-US Summit” (Lim, 2018). However, there were more articles on interpreter A, who was reported to have “provided the best simultaneous interpretation” of a CNN broadcast of the same event (Kim, 2018), but interpreter A did not perform simultaneous interpreting. Of course, as shown in the following excerpt, tabloid-style articles continued to use the term “simultaneous interpretation” inaccurately, despite her efforts to correct the misuse. When I go to certain events, I am often called simultaneous interpreter, but I try to correct them each time. I just want to be called a broadcaster. The staffers then ask me if a conference interpreter or simultaneous interpreter isn’t a much cooler title than a broadcaster. . . . But I do not feel comfortable for being publicized as conference interpreter, when there are actual interpreters in the booths, only communicating with voices without a face. So I prefer the title of broadcaster. I’m famous just because I appeared on TV a lot, not because I have a long career as a simultaneous interpreter. (Yoon, 2022, n.p.) Also, since the media allows for such inaccuracies, there are even cases where a person “started dreaming about being a simultaneous interpreter due to C” (Lee, J. H. 2021), who is not a simultaneous interpreter. Such misuse on the modes of interpretation leads to abuse of the term, which will be discussed in detail later.

5.2.4

Languages

The monolingual status of Korea shifted at the dawn of the twentieth century with the Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945) and then, following liberation, the American influence during the US Military Government in Korea (1945–1948) (Choi & Lim, 2002, p.  632; Ko, 2022, p.  194). Currently, GSIT provides interpretation training in eight languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic). Unless language pairs are specified, most media articles on interpretation are concerned with Korean-English interpretation. For community interpretation, various languages used in Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines (English, Tagalog and Cebuano), Japan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Spain, Russia, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Africa (Dinka and Somalia) are available. The absence of competent minority language interpreters was pointed out as a problem (Choi, 2021) in the past, but there has been positive coverage on activities of community interpreters in relation to epidemiological investigation and quarantine since COVID-19 (Lee, 2020; Cha, 2020). Before COVID-19, there was a giver’s perspective where language services were something to be provided to multicultural families. Hence, the focus was on expanding public services in these languages. Yet, there has been a shift toward a receiver’s perspective that Korean society receives language services from them. This shift in perspective has important implications for multicultural policies. In the meantime, although excluded from the analysis of this study, a quarter of the total articles were on sign languages. As sign language interpretation has been consistently covered in the media from 1958, this is also an area that requires further research.

5.2.5

Interpreters

In this study, applying the classification of Pöchhacker (2022, p.  23), if an interpreter has completed a professional interpreter degree program, he/she is classified as a “professionally trained interpreter,” while those that have completed a non-degree program such as “Tourist Interpreter 84

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Course,” “Judicial Interpreter Course,” or “Medical Interpreter Course,” she/he is classified as a “semi-professionally trained interpreter” in the study. In addition, interpreters without any interpreter training are classified as “natural interpreters.” Professional interpreters covered in the Korean media are called “tong-yeok-sa” in Korean, with “sa (士)” meaning “scholar (seonbi)” or “professional.” This is in line with Pöchhacker’s explanation: unmarked form of “interpreter” often implies professional interpreters (2022, p.  23). However, there seems to be a sort of hierarchy in this term. As for “dedicated” interpreters of government agencies, who primarily “interpret for summits,” the term “tong-yeok-kwan (interpreting official)” is also used (Hong, 1995; Lee, 2012; Kim, 2020). Furthermore, it is difficult to apply this classification to interpreters prior to the establishment of professional interpreter training institutions in 1979. During the US Military Government, interpreting officers were selected through a test by the “interpretation” department at the officers’ training academy (Gyeonghyangsinmun, 1952, September 2). However, while they were deemed professional interpreters at the time, they did not receive professional training on a par with today’s levels. On the other hand, a larger number of articles on semi-professional interpreters do not specify their background. They are simply referred to as “interpreting staff,” “interpretation coordinator,” “interpretation counselor,” and even just as “interpretation” without any reference to the person who does interpreting. So even in the same setting, one can only “guess” the expertise of interpreters, not “definitively” prove it. Pöchhacker also points out such difficulty as well: “Historically, it is of course difficult to clearly separate professional interpreting from non-professional interpreting or natural interpreting, that is, interpreting done by bilinguals without special training for the task” (2022, p. 23). According to data, experts who received professional education of master’s degree or higher started receiving media attention from the 1990s to the 2010s. But such coverage has stagnated since the 2000s. In the meantime, interest in semi-professional interpreters who are mostly community interpreters, except for medical and tourist interpreters, began in the 2000s and exploded in 2010. Also, as for natural interpreters, there was media tendency to report on celebrities and ordinary citizens who temporarily took on the role of interpreters as a means of showing off their foreign language proficiency. Expertise of interpreters can also be seen from representative “individuals” who are frequently covered by the media. By era, representative interpreters were as follows: interpreters for the highest power of the US Military Government during the US Military Government era; an interpreting professor at GSIT who introduced unfamiliar concepts of simultaneous interpretation or conference interpreter to Korean society in the 1990s; an entertainer also known as a “simultaneous interpreter” working for both the entertainment industry and the media in the 2000s; the chief of the Interpreting Division and the Senior Diplomatic Interpreter in the US Department of State who interpreted on the diplomatic stage for US, North Korea and South Korea; and a celebrity “enterpreter” in Park (2020)’s term in the 2010s; and finally, after 2020, a natural interpreter who interpreted for Korea’s first Oscar-winning film director. They have represented the profession and exercised influence in Korea. The influence of these “celebrity” interpreters can be easily seen from the list of dream jobsrelated articles, which represent the “attractiveness” of this occupations. It was from 1992 that “interpreter” started making the list of “future dream jobs” of students in Korea. The number of such articles was especially high in 2003, 2007, 2013, and 2020. There was much media coverage of female students who wanted to be professionally trained interpreters such as “simultaneous interpreters.” After 2006, when the government declared Korea to be a multicultural society, there was increased media coverage of natural interpreters, or immigrant women, who wanted to become interpreters. In 2020, admiration for interpreters seems to have been propelled by the popularity 85

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of a professional interpreter who is also the wife of a celebrity, as well as the popularity of natural interpreters. Meanwhile, interpreters were featured as experts in movies and TV dramas from the late 1990s to the early- and mid -2000s. Also, between 2005 and 2007, movies and TV dramas featuring female interpreters from China, Vietnam, and Uzbekistan received much attention, which may be related to media reports highlighting interpreters as a dream job. What is more, there were even specification of individuals’ professions as interpreters in obituaries or wedding announcements. These instances indicate the high status of interpreters as a profession. A similar case is found 1,320 years ago where an epitaph of an interpreter in Cheonnam Mountain stated that “there was no one more advanced in social position than the deceased” (Chung, 2017, p.  175). As seen from the examples, interpreters boasted relatively high authority in Korean society both in the past and the present due to their linguistic ability.

5.2.6

Problem

According to Pöchhacker’s classification, “problem” can be categorized into simultaneity, memory, quality, stress, and role (2022, p.  23). In this study, problems concerning interpretation covered in the media in Korea can be categorized into quality of interpretation, certification, lack of institutional protection for interpreters, illicit activities committed by interpreters, external appearance of interpreters, the hardships of interpreters, the problematic role and status of interpreters, and the abuse by the media of the term “simultaneous interpreter.” First, the problem of interpretation quality has continued to be raised in Korea from Jeon (1958): “The era of vagabond English as interpreting language seems to be over.” This demonstrates the animosity Korean people felt towards unskilled groups who had to speak foreign languages during the Japanese colonial period and the US Military Government rule. Although professional interpreters started to be produced, articles have been written to point out the quality of interpretation as the general public’s foreign language proficiency steadily increased. Problems in the field of diplomacy have been raised concerning both professional and non-professional interpretations (Choi, 2003; Kwak, 2006, 2011; Yang, 2013; Bae, 2015; Baek, 2017). Nevertheless, the introduction of a stateled interpretation and translation agency or a state-sponsored certification system still seems far off. This situation is “certainly ironic . . . when we consider how T&I and its training were performed by a state institution in the pre-modern era of the Joseon Dynasty, but no such system existed for the modern Korea” (Ahn, 2020, p. 551). The second problem is related to the first problem: certification. The public seems to believe that interpreters are officially qualified for “professional interpreters,” but an official certification program for professional interpreters does not exist in Korea. This can conversely mean that there is high recognition of Korea’s graduate schools of interpretation and translation as degrees from these schools are considered equivalent to a license. In contrast, there are licenses for semi-professionals such as “tourist interpreters” or “sign language interpreters.” However, there are problematic articles: Lee (2007) introduced Jeong’s unusual career path to become a preliminary judge of the Seoul Southern District Court. After majoring in English language at Seoul National University, the most prestigious university in Korea, she received “simultaneous interpreter license from the GSIT at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies” and then passed the bar exam. It is inaccurate to say that a simultaneous interpreter “license” can be acquired after studying “translation studies” as mentioned in the article. A news article (Online News Team, 2016) reported that a certification test administered by a private institute called ITT (Interpretation & Translation Test) was preferred because the Ministry of Justice in Korea announced that individuals with Level 1 and 2 ITT certificates would be qualified as official translators. This type of article may cause further confusion in the market. 86

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Third, there is a lack of institutional protection for interpreters. Traditionally, interpreters have been positively recognized as highly-paid “freelancers” who enjoy a lot of free time. However, contrary to the perception of “high-income professionals,” legal and institutional mechanisms are insufficient, as seen from the discussion on Dispatch Act of 1998 concerning non-regular workers in 2017 (Lee, 2004). Ahn (2019, p. 116) pointed out that there was no institutional framework for translation and interpretation in modern Korea post liberation. In the early days of the country’s foundation, there were articles about interpreter exams, organization within government agencies, and related laws, but in recent decades, articles that dealt with the institutional aspect of interpretation were scarce (Kim, 2005). While there is the Korea Association of Interpreters and Translators, the association’s activities are insufficient due to the nature of interpreters as freelancers. In the case of local community interpreters, there are organization-wise activities to improve members’ welfare and treatment, as exemplified by the Korea Tour Guide Interpreter Association, the Korea Sign Language Interpreter Association, Gangwon Interpreters Network, Daejeon Chungnam Interpreter Association, and their award ceremony for top “tourism guide/interpreters.” While freelance interpreters may be regarded as highly-paid professionals, there is not enough legal and welfare protection for them in Korea, as in the article (Park, 2022) where the interpreter who was injured during her job was classified as an independent freelancer and thus was not subject to the Industrial Safety Act, preventing her from getting reimbursed for the medical expenses. In addition, interpreters were not free from incidents that sparked the #MeToo movement that shook Korean society in 2018. On this matter, Lee (2018) wrote an article under a somewhat provocative headline, “How about a kiss for a thousand dollars?” Technically speaking, this case involved an ad-hoc interpreter for businessmen. However, Park, H. J. (2009, February 16) covered an article on sexual harassment in the workplace, involving “C, who finally had her dream come true by passing the notoriously difficult graduate school of interpretation graduation exam.” Woo (2021) surveyed 103 interpreters about their experience of sex offenses, and 64.1% reported that they had been victims. In other words, even professional interpreters are not free from such incidents. He states that interpreters tend to be in “subordinate” positions, indicating that there is a possibility where interpreters may be subject to inappropriate treatments (Woo, 2021, p. 1660). Therefore, it is necessary to establish a system to protect interpreters who work as “freelancers,” “temporary workers,” and “dispatched workers.” Fourth, there are reports on illicit activities committed by interpreters. Most of these articles were reported before 1964, which are mainly concerned with US military interpreters. The negative perception of interpreters at the time may have been heavily influenced by these news articles. While illicit activities by interpreters during the US Military Government were mainly economic in nature related to the handling of wealth accumulated by those who supported the Japanese ruling class during the colonial period, crimes by interpreters after 1948 included cases of murder, fraud, theft, and embezzlement. There was also a case where an interpreter at the Ministry of Education leaked examination questions for students studying overseas (Dongailbo, 1957). Interestingly, articles on crimes of passion have taken on similar tones until quite recently (Gyeonghyangsinmun, 1949; Kim, 2016). Meanwhile, tax evasion of a “high-income” interpreter was also reported (Kim, 2009): some payments interpreters receive are not subject to withholding tax, which can be problematic. Fifth, the external appearance of interpreters continues to receive attention of the media as seen in a title like “Conference interpreters continue to be chosen based on their appearance, not skills” (Kim, 2011). In 2017, this issue escalated into a political issue (Online News Department, 2017, “Former President Park’s interpreters were selected based on appearance, an exposé by student in France”). Indeed, it is a topic that has been repeatedly brought up by scholars (Cho, 2017; Du, 2021; Woo, 2021). As pointed out by Choi and Lim (2002), the job of interpreter itself is a 87

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feminized job, and by nature, how an interpreter is shown to others is important. Also, a “neat appearance” gives interpreters a competitive edge in a saturated market. This matter not only applies to female but to male interpreters as well, but there are only two such cases about so-called “hunnam (handsome) interpreter” (Park, 2015), which are meager compared to the large number of articles that praise the appearance of female interpreters. However, what is problematic is that, as in “from gurus of English to goddesses of English” (Cho, 2017, p. 495), such sensational descriptions of the interpreter’s appearance may take people’s attention away from interpreters’ professional expertise, which can negatively affect the perception and the status of the profession (Huh, 2016, p. 160). The sixth problem is related to the hardships of interpreters, as illustrated in “In a banquet interpreters only drooling” (Huh, 1992), “I starve even with a feast before my eyes” (Lee, 1992), “hard work and pressure” (Kwon, 1998), “I only hoped that my bladder holds up” (Seo, 2020), which capture the public’s attention and reinforce the mysterious image of interpreters. However, if this is actually a matter related to interpreters’ safety, it is a different story. One interpreter was mercilessly beaten for trying to interpret the inmates of the Geoje Island camp (Gyeonghyangsinmun, 1952, February 29), and an interpreter was beaten with stones thrown by several audience members who “didn’t like the content of the lecture” (Kim & Kim, 2010). As such, in some cases, the interpreter’s safety was at risk. The seventh problem involves the role and status of interpreters. The interpreter’s role as an intermediary has always been problematic. Interpreters were criticized as traitors of the Korean public, with labels like “pro-Japanese” (Ahn, 1993) or “spies” (Dongailbo, 1958) or “undercover,” “snitch,” and “double spies.” Especially, as seen from Na (1959), there was blatant hatred towards interpreters, demonstrated by strong expressions like “The indecencies of interpreters serving as ‘stool pigeons’,” or “How are they different from ‘pimps’ in base village for Yankee princesses?” On the other hand, the status of female interpreters varied even more widely. Female interpreters were blamed for their “blatant flattering” (Dongailbo, 1965) or praised as a “true daughter of Korea” who became a conference interpreter, which is described as a process “more difficult than picking stars from the sky” and “made a great contribution to enhancing national prestige” (Yeo, 1981). But this myth was followed by different stories where interpreters were described as less prestigious than other professions: “When I first joined a foreign company, they first thought of me as an interpreter. They were very surprised when I revealed that I was a consultant” (Son, 2005). Or where interpreters were passed over so-called “Interpreter Passing” so that speakers can boast their foreign language skills (Sim, 2019). Also, Korea’s first female foreign minister, who was recognized for her excellent English skills as a former interpreter for the president, was denigrated as being “non-mainstream” than those who passed the Foreign Service Examination (Park, 2019). There have also been cases where interpreters were made a scapegoat (Bae, 1963; Digital News Team, 2010). North Korean interpreters were reported that they were “purged,” “reprimanded,” “detained” or “incarcerated” due to mistakes they made at the North Korea–US Summit (Jeong, 2019). In this regard, Kwak (2019) says that there are many such cases on the international stage where “the interpreters are blamed.” As such, social perception on interpreters’ roles is at the complete opposite on the spectrum. Finally, there is an abuse by the media of the term “simultaneous interpreter.” The fact that “simultaneous interpreter” is a moniker used for celebrities to highlight their foreign language skills shows the authority of this profession. The unmarked form of interpreter often implies “simultaneous interpreter” in Korea. Numerous celebrities’ girlfriends, wives, or those that appear on TV are reported as simultaneous interpreters, but only three cases received simultaneous interpretation training or are working as simultaneous interpreters. This type of abuse of the term is a problem that needs society-wide correction (Huh, 2016; Park, 2020). 88

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5.2.7

Since the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in February 2020 took a toll on interpreters. Between 2014 and 2018, Korea ranked first or second in the world in terms of the number of international conferences, indicating that there was a high demand for conference interpreters. However, as many international conferences got cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19, even seasoned interpreters were hit hard during the early period of the pandemic (Cho, 2020; Shin, 2020). Reports revealed that the problem was not limited to complete shutoff of interpretation requests per se. There were also other problems, such as interpreter fees slashed due to “online seminars (webinars).” About a month later, after the start of the pandemic, the government announced a plan to pay disaster relief grants to “freelancers” who suffered from limited international exchange and social distancing. Likewise, export support organizations, such as the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), quickly launched an online export platform to revitalize exports that suffered greatly due to the pandemic. Many international events were held online, including trade-related events. As such, international exchanges took place on digital and online platforms, which are deemed to be of “low cost and high efficiency.” Consequently, there have been many reports on technologies for non-face-to-face conferences. In the MICE industry, integrated platform services have advanced. Also, online, non-face-to-face MICE platforms for virtual conferences, VR exhibitions, VR avatar conferences, VR tours, and collaboration solutions were introduced in the name of K-MICE platform (Kwon, 2020). Thanks to the swift adoption of online platforms for conferences and meetings, conference interpreters who were initially “hit directly by COVID-19” were able to “record the highest income ever” after more than a year of the pandemic because “daily interpretation fees doubled” that included copyright fees when interpretation was live-streamed on online platforms (Joo, 2021). Meanwhile, in the case of migrant interpreters who have been building their expertise as interpreters upon “receiving” support from the government, started contributing to the local community and the country as a whole under the names of “Volunteer Interpreters” or “Support Corps,” “providing” support for epidemiological investigation and quarantine (Choi, 2021; Lee, B. G. 2021). Their contribution was recognized by society, as seen from Cha (2020).

5.5

Conclusion

The quantitative and qualitative analyses of the news articles on interpreters produced the following key findings. First, visibility of interpreters in Korean media has fluctuated over time. During the period of the establishment of the Republic of Korea, articles on interpreters were frequently published. Since interpreting was a daily activity in Korean society at the time, interpreters appeared not only in events where the names of the interpreters were mentioned, but also in various reports on incidents, accidents, corruption, and novels involving them. On the other hand, since the 1980s, while there was a high number of articles on the profession itself, many news articles were about a very small number of highly reputed professional interpreters. Therefore, the visibility of interpreters has increased in relation to the “professionalism” of the job, but the “routineness” of reporting has decreased. Second, there was a gender transition. The most dramatic result of this study is the finding that interpreter has changed from being a man’s job to a woman’s job since the 1980s. This may be in line with the trend of the times, where more women made advancements in society, but it can also be related to the historical background: military-related interpreting. In addition, it was empirically proven that interpreters became a woman’s job not only because of women’s linguistic skills but also 89

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the job’s characteristics, as freelance jobs are good for the child-raising parent. In the meantime, since the 2000s, marriage migrant women have played a leading role in a newly multicultural society. Therefore, while gender issues have been limited to “education” and “social contribution” so far, going forward, they could develop differently from the gender issues burdening “professional female interpreters.” In addition, the emergence of AI interpreters is already a trend of the times. Much attention is focused on whether AI interpreters will replace human interpreters. In the future, such interest will only intensify, and discussions on the gender of human interpreters will significantly be replaced by the differences between human and AI interpreters. Third, there was a change in the social perception of interpreters. During the US military government era, society’s perception of interpreters was negative due to the ills of “interpretation politics.” Even after the end of the US military rule, there were many negative articles about interpreters until the 1970s, going hand in hand with incidents and accidents involving military interpreters after the war and the stationing of US troops. Since the 1980s, especially in the late 1990s, professionally trained interpreters with high language proficiency and interpreting abilities have emerged, turning the profession into a high-paying elite job suitable for the globalization era. Furthermore, interpreter was perceived very positively in the 2000s, as there was a transition to a multicultural society and as interpretation was deemed a means for marriage migrant women to integrate into society. On the other hand, the decline in negative articles can be attributed to the drop in the number of interpreters involved in corruption or power-related incidents. As the profession turned into a predominantly female job, such incidents were less likely to occur, compared to the times where male interpreters wielded power in a military setting. Fourth, there is confusion about interpreters. This is closely related to the emergence of the new job of simultaneous interpreter. Since the 1980s, there has been greater social awareness of interpreters, largely due to a sense of mystery or awe surrounding conference interpreters; that is, simultaneous interpreters. However, this has conversely led to the erroneous use of the term, “simultaneous interpreter” for all kinds of interpreters, and there is a tendency to wrongly equate “people proficient in foreign language” with simultaneous interpreters. Fifth, there has been stagnation or regression regarding institutions for interpreters. In the early days after the founding of the Republic of Korea, there were frequent articles on interpreter exams, organization charts within government agencies, and related laws. However, it is increasingly difficult to find articles on revamping or newly preparing such laws and regulations. Since the 1990s, articles on interpreting rates have replaced them altogether. As a result, there has been as much confusion about interpreter licenses. This can be attributed to the nature of interpreters who work independently as freelancers rather than as a group. But it can also be a side effect of placing too much confidence in the standards presented by interpretation and translation schools. Going forward, there should be institutional reinforcement, since such institutional inadequacies fail to provide the minimum safety net for interpreters and result in the absence of state-led interpretation quality management mechanisms. Sixth, while the impact of the pandemic cannot be ignored, it does not appear to be insurmountable. On the contrary, it served as an opportunity for rapid progress in technology and research to help human interpreters. It also served as an opportunity to show that machine interpretation alone, such as an interpreter app, has limitations. Even in 2022, long after 2012, when it was said that machines would replace humans, machine interpreters have not replaced human interpreters. They will be used for the benefit of interpreters, as in the case of machine-aided interpreting. In this way, we are demonstrating the humanity’s capacity to overcome challenges befalling them. Finally, this study mainly analyzed interpreters who were reported in daily newspaper articles, but interpreters today actively promote themselves and create their own images on social media, as 90

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mentioned by Bae (2020). Therefore, going forward, media research on interpreters is expected to expand in diverse ways.

Notes 1 This is a translated version of the original text with contracted, edited, and partially complemented data, published in Interpreting and Translation Studies, 22(1), 79–104 in 2020, and has been published with consent of Interpretation and Translation. 2 As online news service launched in 1995, digital news content began to be delivered through portal sites. In the process, there has been repetitive copying of specific articles. Ham and Lee (2018) explain this as an example of “abusing” behavior. In Park (2020), articles with same content were counted as one instance, while Huh (2016) included all the copied articles in the analysis as they were deemed meaningful for having gone through the gatekeeping process of each media outlet.

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News Articles Ahn, Y. S. 안용식. (1993, August 17). Ilje ttaen “apjabi” haebang hudo “tteongtteong” 일제 땐 ‘앞잡이’ 해방 후도 ‘떵떵’ [“Puppets” during Japanese colonization enjoying “luxurious lives” even after Liberation]. Hankyoreh. 한겨레. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1993081700289115011&edi tNo=5&printCount=1&publishDate=1993-08-17&officeId=00028&pageNo=15&printNo=1648&publi shType=00010 Bae, D. H. 배두헌. (2015, March 3). Gukgagyeongjaengnyeok jommeongneun jeojil tongbeonyeok 국가경 쟁력 좀먹는 저질 통번역 [Abysmal quality interpretation and translation undermines national competitiveness]. Haereoldeugyeongje 헤럴드경제 [Korea Herald Business]. http://heraldk.com/2015/03/02/%ED %98%84%EC%9E%A5%EC%97%90%EC%84%9C-%EB%B0%B0%EB%91%90%ED%97%8C%EA%B5% AD%EA%B0%80%EA%B2%BD%EC%9F%81%EB%A0%A5-%EC%A2%80%EB%A8%B9%EB%8A%94%EC%A0%80%EC%A7%88-%ED%86%B5%EB%B2%88%EC%97%AD/ Bae, S. S. 배상식. (2019, November 3). Dongsitongyeogui eoryeoum 동시통역의 어려움 [Difficulties in simultaneous interpretation]. Maeilsinmun 매일신문 [Maeil Newspaper]. https://news.imaeil.com/ Satirical/2019110321333996544 Bae, W. 배우. (1963, August 3). Miseu korieo gimmyeongja 『mal』ui pamun 미스 코리어 金明子『말』의 波紋 [Miss Korea Kim Myeongja’s “words” cause a stir]. Gyeonghyangsinmun 경향신문 [The Kyunghyang Shinmun]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1963080300329203001&editNo=6&print Count=1&publishDate=1963-08-03&officeId=00032&pageNo=3&printNo=5469&publishType=00020 Baek, I. S. 백인성. (2017, July 8). Jigeum pigoinhante jedaero tongyeokan geo majayo? 지금 피고인한테 제 대로 통역한 거 맞아요? [Are you sure you interpreted properly for the accused?]. Meonitudei 머니투데이 [Money Today]. https://news.mt.co.kr/mtview.php?no=2018071010548298917

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Interpreters portrayed in Korean news media (1948–2022) Ban, B. H. 반병희. (1994, October 9). Jeongdo 600nyeon seoul jaebalgyeon gyoyuk (2) cheotgukgyo gwijokjanyeoman ipak 정도 600년 서울 재발견 교육 (2) 첫국교 귀족자녀만 입학 [Rediscovering Seoul after 600 years of relocating capital Education (2) First government school only admits children of nobles]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The Dong-A Ilbo]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index. naver?articleId=1994100900209125001&editNo=45&printCount=1&publishDate=1994-10-09&officeId= 00020&pageNo=25&printNo=22650&publishType=00010 Bok, C. H. 복창현. (2001, November 18). Dongsitongyeok taeksi hwaksan 동시통역 택시 확산 [Spread of simultaneous interpretation taxis]. KBS NEWS. https://news.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?ncd=261796 Cha, J. Y. 차진영. (2020, August 2). Dangjinsi korona19 daeeung, bangnyuda reosiaeo tongyeoksaege pyochangpae suyeo 당진시 코로나19 대응, 박류다 러시아어 통역사에게 표창패 수여 [Dangjin City’s response to COVID-19, Russian interpreter Park Ryuda awarded Medal of Recognition]. Daejon Ilbo 대전 일보 [Daejeonilbo]. http://www.daejonilbo.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1433450 Cho, Y. M. 조유미 (2020, February 8). Haengsa julchwisoe korona baeksu doena . . . susimman peuriraenseo saenggye geokjeon 행사 줄취소에 코로나 백수 되나 수십만 프리랜서 생계 걱정 [Event cancellations lead hundreds of thousands of freelancers worrying about job loss and livelihoods]. Joseonilbo 조선일 보 [The Chosun Ilbo]. https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2020/02/08/2020020800065.html Choi, H. 최훈. (2003, May 15). Tongyeok jalmothae cheongwadae jeongjeong sodong 통역 잘못해 청와대 정정 소동 [Misinterpretation leads to whirlwind of corrections at the Blue House]. Jungangilbo 중앙일보 [The JoongAng]. https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/170461#home Choi, O. H. 최오현 (2021, May 7). Oegugin hwakjinja tongyeogillyeok bujae ‘tongyeogaep’ uijon yeokakjosa hangye 외국인 확진자 통역인력 부재 ‘통역앱’ 의존 역학조사 한계 [Lack of interpreters for confirmed foreigners, limits in epidemiological investigation based on “interpretation app”]. Gangwondominilbo 강원도 민일보 [Gangwon-do Residents’ Daily]. https://www.kado.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=1072509 Digital News Team. 디지털 뉴스팀. (2010, October 22). Sijinping bareon’ pamuneun tongyeok tat? 시 진핑 발언 파문은 통역 탓? [Xi Jinping’s remarks caused stir because of interpreter? ]. Gyeonghyangsinmun 경향신문 [The Kyunghyang Shinmun]. https://www.khan.co.kr/politics/defense-diplomacy/article/ 201010221013561 Dongailbo. (1957, October 30). Haeoeyuhak siheommunje nuseollo suhoe 해외유학 시험문제 누설로 수회 [Examination for students studying overseas leaked in exchange for bribe]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The DongA Ilbo]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1957103000209203014&editNo=1&prin tCount=1&publishDate=1957-10-30&officeId=00020&pageNo=3&printNo=10801&publishType=00020 Dongailbo. (1958, November 4). Jeonmidaesagwantongyeok gancheommisuro giso 전미대사관 통역 간첩미수 로 기소 [Former interpreter for the US Embassy prosecuted for spy attempt]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The DongA Ilbo]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1958110400209202010&editNo=2&pri ntCount=1&publishDate=1958-11-04&officeId=00020&pageNo=2&printNo=11170&publishType=00020 Dongailbo. (1965, September 8). Mokburingyeon . . . tongyeongnyeohaksaengdeurui 『ayang』 目不忍見 . . . 通譯女學生들의『아양』 [Blatant “flattering” of female interpreting students]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The Dong-A Ilbo]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1965090800209204019&edit No=2&printCount=1&publishDate=1965-09-08&officeId=00020&pageNo=4&printNo=13502&publis hType=00020 Gyeonghyangsinmun. (1949, September 5). Heoyeongnyeo norineun ero sagihan 허영녀 노린 에로사기 한 [Erotic conman after vainglorious girls]. Gyeonghyangsinmun 경향신문 [The Kyunghyang Shinmun]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1949090500329202011&editNo=1&printC ount=1&publishDate=1949-09-05&officeId=00032&pageNo=2&printNo=925&publishType=00020 Gyeonghyangsinmun. (1952, February 29). Geojedosageonui gyohun 거제도사건의 교훈 [Lessons from Geojedo incident]. Gyeonghyangsinmun 경향신문 [The Kyunghyang Shinmun]. https://newslibrary. naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1952022900329201003&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishD ate=1952-02-29&officeId=00032&pageNo=1&printNo=1715&publishType=00020 Gyeonghyangsinmun. (1952, September 2). Tongyeokjanggyosiheom 통역장교시험 [Interpreting officer test]. Gyeonghyangsinmun 경향신문 [The Kyunghyang Shinmun]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/ index.naver?articleId=1952090100329202029&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1952-09-01&off iceId=00032&pageNo=2&printNo=1898&publishType=00020 Gyeonghyangsinmun. (1960, June 1). Yeojeok 여적 [Traces of travel]. Gyeonghyangsinmun 경향신문 [The Kyunghyang Shinmun]. https://www.donga.com/news/article/all/20150205/69484430/1 Gyeonghyangsinmun. (1961, November 15). Bak·tpkenedi gongdongseongmyeongeul balpyo 박·케네디 공동 성명을 발표 [Park-Kennedy announce joint statement]. Gyeonghyangsinmun 경향신문 [The Kyunghyang

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Soyoung Park 박소영 Shinmun]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1961111500329201001&editNo =2&printCount=1&publishDate=1961-11-15&officeId=00032&pageNo=1&printNo=4894&publishT ype=00020 Gyeonghyangsinmun. (1966, August 1). Hangugeul dasianeun gangnyanggaksaekui daepyodeul, salgosipdagodo 한국을 다시아는 각양각색의 대표들, 살고싶다고도 [Various representatives revisited Korea, say they want to live here]. Gyeonghyangsinmun 경향신문 [The Kyunghyang Shinmun]. https://newslibrary. naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1966080100329207007&editNo=2&printCount=1&publishD ate=1966-08-01&officeId=00032&pageNo=7&printNo=6398&publishType=00020 Han, G. H. 한기흥. (1991, January 23). 「Jeonjaengteuksu」 Dongsitongyeoksa gakgwang 「전쟁特需」┄同 時통역사 각광 [Special Demand during War Simultaneous interpreter in the limelight]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The Dong-A Ilbo]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1991012300209217001&editN o=2&printCount=1&publishDate=1991-01-23&officeId=00020&pageNo=17&printNo=21366&publishT ype=00020 Hong, E. H. 홍은희. (1995, March 7). Gukjehoeui tongyeoksa choejeonghwassi 국제회의 통역사 최정화씨 [International conference interpreter, Ms. Choi Junghwa]. Jungangilbo 중앙일보 [The JoongAng]. https:// www.joongang.co.kr/article/3027051 Huh, S. H. 허승호. (1992, March 21). “Manchanjang tongyeok gunchimman heullyeoyo” sanggongbu dongsitongyeoksa imjongnyeongssi “만찬장 통역 군침만 흘려요” 상공부 동시통역사 林鍾玲씨 [“During a banquet interpreters can only drool”; simultaneous interpreter of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ms. Lim Jongryung]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The Dong-A Ilbo]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/ index.naver?articleId=1992032100209221001&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1992-03-21&off iceId=00020&pageNo=21&printNo=21772&publishType=00020 Hwang, G. I. 황규인. (2015, February 5). “Baegu hyeondaegeonseol tongyeok bokgwisikyeora” paendeul naseotjiman . . . “배구 현대건설 통역 복귀시켜라” 팬들 나섰지만 [Fans step up demanding return of Hyundai E&C’s volleyball interpreter but . . .]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The Dong-A Ilbo]. https://www. donga.com/news/Sports/article/all/20150205/69484430/1 Jeon, K. Y. 전광용. (1958, October 25). Japjonggwa sunjong ireo moreuneun sae daehaksaengeui gidae 雜 種과 純種 日語 모르는 새 大學生에의 期待 [Crossbreed and Purebreed, expectation for a new university student who doesn’t know Japanese]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The Dong-A Ilbo]. https://newslibrary. naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1958102500209104001&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishD ate=1958-10-25&officeId=00020&pageNo=4&printNo=11160&publishType=00010 Jeong, M. J. 정만진. (1989, December 28). Yeo jeonchesuseok gangmunjeong TV gwaoe amgigwamok jeongnie doum 女전체수석 姜玧汀 TV課外 암기과목整理에 도움 [Gang Munjeong, head of female students, says TV tutoring helped her for summing-up rote courses]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The Dong-A Ilbo]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1989122800209214011&editNo=2&printC ount=1&publishDate=1989-12-28&officeId=00020&pageNo=14&printNo=20998&publishType=00020 Jeong, N. R. 정나래. (2021, May 12). Airo dongsitongyeoksa sarajinda? AI로 동시통역사 사라진다? [AI makes simultaneous interpreters disappear?]. Naeilsinmun 내일신문 [The Naeil Shinmun]. https://www. naeil.com/news_view/?id_art=385945 Jeong, Y. S. 정용수. (2019, July 3). Gugeumseol 1ho tongyeoksa sinhyeyeong, panmunjeomseo gimchangseon tongyeok 구금설 1호 통역사 신혜영, 판문점서 김창선 통역 [First interpreter Shin Hyeyoung rumored to be incarcerated, but interprets for Kim Changsun at Panmunjeom]. Jungangilbo 중앙일보 [The JoongAng]. https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/23513961#home Joo, D. 주덕. (2021, March 9). Iseongdeuk gukjehoeui dongsitongyeoksa “Corona sidae, bidaemyeon gukjehaengsa tongyeok ilgam bonmul” 이성득 국제회의 동시통역사 “코로나 시대, 비대면 국제행사 통역 일감 봇물” [Conference interpreter Lee Sungdeuk, “In the era of COVID-19, virtual international conferences is booming”]. Busanjeilgyeongje 부산제일경제 [Busan First Economy]. https://www.busaneconomy. com/news/articleView.html?idxno=234083 Kim, H. R. 김희래. (2021, October 13). Aisidaeeneun tongyeoksado pihaeja AI시대에는 통역사도 피해자 [In the age of AI, interpreters are also victims]. Maeilgyeongje 매일경제 [Maeil Economy]. https://www. mk.co.kr/news/economy/10058840 Kim, H. T. 김현택. (2011, April 20). Gukjehoeui tongyeoksa, sillyeokboda eolgulbogo ppomneun pungto yeojeon 국제회의 통역사, 실력보다 얼굴보고 뽑는 풍토 여전 [Conference interpreters continue to be chosen based on their appearance, not skills]. Hangyeongnyuseu 한경뉴스 [Korea Economic News]. https:// www.hankyung.com/news/article/2011042074581

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Interpreters portrayed in Korean news media (1948–2022) Kim, J. E. 김주언. (1995, April 25). Yeongeo ireo dogeo 2chonae hangeultongyeok/「Eumseongbeonyeo k　siseutem」　got　naonda 영어 일어 독어 2초내 한글통역/「음성번역 시스템」 곧 나온다 [English, Japanese, German to Korean interpretation within 2 seconds/Voice translation system coming soon]. Hangugilbo 한국일보 [The Hankook Ilbo]. https://www8.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/1995042500 44620147 Kim, J. I. 김종일. (2003, July 10). Byeonhosa wol621manwon beoreo 변호사 월621만원 벌어 [A lawyer earns 6.21 million won a month]. Painaensyeolnyuseu 파이낸셜뉴스 [Financial News]. https://www. bigkinds.or.kr/v2/news/newsDetailView.do?newsId=02100501.20160205163859051 Kim, M. H. 김문희. (2016, May 8). “Habeodeudae naon tongyeoksa” gyeolhonbingja jebijok gusok “하 버드대 나온 통역사” 결혼빙자 제비족 구속 [Gigolo claiming to be “Harvard graduate interpreter” arrested for false marriage promise]. Painaensyeolnyuseu 파이낸셜뉴스 [Financial News]. https://www. fnnews.com/news/201605081708172798 Kim, M. Y. 김미영. (2020, June 1). Bakseonyeongi jikjeop balkhin nampyeonui 3gaji jigeop oesisuseok → daetongryeong tongyeoksa → daegieop imwon 박선영이 직접 밝힌 남편의 3가지 직업 외시수석 → 대통령 통역사 → 대기업 임원 [Park Sunyoung’s husband, tops diplomatic service examination → interpreter for President → executive of conglomerate]. Geumgangilbo 금강일보 [The Geumgang Ilbo]. http://www.segye.com/content/html/2020/06/01/20200601504283.html Kim, N. K. 김나경. (2018, June 12). Anhyeonmo “#haekdampan #haekgunggeum #haekseollemte..bungmijeongsanghoedam CNN bodo dongsi tongyeokt 안현모 “#핵담판 #핵궁금 #핵설렘” 북미정상회담 CNN 보도 동시 통역 [Ahn Hyun-mo “#nuclear talks#nuclearcuriosity#nuclear excitement” Simultaneous interpretation of CNN. Hangukgyeongjesinmun 한국경제신문 [The Korea Economic Daily]. https:// www.hankyung.com/entertainment/article/201806125749I Kim, S. 김상. (1980, February 13). 80nyeondae saejigeop dongsitongyeoksa 80년대 새직업, 동시통역사 [New ase d the 80s, simultaneous interpreter]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The Dong-A Ilbo]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1980021300209204004&editNo=2&printCount=1&publi shDate=1980-02-13&officeId=00020&pageNo=4&printNo=17955&publishType=00020 Kim, S. H. 김성환. (2009, September 9). Myeonpiyong daechul·gajja chayongjeung..gangnam tujaja ‘pyeonbeop baektae’ 면피용 대출, 가짜 차용증 . . . 강남 투자자 ‘편법 백태’ [Fake loans, fake IOUs . . . Gangnam investors “various phases of expediency”]. Painaensyeolnyuseu 파이낸셜뉴스 [Financial News]. https://www.fnnews.com/news/200909092234242959 Kim, S. Y. 김수연. (2001, March 16). Gugeo jeongbohwa guchugeun mirae sae saneobyeongyeok 국어 정보 화 구축은 미래 새 산업영역 [Korean language DB construction –a new future industry]. Jungangilbo 중 앙일보 [The JoongAng]. https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/4050307 Kim, S. Y., & Kim, H. H. 김상연 & 김효섭. (2010, July 8). “Gangyeonnaeyong maeume an deunda” 日 daesae konkeuriteu deonjyeo “강연내용 마음에 안 든다” 日 대사에 콘크리트 던져 [“I don’t like the lecture.” Concrete block thrown at Japanese ambassador]. Seoulsinmun 서울신문 [Seoul Shinmun]. https:// www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20100708011015 Kim, W. Y. 김원용. (2009, April 30). Incheongonghangsegwan, dongsitongyeoksiseutem hwakdae 인천공 항 동시통역시스템 확대 [Incheon international airport customs, expanded its simultaneous interpretation system]. Jungbuilbo 중부일보 [Joongboo Daily]. http://www.joongboo.com/news/articleView. html?idxno=312777 Kim, Y. H. 김영현. (2005, November 21). Gukjehoeuittae jeonmuntongyeoksa baechi beopjeonggyujeong maryeondwaeya 국제회의때 전문통역사 배치 법정규정 마련돼야 [Legal provisions needed to mandate professional interpreters at international conferences]. Jeminilbo 제민일보 [Jemin Ilbo]. https://www. bigkinds.or.kr/v2/news/newsDetailView.do?newsId=01700101.20051121221531002 Kim, Y. W. 김영우. (2021, January 26). Seulgiroun jaetaekgeunmu ikkeuneun jepumgwa seobiseu, haeksimeun ‘AI’ 슬기로운 재택근무 이끄는 제품과 서비스, 핵심은 ‘AI’ [Products and services enabling smart work from home, “AI” at its center]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The Dong-A Ilbo]. https://www.donga. com/news/It/article/all/20210126/105116627/1 Kwak, J. C. 곽중철 (2006, October 9). Han·mi jeongsang mangchin miguk tongyeoksa 한·미 정상 망친 미 국 통역사 [US interpreter disgraces US-Korea Summits]. Jungangilbo 중앙일보 [The JoongAng]. https:// www.joongang.co.kr/article/2469832#home Kwak, J. C. (2013, May). Gukgyeok galgameongneun tong·beonyeok oryu 국격 갉아먹는 통·번역 오류 [Interpretation and translation errors eroding national status]. Hangukgyeongjesinmun 한국경제신문 [The Korea Economic Daily]. https://www.hankyung.com/politics/article/2011050441121

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Soyoung Park 박소영 Kwak, J. C. (2017, August 24). AI beonyeokgigye gwadae seonjeon jajehara AI 번역기계 과대 선전 자제 하라 [Stop hype about AI translation machines]. Joseonilbo 조선일보 [The Chosun Ilbo]. https://www. chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2017/08/23/2017082303665.html Kwak, J. C. (2019, May 14). Tongyeokgwan sinhyeyeongui silsu 통역관 신혜영의 실수 [Interpreter Shin Hye-young’s mistake]. Gyeongjepokeoseu 경제포커스 [Economy Focus]. http://www.economyf.com/m/ view.asp?idx=3134 Kwon, G. Y. 권구영. (2020, May 2). Geullobiwon GBNBOX, MICE peullaetpom choecho Gsinjeung 1deunggeup hoekdeuk 글로비원 GBNBOX, MICE 플랫폼 최초 GS인증 1등급 획득 [Globiwon GBNBOX, first MICE platform to acquire GS certification grade 1]. Goyangsinmun 고양신문 [Goyang Shinmun]. https://www.mygoyang.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=67837 Kwon, T. H. 권태호. (1998, January 22). Dongsitongyeoksa seonmangjikjong gakgwang dwieneun godoen junbi·jungapgam gobi 동시통역사 선망직종 각광 뒤에는 고된 준비 중압감 고비 [Behind the spotlight lies hard work and pressure]. Hankyoreh. 한겨레. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index. naver?articleId=1998012200289108003&editNo=6&printCount=1&publishDate=1998-01-22&officeId= 00028&pageNo=8&printNo=3098&publishType=00010 Lee, B. G. 이범구. (2021, January 8). Nepaltptaeguk deung 11gaeguk eoneo .  .  . gyeonggido yeokakjosa tongyeokbongsadan unyeong 네팔·태국 등 11개국 언어...경기도 역학조사 통역봉사단 운영 [Languages, including Nepali and Thai . . ., provided by Gyeonggi-do epidemiological investigation volunteer interpreter groups]. Hankookilbo 한국일보 [Korea Daily]. https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/ A2021010808440002115 Lee, B. J. 이범준. (2007, February 21). Isaek gyeongnyeok sasihapgyeokja pansaro 이색 경력 사시합격자 판 사로 [Unusual career path for a judge]. Maeilgyeongje 매일경제 [Maeil Economy]. https://www.mk.co.kr/ news/all/4265071 Lee, B. Y. 이본영. (2004, January 25). Jeonmunjikjongdo bijeonggyujik neunda 전문직종도 비정규직 는 다 [Non-regular workers in professional occupations on the rise]. Hankyoreh. 한겨레. https://www.hani. co.kr/arti/legacy/legacy_general/PRINT/507460.html Lee, G. H. 이경희. (2007, November 25). [Isaram ijigeop] Dongsitongyeoksa bakseongjussi [이사람 이직 업]동시통역사 박성주씨 [This person This job. Simultaneous interpreter Park Seongjoo]. Segyeilbo 세계일 보 [Segye Daily]. https://www.segye.com/newsView/20070412001884 Lee, J. E. 이정은. (2012, June 15). Cheongwadae tteonaneun ‘daetongnyeongui tongyeokgwan’ 청와대 떠나 는 ‘대통령의 통역관’ [“President’s Interpreter” leaving the Blue house]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The DongA Ilbo]. https://www.donga.com/news/People/article/all/20120615/47023827/1 Lee, J. G. (1992, July 18). 「Tongyeogiyagi – namui mareul . . . 」 chulgan Gwakjungcheolssi “Jinsuseongchan nunape dugo gulmeoyo” 「통역이야기 – 남의 말을 」출간 郭重哲씨 “진수성찬 눈앞에 두고 굶 어요” [Interpretation Story – Other People’s Words, the author Kwak Joongchul “I starve with a feast before my eyes”]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The Dong-A Ilbo]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index. naver?articleId=1992071800209218007&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1992-07-18&officeId= 00020&pageNo=18&printNo=21887&publishType=00020 Lee, J. H. 이준현. (2021, February 3). ‘Daehanoegugin’ Ayumi, “Bongjunho gamdok tongyeoksa ‘Sharon Choi’cheoreom ‘hanildongsitongyeoksa’ kkum kkwo” ‘대한외국인’ 아유미, “봉준호 감독 통역사 ‘샤론최’처럼 ‘한일동시통역사’ 꿈 꿔” [Foreigners in Korea, Ayumi, “dreams of becoming a KoreanJapanese simultaneous interpreter like Director Bong Joonho’s interpreter, Sharon Choi”]. Hangukgyeongjesinmun 한국경제신문 [The Korea Economic Daily]. https://www.hankyung.com/entertainment/ article/202102035759I Lee, M. J. 이민정. (2018, March 13). “1000dalleoe ppoppo eottaeyo? ” Tongyeoksaga haeoe chuljangjiseo gyeongneun il “1000달러에 뽀뽀 어때요?” 통역사가 해외 출장지서 겪는 일 [“How about a ase for 1,000 dollars? ” What an interpreter experiences on overseas business trips]. Jungangilbo 중앙일보 [The JoongAng]. https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/22435069#home Lim, H. J. 임현주. (2018, June 13). Gajang gakkaiseo deureotdattbungmi jeongsanghoedamui juyeok ttongyeokt 가장 가까이서 들었다 . . . 북미 정상회담의 주역 ‘통역’ [Interpreters, protagonists of the North American Summit heard the conversation up close]. MBC. https://imnews.imbc.com/replay/2018/ nwtoday/article/4646391_30187.html Na, J. R. 나절로. (1959, August 21). Oeinui wannongmulhwadoeneun uri 外人의 [翫弄物)]化되는 우 리 [We are becoming ostentatious shells of foreigners]. Dongailbo 동아일보 [The Dong-A Ilbo]. https:// newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1959082100209204004&editNo=2&printCount=1 &publishDate=1959-08-21&officeId=00020&pageNo=4&printNo=11459&publishType=00020

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Interpreters portrayed in Korean news media (1948–2022) Online News Department. 온라인 뉴스부. (2017, March 29). “Bak jeon daetongnyeong tongyeok, oemosuneuro ppoba” peurangseu yuhaksaengui pongno “박 전 대통령 통역, 외모순으로 뽑아” 프랑스 유학생의 폭로 [Former President Park’s interpreters were selected based on appearance, an exposé by a student in France]. Seoulsinmun 서울신문 [Seoul Shinmun]. https://en.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView. php?id=20170329500027 Online News Team. 온라인뉴스팀. (2016, January 16). Toik, Topik, HSK boda yeongeoneungtongjaudae! ITTjagyeokjeung seonho 토익, 토픽, HSK 보다 영어능통자우대! ITT자격증 선호 [Individuals fluent in English preferred over TOEIC, OPIC, HSK Tests! ITT license preferred]. Haereoldeugyeongje 헤럴드경제 [Korea Herald Business]. http://heraldk.com/2016/01/12/%ED%86%A0%EC%9D%B5-%EC%98%A4%ED%94%BDhsk-%EB%B3%B4%EB%8B%A4-%EC%98%81%EC%96%B4%EB%8A%A5%ED%86%B5%EC%9E%90 %EC%9A%B0%EB%8C%80-itt%EC%9E%90%EA%B2%A9%EC%A6%9D-%EC%84%A0%ED%98%B8/ Park, D. G. 박돈규. (2019, May 3). Bakchanju jeon daejang “Naneun gukbangbu jiha yeongchang gatigo . . . yukchamchongjangeun cheonghaengjeonggwani bureundago dallyeoga” 박찬주 前 대장 “나는 국방부 지하 영창 갇히고 육참총장은 靑행정관이 부른다고 달려가” [Former Army General Park Chanju says “I was locked up in the underground prison of Ministry of Defense, whereas Army Chief of Staff runs to the Service of the Blue House Administrator”]. Joseonilbo 조선일보 [The Chosun Ilbo]. https://www. chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2019/05/02/2019050203579.html Park, H. C. 박해철. (2009, April 2). Seosansi gongmuwon, jiyeok cheongsonyeongwa yeongeo mentomenti gyeollyeon 서산시 공무원, 지역 청소년과 영어 멘토멘티 결연 [Seosan city officials establish English mentorship with local youth]. Naeposidae 내포시대. http://www.npnews.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=9660 Park, H. J. 박희진. (2009, February 16). Meori hulleodeong bujangnim “opparago bulleo” 머리 훌러덩 부장 님 “오빠라고 불러” [Bald manager says “Call me oppa, honey”]. Meonitudei 머니투데이 [Money Today]. https://news.mt.co.kr/mtview.php?no=2009021115442958277 Park, H. J. 박효진. (2015, September 7). Ryuhyeonjin, ‘Hunnam tongyeoksa’ matingim gyeolhonsik chamseok . . . meotjin suteupit gwasi 류현진, ‘훈남 통역사’ 마틴김 결혼식 참석 멋진 수트핏 과시 [Ryu Hyunjin shows off nice suit fit, attending wedding of “handsome” interpreter Martin Kim]. Gukminilbo 국민일보 [Kukminilbo]. http://news.kmib.co.kr/article/view.asp?arcid=0009831520&code=61161211&cp=nv Park, H. Y. 박하얀. (2022, March 14). Gongjangseo yangjaenmul ssodajyeo hwasang ibeun tongyeoksa . . . ‘peuriraenseo’ra chiryobi jiwon eoryeopda 공장서 양잿물 쏟아져 화상 입은 통역사 . . . ‘프리랜서’라 치료비 지원 어렵다 [An interpreter burned by caustic soda at factory . . . medical expense support difficult due to “freelancer” status]. Gyeonghyangsinmun 경향신문 [The Kyunghyang Shinmun]. https://www. khan.co.kr/national/national-general/article/202203141855001 Seo, G. S. 서기선. (1999, January 23). Miraehakjadeuri balkineun 21C gwahakgisul 미래학자들이 밝히는 21C 과학기술 [Futurists Name 21c science and technology]. Jeonjasinmun 전자신문 [ETNEWS]. https:// www.etnews.com/199901230044 Seo, Y. J. 서유진. (2020, February 19). Syaron choe “bongjunho tongyeok yocheonge banggwangi 1sigan beotyeojugil gidohaetda 샤론 최 “봉준호 통역 요청에 방광이 1시간 버텨주길 기도했다” [Sharon Choi says “with Bong Joonho’s request for interpretation, I could only hope that my bladder would hold up”]. Jungangilbo 중앙일보 [The JoongAng]. https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/23709851#home Shin, H. B. 신현보. (2020, July 27). 7 nyeoncha beterang “7wol harudo il mothaetda” malmun makin tongyeoksadeul 7년차 베테랑 “7월 하루도 일 못했다” 말문 막힌 통역사들 [7-year veteran “I couldn’t work a single day in July,” speechless interpreters]. Hangukgyeongjesinmun 한국경제신문 [The Korea Economic Daily]. https://www.hankyung.com/economy/article/202007245538g Shin, H. G. 신현규. (2003, April 06). Dongsitongyeoksa ildang 100manwon 동시통역사 일당 100만원 [Simultaneous interpreters earn 1 million won per day]. Maeilgyeongje 매일경제 [Maeil Economy]. https:// www.bigkinds.or.kr/v2/news/newsDetailView.do?newsId=02100101.20160118002257398 Sim, Y. J. 심영주. (2019, July 29). Ihyeseong anaunseo, yeongeo inteobyu ‘tongyeoksa paesing’ nollane “bulpyeon deuryeo joesong” 이혜성 아나운서, 영어 인터뷰 “통역사 패싱” 논란 “불편 드려 죄송” [Lee Hyesung, discomforting people for “interpreter passing” during English interview]. Joseonilbo 조선 일보 [The Chosun Ilbo]. https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2019/07/29/2019072900748. html Son, H. R. 손효림. (2005, December 13). Maekinji cheot hangugin yeoseongpateuneo gimyongassi 맥킨지 첫 한국인 여성파트너 김용아씨 [Mckinsey’s first Korean female partner, Kim Yongah]. Dongailbo 동아 일보 [The Dong-A Ilbo]. https://n.news.naver.com/mnews/article/020/0000327835?sid=101 Son, I. S. 손일선. (2018, February 19). Tongyeoksa jeunggwonjunggaein, 10nyeon dwi sarajilsudo tongyeoksa jeunggwonjunggaein, 10nyeon dwi sarajilsudo 통역사 증권중개인, 10년 뒤 사라질수도 [Interpreters

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Soyoung Park 박소영 and stock brokers may disappear in 10 years]. Maeilgyeongje 매일경제 [Maeil Economy]. https://www. mk.co.kr/news/economy/8198469 Yang, S. M. (2013, November 19). Daejeon gukjehaengsa maneunde tongyeogeun ‘konggeullisi’ 대전 국제 행사 많은데 통역은 ‘콩글리시’ [Many international events in Daejeon, but interpretation is “Konglish”]. Chungcheongtudei 충청투데이 [Chungcheong Today]. https://www.cctoday.co.kr/news/articleView. html?idxno=803767 Yeo, D. C. 여동찬. (1981, July 25). Hangugui chamdaun ttal 한국의 참다운 딸 [True daughter of Korea]. Gyeonghyangsinmun 경향신문 [The Kyunghyang Shinmun]. https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index. naver?articleId=1981072500329207003&editNo=2&printCount=1&publishDate=1981-07-25&officeId= 00032&pageNo=7&printNo=11021&publishType=00020 Yoon, C. H. 윤춘호. (2022, June 4). Gija, tongyeoksa, bangsongin . . . ‘gyeonggyein’ Anhyeonmo 기자, 통역 사, 방송인, ‘경계인’ 안현모 [Reporter, interpreter, broadcaster, Ahn Hyunmo, “the marginal person”]. SBS News. https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N1006774772

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6 THEORETICAL CONSTITUENTS OF INTERPRETING RESEARCH IN KOREA A meta-analysis of research publications from 1998 to 2022 Ho-Jeong Cheong 정호정1 and Hyun-Kyung Lim 임현경 6.1

Early development of interpreting in Korea

The evolution of the interpreting profession in modern Korea began in 1979 (Ahn, 2020, pp. 552–553), when its first training program for interpreters was launched at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS)2 in Seoul. Although the then-called Graduate School of Simultaneous Interpretation3 was housed at a private university, the program was public to some extent, since considerable government grants helped fuel the program’s rapid growth: all the students received full scholarships for the first nine years4 (GSIT, 2022) after the program’s launch. The government support was motivated by a proactive response to future demands for Korea’s role and presence in the international arena, and this motivation, together with the program’s educational objectives, was largely geared toward the practical goal of producing qualified interpreters and translators. These endeavors were soon met with growing social demands, as Korea hosted large-scale international events, such as the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Olympics. The country’s enhanced economic standing also gave a boost to international exchanges, leading to greater private-sector demands for quality interpreters. More recently, the country’s stronger cultural and diplomatic presence has given rise to wider international exchanges and interpreting demands. Over the course of such historical developments, Korea’s interpreting industry has undergone professionalization, with a series of professional associations and training programs being launched. The last 25 years, in particular, hold great significance in three respects: (a) the expansion of translation and interpreting (T&I) programs to the undergraduate level5; (b) the establishment of doctoral programs in T&I studies6; and (c) the launch of academic journals in interpreting studies,7 which drew increased attention in line with the profession’s development. The present study focuses on the academic journals on interpreting studies published during the period, as they testify to the growth of the relatively young, interdisciplinary field. Initial research endeavors in interpreting studies were led by practice-oriented educators, who laid the foundation for the nascent discipline by sharing the expertise and know-how they gained from the field but 99

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-8

Ho-Jeong Cheong 정호정 and Hyun-Kyung Lim 임현경

were less interested in theoretical discussions. Furthermore, T&I researchers in general seemed to place a greater focus on translation issues; hence, a relative lack of theory-oriented interpreting research. The subsequent creation of doctoral T&I programs, however, has helped produce researchers and educators equipped with both practical experience and theoretical/methodological backgrounds,8 and the undergraduate T&I programs have provided the academic foundation for this new generation of researchers/educators.

6.2

Research questions

In the present study, we examine how interpreting studies in Korea have developed in tandem with the interpreting profession and relevant training programs over the last 25 years and how they compare with or differ from international trends during the past decade. The criteria we adopted for our analysis are theoretical frameworks and methodologies employed in academic papers published during the period: theories are the starting point of research and the very basis for ensuring the intersubjectivity of T&I studies as an academic discipline (Cheong, 2007b, pp. vii–viii); methodologies help researchers navigate the research process and deliver the results. We will thus focus on the following research questions: RQ1: How has interpreting studies in Korea evolved over the past 25 years? • What have been the major theoretical trends in Korea in various periods? • What have been the major methodological trends in Korea in various periods? RQ2: How do Korea’s research trends in interpreting studies over the last ten years compare with or differ from international trends? • What are the key theoretical frameworks covered in international journals during the period? • What are the key methodologies employed in international journals during the period? • What are the major similarities or differences with what has been discussed in Korean journals? RQ3: How do these changing trends in Korea’s interpreting studies relate to other developments in the interpreting industry and training programs?

6.3

Methodology

The present study takes the form of meta-research, which can be briefly defined as “the study of research itself ” (Ioannidis, 2018, p. 1). Meta-researchers conduct research on research itself, examine the scientific process, and use different techniques to understand how research is conducted, communicated, verified, assessed, and rewarded (Ioannidis et al., 2015, pp. 2–3; as cited in Causadias et al., 2021, p.  2). In other words, they take a “bird’s-eye view to the way research is performed across broad areas” (McGee & Dawson, 2020, p. 1868). We found this interdisciplinary method fit for the purposes of the present study, since it aims to provide a comprehensive overview of interpreting studies in Korea over an extended period of time while comparing their theoretical and methodological developments with international trends. We then formulated the classification criteria for theoretical frameworks and methodologies, which are illustrated in Figures 6.1 and 6.2.

100

Theoretical constituents of interpreting research in Korea Theory-oriented research

Interpreting methodology

Interpreter qualification

Interpreters in field Agents Power relations

Sociological approaches Polysystem Professionalism and status

Cognitive/psychological approaches

Lingustic approaches Bilingualism/multilingualism

Interpreting studies (theoretical framework)

Neuroscientific approaches

Historical/philosophical approaches

Gender and sexuality

Listener reception/action theory

Pedagogy

Quality assessment

Applied interpreting studies Ethics

Others

None

Figure 6.1 The taxonomy of theoretical frameworks for interpreting studies employed

101

Interpreting aids

Ho-Jeong Cheong 정호정 and Hyun-Kyung Lim 임현경 Meta research

Theoretical discussion

Experimental Critical discourse analysis

Data analysis

Narrative Content analysis

Interpreting studies (methodology)

Corpus

Case study

Observation

Survey

Ethnography

Others

None

Figure 6.2 The taxonomy of methodologies for interpreting studies employed

Our taxonomy of theoretical frameworks in interpreting studies in Figure 6.1 includes: (a) theories developed within the discipline; (b) theories related to the specific methodology and qualification of interpreters as well as interpreters in the field; (c) theories borrowed from adjacent fields9; (c) sociological approaches concerning the agency, power relations, professionalism, and status of interpreters; (d) pedagogy and quality assessment; (e) historical/philosophical approaches (f) applied interpreting studies on interpreting technology and other aids; and (g) other alternative theories, including gender/sexuality and listener reception/action theory. “None” refers to papers without theoretical foundation. Our taxonomy of methodologies in interpreting studies consists of meta-research, theoretical discussion, experimental, data analysis, corpus, case study, observation, survey, ethnography, and others. Again, we categorized papers without particular methodology as “none.”

6.4

Data

The data for the present study consist of five Korean and three international journals on interpreting studies. We analyzed all research articles themed around interpreting and published in the Korean 102

Theoretical constituents of interpreting research in Korea Table 6.1 The selected Korean journals on interpreting studies (1998–2022) Journal

Interpreting and Translation Studies

Publisher

Interpreting and Korean The Korean The Korean Translation Society of Association Association of Research Interpretation for Translation Interpretation Institute, and Studies and HUFS Translation Translation Studies Education 1997 1999 2000 2003

2011

Quarterly

Triannual

5 times a year

Triannual

Biannual

63

54

86

43

14

571

491

818

446

68

137

103

73

49

6

Year of first publication Frequency of publication Issues published to date Total number of papers published Number of papers on interpreting

Interpretation and The Journal of Translation Translation Studies

The Journal of Interpretation and Translation Education

T&I Review

Ewha Research Institute for Translation Studies

journals from 1998 to 2022, excluding editorials, introductions, review essays, discussions, and other non-research articles whose theoretical and methodological backgrounds cannot be identified. As for the international journals, we chose papers published during the past ten years, from 2013 to 2022 (with non-research articles also excluded) to compare key research trends between Korea and the rest of the world. All five Korean journals were established within the last 25 years, with the oldest being Interpreting and Translation Studies, launched in 1997. These journals were purposefully selected, as they are the top five periodicals dedicated to T&I studies, and they provide a complete picture of relevant academic research and discourse that has been going on in Korea during the period. The list of the Korean journals and their descriptions are found in Table 6.1. Three international journals were chosen as representative journals, with a focus on interpreting studies. Interpreting is a journal dedicated entirely to interpreting issues, and Translation and Interpreting Studies offers a generous amount of editorial space to articles on interpreting studies. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer is unique as a journal with a focus on interpreting pedagogy. Table 6.2 shows the list of these international journals and their descriptions.

6.5

Findings

The findings of the present study are presented in two parts: theoretical and methodological developments in Korea’s interpreting studies over the last 25 years, and the comparison of key research trends between Korea and worldwide during the past ten years. 103

Ho-Jeong Cheong 정호정 and Hyun-Kyung Lim 임현경 Table 6.2 The selected international journals on interpreting studies (2013–2022) Journal

Interpreting

Translation and Interpreting Studies

The Interpreter and Translator Trainer

Publisher

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Taylor & Francis

Year of first publication Frequency of publication Number of papers on interpreting

1996 Biannual 61

The Journal of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association [John Benjamins Publishing Company] 2006 Triannual 17

2007 Quarterly 99

250 225 208

200

150

100

63

50

51 21

0

1998-2002

2003-2007

2008-2012

2013-2017

2018-2022

Figure 6.3 Interpreting papers published in Korean journals, 1998–2022

6.5.1

The theoretical and methodological evolution of Korea’s interpreting studies over the past 25 years

Over the last quarter of a century, Korea has witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of papers on interpreting studies, from just 21 in 1998-2002 to 225 in 2018–2022, illustrating the growing interest in and needs for academic exploration of interpreting issues. To see how the preferences for and usage of theoretical frameworks have changed over time, we divided the 25 years into five time periods for our analysis (1998–2002, 2003–2007, 2008–2012, 2013–2017, and 2018–2022) and examined the changing shares of theoretical frameworks employed in the five Korean journals by period (see Figure 6.4). 104

Theoretical constituents of interpreting research in Korea 100%

34

5

Reception/action theory Quality assessment

4 2 14 14 5 7

5

75%

23

32

1 5

50%

Linguistic approaches

2

25% 4

Interpreting methodology

6 2 35

Interpreter qualification

1 9

7

3 1 14

4 1 4 28

Ideology Historical/philosophical approaches Gender and sexuality

1 27

1 1 2

Others None

9

4 10

9

Pedagogy

Neuroscientitic approaches

4 9

9

Theory-oriented research Sociological approaches

36

Ethics 7 10 2 6 2 3 35

Communication Cognitive/psychological approaches Bilingualism/multilingualism Applied interpreting studies

1 18 3 8

2 1 0% 1998-2002

2003-2007

2008-2012

2013-2017

2018-2022

Year

Figure 6.4 Theoretical frameworks employed in articles published in Korean journals by period

In 1998–2002, cognitive/psychological and linguistic approaches were widely adopted as theoretical frameworks, while a considerable number of papers had no particular theoretical background in place. These articles often had to do with practical tips on interpreting strategies/tactics, or ideas or suggestions on how best to formulate interpreting training programs. This reflects the significant share of contributions by practice-oriented educators and researchers in the early days of interpreting studies in Korea. In the years that followed, however, we see a noticeable diversification of theoretical frameworks being applied. In 2003–2007, the combined share of linguistic and cognitive/psychological approaches declined sharply; the initial balance among different theoretical frameworks began in 2008–2012. Sociological approaches gain ground in 2013–2017, with an increasing number of papers exploring sociological notions like field, industry dynamics, and power relations. 2018–2022 shows a more balanced picture: linguistic and cognitive/psychological approaches are still popular, but they are complemented by the stronger presence of sociological approaches, pedagogy, and various other perspectives. The emergence of sociological approaches reflects the growing interests of interpreting scholars in the agents of interpreting, including those who interpret and arrange interpretation (i.e., interpreters and interpreting agencies). It is also in line with the increasing professionalization of interpreting and its further segmentation into different subfields, with judicial interpreting,10 medical interpreting, and other forms of community interpreting being key examples. The professional status and agency of interpreters have become popular topics. These sociological approaches have much to contribute to going beyond “exclusively text-bound approaches” (Wolf, 2007, p.  3; as cited in Cheong et al., 2021, pp. 15–16) and situating interpreters and their roles in social contexts. Theories on pedagogy and applied interpreting studies are increasingly adopted to cater to greater educational and industrial demands for new curricula and interpreting technologies. The initial focus of pedagogy-themed papers was placed on the curricula for T&I training programs on 105

Ho-Jeong Cheong 정호정 and Hyun-Kyung Lim 임현경 100%

Theoretical discussion 52

Survey Others

40 2

Observation None Meta research

1 75% 7 8

2 3 1 48

8

3

Experiment Ethnography

8 42

Data analysis Corpus

4 50%

1 1 7

Case study Action research

7 13

4 36

12

6 34

3 50

2 6 5 25% 9

16 27

1 1 0% 1998-2002

2003-2007

9

2

2008-2012

2013-2017

6

2018-2022

Year

Figure 6.5 Methodologies employed in articles published in Korean journals by period

the graduate and undergraduate levels, in response to the explosive growth of such programs in the early 2000s, while many of the later studies have switched to training programs for community interpreters in the face of growing social needs. Meanwhile, the ever-declining share of papers without theoretical background (marked as “none”) indicates that researchers and educators with theoretical knowledge are increasingly active in the field and that Korea’s interpreting studies have successfully transitioned from intuitive reasoning to theory-backed explorations. Figure 6.5 illustrates the changing shares of methodologies adopted in Korean journals by period. In the early years, the number of papers with little or no methodological background was significantly high, while those labeled as “theoretical discussions” did not necessarily discuss theoretical issues in depth. Instead of proper data analysis, some papers simply presented short sample sentences. Also found occasionally was terminological confusion: one researcher called his/her study “experimental” but actually conducted a survey instead. The subsequent evolution of interpreting studies brought greater diversity in methodologies, too, as researchers make use of corpus, action research, ethnography, meta-research, and various other methods. Consistently popular methods like surveys and data analysis are also diversifying in subtypes, such as focus group and in-depth interview for the former and critical discourse analysis (CDA) and conversation analysis (CA) for the latter.

6.5.2

Key research trends over the last decade: in Korea and worldwide

Next, we analyzed papers published in Korean and international interpreting journals over the past ten years to examine their respective theoretical and methodological trends and key similarities or differences between them. The total number of papers published during the period is 243 for the three international journals and 358 for the five Korean journals. 106

Theoretical constituents of interpreting research in Korea International

13

Applied interpreting studies Bilingualism/multilingualism

Korean

17

4

2

Cognitive/psychological approaches

45 1

Communication

56

3 4

Ethics

6

1

Gender and sexuality Historical/philosophical approaches

2

Ideology

2

13

12 11

Interpreter qualification 6

Interpreting methodology

11 22

Linguistic approaches

71

2 2

Neuroscientific approaches

4

None

52 6

Others

8 31

Pedagogy 14

Quality assessment

34

19

8

Reception/action theory

41

Sociological approaches Theory-oriented research

10

0

46

21

20

40

60

80

Figure 6.6 Theoretical frameworks employed in articles published in Korean and international journals over the last decade

Figure 6.6 shows the key theoretical frameworks used in Korean and international journals on interpreting studies. The share of linguistic approaches is significantly high in Korean journals, while it should be noted that many of these choices often overlap with other options, such as theory-oriented research and cognitive/psychological approaches. What is also noteworthy is the considerable share of papers in Korean journals which, without full-fledged theoretical background, focus on reporting the current status or explaining the author’s intuitive observations. Also, the lack of theoretical approaches, such as gender/sexuality and ideology, indicates the need for further diversification within the field of interpreting studies in Korea. Figure 6.7 summarizes key methodological trends in Korean and international journals on interpreting studies. Data analysis was the most popular method in Korean journals, followed by surveys, theoretical discussions, and experiments. In international journals, on the other hand, experiment was by far the most favored methodology; surveys and case study methods were also popular.

6.6

Discussion

The results of the present study indicate that the professionalization of interpreting and the expansion of T&I training over the past 25 years have helped elevate the field of interpreting studies from intuitive and practical tips to a flourishing, systematic discipline with a strong theoretical and 107

Ho-Jeong Cheong 정호정 and Hyun-Kyung Lim 임현경 International

Korean

5

Action research

13 42

Case study

37 13 12

Corpus

33

Data analysis

85 5

Ethnography

1 62

Experiment

51 5

Meta research

4

None

22 1

Observation

3

Others

9 46

Survey

70 28

Theoretical discussion

64 0

25

50

75

100

Figure 6.7 Methodologies employed in articles published in Korean and international journals over the last decade

methodological foundation. In this section, we will discuss the discipline’s qualitative and quantitative growth in Korea, the transition from practice-oriented educators to theory-oriented researchers, the diversification of theoretical frameworks and methodologies, and the challenges ahead.

6.6.1

Qualitative and quantitative growth

Our meta-analysis shows that the discipline has seen significant improvement in both the quantity and quality of papers produced. The number of interpreting papers published in Korean journals has risen more than tenfold over the last 25 years. The diminishing share of “none” in both theoretical frameworks and methodologies shows that the theoretical and methodological foundations of Korean interpreting scholars and their research output improved.

6.6.2

From practice-oriented educators to theory-oriented researchers

As indicated in our findings, early papers by practice-oriented educators often lacked solid theoretical/methodological background, but they laid the cornerstone for subsequent advances in interpreting studies—led by the next generation of researchers with stronger theoretical and methodological expertise. The production of interpreting scholars at the doctoral level, in particular, has led to the diversification of theoretical frameworks and methodologies employed in Korea’s interpreting studies.

108

Theoretical constituents of interpreting research in Korea

6.6.3

From linguistic to more divergent frameworks

The initial focus of interpreting studies in Korea was largely on linguistic and cognitive/psychological approaches and data analysis, and a large number of papers had no theoretical framework or methodology in place. This reflects the relative lack of theoretical/methodological rigor for practice-oriented educators and their interest in sharing practical tips instead. In later papers, however, alternative theoretical frameworks have been increasingly adopted, including applied interpreting studies (e.g., computer-assisted interpreting), historical/philosophical approaches (e.g., history of interpreting, historical case studies of interpreters), and quality assessment (both in professional and classroom settings). The methodological diversity has also been enhanced, with case studies, experiments, surveys, and theoretical discussions being increasingly employed.

6.6.4

Tasks ahead

In Korean interpreting journals published over the past ten years, linguistic and cognitive/psychological approaches are the most popular theoretical frameworks, followed by sociological approaches and quality assessment. Also observed is the overwhelming use of data analysis, theoretical discussion, and experiment as methods in Korean papers. Compared to what has been covered in international journals during the same period of time, we found that papers published in Korean journals still employ a narrower array of theoretical frameworks and methodologies. This leaves us with the challenge of further diversification in both theories and methodologies. Reception/action theory, ideology, gender/sexuality, and other theoretical alternatives can be new frontiers in Korea’s interpreting studies; more studies may also be conducted using a wider selection of methods, including meta-research, ethnography, focus groups, interviews, and observations to name just a few.

6.7

Conclusion

In the present study, we have taken a diachronic meta-research approach to explore academic trends in Korea’s interpreting studies from 1998 to date. The significance of the present study lies in the fact that the full spectrum of key theoretical frameworks and methodologies over the past 25 years has been investigated and elucidated in depth. As we suspected, papers published in the first five years proved unsuccessful in providing sufficient theoretical background, leaning largely toward linguistic and cognitive/psychological approaches. The growing interest in sociological approaches, however, became evident over the following decade, and a wide variety of attempts has been made especially in the past ten years, including those associated with applied interpreting studies, historical/philosophical approaches, pedagogy, quality assessment, and interpreters in the field. Methodology-wise, some of the early papers relied mainly on data analysis and theoretical discussion, while others employed no method at all, since they were simply intended to describe tips from practical experience. In later years, however, interpreting scholars expanded the range of methods employed, with case studies, experiments, surveys, and corpus emerging as key options. Despite these dramatic developments, a comparison with international journals published during the same period shows that the array of theoretical frameworks and methodologies used in Korean interpreting papers still remains narrower. More specifically, the adoption of more divergent theories on reception/action, ideology, gender/sexuality, and other issues that have rarely been covered

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Ho-Jeong Cheong 정호정 and Hyun-Kyung Lim 임현경

in Korea’s interpreting studies will be essential to ensure greater theoretical diversity. At the same time, a wider variety of methods need to be employed; namely, meta-research and qualitative methods like focus groups, interviews, and ethnography. When it comes to the agents of research, the first generation of interpreting researchers in Korea consisted mainly of practitioners-cum-educators, seeking mainly to share tips and experiences from their active practices. It is noteworthy that the emergence of theory-oriented researchers, especially those with a doctoral degree in T&I studies, has sparked a greater focus on theoretical rigor in subsequent research endeavors. The main contributions of the present study are that it provides: (a) a diachronic view of research trends based on a meta-analysis; (b) a data-driven diagnosis of problems and the presentation of the whole picture; and (c) the precise identification of historical trends and proposals for next steps. We look forward to seeing a wider range of theoretical frameworks and methodologies being adopted in Korea’s interpreting studies. At the same time, we hope that the present study will provide the groundwork for more meta-research efforts. The present study, however, is not without limitations: focusing solely on interpreting studies in Korea and their comparison with international academic trends during the same period, it does not discuss how they differ from translation studies made in the country around the same time. This issue will be addressed later in a separate paper that we are working on.

Notes 1 First author. The authors would like to give special thanks to Choi Minnie for her invaluable assistance in primary data collection. 2 Founded in 1954, immediately after the end of the Korean War, the private university specializing in foreign language education served the national mission of producing globally competitive human resources who could help bring their war-torn homeland to prosperity (HUFS, 2022). 3 The school was later renamed Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation (GSIT) in 1997. It has offered education and training in eight departments—i.e., Korean-English, Korean-French, Korean-German, Korean-Russian, Korean-Spanish, Korean-Chinese, Korean-Japanese, and Korean-Arabic departments, in addition to trilingual programs, including Korean-English-French department. It remained the country’s only training program for interpreters and translators until 1997, when Ewha Womans University opened the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation (GSTI) and others followed suit. 4 Government grants covered the full tuition during the period of 1980–1988. National scholarships were also provided to sponsor their study in international partner institutions, including École Supérieure d’Interprètes et de Traducteurs (ESIT) in Paris, France and École de Traduction et d’Interprétation (ETI) in Geneva, Switzerland. 5 The first undergraduate T&I program was created in the English Department of Kyunghee University in 1999 and the second in the English Department of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies the following year. 6 GSIT launched its doctoral program in 1999 (Cheong, 2013a, p. 236), with the primary author being the first holder of a doctoral degree from the program. 7 Korea’s first academic journal dedicated to T&I studies, Interpreting and Translation Studies, was founded in 1997 by the Interpreting and Translation Research Institute, HUFS. International Conference Interpreting and Translation was the first academic journal in T&I accredited by the Korean government (via the Korean Research Foundation (Cheong, 2013a, p.  236)). Now being published under the new name Interpretation and Translation since 2009, it was first published in 1998 by the Korean Society of Conference Interpreting (current Korean Society of Interpretation and Translation). 8 By exploring new topics and employing various theories and methodologies in a more systematic manner, these researchers have sought to enhance the academic rigor of the discipline. Their endeavors are evidenced in two edited volumes on the current status and future prospect of T&I studies in Korea (Cheong, 2013b; Lim & Lee, 2013). 9 It should be noted, though, that the influences of adjacent disciplines may often overlap with internally developed theories to some extent, given the interdisciplinary nature of T&I studies, which has been developed out of and interacted with the key notions and principles of linguistics, cognitive science,

110

Theoretical constituents of interpreting research in Korea psychology, information processing, and communication, just to name a very few (Cheong, 2007a, p. 174). 10 In 2018, the controversy surrounding the refugee status deliberation for over 500 Yemenis who arrived in Jeju Island sparked social attention to the issue of public interpreting. The lack of professional deliberators and Arabic interpreters to handle this massive inflow led the government to realize the urgency of the situation; discussions are underway on the need for an interpreter accreditation scheme that will help guarantee and protect the basic rights of immigrants and refugees coming to Korea (Cheong & Park, 2018, p. 107).

References Ahn, I.-K. (2020). History and challenges of translation and interpreting in Modern Korea: On the 40th anniversary of the Graduate School of Interpretation & Translation (GSIT) of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS). Babel, 66(4–5), 550–569. Causadias, J. M., Korous, K. M., Cahill, K. M., & Rea-Sandin, G. (2021). The importance of research about research on culture: A call for meta-research on culture. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 29(1), 85–95. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000516 Cheong, H.-J. 정호정 (2007a). Dongilhan eoneoro malhagi: Beonyeokhak yeongureul wihan yongeo tongilui sigeupseong 동일한 언어로 말하기 -번역학 연구를 위한 용어통일의 시급성- [Speaking the same language: Raising the urgent need to standardize the use of terms in Translation Studies]. Tongyeokgwa beonyeok 통역과 번역 [Interpretation and Translation], 9(1), 173–203. Cheong, H.-J. 정호정 (2007b). Jedaero doen tongyeok beonyeok-ui ihae 제대로 된 통역 번역의 이해 [Accurate understanding of interpretation and translation]. Seoul: Hanguk munhwasa 한국문화사 [Hanguk Cultural Publishing]. Cheong, H.-J. 정호정 (2013a). Beonyeokhak jeonmunhaksuljiui baldalgwa choigeun yeongu donghyang: 1999-nyeon ihu guknaeoe daepyo haksulji bunseok 번역학 전문학술지의 발달과 최근 연구 동향 -1999년 이후 국내외 대표 학술지 분석- [Evolution of and research trends in academic journals in Translation Studies: A meta-analysis of research efforts published in and out of Korea since 1999]. Tongyeokgwa beonyeok 통역과 번역 [Interpretation and Translation], 15(1), 235–256. Cheong, H.-J. 정호정 (Ed.). (2013b). Tongbeonyeokhak yeongu hyeonhwanggwa hyanghu jeonmang 통번역학 연구 현황과 향후 전망 [The current status and future prospect of research in translation and interpreting] (Vol. 1). Seoul: Hanguk munhwasa 한국문화사 [Hanguk Cultural Publishing]. Cheong, H.-J., Lim, H.-K., & Jeon, M.-C. (2021). “Changes in Korea’s outbound literary translation: Who, how, and why?”: A focus group discussion centered around a revised sociological model. INContext: Studies in Translation and Interculturalism, 1(1). Cheong, H.-J. 정호정, & Park, J.-S. 박지수. (2018). Tongbeonyeokhak yeongu daesang-euroseoui tongbeonyeok jeongchaek: ‘Beonyeokcheong’ seollip mit tongyeoksa injeungje doip jeongchaek-yeongue daehan meta bunseok 통번역학 연구 대상으로서의 통번역정책 -‘번역청’ 설립 및 통역사 인증제 도입 정책 연구에 대한 메타분석- [Interpreting and translation policy research as legitimate and necessary realm of research in Translation Studies]. Tongyeokgwa beonyeok 통역과 번역 [Interpretation and Translation], 20(3), 105–140. GSIT. (2022). Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation: History. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://gsit.hufs.ac.kr/ HUFS. (2022). About HUFS: Founding spirit of the university. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https:// hufsenglish.hufs.ac.kr/ Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2018). Meta-research: Why research on research matters. PLOS Biology, 16(3), e2005468. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005468 Ioannidis, J. P. A., Fanelli, D., Dunne, D. D., & Goodman, S. N. (2015). Meta-research: Evaluation and improvement of research methods and practices. PLOS Biology, 13(10), e1002264. https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pbio.1002264 Lim, H.-O. 임향옥, & Lee, C.-S. 이창수 (Eds.). (2013). Tongbeonyeokhak yeongu hyeonhwanggwa hyanghu jeonmang 통번역학 연구 현황과 향후 전망 [The current status and future prospect of research in translation and interpreting] (Vol. 2). Seoul: Hanguk munhwasa 한국문화사 [Hanguk Cultural Publishing]. McGee, R. G., & Dawson, A. C. (2020). Fake news and fake research: Why meta-research matters more than ever. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 56(12), 1868–1871. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.15237 Wolf, M., & Fukari, A. (2007). Constructing a sociology of translation. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing.

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PART II

Education

7 WHAT’S NEXT? The status quo and challenges of undergraduate interpretation and translation education in Korea Daejin Kim 김대진

7.1

Overview

Nothing can escape political and economic forces; I&T education is no exception. The claim that education exceeds any barriers set by political and economic conditions is academic banality at best. Indeed, the rationale for initiating and expanding I&T education in Korea was that efficient globalization is the key to national economic growth. Thus, as a way to embrace globalization, Korea established the first GSIT at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) in 1979. The graduate school was established hurriedly, without adequate preparation—i.e., proper faculty members with conference interpreting and translation experience and interpretation training equipment (Ahn, 2019). In the early period of the GSIT, a linguistics professor publicly claimed that simultaneous interpretation between Korean and Western languages was impossible. Gradually, however, instructors without proper I&T understanding and experience were replaced by a new generation of conference interpreters who had been educated and trained in and out of Korea. It was a slow but defining moment in the history of interpretation education (Choi & Lim, 2002, 2004). The establishment of I&T education in Korea was prompted by the need to respond to the upcoming demands of globalization. To facilitate the field’s development, the Korean government granted full scholarships to the first batch of nine students in Korean-English programs and sent them to receive interpreting training at institutions abroad. This unprecedented and bold move that may be construed as an unreasonable benefit rendered to a small, select group of students significantly boosted the popularity of the field, resulting in increased enrollments in I&T programs (Kang, 2015). However, the daring support lasted for only three groups of applicants for two consecutive years. Nevertheless, the attractiveness of this program thrived without letup. Admission to the program was regarded as highly prestigious and honorable. Even though establishing the first

115

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-10

Daejin Kim 김대진

official I&T institution at the graduate level was controlled by the government, it turned out to be the right direction for the long-term progress of I&T education and industry in Korea. In the early 1980s, the Korean government started its all-out effort to host the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul to springboard its economic development and cleanse its image as an authoritarian regime (Cotton, 1989). In September 1981, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that Seoul would host the 1988 Olympic Games, meaning that many studying at the HUFS GSIT could work in upcoming international conferences, including the ones for the Olympic preparation. Graduates from GSIT could perform the inter-lingual tasks posed by the rapid economic progress and national globalization efforts. The second prominent wave of the popularity of interpretation came from the US-led first Gulf War in 1990, when news coverage led by several network news agencies, including CNN, needed to be interpreted simultaneously for Korean viewers. Many interpreters trained at the HUFS GSIT performed seemingly impossible simultaneous interpretations of the on-time reports from the war sites. This inspired many young students with foreign language skills, especially in English, to join this profession, which made the competition for admission to the only GSIT in Korea severely intense. Even private institutions specializing in GSIT admission test preparation flourished, and several graduates from the GSIT HUFS gained a reputation for helping other students enter the GSIT. Despite this high popularity and demand for I&T education, it took eighteen years for the second GSIT to be established. Given the difficulty of hiring competent faculty with actual I&T experience and starting a new educational program from scratch, no new graduate school was authorized in Korea. As the government strictly controls the establishment of educational institutes in Korea, doubt arises as to whether any political intervention was behind this long period of dormancy in starting a new GSIT (Ahn, 2019). Figure 7.1 shows that the number of international conferences hosted in Korea increased from the early 1990s to 2018. Except during the global COVID-19 pandemic (2019–2021), the number of international conferences in Korea also significantly increased with the demand for competent interpreters. For example, in 2017, there were 1,297 international conferences in Korea, comprising

1200 1000

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Number of international

1400

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Year Figure 7.1 The change in the number of international conferences in Korea (Source: Statistics Korea, 2022)

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12.6% of international conferences globally. However, the second GSIT had to wait while witnessing the interpreters and translators trained in HUFS GSIT perform essential roles before and during the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988 and the Gulf War coverage in the early 1990s. HUFS, the first GSIT, monopolized the market for nearly two decades, despite the difficulties encountered as a trailblazer in training the next generation of conference interpreters through numerous pedagogical trials and errors.

7.2

The changing situation of the GSITs

The year 1991 was crucial in the history of Korea, as both South Korea and North Korea became members of the United Nations Organization. As South Korea actively conducted diplomacy and economic initiatives in the international arenas, the number of international conferences held in Korea took a quantum leap upward. In 1996, South Korea joined the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) amid the active government-led internationalization drive. The number of international conferences expanded dramatically, increasing the demand for qualified conference interpreters. In 1997, the second GSIT was established at Ewha Woman’s University. Still a relatively late start notwithstanding, GSIT at Ewha had the advantage of avoiding pedagogical miscues its predecessor had made. In translating one language into another, the gap between theory and practice should be kept at a minimum (Baker, 2009; Nida, 1969). Experienced interpreters knew how to narrow the disparity between ideas and actual interpretation. Now that many professional interpreters could teach at the GSIT, Ewha competed with HUFS in attracting talented students for future interpreters (Son, 2019). With the increase in the number of international conferences in Korea and the development of the I&T industry, the demand for conference interpreters was only expected to grow (Jeong, 2012). By capitalizing on the opportunities of the ever-increasing need for qualified interpreters, nine more GSIT or translation graduate schools sprouted from 1997 to 2005 throughout Korea, with the rate of more than one new interpreting school every year. These include Jeju National University, Sunmoon University, Handong Global University, Busan University of Foreign Studies, Seoul University of Foreign Studies, Korea University, Keimyung University, Dongguk University, and Chung-Ang University. These schools attempted to ride the ever-increasing popularity and demand for I&T professionals. They anticipated this trend would continue for a considerable time and wanted to take advantage of the lucrative opportunities I&T industry had to offer. However, nothing lasts forever. Although the interpretation market was proliferating, graduate schools were bound to saturate as per the general economic principles. No new GSIT has been established since 2005, and two graduate schools—i.e., Korea University and Dongguk University— have stopped admitting new students. Korea University might claim that they did not quit the program altogether. The Language Center at Korea University decided to launch a joint KoreaMacquarie University Translating and Interpreting Program (MA), and students would obtain a Master in Arts from Macquarie University in Australia, not from Korea University. Admission to GSITs has continuously declined, except for a few schools, including HUFS and Ewha (Koo, 2016; Park, K. et al., 2017). It is partially because of the belief that the interpretation market has already saturated and the advent of AI translation technology might take away I&T jobs from humans. Many people applied to GSITs, hoping that interpreting jobs would guarantee a stable income and a bright employment perspective. However, the competition for GSIT admission has been dropping noticeably, as an overflowing number of GSIT graduates have hard-hit the I&T job markets. 117

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The decreased remuneration for interpreters bolstered this tendency due to the influx of neophyte interpreters from GSITs and the deteriorating perception of pride and job stability experienced in various freelance and in-house I&T jobs (Im, 2018). As the number of GSIT graduates increased, more interpreters found it difficult to advance into the competitive and relatively more rewarding freelance conference interpreting markets. This pushed them to get employment in various organizations as in-house interpreters. This could be a positive development showing diversification of the job market for interpreters. However, it may also set a negative tone, as it indicates a decline in professional jobs of conference interpreting (J. Lee, 2019). This situation resonates with what Pym (2002) as cited in Liu et al., 2012) warned of as he discussed interpreting market saturation in Spain. One warning: in Spain, after 1992, we expanded training from just three programs to the 26 or so we have now. Spain is not China; it has a much smaller population. But what happened as a result of that expansion? We have now flooded the labor market with graduates, with people who have a degree in translation and interpreting. The pay for translators has thus gone down, and most of our graduates can’t find jobs as translators. We’ve helped ruin the market. We thought we knew what the market needed, but we did not know how many actual graduates they need. Nobody asked that question. Students sign up to study translation; they want to do translation because it sounds practical; it sounds like it’ll get them a job. As long as they sign up, we teach it. And then we put them in the market, but there are few good jobs to be found. So where is the research that will tell us many real jobs there are for translators? Easy to do: Count the job announcements, or follow where your graduates go. See how many good translation jobs are available. Probably not thousands. (p. 8)

7.3

Undergraduate I&T programs

Along with the incessant establishment of new GSITs in Korea, there has been a burst of new I&T programs at the undergraduate level. Professional graduate schools like GSIT are supposed to train students to become professionals in their field, but it is hard to implement this objective within the scope of undergraduate programs. The original plan was to lay a foundation for further studies in students’ majors or prepare students for studies in GSITs. However, undergraduate students studying I&T might have ungrounded and inflated hopes that they could work as interpreters and translators after they graduate from their universities. Park (1999) and Nam (2009) argued that language skill training and development constitute a prerequisite to the training of I&T competence. On the other hand, in their survey analysis, Lee, E. and Lee (2010) found that undergraduate students yearn for evident improvements in their I&T skills through their program. S. Kim (2006) suggested that some programs infused theories into undergraduate programs to ameliorate this situation. There was, however, a significant mismatch between institutional orientations and students’ beliefs. Undergraduates might plunge into the programs daringly without proper preparation or thought. Korean universities’ social and economic situations may set the course toward encouraging the infusion of I&T courses in undergraduate studies. In many cases, I&T courses were treated as inferior or sub-standard subjects in Korea’s traditional educational administrative setting (B. Lee, 2003). Unless I&T courses constitute an independent department, they will not be treated with adequate respect and will be ostracized by many professors. Although I&T courses have received massive popularity over fifteen years, they started to lose 118

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their initial popularity as time went by. The tension between a more traditional curriculum in the English language and literature department and I&T has been unsettling. Many scholars remain concerned about the change in the perception of the profession in the changing world. Pym (2002), for example, stated: We might once have talked immediately about translators. However, translators these days are called upon to do far more than translate: they move between tasks; they mix professions in the course of their careers. The hypernym ‘language service provider’ is simply meant to recognize that diversity, placing translator training within the context of a more complex and technological age. (p. 21) Any bold academic attempt may fail to achieve its intended pedagogical objectives without a fundamental language capability, relevant Interpretation and Translation (I&T) education in Korea, and experienced instructors. S. Lee (2015) reported that some universities teach I&T by setting up independent departments or separate programs with 50 to 60 credits assigned to I&T. Since leading GSITs in Korea teach about 60 credits to students, this is quite an intensive I&T program. There have been old and trite claims about whether it is more efficient to train experts in specific domains to become interpreters or translators or have professional interpreters or translators execute I&T for the particular areas that need expert knowledge (J. Kim, 2004). This claim might reflect that professional I&T requires profound background knowledge and language skills. Therefore, the teaching mode should be multidisciplinary. Many English literature or linguistics professors did not support I&T programs. However, they conceded to setting up those programs because the survival of the departments was at stake. Both public and private Korean universities rely heavily on financial support from the government. The government decided to evaluate universities based on the employment rate since the early 2000s for its decision on financial support amount. The employability of each major has dominated the educational contexts of Korean universities, and the department of English scrambled to launch I&T programs, believing that it would boost employment (Schnell & Rodríguez, 2017). One study (R. Kim, 2011) explored the changes in Korean universities’ I&T-related undergraduate programs. In the early 2000s, I&T departments and courses started competitively, and there were severe internal conflicts with other English language and literature courses. As of 2019, one-third of national universities offered I&T-related courses, but this number first plateaued out before eventually starting to decline (Son, 2019). In 2020, eighteen independent I&T tracks were offered to students, with over one-third being English-Korean courses (K. Lee, 2020). Some universities even have three separate departments. K. Lee (2020) demonstrated that courses in these departments and programs focus on procedural knowledge, with a significant emphasis on performing interpretation and translation rather than declarative knowledge, which handles background knowledge and other in-depth explorations of ideas prerequisite for executing I&T smoothly. This goes against students’ motivation to take these courses in the first place because many took I&T courses to improve their language proficiency. Mossop (2003) warned that it is almost impossible for college graduates who studied I&T to work as interpreters and translators after graduation. The affective attitudes of students in undergraduate I&T programs are also different from those of students in GSIT. Huh’s (2016) study showed that undergraduate students experience high anxiety when their interpretation performance is compared with other students. This type of education is common in GSIT, and most graduate students are willing to withstand this hardship. Critiques by instructors and peers is an effective way to teach 119

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interpretation and is employed by most instructors. However, undergraduate students experience an emotionally challenging period in this teaching mode. A study in Taiwan (Chiang, 2009) affirmed this emotional struggle by indicating that Taiwanese undergraduate students report the same anxiety in comparable situations. An instructor teaching in an undergraduate interpretation program analyzed the reasons behind the anxiety of undergraduate students during class (Huh, 2016). Many students replied that they felt anxious or even scared during the course because they did not have enough background knowledge for their interpretation endeavors. Undoubtedly, it takes a considerable amount of time and energy to acquire adequate background knowledge. When it comes to students entering GSITs, they tend to have stored an ample stock of background knowledge essential to becoming competent interpreters and translators. The selection process at GSITs is rigorous. Professors try to find individuals with potential and relevant intellectual curiosity, a prerequisite for interpreters and translators who have to deal with various materials quickly and efficiently to complete their tasks. However, many undergraduate students need more time and willingness to go through this arduous process of assimilating the background knowledge required to execute the professions. This situation is not restricted to Korea. After examining the I&T education situation in Hong Kong, China, Li (2002) pointed out that the prime focus of undergraduate students in I&T programs is on developing language skills. China has great potential in the I&T industry, as its economy is rapidly growing and global political weight is gaining continuous momentum. Even in this situation, most undergraduate students in I&T regard the training as an excellent opportunity to hone their language repertoire. Less than 20% of I&T students wanted to become professional interpreters or translators. Li (2002) emphasized that, for I&T courses to produce professional interpreters and translators, students must be fully confident in their bilingual capability. There are essential components underlying professional-level I&T. It takes time and intensive practice to master these components, not to mention in-born talents. Students are tested for these components when applying for GSITs. Although there has been a debate about whether interpreters and translators are born or nurtured, it is evident that the tasks of I&T require excellent skills that are challenging to obtain. Like any other profession, I&T requires a complete and long-time commitment to self-improvement and continued studying, which is hard to expect from undergraduate students. Following is a list of subcomponents of competencies for professional interpreters and translators according to the PACTE (Process in the Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation) research group (Beeby et al., 2009, p. 208): 1 Bilingual sub-competence: procedural knowledge required to communicate in two languages. 2 Extra-linguistic sub-competence: declarative knowledge, implicit and explicit. Bicultural and encyclopedic knowledge. 3 Knowledge about translation: how translation functions and professional translation practice. 4 Instrumental sub-competence: procedural knowledge required to use documentation resources and information and communication technology. 5 Strategic sub-competence: procedural knowledge to guarantee the efficiency of the translation process and solve problems encountered. 6 Psycho-physiological component: memory, perception, attention, and emotion; intellectual curiosity, perseverance, rigor, and the ability to think critically. When evaluating the effectiveness of or devising teaching methods for I&T at the undergraduate level, reliable pedagogical guidelines draw on the essential I&T competence subcategories, such as 120

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the PACTE translation competence model. This model dictates that I&T skills should be learned and harnessed. Instructors with I&T experience are reported to experience dilemmas between the reality in the classroom and their willingness to train students to work as interpreters in the real world. In an interview, one instructor explained: Even though I teach interpretation and translation at the undergraduate level, I believe the ‘employable’ interpretation and translation skills are taught in GSITs. Many of the students in our undergraduate departments chose English majors because the departments accepted them based on their test scores and high school GPAs, not mainly because they wanted to study English literature or linguistics. Many students did not come to our department with the ultimate goal of joining the GSITs after graduation. In most cases, teaching I&T would involve teaching language skills, which contradicts the original aims of launching I&T programs at the undergraduate level. There arises a perplexing question of whether this will render any academic contribution or positively impact the discipline of I&T. One instructor succinctly pointed out: We are considering closing down the courses in interpretation and translation. The number of students who want to keep studying this major is in the downturn. English proficiency usually goes hand-in-hand with better performance in interpretation, especially Korean into English interpretation. However, it is only possible for students to excel in understanding with adequate background knowledge of a particular subject. I challenge students to strive more on the issues they are unfamiliar with. Teaching I&T to students who need to be more serious about becoming interpreters and translators is challenging. I&T instructors can teach I&T with their professional experience, but they are often faced with the reality of having to teach the target language. Many students in I&T programs are experiencing confusion, disappointment, and hope in their programs. The following are excerpts of interviews with students in undergraduate I&T programs in Korea. 1 The future of interpretation is okay, but translation is not. Interpretation deals with oral discourse and cannot be replaced by AI, while translation handles the written part, and thus, AI can do it. The future of translation is not bright at all. We have foreigners who can speak and write several languages, and they tend to take away translation jobs. I do not want to become an interpreter or translator. 2 I learned a lot from the instructors with ample field experience. I do not think I can receive this kind of information who do not have actual professional interpretation and translation experience. 3 I want to become an interpreter. The classes in undergraduate will be a great help in pursuing my wish. I also want to do some translations together. 4 I do not want to become an interpreter, but the classes I took will significantly help me in the future, whatever I do. 5 I do not plan to pursue the profession of an interpreter or a translator, but I am glad to have an opportunity to take courses in interpretation and translation. I am happy that my university offered these courses to us. 6 I will not become a professional interpreter or translator, but these courses will help me in any job I am going to do. 121

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7 I think the future for human interpreters and translators are not bright, as the size of big data will be more prominent, and algorithms in translation AI will be more sophisticated. The only job for a translator will be restricted to editing the AI translation. 8 I have not given any serious thought to the issue of pursuing the profession of interpretation and translation, mainly because of my lack of confidence in my language ability; the I&T courses will significantly help improve my language skills.

7.4

The crisis of humanities and I&T programs

Another crucial variable that deserves attention is the radical change in the educational milieu. The focus of Korean education has shifted to training as many engineering students as possible to fuel continuous economic development. Applicants for humanities majors, including English literature and language, have dropped significantly in the recent decade. Universities have tried numerous ways to rekindle the competitive edge of these majors. One of the main reasons English Language and Literature departments decided to include I&T into their curricula is their distressed attempts to recruit more students. The decline in student enrollment in humanities-related majors is a global phenomenon. One study (Y. Kim, 2018) affirmed that humanities majors experience difficulty in employment after graduation. Figures 7.2 and 7.3 illustrate the downturn of undergraduate admission to English majors in Korean universities and the dwindling number of English-related departments in recent years. Figure 7.4 shows the employment rate of several majors in Korea for 2020. As illustrated, the humanities and education sections registered the lowest employment rates, compared to other majors. Education majors have inherent and increasing vulnerability due to the rapid decline in birth rates for several decades. The weakness in humanities stems from different reasons. Most employers in Korea prefer graduates from engineering and applied sciences. This trend causes lower college admission in humanities and education majors.

Admission 10,000 9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 2014

2015

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Figure 7.2 The change in the number of student admission to the department of English (Source: Korean Council for University Education, 2020)

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Departments 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 2014

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Figure 7.3 The change in the number of departments of English (Source: Korean Council for University Education, 2020)

Employment rate (%) 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Humanities

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Figure 7.4 Employment rates by major as of 2020 (Source: https://www.unipress.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=5276#:~:text=)

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Both national and private universities in Korea rely heavily on government financial assistance, be it direct monetary support or competitive educational grant in a winner-takes-all mode. As employment rates of graduates play a vital role in the grant competition, universities try their best to achieve higher rates. Naturally, departments with higher employment prospects generally receive better support and enjoy increased admission allotments. At the same time, humanities, including English majors, tend to be excluded from this measure for demonstrating lower employment. The government strictly controls admission allotments in Korean universities, and receiving more admission is a huge benefit for any department. To survive and thrive, English-related departments included I&T as add-on majors in the hope of “heir graduates’” enhanced employability and improved performance in the competition for admission. In addition to I&T, English departments also incorporated a set of other unconventional courses, including corpus linguistics, computational linguistics, and digital and technical editing. Thus, English-related departments transformed into a new division integrating multiple subjects due to a desperate need to sustain their competitive edge in an ever-changing academic environment. Traditionally, English-related majors have enjoyed popularity because of the perception that they offer a fast track to learning English, an essential tool for international communication. However, the popularity started to decrease rapidly at the beginning of the 2000s as many Koreans acquired English skills by riding the wave of rapid globalization. This period coincided with the explosive popularity of I &T because of the Seoul Olympic Games and extensive globalization of Korea. This popularity prompted many universities to start I&T programs at the undergraduate level. Consequently, many students took I&T courses with the hope that these courses would help them get better jobs after graduation. Many English professors justified the introduction of I&T programs into their departments, claiming that this would help students develop oral and written language skills more efficiently, even though students would not become interpreters or translators. In many Korean universities, professors regarded translation as a language acquisition process. Robinson (2003) reinforced this view by claiming that translation is a part of genuine language learning and development. Jeon et al. (2010) provided examples of teaching that used translation as a supplementary method to teach English. While the sole aim of GSITs is to select and train competent interpreters and translators, at the undergraduate level, the courses are somewhat analogous to those offered at GSITs, even though the pedagogical orientation and career objectives are fundamentally different. It is challenging to foster near-professional-level interpreters or translators in undergraduate education. Li (2007) argues that translation teaching should relate to the real world of the translation market. As Mossop (2003) acknowledges, it is unrealistic to think that undergraduates can work as translators as soon as they leave the program, emphasizing that it is nearly impossible to produce top-notch translators through undergraduate training. Pym (1993) warns against the direct relation between translation training and market demands. The schools cannot and should not address the immediate needs of the market. Undergraduate students’ perceptions of the I&T profession have been changing. Huh (2020) surveyed undergraduate students regarding their thoughts on the profession. Among twenty professions, interpreters were placed fourteenth, gaining 26% popularity. The top choices were AI-related specialists and government officials and college professors, with 46%, 43%, and 42% of popularity, respectively. This survey contrasted clearly with the generally favorable perception of the interpreters in the late 1990s and early 2000. The news reports by then-renowned newspapers in 1996 and 1997 (“Interpreter, the leader in globalization,” 1997; “The most popular profession among university students: Conference interpreter,” 1996) showed that interpreters were first on the list of the most wanted jobs by college students. Interviews with instructors teaching I&T revealed that, despite students’ inherent lack of bilingual competence, instructors have no choice but to teach I&T courses. However, authentic I&T teaching 124

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is not feasible in many cases because of students’ lack of linguistic proficiency and the resulting lack of confidence. Many teachers have observed that the bilingual proficiency of students improved as they took I&T classes, even though the difference in achievement between students is inconsistent. Although language development was not a primary objective of these classes, it is inferred that the I&T training contributed to students’ improved language proficiency. The following are the voices of the field instructors teaching undergraduate I&T at three different colleges. One of them is a fulltime faculty member. At the time of the interview, they had been teaching I&T for over ten years. One instructor highlighted the importance and difficulty of training students to obtain adequate language proficiency for the professional-level I&T education. She was concerned about the apparent decrease in the demand for interpreters and translators in the employment market. When the demand is low, it is not easy to attract new promising students to the program and sustain the same level of education. We are aware of the fact that the demand for interpreters and translators is decreasing. Big companies are using AI translation tools to ensure the confidentiality of the documents that need to be translated. It reduces the possibility that college graduates with some knowledge of translation would be employed. I advise the students to study more challenging subjects that may improve their employment chances, but I wonder if they take my advice seriously. Another instructor reiterated the teaching situation and suggested the cause of the current difficulty the I&T industry is undergoing. We took an employment survey of students studying interpretation and translation. More and more students are taking these courses hoping to improve their language skills and, thus, their chance of employment after graduation. With the rapid development of AI technology, interpretation and translation skills will become more generalized from the monopolized skill sets owned by a few specialists. It was time to study more on the theoretical aspects of translation to establish the guidelines and principles of interpretation ad translation for the future. I understand that the humanities, especially English-related majors, are undergoing an identity crisis. The advent and development of AI are worsening the situation. Many of the students in our undergraduate departments chose English majors because the departments accepted them based on their test scores and high school GPAs, not because they wanted to study English literature or linguistics. Many of them did not come to our department with the ultimate goal of joining the GSITs after graduation.

7.5

AI translation and challenges for I&T professions

The rapid and ubiquitous emergence of AI technology-based I&T poses a double-edged bliss for the I&T industry. Advanced and convenient technology may boost the creation of new I&T business opportunities. However, at the same time, if the quality and speed of AI-based I&T improve with the development of technology, it means a gradual and indisputable loss of employment opportunities for human interpreters and translators. This change might be a starting point of sure quickening decline in recruitment numbers for GSIT and undergraduate I&T education. AI-based translation technology has significantly impacted the I&T industry and education. As of 2021, the Korean translation market size was estimated at around KRW 2 trillion (USD 16 billion) (“4th Industrial revolution is here. The future of AI translation business,” 2020). Notably, the AI-dependent translation industry is estimated at USD 0.28 billion as of 2020 (“Domestic AI market,” 2022). As such, the AI translation industry is proliferating in Korea. 125

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It is worth noting that the global market for AI translation is growing exponentially. This growth is illustrated in Figures 7.5 and 7.6. Given the size of the global translation market (USD 53 billion), AI translation accounts for a considerable share of approximately one-fifth of the whole market. AI translation is expected to continue to surge locally, in Korea, and globally. Figures 7.5 and 7.6 compare the change in revenue in overall translation and AI-based translation markets.

Revenue in billion US dollars 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 Figure 7.5

Global translation market

(Source: Global Market Insights: Statista, 2017)

Revenue in billion US dollars 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 2016

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2019

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Figure 7.6 Global machine translation market (Source: Global Market Insights: Statista, 2017)

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7.6

Conclusion

GSITs in Korea have enjoyed great popularity for over 30 years, with considerable numbers of English-major students trying their best to enter I&T schools in the hope of a stable income and brighter future upon graduation. Many students from English and other humanities majors who still needed to grasp high-end jobs joined the competition for entry into GSITs. This popularity of GSITs extended down to the undergraduate level and gave birth to many I&T programs and even departments all over Korea. It was a bold and, perhaps, inevitable move for the survival of English departments at Korean universities. However, studies (Lambert, 2002; MoserMercer, 1994) have shown that aptitude associated with intensive training creates the best results in producing competent interpreters and translators competing confidently in the fierce I&T market. Indeed, GSITs focus on selecting the best student material and exposing them to professional training with experienced interpreters and translators. It is worth returning to the raison d’être of undergraduate I&T programs in Korea. In undergraduate I&T education, one thing amiss is that, in most cases, competent interpreters and translators require in-born aptitude. Many undergraduate I&T programs in Korea seem to disregard this essential precondition or use I&T training to improve students’ foreign language proficiency. Many undergraduates admitted to English-related departments did not want to be interpreters or translators. Additionally, the presence of the I&T curriculum in the departments did not have a significant impact on students’ college or department selection decisions. Despite their possible interest in I&T, most students realize that their training may not make them professional interpreters or translators. Most want to glean as much as they can. Additionally, political or economic rationales would most likely define the next strategic move for undergraduate I&T, not educational principles or academic research, as was the case for GSITs in the past. Although undergraduate I&T students learn fundamental theories and techniques, it is likely that they will have difficulty getting employment upon graduation. Obtaining employment in I&T seems to require a graduate degree from a prominent GSIT. Many undergraduate I&T programs use I&T training to enhance students’ bilingual competence. Some instructors argue that pursuing both I&T training and language education may produce little progress in either area. Therefore, if undergraduate I&T intends to produce substantial educational consequences, strategic changes should be made in selecting students and subsequent educational processes. Reviewing I&T competence theories (Hansen et al., 2004) and reorganizing teaching methods may constitute the starting point. As Toury (2012) argued, the act of translation must be executed in the realm of target cultures as well as target languages. This claim is supported by Neubert (2000), who suggests that translation competence should encompass the synergetic combination of linguistic, topic knowledge, cultural, and transitional competencies. Indeed, as Gile and Chai (2009) corroborate, the first step of I&T is the comprehension of the text, which does not occur unless the interpreter or translator knows the language and possesses extra-linguistic knowledge as well as analytic competence. The undergraduate I&T programs in Korea require overall analysis and internal changes for the better future.

References 4th Industrial revolution is here. The future of AI translation business. (2020). Maeil Business Newspaper. https:// www.mk.co.kr/news/business/9195265 Ahn, I. (2019). History and challenges of T & I in modern Korea-on the 40th anniversary of GSIT, HUFS. Interpretation and Translation Studies, 23(4), 113–141. Baker, M. (2009). Translation studies. New York: Routledge.

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Daejin Kim 김대진 Beeby, A., Fernández, M., Fox, O., Albir, A., Kozlova, I., Kuznik, A., . . . & Wimmer, S. (2009). Results of the validation of the PACTE translation competence model: Acceptability and decision making. Across Languages and Cultures, 10(2), 207–230. Chiang, Y.-N. (2009). Foreign language anxiety in Taiwanese student interpreters. Meta: journal des traducteurs/’eta: Translators’ Journal, 54(3), 605–621. Choi, J., & Lim, H.-O. (2002). An overview of the Korean translation market. Meta, 45(2), 383–392. Choi, J., & Lim, H.-O. (2004). The status of translators and interpreters in Korea. Meta, 47(4), 627–635. Cotton, J. (1989). From authoritarianism to democracy in South Korea. Political Studies, 37(2), 244–259. Domestic AI market. (2022). Electronic Times. https://www.etnews.com/20220323000064 Gile, D., & Chai, M. J. (2009). Basic concepts and models for interpreter and translator training (Vol. 8). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Hansen, G., Gile, D., & Malmkjær, K. (2004). Claims, changes and challenges in Translation Studies. Claims, Changes and Challenges in Translation Studies, 1–334. Huh, J. (2016). Interpreting classroom anxiety in student interpreters. The Journal of Translation Studies, 17(1), 171–197. Huh, J. (2020). Occupational image of conference interpreters as perceived by undergraduates. The Journal of Translation Studies, 21(3), 285–312. Im, S. I. (2018). Qualitative research on the perceived occupational status of in-house translators. Interpretation and Translation, 20(1), 147–176. Interpreter, the leader in globalization. (1997). The JoongAng Ilbo. https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/ 3440402#home Jeon, J., Choi, J., & Park, K. (2010). A study on the improvement in English proficiency through translation teaching for undergraduate learners of English major. The Linguistic Association of Korea Journal, 58, 45–73. Jeong, C. J. (2012). Evaluation of translation curriculum development: Based on market demand analysis. The Journal of Translation Studies, 13(2), 265–282. Kang, S. J. (2015). Study on the market structure and characteristics of the industry of interpretation and translation. Interpretation and Translation, 17(2), 113–133. Kim, J. (2004). A need for opening a course related with translation studies in the field of liberal arts. The Journal of Translation Studies, 5(1), 25–53. Kim, R. (2011). The present and future of undergraduate level translation education. Interpretation and Translation, 13(2), 19–52. Kim, S. (2006). Thoughts on improving efficiency of undergraduate translation programs: Introduction of theory-based text analysis course. Interpretation and Translation, 8(1), 27–43. Kim, Y. (2018). A review of English language and literature department programs: New curricular directions and prospects in the decline of the humanities. The Journal of Teaching English Literature, 22(3), 29–60. Koo, B. (2016). No need to study foreign languages. AI translator is enough. Hankyoreh. https://www.hani. co.kr/arti/economy/it/774381.html Lambert, S. (2002). Aptitude testing for simultaneous interpretation at the University of Ottawa. Meta, 36(4), 586–594. https://doi.org/10.7202/003383ar Lee, B. (2003). A comparative study on the undergraduate curriculum of English-related departments in Korea and non-English speaking countries. English Teaching, 58(2), 89–118. Lee, E., & Lee, E.-J. (2010). A study on the perception of translation learning in undergraduate students. Studies in Linguistics, 17, 215–234. Lee, J. (2019). A case study on the experiences of first-time in-house interpreters. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 23(1), 117–142. Lee, K. (2020). Study on the domestic undergraduate interpretation and translation curriculum. The Journal of Translation Studies, 21(4), 115–150. Lee, S. (2015). Diagnosing Korea’s undergraduate T&I training and education: Through an investigation of HUFS, Dongguk University and Kyung Hee University. Interpretation and Translation Studies, 19(2), 21–44. Li, D. (2002). Translator training: What translation students have to say. Meta: Journal des traducteurs/Translators’ Journal, 47(4), 513–531. Li, D. (2007). Translation curriculum and pedagogy: Views of administrators of translation services. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies, 19(1), 105–133. Liu, Y., Feng, Q., & Wang, S. (2012). Aspects of translation education: An interview with professor Anthony Pym. Lingual, Literary and Cultural Translation, 6, 201–220.

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Undergraduate interpretation and translation in Korea Moser-Mercer, B. (1994). Aptitude testing for conference interpreting: Why, when and how. In S. L. B. Moser-Mercer (Ed.), Bridging the gap: Empirical research in simultaneous interpretation (pp. 57–68). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Mossop, B. (2003). What should be taught at translation school. In A. Pym, et al. (Eds.), Innovation and e-learning in translator training (pp. 20–22). Tarragona, Spain: Universitat Rovira i Virgili. The most popular professions among University students: Conference interpreter. (1996). Chosun Daily. https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/1996/03/29/1996032970368.html Nam, W. (2009). A study on the undergraduate education of interpretation & translation in Korea. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 13(1), 21–51. Neubert, A. (2000). Competence in language, in languages, and in translation. Benjamins Translation Library, 38, 3–18. Nida, E. A. (1969). Science of translation. Language, 483–498. Park, H.-K. (1999). A study on developing an interpretation track for undergraduate students. Interpretation and Translation, 1, 47–74. Park, K., Cho, J., & Choi, I. (2017). One year after the Alpha Go Shock. AI majors are booming. The decline in the popularity of interpreters. Chosun Daily. https://biz.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2017/ 03/07/2017030700219.html Pym, A. (1993). On the market as a factor in the training of translators. Koiné. Quaderni di ricerca e didattica sulla traduzione e l’interpretazione, 109–121. Pym, A. (2002). Training language service providers: Local knowledge in institutional contexts. Training the Language Services Provider for the New Millennium, Porto: Universidad do Porto, 21–30. Robinson, D. (2003). Becoming a translator: An accelerated course. New York: Routledge. Schnell, B., & Rodríguez, N. (2017). Ivory tower vs. workplace reality. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 11, 160–186. Son, J.-B. (2019). The current meanings of the content of interpretation and translation education in South Korea. The Journal of Translation Studies, 20(4), 115–140. Toury, G. (2012). Descriptive translation studies: And beyond. In Descriptive translation studies (pp. 1–366). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

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8 REDESIGNING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR THE CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING CLASSROOM Silhee Jin 진실희 8.1

Introduction

Interpreting1 requires a complex mix of components—language, analysis, empathy, knowledge, and technical skills; mastery can be achieved through the interaction of teachers and students (Setton & Dawrant, 2016, p.  xxi). Skillsets and the judgment to become an interpreter cannot be mastered alone, nor can wisdom be transferred from master to apprentice; instead, instructors and students must work together (ibid.). Indeed, interpretation must be mastered through a mix of repeated practices and study (Nolan, 2005, p. 1) in meaningful situations and interactions with peers and their instructors before they are ready to deal with real-world interpreting. While many instructors still rely heavily on their own experience, it is also true that interpreter training can possibly be enhanced to achieve a fairer, more efficient, and more realistic interpreter training experience, especially in teaching style, assessment, testing, and language and knowledge enhancement (Setton & Dawrant, 2016, p. xxiv). In this chapter, we examine an element of an intermediate consecutive interpreting course at the graduate level; specifically, the second semester course of consecutive interpreting from Korean into English. We discuss how the structure of the redesigned course serves to offer structured guidance to students in their quest to become professional interpreters. In the literature on interpreter training, two specific subskills were identified as elements of consecutive interpreting training that needed a separate guideline: note-taking and topic preparation (Setton & Dawrant, 2016, p.  xxv). Topic preparation is crucial to perform optimally as an interpreter, and it is generally recommended that students engage in intensive study and practice with technical materials typical of the main target markets once basic techniques are in place. On top of acquiring encyclopedic knowledge in various domains, students are also expected to prepare for document management and conference preparation in general. Many techniques involved in interpretation are greatly facilitated by familiarity with the subject matter and sometimes impossible without it. Against this backdrop, this article will describe how topic preparation was scaffolded during the consecutive interpreting course. According to Lederer (2008, p.  58) background knowledge is a blanket expression covering several “cognitive complements” that help us understand speech. These include knowledge of the world, of time and place, of the circumstances out of which a speech arises, memory of things said previously, knowing who the speaker is and who the listeners are. DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-11

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Such information comprises a set of cues that the interpreter requires to make a precise interpretation of the source text. Apparently, translators’ pre-existing knowledge does not generally cover all translation requirements when they are translating or interpreting texts or speeches in specialized fields they are unfamiliar with. Based on learner needs and informed by learning sciences and educational technology, the content and learning experiences in this chapter are designed to meet learner needs in an intermediate course succeeding the initial introductory course in consecutive interpreting. As the students moved on to more specialized discourse interpreting courses that required in-depth knowledge of a variety of domains, the instructor noted that the students needed more guidance from the instructor. This included topic preparation for their weekly in-class interpreting tasks. Apparently, the students showed up to class with different levels of preparation each week. Other issues observed include a high level of dependency on the instructor to provide solutions to individual translational problems, leaving insufficient time during the class hours for more important discussions of interpreting strategies in specific field settings. The instructor also felt that a balance was needed between how much the students should have ownership and how much guidance the instructor should provide when it comes to the preparation for the weekly interpreting tasks prior to coming to class every week. To address the observed issues, the instructor designed an instructional model that incorporates a content-based learning or topic-preparation component as a scaffold, during the second semester of AB consecutive interpreting. In a typical interpreting classroom, the output of students’ individual interpreting renditions is generally reviewed and critiqued by peers in turns, and finally, by the instructor. Within the confines of class time, students present their renditions in a linear fashion, and the class time interaction is dominated by critiquing the output of their performance. The instructor felt, however, that, by design, the practice had room for improvement. Class time is always constrained by the need to expose as many students as possible to the in-class practice and, by design, the weekly classroom instruction was never sufficient to cover everything, including guidance and supervision on the processes and methods. Due to such circumstances, students were largely left to figure out through their own experience how to improve their performance in a traditional classroom. In such circumstances, topic preparation methods had no priority. Although the final product of interpretation matters most in the field upon graduation, the instructor-researcher felt that more guidance should be provided prior to evaluating performance while students are in school. The GRR-based, or progressive, instructional model was intended to give students guidance in their learning process instead of following the traditional instructional model. By incorporating an online content study opportunity, the instructional model is designed to support the students to come more systematically prepared and, in time, to help them develop their own ways of preparing for interpreting assignments, as opposed to simply receiving repeated critiques of their weekly inclass performance output. An element of post-class reflection was added as a reinforcement to the learning cycle, as shown in Figure 8.1. To understand the theoretical underpinnings of the instructional model, we will examine the theoretical background of the instructional model in the next section.

8.2 8.2.1

Theoretical background

Embedding scaffolding in learning environments

Informed by progress in cognitive and social sciences, learning sciences aim to redesign classrooms and learning environments to promote deeper and more effective learning, and Constructivism 131

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guided preparation

selfreflection

in-class performance

Figure 8.1 The cycle of a content-based topic preparation model

is at the core of such approaches (Sawyer, 2014, p. 9). Some interpreting and translation scholars have also adopted the Constructivist learning principles (Kiraly, 2000). A key component of scaffolding is the process of providing a learner with assistance to reach their current goals. A scaffolding is what is used when construction workers need to reach higher and can be taken down when the building is complete.2 An effective learning environment also gradually adds, modifies, and removes scaffolding according to the learner’s needs, until eventually it disappears entirely. While providing instructions or doing something on behalf of someone will help them accomplish their immediate goals, excessive help is not perceived as an ideal scaffolding, since it does not involve the learner’s active participation in the knowledge creation process. Great scaffolding is one that offers the learners prompts and hints so they can figure it out on their own (Sawyer, 2014, p. 9). In scaffolding, the students’ opportunity to interact with the instructor in a meaningful way is vital. It is based on the belief that the learner imitates and models after the more knowledgeable other and, over time, acquires their own capacity to take on the task independently. This is a key mechanism by which scaffolding facilitates learning, and learners eventually become capable of regulating their own actions as the tutor gradually reduces guidance (Reiser & Tabak, 2014, p. 47). While scaffolding is often described as helping learners or making their work “easier,” its primary purpose is to encourage learners to engage with difficult aspects of the work that may otherwise be overlooked (ibid.). Through scaffolding, expertise and confidence are built through active problem solving, while the motivational and cognitive costs of the trial-and-error of failing are minimized

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(ibid.). In this way, it can reduce frustration and risk, as well as maintain interest in contexts (ibid.). Hence, scaffolding can draw the learner’s attention to aspects of the discipline that they may not be aware of or that are difficult for them to handle alone. Scaffolding, on the other hand, does not merely simplify tasks for learners by decomposing them down to smaller pieces outside of context. Contextualized approaches are an essential part of the meaningful interactions supported by the Constructivist view of the world. When learners are encouraged to work on real-world tasks in authentic contexts, they are likely to develop the necessary sub-skills in context, as needed, and apply their knowledge and skills in context as they progress (Reiser & Tabak, 2014, p.  47). Hence, a guided scaffold embeds guidance while learners perform an expert-like activity (ibid.).

8.2.2

Progressive learning in interpreter education

Interpreter education also emphasizes progressive and incremental realism. The standard training model emphasizes active listening and analysis exercises as a cornerstone of its progressive and constructive curriculum (Setton & Dawrant, 2016, p. xxiv). This should be followed by consecutive interpretation with notes, introducing each new skill first in one’s native tongue and then in a second. As intuitively followed by early trainers, such progressive approaches remain highly persuasive from a pedagogical perspective. Trainers have identified four stages in the mastery of each skill; namely, initiation, coordination, experimentation, and consolidation, allowing students to progress at different rates (Setton & Dawrant, 2016, p. xxiv). Several interpreting scholars (Gile, 2009) have also proposed specific guidelines regarding the preparation of topics and the acquisition of domain knowledge, as well as examples of classroom exercises: commenting on students’ translation assignments, instructors may wish to discuss the sources they used and their decisions; students can read a source text in a specialized field and identify all the terminological problems they believe they will need to solve in order to translate it; using the classroom resources, they can seek solutions to their problems. Gile (Gile, 2009, p. 149) also suggested that instructors keep track of students’ progress in ad hoc knowledge acquisition and determine whether students are on the right path; that students should learn topic preparation; and that lessons in topic preparation should come after the first semester of learning consecutive interpreting with notes using non-specialized texts.

8.2.3

Embedding GRR approach in a consecutive interpreting course

In a previous cycle of this action research (Jin & Won, 2019), the researcher taught note-taking skills at the start of a consecutive interpreting course using the gradual release of responsibility model. A similar notion was designed for topic preparation as the students were to enter a stage of interpreting more complex texts, requiring deeper domain knowledge and preparation. GRR was first introduced by Pearson and Gallager in 1983 as a class design model to improve reading comprehension. According to the GRR theory, cognitive load should shift from teacheras-model to joint responsibility, to independent practice and application by learners (Pearson & Gallager, 1983). Gala was influenced by the famed Constructivist educator, Vygotsky (1978), and the GRR model is one of the ways to realize Vygotsky’s concept of proximal development zones. The GRR educational model can be used to scaffold a wide range of educational situations. The model works by guiding the learner step by step until they reach a point of independence and eventually become independent learners, as shown in Figure 8.2.

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Instructor Responsibility

I DO IT > WE DO IT TOGETHER > YOU DO IT TOGETHER > YOU DO IT ALONE

Figure 8.2 Gradual release of responsibility from instructor to learner

Table 8.1 Steps of the GRR instructional model GRR Step

Description

Focus lesson (“I do it”) Guided instruction (“We do it together”)

In focus lessons, experts demonstrate how they do it, usually through thinkalouds (Fisher & Frey, 2008, pp. 4–5). Expectations should be set and students should be supported to reach them (Fisher & Frey, 2008, p. 6). Usually, instructors meet with small groups for closer interaction. Students apply what they have learned in novel situations, engage in inquiry, discuss ideas and information with peers, or negotiate with them (Fisher & Frey, 2008, pp. 7–8). Students are encouraged to work independently (Fisher & Frey, 2008, pp. 9–10).

Collaborative learning (“You do it together”) Independent learning (“You do it alone”)

Table 8.2 Weekly focus lesson topic examples for a note-taking class Week

Topic

1 2 3 4 5 6

Overall NT process ‘Cue’ word selection ST structure analysis Layout (indentation, stacking) Connectives Symbols and contractions

By gradually taking on more responsibility for their learning, students become competent, independent learners. I do it; we do it; you do it together and you do it alone is a common framework for implementing the model, as shown in Table 8.1. As there is no fixed sequence or duration in the GRR model, the steps can be applied flexibly, as opposed to any fixed sequence or duration. The students’ acquisition of note-taking skills covered the topics shown in Table 8.2, in preceding research (Jin & Won, 2019) on a GRR-based instructional model. In this preceding action research, a topic was selected for a focus lesson at the beginning of the weekly classes, in an introductory seminar covering an introduction to T&I studies. As shown in Table 8.3, each weekly module consisted of five parts. 134

Learning experience for the interpreting classroom Table 8.3 GRR components in an introductory class in note-taking  

Content

1 2

Focused lesson Guided instruction

3

Collaborative learning

4

Independent learning

Instructor’s think-aloud demonstration Texts purposefully selected for in-class practice of the focus lesson topic Two–three students practice beyond classroom hours, focusing on the weekly topic Individual review and reflection journal

Considering that, for instance, the weekly topic is “indentation,” an instructor would start off with a think-aloud demonstration using a sample text to demonstrate how it is done. Following that, the instructor may distribute a worksheet or sample text that helps them focus on “indentation,” but in a context that helps them interpret the text as a whole. Afterwards, the class could discuss and compare their results. Following class, students conduct paired or group practices focusing on mastering the “indentation” in their consecutive notes. Each week, these cycles would be repeated for the weekly topics set at the beginning of the semester, reinforcing the learning. The instructional model aimed to improve the classroom design for a more structured guide to learning the note-taking process. In contrast to this model, the typical interpreting classroom is dominated by peer and instructor “critique” of student renditions. Scholars often criticize this approach for lacking structured guidance and even being demoralizing in its product-oriented approach to interpreting pedagogy. In the action research reported in this chapter, the instructor designed a GRR-based instructional model for the acquisition of skills for topic preparation prior to interpreting. Translation and interpretation professionals strive to stay on top of certain fields in which their language combination may be of frequent use, because interpreting is generally easier when you understand the subject matter. Despite this, most translators and interpreters are more-or-less generalists because it is impossible to specialize in every field where translation is needed. The ability to quickly assimilate the terminology and issues associated with a specific assignment is therefore essential for translators and interpreters (Nolan, 2005, p.  5). As a standard practice, conference interpreters obtain background materials from the conference organizer and study them to develop a basic understanding of the subject (ibid.). The following section will provide a detailed description of how the instructional model was designed and implemented for scaffolding topic preparation in the consecutive interpreting course.

8.3

Course implementation

The instructor’s action research aimed to improve her own classroom situation (Kiraly, 2000, p. 101) where students were not receiving sufficient and structured guidance on the process of their learning, especially topic preparation for highly technical speeches. Data were gathered to understand any difference in the learner experience as a result of the change in the instructional model. This was also done to identify areas of improvement for future iterations. In the first part of this section, we give a descriptive account of the instructional model and how it was practically implemented in a classroom setting. 135

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8.3.1

Participants and course description

Implementation of the course began in September 2021. Due to the school’s policy during the COVID-19 pandemic, parts of the course were conducted online via Zoom, which fortunately did not significantly impact the way the design of the course was implemented. The course was taught over sixteen weeks in three-hour sessions (online, offline, or a combination of both). A total of eleven to twelve students were enrolled in each of the three classes. The second iteration was implemented in Spring 2022, where a total of ten to twelve students were enrolled in four different classes. Hence, an aggregate of 76 students in seven classes of ten to twelve students took part in the redesigned consecutive interpreting classroom setting over the two-year period. These students were invited to take part in the anonymous survey, the result of which is reported in the next section. As part of the university’s sponsorship to encourage innovation in teaching methods, three second-year students were selected and hired to work as tutors. The three tutors helped design and post the relevant online contents and mentor the students in support of the newly designed course. For the students, it was their second consecutive interpreting course, and they were ready to take on more complex speech texts requiring more knowledge of the domain. As a result, the course syllabus was designed to cover a wide range of disciplines to develop specific subskills, like domain knowledge and terminology for consecutive interpreting. After repeated practice and feedback, students were expected to interpret Korean speech segments of approximately five minutes into English in the consecutive with notes mode, as shown in Table 8.4. In the semester, students were encouraged to take more ownership of their learning through self-reflection, which the instructor designed into the coursework by requiring that they submit their weekly self-critiques and reflection comments at the end of the reports. In this section of the chapter, we describe each step of the classroom management process.

Table 8.4 Course topic and setting examples  

Topic-Subtopic

Setting

1

Orientation

2

DiplomacyKO–US Diplomacy Technology – Metaverse

Preparation & set-up Luncheon Meeting Lecture

3

4 5 6 7 8

Law – Intellectual property Industry – e-commerce Culture – K-Pop Environment – ESG management Mid-term

  9 10 11

Academic conference Business Presentation Radio Interview Special Lecture

12

Test

16

13 14 15

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Topic-subtopic

Setting

1:1 consultation

 

Diplomacy – North Korea Economics – base rate

Unification Ministry press briefing Bank of Korea’s monthly board meeting Academic presentation

Technology – Internet of Things Society – Education Business – Trade Science – Public Health Final exam

Panel discussion Negotiation CDC press briefing Test

Learning experience for the interpreting classroom

8.3.2

Roles and processes

During the orientation class of the first week, roles and processes were assigned and explained during class. As the class was run differently from typical interpreting classes, the instructor made every effort to explain the class procedures and roles as clearly as possible and answered any questions the students had. After the second week of class, the GRR model was implemented in earnest.

8.3.2.1

Focused lesson (“I do it alone”)

During each weekly module, the instructor gave a think-aloud demonstration of how an expert would prepare for the setting and topic that week. Figure 8.3 illustrates examples of comments or strategies shared per weekly topic, subtopic, and setting module. In the first person, the instructor would describe how she would prepare for the meeting given the setting and topic. This would include what materials she would research and request from the client, if available. During the weekly three-hour class, this portion took less than five minutes.

8.3.2.2

Guided instruction (“We do it together”)

Students then prepared their own materials for topic preparations, guided by the contents uploaded on the school’s learning management system (e-class) in the form of videos and text, documents in the target language, and quizzes on key terms. Examples of the contents uploaded on the e-class, or the university’s learning management system, is shown in Figures 8.4 to 8.6.

8.3.2.3

Collaborative learning (‘You do it together’)

As part of the collaborative learning interaction, two designated students assumed their respective roles. As the conference organizer, one would prepare the source text and provide background information. A second student would bring linguistic materials and expressions in the target language. They would also make themselves available to answer any questions in their capacity as conference organizers. Students worked closely with the instructor throughout the entire process, including final confirmation of texts and study materials. Links to videos and texts on domain knowledge and

So how did you all prepare for the week’s topic and setting?

If a client had consulted me with this type of interpreting assignment, I would normally first ask for the list of the journalists in the ministry, a draft of ...

Figure 8.3 The scaffolded classroom: focus lesson example

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Figure 8.4 Sample of contents in e-class—video and texts for key concepts

Table 8.5 GRR components in an introductory consecutive with notes class 1

Focused lesson

Instructor’s think-aloud demonstration topic preparation for the week’s setting and topic

2

Guided instruction

3

Collaborative learning

4

Independent learning

Instructor/two designated students Online content for study of main concepts Two students prepare guided study materials designated each week to prepare the source text, distribute study guide, and answer questions as conference organizer Individual topic preparation

target language materials were included in the materials distributed by the designated students. Figure 8.7 shows an example of the materials and study guide prepared by designated students, which includes links to relevant websites, articles or videos in YouTube.

8.3.2.4

Individual learning (“You do it alone”)

The students were expected to gather their own materials based on the guidance provided through the e-class and two designated students. Students were asked what resources they used and how they prepared for each class. Table 8.5 shows a summary of the four steps of the GRR instructional model. Using samples provided by the designated students of the week as guides, each student prepared their own materials for the interpreting assignment. After performing in class, they received feedback on their renditions, as well as questions and comments about their preparation.

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The instructor discussed how she would prepare if she were the interpreter assigned to the task. The instructor illustrated how she would use the clues and guidance presented in the virtual client email (sent out by the assigned conference organizers of the week) based on the contextual cues. During the interpreting mode, one of the designated students focused their critique on the “accuracy” part of the rendition, closely comparing the interpreting output to the source text, while the second assigned conference organizer focused on the precision and appropriateness of the expressions used in the rendition based on prior research on comparative and parallel texts where applicable. The instructional model consisting of components before, during and after class can be summarized as in Figure 8.8. It was important that, by design, the topic preparation scaffolding and in-class interpreting performance critique were interwoven into authentic interpreting contexts each week. The speech texts presented during class were based on videos of actual international conferences and events. After class, students created a reflection journal using a template that basically guided them through analyzing a transcribed version of their interpreting renditions against the source text, along with some comments of self-reflection on their learning.

8.4

Data analysis

To gain insight into the learners’ experience through the redesigned instructional model, the instructor used a Google form to conduct an anonymous survey on how the students incorporated the redesigned class design into their learning process. First, the students were asked how much they use the materials and guide provided before class. A majority (67.7%) of the students indicated that they actively use the materials; about 22.6% and less than 10% indicated that they do not actively utilize the materials. As for the second question, of the main support provided by the online contents, a majority of students stated that the materials are helpful for understanding the key concepts in the domain (44.4%); the second largest number of students indicated that the materials are useful for activating expressions in the target language (36.5%); and a small percentage (12.7%) of

On line Contents (concept)

A model of topic preparation scaffolding using online contents

B language texts Q&A

e-class Individual study ‘Speaker’ A - Source Text

Paired study

Self-reflection Report Preparation TAP/Tips

Paired/Group study ‘Speaker’ B - Expressions

Before Class

Interpreting Strategies

During Class

Figure 8.5 An instructional model for GRR-based topic preparation

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students said they use the materials for familiarizing themselves with terminology. The small portion of responses dedicated to the terminology may be due to the fact that students were less concerned about the terminology, since they were provided with bilingual glossaries during class before they are expected to interpret. This is one aspect of the instructional design that needs to be complemented. As some of the students insightfully suggested, the glossaries presented in class need to be more authentic in that they should not be presented in bilingual form (at least not until the class is over) and certainly not in the order they appear in the source text. Third, to the question of how actively they search for additional information on their own, 54% replied that they do; while 22.2% replied “average,” and 23.8% replied that they do not search actively for additional materials. Fourth, to the question of whether they believe that the pre-class materials are helpful in their learning process, 74.6% of the students replied positively, while 19% replied “so-so,” and approximately 6% replied that they were not helpful. Having explored the overall experience of how the students were making use of the learning design, we now explore the two main questions that guided this action research. First, we compare the topic preparation process in a traditional classroom to the first part of the research question, which was an attempt to understand how new classroom designs with scaffolds affect learning experiences. For example, in the conventional classroom, the student selected to be the speaker would announce the topic, subtopic, and the characteristics of the meeting or speaker, such as the fast input rate or the level of difficulty as illustrated in Figure 8.9. In such a model, preparation for the weekly interpreting topic was left to the students. A vivid difference purposefully embedded in the design of instruction is that, prior to delivering their products, learners are given access to a variety of resources and opportunities for interaction to guide them in the preparation. Three scaffolds were provided for the students in the redesigned classroom. To encourage students to think about how to prepare for the task given the setting and topic, they were asked questions in the week leading up to the class and provided with focus lessons comprising the instructor’s own think-aloud demonstration of how she would go about preparing for such a setting and topic. The online educational content uploaded to the learning management server also allowed students to study concepts in-depth and memorize key terms. To complete the third step, the designated students prepared additional study guides and materials. Instructors observed the type of questions asked by students and helped guide them with the kind of materials they can request from conference organizers as well as answer questions.

Topic is NFT, it’s difficult and fast, come prepared ‘Speaker’

Figure 8.6 The traditional classroom: before class

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sources/methods/process unknown

Feedback on output

Figure 8.7 The traditional classroom: roles and resources

focused/guided/source verified On line Contents (concept) ‘Speaker’ A - Accuracy

B language texts

Preparation TAP/Tips Interpreting Strategies

Q&A ‘Speaker’ B - Expressions

Feedback on output

Figure 8.8 The scaffolded classroom: roles and resources

Email from virtual client informing of meeting setting, time/place and purpose, topic and setting, according to syllabus How would you prepare yourselves for this interpreting task? Think about what materials you would request the client?

On line content (concept)

‘Speaker’ A

B language texts ‘Speaker’ B

Q&A

Figure 8.9 The scaffolded classroom: before class

8.4.1

Difference in learning experience

In order to examine answers to the two research questions, the instructor reviewed student reflection journals, classroom discussions, and reports by the three tutors. On the basis of these two research questions, we discuss results of our study. One of the research questions was, “How do traditional classrooms differ from classrooms that scaffold topic preparation?”

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8.4.1.1

Gradual decline in dependence on instructor

As the semester progressed, the instructor noticed that the students began to adapt to the new setting and increasingly took ownership of their learning. They no longer looked to the instructor as the sole solution provider and began to take the initiative to find solutions while engaging in more meaningful and effective interactions, both in and outside the classroom, increasingly gaining competence and confidence in “learning to learn” new domains. The instructor, indeed, felt that this is a desirable transition as the students approached higher levels of complexity and intensity prior to graduation.

8.4.1.2

Multiple perspectives in the classroom

With different participants assigned different roles, such as conference organizers, the classroom feedback also became more structured, introducing what Constructivists refer to as introducing multiple perspectives in the classroom for more meaningful interaction. Aside from interacting with the designated students, the students observed the instructor’s think-aloud demonstration and modeled after it, asked relevant questions before going off to prepare their own glossaries and materials for the in-class interpreting task. As the semester progressed, it was not difficult to reduce the degree of guidance as the students became more competent to learn and prepare for the topics.

8.4.1.3

A shift from product to process

The new classroom design changed the classroom discourse from a sole focus on performance critique to also include discussions with peers and the instructor about how topics can best be prepared. As a result, the instructor was able to see where the students were struggling or lacking guidance in the classroom discussion by explicitly bringing the process part of interpreting into discussion. Thus, the instructor was able to gain valuable insight into the students’ preparation stage. This enabled her to compare it to the reality of the field and then provide them with specific guidelines and tips, allowing them a better sense of what to expect in the field. The observed differences between a traditional classroom and the redesigned classroom are summarized in Table 8.6. During the action research, the instructor indeed observed a shift from a product-oriented to a process-oriented approach (Gile, 2009, p. 14). By redesigning the class, the instructor gained insight into the various stages of preparation that lead to students’ performance in class and was able to engage students in discussions about finding information in different ways, which benefitted Table 8.6 Highlight of changes in the redesigned classroom Changes

Description

From product to process

Learners learning by practice that topic preps help them perform better Instructor brings in field expertise and allocates set time for demonstration as expert/conference organizer Learners consider more deeply and consult among themselves about approaches to linguistic and nonlinguistic translational issues

Multiple perspectives and meaningful interaction Gradual reduction of dependence on instructor

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from synergy between students and between the instructor and the students. According to literature on interpreting pedagogy, the process-oriented approach has a number of benefits. For example, according to Gile (2009), a process-oriented approach to training is more effective than a product-oriented approach. This is because, rather than relying on trial and error or recommending strategies individually, students can learn more about translation strategies and tactics if they are explained to them (Gile, 2009, pp. 14–15). Second, instead of analyzing specific words or language structures picked or produced by students, teachers analyze why mistakes and appropriate choices occur. Furthermore, a process-based approach verifies that a student follows certain principles, approaches, or processes and comments on any problems they may encounter. As a third benefit, the process-oriented approach is likely to improve the quality of the translation product as well. Gile (2009, p. 15) continues that at least in the beginning of training, the process-oriented method is a good way to optimize translator performance.

8.4.2

Suggested improvements

A second research question focused on ways to improve instructional design. A detailed examination of the inquiry was done by the instructor with the help of observation, interviews with three tutors, and a student survey. Based on their themes, the following insights emerged for improving the instructional model moving forward: Analysis of the student and tutor discourse recurred on three themes: the amount of information given during class hours, the type of information given, and the quantity of materials provided as pre-class assignments. An insight the instructor felt could be applied to the next revision was that glossaries distributed in class should not be so generous as to list the terms in the order they appear in the source text. Creation of glossaries distributed in class should

Table 8.7 Improvements to the instructional model Theme

Description

Examples of Student/Tutor Remarks

Degree of information given

Simplify glossary provided during class

Type of information given

Provide PowerPoint slides or any visual materials

Quantity of materials

Use shorter videos or texts

“When the speaker distributes the glossary in advance, it would be good to not indicate the words in the order of the original text/ video, but mix them appropriately” “Since much topic preparation is done prior to class, the glossary that is distributed in class can be simplified further. For example, just providing the source language keywords” “It will be helpful if the power point slides can be distributed in advance of classes since the speakers refer to them often during their presentations” “If any long articles or videos are adopted as pre-class study material, it would help to identify shorter and more focused materials” “I think it would be better to make it as concise as possible”

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consider that producing a list of terms exactly in the order they appear in the source material is not authentic. Interpreters are expected to memorize them or keep only the most pertinent ones in hard copies to refer to whenever necessary during the interpreting process, which should reasonably be in mixed order. A second insightful observation by the students was the need to distribute PowerPoint slides in the class videos. The slides would influence their renditions, note-taking style, and quantity if they had them before them. In addition, there was a recurring issue regarding the quantity of materials uploaded. The students commented that some videos and texts may be too long and could be edited down to more concise versions. This third remark is in line with why the microlearning contents are designed to be only a few minutes long. The next iterations should definitely take the effective duration of educational videos into account. For her part, the instructor noted that it would help the individual learners to compile their data if the instructor would request that they submit the entire collection in the form of a portfolio or dossier, at the end of the semester, expecting that the habit of topic preparation and world knowledge acquisition could be more easily formed earlier on in their journey to become professionals.

8.5

Conclusion

Teaching is an art, just as interpreting is an art, and both require skill acquisition over time. We cannot stake a claim to master teaching, nor should this chapter or any instructional model discussed here be considered a prescription. However, to be faithful to the nature and purpose of this research as action research as self-reflective research to address an on-site issue facing practitioners, the chapter has attempted to describe the experiences and observations of an instructor as part of a continuing action research project to improve her teaching and learning experience. This chapter also provides a few observations and insights that will be useful for future iterations and follow-up research. A significant part of the chapter that may be useful in bridging the gap in research on interpreting pedagogy is that we can utilize various practical methods of scaffolding, such as the gradual release of responsibility (GRR) model, to support the learners until they attain a certain level of independence in learning the tasks. Follow-up studies may be carried out leveraging on the affordances of technology, such as the use of Zoom to enhance the authenticity learner experience and foster authentic communicative interactions in the classroom. This may be further expanded to use augmented and virtual reality technologies to expose the interpreter to more visual stimulations of the field setting. In spite of some limitations and the need to continue improving the model, adapting new technologies, and updating and incorporating the latest learning sciences findings, a progressive approach to learning consecutive interpreting has been found to have at least one common benefit. With the model, the instructor has been able to move from a product-oriented to a process-oriented approach to learning interpreting and ensuring that learners engage in meaningful interaction within the classroom setting.

Notes 1 This study was sponsored by a research grant of Chung Ang University. 2 Wood et al. (1976) proposed the concept of scaffolding based on scaffolding in building construction in order to describe how children can perform more complex tasks on their own with the assistance of someone more knowledgeable to help them solve problems.

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References Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better learning through structured teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Gile, D. (2009). Basic concepts and models for interpreter and translator training. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Jin, S., & Won, J. (2019). A case study on the application of the gradual release of responsibility model for the systematic acquisition of note-taking skills. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 23(4), 231–261. Kiraly, D. (2000). A social constructivist approach to translator education. Manchester: St. Jerome. Lederer, M. (2008). The role of cognitive complements in interpreting. In D. Bowen & M. Bowen (Eds.), Interpreting: Yesterday, today and tomorrow (pp. 53–60). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Nolan, J. (2005). Interpretation: Techniques and exercises. Clevedon, Buffalo, and Toronto: Multilingual Matters. Pearson, P. D., & Gallager, G. (1983). The gradual release of responsibility model of instruction. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8, 112–123. Reiser, B. J., & Tabak, I. (2014). Scaffolding. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 44–62) (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. Sawyer, R. K. (Ed.). (2014). Introduction: The new science of learning. In The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. Setton, R., & Dawrant, A. (2016). Conference interpreting: A complete course. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, 89–100.

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9 FLIPPED LEARNING IN THE UNDERGRADUATE INTERPRETATION AND TRANSLATION CLASSROOM Haeyoung Kim 김혜영 9.1

Introduction

While most areas of studies start out as an undergraduate program and later expand to graduate programs, the field of interpretation and translation took the reverse course, largely due to its nature as a program taught for vocational and training purposes. Students at graduate interpretation and translation programs usually undergo rigorous screening on their foreign language proficiency and aptitude before being accepted to the program. Training starts with learners who meet a certain required level of language proficiency from the outset. Interpretation and translation courses and programs at the undergraduate level, on the other hand, generally do not screen incoming students, and courses consist of students whose English proficiency levels are spread far and wide. While an increasing number of undergraduate English majors in Korea’s universities offer interpretation and translation courses to students, education and training environment for these courses is far from adequate. One major challenge facing instructors is maintaining a balance between teaching and learning in the classroom, especially for undergraduate programs where interpretation and translation courses are a part of a curriculum and are open for all English language majors, and not as a separate program. It is invariably the case that there is too much content to cover and never enough time for training. Class time is mostly spent on explaining the techniques used in interpreting and translation, and time for student training, practice, and feedback is always wanting. Further complicating the situation is that the expectations of most undergraduate students who sign up for interpretation or translation courses may not be the same. Many do not necessarily hope to become professional interpreters or translators, only looking to get a glimpse of the profession or to improve their English proficiency in general. Another issue is that English departments that do not operate an independent track for interpretation and translation courses cannot enjoy the luxury of offering a sufficient number of courses related to this field. Dynamics within the department—i.e., course structure, balance with other sub-majors, and available faculty, etc.—further complicate this issue (Setton, 1994). The consequence? A systematic curriculum for interpretation and translation is out of reach. Then, is an interpretation or translation course at the undergraduate level simply unfeasible? Skepticism on teaching interpretation to undergraduate students still remains (Ivanova, 1998), but the demand for such courses is strong. According to Park (1999), while 90% of the undergraduate DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-12

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students anticipated difficulty taking interpretation and translation courses, students were nonetheless still curious about the courses and expressed their wish to “try them out,” despite worries over their lack of English proficiency. This gap between the undergraduate and graduate teaching environment shows why transposing the existing graduate programs onto the undergraduate courses simply won’t do. A need for a different approach and course structure to meet the needs of younger and less proficient students must be addressed so that a balance is achieved between two different goals in the classroom—i.e., creating a class that offers authentic interpretation and translation training and, at the same time, improving the learners’ English competence. This chapter introduces flipped learning, a new approach that utilizes information and technology to engage students in the learning process, in the interpretation and translation classroom at the undergraduate level. Flipped learning is a type of blended learning, and as the name indicates, is an “inverted” learning process, where the order of the teaching and learning process in the traditional sense—i.e., the instructor’s lecture followed by student review or assignment afterwards—is “flipped.” Examples of flipped learning instruction will be presented for both the interpretation and translation class; specifically, note-taking for the former and subtitle translation for the latter.

9.2

Flipped learning

9.2.1

An overview

Flipped learning is a teaching method in which more physical class time is devoted to real-life practice and collaborative activities, while content is delivered through technology-assisted learning tools outside of the classroom (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). By having learners preview learning materials before the class, the traditional learning process is reversed. Students are expected to come prepared for the upcoming lesson by acquiring new knowledge in advance, through materials and preparatory tasks. In the classroom, teachers check the students’ understanding, clarify any confusions or misunderstandings, and have the students engage in activities or projects so that they get a chance to apply what they have learned. The basic structure of having students preview a short video clip of a demonstration or a lecture on their own before class and the classroom serving as a venue for students to engage in Q & A sessions, problem-solving, in-depth discussions, class projects and activities under the guidance of the instructor, is quite different from the conventional setting, where teachers first introduce concepts to students, followed by a review or homework activity to reinforce student learning (Kim, 2019). Flipping the teaching-learning process allows the instructor to lend support to students faced with an unfamiliar task or challenge in the classroom (Kim, 2019). The teacher acts as a facilitator, an instructor, and a resource. Students, previously the recipients of the instruction, become partners in learning (Mahalli et al., 2019). In other words, the focus is shifted from the instructor’s lectures to the needs of the students. In addition, group-based learning becomes more viable in a flipped learning environment, as students grow more receptive to group activities after having learned of the lesson through preview sessions (Kim, 2019). Lage et al. (2000) put forth the idea that flipped learning pivoted classes toward an optimal teaching and learning environment, steering away from the teacher-led methods that had previously been employed in class. While discussing the differences with non-flipped classes, Bretzmann (2013) and Bergmann and Sams (2012) reported six advantages: an increase in social and individual contact between instructors and students; a greater sense of responsibility on the part of the students; a shift in the role of teachers from a “sage on the stage” to a “guide on the side”; a proactive means to 147

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prevent learners from lagging behind; a chance to preview and review; an environment promoting self-directed learning and exposing students to a unique learning environment in class. Flipped classrooms fulfill the principles of individualized learning, student-oriented instruction, and constructivism, and students are able to engage in training activities, promoting more meaningful education (Rajesh, 2015). The strength and educational value of flipped learning is that learning is based on voluntary and active participation from the students and that a more in-depth hands-on learning is possible in the classroom as students acquaint themselves with the major concept of a lesson beforehand through previewing uploaded materials. During class, teachers guide students through hands-on projects or discussions to reinforce what they have learned to achieve personalized, higher-order learning (Yarbro et al., 2014). By means of collaborative activities based on the pre-class work and guidance from teachers as well as support from peers, class time is primarily dedicated to nurturing socio-constructivism and active learning, and less time is spent on the traditional lectures led by the instructor. Consequently, class time is utilized more efficiently and can be used to achieve specific objectives in order to acquire a deeper understanding of the lesson. Students are allowed to work through the primary content of a course on their own time, often by watching a pre-recorded lecture or completing a guided reading in place of a traditional in-person lecture. While flipped learning comes in different shapes and formats, there are core common features shared when implementing the method. FLIP, an acronym coined by Hamdan et al. (2013), explains the key components of flipped learning: providing Flexible environment to create a Learning culture with Intentional content provided by a Professional educator. Higher education is known to benefit from flipped learning in various areas of study, including social sciences (Forsey et al., 2013), human-computer interaction and foreign languages (Yarbro et al., 2014), natural science (Baepler et al., 2014), and math (Strayer, 2012; Wilson, 2013). One benefit of flipped learning is “its attractiveness for people with different learning styles” (Hamdani, 2019). Flipped learning makes individualized instruction based on self-directed learning more feasible than in the conventional classroom (Davies et al., 2013), since the efficacy of the preview process—the essence of flipped learning—is predicated on the students’ ability to regulate their own learning (Kim, 2019). As a result, students become more motivated, responsible, active, and independent. Self-directed learning enables students to set their own learning goals and strategies (Brockett & Hiemstra, 1991; Fischer & Scharff, 1998). Thus, class time can be freed up for active problem-solving, demonstrations, experiments, discussions, etc. (Saitta et al., 2016). The concept of flipped learning first appeared in the 1990s, and its value as an instructional tool in higher education has begun to gain wide acceptance only recently, thanks to technological innovations; in particular, digital video technology (Johnson et al., 2015). The recent advancement in instructional technology made possible student-centered instruction, resulting in improved level of motivation, autonomy, and performance for both instructors and students (Smit et al., 2014). According to Bergmann and Sams (2012), students showed higher motivation and positive interest in learning, both in and out of the classroom. The basic principle requires students to preview uploaded audio-visual contents in advance, and this process allows learners to take even more control of their own learning, since video and online technology, in particular, is a medium that students feel comfortable with (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). This is a student-directed approach that combines the offline and online environments and allows enough time for class projects, pop quizzes, or in-class interaction among students. Technically, the students’ preview using online learning is similar to e-learning. However, Bluestein (2014) and Brookhart (2017) state that the underlying methodologies of flipped learning are based on student-centric learning, individualized learning, active learning, differentiated learning, collaborative/cooperative learning, and mastery learning. This is important; for today’s learners are quite different from previous generations in both their learning habits and environments. 148

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9.2.2

Flipped learning in interpretation and translation

Literature on the efficacy of flipped learning on interpretation and translation is in the infant stage and has begun to be published only recently. While the outcome of the studies generally shed a positive light on the use of flipped learning, most rely on self-reported questionnaires (Ling, 2017), semi-structured interviews (Lin, 2019), observations and test analysis (Mei, 2017), and come short of producing measurable evidence on the effectiveness of flipped learning. Recently, Lou et al. (2017) and Deng (2018) conducted a comparative study of two groups working individually and on a group project, respectively, and compared the outcome of the control group and the experimental group. Both studies revealed a statistically significant difference between the two groups, in favor of flipped learning. The general outcome of the studies was increased motivation, sense of autonomy, and increased in-class participation among the students. The advancement of web-based educational technology has produced studies exploring the use of computer-aided instructions (Barr, 2012) and online platforms (Wang, 2017) in interpretation and translation education. The majority of the studies so far, however, lack specific examples of improved in-class collaborative learning and skills development, and do not describe how the online platform promotes individualized learning. Also, the link between the individual pre-learning activities and their effect on on-site activities is rather unclear (Akcayır & Akcayır, 2018), and the relationship between flipped learning implemented in the classroom and the efficacy of the outcome, whether it be interpretation or translation, needs to be clarified. While an increasing number of interpretation and translation courses has been offered to students at the undergraduate level, the curricula remain more-or-less the same with the basic structure of the graduate programs whose purpose is to train students into professional interpreters. A typical interpreting class starts with a brainstorming session of background knowledge or terminology as a preparatory step, followed by listening to the speech to be interpreted. After the interpretation practice session, where a student performs an interpretation task, peer assessment/critique takes place. Such a format, however, has largely failed to meet the needs of undergraduate learners, most of whom are not proficient enough in a foreign language to benefit from such rigorous training sessions. The instructor realizes that much more preparation for the classes and a different type of instruction are necessary. Undergraduate students need a more detailed and guided explanation on the topic, terminology, and even grammatical features if need be. As a result, the class often turns into a typical reading class. A significant portion of course hours is spent on teacher-guided instruction and not enough time on student training or practice. Brief brainstorming sessions before interpreting practice are insufficient to prepare the students for the next step. Students are expected to have gained an understanding of the topic and terminology, as well as to have complete control of the listening, comprehending, and expressing process, all the while adopting various interpretation strategies and quick decision-making and execution. Students are pressed for time, and they must also handle the pressure of having to deliver the message in one try (Pöchhacker, 2004). Even students at the graduate level experience extreme stress during classes, and without sufficient guidance, undergraduate students will panic (Kim, 2019). As previously mentioned, the educational goals of interpretation courses at the undergraduate level are different from those of graduate programs. Thus, the course should be organized on a different platform. Simply transplanting the graduate curriculum onto the undergraduate program will inevitably demoralize the students and fail to achieve the educational goals and course objectives (Kim, 2005). One solution to this problem is to incorporate flipped learning into the courses. Having the students preview class material will free up more time for in-class activity and practice, and class time can be allotted to more hands-on and practical learning. This will alleviate the students’

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stress level as they have more time to familiarize themselves with the task at hand. While class assignments are traditionally given to the students after the lesson with a view to reinforcing what students have learned in the classroom, “flipping” this process has the learners go over the content of the course through video-recorded lectures in advance, and based on the previewed content, students will engage in assignments, projects, and discussions in the classroom. A key feature of flipped learning is the reversed roles of the instructor and the students in the classroom: the instructor becomes a facilitator, and the previously passive role assumed by the students becomes one that is more proactive (Lee, 2016). Learning is maximized through self-initiated problem-solving tasks and is further expanded through the interaction with other students. Interpretation and translation courses, in particular, mainly consist of practice and training, which is why flipped learning is an ideal method of teaching and learning. Collaboration is another important feature of flipped learning. It enables students to associate the success of others with their own because they work to arrive at an optimal interpretation or translation through peer feedback and critique. What started off as a rendition by one student may be expanded as a group effort to produce the best result. Since an interpretation or a translation does not yield a single absolute solution, collaborative learning plays a key role in enhancing the learners’ independent problem-solving and decision-making abilities through finding diverse renditions and different outcomes. Also, considering the importance of collaboration among professional interpreters and translators when engaging in actual conference interpretation and translation in the field, collaborative learning in the interpreting classroom naturally makes sense (Huh, 2014).

9.2.3

Instructional design for a flipped interpretation and translation class

Designing a course takes a lot of work. To set the stage for effective learning, the complex mechanism of the teaching and learning processes involved in interpretation and translation must be taken into account. This requires mastery, on the part of the instructor, of the technologies and methodologies used to guide the students, both remotely and on-site, which is very different from the conventional teacher-led class (Kim, 2016; Lee, 2016; Lungu, 2013). Educators need to keep in mind that a new generation of digitally savvy students is entering the classroom, and their communication style and demands are very different from those of the previous generation. Thus, the flipped class needs to be managed on specific principles (Anderson, 2014; Cockrum, 2014; Enfield, 2013). The first rule is unambiguity. Class objectives must be clear and specific so that students can have a clear sight on what they are working on and keep themselves motivated. The second rule is to make sure all the students are on par in terms of completing their preview assignments so that the instructor may move forward with the lesson. The instructor needs to determine the optimal amount of preclass assignment students must carry out so as not to burden or overwhelm them. Third is a wide variety of in-class projects that can draw the attention and interest of students. Applicability of their newly acquired knowledge to the real world is another important criterion that the instructor must strive to meet. Finally, prompt feedback and evaluation should be provided so that fossilization of errors may not occur. A flipped class in interpretation and translation frequently utilizes computer-mediated instruction for explaining theories or strategies to students prior to class. Skills that need to be demonstrated to the students or those that students must learn through repetition are suitable candidate materials for preview assignments. Knowledge acquired in advance serves as a basis for further in-class activities, such as discussions and projects. Examples to be presented for flipped learning contents for interpretation and translation in this chapter are note-taking and subtitle translation. 150

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9.3.1

Flipped learning in interpretation: notetaking

9.3.1.1

Notetaking in consecutive interpretation

Note-taking during consecutive interpretation serves as a memory-reinforcement device to help interpreters recall a message during consecutive interpretation (Lee, 2001). Writing down what is understood by the interpreter assumes the role of a memory enforcer or memory aid (Alexieva, 1994; Seleskovitch & Lederer, 1989). It is different from writing down the actual words and/or expressions because symbols or keywords representing the content understood by the interpreter are recorded instead. The purpose of note-taking is to alleviate the burden of having to remember every detail, such as numbers or proper nouns, in particular, that cannot be recalled by relying on logic. Writing down such details allows the interpreter to find more mental space to analyze and understand the message. In addition, the interpreter is also able to take down the semantic structure and the logical flow of the speech. Note-taking, according to Gile (1995), should be nothing more than a tool to facilitate memory and should take up the least amount of energy so that more effort can be allotted to understanding the message and the actual act of interpreting. In theory, note-taking, once internalized, no longer requires extra effort from the interpreter to “decipher” the notes, and the interpreter should be able to listen to the details and the nuances and to find the most natural expression to deliver in the target language. It is physically impossible to write down verbatim the words of the speaker, and mechanical note-taking without listening to the logic of the speech will only impede the recall of the content. Thus, as Abuín (2012) claims, note-taking techniques significantly affect consecutive interpretation performance, and systematic note-taking is essential in securing the quality of consecutive interpretation. However, this convenient technique often acts as a double-edged sword. In the classroom, teachers find the challenge of instructing students to note the “idea” of the message quite formidable. No amount of emphasis on the active analysis of the speech can break the students away from the habit of writing down words without registering the idea of the speech. An all-too-familiar scene unfolds in the interpretation classroom: the instructor emphasizes the importance of focusing on the “idea” of the message and instructs the students to reduce the number of notes. However, instead of analyzing the message, students are immersed in jotting down as many words spoken during the speech as possible. Often, the outcome is literal, unnatural, and incomplete translation. The audience detects “translationese” in the rendition, and time spent on decoding the notes will produce halting and chopped speech, repetitions, and long and awkward pauses. Over-dependence on notes is, naturally, an undesirable habit (Gile, 1995; Seleskovitch & Lederer, 1989). Gile (1990) found that relying heavily on notes decreases the information processing capacity and the level of understanding the original speech. In fact, note-taking may actually act as an impediment and a distracter rather than a facilitator. While note-taking may not be much of a problem to experienced interpreters, beginners struggle, as they face the task of having to grasp the content of the message while taking down what they are hearing. In the process, they lose the trail of the message, and in the end, despite a pile of notes they have written down, often cannot make sense of what they have in front of them. According to Schweda-Nicholson (1985), common note-taking behaviors in the consecutive interpretation classroom include (a) students tied to their notes, barely making any eye-contact with the audience, (b) speaking with breaks and frequent pauses in an unnatural pace, (c) speaking in an inaudible low voice, (d) speaking in a monotonous tone, feeling pressed to release the information as quickly as possible.

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Notwithstanding the importance note-taking plays in the consecutive interpretation process, students primarily rely on a rough introduction to note-taking in class, and for the most part, are left to their own devices when it comes to developing their note-taking skills. Some general principles are presented in class, but the autonomy given to students and the lack of specific guidelines make note-taking a difficult skill to master. This is, in part, because of the nature of note-taking. It is a personal process, and note-taking skills are largely left to the learners to develop on their own. Most professional interpreters agree that that they were never taught note-taking. Lim (2010) states, “note-taking is never truly taught because there is no set or correct way of taking notes.” As a result, students often find the principles unclear and inapplicable, as guidelines for effective note-taking are anything but uniform. Most learners, especially beginners, express frustration with note-taking (Kim, 2019). Ironically, learners first applying note-taking to consecutive interpretation find themselves having more difficulty when they try to use their notes while interpreting than when relying solely on their memory; what was supposed to help has instead turned into an extra burden. Huh (2014) conducted a survey to assess the students’ self-perception on their interpretation skills proficiency and found that students expressed the least confidence in note-taking, lower than accuracy, expression, fluency, and even listening ability. While the quality of note-taking may not necessarily be a predictor of the quality of the interpretation, note-taking is a component of consecutive interpretation that cannot be neglected, and enough time should be allotted to the instruction of note-taking so as not to be abused or misused.

9.3.1.2

Flipping the note-taking training process

One way to address this problem is to introduce flipped learning in the instruction. Previewing a lesson on note-taking will allow students to learn about the theory and skills on note-taking at their own pace; for more time can be secured for in-class student activity and practice. As previously stated, note-taking is one of the most difficult elements of consecutive interpretation for students (Lim, 2006). For those who first try out note-taking, it is a mysterious activity, neither like the conventional note-taking in other classes nor the task of a stenographer. Rather, it looks like a series of secret codes without any agreed-upon rules. Students often try to devise a foolproof system in order to produce “the prefect interpretation” and strive to find that special formula because they share a common misperception that “taking copious notes will ensure an accurate and complete interpretation” (Schweda-Nicholson, 1985). While note-taking is largely a subjective process and is open to creative solutions, the basic principles of note-taking, such as the use of icons, symbols, logical links, etc., can be taught to help students build their own system (Ahrens, 2005). According to Lim (2017), consistency in note-taking is a major difficulty learners face in the interpreting class, and a systemized training in note-taking is necessary to enhance the quality of the notes so that they may serve as an aid toward correct, clear, and concise interpretation. However, explanations on the purpose and principles of note-taking as well as guidelines and tips presented by the instructors in the classroom still leave students confused and frustrated. Flipped learning provides an effective learning platform by presenting the information and demonstration in advance so that students may better understand the new technique. In turn, instructors may place greater emphasis on training and practice in class. Unlike the traditional method of teaching note-taking where the instructor introduces the technique by presenting its purposes, principles, guidelines, and a brief demonstration of note-taking, students are given assignments to

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watch video clips on notetaking before they came to class. The following are steps to flipping the learning process: 1 Students view a video-recorded introduction to note-taking, which includes the general purpose, guidelines, and symbols as examples. 2 Students view a video clip that shows (1) a speaker delivering a speech and an interpreter engaging in note-taking, (2) the interpreter rendering an interpretation, and (3) the interpreter explaining the abbreviations and symbols used in her notes. 3 Questions and points of observation are presented to the students, and they are advised to come prepared to discuss the topics in class. 4 In class, students engage in discussions on the previewed material, make comments, and pose questions. Afterwards, students go through a practice session—i.e., note-taking exercises— followed by a review and feedback on student performance. Kim (2019) conducted a study in which an actual lesson on note-taking following the steps described previously were administered, applying flipped learning in the instruction. The lesson took place in an undergraduate consecutive interpretation course that offers an overview of theory and practice in consecutive interpreting. Using flipped learning in note-taking lessons showed that having the students engage in a preview that included a video lecture on the concept of notetaking and an actual performance helped students learn and practice the skill in class with more confidence and ease than when taught in the traditional method, where in-class explanation was immediately followed by note-taking exercise and practice. Students who followed the flipped learning method seemed less anxious about learning a new skill, thanks to the exposure to this new technique in advance. Online video resources in flipped learning serve not only as an effective instructional tool but also as an excellent source of discussion points. Examples of consecutive interpretation performed by professional interpreters offer a starting point of discussion, and students gain insight into what actually goes on in a consecutive interpretation session. Through the examples, good and bad, students were able to benchmark their performances and engage in in-depth discussion and critique. Another advantage of the flipped learning process is the time lapse between the preview and inclass application. Unlike the traditional setting where the instructor’s explanation is immediately followed by a practice session, flipped learning allows for time between the information reception and application/production. In other words, students have time to reflect on the topic, to organize their thoughts, to raise questions, and to review the material if deemed necessary. While one of the most prominent features of flipped learning is the use of online video material and digital technology, time gap also proves an important element in the learning process when introducing new knowledge or skills.

9.3.2

Flipped learning in translation: audiovisual translation 9.3.2.1

Audiovisual translation in the classroom

Anyone who has translated audiovisual material will agree that there is a huge difference between audiovisual translation and translating print material. Text translation puts the translator’s ability to the test as he/she works to balance the tension between the source text and the target text, with the former constantly demanding a faithful rendition to the original text, while the latter stresses the need to accommodate the discourse of the target language culture (Kim, 2012).

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Audiovisual translation adds another layer—i.e., vying for the attention of the audience occupied with other types of input, such as the movement of the actors, sounds of their voices, background music, etc. The different types of non-verbal multimedia context, such as the screen, tone of voice, acting, and background music involved in audiovisual translation, are features unfamiliar to traditional translation formats. Thus, audiovisual translation is known as the translation of the “situation” rather than simply the sentences in the script. In audiovisual translation, written information immediately appears with the spoken utterances on the screen. Such instantaneity is a key feature of subtitling translation. Also, subtitling is based on colloquialism, which is traditionally reserved for the spoken, not written language. Thus, subtitles stand in the middle of written and spoken language. Another major difference with other types of text translation is the time and spatial restrictions when translating subtitles. For viewers to quickly read and understand the message, subtitles on a screen are generally limited to two lines with 35–45 characters per line. While the basic principles of translation theory also apply to audiovisual translation, they pay special attention to the need of its audience who must watch the screen, listen to a foreign language, and concurrently read the subtitle in four~six seconds. In subtitle translation, therefore, readability takes on a new level of challenge. Hatim and Mason (1997) summarized the challenges of audiovisual translation, particularly subtitle translation (p. 430–431): (1) The transformation of speech into written words: The speaker’s accent, intonation, emphasis, and speech style are difficult to convey through subtitles. (2) Physical limitations: Time and space limitations put constraints on the subtitle on the screen (33~40 letters, two lines maximum). (3) Pressure to condense: Insufficient information delivery is often inevitable due to time and space constraints as the text must be shortened. (4) Subtitle-screen correspondence: Words or phrases of the subtitle generally must correspond with the actor’s gesture. Due to time constraints, the original material cannot but undergo at least some degree of compression. It is the general understanding that loss of information resulting from dubbing and subtitling is around 10% and 30%, respectively (Yoon & Kim, 2007). Considering the temporal and spatial constraints, condensing is not only inevitable but also essential in maintaining the flow of the story. The process of condensing goes beyond simply cutting dialogues short by way of replacement or omissions. Preserving the essence of the original meaning is the key to intelligent condensing, and the translator must carefully weigh options until he/she arrives at the most concise and accurate expression to convey the original meaning. Thus, a full understanding of the source language and the ability to identify key messages in the context are essential (Lee, 2009). In a way, subtitling is an excellent way to introduce and practice de-verbalization and reformulation, the fundamental principle of translation but also an extremely difficult tenet for learners, especially at the beginning phase. During subtitle translation, the reduction that takes the form of condensation all but forces the students “to dismiss a word-for-word approach and to look for the main ideas being conveyed, rephrasing them in a way that sounds natural and does not jar with the image or the soundtrack of the original” (Diaz-Cintas, 2008). Students need to make a conscious effort to understand which strategies should be employed to transfer oral message to written message.

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Another important factor, although seemingly not as significant as the accuracy of the delivered message, is the compliance with the rules and conventions when creating the subtitles. To carry out subtitling, students must learn the rules and formats as well as its semiotic priorities that apply to subtitling (Diaz-Cintas, 2008). Understanding and executing the specific usage of punctuations and line breaks, for example, is important “to create subtitles that can be easily read and understood, one of the golden rules is that they are semantically and syntactically self-contained” (Diaz-Cintas, 2008). Subtitle translation adds another element to translation—i.e., the use of technology. As our lives increasingly revolve around audiovisual messages, subtitles are considered one of the most common forms of translation viewers encounter every day. As stated by Diaz-Cintas: The growing pre-eminence of the audiovisual media in our society has been clearly visible in the proliferation of television stations, the academic interest in film and television studies, the arrival of the DVD, and the potential of digitizing the image and enhancing interactivity between broadcasters and viewers. More recently, the Internet seems to be leading the field in this audiovisual revolution. (Diaz-Cintas, 2008, p. 89) The production of subtitles in the translation classroom has many benefits. As already mentioned, students learn to put into practice translation theories related to de-verbalization and reformulation. Also, condensation and segmentation, the core elements of subtitle translation, help students focus on the message of the original text. At the same time, students reinforce their knowledge of sentence structures as they work on segmenting the sentence to fit the editing conventions for subtitling. As Stoddart (2000) states, subtitle translation encourages students to think about meaning and form simultaneously. In addition, students also get a chance to work with various types of input, such as visual and auditory input, in addition to textual input. The end-result is a tangible and authentic output that can be shared with peers or a larger audience on the web (Talavan, 2010), fulfilling a key element of flipped learning that is the constructivist approach. Kruger (2008) states that subtitle translation offers an optimal pathway “firstly to expose students to the benefits related to the constant need for creative translation solutions, often requiring agile lateral thinking skills, and secondly to introduce them to subtitling as a possible field of specialization.” Blane (1996) states that interlingual subtitling is a great motivator for students because it “engages students’ interest and enthusiasm, promotes confidence and security, fosters development of L2 learning strategies and translation strategies and offers additional benefits in the form of transferable skills, relevant to the professional activities of the present and future.” Learning takes place in an interactive learner-centered classroom where “the learning process is a matter of collaboratively acquiring (and co-creating) the language and behavior of a social group” (Kiraly, 1999). As a result, students “can be expected to emerge from the educational experience as semi-professionals” (Kiraly, 1999). Subtitle translation courses present students with a specific task with a specific goal, and students are required to develop a range of skills that will come in handy as they pursue careers as professional translators. Thus, subtitle translation is a great tool for students to adapt the knowledge they have acquired to a task that has a specific purpose and usage. By putting emphasis on translational skills and strategies, students get a hands-on experience transferring messages across a different culture for a different audience. They get to write and rewrite, proofread, and control and assess quality (Gouadec, 2002). Thus, students can experience translation not as an academic discipline confined to the classroom but as a task that produces an

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authentic final product presented to a real audience. Diaz-Cintas (2008) declares that “The move from the traditional declarative knowledge-driven course (know-what) to a more skills, procedural knowledge-based approach (know-how) has the virtue, in my experience, of engaging students from the very beginning” (p. 92). In a globalized world, subtitling is becoming a popular translation form, and anyone involved in translation should be familiar with this practice. Subtitle translation, which used to be confined to the traditional video outlets, such as the cinema or television, has now expanded its realm to online platforms, and along with it, has created an explosive demand for high-quality subtitle translations. Researchers have already discussed the need for teaching subtitling (Bartrina, 2009; Bartrina  & Espasa, 2005; Blane, 1996; James, 1998; Diaz-Cintas, 2001), and technical aspects of subtitle translation have also become the subject of discussion in exploring pedagogical applications and benefits (Diaz-Cintas, 2008; Talavan, 2010; Williams & Thorne, 2000). However, most translators have not received any training for using software programs, as translation programs at undergraduate and graduate institutions rarely offer courses related to digital audiovisual translation. Practice with software programs and the actual production of a subtitled final product should be part of the training in translation programs so that students are prepared to offer their services when faced with the demand for such skills in the real world. Flipped learning is a useful method to teach the technical aspects of subtitle translation in the classroom.

9.3.2.2

Flipping the audiovisual translation process

As previously stated, subtitling adds another dimension to traditional text translation—i.e., imposing word limits and the use of editing software. Students may feel burdened by this extra layer of unfamiliarity in addition to working on translation, which they have not fully mastered. Before beginning the subtitling tasks, students are given an introduction to audiovisual translation before coming to class in order to gain a general understanding of this field of translation. The contents include not only the theoretical background but also the general rules and conventions of subtitling so that students understand the importance of working on the format early on. Students are also provided with a manual of the software they will be using and their applications through demonstration videos. It is important to engage the students with such technical aspects of the task from the very beginning and give them a sense of empowerment by allowing them to be in control of their own work (DiazCintas, 2008). Since students come to class with different levels of expertise in dealing with editing software, flipped learning offers those who are unfamiliar with such tools to bridge the gap and feel more comfortable using a new tool. Unfamiliarity with technology can be very intimidating at the beginning phase and may dampen student motivation. Therefore, it is essential that the students be provided with material and information in advance so that they may go over the materials until they feel comfortable using the subtitling tools. The following is a description of preview video materials provided to students, followed by classroom activities afterwards. 1 Student preview materials A The Principles/Guidelines (Netflix): Each video contents provider has its own guidelines, and while they share common rules in general features, service providers may demand that translators abide by specific rules tailored to their needs. The following is the screenshot of a video session presenting guidelines from Netflix. B Time-coding and creating an SRT file (Subtitle Edit Software): Translators may have to timecode the translated text using a subtitle software to create an SRT (SubRip Subtitle) file. A variety 156

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Figure 9.1 Subtitle translation guidelines and examples

Figure 9.2 Subtitle Edit subtitle work screen

of subtitle software exists online free of charge. Each software has strengths and weaknesses but operates on a similar mechanism. Therefore, users may choose whichever suits their needs and preference. The following is a screenshot of a tutorial of a subtitling software, “Subtitle Edit.” C Burning the subtitles onto the video file (Handbrake): Depending on the task, translators may have to submit a product which has the subtitles “burned in” the video file. Handbrake is a software program that enables such tasks. The following is a screenshot of a tutorial for Handbrake. 157

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D Combining each segment made by group members (Microsoft Video Editor): After each member has completed the translation, created an SRT file, and burned in the subtitles on to the video file, the group collects the individual files and creates one file to submit to the instructor. Microsoft Video Editor is available for this process.

Figure 9.3 Handbrake software work screen

Figure 9.4 Microsoft Video Editor work screen

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2 In-class activities In the classroom, students engage in translation and subtitling tasks taking the following steps: A View the entire episode: Students view the entire episode before dividing into groups for group activity. B Engage in a group project: The episode is divided into segments for group activity. i ii iii iv

Complete translation: Each group translates the assigned segment. Create an SRT file using Subtitle Edit (time code included). Handbrake: Burn the subtitles onto the video. Microsoft Video Editor: (If needed) Combine the videos among group members.

C Inter-group discussions: Before burning the subtitles on to the video, the entire class holds a meeting to discuss terms, mode of speech, and content so that the final product after group work is collected and merged does not show any discrepancies or inconsistencies. D Submit an SRT file and peer assessment sheet. E The instructor merges the video files submitted by each group and creates a complete episode. 3 View the entire episode with subtitles in-class. As students expand their scope of work from individual tasks (segments assigned to the members of each group) to coordination between members within a group, and further, crossing over to other groups, they engage in active discussions and learn to cooperate and negotiate in order to produce a final product. A shift from face-to-face classroom instruction to an environment where students are encouraged to engage in independent learning outside the classroom is an example of constructivist and inductive approach. In contemporary society, online audiovisual contents have become a main communication medium to disseminate information and entertainment. Viewers not only consume subtitles but also engage in subtitling video clips as a pastime activity. The so-called “fansubbing” is a new form of non-professional translation, where anyone can join in and make subtitles for video clips of their choice (Diaz-Cintas & Sanchez, 2006). Many, if not all, students are aware of this activity and feel comfortable using relevant tools and software, which is why including subtitling tasks or courses in the program can be greatly motivating.

9.3

Conclusion

In today’s classrooms, the presence of a new generation of tech-savvy digital natives who are highly sensitive to audiovisual and online materials calls for a new educational approach that can take advantage of this change of environment. In the flipped classroom, students learn new knowledge mainly through literature and/or audiovisual resources on a particular topic provided by the instructor before engaging in classroom activities. Class time is devoted to adapting the knowledge to practical use through individual and/or collaborative work. Flipped learning is an innovative teaching method that can make use of technological advancements and promote self-motivated and self-directed learning among students. To implement flipped learning, a wide range of information and communication technology support systems, including web-based online instruction platforms, educational software, e-books, and audio-visual technologies, must be provided (Strayer, 2012). In addition to flipping the order of learning, assigning a clear learning objective for each step of the lesson—i.e., activities to be completed pre-class, in-class, and post-class—is what sets flipped learning apart from the traditional teacher-led class. Each step serves as a stepping-stone for the next 159

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step, and its success is dependent upon the degree of mastery of the previous step. Thus, flipped learning demands full commitment from both the students, who are expected to faithfully follow the guidelines of the lesson, and the instructor, who must coordinate a challenging and meaningful lesson and keep a close watch on the progress of each student so that no one lags behind. Collaboration among students as well as collaboration between students and teachers are the key to success. The interpretation and translation classes offer ideal grounds for a synergy effect by combining online learning and on-site classroom. The topics and skills to be previewed before class require repetitive practice, and students may set their own learning pace, depending on their prior knowledge. Skills or knowledge on which students may have different proficiency levels are optimal candidates for flipped learning in that the uneven student capabilities may be smoothed out, as students preview and review the lessons as often as they need on their own time. Class time is allotted to the application of knowledge, student interaction, and internalizing the knowledge they have learned before coming to class. Collaborative learning, a social behavior based on the idea that learning does not take place in isolation, is another important element of flipped learning and puts students at the center of learning. Collaboration goes beyond simple interaction among learners, and the interaction in class, instead of one-directional transfer of knowledge, helps the students acquire in-depth knowledge. Interpretation and translation programs are constantly on the lookout for innovative teaching methods that address the learners’ specific needs and the limited amount of time allocated to the courses. In this sense, flipped learning is a practical solution to the many issues facing the interpretation and translation classroom, which must maximize the use of time assigned for in-person instruction and student collaboration. Learning a new skill or changing the course of a habit is always a challenge. Facing an unfamiliar concept or new learning environment would make anyone nervous, especially in a performancebased course. Add to that the intensity and difficulty of the interpretation and translation tasks, and students’ motivation and confidence level will plummet without thorough and thoughtful instructional planning and design. Nowadays, thanks to the advancements in technology, a wide range of resources is available and has made possible the implementation of improved teaching methods and tools in the classroom. While the scope of the discussion in this chapter is limited to utilizing flipped learning in the notetaking in the consecutive interpretation and subtitle translation in the translation class at the undergraduate level, flipped learning can be adopted in other areas of interpretation and translation training. For example, skills typically taught in interpretation courses, such as shadowing and sight-translation, may also benefit from flipping the learning process. In addition, flipped learning can be applied to the entire process of consecutive interpretation, from taking notes to the rendition of an interpretation. At the end of the day, it is true that the quality of the interpretation/translation is what matters. However, at the undergraduate level, the improvement of output quality cannot be the sole objective of teaching. The educational goal of interpretation and translation for undergraduate courses should accommodate the needs of learners wishing to improve their language proficiency while maintaining the essence of interpretation and translation courses. To this end, the instructor needs to accurately assess which elements need to be included to meet educational goals.

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Flipped learning in the undergraduate classroom Alexieva, B. (1994). On teaching note-taking in consecutive interpreting. In C. Dollerup & A. Lindegaard (Eds.), Teaching translation and interpreting 2: Insights, aims, visions (pp. 199–206). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Anderson, S. (2014). The tech-savvy administrator: How do I use technology to be a better school leader? Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Baepler, P., Walker, J. D., & Driessen, M. (2014). It’s not about seat time: Blending, flipping, and efficiency in active learning classrooms. Computers & Education, 78, 227–236. Barr, D. (2012). Embedding technology in translation teaching: Evaluative considerations for courseware integration. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 26(4), 295–310. Bartrina, F. (2009). Teaching subtitling in a virtual environment. In J. D. Cintas & G. Anderman (Eds.), Audiovisual translation: Language transfer on screen (pp. 229–239). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Bartrina, F., & Espasa, E. (2005). Audiovisual translation. In M. Tennent (Ed.), Training for the new millennium (pp. 83–100). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012). Flip your classroom: Reach every student in every class every day (pp. 120–190). Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education. Blane, S. (1996). Interlingual subtitling in the languages degree. In P. Sewell & I. Higgins (Eds.), Teaching translation in universities: Present and future perspectives (pp. 183–208). London: CITL. Bluestein, J. (2014). Managing 21st century classroom: How do I avoid ineffective classroom management practices? Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Bretzmann, J. (2013). Flipping 2.0: Practical strategies for flipping your class. New Berlin, WI: The Bretzmann Group LLC. Brockett, R. G., & Hiemstra, R. (1991). Self-direction in adult learning: Perspectives on theory, research, and practice. London and New York: Routledge. Brookhart, S. (2017). How to give effective feedback to your students (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Cockrum, T. (2014). Flipping your English class to reach all learners: Strategies and lesson plans. New York: Routledge. Davies, R., Dean, D., & Ball, N. (2013). Flipping the classroom and instructional technology integration in a college-level information systems spreadsheet course. Educational Technology Research and Development, 61, 563–580. Deng, L. (2018). The project-based flipped learning model in business English translation course: Learning, teaching and assessment. English Language Teaching, 11(9), 118–128. Diaz-Cintas, J. (2001). Teaching subtitling at university. In Sonia Cunico (Ed.), Training translators and interpreters in the new millennium (pp. 29–44). Portsmouth: University of Portsmouth. Diaz-Cintas, J. (2008). Teaching and learning to subtitle in an academic environment. In J. Diaz-Cintas (Ed.), The didactics of audiovisual translation (pp. 89–103). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Diaz-Cintas, J., & Sanchez, P. M. (2006). Fansubs: Audiovisual translation in an amateur environment. Journal of Specialised Translation, 6, 37–52. Enfield, J. (2013). Looking at the impact of the flipped classroom model of instruction on undergraduate multimedia students at CSUN. TechTrends, 5(6), 14–27. Fischer, G., & Scharff, E. (1998). Learning technologies in support of self-directed learning. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 98(4), 1–32. Forsey, M., Low, M., & Glance, D. (2013). Flipping the sociology classroom: Towards a practice of online pedagogy. The Australian Sociological Association, 49(4), 471–485. Gile, D. (1990). Basic concepts and models for conference interpretation training. Paris: INALDO & CEEI (ESIT). Gile, D. (1995). Fidelity assessment in consecutive interpretation: An experiment. Target, 7(1), 151–164. Gouadec, D. (2002). Training translators: Certainties, uncertainties, dilemmas. In B. Maia, J. Haller, & M. Ulrych (Eds.), Training the language services provider for the new millennium (pp. 31–41). Oporto: Universidade do Porto. Hamdan, N., McKnight, P., McKnight, K., & Arfstrom, K. M. (2013). The flipped learning model: A white paper based on the literature review. Arlington, VA: Flipped Learning Network. Hamdani, M. (2019). Effectiveness of flipped classroom (FC) method on the development of English language learning of the high school students in Ahwaz. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 8(2), 12–20. Hatim, B., & Mason, I. (1997). Politeness in screen translating. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The translation studies reader (pp. 430–445). New York: Routledge. Huh, J. (2014). Alternative pedagogical approaches for undergraduate consecutive interpreting courses: A combination of traditional learning, individualistic learning, and cooperative learning. Interpretation and Translation, 16(3), 169–193.

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Flipped learning in the undergraduate classroom Seleskovitch, D., & Lederer, M. (1989). A systematic approach to teaching interpretation. Translated by J. Harmer. Luxembourg: Didier Erudition. Washington, DC: Pen and Booth. Setton, R. (1994). Training conference interpreters. In R. K. Seymour & C. C. Liu (Eds.), Translating and interpreting: Bridging east and west (pp. 3–10). Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature. Smit, K., Brabander, C. J., & Martens, R. L. (2014). Student-centered and teacher centered learning environment in pre-vocational secondary education: Psychological needs, and motivation. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 58(6), 695–712. Stoddart, J. (2000). Teaching through translation. British Council Journal, 11(6), 6–13. Strayer, J. (2012). How learning in an inverted classroom influences cooperation, innovation and task orientation. Learning Environments Research, 15(2), 171–193. Talavan, N. (2010). Subtitling as a task and subtitles as support: Pedagogical applications. In J. Diaz-Cintas, A. Matamala, & J. Neves (Eds.), New insights into audiovisual translation and media accessibility (pp. 285–299). Amsterdam: Rodopi. Wang, L. (2017). On interactive teaching model of translation course based on Wechat. English Language Teaching, 10(3), 21–25. Williams, H., & Thorne, D. (2000). The value of teletext subtitling as a medium for language learning. System, 28(2), 217–228. Wilson, S. (2013). The flipped class: A method to address the challenges of an undergraduate statistics course. Teaching of Psychology, 40(3), 193–199. Yarbro, J., Arfstrom, K. M., McKnight, K., & McKnight, P. (2014). Extension of a review of flipped learning. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://flippedlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Extensionof-FLipped-Learning-LIt-Review-June-2014.pdf Yoon, H., & Kim, N. (2007). The theory and practice in caption translation in Pierrot Le Fou and other films. Foreign Literature Studies, 28, 303–324.

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10 THE USE OF INTERPRETING TEXTBOOKS A survey study Mingri Jin 김명일 and Andrew K.F. Cheung

10.1

Interpreting textbooks

Textbooks are important materials for teaching and learning activities and function as major resources for both teachers and students (Klerides, 2010). Different materials could facilitate teaching and learning activities; textbooks, however, are the most common (Brown, 2001). Anyone who has received education in a school setting is quite likely to have used textbooks. Academic publishers define textbooks broadly as “study guides and instructor’s manuals” (Talaga, 1989, p. 61). Day (2019) defines a textbook “as a book that introduces students to a new subject, and, therefore, covers all the material considered essential for an understanding the subject” (p. 296). The use of textbooks can provide “points of stability” (Van Lier, 1996, p. 208) in the classroom for students and teachers, which may be instrumental for students to learn progressively and for teachers to instruct sequentially. Textbooks can guide teaching and learning. Textbooks are widely used as instructional materials for different subjects at various levels of education around the world (Wijekumar et al., 2021). They provide discipline-specific knowledge to their readers (Davies, 2022), thus playing an important role in delivering content knowledge to readers (Agrawal et al., 2012). The sequential arrangement of teaching materials in textbooks can help teachers be more effective when preparing for classes. Similarly, carefully curated learning materials in textbooks can benefit the independent studies of students. Traditionally, “textbooks are followed from beginning to end as a basis for a module” (Kelly, 2005, p. 84). Researchers from different disciplines, such as mathematics (Yang et al., 2019), science (Kim, 2021), medicine (Adelekun et al., 2021), and language studies (Uzum et al., 2021), have investigated textbooks of their respective disciplines. However, studies on textbooks tend to focus on the kind of knowledge they represent (Borhani, 2022) and adopt research methods, such as content analysis, content comparison, and instructor/learner reception (Bittar, 2022). Nevertheless, the use of textbooks is not without controversy. The use of textbooks in a classroom can be counterproductive. Textbooks are motionless, while teaching and learning processes are dynamic; therefore, textbooks can be counterproductive (Oral, 2013). Textbooks may also become restrictive forces that hinder creative and experimental teaching. While textbooks may appear to be authoritative and reliable sources of knowledge, excessive reliance on them may limit the problem-solving abilities of learners. Therefore, how and why textbooks should be used in an interpreting classroom is worth debating.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-13

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The use of interpreting textbooks

Unlike other disciplines, studies on the use of interpreting textbooks are scarce. Interpreting textbooks can be content oriented or skill oriented. Content-oriented interpreting textbooks may cover areas such as history, research, and theories of interpreting. Skill-oriented interpreting textbooks are commercially available in mainland China, where more than 200 universities offer master’s level training in interpreting. Skill-oriented interpreting textbooks are those that provide source-language speeches for practice and suggest versions in target languages (Stewart, 2011), accompanied by audio recordings in both languages (Mazzei & Aibo, 2022). Students may also acquire practical skills from skill-oriented textbooks (Hubert, 2017). However, given that one of the major objectives of interpreting classes is to provide students with professional and practical skills, interpreting trainers, many of whom are interpreters, may hesitate to use textbooks for the same reasons explained by Kelly (2005) on why some translation trainers may not use translation textbooks in their classrooms.

10.2 Textbooks of Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) programs At the time of the writing of this paper, more than 250 Chinese higher education institutes offer MTI programs. These programs provide training in translation and interpreting between Mandarin Chinese and various European and Asian languages. The number of students who enroll in MTI may be quite significant, given that China had more than 10 million undergraduate students in 2022. There is a plethora of MTI textbooks in China, which may be due to the size of the readership and student population. Moreover, the increase in the amount of training at the post-graduate level may have spurred the supply of interpreting textbooks. The Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, an affiliate of the prestigious Beijing Foreign Studies University, is commissioned by the China National Committee for Translation and Interpreting Education to publish MTI textbooks. The publisher’s MTI series covers five categories: 1) translation textbooks, 2) interpreting textbooks, 3) translation and interpreting theories, 4) translation- and interpreting-related disciplines, and 5) translation and interpreting references. There are seven interpreting textbooks under the interpreting textbook category: 1) A Foundation Coursebook of Interpreting, 2) A Coursebook of Consecutive Interpreting, 3) English–Chinese Sight Translation, 4) A Coursebook of Simultaneous Interpreting, 5) A Coursebook of Business Interpreting, 6) A Coursebook of Diplomatic Interpreting, and 7) Conference Interpreting. These seven textbooks provide sample source texts in Chinese or English and suggested renditions. Interpreting classes are rather popular at universities in mainland China, probably because of the application-oriented nature of interpreting subjects (Liu et al., 2022). People in China may perceive well those who are fluent in a foreign language (Cheung, 2020). The media coverage that interpreters receive after interpreting for Chinese leaders at televised press conferences (Cheung, 2009a, 2012b; Zhang & Cheung, 2022) may increase people’s awareness of the interpreting profession. Admission to some of these MTI programs may be very competitive, especially those that provide internship opportunities at international organizations, such as the United Nations, where Chinese is one of the official languages (Cheung, 2019; Song & Cheung, 2019; Ma & Cheung, 2020; Wu et al., 2021; Liu & Cheung, 2023). However, students who enroll in MTI programs may have very different motivations and expectations. Some may be genuinely interested in becoming interpreters, be it for conferences or not. Meanwhile, others enroll in MTI to delay their job-seeking process. Job prospects for MTI graduates may differ for each individual. Some MTI graduates may eventually become professional conference interpreters, others may become trainers or researchers, while some may end up doing something that has very little to do with interpreting. Trainers may cater to the different expectations of trainees using an array of teaching materials.

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Interpreting textbooks are also used outside of MTI classrooms. In addition to MTI programs, private training institutes offer trainings to aspiring interpreters for a fee. These shortterm trainings often feature trainers with extensive interpreting experience to attract trainees. A number of these trainers are full-time faculty members or interpreters with the Chinese government, while others are affiliated with international organizations such as the United Nations and professional organizations such as the International Association of Conference Interpreters. Although trainers may prepare training materials, such as speeches and recordings, these private training institutes may design and sequence their training by partly modeling interpreting textbooks. They also incorporate other coping techniques (Cheung, 2001, 2014a; Cheung & Li, 2022), such as number trainings (Cheung, 2008, 2009b, 2014a, 2023), summary exercises (Cheung, 2007), and paraphrasing exercises (Cheung, 2016), in classroom training to strengthen trainees’ interpreting skills. Different types of Chinese interpreting textbooks can meet the different teaching and learning purposes of MTI programs. MTI programs offer diverse interpreting subjects in terms of modalities and subject matters. The typical modality-based interpreting subjects include sight translation, consecutive interpreting, and simultaneous interpreting. Subject-matter-specific interpreting subjects are also available, such as business interpreting, diplomatic interpreting, and medical interpreting. Given the wide range of interpreting subjects being offered, a wide range of textbooks on different modalities and subject matters are available. Most of these are skill-oriented textbooks that provide source language texts and suggested target language versions with annotations. Some of these textbooks also come with audio recordings of both source and target language texts, providing teaching and self-learning opportunities to their readers. Textbooks with practice speeches in both languages may be important to trainers and trainees in the China context. Most, if not all, interpreting trainers and trainees use Chinese as their A language (i.e., native language) and have learned a B language, or non-native language. Chinese interpreters normally work bi-directionally, that is, they interpret from B language into A or from A language into B. When interpreting in B language from A language, it is not surprising that the interpretation may have more linguistic and paralinguistic problems than in B language to A language. While trainers and trainees may be proficient in their B language, they may feel more confident to learn and teach interpreting in B language using textbooks with suggested versions that are, theoretically, at least, sans linguistic errors.

10.3

Limitations of textbooks

Using Chinese as the main language, MTI programs focus on the Chinese/English language combination. Given that MTI programs are offered by universities in China, Mandarin Chinese is the default language to be interpreted from and into other languages. According to China’s National Committee for Translation and Interpreting Education, as of June 2022, MTI programs all over China cover a wide range of languages, including Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese. However, most MTI programs offer the Chinese/English combination, probably because the demand for interpreters proficient in English is high. Together with the fact that English is the global lingua franca (Cheung, 2022a), Chinese/ English is one of the most popular combinations in China and other English-speaking countries that offer translation and interpreting programs. Most practicing interpreters who are active in China were trained in China. However, some of them received their training in other places that offer interpreting programs with Chinese, such as the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, France, 166

The use of interpreting textbooks

Korea, and Singapore. It is likely that some of these overseas programs also use interpreting textbooks from China. However, Chinese is a diverse language with different regional varieties. Most of these textbooks are published in mainland China and tend to feature speeches and audio recordings by native Mandarin speakers from the mainland. The Chinese mainland and Taiwan are two major Mandarin-speaking communities, each with regional features. For instance, some Chinese translations of names of foreign places differ between the mainland and Taiwan. Meanwhile, many ethnic Chinese from Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore speak Mandarin and may use it at conferences. Trainers who have limited exposure to other varieties of Mandarin may have to look for other resources so their trainees may become aware of the features of other Mandarin varieties. English is a global lingua franca of business and is also a widely taught foreign language in China. China has the largest number of people who learn English, partly because of the sheer size of its population (Cheung, 2020). However, having learned a language does not guarantee competence, and the English language competence among Chinese people varies in each individual. Therefore, Chinese/English interpreting is still needed in many instances. Several international conferences that take place in China tend to only provide Chinese/English interpreting services to facilitate communication between Chinese and non-Chinese speakers. The demand for Chinese/English interpreting services outstrips that of other language combinations. For instance, some non-English-speaking countries’ China missions entail recruiting Chinese/English MTI graduates as local staff. As a result of the job market demand, most MTI programs offer training specifically for the Chinese/English combination. Most interpreting textbooks cater to the Chinese/English combination. Thus, the number of interpreting textbooks for other language combinations is relatively fewer. However, the number of people interested in other language combinations may be increasing, partly because English is such a widely taught foreign language in China, and competition among interpreters may be fiercer than that of other combinations. Textbook publishers’ choice of speakers for audio contents may reveal the practical nature of interpreting training. Preferences seem to be given to speakers from economically well-developed places that tend to have frequent exchanges in business and commerce with China. As a lingua franca, English is a very diverse language with different linguistic and nonlinguistic features. Most Chinese/English interpreting textbooks use texts and recordings by native speakers from Anglo-Saxon English speaking countries or the “standard” variety from the inner circle (Evans, 2010). Audio contents by speakers from South Africa and India, where English is used in commerce and public administration, are rare. Similarly, most Chinese/ Korean textbooks feature recordings by speakers from South Korea instead of North Korea, where the former is economically advanced and the latter still struggling economically. Trainers who wish to increase trainees’ exposure to speeches by speakers of other English varieties may have to prepare other materials. At international conferences that recruit local interpreters, the pivot language for relays in simultaneous interpreting tends to be Chinese. However, a relay may lead to a deterioration in the quality of renditions (Song & Cheung, 2019; Ma & Cheung, 2020). Japanese, Korean, and other European languages may use English loanwords in their respective languages. To facilitate the ease of relay from Chinese to other languages, some Chinese/English interpreters would adopt the codemixing strategy (Cheung, 2001) by including English terms in their Chinese renditions. Doing so may reduce the number of cognitive resources that interpreters listening to the relayed Chinese have to spend when interpreting into their target languages. However, very few interpreting textbooks mention how to conduct relays at multilingual conferences. Trainers with limited relay experience may find it challenging to share best relay practices with their trainees. 167

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The United Nations champions multilingualism by providing simultaneous interpreting in six official languages at several of its meetings and conferences, even though senior diplomats posted to the UN by different countries may be proficient in English (Cheung, 2019). Daily meetings of the United Nations Security Council are normally conducted in all six official languages. Delegates and participants can use any of the official languages. Delegates from Canada often alternate their presentations between English and French, both of which are UN official languages. Chinese interpretation is also available, even though members of the Chinese delegations may not rely on it to understand presentations in English. However, members of the delegation would monitor the English output when the Chinese delegation uses Chinese. Members of the Russian delegation behave similarly when their delegation speaks in Russian. The United Nations Security Council, which resorted to meetings using English without simultaneous interpreting during the COVID19-induced lockdown in New York (Cheung, 2022a, 2022b), suggests that the use of English is key to international communication. Interpreting textbooks may not discuss the interactive aspects of interpreting extensively. While accuracy may be essential to interpreting, interacting with different parties is an integral part of the interpreting process. Findings from corpus-based studies that investigated the differences between speakers’ source languages and renditions in target languages suggest that textual moderations (Cheung, 2009a, 2012a, 2012b, 2017; Cheung et al., 2013; Chew & Cheung, 2022; Peace et al., 2013; Pease & Cheung, 2018; Li et al., 2022; Zhang & Cheung, 2022) and interactive elements (Cheung, 2012a, 2017, 2018) from interpreters can be found in renditions. Most textbooks tend to focus on the textual aspects of the interpreting process. However, empirical evidence suggests that an interpreting user may also rely on other factors to perceive interpreting quality (Cheung, 2003, 2013, 2014b, 2015a, 2015b, 2018, 2020, 2022a), which include, but are not limited to, the use of reported speech, non-renditions, and non-native accents. The lack of discussion on these nontextual issues may have implications for the teaching and professional development of interpreting. In terms of teaching, the lack of discussion on the interactive aspects of interpreting may continue to project the illusion that interpreters are invisible and that their role is limited to linguistic aspects. As for professional development, the lack of discussion on the link, or the lack thereof, between interpreters’ accents and other paralinguistic features in the rendition could impact listeners’ perceptions of quality and may limit the teaching of interpreting to a contrastive approach (i.e., comparison between source and target languages).

10.4

Survey of interpreting textbook usage and discussion

Studies on the utilization of interpreting textbooks are limited. The results of a survey conducted among full- and part-time interpreting trainers indicate that more than 60% of them use textbooks in interpreting classes (Pavlisová, 2022). Therefore, we conducted an online survey to understand the condition of interpreting textbooks in mainland China. The survey invited participation from both MTI trainers and trainees. A link to an online survey was posted on WeChat, a Chinese instant messaging app, in a group with more than 300 members, many of whom are involved with interpreting as aspiring interpreters, interpreters, trainers, researchers, recruiters from translation agencies, or a combination of these. However, only self-professed current MTI trainers and trainees were able to participate in the survey. The participants were encouraged to fill out the survey and forward the survey link to others with similar backgrounds. The survey ended after five days, wherein a total of 98 trainers and 175 trainees participated. All responses were anonymized, and the personal information of the respondents were not collected. Moreover, the respondents did not receive any financial compensation. 168

The use of interpreting textbooks

The respondents were instructed to take a comprehensive approach when filling out the survey. They were asked to consider all interpreting subjects that they were involved in, teaching as a trainer or learning as a trainee, when responding to the general survey items because MTI curriculums offer multiple interpreting courses concurrently in one semester. However, the survey limited the type of interpreting textbooks to those that provide sample speeches in the source languages and suggested target language versions. Textbooks that do not provide these two types of speeches were not considered when responding to the survey. The survey adopted a very inclusive approach with modality and subject matters. All modalities, including sight translation, consecutive interpreting, simultaneous interpreting, conference, community interpreting, and dialogue interpreting, can be considered. Similarly, textbooks on all subject matters, including business, commerce, technology, tourism, medicine, and engineering, can be considered. Given that MTI curriculums often offer multiple interpreting courses, the respondents were instructed to consider the overall situation when responding to survey items that did not specify modalities and subject matters. Table 10.1 shows that the respondents predominately come from the Chinese/English combination. The large number of Chinese/English interpreting trainers correlates with the similarly overwhelming number of Chinese/English interpreting trainees. With such a large body of student population, it is likely that Chinese/English interpreting textbooks may outnumber those of other language combinations. Most publishing resources would be spent on Chinese/English textbooks, leaving trainers and trainees of other language combinations with fewer options. Thus, publishers that have published interpreting textbooks of other language combinations may not be motivated to update or revise outdated textbooks because of the relatively lower demand. As a result, trainers and trainees may need to rely on other sources, such as online materials or textbooks published in other countries. The second largest group of respondents is the Chinese/Korean combination. There are ethnic Koreans who are Chinese nationals in China, and many of them live in Yanbian, Jilin Province, where the language policy allows schools and public services to be conducted in both Korean and Chinese. Many Chinese/Korean conference interpreters who are active in the Chinese mainland market are ethnic Koreans from China. Several of them received education in both Korean and Chinese and became bilinguals. The type of Korean that they use may be slightly different but comprehensible to people from South Korea and North Korea because ethnic Koreans in Yanbian speak the dialect of Hamkeng Do, where most of their ancestors came from (Park, 2003). There are differences in terms of terminology and expressions in the Korean language used in South Korea and North Korea (Lim et al., 2016). Given the economic links between China and South Korea, Chinese/Korean interpreters were trained to use the type of language commonly used in South Korea, where most Korean-speaking conference participants come from. None of the survey respondents came from such language combinations as Chinese/Arabic and Chinese/German. Only trainers for the Chinese/French and Chinese/Russian combinations responded to the survey. Table 10.2 shows the utilization of interpreting textbooks among all respondents. All respondents reported having used textbooks, which is probably an indication of survivorship bias. The Table 10.1 Respondents’ language combinations  

English

French

Japanese

Korean

Russian

Spanish

Total

Trainers Trainees

74 153

1 0

7 4

13 17

1 0

2 1

98 175

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social media invitation post indicated that the survey was about the use of textbooks in interpreting classes. Probably only those who used textbooks in interpreting classes responded to the survey. Those who did not use or did not agree with the idea of using textbooks in interpreting classes may have ignored the post. More than a quarter of the trainers who responded indicated that they used textbooks exclusively in their classes, and only 15% indicated that textbooks were only occasionally used in their teaching. As for trainees, more than 60% indicated that textbooks were used in their classes, and a negligible 3% indicated that only occasionally were textbooks used in their classes. The respondents were then asked to indicate the subject that used textbooks most extensively. Table 10.3 shows that textbooks were used extensively in sight translation classes, followed by consecutive interpreting and then simultaneous interpreting. Table 10.3 also shows the use of textbooks by respondents of different language combinations. The analysis focuses on Chinese/English, Chinese/Korean, and Chinese/Japanese because the number of respondents with European languages is too few for any meaningful analysis to be conducted. The use of textbooks by respondents of these three Asian languages is very similar, wherein textbooks are used mostly for sight translation classes. The fact that textbooks were used most extensively in sight translation classes can be attributed to the nature of sight translation; that is, written texts are important in sight translation classes. Sight translation textbooks appear to be popular among trainers and trainees, probably because they provide written texts in both languages that can facilitate teaching and self-learning. Written texts may not be as important to consecutive and simultaneous interpreting classes as they are to sight translation classes. Sight translation textbooks feature a variety of written texts that interpreters may encounter professionally. They may also include textual features, such as formulaic expressions, numbers, and names of places that appear frequently in conference settings and are ideal for training purposes, regardless of interpreting mode. However, spoken languages are more important to consecutive and simultaneous interpreters. Therefore, audio and/or video recordings are used extensively in both consecutive Table 10.2 Textbook usage  

Exclusively

Trainers Trainees

27 108

Mostly 28% 62%

33 50

Sometimes 34% 29%

23 11

Occasionally 23% 6%

14 6

Total 15% 3%

98 175

Table 10.3 Use of textbooks by language combinations Chinese/English

Chinese/Korean

Chinese/Japanese

Chinese/Spanish

Chinese/ Chinese/ French Russian

Trainers Trainees Trainers Trainees Trainers Trainees Trainers Trainees Trainer Trainer Sight translation Consecutive interpreting Simultaneous interpreting Total number

89% 10%

77% 20%

85% 11%

78% 22%

71% 29%

81% 19%

100% 0%

100% 0%

100% 0%

100% 0%

1%

2%

4%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

7

4

2

1

1

1

74

153

13

17

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and simultaneous interpreting classes. Video recordings are especially important for interpreting sign languages. Some consecutive and simultaneous interpreting textbooks provide recordings for teaching or self-learning settings. However, these recordings may not be too realistic for interpreting classes and are more suitable for language learning than for interpreting. Similar to some audio recordings for language learning, audio recordings that most interpreting textbooks provide tend to be heavily scripted and produced in studios by native speakers. Some common features that interpreters encounter in their professional practice include false openings, unnatural pauses, incomplete sentences, hesitations, repetitions, and non-native accents. While it is true that some conference speakers read from prepared scripts and can deliver their speeches flawlessly like professional voice actors, the majority of speeches by conference speakers are peppered with features that may be frowned upon by many language teachers. Multiple online resources are available for teaching and self-learning. Trainers and trainees can download videos from the Internet for consecutive and simultaneous classes should they wish to use polished and scripted oral speeches. For instance, video recordings of TED Talks in English can be downloaded. Some of these recordings even come with translated scripts in Chinese that can be saved separately from the videos. These recordings and their corresponding translated scripts in Chinese can be used for consecutive and simultaneous classes that involve listening to, rather than reading, the source language. Recorded videos in Mandarin Chinese can be found on Yi-xi, which many consider as the Chinese equivalent of TED Talks. Similar to TED Talk videos, recordings from Yi-xi may also sound scripted and well-rehearsed. However, some of these speakers may sound more natural than audio recordings from interpreting textbooks, probably because these presentations were addressed to a live audience. In addition, some of these speakers may have very brief interactions with members of their audience. Trainers may also use audio recordings from interpreting assignments. Some trainers who teach consecutive and/or simultaneous interpreting classes may have practical experience and would use audio recordings from their previous assignments. This approach had become even more convenient during the pandemic when international travel became very restrictive. For speakers from other countries, conference organizers may require them to submit pre-recorded videos to be used at conferences. Conference organizers would provide these videos to interpreters for preparation or for pre-recording of simultaneous interpreting. However, some of these videos may not sound as natural because many speakers stand in front of a computer camera instead of a live audience when

Table 10.4 Purpose of interpreting textbooks Trainers

Check understanding of my foreign language Check renditions in both my foreign and native languages Interpreting theories Interpreting techniques Terminology Professional aspects Total

171

Trainees

Number of respondents

Percentage

Number of respondents

Percentage

45 38 4 7 1 3 98

46% 39% 4% 7% 1% 3% 100%

74 81 3 5 10 2 175

42% 46% 2% 3% 6% 1% 100%

Mingri Jin 김명일 and Andrew K.F. Cheung

pre-recording these videos. While these pre-recorded videos for online conferences may not sound natural, they are a type of source-language material used at genuine conferences with interpreting services. Using this type of learning materials for teaching and/or self-learning may have pedagogical benefits, as these are source-language materials that interpreters encounter professionally in genuine, albeit online, settings. The respondents were then invited to indicate the most important purpose when using interpreting textbooks (see Table 10.4). Almost half of the trainers (46%) stated that they used textbooks to check their understanding of their respective foreign languages as the most important purpose. Trainers ranked comparing renditions to the suggested versions as the second most important purpose for interpreting textbooks. Trainees also ranked these two purposes highly but in reverse orders, as comparing their renditions to the suggested versions ranked first and checking their understanding in foreign languages ranked second. The force-feeding education style, which is common in China, where high school seniors have to pass very competitive university entrance exams, may have contributed to textbook users’ heavy reliance on textbooks to either check their understanding of a foreign language or compare their renditions to the suggested versions. Meanwhile, numerous students and even teachers may choose rote learning of model answers as their modus operandi when learning and teaching. Given that textbooks provide readily available sources and target texts with occasional annotations, which meet textbook users’ needs for model answers, textbook authors may be assumed to have the needed knowledge and expertise to select appropriate and relevant source language materials and provide suggested target-language translation. The need to pass professional tests may also lead to dependence on textbooks to check their understanding and verify translations. The China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters, hereinafter referred to as CATTI, is a Chinese qualification for translators and interpreters. In addition to Chinese/English, the CATTI is also available for Chinese/Arabic, Chinese/French, Chinese/German, Chinese/Japanese, Chinese/Korean, Chinese/Portuguese, Chinese/Spanish, and Chinese/Russian language combinations. CATTI qualifications may be required when applying for translation or interpreting positions. Therefore, some MTI students and graduates may wish to pass the China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters tests to obtain the CATTI qualifications. With these qualifications and their MA degrees, MTI graduates may find it easier to convince potential employers to hire them for positions that involve translation and/or interpreting. CATTI test preparation books are available in various language combinations. It is possible that trainers and trainees may use CATTI preparation books as textbooks in classes. One of the potential motivations for using CATTI preparation books as textbooks may be attributed to the number of students who have passed CATTI tests, which is one of the parameters when assessing trainers and departments involved in MTI programs. Finally, the respondents were invited to indicate whether there was anything they wished textbooks would include but was currently missing. Table 10.5 shows that more than 60% of trainers Table 10.5 If something is missing from the textbooks currently in use

Trainers Trainees

Yes

No

Total

61 35

37 140

98 175

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indicated that something was still missing from the textbooks that they were using, while only 20% of the trainees held the same view. To probe further, the respondents who answered YES were given the option to suggest what needs to be included in the future before submitting the survey. Only a small fraction of the trainerrespondents wrote anything, while all of the trainee-respondents submitted the survey without writing anything. The following is a list of items suggested by the trainers: • • • • •

Teaching methods Assessment methods Rationale for choosing sample speeches Raw recordings by interpreters rather than polished recordings from studios Genuine source language speeches rather than radio announcers reading from prepared scripts

Apparently, trainers want publishers to provide instructional guides on how to properly utilize the textbooks, probably because most trainers do not have sufficient training in teaching. Some of them may be experienced interpreters but have little teaching training. This also partly explains why some trainers wished that publishers would explain why certain source language speeches were chosen because they may want to know how to select the teaching materials. Others also wanted publishers to use genuine sources and target materials, probably because using the speeches and suggested interpretations may be too frustrating to struggling trainees.

10.5

Conclusion

Research on the use of textbooks in the teaching of interpreting is limited. To cater to the needs of trainers and trainees involved in MTI at 200 institutes in China, textbooks for interpreting are widely available, covering various language combinations, but with Mandarin Chinese as the pivot language. A survey was conducted to investigate the views of trainers and trainees on the use of interpreting textbooks in China. The survey indicates that textbooks were used mostly in sight translation subjects, probably because sight translation classes train interpreters to render written texts orally. Meanwhile, most respondents used textbooks to either verify their understanding of the source language or compare their interpretations with the suggested versions. Finally, the trainerrespondents suggested that teaching guides should be included in textbooks, and genuine recordings of speakers and interpreters should be used. One of the limitations of this survey is survivorship bias. The respondents were limited to those who used textbooks as teaching or self-learning materials. To foster a more comprehensive understanding, future surveys should also be conducted amongst those who do not use textbooks.

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Mingri Jin 김명일 and Andrew K.F. Cheung Borhani, S. H. (2022). Textbooks on Israel-Palestine: The politics of education and knowledge in the west. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Cheung, A. K. (2023). Remote simultaneous interpreting from home or hub: Accuracy of numbers from English into Mandarin Chinese. In Translation and interpreting in the age of COVID-19 (pp. 113–132). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. Cheung, A. K. F. (2001). Code-mixing and simultaneous interpretation training. The Interpreters’ Newsletter, 11, 57–62. Cheung, A. K. F. (2003). Does accent matter? The impact of accent in simultaneous interpretation into Mandarin and Cantonese on perceived performance quality and listener satisfaction level. In A. Collados Aís, M. Fernández Sanchez, & D. Gile (Eds.), Evaluación de la calidad en interpretación de conferencia investigación (pp. 85–96). Peligos: Interlingua. Cheung, A. K. F. (2007). The effectiveness of summary training in consecutive interpreting (CI) delivery. FORUM, 5(2), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.5.2.01che Cheung, A. K. F. (2008). Simultaneous interpreting of numbers: An experimental study. FORUM, 6(2), 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.6.2.02kfc Cheung, A. K. F. (2009a). 中英交替传译之显化现象:案例分析 (Zhongying Jiaoti Chuanyi Zhi Xianhua Xianxiang: Anli Fenxi) (Explicitation in consecutive interpreting from Chinese into English: A case study). Chinese Translators Journal, 5, 77–81. Cheung, A. K. F. (2009b). Numbers in simultaneous interpreting: An experimental study. FORUM, 7(2), 61–88. https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.7.2.03che Cheung, A. K. F. (2012a). The use of reported speech by court interpreters in Hong Kong. Interpreting, 14(1), 73–91. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.14.1.04che Cheung, A. K. F. (2012b). Omission in simultaneous interpreting: Word order differences. FORUM, 10(2), 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.10.2.02che Cheung, A. K. F. (2013). Non-native accents and simultaneous interpreting quality perceptions. Interpreting, 15(1), 25–47. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.15.1.02che Cheung, A. K. F. (2014a). Anglicized numerical denominations as a coping tactic for simultaneous interpreting from English into Mandarin Chinese: An experimental study. FORUM, 12(1), 1–22. https://doi. org/10.1075/forum.12.1.01che Cheung, A. K. F. (2014b). The use of reported speech and the perceived neutrality of court interpreters. Interpreting, 16(2), 191–208. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.16.2.03che Cheung, A. K. F. (2015a). Scapegoating the interpreter for listeners’ dissatisfaction with their level of understanding: An experimental study. Interpreting, 17(1), 46–63. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.17.1.03che Cheung, A. K. F. (2015b). Accent. In F. Pöchhacker (Ed.), Routledge encyclopedia of interpreting studies (pp. 1–2). Oxfordshire: Routledge. Cheung, A. K. F. (2016). Paraphrasing exercises and training for Chinese to English consecutive interpreting. FORUM, 14(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.14.1.01che Cheung, A. K. F. (2017). Non-renditions in court interpreting: A corpus-based study. Babel, 63(2), 174–199. https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.63.2.02che Cheung, A. K. F. (2018). Non-renditions and the court interpreter’s perceived impartiality: A role-play study. Interpreting, 20(2), 232–258. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.00011.che Cheung, A. K. F. (2019). The hidden curriculum revealed in study trip reflective essays. In D. B. Sawyer, F. Austermühl, & V. E. Raído (Eds.), The evolving curriculum in interpreter and translator education: Stakeholder perspectives and voices (pp. 393–408). Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi. org/10.1075/ata.xix.19che Cheung, A. K. F. (2020). Interpreters’ perceived characteristics and perception of quality in interpreting. Interpreting, 22(1), 35–55. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.00033.che Cheung, A. K. F. (2022a). Listeners’ perception of the quality of simultaneous interpreting and perceived dependence on simultaneous Interpreting. Interpreting, 24(1), 38–58. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.00070.che Cheung, A. K. F. (2022b). COVID-19 and interpreting. INContext: Studies in Translation and Interculturalism, 2(2), 9–13. Cheung, A. K., & Li, T. (2022). Machine aided interpreting: An experiment of automatic speech recognition in simultaneous interpreting. Translation Quarterly, 104, 1–20.

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The use of interpreting textbooks Chew, S. K., & Cheung, A. K. (2022). Media interpreting into Malaysian Sign language: Adaptations and strategies. INContext: Studies in Translation and Interculturalism, 2(2), 112–36. https://doi.org/10.54754/ incontext.v2i2.23 Davies, K., Heinsch, M., Tickner, C., Brosnan, C., Steel, A., Patel, G., & Marsh, M. (2022). Classifying knowledge used in complementary medicine consultations: A qualitative systematic review. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, 22(1), 1–13. Day, A. (2019). Textbooks for teaching the sociology of religion. Religion, 49(2), 296–307. Evans, B. E. (2010). Chinese perceptions of inner circle varieties of English. World Englishes, 29(2), 270–280. Hubert, M. (2017). Teaching translation to foreign-language majors. In L. Venuti (Ed.), Teaching translation: Programs, courses, pedagogies. London: Routledge. Kelly, D. (2005). A handbook for translator trainers. Manchester: St Jerome. Kim, W. J. (2021). Exploratory content analysis: Whiteness in Korean middle school science textbooks. Multicultural Education Review, 13(2), 163–178. Klerides, E. (2010). Imagining the textbook: Textbooks as discourse and genre. Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, 2(1), 31–54. Li, R., Cheung, A. K., & Liu, K. (2022). A corpus-based investigation of extra-textual, connective, and emphasizing additions in English-Chinese conference interpreting. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi. org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.847735 Lim, J., Chung, S., & Song, J. (2016). Comparison between South and North Korean terminologies in child and family domains of family life education. Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association, 28(2), 61–78. Liu, K., & Cheung, A. K. (2023). Translation and interpreting in the age of COVID-19: Challenges and opportunities. In Translation and interpreting in the age of COVID-19 (pp. 1–10). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. Liu, K., Kwok, H. L., Liu, J., & Cheung, A. K. (2022). Sustainability and influence of machine translation: Perceptions and attitudes of translation instructors and learners in Hong Kong. Sustainability, 14(11), 6399. Ma, X., & Cheung, A. K. F. (2020). Language interference in English-Chinese simultaneous interpreting with and without text. Babel, 66(3), 434–456. https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00168.che Mazzei, C., & Aibo, L. J. R. I. (2022). The Routledge guide to teaching translation and interpreting online. London: Routledge. Oral, S. B. (2013). What is wrong with using textbooks in education? Educational Philosophy and Theory, 45(3), 318–333. Park, Y. (2003). A preliminary study of the language of ethnic Koreans in China: Toward a sociolinguistic understanding. Kyoto University Linguistic Research, 22, 1–21. Pavlisová, H. (2022). Interpreter training–a survey of the Czech Republic. Teaching translation vs. training translators. In M. Kubánek, O. Klabal, & O. Molnár (Eds.), Teaching translation vs. training translators proceedings of the international conference translation and interpreting forum Olomouc 2019 (pp. 81–97). Olomouc: Palacký University. Peace, A., Cheung, J., & Cheung, K. F. A. (2013). Application of formal ontology to discourse analysis and lexical markup in legal interpreting. In Asian association for lexicography international conference [ASIALEX] (pp. 332–338). Asian Association for Lexicography. Pease, A., & Cheung, A. (2018). Toward a semantic concordancer. In Proceedings of the 9th global wordnet conference Singapore (pp. 97–104). Singapore: GWC2018. Song, S., & Cheung, A. K. F. (2019). Disfluency in relay and non-relay simultaneous interpreting: An initial exploration. FORUM. Revue internationale d’interprétation et de traduction, 17(1), 1–19. https://doi. org/10.1075/forum.18016.che Stewart, D. (2011). Translation textbooks: Translation into English as a foreign language. Intralinea Online Translation Journal, 13, 1–15. Talaga, J. (1989). Forecasting methods and practices of academic textbook publishers. Book Research Quarterly, 5(4), 58–67. Uzum, B., Yazan, B., Zahrawi, S., Bouamer, S., & Malakaj, E. (2021). A comparative analysis of cultural representations in collegiate world language textbooks (Arabic, French, and German). Linguistics and Education, 61, 100901. Van Lier, L. (1996). Interaction in the language curriculum; awareness, autonomy, and authenticity. London: Longman.

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Mingri Jin 김명일 and Andrew K.F. Cheung Wijekumar, K., Zhang, S., Joshi, R. M., & Peti-Stantic, A. (2021). Introduction to the special issue: Textbook content and organization – why it matters to reading comprehension in elementary grades? Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 26(2), 243–249. Wu, B., Cheung, A. K. F., & Xing, J. (2021). Learning Chinese political formulaic phraseology from a selfbuilt bilingual United Nations Security Council corpus: A pilot study. Babel, 67(4), 500–521. https://doi. org/10.1075/babel.00233.wu Yang, D. C., & Sianturi, I. A. J. (2019). The earliest teaching and learning of probability in Singapore, the US, and Indonesia from the perspectives of textbooks analysis. Irish Educational Studies, 38(4), 535–559. Zhang, Y., & Cheung, A. K. (2022). A corpus-based study of modal verbs in Chinese–English governmental press conference interpreting. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1065077

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11 AN ANALYSIS OF CONFERENCE INTERPRETING PRACTICES FOR EFFECTIVE PEDAGOGY Considerations for simultaneous interpretation between Korean and French Hyewon Pyoun 편혜원 11.1 An analysis of conference interpreting practices for effective pedagogy The current era is undoubtedly a time of transformation, and conference interpreting is no exception. Without making an exhaustive list, the changes in the Korean/French conference interpretation market over the past ten years are numerous; for example, an increase in the number of conferences requiring simultaneous interpretation, an increase in the number of international conferences requiring more than three languages, and the advent of new technologies that have facilitated remote interpretation. While conference interpreting and simultaneous interpreting were developed very early in Europe, South Korea was a latecomer to the market and, as if to make up for its delay, has since experienced a spectacular rise. Indeed, while the number of international conferences1 organized in 1991 was 32, this number has increased to 1,297 in 2017, making Korea the largest conference organizer in the world.2 Struck by the COVID-19 pandemic, the market is certainly experiencing a sharp decline, with 256 conferences organized in 2020, but Korea is quickly regaining its status, ranking second in 2021, with 473 meetings. The figure for 2022 has not yet been made public, but the hybrid format that has become widespread has made it easier to organize conferences by erasing geographical constraints. This chapter proposes to take stock of current conference interpreting practices in the Korean market in support of an update of the curriculum in schools of interpreting and translation; for interpreting education cannot exist without a strong presence in the field (Pan, 2016). Camilo (2004) thus stated that “trainers must be practicing Conference Interpreters,” while, according to Han (2016), A detailed description of real-life interpreting practices is beneficial to interpreter educators and assessors, as it could be used to inform pedagogical practice, there has so far been little attempt to focus such practical details of real-life conference interpreting practice. (p. 259)

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However, despite many shifts and advances in the field, interpreting pedagogy has been slow to embrace all these changes, persisting in the teaching methods of the past. In Korea, the first interpreting graduate school was established in 1979 with eight languages: English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic. Since then, twelve schools have been offering master’s-level interpretation and translation courses, but the first school was the only one with a French/Korean department until 1999, when a second school appeared with a French/Korean language combination department. Unlike other interpreting schools in Korea, which are all bilingual, this school has trilingual courses with a language combination that must include English and Korean. This means that students can apply for a Korean-English-French combination but not for a Korean-French-Spanish combination, for example. This chapter aims to describe current practices in the conference interpreting market in the Korean/French language combination. To this end, a survey was conducted among conference interpreters for the Korean/French language pair working in the Korean market. We then elaborated some considerations on the pedagogical implications that can be derived from practices in the field.

11.2 11.2.1

Methodology

Literature on conference interpreting practices

Interpreting studies cannot exist without an examination of the practice of conference interpreting. In that case, what are the practices described in studies on conference interpreting? We suggest taking a closer look at the practices of simultaneous interpreting as described in previous studies, in order to draw a comparison with what is actually happening in the field in Korea. As standards for interpretation, Harris (1990) presented the following: a) the interpreter speaks in the first person as if s/he was the orator; b) in professional simultaneous interpreting, several persons take turns; c) the norm taught in Western European interpreting schools that professional conference interpreters should only work in their A language; d) it is inevitable that mistakes and infelicities creep in that would not be considered tolerable in written translation. Nevertheless, while citing these norms, Harris also pointed out that the c-standard may not be valid in some countries. Setton (2009) already acknowledged that “practice is fully bidirectional in China.” This is also the case in Korea, where the Korean/French interpreting market is characterized by a strong dominance of interpretation into language B (French, in our study), especially in large multilingual international conferences. Within international conferences held in Korea, apart from English, all other languages are bound to only be minority languages. We do not need to refer to specific studies to be able to deduce that most of the delegates at a conference are English speakers, which means that the interpreters working in the Korean/French booth have a much greater task of interpreting into their B language. Rosendo and Diur (2021) explained that, in these cases, a team of three interpreters is the norm, especially in conferences of international organizations. However, in the Korean market, although in international conferences the direction of Korean into French is largely dominant compared to French into Korean, the norm is a booth comprising two interpreters. This may be due to budgetary reasons, with the client likely feeling that a booth with two interpreters is already expensive enough, but also in part due to the fact that the history of simultaneous interpretation in Korea is relatively short, and interpreters have not been able to assert their own rights in order to protect their profession. In Europe, while the first case of conference interpreting appeared during the peace treaty negotiations in Paris and during the simultaneous interpreting at the Nuremberg Trials (Baigorri-Jalón et al., 2021), the history of conference interpreting in Korea only really began 178

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with the establishment of the country’s first interpreting college in 1979 (Won, 2015). The market expanded without any real awareness of the profession on the part of interpreters, who had to bow to the law of supply and demand. The work of interpreters in Korea becomes more difficult with speakers who prefer to read from a written text rather than give an improvised speech. Setton’s (2011) statement that “ceremonial speeches are more common in China than elsewhere” also applies to Korea. The difficulties of dealing with written texts have already been widely cited in previous studies (Rosendo, 2021; Macías & Zwischenberger, 2021; Déjean, 1978; Gile, 1995; Messina, 1998; Setton, 1999). The specific characteristics of a text that is read aloud represent a cognitive load to interpreters and are directly linked with the quality of interpretation. The boom in remote interpreting complicates the work of interpreters, who must now interpret pre-recorded video messages. Often, interpreters have access to the video but not to the scripts; sometimes the scripts are sent with the video, but often the scripts are not an exact transcription of the video. The video format represents extra preparation work for the interpreter (Pyoun, 2022). Conference interpreting practices cited by European authors do not necessarily apply to the Korean market which, although the country is one of the most important organizers of international conferences, shows different practices that seem to be due to the relatively short history of conference interpreting.

11.2.2

Survey context

A survey of interpreters in the field is probably the most effective way of observing practices in the market; however, caution should be exercised when surveying Korean/French interpreters, as French is a minority language and the pool of interpreters working with French can only be small. Pöchhacker (2009) observed the limitations of a small sample, which makes survey-based research difficult. In Korea, the number of conference interpreters working with Korean and French does not exceed twenty. For liaison or escort interpreting, this number may be higher, but it would not be misleading to say that the number of interpreters who can provide simultaneous interpreting is around twenty. Therefore, this article limits its focus to conference interpreters, “a high-profile expert with excellent languages” according to Diriker (2011). The international conferences with more than two Korean/French simultaneous interpretation booths organized during this last year (from December 2021 to November 2022) were, in chronological order, the following: 1) the 2021 Seoul UN Peacekeeping Ministerial, 2) the 2021 Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit, 3) the XV World Forestry Congress, 4) the 7th UCLG World Congress, and 5) the 16th International Congress of Educating Cities. Among these conferences, the World Forestry Congress, which took place between May 2 and May 6, 2022, mobilized twenty Korean/French interpreters with its ten parallel sessions organized throughout the week. The World Forestry Congress was the largest event organized in Korea with so many interpreters and mobilized the maximum number of simultaneous Korean/French interpreters available on the market. A first survey of these interpreters was conducted immediately after the World Forestry Congress, between May 23 and 30, 2022, and a second survey for additional information was conducted between October 30 and November 5, 2022. A Google Form link was sent on the KakaoTalk mobile messaging app to eighteen interpreters who had attended the Congress; all of them completed the questionnaire. For a relatively small population, we can conclude that this sample is broadly representative of the Korean/French conference interpreting market. Consequently, this study accurately reflects current practices in an interesting context where, despite the public health crisis, all 179

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the sessions of the Congress were held face-to-face, with some sessions in a hybrid format, where some orators spoke online or sent their pre-recorded video messages.

11.3 11.3.1

Results

Demographic data

The first section of the questionnaire reveals the interpreters’ profiles as Figure 11.1. Out of eighteen respondents, only two are men (11.1%). In terms of age, one person was between twenty and 29 years old, seven were between 40 and 49, and ten (55.6%) were between 30 and 39. The average number of years of professional experience in interpreting was 11.17 years, with six people having more than fifteen years of experience. Regarding the language combination, nine respondents answered that they used English as a working language. All of them graduated from the Korean/French or Korean/French/English departments of the interpreting school in Korea. Given that only two people had undergone the trilingual training, we can deduce that the rest had integrated English into their language combination during their professional career.

11.3.2

Supporting material

A section of the questionnaire was dedicated to the World Forest Congress; including preparations, the share of documents received varied widely, ranging from 10% to 80% depending on the session, with PowerPoint documents accounting for the largest share, as well as video messages and scripts. The vast majority of documents were received either the day before or on the day of the conference

Variables

No.

Gender Female

%

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Male

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5.6%

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Interpreter training Korean/French Korean/French/English Employment status Freelance

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Freelance and interpreting teacher

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Between 5 and 8 years Between 9 and 12 years

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Between 13 and 16 years

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More than 17 years

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Figure 11.1 Demographic data

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(sixteen people), illustrating the extent to which interpreters suffer from lack of preparation time. This result is in line with Han’s (2016) study and we can easily deduce that the situation must be quite similar worldwide. Compared to small meetings where the interpreter asks for documents either from the interpreters’ agency, the event organizer, or the speaker themselves, for large meetings, 94.4% responded that they asked the agency. It should be noted that, of the documents received, none of them stated that they had access to material in French. Six declared that they had only received documents in English. In total, fifteen people declared that more than 60% of the documents they received were in English. Regarding the preferred language of the documents, English was chosen by seven people for the ease of finding equivalents in either Korean or French, stating that, for technical terms that are not well known, instead of translating them into Korean, it is enough to keep the terms in English. Six people explained the choice of English by the fact that, compared to Korean, English has a syntax closer to that of French, so the preparation work is easier. Seven people indicated, however, that they prefer the documents to be in the language of the speakers but recognize that the PowerPoint documents can only be written in English for the audience. Lee (2017) explained that speakers opt for PowerPoint in order to attract more attention from the audience and that, to satisfy a multilingual audience, English is the preferred language. Pöchhacker had already explained, in 1995, that English is the lingua franca in scientific meetings and this trend has only become more widespread over time. Regarding the preference between hard copies and soft copies, each option received 50%. It is interesting to see that, in the age group between 40 and 49 (seven people in total), five people chose hard copies. Is there a link between age and digital preference? The question deserves to be explored in a later study concerning document preparation methods, whether on paper, on tablets, or on laptops. The observation of practices in the booths already shows that, for the same document, some interpreters come with a paper version, while others prefer to make annotations either on their tablets or on their laptops. As we can see in Figure 11.2 regarding the presentation medium, 50% said they preferred PowerPoint; they felt that PowerPoint allowed for prior documentation on the subject with technical terms that could be studied in advance. The readout of a text given to the interpreters in advance was preferred by seven respondents. This choice is very controversial, as some disapprove of this method, saying that the work lacks interest and quickly becomes boring; that the reading rate is inevitably too fast (six respondents); or that the density of information is too high. It is interesting

Mix 22% From English into French if there is a script 6%

Relay (Interpretation from Korean into French) 50%

From English into French (without relay) 22%

Figure 11.2 Preferred speech mode

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to note that these are either people with considerable experience in simultaneous interpretation or relatively new interpreters who have opted for this choice. Of these seven, four are interpreters with between three and six years of experience and whose share of simultaneous interpretation during any year represents only 5% of their total interpreting work. These interpreters are more accustomed to consecutive interpreting and prefer to have the text in order to be able to prepare it in detail in advance, as this reassures them that they are offering high-quality services. The other three, on the other hand, are more experienced interpreters with professional experience ranging from twelve to nineteen years and whose share of simultaneous interpreting represents more than 75% of their yearly work. The reason for which they prefer this mode is the higher fidelity and coverage. As presented in Figure 11.3, the use of a script written in advance is a double-edged sword because, if the speaker does not pass it on to the interpreters in due time, it becomes a source of difficulty for the interpreters. Indeed, when asked what the most difficult speech mode is, the majority (sixteen people) cited “reading a script that was not shared in advance.” The causes given were the rapid flow of the text (fifteen people), the characteristics of a written text (nine people), and the high density of information (five people). The interpreters explained that the risk of omission becomes high in such cases. Regarding the main mode of speech at the Congress as presented in Figure 11.4, a natural presentation based on a PowerPoint given to the interpreters in advance was the dominant model. Four people mentioned the readout of an unshared script. While the AIIC (International Association of Conference Interpreters) recommends that “working documents and texts to be read out at the conference be sent to them in advance,” and interpreters stress the importance of being able to prepare in advance when the written text is read out, in many cases, the speakers do not understand the interpreter’s work sufficiently or, due to lack of time or organization, the text is not sent to the interpreters (Allain, 2010). In such large conferences, where interpreters do not have direct contact with the organizers, it becomes even more complicated to receive documents in time. Eleven respondents said that what made interpreting most difficult was the lack of documents sent out in advance. In Korea, there is no “chief interpreter” system like in Europe, and often, the interpreters on site contact the interpreting agency that recruited them. The agency will then contact the PCO (Professional Conference Organizer) that recruited them. The PCO will contact the organizers’ secretariat; often, there are two parties, the secretariat of the headquarters of the international organization and the secretariat of the Korean co-organizer. The PCO often has only the point of contact on the Korean side, which

Annotation on the english text to facilitate sight translation 11% Translation of the english text 17%

Post-editing after English French automatic translation 44%

English French automatic translation just to catch the meaning of the text 28%

Figure 11.3 Most difficult speech mode

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Conference interpreting practices for effective pedagogy Eyes and ears on the native language of the speaker 6% Eyes on korean text, ears on original english speaker 5%

Eyes on english text, ears on relay interpreting booth 44%

Eyes on korean text, ears on relay interpreting booth 17% Eyes on english text, ears on original english speaker 28%

Figure 11.4 Main speech mode during the Congress

complicates communication. This long chain of communication makes it difficult to share documents, and if the system of interaction with interpreters is not a well-functioning one, interpreters can often end up being left out. Many interpreters already have experience of delegates in the room reading and discussing a document that has not been provided to them; some interpreters will ask the staff in the room during the break if any files have been passed on by the speakers. There is also another problem where some senior figures are reluctant to share their pre-written speeches with the interpreters. While these texts are often sent to the press in advance with the words “under embargo,” the interpreters do not get the same treatment and are forced to simultaneously interpret a speech as it is being read out, without having the text in their hands.

11.3.3

Directly from English to French or via Korean

What Allain (2010) wrote about Japanese interpreters—who are almost all bilingual and not trilingual like interpreters in Europe—also applies to Korean interpreters. In Korea, apart from a handful of trilingual Korean/French/English interpreters who interpret between French and English, most multilingual conferences are interpreted in relay. For the question, “Does the relay constitute an additional burden?”, the difficulties cited were: being the pivot because the other language booths are dependent on interpretation (seven responses); paying attention to the handling of the buttons by the interpreting unit, especially for the output language (five responses); and being dependent on the interpretation of the pivot booths (two responses). Four people replied that the relay did not represent an additional burden for them, either because they interpreted directly from English without going through the relay booth or because they did not feel hampered by the relay. While some Korean/French interpreters can interpret directly from English, this is not the case for the vast majority of other languages. In Korea, for example, it is virtually impossible to find interpreters who interpret from Spanish into French or vice versa. This suggests that for a conference with three languages, relay is the rule of thumb. Concerning the direction of the interpretation, ten people answered that more than 95% of their work was simultaneous from Korean into French. For three respondents, the proportion of Korean into French was 75%, and only four stated that they had translated into Korean for more than 90% of their work. This illustrates our argument that simultaneous interpretation into language B is largely dominant in the market. 183

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As presented in Figure 11.5, half of the respondents go through the relay when the speaker is an Anglophone, and more than a quarter juggle between the speaker’s English and the Korean from the pivot booth, depending on the situation. Indeed, some explained that they interpreted directly from English into French if the speaker faithfully followed the script that had been shared in advance, if the speaker spoke easy and understandable English, and if the quality of the performance from the pivot booth was poor. Figure 11.6 shows that machine translation tools are actively used by interpreters in their daily work. We can observe that 72% use machine translation to prepare the documents. As shown in Figure 11.7, when texts are provided simultaneously in Korean and English, the working method varies according to the interpreters. Each interpreter can choose either to watch Korean or English supporting material, listen to the English speech, or listen to the interpretation into Korean in order to interpret into French. The responses show that the most frequent method is to prioritize the English text, do the post-editing after machine translation into French, and then

Coherent speech without a script 6% Improvised speech without a script 5%

Natural presentation with PPT provided in advance 50%

Readout of previously provided script 39%

Figure 11.5 Interpretation mode when the speaker is an Anglophone

Illogical presentation 6% Quick readout of script provided in advance 5% Readout of unshared script 89%

Figure 11.6 Preparation method for interpretation into French with English documents

184

Conference interpreting practices for effective pedagogy DISCOURS IMPROVISÉ

3

LECTURE DU SCRIPT NON PARTAGÉ

4

LECTURE DU SCRIPT DONNÉ À L’AVANCE

5

PRÉSENTATION NATURELLE SUR PPT NON PARTAGÉ

7

PRÉSENTATION NATURELLE SUR PPT DONNÉ L’AVANCE

14 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

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Principal mode de présentation

Figure 11.7 Mode of interpretation into French when documents are provided simultaneously in English and Korean

interpret into French by listening to the pivot booth. In everyday life, Korean/French interpreters are systematically confronted with a difference in language between the listening language, the reading language, and the spoken language.

11.3.4

Educational implications

As a Korean/French conference interpreter and teacher of Korean/French interpreting at one of the interpreting and translation schools in Seoul, the author has been able to closely follow the evolution of interpreting practices, while the teaching methodology in the schools remained more or less unchanged over the last twenty years. The practices that emerge from this survey are as follows. First, although two respondents underwent trilingual training, about three-quarters of the interpreters interpreted from English material, while almost half of the interpreters occasionally chose to do without relay interpretation. Second, about three-quarters of the interpreters use the machine translation tool in their preparations for meetings. Although the automatically processed texts are not used as such, they are an important source of information and facilitate the interpreters’ work. According to the questionnaire, when asked, “What would you have liked to learn at the interpreting school?”, six people regretted that interpreting exercises at school were mainly conducted with speeches, whereas, in the field, they had to deal more with other speech formats (debates without scripts, Q&As, PowerPoint presentations in English, video messages). Four people mentioned the need for training with a text read out at a fast rate; two respondents mentioned the need to become familiar with the different French accents; two others mentioned the need for practical advice on using the booths or managing the handover with their booth colleague. Others mentioned the use of CAI (computer-assisted/aided interpreting) tools or machine transcription programs as an aspect on which they had not received proper training. In an era of many changes in the field, this in-depth investigation on interpretation for the Korean/French language combination has provided an opportunity to take stock of ongoing practices in conference interpreting and to update current pedagogy. Many authors insist on the importance of reproducing “the real-life setting” in interpreting classes (Rosendo, 2021; Han, 2016; Camilo, 2004). We would like to suggest some ideas for adjusting the pedagogical curriculum to be in line with the field, in order to train interpreters who will be able to adapt more easily to the different situation that they will face in the field. 185

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11.3.5

Introduction of English material

This study shows how English supporting material is the rule in professional environments. At the moment, only Korean or French texts are used in simultaneous interpreting courses, and in the specialized simultaneous-interpreting course, some sessions are held with English PowerPoint presentations. During the training, future interpreters do not have the opportunity to deal with English texts. While we have seen from the survey responses that many are more accustomed to simultaneous interpreting with an English text, it would be unfortunate if there were no courses that allowed for practice with English material. Following a text written in English with your eyes while listening to the interpretation from the Korean pivot booth and providing simultaneous interpretation into French, which is the interpreter’s B language, therefore requires more organized training. English’s status as lingua franca will not change in the near future, and interpreting schools in Korea will have to integrate English material into their curricula, even if English is not part of the learners’ language combinations. This does not only concern the Korean/French department; all departments, apart from the Korean/English department, should diversify their materials.

11.3.6

Introduction of machine transcription and translation tools

Fantinuoli (2018) noted that Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) had a relatively smaller impact on interpreting than on translation or other fields. However, this situation has changed dramatically with the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the work of interpreters does not yet benefit fully from technological advances, CAI tools will soon become indispensable instruments. Interpreters are already using voice recognition software such as Sonix or machine translation programs such as Google Translate or Papago. Choi (2022) presented new interpreting tools that will automatically capture numbers or proper nouns, which are the main “problem triggers” (Gile, 2008) in simultaneous interpreting. At present, interpreters are all struggling to cope with the arrival of these new technologies, and most interpreters of our generation have had to learn how to handle the new tools while on the job. While the translation curriculum in interpreting and translation schools includes a post-editing course, no training on the new CAI tools is offered during interpreting courses. However, we have seen that interpreters also go through post-editing. Since post-editing for translation and postediting for interpreting are different in purpose, future interpreters should have the opportunity to practice with these tools. A study by Pyoun (2022) showed that, with the public health crisis, many speeches had been replaced by pre-recorded messages; the preparation work in this case becomes different because interpreters will have to work not from a script but from a video. According to Camilo (2004), preparation techniques and skills need to be shared with students. Thus, the use of CAI tools should be introduced to the students in order to reproduce “the real-life setting” of conference interpreting.

11.3.7

Introduction of English to French interpretation courses

As previously mentioned, only one interpreting and translation school in Seoul offers a trilingual curriculum with compulsory Korean (A-language) and English (B- or C-language). These students can take all of their interpretation and translation courses between their A and B languages. For the

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C language (French or English), they only take the interpretation or translation courses from C to A and cannot take the courses from A to C. This is understandable when one refers to the definitions of working languages (Baker, 2007): “A languages (native or native-like), B languages (non-native but mastered to a sufficient extent for the interpreter to work into them) and C languages (from which interpreters work into their active languages).” In Korea, there are currently no courses in interpretation or translation between the B and C languages. While a considerable number of interpreters in the field choose to work from English rather than through the relay booth, interpretation from English into French is never taught in the school curriculum. While the technique of simultaneous interpretation remains the same whether from Korean into French or English into French, navigating between one’s B and C languages simultaneously can be laborious. Indeed, the close syntax between English and French may leave interpreters more vulnerable to issues of interference, Anglicisms, and false cognates. Lee (2021) argued that English represents an additional burden for interpreters who do not have the Korean/ English combination. While the trilingual curriculum exists, it is a pity not to offer courses that can strengthen the skills of novice interpreters and prepare them for professional life. Bilingual students will also benefit from these English/French interpreting courses. Today, with English still being the dominant language for session documents, future interpreters will have to get used to working from English.

11.4

Conclusion

In this chapter, we have studied the recent evolution of conference interpreting in the Korean/ French language combination. A survey of eighteen Korean conference interpreters was conducted and, given the market and the population of interpreters in Korea, this is a large sample representative. The survey sheds some light on working methods in the field, including the mode of speech frequently used by delegates, interpreters’ preferred speech mode, the mode of speech perceived as difficult by interpreters, the method for working with English documents, the working method when both Korean and English versions are provided at the same time, and the interpreting mode when the speaker is an Anglophone. The results showed that, in everyday life, Korean/French interpreters constantly juggle between the three languages. The preferred mode of speech is a natural presentation from a PowerPoint given to the interpreters in advance, while the most loathed speech mode is the reading of a script that was not given to the interpreters. In the case of the Congress they attended, the main mode of speech had been the natural presentation of a PowerPoint that was given in advance, but sixteen people stated that they had received the documents either the day before or on the day of the meeting, leaving them very little time for decent preparation. Though most of the documents are in English and the speakers express themselves in English, 50% of the interpreters rely on the Korean/English pivot booth; 72% use the English/French machine translation for basic work; and 44% claim to look at the English text while listening to the Korean interpretation in order to interpret into French. In view of the changing working environment for conference interpreters, three suggestions were made for updating the curriculum at interpreting schools in Korea. First, using more English material so that trainee interpreters can become familiar with working from English texts. Second, teaching the use of new CAI tools in class. The groundwork should be laid for future interpreters to be able to use voice recognition programs, machine translation, and other tools that will be developed in order to lighten the mental load of interpreters. Third, introducing courses in interpreting from English into French. Interpreting between B and C languages simultaneously requires

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extensive training. For Korean/French interpreters who are used to working between languages with different syntaxes, interpreting from English to French may seem easier at first glance because of their more similar syntaxes. However, these syntactic similarities may lead interpreters astray, as they must be even more vigilant so as to avoid interference, loan translations, and Anglicisms. Although the conference interpreting market in Korea was rather late to develop, the country has experienced rapid growth in the organization of international conferences. Experienced interpreters, having been part of this growth, are now seeing a new era opening up with the emergence of advances in assistive interpreting technologies. This chapter aims to take stock of the changes that have occurred in interpreters’ practices in order to reflect them within educational courses.

Notes 1 Source: UIA (Union of International Organizations). International conferences should meet the following criteria: 1) a concurrent exhibition or at least 300 participants; 2) at least 40% of the meeting’s participants are from countries other than the host country and at least five nationalities are represented; 3) the meeting lasts at least three days. 2 https://www.index.go.kr/potal/main/EachDtlPageDetail.do?idx_cd=1654, retrieved on August 1, 2022.

References Allain, J. P. (2010). Conference Interpreting in Asia. Interpreting and translation studies: The Journal of the Japan Association for Interpreting and Translation Studies, 10, 287–301. Baigorri-Jalón, J., Fernández-Sánchez, M. M., & Payàs, G. (2021). Historical developments in conference interpreting: An overview. In M. Albl-Mikasa & E. Tiselius (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of conference interpreting (pp. 9–18). London: Routledge. Baker, M. (2007). Routledge encyclopaedia of translation studies (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge. Camilo, S. (2004). Why trainers should be practicing conference interpreters. Aiic.net. Retrieved July 23, 2022, from https://aiic-italia.it/document/549/AIICWebzine_Apr2004_4_CAMILO_Why_trainers_should_be_ practicing_conference_interpreters_EN.pdf Choi, M. (2022). Human-machine collaboration in interpreting: A review of the state of the art in computerassisted interpreting (CAI) research. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 26(2), 133–163. Déjean Le Féal, K. (1978). Lectures et improvisations – Incidences de la forme de l’énonciation sur la traduction simultanée, thèse de Doctorat. ESIT, Université Paris III. Diriker, E. (2011). Agency in conference interpreting: Still a myth? Gramma: Journal of Theory and Criticism, 19, 27–36. Fantinuoli, C. (2018). Interpreting and technology: The upcoming technological turn. Interpreting and Technology, 1–12. Gile, D. (1995). Regards sur la recherche en interprétation de conférence. Lille: Presses universitaires de Lille. Gile, D. (2008, January). Local cognitive load in simultaneous interpreting and its implications for empirical research. FORUM. Revue internationale d’interprétation et de traduction/International Journal of Interpretation and Translation, 6(2), 59–77. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Han, C. (2016). A survey to profile conference interpreting practice in China. Interpreting, 18(2), 259–272. Harris, B. (1990). Norms in interpretation. Target, 2(1), 115–119. Lee, J. (2021). Conference interpreting in South Korea. In M. Albl-Mikasa & E. Tiselius (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of conference interpreting (pp. 159–168). London: Routledge. Lee, L. (2017). Powerpoint in interpreter’s conference preparation. Interpretation and Translation, 19(2), 153–176. Macías, E. M. P., & Zwischenberger, C. (2021). Quality and norms in conference interpreting. In M. AlblMikasa & E. Tiselius (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of conference interpreting (pp. 243–257). London and New York: Routledge. Messina, A. (1998). The reading aloud of English language texts in simultaneously interpreted conferences. Interpreting, 3(2), 147–161. Pan, J. (2016). Linking classroom exercises to real-life practice: A case of situated simultaneous interpreting learning. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 10(1), 107–132.

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12 THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF KOREAN MTI EDUCATION IN CHINA A case of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies Mei Jin and Cheng Zhan 12.1

Introduction

Less commonly taught languages used in the countries along the Belt and Road routes have become popular working languages in translation, according to the 2019 China Language Service Industry Development Report released by the Translators Association of China (TAC, 2019). In TAC’s survey, 67.3% of the language service providers voiced their urgent need for translators in less commonly used languages, while 85.7% of the respondents mentioned the difficulties in recruiting professionals in such languages (TAC, 2019). In this context, foreign language teaching institutions have a responsibility to bolster their language resources and train more language service talents to support the Belt and Road Initiative. Both China and South Korea are important countries along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, as well as important economies of the world and each other’s major investment and trading partners. Since the year 2015, with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation within the framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative and the Eurasian Initiative, the two countries have expanded their consensus on the high compatibility of the Belt and Road Initiative of China and the Eurasian Initiative of South Korea. Extensive and in-depth cooperation has been continuously carried out in various fields, including politics, economy, and culture, thus promoting rapid economic development of the two countries and creating new impetus for regional as well as global stability and prosperity. The friendly economic and cultural exchanges between China and South Korea urgently call for a large number of high-caliber professional translators and interpreters. Korean is one of the most favored choices for both BA and MTI programs for less commonly taught languages in China (Wang & Zhao, 2017, p.  93). China’s first Korean MTI program came into being in Yanbian University in 2009, following the official inauguration of Master of Translation and Interpretation (MTI) programs in 2007. As of today, 28 universities across the country have set up Korean MTI programs, among which nine universities have both interpreting and translation tracks, while eight universities offer only an interpreting program, and eleven others, only a translation program, according to the information released by China Graduate Admissions Information Network (CGAIN) in September 2022.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-15

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South Korea is one of the major partners of foreign exchanges and cooperation for Guangdong Province, an economic powerhouse of China, with its provincial capital Guangzhou being one of the starting points of the Maritime Silk Road. In recent years, economic and trade cooperation between Guangdong and South Korea has been expanding, which has greatly promoted peopleto-people exchanges. The establishment of the Korean MTI program at GDUFS was therefore a timely arrangement. Having been built to satisfy the needs of social development and the development of the T&I profession itself, Korean MTI program is still in its infancy and not without problems and challenges in its rapid advancement. A survey conducted on 205 institutions offering MTI degrees nationwide showed that 72% of university teachers agree that “MTI is developing too fast and many MTI programs have hardly achieved their objectives” (Cui, 2019, p.  47). This chapter focuses on the Korean MTI program of GDUFS as a case, and discusses the solutions at GDUFS for the problems encountered. By drawing references from T&I degree programs in South Korea and the more mature English MTI programs in China, the chapter will put forward some suggestions and forecast the development prospects of Korean MTI.

12.2

Status quo of the Korean MTI at GDUFS

GDUFS is one of the earliest institutions in China that initiated the establishment of the MTI program, as well as one of the first group of fifteen institutions that was approved by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council to offer MTI education. Korean MTI at GDUFS was approved in 2015 and started enrollment in September 2016. As of now, seven sessions of students have been enrolled, with 26 students having successfully graduated with a master’s degree. The program currently offers the Korean interpreting track with twenty students. After several years of development, significant achievements have been made in the Korean MTI program at GDUFS.

12.2.1

Faculty development

A strong faculty is the prerequisite for talent cultivation. Teachers of T&I degree programs should at least have the competence in practicing, teaching, and researching translation and/or interpreting (Zhong, 2014). A survey on 205 institutions with MTI programs in China (for all languages, including English) in 2017 showed that universities with MTI programs have “increasingly recruited MTI teachers with high academic qualifications,” with 37.83% of them holding a doctorate, 76.97% having had part-time translation and/or interpretation experience, and 63.49% focusing on translation research (Cui, 2019, p.  45). In the same year, another survey on the education of less commonly used languages in nine major foreign language institutions in China, however, revealed that faculty for less commonly used languages typically had lower academic qualifications. For example, among the 42 trainers for all less commonly used languages at GDUFS, a university located in a first-tier city and endowed with better educational resources, only five had a doctorate in 2017 (Wang & Zhao, 2017, p. 93). In recent years, GDUFS has attached great importance to faculty development of its Korean MTI program. With the belief that first-class students are cultivated by first-class tutors, the university endeavored to enhance the quality of its faculty through both recruiting high-quality tutors with relevant disciplinary backgrounds and improving young and middle-aged tutors in the existing faculty. At present, the Korean MTI program has an excellent faculty, featuring balanced age structure, strong academic background, rich experience in T&I practice, and excellent ability in T&I-related teaching and research. Among the twelve full-time tutors, ten are Chinese nationals

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and two, Korean nationals; two are professors; six, associate professors; four, lecturers; and ten have doctoral degrees. Faculty training has also been highlighted. Through various training activities, tutors of the Korean MTI program have gained access to the development trend of the discipline and improved their teaching and research abilities. Frequent TOT events, including expert lectures, teacher development seminars, and teacher salons, have been organized to improve the academic competence of the trainers. The university encourages and supports teachers to participate in various MTI-related trainings organized by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, National Steering Committee for T&I Degree Programs, and the Translators Association of China, so as to improve their professional skills and teaching abilities. The faculty’s strong academic qualifications and rich experience in T&I practice and the institutional support for faculty development have laid a solid foundation for high-quality education in the Korean MTI program of GDUFS.

12.2.2

Curriculum design

GDUFS’s Korean MTI program aims at all-round training of high-caliber translators and interpreters with intellectual, physical, and artistic development, who, with responsibility for the homeland, global vision, entrepreneurship, life-long learning ability, and strong professional ethics, can cater to the current as well as long-term needs of national and regional economic, social, cultural, and technological development. As the educational objectives and teaching orientation are the basis for curriculum design (Zhan & Ding, 2010), the Korean MTI program has formulated the module types, teaching contents, course connection, teaching hours, and credits scheme according to the program’s objectives. In China, Korean is considered a less-commonly-used language, with most of the students starting their bachelor’s program in the Korean language with “zero knowledge” about this language. This taken into consideration, the design of a Korean MTI program should not be a duplication of the mature English MTI programs. Efforts need to be made to adapt the curriculum to the reality that students’ Korean proficiency is generally not up to standard, and to the effective training of professional translators and interpreters. In other words, the curriculum design should balance students’ language proficiency and T&I competence with the cultivation of their skills and professionalism. Based on the foregoing considerations, the Korean MTI program at GDUFS has established curriculum system with skill training as the core. The characteristics of this curriculum are as follows. First, the curriculum offers courses and training to enhance language proficiency and professional knowledge related to the foreign language, such as public speaking, Chinese language and culture, and Chinese-Korean contrastive studies and translation. Retelling and shadowing exercises are compulsory in all interpreting modules, including consecutive interpreting, sight interpreting, and simultaneous interpreting, as a means to improve students’ language proficiency, bilingual information processing, and cultural understanding. For students who have not received any Korean language training prior to their undergraduate program in Korean, trainings in public speaking, retelling and summary, and shadowing are particularly important. These exercises not only build up oral skills of trainees but also strengthen their translation and/or interpreting competence. Second, the curriculum gives equal weight to theoretical learning and professional practices. Despite the long-lasting debate in the T&I academic circle on the relationship between theory and practice, Frans De Laet, Former Secretary General of International Federation of Translators (FIT) and a renowned scholar in the field, insists on the importance of theoretical learning for MTI 192

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students (Wu & Li, 2016). De Laet argues for systematic introduction of translation theories in the first term, followed by further theoretical explanations based on translation practices (ibid., 2016, p.  79). The Korean MTI program at GDUFS adopts a similar approach. The curriculum includes courses and seminars, such as Introduction to Translation Studies, Theories and Skills of Interpreting, Theories and Skills of Translation, Academic Writing, and Frontier Research Lecture Series, to help students acquire both theoretical insights and practical skills on T&I, while at the same time accumulate professional and encyclopedic knowledge. Third, the curriculum offers computer-aided translation courses. Given the great impact of globalization and localization, the combination of technology and translation has become more and more important. The advent of translation technologies has transformed the landscape of languageservice industry. Expanded use of machine translation and computer-assisted translation technologies has led to significant changes in the working mode for translators and interpreters, and thus, the need to renovate the curriculum system according to market demands and to build a matrix of language service courses (Li & Fan, 2022, p. 111). In view of the needs of society and the industry, the Korean MTI program at GDUFS managed to pool resources and introduced CAT courses in the first year of its establishment. After several years of development and improvement, the CAT courses have successfully enhanced students’ adaptability to the changing landscape of technologydriven T&I services. Fourth, the curriculum emphasizes practices and industry-academia integration. As a professional degree program, the curriculum of Korean MTI should focus on practicality and promote crossover and integration with related disciplines (Cao, 2012). The practical courses in the program, including mock conference-interpreting, interpreting workshop, and business translation, help integrate T&I practice into the classroom, provide students with simulated interpreting scenarios, and allow students to learn from and reflect on their practice. This has not only enhanced students’ proficiency of working between two languages but also improved their psychological strength under pressure as well as their professional ethics. To sum up, the curriculum of Korean MTI at GDUFS has achieved coordination of topical knowledge and professional knowledge of T&I, interpreting competence and translation competence, professional ability, and ethics, so as to strengthen students’ core competitiveness and sustainable development capacity that cater to the dynamic needs of the industry.

12.2.3

Practicum training

MTI is a professional degree program by nature, the success of which therefore lies in the cultivation of T&I practical abilities. As practicum training is an important part of teaching and learning in MTI programs, strengthening the quality of practicum training is an essential means to secure the quality of the program. Based on the guidelines of the National Steering Committee for T&I Degree Programs in 2016, GDUFS requires that its MTI students complete 400-hour interpreting practice during the two years in the program. Students are expected to set up their own practice portfolio. Degree thesis submission will only be approved upon the completion of the interpretingpractice portfolio, a mechanism which makes students’ practice compulsory. Apart from practicum hours where students interpret on the site, interpreting exercises in self-independent training also count, due to a lack of internship opportunities nationwide. In China, only 53% of the graduate students can get an internship through their graduate program, according to a survey collected in 2021 (Zhou et al., 2021). For MTI programs, the average percentage was only 18.86% in 2018 (Liu, 2019, p.  22). Against this backdrop, explorations are made in establishing innovative models for MTI’s practicum training. 193

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The practicum training of the Korean MTI program at GDUFS combines practice in classrooms and internships as well as on-the-job training at the workplace, so as to offer students diverse forms of opportunities for practice. In the past five years, through strengthening practicum training, the Korean MTI program at GDUFS has achieved fruitful results, mainly in the form of community service, professional competitions, and professional accreditation. First, a number of T&I training bases and internship programs have been established to support the Belt and Road Initiative and fuel the growth of the language-service industry of the Greater Bay Area. For example, GDUFS signed cooperation agreements with Huawei’s Translation Center in 2021 and with Youdao under NetEase in 2022 on the establishment of T&I training bases. These education bases have gathered intellectual and technological resources from in and outside the university, and from home and abroad, forming an interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, and crosssectoral practicum education community, which has cultivated and improved students’ competence for professional practices. Second, the program has created conditions for students to engage in community service, particularly interpreting and translating for key MICE clients in Guangdong Province, including China (Guangdong)-South Korea Development and Exchange Conferences, Forum on the Economic Cooperation between South Korea and China’s Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, 21st Century Maritime Silk Road-South Korea New South Policy Cooperation Symposium, China-South Korea (Huizhou) Industrial Park Investment Environment Promotion Conference, Understanding China International Conference (Guangzhou), China Import and Export Fair, China International Small and Medium Enterprises Fair, and China Ocean Economy Expo. These community service experiences serve to enhance students’ professional ethics and social responsibilities. Third, through practicum training that integrates classroom teaching, community service, extracurricular activities, and professional competitions, students’ T&I competence has been improved. Students have taken part in various national-level professional interpreting contests under the guidance of experienced tutors, such as “Aeon Cup” National Multilingual Interpreting Competition, Shanghai International Studies University Relay Simultaneous Interpreting Competition, National Korean Interpreting Competition, “CATTI Cup” National Interpreting Competition, and “Yunshan Cup” International Remote Interpreting Competition. Students have won 25 awards in firsttier competitions organized by national or regional professional institutions. Both teaching quality and learning results have been significantly enhanced through professional competitions. Since the introduction of Korean T&I accreditation under China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters (CATTI) in 2020, the rate of professional accreditation of Korean MTI students at GDUFS has reached 45% and is still on the rise.

12.2.4

Degree thesis

While admitting the fact that emphasis on T&I practice does not mean de-academization, MTI thesis writing should avoid being precipitated into two extremes—either simply summarizing translation and interpreting practices or mechanically borrowing some stereotyped theoretical framework—and students should be guided to “conduct systematic and theory-informed analysis of translation practices” (Mu & Zou, 2011, p.  96). Mu and Zou (2011) surveyed fifteen universities only to find that the number of translation project reports was disproportionately small; hence, the need for a gradual transition from writing academic-oriented MA theses to forming T&I practice reports. He and Yang (2019) echoed the opinion and stressed that T&I practice should be the core of any form of MTI theses (He & Yang, 2019, p. 88). According to the revised version of the 194

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guiding curriculum for MTI programs issued by the National Steering Committee for T&I Degree Programs in August 2011, the degree thesis can take any one of the following forms: T&I internship report, T&I practice report, T&I experiment report, and T&I research dissertation. From 2018 to 2022, all 26 degree theses of the Korean MTI program at GDUFS are T&I practice reports, which are based on students’ real and valid T&I practice that reflect both professional characteristics of the program and the needs of the T&I market. At the same time, these practice reports conform to the norms of academic writing. All the degree theses submitted have met the basic requirements in terms of topic selection, research design, application of theories, case analysis, relevance to professional practice, and academic writing standards. The topics of the practice reports are based on real interpreting practice in the language service industry, touching upon practical issues in specific professional fields to identify research rationale, objectives, and contents. The overall research design covers multiple dimensions, such as problem description, problem analysis, and problem solving. Case analysis features specific problems in students’ interpreting practice, which are explained by relevant theories of the discipline, analyzed with cross-cultural contrastive approaches, and concluded with reasonable solutions. The Korean MTI program attaches great importance to the standards of the degree thesis, and strictly implements the system of thesis blind review and random inspection, so as to ensure that the overall quality of the degree thesis meets the basic requirements of degree conferment. In the past five years, the passing rate of degree theses (blind) review has been close to 100%. No degree thesis failed in the random inspection conducted by the supervising authorities. To sum up, despite the short history and small size of the Korean MTI program at GDUFS, a high-quality faculty, made up of tutors in and outside GDUFS, has been formed. With strong support from university-wide institutions, including the national-level Simultaneous Interpreting Experimental Teaching Center and Experiment Center for Artificial Intelligence and International Language Service, a diversified practicum training network featuring integration of resources from home and abroad, in and out of the university, has been established. Corresponding operation norms and evaluation standards have been set to ensure the effective implementation of the curriculum. A system with internally coherent syllabus and externally compatible practicum has been established, which has achieved the organic unity of professional structure and demand structure, and satisfied the medium to long-term needs of national and regional economic and social development for high-caliber and high-level T&I professionals with integrated knowledge and skills.

12.3

Problems of the Korean MTI program at GDUFS and solutions

After seven years of development since its establishment, a solid foundation has been laid for the Korean MTI program at GDUFS in faculty development, curriculum design, and student recruitment and cultivation. However, as the program is still in its infancy, there is much room for improvement, compared with the English MTI programs in China and the MTI programs in Korean universities. The program still faces many challenges, particularly in this new era. Established in 2007, the English MTI program at GDUFS is one of the first MTI programs in China. Earlier than that, back in 1997, GDUFS set up the first Department of Translation and Interpreting in the Chinese mainland, launched undergraduate and postgraduate programs in T&I (Zhong, 2019), and accumulated rich experience in T&I curriculum development. The English MTI program at GDUFS has clearly positioned professional T&I education, set the objectives and pathways of training T&I professionals, and built an excellent team of professional tutors and a distinctive practicum model of translation and interpreting. Such experience has provided a ready paradigm and solid knowledge for the development of the Korean MTI program. 195

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As for MTI education in South Korea, it started quite early, with the first graduate program in interpreting set up at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in 1979. As of today, a total of nine universities in South Korea have set up master’s programs in Chinese-Korean translation and interpreting. These Korean universities have accumulated rich experience in training models, curriculum design, practicum training, and foreign language enhancement. The Korean MTI program at GDUFS has established friendly exchanges and cooperation with the Chinese-Korean MTI programs in a number of South Korean universities, including Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Chung-Ang University, and Busan University of Foreign Studies, and it has enjoyed close cooperation with them in professional training, teaching, and research. With the excellent conditions and platforms of the operation of the English MTI program as the basis, the rich experience of similar programs in South Korean as a reference, and China’s national conditions and demands of the T&I profession as the orientation, the Korean MTI program at GDUFS has made pioneering explorations on MTI education for a less commonly used language. To tackle the challenges the program is facing, further measures need to be taken. First, faculty development. In order to build a competent faculty, the staff should be equipped with both international visions and abundant T&I experience (Zhong, 2014). It is essential to enhance the professional competence of full-time teachers, who are expected to become active practitioners in T&I, accumulate both professional experience and interdisciplinary knowledge, and familiarize themselves with AI-assisted translation technologies and software. Besides, more industry tutors should be recruited for the Korean MTI program, in spite of the geographical restrictions. Employment of industry tutors with both senior professional titles and rich working experience can greatly enhance the quality of MTI education. Attention should also be drawn to different areas of competence. The European Master’s in Translation (EMT) has outlined five key competences that translator trainer staff should possess or acquire—field competence, instructional competence, organizational competence, interpersonal competence, and assessment competence for better training outcomes (EMT, 2013). The program should support its teaching staff in acquiring these competences in different areas with measures such as putting in place incentive mechanisms for T&I practices with special practicum teams set up on conference interpreting and translation technology, establishing proper and multifaceted evaluation frameworks that delve into student-teacher interaction and champion creativity, entrepreneurship, and professional competitiveness in MTI education. Second, the development of curriculum, textbooks, and teaching resources. The Korean MTI program needs to further the reform of its curriculum and improve teaching quality. Efforts should be made to optimize the courses and form a teaching system featuring specific training objectives, reasonable curriculum, and flexible course selection. In addition to upgrading the current curriculum, localization courses should be incorporated, so as to deepen students’ understanding of the language service and localization industry as well as the operation process and important position of T&I in the language service industry. By focusing on the specialized fields, including political discourse translation, business translation, and translation technology, a practicum-oriented teaching system for regional core industries can be developed in the form of specialized T&I workshops. Senior experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Administration of Foreign Languages, and language technology enterprises may be hired to guide students to master professional norms and practical methods. At the same time, there is a need to innovate teaching methods and develop teaching resources, such as textbooks and case database. Professional tutors and textbook experts can work together to build systematic, scientific, and standardized textbooks that are suitable for Korean MTI training. In the meantime, modern information technology should be fully utilized to provide a resource pool for teaching and self-learning and practice. 196

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Third, practicum bases construction. The construction of off-campus practicum bases can provide practice opportunities for students. It is an important way to fill the gap between the classroom and the workplace. Therefore, it is necessary to build off-campus practice bases that conform to the National Regulations on the Practice Bases (Enterprises) for MTI Education (formulated in 2011), including T&I practice education bases at home to integrate industry and education and international joint training bases with overseas universities. As has been discussed previously, the Korean MTI program at GDUFS has established partnerships with prestigious universities in South Korea, such as Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Chung-Ang University, and Busan University of Foreign Studies, and built a good foundation for cooperation. Through cooperation with overseas universities, resource sharing can be achieved. Such a practicum-teaching model that combines professional education and practicum-bases training can promote the internationalization and modernization of T&I talents. Apart from practicum bases outside of the campus, schools may also establish on-campus practicum bases or initiate online practicum. Zhang et al. (2022) proposed to build on-campus practicum bases with authentic T&I tasks and standard management processes to address the problem of uneven training opportunities for off-campus practical training. Online practicum can be another useful attempt. Yue and Lin (2019) examined the online practicum program named Bits-by-A-Translator (Fanyimi, 翻译米) initiated by Fujian Normal University in cooperation with Eagle Eye Translation Service Co., Ltd., with the core being a software that helps to operate a platform serving as an e-school. Through this mechanism, students from over 200 colleges and universities can be trained with Eagle Eye’s authentic materials, revised according to related laws and contracts (Yue & Lin, 2019). Fourth, degree thesis. With the expansion of enrollment scale and the increase of the number of students, ensuring the quality of degree theses becomes a major challenge. How to ensure the authenticity of students’ T&I practice and the quality of the translated text described and discussed in their practice report is a problem that the program administration, tutor, and students should work together to solve. To this end, it is necessary to renovate the evaluation system for MTI degree theses. He and Yang (2019) proposed to introduce an evaluation mechanism for the translation quality. Zhu (2019) voiced the same opinion by putting forward an evaluation model in which 60% of the score is allocated to assessing students’ translation practice, including 10% for topic selection, 10% for the volume of translation practice, 25% for accurate comprehension of the source text, and 25% for the quality of the target language. Such an innovative model can clarify the demarcation between academic and professional degrees and help put T&I practice back to the center of MTI education. At the same time, MTI degree theses should adapt to the specific needs and requirements of the reality of T&I service industry and respond to the cognition problems, language problems, and communication problems in commercial, economic, legal, technological, media, and culture translation, with targeted and forward-looking measures proposed for T&I practice so as to serve as a useful reference for T&I activities in different fields.

12.4

Conclusion

With its growing presence in global affairs, China has never been closer to the center of the world stage. China’s participation in global governance and initiative to build a community of shared future for mankind has provided professional T&I education with a broad prospect as well as greater missions. Professional translators and interpreters cultivated by Korean MTI programs should not only have solid fundamental skills, outstanding practical abilities, strong adaptability, and high comprehensive quality, but also know how to effectively communicate China’s development experience. The case of the Korean MTI program at GDUFS shows the challenges as well as opportunities for 197

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the professional degree education. China’s Korean MTI programs should embrace innovative approaches and work in synergy with other sectors to better serve the development initiatives of the nation.

References Cao, L. 曹莉. (2012). Fanyi shuoshi zhuanye xuewei (MTI) yanjiusheng jiaoyu de kecheng shezhi tantao 翻译硕士专业学位（MTI）研究生教育的课程设置探讨[On the curriculum of Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) education]. Xuewei yu yanjiusheng jiaoyu 学位与研究生教育 [Academic Degrees & Graduate Education], 4, 30–34. Cui, Q. (2019). MTI programs: Teaching and learning. In Yue Feng, Tao Youlan, Wang Huashu, Cui Qiliang, & Xu Bin (Eds.), Restructuring translation education: Implications from China for the rest of the world (pp. 41–54). Singapore: Springer. EMT. The EMT translator trainers profile competences of the trainer in translation. (2013). Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://docplayer.net/14445272-The-emt-translator-trainer-profile-competences-of-the-trainerin-translation.html He, S. 何三宁, & Yang, Z. 杨直蓉. (2019). MTI xuewei lunwen xiezuo moshi yu pinggu moshi tansuo MTI 学位论文写作模式与评估模式探索[A probe into the modes of MTI degree thesis and its evaluation]. Waiyu jiaoxue lilun yu shijian 外语教学理论与实践 [Foreign Language Learning Theory and Practice], 4, 87–92. Li, Y. 李芸昕, & Fan, W. 范武邱. (2022). Mianxiang yuyan fuwu chanye de fanyi shuoshi peiyang tixi jiangou tansuo 面向语言服务产业的翻译硕士培养体系建构探索 [On the construction of MTI training system oriented toward the language service industry]. Waiyu dianhua jiaoxue 外语电化教学 [Technology Enhanced Foreign Language Education], 1, 70–74+111. Liu, X. 刘欣. (2019). Fanyi shuoshi yanjiusheng shixi yu shijian zhuangkuang diaoyan baogao 翻译硕士研究生 实习与实践状况调研报告 [A report on the investigation of translation internship and practice of MTI candidates]. Dalian: Dalian Maritime University. Mu, L. 穆雷, & Zou, B. 邹兵. (2011). Fanyi shuoshi zhuanye xuewei biye lunwen diaoyan yu xiezuo tansuo – yi 15 suo gaoxiao shoupi MTI biyesheng xuewei lunwen weili. 翻译硕士专业学位毕业论文调 研与写作探索 — 以15所高校首批MTI毕业生学位论文为例 [The current approach to the writing of MTI theses and the ways for its improvement: A quantitative study based on data from 15 universities and colleges]. Zhongguo fanyi 中国翻译[Chinese Translators Journal], 5, 40–45+96. TAC (Translators Association of China). (2019). China language service industry development report 2019. Beijing: Translators Association of China. Wang, X. 王雪梅, & Zhao, S. 赵双花. (2017). “Yidaiyilu” beijingxia woguo gaoxiao feitongyong yuzhong zhuanye jianshe: xianzhuang wenti yu duice “一带一路”背景下我国高校非通用语种专业建设：现 状、问题与对策 [The current situation, problems and solutions of the non-universal languages majors construction in China]. Waiyu dianhua jiaoxue 外语电化教学[Technology Enhanced Foreign Language Education], 2, 91–96. Wu, Y. 吴攸, & Li, K. 李珂珂. (2016). Shizi, kecheng yu fanyi de zhiyehua – Frans De Laet jiaoshou fangtanlu 师资、课程与翻译的职业化 — Frans De Laet教授访谈录 [An Interview with Frans De Laet]. Shanghai fanyi 上海翻译[Shanghai Journal of Translators], 5, 77–83. Yue, F., & Lin, S. (2019). Online practicum of specialized translation. In Yue Feng, Tao Youlan, Wang Huashu, Cui Qiliang, & Xu Bin (Eds.), Restructuring translation education: Implications from China for the rest of the world (pp. 157–164). Singapore: Springer. Zhan, C. 詹成, & Ding, X. 丁欣如. (2010). Dui fanyi zhuanye benke kecheng shezhi de tantao–yixiang zhendui woguo shoupi fanyi zhuanye benke biyesheng de diaocha 对翻译专业本科课程设置的探讨 — 一项 针对我国首批翻译专业本科毕业生的调查 [On the undergraduate T&I curriculum: A survey of the first batch of translation graduates in China]. Dongfang fanyi 东方翻译 [East Journal of Translation], 6, 22–26. Zhang, X. 张秀峰, Gao, H. 高慧, & Bai, X. 白晓煌. (2022). Fanyi shuoshi xiaonei shixi jidi jianshe de xianshi shensi, yuanze goujian yu lujing sheji 翻译硕士校内实习基地建设的现实审思、原则构建与路 径设计 [How to construct an on-campus practical training base for MTI students]. Zhongguo fanyi 中国翻 译[Chinese Translators Journal], 5, 66–72.

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13 LET THEM TALK Rethinking learners’ roles in interpreting performance assessment Najung Shin 신나정

13.1

Introduction

The assessment of interpreting performance fascinates researchers, as the vast majority of studies in the literature come from professional interpreters’ viewpoints (Bühler, 1986; Chiaro & Nocella, 2004; Zwischenberger, 2010), users such as speakers and the audience (Collados et al., 2007; Le Féal, 1990; Gile, 1983, 1990; Kopczyński, 1994; Kurz, 1993, 1994, 2001; Marrone, 1993; Meak, 1990; Moser, 1995; Ng, 1992), and agencies that act as mediators between conference organizers and interpreters (Park, 2016; J. Han, 2013). Meanwhile, as pointed out by Moser-Mercer (1996), Gile (2001), and Riccardi (2002), performance assessment in the classroom should differ from that in conference settings. Identifying their strengths and weaknesses during evaluations should allow students to set goals, which requires teachers to provide detailed feedback and observations that reference specific assessment criteria. This analysis is even more vital when assessing interpreting-exam performance because the outputs must be numerically expressed or converted to grades (Jeong, 2012, pp. 220–223). For this reason, interpreter-trainers’ perspective also deserves careful consideration regarding interpreting-performance assessment. To this end, Schjoldager (1995) designed a feedback sheet for trainer and student use, while Riccardi (2002) provided an evaluation sheet to explain the criteria used in class and exams, strongly suggesting the need for macro-criteria and micro-criteria for professional and student interpreters respectively. Meanwhile, Choi (2005, 2006), J. E. Lee (2008), J. R. A. Lee (2011), and S. B. Lee (2015) proposed rating scales to assess the performance of student interpreters, in which a weight is assigned to each item and then converted into scores as a weighted sum of item scores. H. Kim (2011a) surveyed teachers to determine the relative importance and priority of evaluation items, while Nam (2013) and N. Shin (2020) also proposed criteria for undergraduate students. However, a look at the existing studies leads to the following question: What about the learners’ view? Prior research aimed to improve the quality of interpreter training, and most trainers are/ were professionally trained/experienced interpreters who have sufficient knowledge of interpretation quality. Yet the learners’ perspective is usually neglected in discussions about possible assessment criteria and application methods. Are trainers clear on the expectations of learners in interpreting performance assessment? Or is the student voice in the classroom in response to teacher feedback considered taboo?

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-16

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Against this backdrop, this chapter examines the learners’ perceptions of the interpreter-trainers’ assessment, their views toward in-class assessment criteria and methods, and the grade-level similarities and differences. This chapter then seeks to derive implications for educational practice.

13.2

Literature review: the learners’ role in interpreting performance assessment

As Takeda noted (2010, p.  38), much of the research on interpreter education involves students as providers of raw data or subjects of experiments. The existing literature demonstrates the same approach toward interpreting performance assessment in educational settings, with researchers using student data (the student interpreters’ outputs) to analyze the assessment behaviors of evaluators (Jeong, 2012; S. B. Lee, 2019; Wu, 2013), to develop rating scales (J. E. Lee, 2008; S. B. Lee, 2015), to explore the optimal measurement design (C. Han, 2019), or to examine the topic of reliability in assessment (Wu, 2010). In self-assessment during interpreter training, learners play an integral role as subjects. Selfassessment is essential to learning because it can be a powerful way to build metacognition. In other words, by self-assessing interpreting performance, students can identify their strengths and weaknesses and clarify the reasons that might have caused difficulty (Badiu, 2011; Bartłomiejczyk, 2007; Choi, 2006; Im & Y. Kim, 2020; H. Kim, 2011b; Y. H. Lee, 2005, 2011; Machová, 2016; Milcu, 2012; Pinazo, 2008; Russo, 1995; N. Shin, 2017; Pyoun, 2021). On the other hand, interpreting students frequently assess their peers by evaluating and providing feedback on performance during in-class or out-of-class activities. However, despite the importance of peer assessment in interpreting training and learning, researchers have only recently started to attend to it. Whereas Gile (1995) raised doubts about the reliability of student peer-assessment by pointing out weak accuracy of fidelity assessment at the student level, recent studies contradict Gile’s results. For instance, S. B. Lee (2017) found a strong correlation between teacher and peer assessment, indicating that students can accurately judge their peers’ performance to a large extent, and Su (2019) looked at rater leniency by quantitatively and qualitatively analyzing the learners’ peer assessment results. Meanwhile, C. Han (2018) probed the effects of directionality when assessing bidirectional consecutive English-Chinese interpreting. The findings suggested that rater accuracy increased when judging the quality of the target language over other rating domains, and English into Chinese interpreting over vice versa, reflecting the same trend. As shown previously, the role of students is shifting from providers of raw data, and yet, students’ perceptions toward interpreting assessment—especially that of teachers’ assessment —scarcely appear. Building on previous research that proposed a handful of interpreting performance assessment criteria (Bartłomiejczyk, 2007; Kalina, 2002; Kurz, 2001), Pavez (2021) developed a series of simultaneous interpreting quality assessment tools based on the inputs of seventeen interpreting students and one teacher. Although the study collectively reflects students’ feedback in designing the assessments, since students chose criteria from theory and not practice, it may suggest the need for further research. Araújo (2019) reported on the perspectives of trainers and trainees in three post-graduate conference interpreter-training programs: by conducting individual interviews with trainers, focus group interviews with trainees, a questionnaire survey, and classroom observation to determine the usefulness of feedback and preferred practices. This study contributes to the literature, and more specifically, the understanding of students’ perspectives on formative assessment practices. Meanwhile, H. Shin (2009) provides valuable insight into the assessment of translation quality. Although that study deals with translation, Shin goes to elaborate lengths to find out 1) whether the 201

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students seek in-depth knowledge of teacher evaluation-criteria, 2) which elements students perceive to be objective and reliable, and 3) whether they find Shin’s evaluation tool and criteria to be objective, credible, and consistent. A survey of undergraduate students was conducted to elicit the expectations and perceptions of translation students. As the researcher points out, teacher-student communication needs to be enhanced regarding the teacher’s assessment criteria and student expectations, as students are critical stakeholders, like teachers, when it comes to assessment in education (H. Shin, 2009, pp. 126–127).

13.3 13.3.1

Methodology

Criteria and methods of teacher assessment

The researcher sent a questionnaire to seven teachers of the Korean-French program at a Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation to collect data about the interpreting assessment criteria and methods used in the classroom. One-on-one interviews were also conducted to obtain personal accounts about the reasons for using specific assessment methods, the relative importance of all criteria involved, and the reasons for such a choice.1 The respondents’ working experience as interpreters ranged from thirteen to 23 years, and teaching experience, from fourteen to 43 semesters. Although instructors can use several methods to evaluate interpreting performance, assessment usually follows two types: holistic and analytic. Whereas analytic grading initially provides a separate score for each component and a summed-total score, holistic grading results in a single score based on an overall impression of a student’s performance (N. Shin, 2020, p. 53). A detailed model of the two rubrics or a hybrid approach combining analytic and holistic assessment are applied, depending on the purpose of researchers or teachers. This study defines holistic assessment as “a method of giving a single score or rating for a performance based on a global impression of the student’s work,” and analytic assessment as “a method of assessing individual dimensions of a performance based on detailed grades for each element.” Teachers had to indicate their assessment methods for midterm and final exams considering these definitions. Table 13.1 shows the interpreting performance assessment criteria and methods implemented by seven trainers. As for course directionality, “K” stands for Korean and “F,” for French. Three main findings emerged from the survey and interview response data. First, analytic assessment is more commonly used, with three trainers using analytic rubrics and three taking a hybrid approach. The top reasons for this choice were that it ensured objectivity and allowed them to provide specific feedback to students. Second, three teachers (T2, T3, T5) used a hybrid form that borrows elements of each assessment style and thus does not fall under one category. The three teachers use analytic scoring as a checklist to subsequently give one final grade or give equal weight to the analytic and holistic assessment (100 points) and add up the two scores to calculate the overall grade out of 100. Third, as demonstrated in the case of T1, detailed elements are still assessed in a holistic framework rather than relying solely on the general impression of a student’s performance. Meanwhile, teachers considered the “fidelity” components, such as meaning shifts, meaning errors, omissions, etc., to be the most important criteria for a quality interpretation, which supports the findings of previous studies (Bühler, 1986; Chiaro & Nocella, 2004; Collados et al., 2007; H. Kim, 2011a; Kurz, 1993; Moser, 1995; Zwischenberger, 2010). As the teachers used the terms, “fidelity” is interchangeable with “coverage” and “accuracy.” However, defining meaning shifts, and meaning errors as fidelity parameters and the amount of information and omissions as coverage parameters helps distinguish between “fidelity” and “coverage.” 202

Table 13.1 Interpreting assessment criteria and methods used by teachers Trainer Course Assessment Assessment criteria directionality type In-class activities

T2

K→F

T3

K→F

T4

K↔F

holistic

F→K: coverage, fidelity, audience-centered interpretation, analytical skills, concentration skills, decisiveness (processing and reaction speed), flexibility, delivery of the nuances of words, target language skills,2 pace and pronunciation, eye contact, voice production, overall attitude. K→F: coverage, fidelity, audience-centered interpretation, analytical skills, concentration skills, decisiveness (processing and reaction speed), flexibility, delivery of the nuances of words, target language skills, grammar, pace, pronunciation, restructuring of the source text logic, eye contact, voice production, overall attitude. holistic+ Intratextual: register, style, awkward choice of language, analytic appropriate vocabulary. (hybrid)3 Intertextual: meaning shifts, meaning errors, omissions, nuance. Behavioral skills: breathing, voice quality, articulation, use of a microphone (SI), booth manners (SI). Supporting knowledge: analytical skills, problem-solving skills, background knowledge, and terminology.

F→K: coverage, fidelity, audience-centered interpretation, analytical skills, concentration skills, decisiveness (processing and reaction speed), flexibility, delivery of the nuances of words, target language skills, pace and pronunciation. K→F: coverage, fidelity, audience-centered interpretation, analytical skills, concentration skills, decisiveness (processing and reaction speed), flexibility, delivery of the nuances of words, target language skills, grammar, pace, pronunciation, restructuring of the source text logic.

Intratextual: register, style, awkward choice of language, appropriate vocabulary. Intertextual: meaning shifts, meaning errors, omissions, nuance. Behavioral skills: breathing, voice quality, articulation, use of a microphone (SI), booth manners (SI). Supporting knowledge: analytical skills, problem-solving skills, background knowledge, and terminology. holistic+ General impression, meaning accuracy, grammar, target language The grade is calculated by first taking factors such as general impression and feeling, meaning accuracy and delivery analytic quality, pronunciation, accent, and pace. of the output, target language quality, grammar, word choice, pronunciation, accent, and pace into consideration, assigning a letter grade (A, B, C) to each item, and determining the total score. F→K: meaning accuracy 40 ppts, terminology and target analytic F→K: fidelity to the source message, quality of expression in the language quality 30 ppts, others (voice quality/habits/ target language (Korean), accurate delivery of the nuances of pronunciation, etc.) 30 ppts. words, communication with the audience, eye contact, etc. K→F: fidelity to the source message, awkward choice of language, K→F: terminology and target language quality 25 ppts, grammar 25 ppts, omissions/meaning errors 25 ppts, others grammar, nuance, helping foreigners understand the nuanced (voice quality/audience friendliness, etc.) 25 ppts. Korean context with adequate and relevant language, pronunciation, communication with the audience, eye contact, etc. (Continued)

Let them talk

K↔F

203

T1

Exams

Table 13.1 (Continued) Trainer Course Assessment Assessment criteria directionality type In-class activities T5

K↔F

holistic+ F→K: preparedness (background knowledge, acquisition of terminology) + analytical skills (understanding of the setting, analytic logic) + target language skills.

K→F: preparedness (background knowledge, acquisition of terminology) + analytical skills (understanding of the setting, logic) + target language skills.

K↔F

analytic

F→K: meaning accuracy (number and degree of meaning errors and omissions), target language quality and skills (Korean), narrative flow from an audience perspective. K→F: meaning accuracy (number and degree of meaning errors), target language quality and skills/grammar (French), narrative flow from an audience perspective and pace.

T7

F→K

analytic

1. Assess performance based on how accurately the student rendered the original message (omissions, additions, meaning errors, the accuracy of logical cohesion, etc.). 2. Additionally, assess the accuracy of word choice or target language quality (dangling or awkward sentences, etc.).

F→K: 1. Holistic assessment (out of 100): evaluate the student’s ability to keep calm under stress and communicate the original message from a user/audience’s perspective. 2. Analytic assessment (out of 100): source-text comprehension (fidelity, logic 50 ppts) + target language skills (terminology, register, nuance4 50 ppts). K→F5: 1. Holistic assessment (out of 100): evaluate the student’s ability to keep calm under stress and communicate the original message from a user/audience’s perspective. 2. Analytic assessment (out of 100): source-text comprehension (fidelity, logic 50 ppts) + target language skills (terminology, register, nuance 50 ppts). F→K: meaning accuracy (number and degree of meaning errors and omissions) 70%, target language quality and skills (Korean) 15%, narrative flow from an audience perspective 15%. K→F: meaning accuracy (number and degree of meaning errors) 20%, target language quality and skills/grammar (French) 50%, narrative flow from an audience perspective and pace 30%. Accuracy 60%: faithfulness to the original text, omissions, meaning shifts, meaning errors, logical cohesion. Target language skills 20%: use of correct terminology and appropriate equivalent, grammatical or usage errors, awkward and incorrect word choice. Fluency 10%: delay between the speaker and the interpreter, hesitation, corrections, pauses, pleasant voice, articulation and pronunciation. Completeness 10%: overall coverage, the ability to stay focused.

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204

T6

Exams

Let them talk

13.3.2

Research method

The researcher conducted focus groups with the students in the Korean-French T&I MA program to identify the learners’ perceptions of the interpreting performance assessment criteria and methods that teachers use. A focus group study obtains perceptions on a defined area of interest in a permissive, nonthreatening environment, which differs from other group interactions aimed to determine some conclusion—reach a consensus, provide recommendations, or make decisions among alternatives. In other words, focus groups aim to provide insights into how people in groups perceive a situation (Krueger & Casey, 2015, pp, 2–7). Thus, the researcher considered the focus group method as a more effective way to elicit diverse perspectives than a survey or one-on-one interviews. Researchers generally hold multiple focus groups that each comprise five to ten people, and each one should be homogeneous but with sufficient variation among participants to allow for contrasting opinions (Krueger & Casey, 2015, p. 2). Two focus groups were conducted with eleven students who volunteered to participate in the study. To increase homogeneity, the students were assigned to two groups—the first-year student group (S1_1–6) and the second-year student group (S2_1–5). A Google Forms survey link was sent out to the subjects one week before the focus groups to collect data on the students’ A and B languages, the length of foreign language learning and proficiency levels, and any previous experience of receiving interpreting performance assessment descriptors from the teachers. For those who received feedback, details of it and the assessment criteria that students use for self- and peerevaluation appear. Table 13.1, a brief analysis of the questionnaire data, and some of the teachers’ qualitative interview data that complement it were sent to the focus group participants three days before the interviews to ensure that the subjects engaged in discussions after thoroughly looking over the teachers’ assessment criteria and methods.6 The focus groups took place on July 25, 2022. The interviews were held virtually through Zoom to maintain social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with each group lasting about two hours. The interviews were video recorded and transcribed upon consent, and the transcription was later sent to the participants to eliminate errors or the researcher’s subjective interpretation of the data. Focus group discussions involve nondirective interviews that use open-ended questions with the questioning arranged in five categories: opening, introductory, transition, key, and ending (Krueger & Casey, 2015, pp. 39–46). The questionnaire used in this study included specific questions to reveal the students’ general thoughts about teachers’ assessment, needs and interests concerning the assessment criteria, and methods that the researcher shared in advance, their views toward the relative importance and weighting of the assessment criteria, and whether the information they received for the focus group interview would later assist their learning motivation, interpreting training exercises, peer- and self-assessment (see Appendix at the end of this chapter).

13.4 13.4.1

Results

Learners’ perceptions

Responses from the preliminary survey and the focus group opening question revealed interindividual differences in interpreting experience and the length of learning French. Sufficient variation is considered a distinct advantage of focus-group research, and the variation among participants in this study also helped provide insight into different opinions.

13.4.1.1

Learners’ general opinions about teachers’ assessment

Focus groups revealed differences in perception between the first- and second-year learners regarding the teachers’ assessment. On the one hand, most of the first-year students accepted the 205

Najung Shin 신나정 Table 13.2 Learners’ general opinions about teachers’ assessment Group

Comments

First-year

S1_1: I think that all feedback is valid. S1_2: I got the impression that teachers give similar feedback regardless of the course. S1_4: I felt like I was being assessed objectively. S1_5: I got the feedback I deserved, so I didn’t question it. S2_2: I end up ‘interpreting for the classroom setting’ as teachers focus on different components. S2_3: I was confused because teachers sometimes tend to stress different components. This led me into thinking, “should I interpret differently depending on the teacher?” . . . I wanted more transparency in assessment, such as the part the teacher thought was good and vice versa. S2_4: The professors usually tell us that coverage matters the most in interpreting performance, so I personally could not agree with some of them when their feedback said, “your coverage was rather low, but the delivery was strong enough to compensate for the low coverage.” I was also confused to see some professors leaving out comments on speed and pace, while pointing out the qualities of the target language expressions. S2_5: It seems like the teachers view omissions or meaning errors as important when assessing the students, but they sometimes do not place enough emphasis on the performance (delivery) dimension. I personally think that delivery is an important element, so I wondered if the teacher believed otherwise.

Second-year

teachers’ evaluations, and only one student who reported a previous experience of disagreeing with a teacher’s perspective questioned them. On the other hand, the second-year students admitted confusion concerning the assessment criteria and methods, having reservations about the relative weights that every teacher attaches and teachers failing to provide feedback on specific parameters that the students deemed essential. Table 13.2 presents the focus group discussion excerpts. The perception gap between the first- and second-year learners most likely reflects the varying levels of exposure to different courses and teachers, since the focus-group discussions took place after the second-year students’ third semester but the first-year students’ first semester after admission. Also, second-year students are more likely to have formed certain opinions from experience about the concept and importance of interpreting assessment criteria. Another interesting perception revealed during the first-year student focus-group was that the learners viewed their teachers’ assessment as less rigorous than anticipated before admission. The students thus wondered whether stricter assessment standards would apply as they progressed in the program. This interpretation suggests that the teachers implement flexible assessments, depending on the year of study.

13.4.1.2

Learners’ opinions about teachers’ assessment criteria and methods

Students’ first impressions of the teachers’ assessment criteria and methods (sent in advance by the researcher) revealed intergroup differences. Whereas the first-year students expressed concerns and felt pressured by what was expected from them in terms of interpreting performance and the amount of work needed to meet the quality standards, the lack of detailed information took the second-year students by surprise. 206

Let them talk Table 13.3 Learners’ first impressions of the teachers’ assessment criteria and methods Group

Comments

First-year

S1_1: I felt hopeless. I was reminded of what I needed to improve, that is, what the teachers told me to work on in class. S1_2: Teachers tell us about the criteria in class, so the criteria itself was nothing new. However, I wasn’t aware that the breakdown was so specific, so I’m nervous about meeting all the requirements. S1_3: I felt like at this point, I fail to meet every single criterion. It is unlikely that my performance will improve over the two-month summer break. S1_4: I sort of knew that I had much work to do, but this time it really struck me. S2_2: The criteria include delivery and voice quality. Then how come most of the professors don’t comment on these components in class? S2_3: I was taken aback. How come the teachers use these detailed assessment elements but leave some out when informing us about the criteria? I was mistaken to think that all teachers use holistic assessment. The requirements are much more explicit and descriptive than expected. S2_4: I wasn’t aware that the assessment criteria were so diverse.

Second-year

The comments of the second-year students came somewhat as a surprise, as their unfamiliarity with the teachers’ assessment criteria and methods did not align with prior answers. Before the focus group, four out of five students reported being informed of the interpreting performance assessment criteria that their teachers use. When asked to elaborate, they said that only a few teachers provided detailed explanations of the standards applied. The students saw a gap between the criteria that most of the teachers explained in the classroom versus what they received before the focus group discussions in terms of the number and diversity of the assessment components. The focus group participants also offered differing points of view regarding the assessment methods. Provided that accurate weights are assigned, some learners believed the analytic approach to be a better option, as it allows teachers to provide accurate and objective evaluation and assists the students’ self-assessment (S2_2, S2_4). One student also agreed with some of the teachers’ rationale for implementing analytic assessment: to give students more detailed and unbiased feedback (S1_6). Meanwhile, S1_5 preferred holistic grading because teachers who use analytic evaluation risk assessing students based solely on a predefined set of criteria. Although some suggested that employing both scoring methods would be best (S2_1, S2_5), others pointed out the pros and cons of such an approach, saying that, while a hybrid measure enables thorough assessment, the first impressions of the students could shape general assessment (S2_3). As such, the learners’ views differed noticeably. Furthermore, some learners considered the teachers’ assessment methods as similar because they only differ in the listing order, categorization, and relative weights (S1_1, S1_2, S2_1), with one student feeling that all teachers practice holistic grading, using subjective judgment except for the quantitative criteria, such as meaning errors and omissions. Meanwhile, some learners questioned one teacher’s reason for combining the holistic and analytic scoring methods, which was as follows: There was a time when I calculated the final grades by assigning weights to various criteria. However, I found a substantial gap between the final grades and my impression of the students’ overall performance. Some students render the original message rather faithfully but are still not fit to work in the professional interpreting scene, whereas other students provide 207

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a generally good performance despite some meaning shifts. At the end of the day, I had to adjust the grades after assessing the students with analytic methods. What left students confused was the expressions ‘students who render the original message rather faithfully but are still not fit to work in the professional interpreting scene’ and ‘students who provide a generally good performance despite some meaning shifts.’ Although some learners wanted to know more about factors that influence the teachers’ assessment practices—as the teacher’s explanation contradicted previous beliefs that high fidelity equals strong interpreting performance (S2_2)—others had a hard time understanding how an interpreting output with meaning shifts can be assessed as good overall, given that teachers taught them the less the meaning shifts, the better (S1_3). On the other hand, S1_6 supported the teacher’s opinion by adding: “In reality, interpreting performance is assessed in real-time in actual conference settings and not in laborious detail later. Therefore, the general performance can still be okay if the interpreter does not make gross meaning errors.” Regarding the assessment criteria the trainers use, all learners fully agreed that fidelity is the most critical criterion. However, unlike the first-year students, the second-year students highlighted the need for assigning similar weights to other elements, except for one learner, who stated that teachers should provide more descriptive feedback on fidelity in class. Fidelity is not the only skill you learn in the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation. The program teaches you everything required to perform the job of interpreting. Therefore, trainers should apply and share the various components of assessment criteria. (S2_1) High fidelity means successful communication. However, if there are any factors that hinder effective communication, they should also be given equal importance and pointed out when learners struggle with them. (S2_3) Strong delivery or target language skills is also important to convey the meaning accurately. (S2_4) I personally think that the voice and articulation quality are also important, so it would be good to see teachers give similar weights to the delivery dimension as well. (S2_5) Second, learners had questions about the rationale and definitions of the teachers’ interpreting performance criteria and weights and had reservations about their utility in enabling teachers to judge their interpreting performance. They raised questions about the assessment parameters and weights that vary depending on the language direction. As shown in Table 13.1, T4 assigned 40 points to “meaning accuracy”—i.e., fidelity—when assessing French into Korean interpreting performance, while leaving “fidelity” out in the Korean into French evaluation criteria. Meanwhile, T6 allocated 70%, 15%, and 15% weights to “meaning accuracy,” “target language quality and skills,” and “narrative flow from an audience perspective,” respectively, when assessing the students’ French into Korean interpreting outputs. Still, T6 changed the weights to 20%, 50%, and 30%, respectively, in the opposite language direction. As such, weights differed markedly by language direction in the case of some trainers. Concerning this difference, several students saw eye-to-eye with their teachers, saying that “Fidelity weights can differ by language direction as students probably understand the Korean source text and simply struggle with the French language skills when interpreting into French (S2_2),” and that “It is only natural for the teachers to give varying weights to target language skills when considering the native language of the audience (S1_5, S1_6).” On the other hand, other learners expressed disagreement, questioning the reasons (S1_2, S1_3), suggesting that 208

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the overall “fidelity” is assessed for both language directions, since students tend to render less faithful outputs when interpreting high-density Korean texts into French (S2_1, S2_6), and raising concerns over assessment bias when evaluating students who fail to convey the accurate meaning of the source text but deliver it with fluent French (S2_3). Learners also pointed to the need for clarification on some of the assessment components, including the “ability to keep calm under stress (T5)” or “understanding of the setting (T5),” asking for clarification on whether teachers had everything needed to assess their ability to keep calm under stress by listening to the audio recordings that they submit during exams. Third, learners proposed that teachers adjust the weighted values of specific assessment elements or add new parameters. For example, regarding T7’s evaluation of the overall coverage under the “completeness” criterion on top of “accuracy” already weighted at 60%, S2_2 felt the trainer assessed meaning accuracy twice. At the same time, S1_6 commented that the weights assigned to “habits (T4),” “audience friendliness (T4),” and “nuance (T5)” were higher than expected. Additional suggestions for T4, who assigned equal values to four criteria (Korean into French direction), included: 1) allocating different points to different criteria (S2_4) and 2) giving less weight to “voice quality” and “audience friendliness” while giving more importance to “terminology & target language quality.” (S2_2) Regarding T7—a trainer who allocated 10% to “completeness”— students proposed that the weight be adjusted upward, as incomplete messages tend to harm the overall interpreting performance, while revising “fluency (10%)” downward (S1_3) and also suggested that raters assess students against the same criteria, regardless of the language direction, while applying stricter standards when providing feedback on the French word choice or grammar (S2_3). More interestingly, some focus group participants noted that T5 was the only teacher who included “preparedness” in the evaluation criteria, suggesting that the component applies across the board since preparation is the key to successful real-life interpreting (S2_3, S2_5). But others expected to see learner-oriented evaluation, such as assessing students’ level of improvement or effort (S2_1, S2_4). Meanwhile, one learner suggested that teachers adjust the criteria and weight values by semester/year (S1_2).

13.4.2

Pedagogical implications

The focus group interviews provide the following pedagogical implications. First, teachers need to provide students with detailed information about their assessment criteria and methods. Although all first-year students and four out of five second-year students reported prior knowledge of the criteria, second-year students were still confused by their trainers’ evaluation methods, indicating a lack of needed information on the receiving end. In a similar vein, teachers should also take note of the learners’ feedback; for example, learners expecting the trainers to walk them through the assessment criteria and methods on the first day of class or include them in the syllabus. This result supports previous findings on students’ perceptions of teachers’ feedback (Araújo, 2019).7 Providing learners with this information will motivate them to learn and help them understand the various factors to consider when interpreting. During the focus groups, learners commented on whether the teachers’ assessment criteria and methods would help them with learning motivation, interpreting training exercises, peer assessment, and self-assessment. To this question, all second-year students said “yes, very much so,” mainly for the following reasons. First, the assessment criteria and methods encouraged them to revisit some of the critical qualities often overlooked, such as quick judgment, the use of a microphone, booth manners, preparedness, and nonverbal skills (S2_1, S2_2, S2_4). Second, they and their peers will be able to apply the criteria and methods during self- and peer-assessment (S2_4, S2_5). The response that follows was 209

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also quite interesting, as the focus group discussions helped learners clear up confusion about their teachers’ assessment. Most of the participants said that they usually wanted to be clear on how they were expected to perform, and it is quite impressive that we all found the teachers’ criteria to be useful. Knowing what assessment parameters teachers consider to be important will help students understand the essential elements of interpreting performance, while being aware of the various assessment criteria will inform the students of the wide range of interpreting skills and prepare them for the future. (S2_3) According to Su (2020), rubric training improves students’ self-assessment and awareness of interpreting—a finding related to this study’s results. In other words, the data obtained from the focus groups support the claim that trainers must share full details of interpreting performance assessment criteria and methods with the learners. However, trainers should carefully choose the appropriate semester to communicate their assessment expectations to the learners, since the two groups in different academic years demonstrated differences. Although the students in their first year of study reported that being aware of the assessment criteria was “helpful,” as they could 1) identify their areas of improvement by using the requirements as a self-assessment checklist (S1_1, S1_2, S1_5), 2) retain the information better in writing versus when conveyed verbally in class (S1_3), 3) refer to it as a useful tool when evaluating their peers’ interpreting performance (S1_4), and 4) learn that good interpreting quality involves a wide range of qualities and skills (S1_6), the group’s feedback was not as positive as the second-year learners’. Some even said, “I do not believe it will help improve my skills,” “I think it will help, but seeing an actual change in a short period of time will probably be difficult,” “The professors told me to first work on my language skills rather than interpreting techniques. So, I will not be able to apply the criteria right away,” “It does not give me instant motivation,” or “It could remind me of the specific areas I need to work on, but I doubt that I will change my study techniques overnight.” Considering the learners’ responses, clarifying the expectations and performance criteria in the second semester might be preferable for students, rather than the first semester, when students should acquaint themselves with the basics of interpreting and language skills. Second, trainers and learners should discuss interpreting performance assessment. Besides the questions mentioned previously, some students wanted to know more about how teachers deduct points, with one student saying, “There were times when I thought I did well on an exam but the grade was low, and vice versa. So, I want to know how the teachers actually deduct points for omissions and meaning errors. I mean, do they deduct points based on the number of errors or the weight?” Meanwhile, students also queried the difference between in-class versus real-life interpreting performance assessment, with students asking, “If we were to be graded out of 100 points, what would be the objective assessment of our performance?” “Given the scores or grades we got from the teachers, where would we stand in relation to the professional interpreters?” “Do teachers take into account the fact that they are grading students and not professional interpreters?”. The data obtained in this study confirm Behr’s previous findings that trainers can provide good training by involving the students in choosing important criteria that will be marked in the final exams, selecting a particular item the students will need to concentrate on during a specific training phase, allowing students to set clear learning goals, and enhancing the students’ motivation by engaging them in the teaching-learning process (Behr, 2014, p. 207). Trainers and learners should discuss the most essential elements for students to focus on, to understand what key skills professional interpreters need, and set specific goals and areas to work on in the future. This conversation 210

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will allow teachers to better meet the students’ needs by implementing a learner-centered assessment or employing tailored approaches by academic year/semester. In addition, in the case of the first-year students, the researcher had to clarify the definitions of accuracy, fidelity, logic, fidelity of content, fidelity of form, etc., as the group was unclear and confused. This confusion indicates the need for the teachers to double check the areas that the students struggle with in terms of assessment items. Meanwhile, the responses to the survey conducted before the focus-group interviews showed that the learners generally used two to four assessment criteria for self- or peer-evaluation, which is a simplified version of what they previously received from their teachers in the classroom. The second-year students said that they commented on areas that could improve quickly and skipped what peers already know to save time. In contrast, four out of the six first-year students ignored some elements, since they feared their feedback was insufficient for peers with weak French skills to recognize their errors or improve accuracy, even if they did realize them. This difference shows that the first-year students need the guidance of their teachers to identify what they are struggling with and to learn what criteria to use for self- or peer-evaluation. Third, learners should also discuss interpreting-performance assessment. The students began to become more open, listen to each other, and express themselves with total candor as the discussions progressed, showing that dialogues between learners can help them better understand the elements of good interpreting and gain knowledge about which interpreting performance criterion to use. I first thought that ‘preparedness’ was an odd criterion, but as I talked with my peers, I came to realize that it is in fact an important item. (S2_4) S2_3 mentioned something I had not thought about, and it was nice that S2_4 pointed it out again. (S2_1) Although the teachers’ criteria are broken down into specific requirements, they are in fact all organically connected. For example, using technical terms and equivalents is hard unless you have a correct understanding (of the source text), and faithfully rendering the message is difficult unless you use the right terminology and equivalents. (S1_1) What S1_1 said applies to professional interpreters. As for interpreting students, even if they did background research in advance and understood the original text well, the outputs will still vary depending on their French skills. (S1_4) I slightly disagree with S1_1. There are still ways to convey the message even if the correct terminology does not come to mind right away. So weak language skills do not necessarily equate to poor accuracy. (S1_5)

13.5

Conclusion

This study conducted focus group interviews with student interpreters to obtain perceptions on a defined area of interest in a permissive, nonthreatening environment (Krueger & Casey, 2015, p. 3). The researcher asked questions to elicit detailed responses about the learners’ general perceptions of the teachers’ assessment and their views toward the actual assessment criteria and methods shared for this study. Focus group data were analyzed to determine some critical pedagogical implications. This study made several contributions. First, it attempted to identify and close the research gap in the previous studies on the various interpreting-assessment criteria and methods teachers use, and shared such data with learners. The focus-group discussions revealed that students often do not receive sufficient information in the classroom, and most of the learners reported the information shared during the focus groups proved helpful. 211

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However, the key contribution of this study is its examination of the honest and diverse views of the learners with respect to their trainers’ assessment. From the responses of the study participants, learners did not hesitate to express their thoughts or emotions about their teachers’ interpretingperformance assessment, engaging in candid discussions about their concerns, confusion, empathy, and doubts. This study aimed to let learners talk about the teachers’ assessment, as this conversation seemed to be discouraged to the point of becoming taboo. The researcher expects that the teachers and researchers will pay close attention to the learners’ feedback and go the extra mile to put the students’ interests first, as they are the focus in the learning process.

Notes 1 The survey and interviews were conducted in 2019 for the researcher’s 2020 PhD thesis on “the interpreting performance assessment of undergraduate students.” Data of two teachers with less than six semesters of teaching experience who also quit teaching was excluded in this study, while two teachers who did not take part in the initial research were recruited as participants. The teachers’ assessment methods were reclassified for the purpose of this study. 2 The ability to make good decisions between literal v. liberal interpretation; the ability to detach from the source text structure to convey the message faithfully; the ability to make correct word choices in the target language depending on the setting and the audience. 3 Uses a descriptive assessment checklist as a reference guide only. Calculates the final grade after taking the overall performance into account. 4 Is the student properly delivering the intended tone and nuances of the original text in the assigned setting? 5 The student’s B language is taken into consideration when grading language skills. 6 The teachers’ permission was obtained prior to the focus groups for disclosure of the assessment information. 7 Students demand clear standards and criteria for what is expected of them (Araújo, 2019, p. 144).

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Najung Shin 신나정 Meak, L. (1990). Interprétation simultanée et congrès médical: Attentes et commentaires. The Interpreters’ Newsletter, 3, 8–13. Milcu, M. (2012). Evaluation and self-evaluation in simultaneous translation: Assessments methods. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46, 4253–4257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.236 Moser, P. (1995). Survey on expectations of users of conference interpretation. Retrieved August 19, 2019, from https://aiic.net/page/736/survey-on-expectations-of-users-of-conference-interpretation/lang/1 Moser-Mercer, B. (1996). Quality in interpreting: Some methodological issues. The Interpreters’ Newsletter, 7, 43–55. Nam, W. (2013). Teaching consecutive interpreting at the undergraduate level: Application of theory to a performance-oriented class. Journal of British and America Studies, 28, 269–293. Ng, B. C. (1992). End users’ subjective reaction to the performance of student interpreters. The Interpreters’ Newsletter, 1, 35–41. Park, J. (2016). Interpreting quality assessment from quality assurance perspective. Interpretation and Translation, 18, 57–79. http://doi.org/10.20305/it201603057079 Pavez, P. (2021). Dialogic education in the interpreting classroom: Action research for developing simultaneous interpreting quality assessment tools. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 15(3), 360–377. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/1750399X.2021.1906078 Pinazo, E. P. (2008). Self-assessment in teaching interpreting. TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Redaction, 21(1), 173–209. https://doi.org/10.7202/029690ar Pyoun, H. (2021). What do apprentice interpreters watch for feedback?: A case study of Korean-French consecutive interpreting feedback. The Journal of Interpretation and Translation Education, 19, 69–90. https://doi. org/10.23903/kaited.2021.19.4.004 Riccardi, A. (2002). Evaluation in interpretation: Macrocriteria and microcriteria. In E. Hung (Ed.), Teaching translation and interpreting 4: Building bridges (pp. 115–127). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Russo, M. (1995). Self–evaluation: The awareness of one’s own difficulties as a training tool for simultaneous interpretation. The Interpreter’s Newsletter, 6, 75–84. Schjoldager, A. (1995). Assessment of simultaneous interpreting. In C. Dollerup & V. Appel (Eds.), Teaching translation and interpreting 3: New horizons (pp. 187–196). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Shin, H. (2009). Student-oriented translation evaluation: Action research approach. The Journal of Translation Studies, 10(4), 87–113. https://doi.org/10.15749/jts.2009.10.4.004 Shin, N. (2017). Action research on pedagogical effects of self-assessment as a self-directed learning tool in interpreter training. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 21(3), 79–107. https://www-earticle-net.sproxy.hufs. ac.kr/Article/A307005 Shin, N. (2020). Undergraduate interpreter education for non-English majors: Focusing on French-Korean interpreting performance assessment. PhD. dissertation. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Su, W. (2019). Interpreting quality as evaluated by peer students. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 13(2), 177–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2018.1564192 Su, W. (2020). Exploring how rubric training influences students’ assessment and awareness of interpreting. Language Awareness, 29(2), 178–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2020.1743713 Takeda, K. (2010). What interpreting teachers can learn from students: A case study. Translation & Interpreting, 2(1), 38–47. Wu, S. (2010). Some reliability issues of simultaneous interpreting. Teaching and Testing Interpreting and Translating, 2, 301. Wu, S. (2013). How do we assess students in the interpreting examinations? In D. Tsagari & R. Deemter (Eds.), Assessment issues in language translation and interpreting (pp. 15–33). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH. Zwischenberger, C. (2010). Quality criteria in simultaneous interpreting: An international vs. a national view. The Interpreters’ Newsletter, 15, 127–142.

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14 A CASE STUDY ON STUDENT INTERPRETERS’ SELFASSESSMENT IN INTERPRETING TRAINING Kyongjo Woo 우경조 14.1

Introduction

In interpreting education conducted by interpreter training institutions, evaluation and assessment is a crucial tool to achieve educational goals, thereby constituting an essential part of interpreter training (Shin, 2017, p. 81). The reason is that, in most professional interpreter training institutions, interpreting classes are conducted through interpreting exercises, instructor evaluation, and peer evaluation, and unsupervised study sessions led by students also include peer evaluation. Several previous studies also find that evaluation and assessment contribute to improvement in students’ interpreting performance (Han & Fan, 2020; Lee, 2011, 2022; Shin, 2017; Woo, 2021). In interpreter training, the modes of assessment are largely divided into three categories: instructor assessment, peer assessment, and self- assessment. Among the three modes, self-assessment has not been given much attention in the domestic academic community, despite the fact that, internationally, it has been the subject of a large number of academic works (Fowler, 2007; Postigo Pinazo, 2008; Stauffer, 2011; Witter-Merithew et al., 2001; Woo, 2021) and in the field of general education, as a learner-centered educational approach is in the limelight due to the growing influence of social constructivism, learner self-assessment is also taking its place as a major evaluation method. In the same vein, self-assessment is increasingly being applied to interpreter training in overseas interpretation and translation training institutions (Fowler, 2007; Stauffer, 2011; Witter-Merithew et al., 2001). For instance, Arumí and Esteve (2006; as cited in Postigo Pinazo, 2008, p.  174) emphasize that assessment and self-assessment processes play a key part, for interpreters, within training, “by encouraging self-regulation processes in consecutive interpreting trainees.” However, in comparison, not many studies have been carried out in the domestic arena, and the suggestions proposed from those studies (Lee, 2008, Park, 2014; Shin, 2017) seem not to be implemented in interpreting classes. Against this backdrop, this study aims to remind interpreting instructors and students of the importance of self-assessment in interpreting training by examining its positive effects and implications in interpreting training curriculum based on the analysis of self-assessments of students at a post-graduate level. To this end, this study will compare and analyze the midterm self-evaluations of four first-semester interpreting trainees and their midterm exam self-assessments in the last semester (fourth semester) at a graduate school of interpretation and translation in Seoul, Korea. By analyzing 1

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how students’ self-assessments have developed as semesters progress over a two-year-long period, this study is expected to contribute to examining the effectiveness of self-assessment in training institutions specializing in translation and interpretation education.

14.2 14.2.1

Theoretical background

Pedagogical concept of self-assessment

First, with regards to the terms: self-evaluation and self-assessment, although “some teachers find it helpful to distinguish between self-evaluation (judgments that are used for grading) and self-assessments (informal judgments about attainment)” as pointed out by Ross (2006, p. 2), as not many find the distinction very effective (ibid.), the terms will be used interchangeably in this study. Lee (2022, p.  12) stresses the significance of assessment in her study comparing student selfassessments and teacher assessments in Korean-English consecutive interpreting as follows: Assessment is an important pedagogical tool that teachers employ to find out what students know and what they can do. In a traditional classroom environment, assessment is typically conducted by teachers, but in a collaborative learning environment, assessment can be conducted by teachers and peers to provide feedback on the learner’s skills and performance. In the context of interpreter training, assessment is mainly concerned with quality of interpreting produced by students, which is evaluated for various educational purposes. Kornakov (2000, p.  248) emphasized the instructor’s role in interpreting training to help students’ self-preparation, stating that their role is “to provide some useful guidelines, strategies and exercises that can be used outside the language laboratory, without an instructor and without sophisticated equipment” (Postigo Pinazo, 2008, p. 174), as found by other studies. In a study on the introduction of the “self-evaluation portfolio” model in interpretation education, Sang (2019, pp.  28–29) pointed out, “Basically, looking at the meaning and effect of ‘self-evaluation’ from a pedagogy perspective will help to examine the educational significance” of self-evaluation studies in the context of interpreter education and summarized the concept and educational effectiveness of self-assessment discussed in the field of education as follows: Self-assessment refers to the learner’s evaluation of his or her own learning process and results (Kim, 2016, p.  414). Nam and Ryu (2000) mentioned that self-assessment is an evaluation activity in which students participate in the evaluation process based on the contents suggested by the instructor about their own learning and identify their strengths and weaknesses through reflective thinking. According to Dickinson (1987), learners can take responsibility for themselves through self-assessment, and can make broader observations of plans, performances, and learning processes that are implemented. In addition, McMillan and Hearn (2008) said that through self-assessment activities, learners can gain motivation for learning and the ability to control their efforts necessary in the learning process. Dweck (1996) argued that self-assessment has a positive effect on the standards set by oneself and the mastery goal to learn for self-development, rather than a performance goal that aims at results rather than process. Self-assessment is not only an effective tool for shaping learners’ learning patterns and learning outcomes (Black & Wiliam, 1998), but also directly affects learners’ learning styles (Scouller, 1998). Sang (2019, pp. 28–29) 216

Student interpreters’ self-assessment in interpreting training

As succinctly summarized by Sang and as found in other previous studies, self-assessment enables self-directed learning by allowing learners to observe their own learning activities closely and comprehensively in the learning process and to look back on themselves through reflective thinking. As such, self-assessment can be a useful self-regulated learning tool in diverse learning environments in that it not only analyzes learning results but also influences the formation of learning methods from the planning stage and result analysis to reflective thinking on the entire learning process.

14.2.2

Self-assessment in interpreting training

Quoting Riccardi’s (2002) study, Postigo Pinazo (2008) pointed out the trickiness of evaluation of interpreter performance and emphasized the significance of the training period in interpreting training as follows: As Riccardi (2002) points out, evaluating interpreter performance is a controversial professional issue. Therefore, the training period is of key importance for introducing future interpreters to the habits of recognizing their strengths and weaknesses. Most students are not really aware of their actual competence in the target language as used in interpreting exercises. Trainers often find students’ poor performance in their own mother tongue a problem. (Postigo Pinazo, 2008, pp. 176–177) Among studies conducted related to interpretation and self-assessment in the domestic academic circles (Lee, 2022; Park, 2014; Shin, 2017; Woo, 2021), Woo (2021) seeks to examine the characteristics of interpreting students’ self-assessments and their implications in the context of interpreting education by analyzing the self-assessments of first-year students at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and found that novice trainees’ self-assessments are basically unstructured and unsystematic, with upper-level categories of assessment criteria often including unrelated details, although the positive aspect is that improvement was made over the course of their training. By analyzing the specific stages of self-regulated learning process, self-observation, self-judgment, and self-reaction, Schunk (1996) explores the positive relation between self-regulatory activities and “self-efficacy,” which can be achieved in the repeated processes of self-assessment. Self-regulation involves self-observation, self-judgment, and self-reaction. Self-observation refers to deliberate attention to aspects of one’s behavior to include their determinants and effects. Self-judgment entails comparing one’s present performance level with one’s goal to determine progress. Self-reaction refers to people’s assessments of their performances (e.g., acceptable, unsatisfactory) (Bandura, 1986, 1991b; Schunk, 1990). This conceptualization postulates a central mediating role for perceptions of self-efficacy or personal beliefs about one’s capabilities to learn or perform skills at designated levels. Learners acquire information to appraise self-efficacy from their performances, vicarious (observational) experiences, forms of persuasion, and physiological reactions (e.g., sweating, heart rate). Students who feel efficacious about learning choose to engage in tasks, select effective strategies, expend effort, and persist when difficulties are encountered (Bandura, 1989; Schunk, 1991; Zimmerman, 1989). In turn, these self-regulatory activities affect self-efficacy. As students work on tasks, they observe their performances, compare them with their goals, and judge their progress. Positive assessments enhance self-efficacy and motivation. (Bandura, 1991a, 1993). (Schunk, 1996, p. 360) 217

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As demonstrated in the aforementioned studies, self-assessment is a useful self-regulated learning method in the field of general education in which learners can identify their own strengths and weaknesses, coordinate their efforts, and systematically analyze their performance to incorporate self-reflection into their learning. In the context of interpretation and translation education, selfevaluation can be a means for interpreting students to have a better perspective on their own performance and achieve performance improvement. Against this backdrop, the present study seeks to examine how self-assessments by graduate students of interpreting evolve over the two-year-long training program in order to observe the progress made during the period and identify the characteristics of interpreting students’ self-evaluation, thereby finding implications for interpreter education.

14.3 14.3.1

Methodology

Participating students and data for analysis

This study was designed to evaluate the usefulness of self-assessment in interpreting and translation education through a comparative analysis of self-evaluation results of graduate students in an interpreting and translation education institute. In the present study, an analysis was made on selfassessments of four students majoring in interpretation and translation of English and Korean at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and, to be more specific, involved the collection and analysis of their first semester midterm self-assessments and their fourth semester midterm self-assessments. Among the four students, two are female students and two are male students, of which one male student has Korean as his mother tongue, while the other three students have lived abroad for ten years, two years, and nine years, respectively, during their childhood or adolescence. In order to ensure the anonymity of participating students, in this study, the numbers 1 to 4 were added to the first letter “S” meaning “student” to refer to each student, so they were marked as S1, S2, S3, and S4, respectively. A summary of student information can be found in Table 14.1, as follows.

14.3.2

Analysis method and process

In this study, following the author’s 2021 study, a qualitative analysis was first conducted to evaluate eight self-assessment reports written in free form. The four students’ self-assessments of their midterm exams in the first semester of the first year and the second semester of the second year—in other words, the students’ first and last semesters—were analyzed, focusing on the evaluation form, content, and quantity.

Table 14.1 Student information Student

Gender

Language background

S1 S2 S3 S4

Female Male Female Male

Lived abroad for ten years No overseas living experience Lived abroad for two years Lived abroad for nine years

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Student interpreters’ self-assessment in interpreting training

First, the format of the content composition of the self-assessment assignments submitted by the students was analyzed, followed by a detailed analysis of the content composition. The content analysis was carried out by reading the contents sentence by sentence, describing keywords and extracting concepts that could categorize those keywords. After a qualitative analysis that involved recording this in an Excel file, a quantitative analysis was also conducted in parallel to find common characteristics or tendencies in students’ self-assessments. The categorization and notation for students’ self-assessments data also follow the methods used by the author’s 2021 study described as follows: First, the criterion for delivering a superficial dimension of a source text with accuracy was marked as ‘A,’ from the first letter of the word ‘Accuracy.’ Under the criterion of A(accuracy), accuracy of information, omission, and delivery of nuances are included as evaluation items. Second, the criterion for assessing the naturalness of Korean expressions was marked as ‘E’, from the English word ‘Expression.’ As stated in their self-assessments, a lot of first year first semester GSIT students struggle with note-taking, and thus, this criterion was marked as NT. Criterion for NT not only includes writing notes and using symbols, but also information regarding failing to comprehend notes. This includes misinterpreting notes even after students managed to write down – a part of multitasking skills—and understanding and misunderstanding of notes. Criteria for pause, filler, speed & fluency, and delivery were all marked as D. Skills related to analyzing a source text were marked as STA. STA criteria are different from A (accuracy), as criterion A is focused on evaluating the accurate delivery of the information including separate words, phrases and syntax; whereas for the STA, it is used to evaluate a more comprehensive approach to the text, including analyzing topics, structures, and the level of difficulty. Another criterion includes AP (Action Plan), where students plan for their improvement based on their self-assessments. SR (Self-reflection) criterion was used for a more generic and abstract reflection of performance rather than suggesting a specific solution for each of the evaluation criterion. Lastly, C (comments) was marked when students included questions or comments for professors. (Woo, 2021, p. 671)

14.4

Analysis results

The differences between the first-semester self-assessment and the final-semester self-assessment of students majoring in interpretation fall into three broad categories: quantity, format, and assessment components. Each category is detailed in the following subsections.

14.4.1

Students’ self-assessment quantity

The most notable difference between student interpreters’ self-assessments in the first semester and those of the final semester is the change in quantity. In the case of S1, the self-assessment volume in the first semester was 311 words, but the volume in the last semester increased by 540 words to 851 words, displaying an increase of about 274%. S2 also showed a similar increase, with an increase of about 270% from 214 words to 577 words. S3 showed the most dramatic jump. The first semester self-assessment amounted to only 79 words, but the fourth semester self-assessment increased by 722 words to 811 words, representing an increase of more than 1,000%. In other words, the volume increased more than ten-fold. Finally, in the case of S4, there was an increase of about 550 words over the two years, exhibiting a 392% jump.

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Looking at the average volume, the average self-assessment volume of students in the first semester was 189 words, and the average of the fourth semester was 741 words—a difference of 552 words, or an increase of about 400%. For detailed information, refer to Table 14.2, as follows. As displayed in Table 14.2, the significant increase in volume suggests that interpreting trainees exposed to numerous evaluations during their interpretation training improved their self-assessment competencies over the same period. In particular, the amount of self-assessment varied among the students in the first semester. The difference between S3, who submitted the smallest volume of evaluation, and S1, who submitted the largest volume of self-evaluation, was about four times in terms of length. On the other hand, in the case of the last semester, the gap between students in terms of quantity has decreased. Since the difference between S1, with the largest volume, and S2, with the smallest volume, was only about 1.5 times, it is clear that the gap in students’ self-assessment volume narrowed in the last semester.

14.4.2

Self-assessment format

The comparison between the first semester students’ self-assessments and those in the fourth semester highlights another noticeable difference; namely, the change in format. In the first semester, none of the trainee interpreters used tables or the memo function of MS Word but listed the contents of the self-assessment in sentence format without any particular structure. On the other hand, in the last semester’s self-evaluation, all four students included the source text and used the MS Word memo function in the corresponding area to clearly demonstrate what part they were analyzing. In other words, the initial self-assessment is in the form of a list of sentences centered on error analysis; however, the later self-assessment not only includes the source text but also has a more systemic format that incorporates tables and memos. As analyzed earlier, and as can be seen from the quantitative increase, the content of students’ selfassessment has also grown in quantity. Table 14.3 shows the characteristics of each student’s self-assessment format.

Table 14.2 Quantity of student self-assessment  

Quantity of student self-assessment (Word count & percent)

Student

1st semester mid-term self-assessment

4th semester mid-term self-assessment

Quantity change over the period

Increase in percent

S1

311 words

851 words

+ 540 words

S2

214 words

577 words

+ 363 words

S3

79 words

811 words

+ 732 words

S4

152 words

722 words

+ 570 words

Average

189 words

741 words

+ 552 words

About 274% increase About 270% increase About 1,027% increase About 475% increase About 392% increase

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14.4.3

Assessment components

This section discusses trainee interpreters’ self-assessment components. Table 14.4 shows the characteristics of each student’s self-assessment format. Table 14.3 Self-assessment format  

Self-assessment format

Student

1st semester mid-term self-assessment

4th semester mid-term self-assessment

S1

- Two categories: note-taking and interpretation - Mainly focused on error analysis (*under the interpretation category, assessment components E, D, and A and cause analysis are included) - Categories: not systematic - Three categories: 1. content, 2. sentence structure and flow, 3. note-taking - Contained parts where the details do not match the upper-level category, indicating that the student’s self-assessment is not systematized - The entire self-assessment consists of three sentences of comments to the instructor, and the sentences are listed without a specific format - The entire self-assessment consists of eleven sentences of comments to the instructor, and the sentences are listed without a specific format

- Entire original text + interpretation (transcript) - Three categories: 1. content, 2. sentence structure and flow, 3. note-taking - Utilized MS Word memo function - Systematized format

S2

S3

S4

- Entire original text + interpretation (transcript) + Analysis of individual errors + overall review - Used a table to compare original text with interpretation transcript - Utilized MS Word memo function - Systematized format

- Entire original text + interpretation (transcript) + Analysis of individual errors + overall review - The content composition itself has also been systematized - Utilized MS Word memo function - Entire original text + analysis of individual errors + overall review - Utilized MS Word memo function

Table 14.4 Self-assessment components  

Self-assessment components (*A: Accuracy, C: Comments, D: Delivery, E: Expression, NT: Notetaking, AP: Action Plan, SR: Self-reflection, STA: Source Text Analysis)

Student

1st semester mid-term self-assessment

4th semester mid-term self-assessment

S1 S2 S3 S4

NT, A, D, E A, NT, D C (NT, A, D) C (D, E, A, NC)

A, NT, D, E, C, SR A, NT, D, E, C, SR A, NT, D, E, C, A, D, E, C, SR, NT

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The most frequently spotted evaluation components in each assessment are marked in bold. In the first semester student self-evaluation, it is found that students pay a lot of attention to NT and D; that is, note-taking and delivery. On the other hand, the analysis of the final semester self-evaluation shows more diversified assessment components. As the volume of the evaluation increased, the frequency of each item spotted also increased. The diversification of the evaluation items means that students are evaluating their interpretation performance from various aspects, which indicates that interpreting students’ self-assessment skills improved to a greater degree in the second year than in the first year.

14.5

Conclusion

In the present study, students’ self-assessments of their mid-term exams during the first semester and fourth semester over the course of two years in an interpretation training institute were analyzed to examine how their self-assessments developed over the same period and what implications the analysis can offer in terms of interpreting pedagogy. The findings of this study can be summarized as follows: first, there is a relatively large difference in students’ self-assessment between the first semester and the fourth semester. Among others, the most notable difference between the first semester and the final semester is the dramatic increase in quantity. In the final analysis, it can be deduced that students develop their self-assessment skills while being trained through the interpretation program. In addition, it was found that assessment components are more diversified in the final semester self-assessments. In terms of format, error-oriented analysis was the main focus in the first semester, whereas, in the last semester of the program, students conducted self-evaluation from a more comprehensive perspective to include a comparison between the source text and their own interpretations and analyzed them more systematically, focusing on the original texts. In other words, while students focused more on how well they had translated “words” in the first semester self-assessment, they paid more attention to delivering meaning units as well as natural target language expressions in the last semester. However, the contents of the assessment categorized as “Source Text Analysis (STA),” which can be considered a higher-level analysis element, were not included in the self-assessment of all students in the last semester self-assessments, which indicates the need to provide training on the act of self-assessment itself. This study has demonstrated that self-assessments conducted by student-interpreters improve to a certain extent over the course of interpreting training programs, which corroborates the findings of previous studies. Furthermore, enhancement in a student’s self-evaluation skills and competencies can lead to increased self-study activities, which are conducive to improving interpreting performance. This suggests that the significance of self-assessment in interpreting training should be emphasized more in the interpreting classroom. As “students who feel efficacious about learning choose to engage in tasks” and “self-efficacy sustains motivation and leads learners to establish new goals” (Schunk, 1996, p. 360), self-assessment can be an effective tool to foster self-efficacy of student-interpreters. This suggests that the significance of self-assessment in interpreting training should be emphasized to a greater degree in interpreting classes. This study has some limitations: first, the data set is relatively small. Since this study was conducted with a small number of students, there are limitations in generalizing the findings, although this is often the case in qualitative research. In addition, it is regrettable that this study did not include student interviews that reflect on their self-assessment reports, which could have incorporated more comprehensive and insightful information to the findings. Despite such limitations, this study extends our knowledge of self-assessment in T&I education and offers interpreting teachers tangible implications for encouraging students to better assess their 222

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performance. Furthermore, considering the significance of self-evaluation in T&I education, the findings of the present study have wide applicability for interpreting training and the life-long learning process for professional interpreters. Further studies regarding the usefulness and effectiveness of self-assessment strategies and methods are likely to be worthwhile, along with a longitudinal study examining how professional interpreters’ self-evaluation skills improve while working in the market over a longer period.

Note 1 This chapter draws upon and develops ideas from the author’s 2021 study on the analysis of self-assessment patterns of student interpreters.

References Arumí, R. M., & Esteve Ruescas, O. (2006). Using instruments aimed at self-regulation in the consecutive interpreting classroom: Two case studies. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 3(2), 158–189. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action (pp. 23–28). Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Bandura, A. (1989). Human agency in social cognitive theory. American Psychologist, 44(9), 1175. Bandura, A. (1991a). Self-regulation of motivation through anticipatory and self-reactive mechanisms. In R. A. Dienstbier (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation (Vol. 38, pp. 69–164). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. Bandura, A. (1991b). Social cognitive theory of self-regulation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 248–287. Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28(2), 117–148. Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 7–74. Dickinson, L. (1987). Self-instruction in language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dweck, C. S. (1996). Social motivation: Goals and social-cognitive processes. A comment. In Social motivation: Understanding children’s school adjustment (pp. 181–19). Fowler, Y. (2007). Formative assessment: Using peer and self-assessment in interpreter training. In C. Wadensjö, B. E. Dimitrova, & A.-L. Nilsson (Eds.), The critical link 4: Professionalisation of interpreting in the community (pp. 253–262). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Han, C., & Fan, Q. (2020). Using self-assessment as a formative assessment tool in an English-Chinese interpreting course: Student views and perceptions of its utility. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 28(1), 109–125. Kim, Y -C. (2016). Performance evaluation theory and design. Paju Academy. Kornakov, P. (2000). Five principles and five skills for training interpreters. Meta: journal des traducteurs/Meta: Translators’ Journal, 45(2), 241–248. Lee, H.-S. (2008). Empirical research on the evaluation of simultaneous interpretation. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 12(1), 91–107. Lee, J. (2022). Comparing student self-assessment and teacher assessment in Korean-English consecutive interpreting: Focus on fidelity and target language. INContext, 2(3), 9–36. Lee, Y.-H. (2011). Comparing self-assessment and teacher’s assessment in interpreter training. T&I Review, 1, 87–111. McMillan, J. H., & Hearn, J. (2008). Student self-assessment: The key to stronger student motivation and higher achievement. Educational Horizons, 87(1), 40–49. Nam, H.-C. 남형채 & Ryu, S.-L. 류성민. (2000). Suhag sueob-eseo hagsaeng-ui jagipyeong-ga. gwahag suhaggyoyug-yeongu 수학 수업에서 학생의 자기평가 [Ways of student self-assessment in mathematics]. Gwahag suhaggyoyug-yeongu 과학 수학교육연구 [The Research of Science Mathematics Education], 23(3), 55–71. Park, H.-I. (2014). Investigating quality assessment criteria in interpreting using SEM: Focusing on the assessment criteria of professional interpreters. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul. Postigo Pinazo, E. (2008). Self-assessment in teaching interpreting. TTR, 21(1), 173–209.

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Kyongjo Woo 우경조 Riccardi, A. (2002). Evaluation in interpretation. Teaching Translation and Interpreting, 4, 115–126. Ross, J. A. (2006). The reliability, validity, and utility of self-assessment. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 11(1), 10. Sang, W. Y. (2019). Action research on the learner-centered interpretation education: Focusing on self-assessment portfolio model. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Ewha Womans University, Seoul. Schunk, D. H. (1990). Goal setting and self-efficacy during self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 25(1), 71–86. Schunk, D. H. (1991). Goal setting and self-evaluation: A social cognitive perspective on self-regulation. Advances in Motivation and Achievement, 7, 85–113. Schunk, D. H. (1996). Goal and self-evaluative influences during children’s cognitive skill learning. American Educational Research Journal, 33(2), 359–382. Scouller, K. (1998). The influence of assessment method on students’ learning approaches: Multiple choice question examination versus assignment essay. Higher Education, 35(4), 453–472. Shin, N.-J. 신나정. (2017). Jagijudojeok tongyeok hakseup bangbeopeuroseo jagipyeonggaeui gyoyukjeok hyogwae daehan silhaeng yeongu 자기주도적 통역 학습 방법으로서 자기평가 교육적 효과에 대한 실 행 연구 [Action research on pedagogical effects of self-assessment as a self-directed learning tool in interpreter training]. Tongbeonyeokhag yeongu 통번역학 연구 [Interpreting and Translation Studies], 21(3), 79–107. Stauffer, L. K. (2011). ASL students’ ability to self assess ASL competency. Journal of Interpretation, 21(1), 81–95. Witter-Merithew, A., Taylor, M., & Johnson, L. (2001). Guided self-assessment and professional development planning: A model applied to interpreters in educational settings. In C. Nettles (Ed.), Proceedings of the 17th national conference of the registry of interpreters for the deaf (pp. 153–226). Alexandria, VA: RID Publications. Woo, K.-J. 우경조 (2021). Tongyeokjeongong haksaengduleui jagipyeongga bunseok 통역전공 학생들이 자 기평가 분석 [Analysis of self-assessment by interpreting students]. Hakseubja jungsim gyogwa gyoyuk yeongu 학습자중심교과교육연구 [Journal of Learner-Centered Curriculum and Instruction], 21(9), 667–682. Zimmerman, B. J. (1989). A social cognitive view of self-regulated academic learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81(3), 329.

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15 SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR OF KOREAN AND ITS APPLICATION TO INTERPRETING STUDIES Mira Kim 김미라 and June Lee 이주은 15.1

Introduction

Translation and interpreting have the ultimate purpose of helping people to understand each other when they do not have a common language. However, the means of communication is different: translation is through the written mode and interpreting through the spoken mode. Therefore, interpreting is a dynamic communicative act that mostly occurs on site, within a limited time frame. As a field of research, Translation Studies attracted attention from researchers earlier than Interpreting Studies. This might result from the methodological difficulties associated with collecting data, gaining ethics clearance and analyzing spoken data. Fortunately however, the interpreting field “has seen considerable methodological enrichment in recent years through interdisciplinary borrowing and the innovative use of methods across different domains and line of research within the field” (Pöchhacker, 2017, p. 325). This chapter is to explore a discourse-analysis approach that draws on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Munday asserts that discourse analysis became visible in translation studies in the 1990s with Halliday’s SFL model representing “the model of discourse analysis that has the greatest influence” (Munday, 2012, p. 137). Halliday explains that a functional grammar is “oriented towards the discourse semantics” and is viewed as “a resource for construing meaning” (Halliday, 1994, p. 15). In SFL, written and spoken discourse are the source of linguistic enquiries (e.g. Halliday, 1985) SFL has served as a robust research framework in translation studies in a number of languages (see Kim & Matthiessen, 2015 for examples). It has been also increasingly deployed in Korean translation and interpreting studies in the last couple of decades. It has been adopted in many Korean translation studies as well (e.g. Kim, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011; C. Lee, 2006; Sung, 2016; J. Lee, 2020, to name a few). However, these studies have a methodological limitation because Korean has not yet been described from a systemic, functional perspective. The application of SFL in both translation and interpreting studies is inherently limited when SFL-based descriptions of both working languages are not available, as acknowledged in Kim (2016). Precisely for this reason, Kim took the initiative to co-author the monograph Korean Grammar: A Systemic Functional Approach, which has been published earlier this year. Kim trained as a professional translator and interpreter at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul in the mid-1990s. As her training was mostly based on painstakingly long hours of practice without much theoretical background, she felt 225

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-18

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ill-equipped when providing justification for the linguistic choices she made as a translator and interpreter. In 2000, she moved to Sydney, Australia, seeking a research-based response to the questions she had accumulated while working in the field of Korean Translation and Interpreting for several years. While undertaking her second master’s degree in applied linguistics at Macquarie University, Kim was introduced to SFL and found it a useful tool for investigating her research questions. She was particularly fascinated by the SFL’s postulation that meaning is multi-dimensional and can be studied through linguistic analysis that encompasses micro aspects such as words and grammar, as well as macro variables such as register and context. Since then, she has applied SFL both to translation studies and translator education. However, the more she applied SFL to her research and teaching, the more she felt the need for a Korean language description from a systemic functional linguistic perspective, which led her to initiate a project to describe Korean from a SFL perspective with J R Martin, a leading SFL linguist, Gi-hyun Shin, a Korean language specialist, and Gyunghee Choi, who completed her PhD on Korean clause complexes (G. Choi, 2013a) under Kim’s supervision. This grammar book, which took nearly a decade to complete (see Kim, 2022 for an account of the development of the book), is intended as a practical resource for translation and interpreting, and for teaching Korean. This is why its final chapter includes several examples that show how the grammar can be applied to Korean language teaching, translation, and interpreting. This chapter aims to illustrate how Korean Grammar: A Systemic Functional Approach (KSFG) can be used in researching questions about interpreting. This chapter consists of four sections. First, we will review SFL-based interpreting studies and then introduce some major SFL concepts and the textual grammar of Korean (which is particularly relevant to this chapter). In the third section of the chapter, we will analyze and discuss some sample interpreting texts. The chapter concludes with suggestions for further studies.

15.2

SFL-based interpreting studies

Our literature review reveals that most SFL-based interpreting studies were conducted in the last ten years or so. While studies published outside Korea have addressed all the meta functions, those published in Korea tend to focus more on the textual meta function. The details of the SFL-based interpreting studies published in some major journals are listed in Table 15.1. Each study is briefly introduced in what follows. G. Choi, one of the authors of KSFG, has conducted several studies in this area. Her 2013 paper examined the language mode (written/spoken), genre structure, and lexico-grammar of good-will speech texts. Lexical density, number of words per clause, and Theme served as the criteria to determine the language mode. G. Choi proposed a schematic structure for good-will speech texts, claiming that knowledge of the genre structure and its underlying grammar would help community interpreting students. G. Choi’s (2020) study analyzed the notetaking texts and transcripts of students who had passed the NAATI exam and those who had not. Relying on the thematic framework, she examined the zig-zag pattern of the thematic progression and explained errors in terms of grammatical metaphor. She pointed out the need to incorporate the cognitive aspect of interpretation in future studies. G. Choi conducted another study (2022a) on trainees’ interpreted texts analyzing the TT’s Theme, new information, and grammatical metaphor, along with intonation analysis and note-taking analysis. She asserts the usefulness of this methodology as a guide to understanding pre-planned, formal speech text, although she acknowledges that deploying the text analysis method may not guarantee success in interpreting performance. She also pointed out the need to prove the efficacy of text analysis based on SFL with regard to students’ ability to comprehend the ST in further studies. Lee & Kim (2014) investigated how trainee interpreters reflected ST Themes in their interpreting notes and how they interpreted the Themes in the target language. The thematic analysis took into 226

Systemic functional grammar of Korean Table 15.1 SFL-based interpreting studies Interpreting type Domain

Study

Topic

Consecutive

Genre

Consecutive Consecutive

Textual Textual

Consecutive

Textual

Simultaneous

Textual

Consecutive

Interpersonal

Consecutive

Interpersonal

Consecutive

Logical

Consecutive

Experiential

Consecutive

All domains

Consecutive

All domains

Choi, G. (2013b) Text-based analysis of genre and grammar in good-will speech texts Choi, G. (2020) Text analysis in a NAATI interpreting accreditation test Choi, G. (2022a) Teaching ‘theme,’ ‘new,’ and ‘grammatical metaphor’ in consecutive interpreting Lee & Kim Analysis of themes in interpreting notes and interpreted (2014) texts Chang & Kim Logical cohesion as a quality criterion in Chinese(2016) English simultaneous interpreting Tebble (2008) Using SFL to understand the structure of interpreted professional consultations and interviews, and semantic discourse features of interpersonal communication Fu (2018) Translation of modality in government press conferences in the Chinese context, and indications of interpreter’s identity Wang (2008) Clause boundary shifts in consecutive interpreting from Chinese into English Choi, G. (2022b) Note-taking strategy based on SFL’s meaning-based classification of verbs Choi, S. (2022) Analysis of Sharon Choi’s interpretation from a SFL perspective Ouyang (2018) Using SFL as the theoretical framework for interpreting quality assessment

consideration the newness and markedness of the information as well as the strategies deployed to deal with the ST Themes. Four patterns were observed: reflection, omission, restoration, and ellipsis. Some limitations to this study are the sole focus on Theme, excluding the Rhemes, and the “implicit themes” that were difficult to justify its status as Theme at the time of research. Chang & Kim’s (2016) study applies thematic analysis to a professionally interpreted simultaneous text, shedding light on the interpreter’s Theme choices and discussing how they contribute to the logical cohesion of the target text. The findings suggest that the Theme choices were motivated by the linguistic expectancy norms of the TL as well as the expectation norm to organize the discourse flow according to logical cohesion. The analysis also reveals textual devices that have been deployed, such as omission or polishing of the original text, which are regarded as professional norms in conference interpreting, adopted as a means of creating a more fluent and communicative text. In terms of the interpersonal meta function, Tebble’s study illustrates how SFL can be employed to discuss the structure of interpreted professional consultations and interviews in the medical context and the semantic discourse features of the interpersonal communication that occurs in such interpreted speech events. The author stresses that “the interpreter must not only interpret the content of what is said between patient and physician but also the way they speak to each other, as well as their attitude to what they say” (Tebble, 2008, p. 153). The findings of her study can help interpreters grasp the nuances of rapport used by physicians and understand the interpersonal aspects of what has been said. Fu (2018) also explored the interpersonal aspect of interpreting in Chinese government press conferences, with a special focus on modality. In Fu’s study, SFL is adopted as the theoretical framework for analyzing modality in the interpretations of institutionally employed interpreters. The results “help demystify the 227

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perception that interpreters do no more than just code-switching in highly sensitive and politicallycharged settings,” based on the evidence of the variation in modality orientations and values. As for the logical meta function, Wang investigated the clause boundary shifts occurring in Chinese-English interpreting. The author points out that “language typology in SFL could provide an efficient tool for illuminating the different grammatical models for construing human experience between source and target languages” (Wang, 2008, p. 261) and insists that students’ awareness of typological differences should be enhanced in this respect. G. Choi’s paper (2022b) focuses on SFL-based systematic note-taking in consecutive interpreting training and proposed a note-taking strategy based on SFL’s verb classification. S. Choi’s (2022) study examined all three of the meta functions in Sharon Choi’s interpretation of director Bong Joon-ho’s remarks. She complimented Sharon Choi’s interpretation, saying, for example, that her interpretation “successfully conveyed the nuance of the source language” and preserved “the characteristics of the target language” while expressing “the core messages more neatly and clearly.” Despite the fact that this study claimed to be an SFL-based study, detailed analysis was not provided to support the author’s claims. Ouyang’s (2018) study also incorporates all three meta functions and is claimed to be “the first attempt in the field of interpreting quality assessment to use SFL as the basic theoretical framework for assessment” (p. 210). The author’s assessment criteria consist of the ideational meaning in terms of accuracy, the interpersonal meaning with regard to appropriateness, and the textual meaning in respect of coherence. The author concludes that “the SFL-based model describes how interpreters are functioning in meaning transfer, with abundant evidence elicited from both contextual- and textual-level assessment” (ibid.). However, the practicality of the model is questioned with regard to (1) the workload of model application, (2) concentration on details on a clause-by-clause basis creating a false view of what consecutive interpreting is, and (3) the inability to distinguish high- and low-stakes interpreting problems relying on the textual-level assessment alone. Some common limitations and considerations regarding the research studies introduced above are worth mentioning. The majority of the studies were conducted with a relatively small corpus in a fairly limited time period. In order to generalize the findings and to make the results applicable to relevant fields of study, research should be conducted on a larger scale in terms of both the time period and corpus size, taking into consideration collaborative research across borders as well. Another suggestion to consider in order to achieve more robust results in the future is the adoption of triangulation. We are aware of a few cases in which a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods could have been incorporated, including interviews, to produce a more convincing result. Most importantly, as Kim & Matthiessen (2015) have emphasized, without comprehensive systemic functional descriptions of the languages discussed, it will not be possible to provide a full methodological specification. In order to build knowledge in translation (and interpreting) studies in a constructive way, “theoretical and methodological rigor is a crucial condition, without which we cannot make any legitimate claims that will move us forward” (ibid., p. 339).

15.3

Major SFL concepts1

In SFL, words and grammar, described as lexicogrammar, are viewed as a meaning-making resource. The centrality of meaning and the shared view of meaning are core links between SFL and Translation Studies, as Newmark (1987, p. 293) explains: Since the translator is concerned exclusively and continuously with meaning, it is not surprising that Hallidayan linguistics, which sees language primarily as a meaning potential, should 228

Systemic functional grammar of Korean

offer itself as a serviceable tool for determining the constituent parts of a source language text and its network of relations with its translation. Figure 15.1, which is adopted from Halliday & Matthiessen (2014, p. 26), shows how different strata or levels of are inter-related: The levels are context, which includes both context of situation and context of culture, discourse semantics, lexicogrammar, and phonology/graphology. It can be said that a higher level provides a context for its lower level or that a higher level cannot exist without its lower level. Therefore, in SFL, it is a common practice to study lexicogrammar, which is mainly concerned with meaning at the clause level, in relation to semantics, which is primarily concerned with meaning at the text or discourse level, and vice versa. This recognition of the mutual influence between the levels is another reason for the strong relevance of SFL theory to translation and interpreting studies. In SFL, meaning is studied from multiple dimensions: ideational, which includes both experiential and logical resources; interpersonal; and textual. Experiential meaning represents our experience of the world; namely who does what to whom, how, when, and why. Logical meaning refers to logical relations between clauses. Interpersonal meaning is how experiential meaning is communicated reflecting on the relationship between the speaker and the listener and/or on a personal attitude. Textual meaning refers to the flow of information, representing how ideational and interpersonal meanings are organized into a coherent, linear whole. Each abstract mode of meaning is realised through a particular linguistic system. For example, Korean speakers have a wide variety of grammatical resources to express interpersonal meaning, such as mood, pol ite ness, stanc e and defer ence, just to name a few (see Chapter 3 of KSFG for interpersonal grammar in Korean). Each aspect of meaning is interpreted based on the evidence of linguistic resources at the clause level. Therefore, systemic functional grammar (SFG) is the same as other grammars in the sense that it looks at linguistic features at the clause level. However, it is significantly different from the others in that it does not interpret these linguistic features as a set of rules, but rather, describes them as

Context Semantics

Lexicogrammar Phonology/ Graphology

Figure 15.1 Levels of language

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resources for interpreting different aspects of meaning. Furthermore, grammar is viewed in relation to the meaning and context. This correlation can be presented diagrammatically, as in Figure 15.2. The experiential meaning is realised through the transitivity system, in association with the field of the text; the interpersonal meaning is realised through the mood system, in association with the tenor of the text; and the textual meaning is realised through the theme system, in association with the mode of the text. Martin (2001, p. 154) explains the importance of the correlation as follows: This correlation between register categories and functional components in the grammar is very important. It is this that enables systemicists to predict on the basis of context not just what choices a speaker is likely to make, but which areas of the grammar are at stake. Conversely it allows us to look at particular grammatical choices and to understand the contribution they are making to the contextual meaning of a sentence. This makes it possible for systemic linguists to argue on the basis of grammatical evidence about the nature of field, mode and tenor at the same time as it gives them a way of explaining why language has the shape it does in terms of the way in which people use it to live. (emphasis added) The correlation between grammar, semantics, and context is also highly important in translating and interpreting. For instance, in order to produce a translation that functions in the same way as its source text, translators and interpreters should be able to analyze the source text at the levels of grammar, semantics, and register and “legitimately manipulate” (House, 2001, p. 141) the source text at all these levels using a “cultural filter” (ibid., p. 141) and linguistic knowledge of both languages.

Field

Tenor Experiential

Interpersonal TRANSITIVITY

Mode

MOOD

Textual THEME

Semantics

Grammar

Figure 15.2 The correlation between grammar, semantics, and context

230

Context (Register)

Systemic functional grammar of Korean

15.4

The grammar of textual meaning in English and Korean

We will now look at how Theme works in both English and Korean. As mentioned previously, the textual meaning is realised through the t heme system. There are three types of Theme in both languages: textual, interpersonal, and topical. In English, the first experiential element that comes at the beginning of the clause is the topical Theme. When it is conflated with the Subject, it is an unmarked Theme, and when it is not, it is a marked Theme. A topical Theme can be preceded by a textual Theme (e.g., in addition, but) and/or interpersonal Theme (e.g., sadly, fortunately). We provide this very basic description of English Theme to save space, as many rich resources on this topic are available elsewhere (e.g. Halliday, 1994, Ch. 3 or Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014, Ch.3). KSFG describes how Theme works in Korean in Chapter 5. The system network for t heme in Korean presented in Figure 15.3 consists of three main systems (i.e., topical theme, interpersonal theme, and textual theme). The system of topical theme shows that speakers of Korean always choose an angling Theme, which they typically mark with 은/는 eun/neun when it is predicable or anticipated by the listener within the context; 이/가 i/ga when the listener is less likely to anticipate what is going to be talked about; 을/를 eul/reul is occasionally used as well. One of the salient features of Korean Theme is that Korean speakers often elide a Theme once it has been established. They can choose to put a Circumstance of time or space before a topical Theme, as the positioning theme system shows in Figure 15.3 A transitional positioning Theme

anticipated

non-anticipated

ANGLING THEME

affirmed

elided

TOPICAL THEME

transitional positioning theme POSITIONING

clause

THEME

interpersonal theme INTERPERSONAL THEME

textual theme TEXTUAL THEME

Figure 15.3 The system network of theme in Korean

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contrasting

Mira Kim 김미라 and June Lee 이주은

flags that the angling Theme is going to be discussed in a particular setting in time or space, while a contrastive positioning Theme marked with 은/는 eun/neun signals that the angling Theme is going to be discussed in a contrasting setting in time or space. Korean speakers can choose to have interpersonal and/or textual Themes by orienting their attitude or rhetorical connections as the text unfolds. These features are captured in Figure 15.3 adopted from KSFG (p. 297), which is a system network that shows which choices are available for each sub-system and how they relate to each other. Next, it is essential to outline how Themes are to be identified in this study because Theme identification is often a challenging task, even with a good understanding of features of Korean Themes. This is primarily because of the frequent use of the elided Theme. Therefore KSFG (297–298) sets out in practical terms a strategy for studying Theme and discussing the way different choices of Theme contribute to a text’s method of development or thematic progression— i.e., how individual Themes contribute to the cohesion and coherence of a text and relate to each other. In general terms, there are three typical types of thematic progression (Eggins, 2004, pp. 324–326) —i.e., i) Theme reiteration, where a Theme is repeated in two or more consecutive clauses; ii) the zig-zag pattern, where a Theme uses an element from the Rheme of a preceding clause; and iii) the multiple-Rheme pattern, where two or more consecutive clauses pick up an element from the same Rheme in a preceding clause. These three patterns are illustrated in Figure 15.4, as follows: KSFG emphasizes that Theme analysis must be undertaken with due consideration for thematic progression in a text—taking both co-text (cohesion) and context (register and genre) into account. It suggests rules-of-thumb for identifying Theme in Korean: 1 If a nominal group is marked by 은/는 eun/neun at the beginning of the clause, it is an anticipated topical Theme. 2 If a nominal group is marked by이/가 i/ga) at the beginning of the clause, it is a non-anticipated topical Theme. 3 If a Circumstance precedes an explicit topical Theme, it functions as a positioning Theme. 4 When a Modal Adjunct, a Comment, or a Vocative comes at the beginning of the clause before a Participant or Circumstance, it is an interpersonal Theme. 5 When a Conjunctive Adjunct comes at the beginning of the clause before a Participant or Circumstance, it is a textual Theme. We include only a few simplified rules that are relevant to our chapter. Chapter 5 of KSFG explains the identification method in detail using authentic texts as examples. The identification method will be a useful tool for any interpreting studies that involve Korean Theme. i) Theme reiteration

ii) The zig-zag pattern

iii) The multiple-Rheme patterns

Theme

Rheme

Theme

Rheme

Theme

Rheme

Theme

Rheme

Theme

Rheme

Theme

Rheme

Theme

Rheme

Theme

Rheme

Theme

Rheme

Figure 15.4 Three types of thematic progression

232

Systemic functional grammar of Korean

15.5

Data and analysis

Since the mid-1990s, Korean pop culture has been increasingly well-received and recognized internationally. One recent acknowledgement of Korean popular culture was the Best Director Oscar awarded to Bong Joon-ho for his dark social satire, Parasite, in February 2020. In this chapter, we use two of Director Bong Joon-ho’s speeches and Sharon Choi’s interpretations discussed in S. Choi (2022). Many of Bong’s utterances were interpreted by Sharon Choi. Interestingly, the interpreter became very famous in Korea, with her interpreting skills evaluated very positively in social media (see Kwon, 2020 for details). There is no doubt that Sharon Choi’s interpreting was well received by the public. However, an evidence-based, analytical approach will help us understand the nature of her interpreting. This is one area where KSFG can aid efficiently as it enables a detailed analysis of the linguistic choices made by the interpreter. A number of short excerpts of Director Bong’s interviews and speeches and their interpretations by Sharon Choi are used in S. Choi’s study (2022). We will use only two of the excerpts that Choi discusses in terms of textual meta-function. There is an anecdotal reason for adopting the excerpts included in this study. When Kim was invited to contribute a chapter to this edited book, she had just finished writing the last chapter of the grammar book explaining how to apply the grammar to translation and interpreting studies. As Kim analyzed short excerpts from Bong’s speeches and Sharon Choi’s interpretations, Kim became interested in S. Choi’s (2022) study. We will present the data in two stages. First, Bong’s Korean speech is presented in Hangul, followed by a literal translation and the interpretation (without any grammatical analysis). The literal translations provided here are close to a word-for-word translation, involving structure that English speakers can make sense of. Subsequently, we analyze the Theme choices of Bong’s speech and of the interpretation of each excerpt in a table format. In the tables, each Korean utterance has been romanized using the Revised Romanisation of Korean (RRK). The RRK was devised by the Korean Government in 2000, and as such, it has an official status in the Republic of Korea. The first excerpt taken from S. Choi (2022) is Bong’s answer to a question posed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The question was about how the director was able to make a universal and globally accepted film.

(1) Excerpt 1 Bong 제가 꼭 굳이 그거를 의식한 건 아니지만, 자연스럽게 이렇게 유니버셜한 영화가 되고 말았는 데, 왜 그럴까 생각해 보니까, ‘지금 국경과 상관없이 우리가 다 하나의 국가에 살고 있지 않나. 자본주의라는 국가에… 그런 것이 아닐까.’라는 답을 스스로 한번 찾아봤어요.

Literal Translation I wasn’t necessarily conscious of that, but it naturally became such a universal film, and when I thought about why, I thought, ‘Right now, regardless of national borders, we all live in one country. In a country called capitalism… isn’t it like that?’ I searched for the answer myself.

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Interpreter I never really intended for the story to be universal but naturally it happened that way and I really thought about why, why the responses are similar, and the conclusion that I came to is that regardless of borders, we all live in this one giant nation of capitalism.

The Theme choices of Bong and of his interpreter are analyzed and presented in (2) and (3). An analysis of their Theme choices shows that they are identical in all the clauses. Bong established the angle of his answer by choosing 제가 je ga “I” and elided it in the rest of his utterance. As mentioned previously, this pattern of Theme choices is frequently observed in Korean texts and especially in spoken discourse, as is explained in detail with sample texts in KSFG Chapter 5. The interpreter chose the same Themes but made them explicit, as unmarked Theme in English is conflated with Subject, which plays a significant interpersonal role in determining a Mood type. She also used a textual Theme in clauses 2, 3, and 4. This type of shift often occurs in both translation and interpreting from Korean into English because the linguistic resources that indicate logical relations between clauses reside in the verbal group that occurs at the end of the clause in Korean; the counterpart resources of English occur at the beginning of the clause.  (2) Theme analysis of Bong’s speech in Excerpt 1 Cl. No.

Theme

Rheme

1

제가 je ga I

꼭 굳이 그거를 의식한 건 아니지만, kkog guji geugeoreul uisikhan geon anijiman wasn’t deliberately conscious of that, but 자연스럽게 이렇게 유니버셜한 영화가 되고 말았는데, jayeonseureobge ireokhe yunibeosyeolhan yeonghwaga doego maratneunde naturally became such a universal film 왜 그럴까 생각해 보니까, wae geureolkka saengakhae bonikka thought about why and 스스로 한번 찾아봤어요. seuseuro hanbeon cha-jabwass-eoyo (I) found by myself

2 (Parasite) 3 (I) ‘ . . . ’라는 답을 ‘ . . . ’ laneun dab-eul an answer ‘that . . . ’

4

(3) Theme analysis of the interpretation in Excerpt 1 Cl. No.

1 2 3 4

Theme

Rheme

Textual

Topical

but and and

I naturally it I the conclusion that I came to

never really intended for the story to be universal happened that way really thought about why, why the responses are similar, is that regardless of borders, we all live in this one giant nation of capitalism.

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Systemic functional grammar of Korean

Bong’s speech includes a long embedded clause in clause 4 of (2). A Theme analysis of the embedded clause is provided in (4). S. Choi (2022) praised the interpreter’s performance, commenting that Bong’s long embedded clause (highlighted in bold in (1)) was a “disorganised utterance but she interpreted it as a simple, clear utterance which was easy for the audience to understand” (p. 238). Our Theme analysis of the embedded clause also shows that the Theme choices are nearly identical in both Bong’s and his interpreter’s utterances in this case as well. Bong used multiple topical Themes 지금 국경과 상관없이 우리가 jigeum guk-kkyeong-gwa sang-gwan-eobs-i uriga “now regardless of national borders we” and the interpreter also chose to use the same multiple topical Themes apart from “now,” as shown in (5). However, she omitted one clause within the embedded clause, which is clause 2 in (4), as follows, 그런 것이 아닐까 geureon geos-i anil-kka “like that isn’t it.” This is a projected clause that Bong uttered as he was thinking out loud in response to the question.  (4) Theme analysis of the embedded clause in Bong’s speech in Excerpt 1 Cl. No.

Theme

Rheme

1

‘지금 국경과 상관없이 우리가

다 하나의 국가에 살고 있지 않나, 자본주의라는 국가에 . . . da hanaui guk kka e sal-go itji anhna jabonju-ui laneun gukka e . . . all live in one country. in a country of capitalism . . . 아닐까 anilkka isn’t it

jigeum gukkyeong-gwa sanggwaneobsi uri ga Right now, regardless of national borders, we 2

그런 것이 geureon geos i like that

(5) Theme analysis of the embedded clause in the interpretation in Excerpt 1 Cl. No.

Theme

Rheme

regardless of borders we

all live in this one giant nation of capitalism

Now, let us analyse another excerpt taken from S. Choi (2022). This second excerpt presents Bong’s answer to a journalist’s political question after winning the Best Director Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The journalist asked if he thought that a social revolution had begun in Korea.

(6)

Excerpt 2

Bong 세상은 오히려 혁명으로부터 점점 거리가 멀어지는 것 같애요. 혁명의 시대가 많이 지나갔고. 혁명이란 것은 뭔가 부서뜨려야 할 대상이 있어야 되는 것인데, 그게 뭔지, 혁명을 통해 깨뜨 려야되는 게 뭔지 파악하기가 되게 힘들고 복잡한 세상이 되고 있는 거 같애요. 그런 복잡한 상황을 표현하는 거 같애요 Parasite 는 오히려.

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Mira Kim 김미라 and June Lee 이주은

Literal translation The world rather seems to be getting further and further away from revolution, I think. The era of revolution has passed. As for revolution, it requires something to shatter, but the world in which it is awfully difficult to discern what needs to be smashed through revolution seems to have become. Rather, Parasite seems to express such a complex situation.

Interpreter I think the world is actually going further away from revolution. Because revolution means that you have a target to fight against, something that you identify as a target to destroy. But we now live in a very complicated world where it’s impossible to discern our opponents, and I think that’s the complexity that Parasite is about.

The interpreter adopted a very similar strategy to that discussed in the first excerpt. As shown in (7) and (8), she chose to use Bong’s established Theme choices, “the world” and “revolution” and made the elided Theme (we or the world) explicit. She also omitted clause 2 in (7), which was Bong’s inner thought spoken out loud. 

(7) Theme analysis of Bong’s speech in Excerpt 2 Cl. No.

Theme

Rheme

1

세상은 sesang eun The world 혁명의 시대가 hyeongmyeong-ui sidae ga The era of revolution 혁명이란 것은 hyeongmyeong-iran geos eun As for revolution 그게 Geuge What

오히려 혁명으로부터 점점 거리가 멀어지는 것 같애요. ohilyeo hyeongmyeong-eurobuteo jeomjeom geori ga meoreojineun geot gatae yo rather seems to be getting further and further away from revolution 많이 지나갔고. mani jinagat go has passed 뭔가 부서뜨려야 할 대상이 있어야 되는 것인데, mwonga buseotteulyeoya hal daesang i isseoya doeneun geos-inde (it) requires something to shatter 뭔지, mwonji could it be 혁명을 통해 깨뜨려야되는 게 뭔지 파악하기가 되게 힘들고 복잡한 세상이되고 있는 거 같애요. hyeongmyeong eul tonghae kkaetteulyeoya doeneun ge mwonji paakhagiga doege himdeulgo bokjabhan sesang i doego itneun geo gatae yo seems to have become a world in which it is awfully difficult to discern what needs to be smashed through revolution, it seems. 표현하는 거 같애요 Parasite 는 오히려. pyohyeonhaneun geo gatae yo Parasite neun ohilyeo

2

3

4

5   (we or the world) 6

그런 복잡한 상황을 geureon bok-jabhan sanghwang-eul such a complicated situation

expresses, it seems, Parasite, rather

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Systemic functional grammar of Korean (8) Theme analysis of the interpretation in Excerpt 2 Cl. No. Theme Textual 1 2

Because

3

But

4

and

Rheme Interpersonal Topical I think

I think

 

the world is actually going further away from revolution. revolution means that you have a target to fight against, something that you identify as a target to destroy. we now live in a very implicated world where it’s impossible to discern our opponents, that is the complexity that Parasite is about.

The foregoing Theme analyses have illustrated the same patterns of Sharon Choi’s Theme choices. She closely followed Bong’s Theme choices whenever possible, resulting in a very similar thematic progression to that created by Bong. However, she expressed the Theme choices in a way that English Themes are realized by making elided Themes explicit and adding textual and interpersonal Themes, as needed. This interpreting strategy was also observed in a simultaneous interpretation by a professional conference interpreter with over fifteen years of professional experience interpreting between English and Chinese (Chang & Kim, 2016). Having considered Sharon Choi’s linguistic choices from a textual meaning perspective, let us briefly examine her interpreting choices from an interpersonal meaning perspective and, in this way, demonstrate how KSFG can be applied beyond textual meaning. In responding to the journalist’s question, Bong chose to speak with a degree of uncertainty by adding 같애요 gatae yo “seem” at the end of the verbal group in three clauses out of six, as shown in (7). This is not an uncommon discourse feature in Korean, where people indicate either a degree of uncertainty or adopt a politeness strategy. Sharon Choi interpreted this by employing “I think,” which we analyze as an interpersonal grammatical metaphor and thus analyze as an interpersonal Theme (see Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014, Chapter 4 for grammatical metaphor), in two out of the three clauses when Bong used 같애요 gatae yo “seem,” as shown in (8). Another interesting strategy adopted by the interpreter from an interpersonal meaning perspective is her interpretation of clause 2 in (8). Bong used 부서뜨려야 buseotteulyeoya “must shatter,” 깨뜨려야 되는kkaetteulyeoya “must smash,” which include a high degree of modulation (see Chapter 3 of KSFG) and imply a high degree of negativity (see Martin & White, 2003 for appraisal framework). The interpreter chose to interpret the former with the phrase “fight against,” which seems less negative than the original words Bong chose. However, she seems to have reinforced the negative intensity by adding an elaborating nominal group in which she used a stronger word “destroy” in clause 2 of (8). Interestingly, the interpreter did not interpret clauses 2 and 4 of Bong’s speech (7). This omission does not seem to prevent the audience from understanding the overall ideational meaning, since each clause has an elaborating logical relation to its previous clause. These analyses of the linguistic choices made in two brief excerpts from Sharon Choi’s interpretation of Bong’s speech have been carried out primarily from a textual meaning perspective, but also briefly, from an interpersonal meaning perspective. These analyses have revealed that the interpreter conveyed multiple domains of meaning in the source text, using a range of strategies. First, she chose to use the Themes adopted by the source language speaker whenever possible, but expressed them in such a way that the Themes were realized in the target language. Second, she did not simply interpret the experiential meanings but also adopted various strategies to convey the interpersonal meanings as well. Third, as far as logical meaning was concerned, she tended to omit elaborating dependent clauses. 237

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15.6

Conclusion and suggestions for further studies

In this chapter, we have demonstrated how KSFG can be applied to interpreting studies. We have identified the grammatical aspect (e.g., Theme) to be analysed, why (e.g., for textual meaning), and how (e.g., Theme identification method). Making this methodological approach explicit at the outset is important because we can then adopt the same method when we expand the data. If there is any need to modify the method, we can then compare the results and see how the modification might influence the data. For instance, although Sharon Choi’s strategies that we have analysed and discussed previously are interesting and seem to be effective, we cannot generalise them due to the small sample data. However, future studies with a larger data set can be conducted to see if the specific strategy used by Sharon Choi, as observed in our study, is common among Korean/English interpreters, and if so, if it works in different interpreting modes (e.g. simultaneous vs consecutive) as well as different language pairs (e.g. Korean/English, Korean/ Japanese). Such studies are likely to include some generalizable findings, such as effective interpreting strategies in different modes and different language pairs, which would help us postulate interpreting theories in the end. This would provide a solid basis for interpreter education and professional training for interpreters, which is still much needed in many countries that do not have a systematic interpreter-training system. The knowledge about interpreting principles established through research and interpreting strategies whose efficacy has been proven empirically will empower students to develop more efficient interpreting skills. Likewise, students’ awareness of the linguistic choices available and their impact on multidimensional meanings will be enhanced. Drawing on both quantitative data, such as NAATI pass rates over eight semesters, and qualitative data, such as students’ learning journals, Kim demonstrated how a meaning-based approach helped her students to “become more confident in making informed choices and learn to control their translation quality” (2009, p. 150). This virtuous cycle will be facilitated through methodologically rigorous research. We argue that KSFG can play a substantial role in Korean descriptive interpreting studies by promoting a scrupulous approach that enhances the reliability and validity of interpreting research. The primary strength of SFL-based interpreting studies is that SFL makes it possible to explore questions based on concrete evidence afforded by the interpreter’s lexical and grammatical choices. For instance, Sharon Choi’s interpretation of the second excerpt discussed previously was highly evaluated by S. Choi (2022, p. 239) from a textual meaning perspective: Just like Director Bong, she concluded using a deductive sentence that the world is moving away from revolution (I think the world is actually going further away from revolution), and defined Director Bong’s ‘revolution’ very clearly (revolution means that you have a target to fight against, something that you identify as a target to destroy), adding that we live in a very complex world and it is difficult to satisfy the previous definition of revolution (we now live in a very complicated world where it’s impossible to discern our opponents). She wrapped up mentioning that the movie Parasite is about that complexity (and I think that’s the complexity that Parasite is about). With such lengthy sentences to interpret, we can witness that Sharon Choi did not memorize all of Bong Joon-ho’s exact utterances and then change them into English, but she accurately understood all of the content Director Bong Joon-ho said and then logically connected them and expressed them in English. However, no specific analysis is provided in her study, which inevitably makes her evaluation sound subjective. In fact, the absence of linguistic analysis is problematic for any studies that attempt to 238

Systemic functional grammar of Korean

investigate an interpreting question from a systemic functional linguistic perspective. Such a practice contravenes the fundamental theoretical research principle of SFL that relates grammatical and lexical choices to the levels of semantics and context as a means of understanding human behavior or activity that involves language, as explained previously. As we have already demonstrated, when we conducted a close examination of the interpreter’s Theme choices compared to those made by Bong, we found that their Theme choices were very similar, which might not be readily obvious without a Theme analysis. However, this is a text-based, value-neutral analysis. In order to evaluate the quality of a particular interpreting instance, we need to collect additional data (e.g., through interviews, surveys or focus groups). Although we have highlighted only a small number of research applications of KSFG here, this principled discourse analysis tool has the potential to contribute to interpreting studies in multiple ways. The existing studies discussed in the foregoing analysis could be a good source of inspiration. Rigorous interpreting studies will help interpreters and end-users understand both the benefits and the limitations of interpreter-mediated communication. This, in turn, will help interpreting educators set realistic expectations for their students and safeguard student wellbeing. We believe that KSFG represents a promising research framework for the field of Korean interpreting studies and hope it will stimulate many meaningful dialogues between researchers in the fields of Interpreting Studies and Systemic Functional Linguistics with regard to Korean.

Note 1 This section largely draws on Kim (2009, pp. 128–132) and Kim et al. (2023, Ch.5).

FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONING ROUTE 1)

Opening question

Please introduce yourself and tell me whether you have prior experience as an interpreter.

2) Introductory question What do you usually think about the teachers’ ‘interpreting performance assessment’? Is there something you’ve wanted to know?

3) Transition questions 3–1) The criteria you apply is a simplified version of the criteria you received from the teachers. Why is this so? 3–2) What first crossed your mind when you received the teachers’ assessment criteria and methods prior to the focus group interview? What was the most impressive part of the criteria?

4) Key questions 4–1) What’s your impression of the assessment methods that teachers use for exams and their rationale for using such a framework? 4–2) Most teachers found ‘fidelity’ to be the most important criterion in interpreting performance, and you have been told the reasons for their choice. What do you think about this result? 239

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4–3) What is your take on the relative weights of the assessment criteria that teachers use for exams? Are there any sets of criterion and weight you wish to change? Or are there any criteria you see as inappropriate to evaluate your interpreting performance? 4–4) Do you think the teachers’ assessment criteria and methods you received in the focus group interview will help you with your learning motivation, interpreting training exercises, peer assessment, and self-assessment? If yes, please elaborate.

5) Ending questions 5–1) Among the topics we discussed today, what was the most impressive or important from your perspective? 5–2) (After summary of discussion) Did I just summarize the discussion well? 5–3) Is there something you wanted to say but couldn’t? Or do you have any additional comments you wish to share?

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Systemic functional grammar of Korean on target reader reactions to different Theme choices in two different versions of English translations of a Korean short story]. In E. Cho (Ed.), Beon-yeoghak, mueos-eul yeongu haneunga eon-eojeok, munhwajeok, sahoejeok jeobgeun 번역학, 무엇을 연구하는가 언어적, 문화적, 사회적 접근 [Translation studies, what does it study, linguistic, cultural and social approaches] (pp. 53–84). Seoul: Dongkuk University Press. Kim, M. (2016). SFL, an empowering tool for translation studies. The Journal of Translation Studies, 17(4), 5–10. Kim, M. (2022). Developing a systemic functional grammar of Korean as a resource for practical application. In C. Caldwell, J. Knox, & J. R. Martin (Eds.), Applicable linguistics and social semiotics (pp. 127–140). London: Bloomsbury. Kim, M., Martin, J. R., Shin, G., & Choi, G. H. (2023). A systemic functional grammar of Korean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kim, M., & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2015). Ways to move forward in translation studies: A textual perspective. Target, 27(3), 335–350. Kwon, S. (2020). Public perception of Bong Joon Ho’s Interpreter on Youtube: Keyword and topic modeling analysis on user comments. Interpretation and Translation, 22(2), 1–28. Lee, C. (2006). Yeonghan beon-yeog-eseoui dongsaseong chegye byeonhwa yeongu: Musaengmul jucheleul jungshim-eulo 영한 번역에서의 동사성 체계 변화 연구: 무생물 주체를 중심으로 [Translating transitivity: With the focus on inanimate agency]. Tong-yeokgwa beon-yeok 통역과 번역 [Interpretation and Translation], 8(1), 155–175. Lee, J. (2020). Han-yeong beoblyul beon-yeog-eseo juje(theme) seontaeg-e gwanhan salye yeongu: Chegyegineungjuui eon-eohakjeok gwanjeom-eseo 한영 법률 번역에서 주제(theme) 선택에 관한 사례 연 구: 체계기능주의 언어학적 관점에서 [A case study on the thematic choices of English translations of Korean statutes from the theoretical perspectives of Systemic Functional Linguistics]. Tong-yeokgwa beonyeok 통역과 번역 [Interpretation and Translation], 22(2), 129–156. Lee, J., & Kim, M. (2014). Wonmun(ST)ui ikkeumbuleul tonghae bon noteuteiking(NT)gwa tong-yeok tekseuteu(TT)ui sang-gwanseong 원문(ST)의 이끔부를 통해 본 노트테이킹(NT)과 통역 텍스 트(TT)의 상관성 [An analysis of themes in interpreting notes and interpreted texts]. Beon-yeokhak Yeongu 번역학연구 [The Journal of Translation Studies], 15(2), 149–173. Martin, J. R. (2001). Language, register and genre. In A. Burns & C. Coffin (Eds.), Analysing English in a global context (pp. 149–166). New York: Routledge. Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. (2003). The language of evaluation (Vol. 2). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Munday, J. (2012). Introducing translation studies: Theories and applications. New York: Routledge. Newmark, P. (1987). The use of systemic linguistics in translation analysis and criticism. In R. Steele & T. Threadgold (Eds.), Language topics: Essays in honor of Michael Halliday (pp. 293–304). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ouyang, Q. (2018). Assessing meaning-dimension quality in consecutive interpreting training. Perspectives, 26(2), 296–213. Pöchhacker, F. (2017). Method in interpreting studies: Tradition and innovation. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 21(1), 307–329. Sung, S. (2016). Geulgwa geulim-ui seosa chegyegineung-eon-eohag-eulo bon ‘hwakjang’ geulimchaek beonyeok 글과 그림의 서사 체계기능언어학으로 본 ‘확장’ 그림책 번역 [A systemic functional linguistic analysis of ‘enhancing’ picturebook translation]. Beon-yeokhak Yeongu 번역학연구 [The Journal of Translation Studies], 17(1), 55–80. Tebble, H. (2008). Using SFL to understand and practice dialogue interpreting. Proceedings of ISFC 35: Voices around the world, international systemic functional congress (pp. 146–151). Sydney NSW, Australia. Wang, S. X. (2008). Clause boundary shifts in interpreting: Chinese-English. Proceedings of ISFC 35: Voices around the world, international systemic functional congress (pp. 257–262), Sydney NSW, Australia.

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PART III

Community interpreting

16 HEALTHCARE INTERPRETING FOR KOREAN IMMIGRANTS IN AUSTRALIA Linguistic and cultural perspectives Jinhyun Cho 조진현 16.1

Introduction

Health is a key determinant of well-being and constitutes a basic right of every human being. Health disparities, however, tend to occur among minority populations (Thomas et al., 2004) and may worsen in the case of people who are not proficient in a dominant societal language. Around the world, healthcare interpreters play a critical role in ensuring the fundamental right for the vulnerable population, and interpreting in healthcare represents one of the most important domains in community interpreting (Pöchhacker, 2006; Moratto & Li, 2022). While there is a growing body of research on healthcare interpreting, surprisingly little is known about interpreting challenges that arise in medical consultations for Korean immigrants with limited proficiency in the host-country language. This chapter intends to fill the lacuna by exploring various challenges experienced by Korean healthcare interpreters in Australia. As of 2016, there are 98,775 people in Australia who were born in Korea (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016), an increase of 32.5% from the 2011 Census (Department of Home Affairs, 2016). Many people with Korean ancestry speak Korean at home (Multicultural NSW, 2016) and may need interpreters to access healthcare services. Based on oneon-one interviews with nine healthcare interpreters, all of whom were born in Korea and migrated to Australia at varying stages of their lives, this chapter approaches interpreting issues specific to Korean patients from linguistic and cultural perspectives. It also examines how interpreters try to address communication problems caused by linguistic and cultural gaps, with a focus on professional strategies. The chapter emphasizes collaboration between interpreters and healthcare practitioners as a vital element to ensure communication success and concludes with several key suggestions to improve interpreter-professional collaboration. The following section provides a backdrop on the evolution of healthcare interpreting in Australia, societal views on interpreting, and general perceptions of interpreting held by healthcare practitioners.

16.2

Background

Australia is regarded as a leader in healthcare interpreting for providing free interpreting services and having a centrally organized certification system (Bischoff, 2020). The official history of interpreting in Australia began in 1973, when the government established a free telephone-interpreter 245

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-20

Jinhyun Cho 조진현

service, which was a world-first. The introduction of telephone interpreting was followed by the establishment of the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (hereafter “NAATI”) in 1977. As a sole governing body, NAATI has been charged with the task of setting national standards on translation and interpreting through a national certification scheme, which aspirant translators and interpreters must pass in order to work as language professionals in Australia. Healthcare interpreters have been active ever since the institutionalization of the interpreting profession in Australia. In a broad sense, healthcare interpreters are divided into two groups: freelancing interpreters who receive work from agencies with which interpreters are registered; hospital staff interpreters who work regular hours for hospitals and receive regular incomes. The latter is available only for languages that have a high level of demand (e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Korean, etc.), and most interpreters in Australia freelance (Lai, & Costello, 2021). Translation and interpreting are recognized as critical to the welfare of migrants in Australia, and it can be exemplified by the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights. The charter emphasizes the right to access free interpreting services for patients from multicultural backgrounds to ensure better health outcomes, stating that engaging a healthcare interpreter when discussing important matters is an imperative, rather than a recommendation (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2019). A gap, however, exists between the official recommendation and the actual practices on the ground. While the use of professional healthcare interpreters has the proven benefit of improving clinical care for patients from minority backgrounds (Karliner et al., 2007), informal interpreters (e.g. family members, friends, and bilingual hospital staff) are commonly used for language discordant patients (Saito et al., 2021). Furthermore, public awareness of translation and interpreting is very low, due primarily to a lack of public interest in foreign language learning (Cho, 2022a). A lack of public recognition of translation and interpreting means that many people, including healthcare professionals, may not know what interpreting is and how it works. In the interpreting scholarship, there has been a significant shift in the view of interpreters, from a linguistic conduit to key communication participants who actively co-construct messages with other parties (see Angelelli, 2004; Davidson, 2001; Hsieh, 2006; Wadensjö, 2014). It is, however, important to question whether this view of interpreters as co-participants is shared by healthcare practitioners. Clinical research on healthcare interpreting indicates that interpreters are generally viewed as “translation machines,” a channel for word-for-word conversion (Bischoff et al., 2012; Leanza, 2005). The view of interpreters as translation robots can also be found in the Australian healthcare sector, in which interpreters are often expected to produce accurate linguistic output without contextual information necessary for interpreters to make sense of an interaction (Lai & Costello, 2021). Rather than being seen as part of a team, interpreters tend to be perceived as outsiders whose function is limited to language conversion (Cho, 2022b). The mechanic view of interpreting is problematic, because the act of negotiating between languages and cultures inevitably leads to communication issues (see Cho, 2021). Furthermore, power is not equally distributed in interpreting, which is defined as a “socially situated activity” (Inghilleri, 2003). In migrant-receiving countries such as Australia, an interaction usually takes place between a party proficient in the mainstream language and culture (e.g., an English-speaking doctor) and a person without much capital (e.g., a migrant patient with no English). While interpreters are said to be situated in a neutral space as an objective mediator, interpreters are often not immune to power differentials and experience conflicts between their own agency, institutional expectations, and expectations of patients (Cho, 2021, 2022b). Against this backdrop, this chapter examines a set of challenges encountered by Korean healthcare interpreters and professional strategies employed by interpreters to address identified challenges. 246

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16.3

Methodology

This research adopts qualitative approaches to find out about linguistic and cultural factors that impact communication mediated by Korean healthcare interpreters in Australia. Data draws from two separate studies that the author undertook in 2018 and 2022, respectively. Both studies are based on one-on-one interviews with professional interpreters in Australia. To be specific, the 2018 study examined communication challenges in various interpreting settings, including business, education, healthcare, and law. Out of the 55 participants, twelve interpreters had Korean backgrounds, and five of them were primarily engaged in healthcare. The research conducted in 2022 specifically investigated communication issues in interpreter-mediated healthcare settings in Australia, with a focus on culture-specific medical conditions and syndromes that are hard to interpret. Four out of the 67 healthcare interpreters who participated in the research are identified as having Korean backgrounds. This research is based on the individual interviews with the nine interpreters from both studies. Participants for both researches were recruited through the NAATI online directory, which contains contact details of all interpreters in Australia by language category and location. The author contacted interpreters by email, and only those who expressed interest to participate in the studies were invited for one-on-one interviews. Out of the nine Korean interpreters, two were males and seven were females. All of them were based in Australia at the time of the interviews, and the age range was between twenty and 50. The 2018 interviews were conducted face-to-face in the author’s office at work and audiorecorded, whereas the 2022 interviews were conducted via Zoom and video-recorded due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The five interviews in 2018 were conducted in Korean and transcribed and translated by the author, whereas the four interviews in 2022 were conducted in English and were transcribed by a professional transcribing company. Both interviews were semi-structured and were informed by the same principle of responsive interviewing (Rubin & Rubin, 2011), in which the interviewer begins an interview with a topic in mind but recognizes a possibility of modifying questions to match the knowledge and interests of the interviewees. The data was analyzed by means of thematic analysis, which is a widely used qualitative research approach in healthcare (Clarke et al., 2015). Data analysis was guided by four specific steps: first, the data was familiarized to identify key ideas; second, the data was preliminarily coded across the whole data set; third, initial coding led to broader themes by collating codes; finally, the identified themes were reviewed and used to create analytic categories. This process enabled systematic analysis to identify core consistencies and themes that emerged in a patterned way across the data through meaningful data segments. Data analysis identifies two primary areas of communication challenges relating to linguistic and cultural gaps, and the next section presents the findings in detail.

16.4

Results

This section presents linguistic challenges first, before moving on to discuss culture-related challenges.

16.4.1

Linguistic challenges

Data analysis identifies three specific types of linguistic challenges that arise in interpreter-assisted communication with Korean patients. First, Korean expressions relating to certain emotions and feelings were reported to be challenging due to the absence of equivalents in English. Second, medical concepts specific to Korean contexts were said to be difficult to be converted into English. 247

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Third, the participants pointed out certain English medical terms that are not straightforward to patients when translated into Korean and may entail further actions.

16.4.1.1

Emotional concepts

As for interpreting challenges relating to feelings and emotions, the participants reported that it is never easy to interpret “답답하다 (dapdaphada)” and “억울하다 (eogulhada).” The former is commonly used by Koreans to express their emotional feelings or physical symptoms and is known to be untranslatable (Schmidt-Atzert & Park, 1999). Dapdaphada generally refers to “a physical sensation of suffocation caused by feeling frustrated or unable to speak or act freely” (Sora Kim-Russell, 2022). Eogulhada can be roughly translated as “feeling that something is unfair or undeserved” (Sora Kim-Russell, 2022) and is commonly used to refer to a situation in which a person feels mistreated or misunderstood when they believe that they have not done anything wrong. Well aware of the untranslatability of such words, the participants reported substitutions and descriptions as common strategies to deal with the expressions. For example, Participant One said that he generally uses “feeling stuffy” or “feeling sad” for “dapdaphada,” whereas Participant Eight preferred “feeling upset” as an alternative. As for “eogulhada,” Participant Two said that she tends to describe the word in a sentence form, rather than trying to find a corresponding single word. Emphasizing the context dependency of the word, the interpreter stated that she always endeavors to find an expression that fits a given situation best. For example: My fellow interpreters find that term ‘eogulhada’ very hard to interpret and they do. I tell them, well you’ve got to say, I am frustrated because I feel the situation is so unfair . . . . If they [patients] say ‘eogulhada’ and I would probably say, he did this to me and I felt I really didn’t deserve that at all. You could say it that way. So, you really made me angry because I don’t deserve that – Participant Two While acknowledging the incompleteness of meaning delivery due to the linguistic gap, the participants emphasized the importance of considering the context in which feelings are expressed in order to find best possible alternatives.

16.4.1.2

Medical concepts specific to Korean contexts

Another area of linguistic gaps relates to medical concepts specific to Korean contexts, and “화병 (hwabyeong)” was pointed out as one of the most challenging terms to interpret. The literal meaning of hwabyeong is “fire illness,” and it is commonly experienced by middle-aged and elderly Korean women when distressed emotions associated with the specifically Korean way of responding to negative life events cause physical symptoms (e.g., an inability to control anger, shortness of breath, sadness, sleeplessness, etc.) (Pang & Young, 1990). While hwabyeong has a number of comorbidities with other mental disorders such as anxiety and depression, the gendered and socio-cultural nature of the condition differentiates itself from other illnesses (Lee et al., 2014). The prevalence of the illness is found to be higher among Korean immigrants than among Koreans in Korea (Lee, 2015). While the exact causes behind the high prevalence among immigrants are unknown, hwabyeong is attributed to the traditional expectation of Korean people, particularly women, to internalize and suppress their emotions so as not to jeopardize family or group harmony (Lee et al., 2014). Manifested in a unique set of somatic and anxiety-based complaints (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), hwabyeong is generally accompanied by a hot sensation, something 248

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pushing up in the chest that needs to be cooled down (Min, 2008). Hwabyeong patients often experience the aforementioned feeling of “eogul,” which accumulates over a long period of time and becomes “fire” or pent-up anger (Min, 2009). The participants, all of whom had dealt with hwabyeong patients, pointed out the improbability of delivering the complexity associated with the condition. A common interpreting strategy employed by the participants is to describe the condition as analytical as possible for healthcare practitioners when interpreting it into English. For example: 그걸 또 제가 의사한테 얘기를 할 때 it’s hard to find exact words that match the feelings. It’s only Koreans have 내가 그래요, 예. but it’s something actually, it’s coming right from your belly and it comes right up to your chest. Sometimes it causes breathing difficulty. It causes tightness in the chest. 그래서 거기에 대해서 굉장히 analytical하게 그 분들한테 설명을 하는 경우도 있어요. 그래서 제가 깨끗한 도화지에 그 분들이 뭔가를 상상할 수 있을 정도로 제가 묘사를 하는거죠. When I interpret it [hwabyeong] to doctors, I say it’s hard to find exact words that match the feelings. It’s only Koreans have. I say like this, yes. But it’s something actually, it’s coming right from your belly and it comes right up to your chest. Sometimes it causes breathing difficulty. It causes tightness in the chest. So, I sometimes have to explain the illness in very analytical ways. I describe what it is in detail, so that doctors without any pre-knowledge can imagine what it would be like — Participant Seven Apart from hwabyeong, pain is identified as a common interpreting challenge. While pain is a universal human experience, pain is a complex, multifactorial construct that results from interactions between physiological, affective, behavioral, and sociocultural factors (Kwok & Bhuvanakrishna, 2014). Pain sensitivity is also subjective and may be expressed in different ways, depending on gender, age, and other sociocultural factors (Kwok & Bhuvanakrishna, 2014). According to the participants, “욱신거리다 (uksinkeorida)” is commonly used by Korean patients to describe pain, yet it is never easy to find a matching English word. The participants said that the expression can be described in multiple English terms (e.g., pounding, shooting, stinging, squeezing, throbbing, tingling, etc.), depending on the degree of pain and subjective feelings experienced by patients. In order to find an English word that is closest to the meaning intended by a patient, some participants reported asking patients extra questions to clarify the exact type of pain under discussion: When they [Korean patients] say ‘uksinkeorida’, I have to find out what the client actually means by ‘uksinkeorida’. So, I sometimes ask questions to clarify, I say, how does it exactly feel? Then I say, oh it’s a pounding pain . . . . Oh, it’s a squeezing pain. I usually ask them extra questions to clarify what they actually mean by that — Participant Two Similar to the aforementioned challenge of emotional concepts, the participants stated that interpreting medical concepts specific to Korean contexts can never be complete and that detailed descriptions and clarifications with patients are the only strategies to deal with the interpreting challenge.

16.4.1.3

English medical terms

The final area of linguistic challenges concerns certain medical terms that are straightforward in English but are not necessarily simple in Korean. A case in point is “white food.” “White diet,” or 249

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a low-residue diet, is recommended for patients prior to colonoscopy, and patients should eat only clear fluids and foods that have no color (e.g., milk, sour cream, white bread, white-colored yogurt, white chocolate, etc.) in order not to compromise the quality of the bowl preparation. The diet is, however, based on western foods and categorizing foods by color is also a concept specific to countries where those foods are popularly consumed. “Eating a rainbow,” for example, is equated with a healthy diet in Australia and North America, whereas the same concept would not mean much at all to people in some other parts of the world. Many immigrants stick to their ethnic foods that carry important symbolic and social roles in their day-to-day lives (Popovic-Lipovac & Strasser, 2015), and the maintenance of traditional food patterns is also high among Korean immigrants (Jasti et al., 2011). For Korean patients used to their traditional diet, “white food” is, therefore, likely to be a strange concept. In order to deal with the term, some participants reported clarifications with patients as a strategy. For example: Another thing is when they do colonoscopy, you are meant to drink or eat white food. They say, you’ve got to only consume white food. If you translate that – when you interpret that into Korean, it sounds odd. Eat white food. Okay. So, I do that, and then most Korean people do not ask back, but I usually don’t think they understood what it is. So, I need to check again, I need to check with them. Do you know what it means? They will say, oh, does it mean this?. They might ask me and then I will say I will ask for you. Then I ask the specialist, the patient thinks this is white food, is that correct? — Participant Two Another tricky word reported by the participants is “malignancy.” In Korean, “tumor” generally means malignant and cancerous. When “tumor,” “cancer” and “malignancy” are mentioned all at the same time by a doctor, interpreting those words literally is, therefore, said to be confusing to patients. Data analysis indicates two broad responses to the problem. One group of participants are those who deliver the literal meanings of the English words to patients, expecting patients to ask for clarifications. When clarifications are sought by patients, interpreters then interpret for doctors so that doctors can explain further. The action is justified by the principle of role boundaries which emphasizes message transfer as the primary duty of interpreters (AUSIT Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct, 2012). The other group consists of interpreters who prioritize patients’ understandings and make additional efforts to ensure that messages have been understood by patients. Taking Participant Seven as an example, the interpreter usually checks with patients if they have understood when complex information is presented: 그 분들이 이해할수 있게 하는것이 중요하거든요. 그렇게 해야 그 분들이 신뢰하고 정보도 훨씬 많이 받을수도 있고. 그 분들도 뭐 하고 싶은 얘기가 있으면 의사 선생님 한테 뭐 치료라든지 여러가지 도움을 받을 수 있고. It is important to make sure that patients have understood. That way, they would trust me and I can get a lot more information. It also helps patients to share what they want to say and to receive lots of help from doctors such as treatments — Participant Seven For this group of participants who go an extra mile, interpreting represents a process of co-construction, in which collaboration among parties is a key determinant of communication success. To sum up, the findings suggest that the participants employ various strategies, including descriptions, substitutions, and clarifications with patients to address linguistic challenges, which constantly

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occur in the process of interpreting. While the gap may not absolutely be addressable, the participants reported that problems are generally manageable with the identified strategies. Challenges that go beyond the realm of language are, however, found to be trickier, and culture represents one such area which poses constant dilemmas to healthcare interpreters.

16.4.2

Cultural challenges

Three main areas of cultural challenges are identified from data analysis. These include negative perceptions of mental illnesses among Korean people, patients’ tendency to view doctors as authorities, and a lack of cultural sensitivity in the case of cognitive assessments for elderly patients.

16.4.1.1

Negative perceptions of mental illnesses

One of the areas in which cultural differences are most prominent relates to generally negative attitudes to mental illnesses displayed by Korean patients and families. Mental disorders are strongly stigmatized in Korea, in which mental health issues are seen as a family shame and personal defects (Hyun et al., 2017). The same attitudes to mental illnesses are also prominent among Korean immigrants. Cultural stigmas attached to mental illnesses are a well-documented problem in the case of Koreans in the US (Han et al., 2017). A similar pattern is also identified in the case of Korean immigrants in New Zealand, and negative immigrant attitudes to mental illnesses represent a formidable barrier to immigrant access to mental health services (Park et al., 2022). Data analysis indicates the same cultural reactions to mental health issues among Korean immigrants in Australia. If a child is diagnosed with a mental illness, for example, parents are likely to deny and attribute problems to external stressors, such as school difficulties, puberty, or a relationship breakup. For example: 그러니까 한국 사람들은 뭐 가벼운 우울증하고 이렇게 좀 심각하게. 한국에서는 요 즘은 조현병이라고 하는 그런거하고 거의 다 정신병으로 생각하고 그런 얘길 하면은 의사들이 너무 다 깜짝 놀라요. 아니 우울증이라서 그걸 상담받고 고치려고 하는데 왜 그걸 다 부정하고 . . . . 괜히 요새 시험을 많이 보니까 아니면 요새 남자친구랑 헤 어진다던가 이게 갑자기 생긴 일인데 쟤를 왜 저런 식으로 취급하느냐. Korean people tend to take even a mild depression quite seriously. Schizophrenia is generally regarded as being crazy in Korea, and doctors here are very surprised to hear that. If a patient has depression, the patient should receive counselling and treatment. They don’t understand why people deny . . . . Parents say that it’s because their child had lots of exams recently or it’s because she recently broke up with her boyfriend. It’s because of those unusual issues and why are they treating my child this way? — Participant Eight Another associated challenge concerns patients’ attitudes to mental health treatments. Studies show that Korean immigrants with mental health issues prefer to seek informal help and are more likely to approach immediate and/or extended family members (e.g., aunts or uncles) for support, rather than seeking formal services (Kim & Lee, 2021; Shin, 2002). Even if formal treatments are sought, cultural differences may serve as obstacles, as discussed by the participants. In the case of counseling, for example, the participants reported that many Korean patients, particularly elderly people, find it difficult to discuss personal issues with strangers — i.e., counsellors. Furthermore, certain concepts

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and strategies used in counseling are foreign to many Korean people and may be dismissed by patients for being irrelevant. For example: I would say, like this is all cultural concept. The young psychologist, and the patient was in her 60s. So, for her, is that kind of like what do you know about life? The young psychologist tried to teach with the notepad showing the personal boundaries. Explaining to her but it didn’t go to — in her head and then after that — after the session — she was telling me that he didn’t get me. He didn’t understand me or something like that — Participant Three Cultural issues are particularly challenging to interpreters because those issues often influence patients’ behaviors, which, in turn, impact the course of communication. The participants shared that some families become so upset that they behave aggressively (e.g., shouting), which stresses both interpreters and healthcare practitioners. When aggression occurs, the participants generally ask for a break to give families time to sort themselves out. Some participants may also try to explain the Korean perceptions of mental illnesses to healthcare practitioners during breaktime. While interpreters’ efforts are often appreciated by healthcare practitioners, there are also some practitioners who are not keen on cultural advice from interpreters. Many of these practitioners are reported to have little understanding of interpreting, and working with this group of people is identified as a significant stressor for the participants: If they have relatively less recognition about the interpretation or translations, they tend to just keep on going. So, they don’t give us a minute. Every single conversation we have to intervene and just relay whatever they say to the other party, but because these types of professionals don’t seem to be really counting on us, we are between them but these type of professionals just don’t think too much about it. They just keep on telling whatever they have to say to the patient — Participant One Combined with power differentials, perceptions of interpreting and interpreters held by healthcare practitioners may play a significant role in interpreter-mediated consultations. The next section illustrates the impact of power on interpreting with a particular reference to cultural expectations of doctors among Korean patients.

16.4.1.2

Doctors as authorities

Data analysis indicates that there lies a key difference between Australia and Korea in terms of clinician-patient relationships. In Australia, the principle of patient autonomy is widely valued and patients are expected to be fully informed of their conditions, so that they can make their own decisions about treatment options (Entwistle et al., 2010). In Korea and many other Asian countries, however, medical paternalism is a long-standing tradition (Mo et al., 2012). Migrants often carry with them their original cultural beliefs and practices when moving, which means that Korean patients in Australia tend to expect doctors to instruct them what to do. Many, therefore, feel confused when asked to make decisions in line with the local principle of respect for personal autonomy: What I found in Korean patient was that when there is a life-threatening conditions like cancer or terminal stage of something and then normally, a doctor wouldn’t give one option. They will give you different options and it’s up to patient to which option they go. But that’s the most difficult part of I guess — from my observation for Korean people to — oh, why 252

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do they ask me to make a decision? They are the one supposed to make a decision. I’m not. I don’t know anything. But they explain to you everything, all the possibility, pros and cons but still, they feel that it’s not my role to make a decision. Doctor is the one will make a decision for me — Participant Three Reliance of Korean patients on doctors is strongly to do with social perceptions of doctors in Korea, in which a high level of honor and prestige are attached to the profession (Anjum et al., 2019). The view of doctors as authorities is well demonstrated by the reported tendency of not asking questions among Korean patients. That is to say, Korean patients tend not to ask for clarifications, even when things are unclear to them: I guess it’s not only just a personal confidence level but also that’s kind of the culture. In South Korea, you know the power difference. That’s huge between doctor and patient and here is quite casual. Like you can just call their names and just say whatever you want to say. So, there is a difference. So, I think that’s a learned behaviour. That when they go to see professionals, they’re not really supposed to ask any questions. They’re just [supposed to]— listen to them and [do] what they say and that’s what it is. No questioning — Participant Three Apart from cultural respect for doctors, it is important to note the issue of power structures embedded in interpreting. Power differentials are a key aspect of interpreting, in which people with institutionally granted authority (e.g., judges, lawyers, and doctors) hold and exercise a lot more power than people without (e.g. migrants with no English) (Cho, 2021; Mason & Ren, 2012). While power asymmetries apply to all interpreting settings, power differentials may have a stronger impact on patients from a culture that elevates doctors as absolute authorities, such as Korea. Power asymmetries are, indeed, identified as a key element that leads some participants to make extra efforts to ensure a full understanding of patients. For example: 왜냐면 환자분들이 안타까울때가 되게 많아요. 의사랑 약간 상하관계로 볼 때가 되게 많아요. 이거 물어보셔야 되는데 왜 안물어보세요라고 할때도 있어요. It’s because I quite often feel sorry for patients. They are often hierarchized with doctors at the top. I sometimes tell them you should ask this and why are you not asking — Participant Five While some cultural issues may be addressed by the good will from individual interpreters, interpreters’ micro-power may be constrained by macro-institutional power and institutional approaches to cultures. The following section illustrates conflicts between individual agency and institutional power, with cognitive assessments of elderly people as a key site of examination.

16.4.1.3

Cultural sensitivity and cognitive assessments of elderly patients

Elderly immigrants in Australia predominantly lead an isolated life due, primarily, to a lack of English (Cho, 2021, 2022b). Feeling lonely, many older immigrants hold on to their original cultures, and sticking to ethnic communities as the only source of socialization is a general trend among elderly immigrants in Australia (Cho, 2021, 2022b). Most of them are, therefore, unfamiliar with the Australian way of life, and data analysis identifies a lack of local cultural knowledge as a significant variable on cognitive assessments for older Koreans. 253

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The participants reported witnessing cultural elements that could have a potential impact on older people’s abilities to deal with cognitive assessments. In Australia, cognitive assessments are in English only, and English questions are interpreted into other languages as assessments go along. According to the participants, some questions are specific to Australian contexts and may not be successfully attempted by elderly immigrants who know only a certain way of life. For example: I don’t know if you understand about the cognitive functioning test. It’s more very languageoriented test. But his language is not English. His first language is Korean. So even though it’s translated into Korean, some concepts are not really matched with his understanding and then if you’re not really fully assimilated Australian way of life, then some concepts you don’t really understand what they are talking about. It doesn’t mean that he’s not cognitively low function. It’s just a cultural difference — Participant Three A word list recall test is a case in point. It is a memory test in which an assessor reads a list of words and a patient tries to recall as many words as possible. The more words the patient recalls, the more scores the person achieves. In one particular instance, the aforementioned interpreter was asked to interpret breakfast items from English into Korean for an elderly Korean man. The words included common Australian breakfast items, such as toast, vegemite, coffee, and marmalade, all of which were, however, unfamiliar to the Korean man, who was only used to a Korean-style breakfast. Pointing out the cultural difference, the interpreter said that the patient would have performed better, had he been asked to recall Korean breakfast, such as kimchi, rice, and soup. Another example of a cultural gap can be drawn from assessments designed to test decisionmaking abilities of older people. Patients are usually presented with hypothetical situations in which they experience certain problems and are asked how they can address problems. A patient’s ability to use common-sense approaches is an important assessment criterion in this type of assessment. For example, triple-zero (000) is the Australian emergency number, and people are recommended to use the number for any life-threatening situations. If someone is presented with a scenario in which the person got lost in wilderness, for example, calling triple-zero for help is an expected answer. According to the participants, however, elderly people from Korean backgrounds generally do not know what triple-zero is. Furthermore, the traditional cultural value in which elderly parents rely on adult children for care may influence elderly people’s choices for help. For example: So, like for example, if there’s an emergency happening — like you went to somewhere — Adelaide. You are in Brisbane and you went to Adelaide and you lost your wallet, you have nothing, where are you going to contact? For him, he was going to contact daughters because they are the ones close and he believed that if anything happens, they will come to me . . . . So, from his understanding is that the most trustable, reliable people will be his daughters and his daughters are capable of looking after him so whatever happens to him, he will contact them. Something like that. So, what he was saying didn’t make sense to the assessor but it was perfect sense to him and me as well — Participant Three The aforementioned interpreter said that she usually tries to offer cultural advice where appropriate, so that patients do not get disadvantaged. Similar to the attitudes of healthcare practitioners to interpreters’ cultural advice on mental illnesses, however, responses from healthcare practitioners to interpreters’ cultural knowledge vary, and working with practitioners who see interpreters as “translation machines” is identified as an ongoing struggle for the participant. The findings,

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therefore, highlight not only cultural awareness but also perceptions of interpreting among healthcare practitioners as critical factors in interpreter-mediated healthcare settings for Korean patients.

16.5

Discussion and conclusion

This chapter has examined linguistic and cultural challenges that arise in the case of interpretermediated medical consultations for Korean patients in Australia. The findings indicate that the participants use various professional strategies, including clarifications, descriptions, and substitutions, in order to deal with the identified linguistic challenges. Although finding perfect equivalents may not be possible due to the innate gap between English and Korean, the participants emphasized that there is always a way to work around, and they somehow manage to get there. Cultural challenges, however, seem to be more challenging, as such problems often influence participants’ behaviors, which, in turn, impact the course of communication. Furthermore, interpreters’ attempts are constrained by external factors, particularly healthcare practitioners’ views on interpreting. Addressing cultural issues in interpreting, therefore, requires efforts from both interpreters and healthcare practitioners, and it is worth noting suggestions made by the participants regarding training of healthcare practitioners. First, the participants highlighted needs for healthcare practitioners to be trained on working with interpreters as part of professional development. In Australia, an emphasis is usually placed on interpreters to be fully trained before working with healthcare practitioners, yet corresponding efforts from healthcare practitioners have been regrettably slow (Cho, 2022b). Healthcare practitioners’ abilities to work with interpreters is important considering the fact that Australia is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. As narrated by Participant Two: I think they [healthcare practitioners] should hold a seminar or Zoom — as part of their professional development, because I know medical professionals need to do professional development regularly. I think they should include this in their development program. How to work with interpreters. Definitely. It has to be compulsory, because Australia is a multicultural society and medical professionals will always come across people from a diverse background and some of them will not speak in English at all. I mean, same as I suppose in every other field, but medical field I think it’s most important because we are actually handling people’s lives. Another training suggestion concerns cultural awareness of healthcare practitioners. While it may be impractical to try to give training on every single culture, it is important to provide opportunities to realize one’s own biases through which to have a better understanding of people from different cultural backgrounds. As suggested by Participant Seven: Cultural awareness. Cultural awareness and cultural humility for the professionals. But that’s not just learning different cultures. Learning about their own perceptions and prejudice or bias because of their cultural background because as I mentioned, they — all people are multicultural. Culturally diverse — the population. The whole professionals are themselves also very culturally diverse population. So they — to be able to — for me as a migrant living in Australia try to understand more — other people, for me, it’s the more you understand yourself — your own culture, your own values and things like that — will help you to understand there’s other people from different cultural background. So that is something that — so that just in a nutshell will be cultural awareness and cultural humility training for the doctors.

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In conclusion, the professional experiences of the Korean healthcare interpreters point to the needs for healthcare practitioners to be better trained on working with interpreters and cultural diversity. This is particularly important when considering the significant amount of power held by healthcare practitioners in interpreter-mediated communication settings. Although this study is set in the Australian context, the findings are applicable to many migrant-receiving countries in which demands for healthcare interpreting are growing in the context of increasing transnational migration. This study may, therefore, have far-reaching implications on our increasingly multilingual and multicultural world.

References American Psychiatric Association. (2013). American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, Arlington. Angelelli, C. V. (2004). Medical interpreting and cross-cultural communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Anjum, G., Kessler, T., & Aziz, M. (2019). Cross-cultural exploration of honor: Perception of honor in Germany, Pakistan, and South Korea. Psychological Studies, 64(2), 147–160. AUSIT Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct. (2012). https://ausit.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Code_ Of_Ethics_Full.pdf Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2016). People in Australia who were born in Korea, Republic of (South). https:// www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2016/6203_0#:~:text=In%20the%202016%20 Census%2C%20there,male%20and%2053.1%25%20were%20female.&text=Of%20the%20population%20 born%20in,aged%2065%20years%20and%20over Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. (2019). Australian charter of healthcare rights (2nd ed.). https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/australian-charter-healthcare-rights-second-edition-audio-resourcesinformation Bischoff, A. (2020). The evolution of a healthcare interpreting service mapped against the bilingual health communication model: A historical qualitative case study. Public Health Reviews, 41(1), 1–25. Bischoff, A., Kurth, E., & Henley, A. (2012). Staying in the middle: A qualitative study of health care interpreters’ perceptions of their work. Interpreting, 14(1), 1–22. Cho, J. (2021). Intercultural communication in interpreting: Power and choices. London: Routledge. Cho, J. (2022a). Hidden gems: Translators and interpreters in Australia play a critical if seldom seen role. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/hidden-gems-translators-and-interpreters-in-australia-play-acritical-if-seldom-seen-role-188603 Cho, J. (2022b). To act or not to act: Interpreters’ dilemmas and choices in aged care assessments of elderly migrants. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1–15. Clarke, V., Braun, V., & Hayfield, N. (2015). Thematic analysis. Qualitative psychology: A Practical Guide to Research Methods, 222(2015), 248. Davidson, B. (2001). Questions in cross-linguistic medical encounters: The role of the hospital interpreter. Anthropological Quarterly, 170–178. Department of Home Affairs. (2016). South Korea-born community information summary. https://www.homeaffairs. gov.au/mca/files/2016-cis-south-korea.PDF Entwistle, V. A., Carter, S. M., Cribb, A., & McCaffery, K. (2010). Supporting patient autonomy: The importance of clinician-patient relationships. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 25(7), 741–745. Han, M., Cha, R., Lee, H. A., & Lee, S. E. (2017). Mental-illness stigma among Korean immigrants: Role of culture and destigmatization strategies. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 8(2), 134. Hsieh, E. (2006). Conflicts in how interpreters manage their roles in provider–patient interactions. Social Science & Medicine, 62(3), 721–730. Hyun, M. S., Cho Chung, H. I., & Kim, H. (2017). Experiences of family stigma among mothers of adult children with mental illness in South Korea. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 38(10), 845–851. Inghilleri, M. (2003). Habitus, field and discourse: Interpreting as a socially situated activity. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies, 15(2), 243–268. Jasti, S., Lee, C. H., & Doak, C. (2011). Gender, acculturation, food patterns, and overweight in Korean immigrants. American Journal of Health Behavior, 35(6), 734–745.

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Healthcare interpreting for Korean immigrants in Australia Karliner, L. S., Jacobs, E. A., Chen, A. H., & Mutha, S. (2007). Do professional interpreters improve clinical care for patients with limited English proficiency? A systematic review of the literature. Health Services Research, 42(2), 727–754. Kim, S. B., & Lee, Y. J. (2021). Factors associated with mental health help-seeking among Asian Americans: A systematic review. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 1–22. Kwok, W., & Bhuvanakrishna, T. (2014). The relationship between ethnicity and the pain experience of cancer patients: A systematic review. Indian Journal of Palliative Care, 20(3), 194. Lai, M., & Costello, S. (2021). Professional interpreters and vicarious trauma: An Australian perspective. Qualitative Health Research, 31(1), 70–85. Leanza, Y. (2005). Roles of community interpreters in pediatrics as seen by interpreters, physicians and researchers. Interpreting, 7(2), 167–192. Lee, J. (2015). Hwabyung and depressive symptoms among Korean immigrants. Social Work in Mental Health, 13(2), 159–185. Lee, J., Wachholtz, A., & Choi, K. H. (2014). A review of the Korean cultural syndrome Hwa-Byung: Suggestions for theory and intervention. Asia T'aep'yongyang sangdam yon'gu, 4(1), 49. Mason, I., & Ren, W. (2012). Power in face-to-face interpreting events. Translation and Interpreting Studies. The Journal of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association, 7(2), 234–253. Min, S. K. (2008). Clinical correlates of hwa-byung and a proposal for a new anger disorder. Psychiatry Investigation, 5(3), 125. Min, S. K. (2009). Hwabyung in Korea: Culture and dynamic analysis. World Cultural Psychiatry Research Review, 4(1), 12–21. Mo, H. N., Shin, D. W., Woo, J. H., Choi, J. Y., Kang, J., Baik, Y. J., & Cho, S. H. (2012). Is patient autonomy a critical determinant of quality of life in Korea? End-of-life decision making from the perspective of the patient. Palliative Medicine, 26(3), 222–231. Moratto, R., & Li, D. (2022). Advances in corpus applications in literary and translation studies. London and New York: Routledge. Multicultural NSW. (2016). Ancestry-Korean. Language spoken at home. https://multiculturalnsw.id.com.au/ multiculturalnsw/ancestry-by-language?COIID=271 Pang, C., & Young, K. (1990). Hwabyung: The construction of a Korean popular illness among Korean elderly immigrant women in the United States. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 14(4), 495–512. Park, C., Loy, J. H., Lillis, S., & Menkes, D. B. (2022). What stops Korean immigrants from accessing child and adolescent mental health services? Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 16(1), 1–7. Pöchhacker, F. (2006). Research and methodology in healthcare interpreting. Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series–Themes in Translation Studies, 5. Popovic-Lipovac, A., & Strasser, B. (2015). A review on changes in food habits among immigrant women and implications for health. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 17(2), 582–590. Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2011). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Saito, S., Harris, M. F., Long, K. M., Lewis, V., Casey, S., Hogg, W., . . . & Russell, G. (2021). Response to language barriers with patients from refugee background in general practice in Australia: Findings from the OPTIMISE study. BMC Health Services Research, 21(1), 1–12. Schmidt-Atzert, L., & Park, H. S. (1999). The Korean concepts dapdaphada and uulhada: A cross-cultural study of the meaning of emotions. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 30(5), 646–654. Shin, J. K. (2002). Help-seeking behaviors by Korean immigrants for depression. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 23(5), 461–476. Sora, K.-R. (2022, August 30). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sora_Kim-Russell Thomas, S. B., Fine, M. J., & Ibrahim, S. A. (2004). Health disparities: The importance of culture and health communication. American Journal of Public Health, 94(12), 2050–2050. Wadensjö, C. (2014). Interpreting as interaction. New York: Routledge.

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17 AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE INTERPRETERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE CHALLENGES IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION Sophia Ra 소피아 라 17.1

Introduction

According to the 2018 to 2019 migration summary report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2020), there were over 7.6 million migrants living in Australia, and 29.8% of Australia’s population were born overseas. New South Wales (NSW) Health policy states that it is NSW Government policy for professional healthcare interpreters to be employed to facilitate communication between people who are not fluent in English, including people who are deaf and the staff of the NSW public health system. The use of professional interpreting services allows health professionals to fulfill their duty of care, which includes obtaining valid consent from patients (NSW Health, 2017). Regarding the Korean immigrants residing in Australia, according to the community information summary published by the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (2014), the first opportunity for a large number of Korean immigrants to arrive in Australia from South Korea occurred in 1969 as part of the skilled migration program, in which they were employed in the metal refining, steel construction, and welding industries (Han & Han, 2010). During the mid-1960s and 1970s, to replenish a shortage in the workforce in jobs that were considered unsafe and demeaning, the Australian government began to actively expand its recruitment of labor from Korea in areas such as cleaning, truck driving, and delivery services (Han & Han, 2010). Due to these characteristics of early migration by Koreans to Australia, first-generation Korean immigrants commonly worked in areas for which learning English was not essential and in which there were limited opportunities to mix with other ethnic groups. Language barriers and cultural differences can be obstructive factors for both healthcare professionals and interpreters in providing optimal care for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) patients. Unlike linguistic issues, which can be explicitly observed by all parties during medical encounters, cultural differences may not be easily detected. By understanding one’s own culture and other cultures and applying that knowledge to practice, better health outcomes can be achieved in a multicultural society like Australia. There is still no consensus, however, about what constitutes intercultural communication challenges in healthcare settings (Butow et al., 2012; Crezee, 2003;

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-21

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Souza, 2016). Furthermore, at the time of writing this chapter, no study has been conducted on the communication challenges faced by Korean interpreters in an Australian setting. To fill the gap in the knowledge—namely, whether a group of Korean interpreters agree on what constitutes intercultural differences in healthcare settings and when to offer cultural brokerage— interviews with five Korean interpreters were conducted in 2015. In the interviews, I examined the interpreters’ perceptions about intercultural communication and intercultural differences between Korean patients and non-Korean healthcare professionals. In this chapter, I describe the data gathered during the interviews and present the results of my analysis.

17.2

Data description

As part of a larger PhD project studying the communication challenges for healthcare interpreters within a multicultural society, five Korean interpreters were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews to canvas their views on communication challenges that may have occurred and explain their strategies to overcome these challenges, if any. The Western Sydney Local Health District Health Care Interpreter Service (WSLHD HCIS) had six full-time and eleven sessional interpreters in the Korean language group at the time of the data collection; they worked at different sites, including Auburn, Cumberland, Blacktown/Mount Druitt, and Westmead Hospitals. The two full-time Korean interpreters mainly practiced in Westmead Hospital, and other full-time interpreters or sessional interpreters were asked to come to Westmead Hospital when needed. Five Korean interpreters responded to the call for participation and volunteered for the study. They were all born in South Korea and were native Korean speakers. All three full-time interpreters had more than 30 years of residence in Australia and between sixteen and 25 years of practice as interpreters. All five interpreter participants were female and had Paraprofessional-level National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) accreditation in interpreting in both language directions. Between 1987 and 2018, during which period the data for the study were collected, the levels of NAATI accreditation for interpreters were as appear as follows, in Table 17.1. Demographic characteristics of the participating interpreters can be found in Table 17.2. According to a comprehensive outline of the different levels of NAATI accreditation (NAATI, 2010), Professional Interpreter level (see Table 17.1) is the minimum level recommended by NAATI for work in healthcare settings. However, all five interpreter interview participants, including the interpreter with the master’s degree, had only Paraprofessional-level NAATI accreditation (see Table 17.1) in interpreting in both language directions. All five interviewees classified themselves as native Korean speakers with advanced English skills and chose Korean as the language of the interview. Interviews were recorded so that, during the interview, I could focus on the conversations with the interpreters and accurately record their answers. Audio files were later transcribed into Korean by the researcher and coded for themes. As an accredited translator, I translated Korean quotes into English to be used in this chapter.

17.3

Interpreters’ perceptions of the definition of intercultural communication

This section describes what I found from the interviews with the five Korean interpreters. However, with a small sample size, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be transferable to all Korean interpreters or all healthcare interpreters in Australia. Notwithstanding, these responses may help us to understand the healthcare interpreters’ perceptions of what constitutes the intercultural communication challenges they face.

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Sophia Ra 소피아 라 Table 17.1 Levels of NAATI accreditation for interpreters (Slatyer, 2015, p. 27) Conference Interpreter (Senior) 

This is the highest level of NAATI interpreting accreditation. It reflects a level of excellence in conference interpreting, recognized through demonstrated extensive experience and international leadership. It encompasses and builds on the competencies of Conference Interpreter accreditation.

Conference Interpreter

This represents the level of competence required to handle complex, technical, and sophisticated interpreting, in both consecutive and simultaneous modes, in line with recognized international practice. Conference Interpreters operate in diverse situations, including at conferences, high-level negotiations and court proceedings and may choose to specialize in a particular area(s). This represents the minimum level of competence for professional interpreting and is the minimum level recommended by NAATI for work in most settings, including banking, law, health, and social and community services. Professional Interpreters are capable of interpreting across a wide range of semi-specialized situations and are capable of using the consecutive mode to interpret speeches or presentations. This represents a level of competence in interpreting for the purpose of general conversations. Paraprofessional Interpreters generally undertake the interpretation of non-specialist dialogues. Practitioners at this level are encouraged to obtain Professional-Level accreditation. This credential is an acknowledgement that, at the time of the award, the applicant has had recent and regular work experience as an interpreter but no level of proficiency is specified. In order to be granted NAATI Recognition, the applicant must provide proof of English proficiency and complete an introductory NAATI workshop or related activity. There is no NAATI testing of a Recognition applicant. Recognized interpreters are encouraged to obtain accreditation as it becomes available.

Professional Interpreter

Paraprofessional Interpreter

Interpreter Recognition

Table 17.2 Demographic characteristics of the participating interpreters Number

Status

Gender

Years of residence in Australia

Years of practice

NAATI level

1 2 3 4 5

Full-time staff Full-time staff Full-time staff Casual staff Casual staff

Female Female Female Female Female

> 30 35 32 20 18

16 25 16 4 15

Para-professional Para-professional Para-professional Para-professional Para-professional

In the first part of the interview, I asked the interpreters to define the term “intercultural communication” and to provide examples of possible cultural differences in healthcare settings involving Korean patients and English-speaking healthcare professionals. I did not provide definitions of the terms “intercultural communication” or “culture” before the interviews to avoid influencing the way in which participants took up the issues. The question on the definition of intercultural communication was as follows:

Q1: Can you tell me about your perception of any intercultural issues in healthcare settings involving Korean patients and English-speaking medical practitioners?

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Four out of five interpreters said that they do not encounter any cultural difficulties in interpreter-mediated healthcare settings. As for the reasons behind this, Interpreters One and Four explained that, in recent years, Korea has been influenced by the Western world, particularly the United States, so Koreans are Westernized (Quote 1). Interpreter Three believed that any differences between patients and healthcare professionals are individual differences rather than cultural differences. She believed that each individual has a different culture based on their background and experiences.

Quote 1: “글쎄요. 저는 사실 문화적 차이 이런걸로 트러블이 있을 이유가 없어요 거의. 뭐 개 인마다 다 서로 다를 수 있는거고. 글쎄요. 그리고 뭐 워낙에 요새 한국 분들이 다 서양화되어 있어서 뭐 부끄러워서 의사 선생님에게 말을 못한다거나 질문을 못 한다거나 눈을 못 마주친 다거나 뭐 이런거도 없고요. 전에는 뭐 애기 낳고 미역국도 많이 먹고 그랬는데 요샌 그런 일 도 잘 없고요. 그런 일로 통역사가 뭐 문제될 만한 일도 잘 없어요.” “Well . . . I don’t think I have problems with cultural differences. I mean each individual is different, anyway. Also, these days Koreans are very much Westernized so that they are not too shy to ask questions or to have direct eye contact with doctors at all. For example, new mothers used to have seaweed soup only at hospital after the baby’s birth rather than foods given by the hospital, but it happens very rarely these days. Also, this didn’t even cause any problem to interpreters anyway.” (Interpreter One)

The interpreter from the foregoing quote mentioned some examples, including nonverbal communication differences and the views regarding postpartum care. For example, some Koreans used to avoid direct eye contact with doctors, were too shy to ask questions of doctors, and ate seaweed soup rather than food provided by hospitals after the childbirth. However, she stated that such traditional Korean cultural beliefs have evolved over time in a modern society. Interpreter Two was the only one who said that she always encountered intercultural communication challenges, and in the first instance, she pointed out the Korean patients’ reluctance to ask questions of medical professionals. She explained that Korean patients have the attitude that they can get all the right answers from healthcare professionals, and healthcare professionals should always take the lead. However, the other four interpreters disagreed on this matter, as will be discussed in Section Four. Interpreters One and Two both stated that one of the characteristics of Korean patients is that, in the interpreters’ views, Korean patients do not answer directly to questions by healthcare professionals; they provide incoherent replies or irrelevant answers and background information. Interestingly, in Angelelli’s (2004) study, the author argues that telling the story instead of providing direct answers is common in Spanish patients, indicating that this is not a Korean-only cultural trait. The interpreters in Angelelli’s study managed the interaction by stopping the patient and asking the patient to answer the question instead of telling the story (p. 87), clearly breaching the interpreter’s role according to the Code of Ethics. Consistent with the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators (AUSIT) Code of Ethics, the interpreters from my study argued that the interpreter’s role is limited to acting as what they describe as a “language tool” so that healthcare professionals can ultimately make their judgment and/or decision based on accurate interpretation, as expressed in Quote 2, as follows. 261

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Quote 2: “우리는 언어 도구에요. 우리에게 결정권은 없으니까 양쪽의 이야기를 전달만 해 주 는거죠. 우리가 뭐 의사에게 환자를 이렇게 해주세요 하지 말게 해 주세요 할 수도 없고. 환자 에게 이렇게 하라고 권장할 수가 없기 때문에 우리는 그냥 정확한 통역, 정확한 언어 전달만 하는 거죠”. “We [Interpreters] are language tools. We don’t have the right to make decisions but [have to] deliver messages from both sides. We can’t ask doctors to do something for patients or not to do something, and we can’t give advice to patients either. All we have to do is to interpret accurately. In other words, we deliver messages from one language to another language.” (Interpreter Two)

According to Interpreters One and Two, therefore, interpreters should only deliver messages accurately, even though they are aware of intercultural differences with Korean patients. This view is in line with the position that the interaction be interpreted directly, as described in Hale (2007), whereby healthcare professionals and patients primarily address each other, and interpreters interpret directly what has been said in the previous utterance by one of the participants. This direct approach (see Bolden, 2000) is also consistent with the Code of Conduct, specific to interpreters, of the AUSIT Code of Ethics (AUSIT, 2012, p. 14). In contrast, Interpreter Three reported that interpersonal skills are needed for healthcare interpreters, in particular. She argued that interpreters have to comfort patients and soften the atmosphere with added expressions of comfort, a soft tone, and a gentle voice, as expressed in Quote 3.

Quote 3: “한 번 이런 일이 있었던 게 생각이 나요. 한 번 상담을 하던 중에 간호사가 무슨 폼 을 작성하고 있었거든요. 그런데 환자분이 저한테 귓속말로 간호사가 너무 무서워 보인다고 그래서 좀 겁이 난다고 그러는 거에요. 그래서 제가 환자분한테 그랬죠. 제가 그 간호사분이 랑 오랫동안 같이 일했었는데 좋으신 분이라고. 단지 좀 말투가 차갑고 딱딱하다고요. 환자 분이 간호사를 믿을 수 있게끔 제가 해 드린 거죠. 물론 이 얘기를 영어로 통역하지는 않았죠. 그치만 그게 뭐 거짓말한 것도 아니고 뭐 없는 얘기를 한 것도 아니고 뭐 그렇잖아요. 그냥 제 가 환자분을 안심시켜드릴 책임이 있고 또 환자분이 편안하게 느끼시게 해 드려야 하잖아요.” “I remember that this happened once. Once the nurse was writing a form during the consultation, the patient whispered in Korean that the nurse looked scary, and the patient felt intimidated. I just told her that I had worked with the nurse for a long time, and that she is a nice person but with a cold and dry tone. I assured the patient that she could trust the nurse. I didn’t interpret this conversation into English, of course. But I don’t think it was a lie or an insertion or anything like that. I have some sort of responsibility to reassure the patient and make them feel comfortable.” (Interpreter Three)

This view reflects a mediated approach, as described by Hale (2007) and adopting Bolden’s (2000) definition. With this approach, the interpreter is an active contributor to the communication process, and the interpreter is responsible for identifying communication barriers rather than being objective or impartial (Angelelli, 2004; Kaufert & Koolage, 1984). However, one can argue that, in this instance, the interpreter tried to look after the patient for the well-being of the patient, which motivated her actions. In the guidelines provided for healthcare interpreters in the 1990s in

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Australia, healthcare interpreters had been asked to play a broader and more active role in intercultural situations, such as providing information to clients about the healthcare system; providing health-related cultural information to healthcare professionals; and helping clients to reduce fears, anxieties, and concerns that may impede effective communication (The Health Care Interpreter Service, 1994). Considering that four out of five interpreters who participated in my interview were accredited in the 1980s or 1990s, they would have followed the former guidelines suggesting that interpreters can be helpers as part of their role as interpreters. Another important aspect highlighted here is that the exchanges between the interpreter and the patient from the foregoing quote were not shared with the nurse. When the interpreter began to act as a helper and tried to look after the patient, the nurse was excluded from this conversation, which is in violation of the principles of accuracy and impartiality of the AUSIT Code of Ethics. It should be noted that the example provided in Quote 3 had no relationship to any intercultural differences between the Korean-speaking patient and the English-speaking nurse. When asked to provide examples of possible cultural differences between Korean-speaking patients and English-speaking healthcare professionals, Interpreters One and Five pointed out that differences between healthcare systems in Korea and Australia can be considered as cultural differences (Quote 4).

Quote 4: “이게 문화적인건지는 잘 모르겠는데 시스템 차이 때문에 어려울 때도 있어요. 호주 병원 시스템이 한국이랑 다르잖아요. 그러니까 뭐 호주 병원은 뭐가 이렇게 복잡해 . . . 이런다 던가. 아니면 뭐 메디케어 같은거, 그 다음에 뭐 일반의 있고 전문의 있고 이러잖아요. 그리고 또 산과 같은 경우에는 사립 병원이랑 공립 병원이랑 좀 다르고 미드와이프가 애를 받는 것도 좀 낯설고. 그런 시스템 차이를 모르는 분들이 좀 있으면 그게 이제 좀 우리가 설명을 해 드려 야죠. 그런 것도 문화적 차이죠 뭐.” “I’m not sure whether it’s a cultural thing or not, but the different healthcare systems between the two countries [Australia and Korea] can cause difficulties. Hospital systems in Australia are different from the ones in Korea, of course. So, patients often complain that hospital systems in Australia are more complicated. Or they are not sure about Medicare or the difference between GPs and specialists. When it comes to obstetrics, patients often don’t know much about differences between public and private hospitals, or about the role of midwives. When patients are not sure about these differences in healthcare system, we [interpreters] have to explain. I think that’s cultural differences.” (Interpreter One)

This view corroborates the existing findings (Kaufert & Koolage, 1984; Souza, 2016), in which interpreters define their role of “cultural broker” as someone who explains the healthcare system or medical culture to a patient. However, the interpreter from the foregoing quote did not explain when and how to provide the patients with this information about the healthcare systems, and on what basis—for example, whether it be based on the latest accurate information obtained from healthcare professionals or based on the interpreters’ personal experience and understanding. It could be argued that lack of familiarity with the health system in NSW could be experienced by anybody who needs health services in the system for the first time, regardless of the language spoken or of their need for an interpreter.

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17.3.1

Intercultural challenges that arise during home visits

When asked for examples of cultural differences between Korean-speaking patients and Englishspeaking healthcare professionals, all five interpreters answered that they face intercultural issues more often during home visits than at hospitals. One example mentioned was when healthcare professionals are asked to respect the Korean rules of the house by taking their shoes off (Quotes 5 and 6). Most healthcare professionals accede to this request; however, some do not remove their shoes but put covers or plastic bags over them.

Quote 5: “가정 방문을 해 보면 한국분들 집에 가면 신발 벗어놓고 들어가야 되고. 그런데 의료 전문가들은 절대 신발 벗지 말라고 그래요. 위생이나 안전 뭐 이런 거 때문에 차라리 그냥 커 버를 씌워서 들어가요. 그래서 그거를 제가 설명한 적이 있어요. 이런게 한국 문화라고. 한국 문화상 이렇게 하는거라고 얘기를 했죠.” “When you go on home visits to Korean homes, you should take your shoes off before entering. But some healthcare professionals never want to do so because of hygiene or safety issues. They rather put some covers on their shoes. So, I used to explain to healthcare professionals that this [taking shoes off] is part of the Korean tradition and culture.” (Interpreter One) Quote 6: “가정 방문을 하면 이제 문화적 차이라는 것은 이제 신발을 벗어야 되니까. 신발 벗 는데 이제 병원 규정 자체가 의료 전문인이 신발을 벗지 못하게 되어 있어요. 그래서 예를 들 어 그 수술실에서 쓰는 그 신발 커버를 가지고 다니면서 그거를 신는 분도 계세요. 근데 뭐 가 끔 커버가 없으신 분들 있으면 한국 분들이 그냥 신발 신고 들어오세요 하는 경우도 있고. 아 니면 거꾸로 그런 거를 이해하시고 알아서 신발을 벗는 의료 전문인도 있으시고요. 전부다 사 람 나름이에요.” “I think the cultural difference when you go on home visits is when you are asked to take your shoes off. According to hospital regulations, healthcare professionals are not allowed to take their shoes off. So, some professionals bring their own covers, like the ones they use in operating theatres. But when they don’t have any covers, Korean patients sometimes let them come in their houses with the shoes on. And of course, sometimes healthcare professionals understand and take their shoes off without any trouble. Everyone’s different and every situation is different anyway.” (Interpreter Three)

As seen in Quotes 5 and 6, all five interpreters in my study held the general view that Koreans take their shoes off in their homes and English-speaking healthcare professionals will not, whether they understand and exercise such practices or not. Galanti (2015, p. 10) questioned whether such a practice is a cultural trait or a personal idiosyncrasy. Then, the interpreter explains, “Today, many Anglo Americans trying to be ‘green’ will also remove their shoes.” Another example provided was when, also according to the Korean tradition of hospitality, healthcare professionals are offered food and drink by Korean patients during home visits, sometimes excessively, even after the visitor kindly refuses (Quote 7). All five interpreters reported that this is based on Korean culture and tradition, so they always explain that to healthcare professionals. Interpreter Two clarified that she also explains to Korean patients that healthcare professionals refuse the food or drink because of cultural differences, and not because they are rude, to make sure that Korean patients do not feel offended (Quote 7). 264

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Quote 7: “가정 방문을 하면 완전 문화 차이를 느끼는데, 많은 한국분들이 뭐 커피 한잔 하세 요 뭐 드세요 이래요. 그런데 의료 전문인들은 다 노 땡큐. 딱 싫다고 안 마셔요. 그런데 또 한 국 할머니들은 그냥 막 가져와서 앞에서 딱 강제로 놓고 마시라고. 물론 좋은 마음인데 강제로 먹으라고. 그게 굉장히 한국적인 거거든요. 그러면 이제 제가 굉장히 유머감각을 가지고 한국 분들 속상하거나 상처입지 않게 설명을 잘 하면서 양해를 구하죠.” “You can notice cultural differences very often during home visits. For example, many Korean patients always offer food and beverage like coffee to healthcare professionals and interpreters. Even if healthcare professionals say, “No thank you,” Korean patients, especially elderly people, still bring some food and drink and almost force them to eat or drink. Of course, being gracious is a good thing and it’s from their good hearts and kindness, but it’s very Korean. Then I try to help Korean patients understand that healthcare professionals might not want to eat or drink not because they are rude, but they are not hungry or thirsty. I need a sense of humor so that I don’t hurt the feelings of Korean patients.” (Interpreter Two)

All the foregoing examples in this section also illustrate the way Korean interpreters involve themselves by providing an explanation to either healthcare professionals or patients. All five interpreters suggested that they face intercultural communication challenges more often during home visits, and they all admitted that they intervened more often to provide an explanation during home visits than at hospitals. However, what they described as Korean culture was mostly based on the traditional nation-based views. This can lead to a situation where interpreters have only a subjective understanding of patients’ culture, so fail to bridge culture between two parties. Furthermore, interpreting-service users often have different expectations of the role of the healthcare interpreter, which can pose challenges to healthcare interpreters.

17.3.2

Users’ expectations of the role of healthcare interpreters

Users’ expectations of the role of community interpreters usually do not coincide with interpreters’ perceptions (Pöchhacker, 2000; Mesa, 1998). Interpreter Three pointed out users’ unrealistic expectations of the role of healthcare interpreters when asked for examples of intercultural communication challenges (Quote 8).

Quote 8: “한 번은 환자분이 저한테 돈을 어떻게 내야 하냐고 물어보시더라고요. 그리고 또 한 번은 뭐 메디케어에 청구해야 하냐 아니면 개인 보험에 청구해야 하냐 이런거도 물어보시고. 한번은 환자분이 무슨 비자를 신청했는데 그 기관에서 편지를 받았다고 하시면서 그 편지를 보여주시더라고요. 그런데 편지를 읽어보니까 병원에서 무슨 증명서를 떼서 제출하라고 써 있더라고요. 근데 환자분이 어떻게 해야할지 모르겠다고. 그 때 마침 제가 시간도 좀 있고, 내 용도 아는거여서 제가 병원 창구에 모시고 가서 증명서 떼는걸 도와드렸어요. 보통 이런 일이 생기면 제가 시간이 있는한 도와드리는 편이에요. 환자분들이 이제 이런 것도 제가 하는 일이 라고 생각을 하시는 거 같에요. 그러니까 이제 병원에서 제가 환자를 도울 수 있는 사람이 되 기를 원하시는거죠.”

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“There was a case where a patient asked me what to do with the payment and another case where a patient asked me whether she needed to submit her claim to Medicare or her private health insurance. A patient came to me once and said he had applied for a visa and had received a letter from a department. He showed me the letter, and it said he had to submit a certain type of certificate from the hospital. He said he didn’t know what to do. I had some time and knew what he had to do, so I took him to the right counter and helped him to get the certificate. I normally help them with these things if I have time. But it seems like patients believe that this is part of our job. They all expect us to be a helper at hospital.” (Interpreter Three)

The interpreter from the foregoing example has acted in accordance with the now-outdated guidelines suggesting that healthcare interpreters become helpers as part of their role as interpreters. Furthermore, this view is in accordance with the description of the interpreter’s role before the 1960s, when there was no distinction between a helper and an interpreter who was, in most cases, a family member or a friend of the patient (Roy, 2002, p. 349). It is apparent that all five interpreters could not provide a clear definition of intercultural communication and had only a vague understanding of the cultural differences they could face during medical encounters. When asked to define the term “intercultural communication” and to provide examples of possible cultural differences between Korean-speaking patients and English-speaking healthcare professionals without being given any further explanation or examples of intercultural communication, except for Interpreter Two, who said she encounters intercultural communication difficulties all the time, the other four interpreters said they do not have difficulties because of cultural differences. However, when I moved on to the next questions, which required some more detailed explanations, interpreters provided illustrations of cultural challenges with examples and anecdotes.

17.4

Korean family dynamics in medical consultations

In medical anthropology, the most frequently emerging topics of cultural challenges with CALD patients have been the facing of end-of-life situations with family members and decision-making (Goldstein et al., 2002; Kagawa-Singer & Blackhall, 2001). In her comprehensive analysis of 300 case studies with healthcare providers in the US, Galanti (2015) also reports that one of the most challenging experiences for healthcare professionals dealing with CALD patients is when patients are with their family members. This includes issues of family relationships and involvement, which can raise the question of patient autonomy. The question on family dynamics across different cultures was as follows:

Q3: Do you think patients across different cultures have different views on the issue of patient autonomy in regard to telling the truth to the patient about their diagnosis or prognosis (end-of-life situation, in particular)?

When asked whether patients across different cultures have different views on the issue of patient autonomy and family involvement, three interpreters answered that there are not many differences 266

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between Korean-speaking patients and English-speaking healthcare professionals, especially in recent years. Regarding the end-of-life situations and family involvement in decision-making, Interpreter Three argued that there used to be cases where family members, especially adult children, asked doctors not to tell the truth about their condition or use the term “cancer” to the patients. However, she had not experienced such cases for a long time. She explained that this situation very rarely happens these days. Interpreter Two said that some family members, before the consultation starts and in the absence of the patients, ask the healthcare professionals in Korean not to say the word “cancer” in front of the patients. She then interprets everything into English and gives healthcare professionals the right to decide whether to do so (Quote 9).

Quote 9: “그런 경우 많지요. 가족분들은 어머님이나 아버님이 그런 사실을 알게 되면 더 빨리 악화된다는 그 생각으로 의사 선생님에게 아무 말도 하지 말아 주세요 라고 미리 부탁을 해요. 미리 부탁을 할 경우에는 우리가 미리 의사나 간호사나 또 전문가에게 알려 줘요. 가족이 원하 지 않는다고 이야기를 했습니다 라고 해서 그 결정권은 전문가가 가지게끔 하는 거지요. 그렇 지만 환자 앞에서 가족분들이 영어로 부탁을 하는 것은 저희가 어쩔 수가 없습니다. 저는 그냥 가만히 있는 거지요. 그리고 역시 의료 전문가가 결정을 하게 되는 거지요.” “Yes, it [family involvement in decision-making] happens a lot. Family members, especially adult children, usually believe that elderly patients’ health will deteriorate when they find out about their terminal illnesses, so family members, before the consultation starts, ask healthcare professionals not to say anything about the terminal cancer diagnosis to patients. In this situation, interpreters have to deliver this message to nurses, doctors, or other professionals so that healthcare professionals will have a right to make a professional judgement. However, when family members directly ask doctors in English not to reveal terminal illnesses to patients, there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t do anything. Then again, the healthcare professional makes a decision.” (Interpreter Two)

This is in accordance with the guidelines and policies (NSW Health, 2017) where healthcare professionals are expected to direct culture-related enquiries to patients and their family members. However, it is noteworthy that the interpreter from the foregoing quote said that she cannot do anything when family members directly ask doctors in English not to reveal terminal illnesses to patients. This means that this dialogue between the family members and the doctors is not interpreted into Korean for the benefit of the patients. According to the AUSIT Code of Ethics, in the article accuracy (2012, p.  15), every side conversation or comment made by any of the parties should be accurately interpreted into the other language so that all parties can be kept informed, regardless of whether a side conversation or comment was a private conversation among parties or an attempt to engage the interpreter in a private conversation with either party. Interpreter One explained that adult children of elderly patients are often deeply involved in healthcare communication. She asserted that an active involvement of adult children is based on the Korean culture, since children in Korea tend to take the responsibility of looking after their ill parents and make decisions on behalf of their parents, which they believe is a reflection of filial piety, although it can be argued that this is universal practice and not exclusive to Koreans. Furthermore, when adult children can directly communicate with healthcare professionals in English, they occasionally interpret for their parents without the assistance of interpreters. According to Interpreter 267

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One, family members who can speak English tend to answer questions from healthcare professionals on behalf of their parents, and they sometimes interpret what healthcare professionals say in English into Korean for the patients. Interpreter One said that she generally waits until any party asks her to help by interpreting, and sometimes she asks them if they need a professional interpreter or not (Quote 10).

Quote 10: “한국 자녀분들은 끼어들어요. 본인들이 막 통역을 해요. 그런데 가족들은 필터를 많이 하니까. 그리고 환자의 의견보다도 가족의 의견을 의사한테 얘기해버리니까. 그리고 뭘 지시를 해도 그냥 간단하게만 해주고 하니까. 특히 환자가 암이다 뭐 중병이다 그러면 환자도 알아야 되는데 가족이 안 알려줄 수도 있기 때문에. 그래서 사실 전문 통역사가 해야되는건데. 본인들이 끼어들면 저희도 어쩔 수가 없어요.” “Adult children of Korean patients usually cut in before interpreters interpret and they interpret for patients. But family members usually filter and summarize doctors’ messages. And they directly deliver their opinions rather than the patients’. Also, they can edit doctors’ instructions. For example, if patients are diagnosed with cancer or any other serious illnesses, family members often hide the diagnosis from patients. That’s why they need professional interpreters, but interpreters can’t do anything when they cut in.” (Interpreter One)

The foregoing situation arises when family members of patients can speak English fluently. From this quote, similar to what Interpreter Two explained previously (see Quote 9), the healthcare professional had direct conversations in English with the family members, and the interpreter did not interpret their conversations into Korean for the patient. These two interpreters justified their behavior on the grounds that family involvement is part of Korean culture, and there is nothing for them to do as an interpreter. However, it can be surmised that these interpreters do not seem to have the necessary tools to make a professional judgment and to behave ethically, regardless of whether there are intercultural differences. They can establish the contract at the start of the consultation, or they can switch to simultaneous interpreting when needed. When asked about their perceptions on the issue of patient autonomy, other findings emerged in regard to doctor/patient rapport and communication: one with the theme of decision-making and the other with that of trust/lack of trust. Two interpreters agreed that Korean patients tend to leave all the decision-making to healthcare professionals, even after they have been given all the relevant information and treatment options. As for the reason behind this view, Interpreter Three mentioned that Korean patients are not familiar with the informed decision-making process, which she believes is more common in Western cultures. However, the other three interpreters disagreed on this matter. Interpreter Five explained her opinion as follows (Quote 11):

Quote 11: “글쎄 두 가지 경우가 다 있는 것 같아요. 보통 한국분들이 대부분 의사한테 맡기는 편이긴 한데, 또 그렇다고 다 무조건 하라는 대로 하는 건 아닌 것 같고. 한 번은 이런 적이 있 었어요. 이건 완전히 한국 환자라고 할 수는 없겠지만. 예방주사를 맞히라고 하는데 아빠는 호 주분이고 엄마는 한국분이어서 의사가 예방주사 맞히라고 하니까 엄마는 그냥 맞히려고 했

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는데 아빠가 반대해서 못 맞힌 경우가 있었어요. 아빠가 그 백신 안전에 대해서 걱정이 있었 나 그래서. 근데 뭐 그게 꼭 한국 사람이고 호주 사람이고 그런거보다는 개인적으로 생각하는 게 다르니까.” “I think it’s yes and no [to the question of whether Korean patients leave decision-making to healthcare professionals]. I mean Korean patients usually leave all the decision-making to doctors, but not necessarily every patient does that. I wouldn’t say that it was a ‘completely’ Korean patient, but I remember one case where a Korean mother and an Australian father came with their baby. A doctor told them to get their baby immunized and the Korean mother just said yes, but the Australian father rejected vaccines because the father was worried about the safety of vaccinations. But still, that was not because the mother was Korean and the father was Australian, but it was more of a personal belief, I think.” (Interpreter Five)

According to the foregoing quote, the Korean mother followed the doctor’s advice on immunization, and the Australian father rejected vaccines because of his own beliefs. However, the interpreter from the foregoing quote wanted to make it clear that this medical decision was more of a personal belief, whether it be held by a person from a Korean culture, Australian culture, or Western culture. The cultural beliefs of Koreans toward patient autonomy have changed over time, although Korean culture was traditionally regarded as collectivist, whereby harmony is highly valued and conflicts are to be avoided among groups, especially with authority figures (S. Kim, 2015; Mo et al., 2012; Morita et al., 2015). Similarly, Western medical culture has been gradually changing, especially in terms of patient autonomy, from one of sole patient autonomy to that of shared decision-making (Butow et al., 1997, p. 325). Furthermore, public opinions about vaccination vary depending on diverse cultural beliefs, including individual stances towards vaccination, religious standpoints, and suspicion and mistrust of vaccines (The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 2021). However, as the interpreter from the foregoing quote argued, beliefs about vaccination cannot be limited to nation-based generalized views. Interpreters One and Three pointed out that Korean patients prefer older/experienced male doctors, and they tend not to trust young female doctors, especially when patients have to have major surgery. In this situation, Interpreter One said she provides any objective information that she is aware of to the Korean patients, such as how long a particular doctor had been practicing or how many patients she had witnessed the doctor operate on. However, she did not explain when and how she provides such information nor the source of the information about the doctor. In contrast, when patients ask for an older male doctor, Interpreter Three explained that she interprets what patients say into English so that the message is delivered to the healthcare professionals. She perceived that this preference is based on the Confucian hierarchical culture and can happen more often among patients of the older generation and those with less education. She explained that she can surmise the patients’ level of education by the way they speak, which can be assessed during the conversation in the waiting room. What is discussed during the waiting room conversation and how interpreters use this information during the medical encounters will be discussed in more detail in Section 6.1.

17.5

Speaking on behalf of any party

In some cases, interpreters ask questions on behalf of the patients during the consultations based on their understanding or assumptions without being asked to do so by the patients. However, 269

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some interpreting-service users express their concerns about such behaviors of interpreters (Hsieh, 2016), arguing that they “may blur the lines between the patient’s and the interpreter’s agendas and communicative goals” (p. 249). To gain the interpreters’ perceptions of Korean cultural values of hierarchy and the patients’ hesitation in asking questions of healthcare professionals, the following question was asked:

Q5: Do you think that patients from some cultures tend not to ask questions to people of authority, for example, elders, professors, or physicians?

Four out of five interpreters stated that Korean patients do not necessarily refrain from asking questions due to the hierarchical cultural values of Koreans. Interpreter Two was the only one who argued that Korean patients are usually reluctant to ask questions of medical professionals. She asserted that Korean patients have the attitude that they can get all the right answers from healthcare professionals, and healthcare professionals should always take the lead (Quote 12).

Quote 12: “문화적 차이 . . . 음 . . . 일단 한국분들은 그 질문하는 거가 훈련이 안 되어 있어요. 그 질문을 해서 대답을 받고 가는 그런 훈련이 되어 있지 않아서 그냥 그러니까 쉽게 말하면 사과나무 밑에서 입 벌리고 있는 식. 의사 선생님들이 다 대답해주고 알아서 해 주는걸 바라는 그런 마음가짐. 그래서 그런게 좀 질문하고 내가 질문해서 알아야 될 권리를 좀 훈련해서 적어 가지고 메모 식으로 적어서 확실하게 질문하고 내가 질문할 수 있다라는 거 확신을 가지시고 자신감으로 답을 얻어서 항상 시원한 마음으로 나가는 그런 거를 좀 가졌으면 너무 좋겠어요.” “Cultural differences . . . hmmm . . . first of all, Koreans are not trained to ask questions. They are not trained to ask questions to seek answers. I mean, it’s like they’re all opening their mouths under the apple tree. They just expect doctors to give them answers and know what to do. So, I wish Korean patients had been trained to prepare questions, write them down on a notepad prior to the consultation, and then come to see doctors confidently ask questions, get the answers they want and leave with all their questions answered.” (Interpreter Two)

From Quote 12, it is apparent that this interpreter seems to have the traditional views of Korean culture. It can be surmised that the interpreter still has an understanding of Korean culture as it was in the 1970s, when she left Korea, since she had been living in Australia for more than 35 years at the time of the data collection. On the other hand, all the other four interpreters disagreed on this matter. Interpreter Three stated that it depends on the individual. However, she noticed some Korean patients, or their family members, were hesitant to ask questions, and she could detect this hesitancy based on the waiting room conversation. Interpreter Three uses the waiting time to collect some background information about patients. She generally asks patients about their symptoms, the reason for their visit, whether they have any concerns or questions, and about any previous conditions (Quote 13). 270

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Quote 13: “저는 이제 시작 전에 시간이 좀 있으면 항상 미리 얘기를 좀 해요. 물어보고. 특히 뭐 어디가 딱히 아픈지, 오늘 뭐 무슨 일로 왔는지, 특별히 뭐 물어보고 싶은건 없는지. 그래서 오늘도 아까 대기실에서 분명히 환자가 배가 아프다고 했는데, 딱 들어가서 의사가 ‘How are you?’하니까 그냥 괜찮다고 하잖아요. 그래서 이제 내가 환자분한테 ‘아까 아프다고 그랬잖아 요’하고 이렇게 얘기를 해 주면 더 쉽죠.” “Before the consultation starts, if I have some time, I usually talk to patients and ask questions, such as what their symptoms are, what brings them to the clinics, and whether they have any specific questions they would like to ask the doctor. Today, before the consultation, I also had a conversation with the patient in the waiting room, right? She said she had pain in the stomach. But when the consultation started and the doctor asked her, ‘How are you?’, she said, ‘all right.’ So, I reminded her that ‘You said you had pain before.’ Then it’s a lot easier for everyone.” (Interpreter Three)

Despite the fact that the interpreter tried to collect background information about the patient while in the waiting room to help facilitate communication during the consultation, in the foregoing quote (Quote 13), Interpreter Three assumed that the doctor’s message was to identify the patient’s symptoms rather than to build rapport with the patient, which cannot be confirmed. As a result, the doctor might have lost a chance to build rapport with the patient, even though the interpreter believed the communication proceeded much more easily for everyone involved because of her intervention. In this case, the interpreter also justified her behavior saying that such issues are intercultural communication rather than ethical decision-making challenges. This interpreter possibly misread the doctor’s behavior and attributed the patient’s reply to a cultural difference. Then, she went beyond her role and breached the Code of Ethics in order to overcome what she believed was an intercultural challenge.

17.6

Interpreters’ decisions about how to deal with intercultural communication challenges

Finally, I asked the interpreters how they manage a situation where they face difficulties arising from what they believe to be cultural differences between a medical professional and a patient. In previous studies (Hsieh, 2016; Angelelli, 2004), interpreters adopted various strategies to deal with cultural and ethical challenges: providing additional information, initiating an information-seeking process, deciding what is relevant and crucial information and omitting what they consider irrelevant, and reminding and prompting patients to discuss certain issues. The question on the interpreters’ strategies to deal with intercultural communication challenges was as follows:

Q8: How do you manage a situation where you face difficulties arising from cultural differences between a medical practitioner and a patient?

Interpreters One and Three reported that they usually explain to healthcare professionals what they believe Korean culture is, although they did not say when and how they do so. Both interpreters believe their decisions and behaviors are based on common sense and professional judgement, which they learned from their work experience (Quote 14). 271

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Quote 14: “그냥 뭐 일반 상식으로 하는 거죠. 문화라는 게 뭐 공부해서 다 배울 수 있는 것도 아니고 일을 하다보면 상식 선에서 결정하는 거죠. 그런데 경험 같은거는 하루 이틀에 되는게 아니니까 시간을 길게 두고 배워가야죠.” “I think we decide what to do based on our sensible common sense. Culture is something that you cannot study to learn everything, but it’s something you acquire through experience. You just make decisions based on common sense while working. But common sense and experience cannot be gained in one or two days. It takes a long time to learn culture through work experience.” (Interpreter Three)

Interpreters One and Three answered that they always provide additional information to healthcare professionals regarding patients’ cultures, mainly during the consultations, whereas Interpreter Two stated that she uses the waiting room conversation to educate patients about how to communicate through interpreters and what to expect from interpreters, and the debriefing session to provide information to healthcare professionals. Interpreter Two argued that the role of healthcare interpreters is to convey the message from one language to another. That is why she reported that she does not add any information, cultural or otherwise, during the conversation but tries to educate patients on what patients should do and what interpreters can do, and to debrief healthcare professionals about cultural differences between Korean patients and English-speaking healthcare professionals.

17.6.1

Use of conversations in the waiting room

Each interpreter had different perceptions of what occurs during the interactions between interpreters and patients in the waiting room. However, all availed themselves of this time with the patient to build a rapport with the patient, to establish the background of the consultation, or to educate the patient on the role of the interpreter. Interpreter Five was the only one who said she always tries not to be left alone with patients in the waiting room/area so that she can keep a distance from patients and be objective. While waiting with patients, Interpreter Two said that she generally educates Korean patients about how to prepare and make a list of their questions before the consultation and get the answers to all the questions they might have in mind. She also explains to patients that interpreters can only convey messages that have been uttered, so patients should directly ask questions to the healthcare professionals. She then informs patients that it will break the principle of accuracy of the Code of Ethics if the interpreters ask questions on behalf of the patients. She repeatedly emphasizes the requirement of accuracy that interpreters should abide by, and she explains the role of the interpreter and the Code of Ethics to patients and their family members whenever possible (Quote 15).

Quote 15: “한국분들은 궁금한 게 있어도 질문을 잘 하지 않고 의사 선생님이 다 알아서 해주 길 바래요. 그래서 좀 질문할 것을 미리 좀 메모 식으로 적어서 확실하게 질문하고 답을 얻어 서 가시라고 제가 항상 이야기를 하곤 해요. 그래서 이제 기다리는 동안에 같이 있으면 질문 사항을 미리 준비해서 들어가시고 또 그 질문에 대한 대답만 하세요 하고 미리 교육을 시켜요. 통역사는 이제 권장을 할 수도 없고 하니까. 의사 선생님 앞에서 얘기를 하시면 무조건 통역을 해야 한다 뭐 이런 얘기도 하고요.” “Korean patients usually don’t ask any questions even if they have something to ask and expect doctors to do everything for them. So, I always tell Korean patients to prepare a list of questions beforehand

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so that all the questions can be answered during the consultation. While waiting for the consultation, I usually train them to prepare a list of questions and also ask them to answer doctors’ questions directly. I also educate them that interpreters cannot provide advice, and we are supposed to interpret everything they say in front of doctors.” (Interpreter 2)

According to Quote 15, Interpreter Two, on the one hand, actively refers to the essential principles of the AUSIT Code of Ethics. On the other hand, she undertakes different roles, such as doctor’s assistant and educator, which contradicts the principle of role boundaries in the AUSIT Code of Ethics. By making assumptions that she believes are of an intercultural nature, as mentioned in Quote 15, she may be in breach of the Code of Ethics without realizing it. Interpreter Three reported that she uses the waiting time to collect some background information about patients. She generally asks patients about their symptoms, the reason for their visit, any concerns or questions, and previous conditions. Interpreter Four stated that she uses the waiting time to build a relationship with patients by asking personal questions. She mentioned that, after the consultation, some patients ask questions or for advice, which may not directly be related to the consultation, or they ask for her contact details. Interpreter Four gave out her telephone number and once received a call from a patient asking her to do another interpreting job on a personal matter. By doing so, she violated the principle of role boundaries in the Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct, which advise that “interpreters take care that conversations that may arise during periods of waiting remain courteous but do not become personal” (AUSIT, 2012, p. 15).

17.6.2

Use of debriefing sessions

Interpreters One and Two reported that they often add their own explanations of an intercultural nature to the healthcare professional after the consultation finishes, and some healthcare professionals are glad to learn about cultural differences (Quotes 16 and 17). One example Interpreter Two cited was that, among in-patients, some have beliefs that the patients have to keep warm and eat warm foods because the imbalance of hot and cold is the cause of disease. In that case, after the consultation, she explained this cultural belief to the healthcare professionals and described it as an example of Korean cultural beliefs.

Quote 16: “한국 사람은 아프면 잘 먹어야되고, 마사지하고, 또 다른 사람이 떠먹여 주고 뭐 이 런거 있잖아요. 또 따뜻하게 해야 하고. 그래서 막 병실에서 더운데도 옷 껴입고 그러는거. 이 제 그러면 그게 오해가 생길 수 있고, 오진을 할 수도 있기 때문에 저는 끝나고 나서 설명을 해 줘요. 이게 한국 문화고 그런 어떤 믿음이 있어서 그런다라고 제가 설명을 해 주죠. 그럼 ‘That’s good to know’이러죠. 어떤 경우에는 끝나고 전문의가 저에게 물어보는 경우도 간혹 있어요. 내가 조금 이상하게 느끼는 것이 혹시 culturally appropriate하냐 하고요. 그러면 이제 제가 설명 을 해 주는 경우도 있죠.” “Korean patients believe that they have to eat well, get a massage, and be fed by someone else when they are unwell. Also, they tend to cover patients in warm blankets and layers even in warm hospital rooms. This can cause misunderstandings and even misdiagnosis. So, I always explain this to doctors after the consultation. All these behaviors are based on Korean culture and their beliefs. Then doctors often say, ‘That’s good to know’. Sometimes professionals ask me, after the consultation, whether their

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behavior or feeling was culturally appropriate. Then again, I explain this Korean culture to them.” (Interpreter Two) Quote 17: “한국 분들은 또 껴입어요. 입원실이 더워도 그렇게 껴입고 있어요. 특히 산모나 애기들. 너무 덥지 않냐고 간호사가 그래도 할머니가 애를 아주 뜨뜻하게 입혀서 세겹 네겹 이 렇게 입혀서 있어요. 이제 그러면 제가 나중에 간호사한테 설명을 하죠. 한국 문화가 이렇다고 특히 신생아를 뜨뜻하게 해놓고 산모도 뜨뜻하게 입어야 된다. 양말 신어야 되고, 찬물도 마 시면 안되고, 절대 차게 하면 안된다. 찬 바람도 쐬면 안된다. 이런게 한국 문화다 이렇게요.” “Koreans tend to wear layers of clothes even if hospital rooms are warm—newborn babies and new mothers, in particular. Nurses sometimes say that it will be too hot, but grandmothers usually put three or four layers on newborn babies. Then after the session, I have to explain to nurses that this is Korean culture. In Korean culture, newborn babies and new mothers have to stay warm. New mothers must wear socks all the time, must not drink cold beverages, must avoid cold wind, and stay warm all the time. That is Korean culture and tradition.” (Interpreter One)

Interpreter Three argued that it would be beneficial if interpreters can have a chance to have a brief conversation or explanation before the consultation starts, which rarely happens. She stated that interpreters only obtain patients’ names and names of clinics just before the consultation. A lack of background information makes interpreting more challenging, especially in mental health clinics (Quote 18).

Quote 18: “사실 우리가 일을 하면서 5분 정도 debrief 같은거 하면 환자에 대해서 우리가 background를 알면 우리가 통역하기가 훨씬 쉬워요. 그리고 또 우리 마음의 준비도 할 수 있고. 근데 그런 케이스가 그렇게 많지 않아요. 그냥 환자 이름만 받아가지고 그냥 들어가는 거죠. 근 데 이제 그런 것이 특히 정신과 병동 같은데 그런데 이제 들어가면 굉장히 따라가기가 힘들어 요. 통역하면서 동시에 무슨 일인가 이런거를 빠르게 catch up하고 배워야 돼요. 이런게 안 되 면 통역이 자연스럽게 안되는 경우가 많죠.” “Actually, if we can have a debriefing session, maybe around five minutes, before the consultation, interpreting will be much easier. We can be prepared. But such a case is very rare. We usually go into the consulting room only with the patients’ names. When it is in mental healthcare settings, in particular, it’s a lot harder for us to manage. We have to grasp what is going on and catch the flow of the consultation while interpreting on the spot. If you can’t, our interpreting will often be awkward.” (Interpreter Three)

It is worth noting that this participant uses the word “debriefing” where she clearly means “briefing,” and that this last comment refers to interpreters’ working conditions and not intercultural matters.

17.7

Discussion and conclusion

My interviews have led me to conclude that all five interpreters have only a vague understanding of the definition of intercultural communication challenges, and they erroneously describe some ethical/professional challenges as cultural ones. Moreover, they generally do not agree on what can be 274

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described as Korean culture, and much of what they attribute to Korean culture could be perceived as the universal practices and beliefs of an older generation. This has been regarded as the biggest obstacle in understanding intercultural communication challenges in interpreting studies, since the term “culture” is likely to be perceived differently by different interpreters, even among those with the same language combination (Hale, 2013). The literature shows a common tendency among interpreters and healthcare professionals to generalize the cultural trends of certain groups when healthcare professionals are being trained (Galanti, 2015; Queensland Government, 2011). However, it is important to clarify the distinction between generalization and stereotype. That is to say, both healthcare professionals and interpreters need to be culturally competent by understanding the cultural profiles of people from various countries; however, such information may or may not apply to a particular individual and to a certain context. In my study, however, all five interpreters had stereotypical views about what Korean culture is. For example, they believe that Koreans all take their shoes off in their homes, and they offer food and drink to their visitors as part of their tradition of hospitality. Furthermore, each interpreter’s views on Korean culture contradicted other interpreters’ understandings in most cases. For example, five interpreters expressed contradicting views on whether Koreans regard family involvement and patient autonomy differently than do English-speaking patients, whether Koreans are reluctant to ask questions of healthcare professionals, or whether Koreans prefer older male doctors. Korean culture is regarded as a collectivist culture in which family members’ opinions are important in decision-making and respect is shown for the elderly—attitudes that have been influenced by patriarchal and hierarchical cultural values (Queensland Government, 2011; Galanti, 2015; H. Kim, 2017). However, recent studies have shown drastic changes in attitudes toward such cultural norms, and both patient autonomy and the traditional family-centered approach currently coexist in modern Korean society (S. Kim, 2015). In terms of family involvement and patient autonomy, which have been the most frequently discussed topic in previous studies (Goldstein et al., 2002; Kagawa-Singer & Blackhall, 2001), all interpreters in my study agreed on the fact that, in Korean culture, family members, and not the patient, used to be the main decision-makers, especially in the case of elderly patients with adult children who also attend the consultation. Some interpreters described this tendency as a disappearing one in modern Korean culture, whereas one interpreter claimed that it still exists among Korean patients. Furthermore, even in modern Western countries like Australia, the healthcare decision-making process has moved from a sole patient autonomy to a shared decision-making situation (Butow et al., 1997). That is to say, cultural beliefs about truthtelling in end-of-life situations are changing in all cultures, and not all members of the same culture would make the same choices. Similarly, during the interviews, interpreters showed mixed perceptions of traditional Korean culture and modern Korean culture. During the interviews, the interpreters explained how they use their conversations in the waiting room. Interpreter Two said that, while waiting with patients before the consultation starts, she educates patients on how to work with interpreters, and Interpreter Three stated that she collects background information from patients, since the chance to have briefing sessions and information provided prior to consultations is limited. However, interpreters commonly adopt additional roles during the waiting room conversation, such as that of an educator or a doctor’s or nurse’s assistant. By doing so and by making their conversation personal, they unwittingly violate the Code of Ethics. Furthermore, they all explained their behaviors as intercultural communication strategies. Despite all the existing guidelines and recommendations on briefing and debriefing sessions being essential (AUSIT, 2007; NSW HCIS PDC, 2014; Tebble, 1998), all five interpreters reported being aware of the need for briefing and debriefing sessions and complained that they do not have them very often. However, none mentioned that interpreters have the right to ask for briefing and 275

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debriefing sessions. Under the principle of maintaining professional relationships (AUSIT, 2012, p. 6), interpreters are responsible for the quality of their work and should endeavor to secure satisfactory working conditions, which includes asking for appropriate briefing. All five interpreters I interviewed in this study reported that they provide unsolicited cultural information to healthcare professionals, either during or after the consultation based on their common sense and without being asked by healthcare professionals. However, these five Korean interpreters did not share their understanding of what common sense is and what constitutes Korean culture; hence, healthcare professionals will receive inconsistent information from different interpreters regarding Korean culture. The interpreters seemed to provide information about a patient’s culture to healthcare professionals based on their individual beliefs and assumptions, and not supported by any studies or other information. This is consistent with some studies that found healthcare interpreters’ behaviors playing various roles: from language interpreter to cultural broker, through to advocate (Angelelli, 2004; Kaufert & Koolage, 1984). However, one of the major concerns about these studies is that all the participating interpreters had no training or credentials. In Australia, professionally accredited or certified interpreters are expected to work in healthcare settings, at least with the mainstream languages, including Korean. Moreover, there are guidelines and policies for both healthcare professionals and interpreters developed by government agencies or interpreting organizations. According to most of these guidelines and policies, healthcare professionals and interpreters are required to avoid cultural stereotyping and to direct any culture-related enquiries to patients and their family members, instead of asking interpreters to provide information about the patient’s culture (AUSIT, 2007; Migrant & Refugee Women’s Health Partnership, 2019; NSW Health, 2017; NSW HCIS PDC, 2014). However, how much these policy documents are adhered to by interpreters in real-life situations is unknown. My study shows that interpreters who had been in practice for more than twenty years were more likely to act on the belief that they should play a more active role in intercultural situations than described in current guidelines. The main finding in this section of my study is that what interpreters perceive as cultural challenges are often related to ethical or other professional challenges, and suggestions on how to deal with communication challenges is informed by their ethical decisions and even the breach of established professional ethical principles. Some interpreters justified their behaviors in violation of the Code of Ethics as inevitable actions in their roles as cultural brokers. When they tried to act more like a “helper,” allegedly for the patients’ well-being, they were more likely to violate the principles of the Code of Ethics unwittingly. These findings support the criticisms of this approach by some researchers (Felberg & Skaaden, 2012; Hale, 2013), who argue that culture is often misused to explain communication breakdowns that are actually caused by other factors, such as poor working conditions, interpreters’ ethical breaches, or even incompetence.

References Angelelli, C. (2004). Medical interpreting and cross-cultural communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. AUSIT. (2007). AUSIT Guidelines for health professionals: Working with interpreters. https://www1.health.nsw.gov. au/pds/ArchivePDSDocuments/PD2006_053.pdf AUSIT. (2012). AUSIT code of ethics and code of conduct. https://ausit.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Code_ Of_Ethics_Full.pdf Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2020, 4 April). Migration, Australia. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/ population/migration-australia/latest-release Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship. (2014). Community information summary. The Republic of (South) Korea-born. Australia: Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved September 2014, from https://www. homeaffairs.gov.au/mca/files/2016-cis-south-korea.PDF

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18 ANALYZING THE MOTIVATIONS FOR SELF-REPAIRS AMONG RUSSIAN POLICE INTERPRETERS IN SOUTH KOREA Seoyeon Hong 홍서연 18.1

Introduction

Inaccurate interpretation by incompetent or uncertified interpreters may violate the suspect’s rights and compromise the fairness of the investigation. Despite the delicate nature of legal interpretation, including police interpretation, there is no compulsory training or qualifications for legal interpreters worldwide (Hlavac, 2013). Further, because of the lack of financial incentives and opportunity for interpretation training (Hale, 2011), non-professional interpreters are used in most cases. In Korea, college majors of foreign languages, foreign language speakers, and immigrants often work as police interpreters. Recently, a growing number of marriage immigrants are working as police interpreters, as the Korean government offers various types of interpretation and translation education to help them settle into Korean society and utilizes them for community interpretation (Lee et al., 2014, pp. 180‒81; Lee et al., 2016). This is also because bilinguals are usually considered to be good at interpretation (Hale et al., 2019, p.  108). However, the discourse analysis of the interpretation of investigative interviews in Korea (Lee, 2017a; Lee & Hong, 2020; Lee & Hong, 2021; Hong, 2019) shows that the linguistic and interpreting competencies of the interpreter are crucial in the investigative process. If the interpreter does not comply with the norms required of a legal interpreter or has insufficient language skills, they may create a risk rather than helping the investigation. This problem arises from the selection and training system of police interpreters. Currently in Korea, police interpreters are selected through a simple document screening and conversation test; thus, verifying the interpreter’s language skills, interpreting competence, and other qualifications is difficult. In addition, although training is conducted for police interpreters, it is only a twenty-hour training (Lee, 2021, p. 220). In short, interpreters are allowed to involve themselves in the investigation of foreigners in Korea without sufficient verification of their interpreting competence. Against this backdrop, in this study, the pattern of police interpretation in Korea will be examined, focusing on the interpreters’ motivations for self-repairs. Making self-repairs means that interpreters have found difficulties or problems (Lilja, 2014, p.  99; Levelt, 1983, p.  45) in their interpretation; they use self-repair as a strategy for various purposes (Kohn & Kalina, 1996). The subjects of this study are Russian police interpreters in Korea, all of whom are marriage immigrants with a variety of social and cultural backgrounds faced with difficulties different from those of Korean interpreters. The classification of Levelt (1983) is applied in this study to quantitatively analyze 279

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-22

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the self-repairs made by interpreters and review the reasons for repairs, including the difficulties of interpretation, through retrospection.

18.2

Research background

18.2.1

Self-repairs in L1

In everyday life, speakers make repairs to convey their intentions accurately. These repairs are common in almost all communication situations. As the repairs are not just an error-correction technique but a speaker strategy to make their message more concrete and clearer (Kaur, 2011, p. 2712), it is essential for successful communication. Schegloff et al. (1977) divided repairs into four types according to who initiates the repair and who repairs the segment: self-initiated self-repair, selfinitiated other-repair, other-initiated self-repair, and other-initiated other-repair. Schegloff (2013) focused on self-initiated self-repair to present ten types of repairs as a problem-solving strategy: replacing, inserting, parenthesizing, recycling, reformatting, searching, deleting, sequence-jumping, reordering, and aborting. Kalina (1998) divided repair strategies into four types: replacement, completion, approximation, and relativation. Among these, replacement and completion correspond to overt-repairs, while approximation and relativation correspond to covert-repairs. The most frequently used type was found to be replacement. While these studies dealt with strategies for speakers to repair their own utterances, Levelt (1983) has suggested types of repair motivation. In Levelt’s view, speakers continuously monitor their inner and outer speech and can repair utterances when the monitoring system detects discrepancies with the communicative intention or a failure to meet criterion or standards of production (Levelt, 1983, p. 50). In other words, repairs may not necessarily relate to objective error correction (Theodórsdóttir, 2018, p. 30). According to his classification, self-repairs are divided into overt-repairs, covert-repairs, and the rest. Overt-repairs are composed of Different information repairs (D-repairs), Appropriateness repairs (A-repairs), and Error repairs (E-repairs). D-repairs correspond to linearization problems, where the speaker may realize that another arrangement of messages would be easier or more effective (Levelt, 1982, 1983). A-repairs include AA-repairs, which add information to help the recipient understand the utterance better through the reduction of ambiguity; AL-repairs, which attempt to find the appropriate level to convey the key message; and AC-repairs, which aim to maintain consistency throughout the discourse. When it is difficult to determine the speaker’s purpose of repair, either AC or AL-repairs, the type of ALC-repairs is suggested as an in-between category. On the other hand, E-repairs are sub-divided into lexical error repairs (EL-repairs), syntactic repairs (ES-repairs), and phonetic repairs (EF-repairs). Covert-repairs are problematic data, in that it is almost impossible to determine what the speaker is monitoring for, and they are composed of repetition and pauses (Levelt, 1983, p.  55). The difference between overt and covert-repairs is whether there is any actual modification of previous utterances: if there is a modification, it is overtrepair; if not, it is covert-repair.

18.2.2

Self-repair in interpreting and L2

Repairs are frequently found in everyday conversations and in institutional discourse and interpreter-mediated communication. While the speaker compares his or her intentions with the utterance, interpreters repair their utterances when the message produced does not match the message they received from the source speaker (Magnifico & Defrancq, 2019, p. 362). Since self-repair is a complicated interaction between cognition and production processes (Levelt, 1983, 280

Russian police interpreters in South Korea

p.  45), it is possible to understand the monitoring mechanism of the interpreter by examining self-repairs in interpreting (Zhang & Song, 2019, p.  5). This is because the interpreter makes repairs when they find a problem in their interpretation output (Lilja, 2014, p. 99; Levelt, 1983, p.  45). Hence, there have been several studies on self-repairs in interpretation, particularly in simultaneous interpretation. Magnifico and Defrancq (2019) revealed that gender affects the use of self-repairs and that women use editing terms more than men. Petite (2005) showed that simultaneous interpreters not only correct errors but also make repairs to improve appropriateness. Some studies argue that directionality influences the type and frequency of repairs. Dailidėnaitė (2009) found that the most frequently used type of repairs was error-repair and that more repairs are made in the interpretation into the mother tongue, with more A-repairs. Plevoets and Defrancq (2016) analyzed the relationship between the frequency of use of the filler word, uh (m), and the information load, and it was found that simultaneous interpreters had more cognitive load than L1 and L2 speakers. Meanwhile, in consecutive interpretation, the types and pattern of self-repairs have been studied. Shen and Liang (2021) compared the self-repairs during consecutive interpretation between students and professional interpreters to find that the latter is more focused on semantic reproduction and freer to convert syntactic structures, hence making less error-repairs and D-repairs. Lee and Hong (2021) revealed the lack of language and interpreting skills of interpreters by analyzing cases wherein the prosecutor or suspect initiate or make repairs themselves in the analysis of the prosecution interpreter discourse. In addition, self-repair has been applied to several studies for L2 learners. Studies have revealed the correlation between linguistic competence and repairs; the results of their analyses, considering the repair types suggested by Levelt (1983), show that those with higher L2 fluency tend to use more A-repairs, while those with lower fluency tend to use more E-repairs and D-repairs (Hennecke, 2013; Kormos, 1999; Van Hest, 1996). In general, most of the studies on repairs have been focused on identifying the factors influencing repairs and the motivations for repairs. Interpretation studies related to self-repair are focused on simultaneous interpretation among professional interpreters or students, and repair strategies and aspects according to their fluency are analyzed. However, few studies have dealt with repairs in community interpretation. Since repair is a strategy adopted by the interpreter after perceiving a problem, it is possible to identify the difficulties faced by police interpreters by analyzing police interpretation data, from which implications for educational and institutional improvement may be drawn.

18.2.3

Retrospective protocol

To identify the difficulties or strategies of interpretation, several studies have been conducted to compare the interpretation output with the original text and check for the occurrence of errors. However, with this result-oriented approach alone, it is impossible to know the direct cause of the difficulties encountered by the interpreters. One way to analyze an interpreter’s practice is through their retrospection. If the interpreters retrospect on a task just completed, they can make comments on their errors or strategies because retrieval cues are stored in short-term memory (Ericsson & Simon, 1993, p. 149). For example, when it is not known whether an omission of an SL segment is the consequence of comprehension, translation, production problems, or the interpreter’s strategy to avoid processing overload (Ivanova, 2000, p.  30), retrospection can be a useful method to elicit the interpreter’s reasons. However, the retrospective approach has been limitedly applied to interpretation studies. This is because what is recalled does not necessarily have the same form as when it was being attended to in working memory. However, the benefits of retrospection have been 281

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proven in many interpretation studies. Ivanova (2000) tested the feasibility of retrospection through a pilot study that analyzed skill variations according to interpreting competency by mixing retrospection and interpretation experiments. Shamy and de Pedro Ricoy (2017) studied how students recognize triggers and what strategies are used to resolve these triggers, and said that retrospection provides auxiliary data as a mixed-method approach. Dimitrova and Tiselius (2014) studied strategies and conscious processes for solving problems in simultaneous interpretation and translation using retrospection and demonstrated its usefulness. Despite its limitations, if retrospection is used in combination with other research methods to identify the interpreter’s direct motivation for the repairs they made, the limitations of retrospection can be overcome (Bartlomiejczyk, 2006; Shamy & de Pedro Ricoy, 2017, p. 69).

18.3 18.3.1

Methodology Participants

Participants were recruited by posting a notice on a social media service, operated by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Korea to communicate with police interpreters. A total of twelve people was recruited; all were female and their mother tongue or official language was Russian. Their ages ranged from 31 to 58, and the length of stay in Korea ranged from seven to 22 years. All participants had experience in police interpreting, and three participants had provided police interpreting service more than 500 times. Detailed information on participants is shown in Table 18.1.

18.3.2

Experiment data

The participants had to interpret two texts, consisting of 35 pairs of questions and answers between the police and the suspect. The first text was excerpted from a transcript of a conversation between the police and the suspect during the investigation of a theft case that occurred in Korea. The second text was related to an assault case, partly modified from the conversation between the police and a suspect in the book Integrated Textbook for Specialization Training of Civilian Investigation Interpreters (Russian Version), published by the Korean National Police Agency. The text consisted of identity questioning, the notice of the suspect’s rights, the police’s questions, and the suspect’s answers related to the case, similar to the actual Korean police investigation. The questions and answers included questions typical of Korean police investigations and some legal terms. The length of the recording was 4 minutes and 33 seconds for the theft case (ST1) and 4 minutes and 05 seconds for the assault case (ST2), with 1,298 Korean syllables and 1,265 Russian syllables, similar in length to the police’s questions and the suspect’s answers. The police conversation was recorded by a Korean man, and the suspect’s answer was recorded by a native Russian speaker, and the speed was 112 words per minute (WPS). Since all participants were native Russian speakers, Russian was marked as language A and Korean as language B. Interpretation data are shown in Table 18.2. Table 18.1 Participants’ background information Gender

Age

Mother tongue or official language

Length of stay in Korea

No. of police interpretation

Female

31~58 (average 42)

Russian

7~22 years

5~500 times or more

282

Russian police interpreters in South Korea Table 18.2 Interpretation data  

ST 1

Directionality Word Syllable

AB 341 668

ST 2 BA 172 732

18.3.3

AB 318 597

BA 137 566

Procedure

Since the twelve participants were all marriage immigrants, lived in different cities throughout Korea, and had regular jobs, it was difficult for them to get together for the experiment. Thus, the experiment was conducted in a video-conference format (Zoom). Before the experiment, a simple questionnaire was given to the interpreters, and the experiment procedure and notes were explained. In addition, consent was obtained from the participants after notifying them that the experiment process would be recorded and that the recorded files would be used only for research purposes. All experiments were conducted by the author, and interpretation practice was carried out with a similar text (injury damage case) before the experiment so that participants could familiarize themselves with the experiment environment. Before the interpretation experiment, only the case name was announced, and the two texts were interpreted consecutively. At the end of the interpretation, the original text was presented (Ivanova, 2000), and participants were asked to talk freely about the difficulties they encountered and the parts they had repaired while reading sentence by sentence. When the author found a meaningful repair while listening to the interpretation, a note was made, and the participant was asked to talk about the content as well.

18.3.4

Interpretation evaluation

The interpretation performance of twelve participants was evaluated using the legal interpreter’s evaluation table (Lee et al., 2019) used in Korea. According to the table, interpretation performance is evaluated on a ten-point scale based on three criteria—accuracy, target language quality, and delivery—which are classified as best (10), good (8‒9), intermediate (6‒7), and low (5 or less). Three reviewers evaluated the interpretation of the participants: two Koreans and one Russian. The Korean Judge A is a professional international conference interpreter with twenty years of experience, and Judge B is a police interpretation researcher and international conference interpreter. The Russian Judge C is a Master of Laws and professional interpreter with eight years of experience. Since the two judges had no experience in legal interpreting evaluation, they were presented with an evaluation table in advance and a detailed explanation on how to evaluate, and in addition, they evaluated the interpreting competency based on the recording files with which the participants practiced interpretation. To confirm the reliability of the evaluation results, the intraclass correlation coefficient was used. As shown in Table 18.3, all intraclass correlation coefficients exceed .95 in accuracy, target language quality, and delivery, indicating a very high reliability of the evaluation (Landis & Koch, 1977). According to the evaluation results, participants were divided into three groups: the best group (group A) had four people, the good group (group B) had five people, and the intermediate group (group C) had three people. 283

Seoyeon Hong 홍서연 Table 18.3 Intraclass correlation coefficient related to interpretation evaluation Item

Intraclass correlation

A-B accuracy A-B target language quality A-B delivery A-B average B-A accuracy B-A target language quality B-A delivery B-A average

95% Confidence interval Infimum

Supremum

.957 .933 .865 .957 .955 .844 .880 .978

.995 .992 .990 .996 .995 .987 .987 .997

.985 .974 .964 .985 .983 .954 .958 .992

18.3.5

p

.000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

Analysis

The recorded files were transcribed by a native research assistant and verified by the author. The original text and transcribed, translated text were constructed as a parallel corpus in an Excel file, and self-repairs were quantitatively analyzed according to the repair types of Levelt (1983), whose analysis of natural German conversations found AC-repairs to match the words in consideration of the previous context. In this study, the interpretation output is compared with the original text (ST), and the AC repair type is excluded from analysis. The pauses of covert-repair include silent and filled pauses, and only the pauses of two seconds or longer were coded. The repairs that the participants talked about in the retrospection were also coded in the Excel file next to the corresponding sentence. This enabled an analysis of whether the parts repaired by the participants actually matched the parts they thought they had repaired.

18.4 18.4.1

Results

Self-repairs distribution

Analysis of the interpretation of the twelve participants found a total of 370 self-repairs. The most frequently used type of repair was repetition (87 times), followed by ES-repairs (57 times), AArepairs (56 times), AL-repairs (53 times), EL-repairs (45 times), Pauses (37 times), D-repairs (17 times), ALC-repairs (16 times), and EP-repairs (2 times). The self-repair distribution of the participants by group is presented in Table 18.4.

18.4.2 18.4.2.1

Interpretation performance and self-repairs

Interpretation performance and the number of self-repairs

It can be assumed that the number of self-repairs will be small for participants with higher interpretation performance because the higher the score in the interpretation evaluation, the lower the possibility of errors. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between interpretation performance and the number of repairs. As shown in Table 18.5, the correlation coefficient was -.627, showing a statistically significant negative correlation. As for the police interpreters, the higher the interpretation performance, the fewer the self-repairs. 284

Russian police interpreters in South Korea Table 18.4 Self-repair distribution Group

Directionality

Overt repairs D-repairs

A

P1 P2 P3 P4

B

P5 P6 P7 P8 P9

C

P10 P11 P12

　

Total

A-B B-A A-B B-A A-B B-A A-B B-A A-B B-A A-B B-A A-B B-A A-B B-A A-B B-A A-B B-A A-B B-A A-B B-A

0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 3 3 2 1 1 0 17

Covert repairs

A-repairs

E-repairs

AA

AL

ALC

EL

ES

EP

4 1 2 7 3 3 1 2 3 2 1 0 1 1 1 4 4 4 0 3 3 1 2 3 56

2 3 1 3 2 2 0 1 0 1 1 5 3 5 0 1 3 2 2 3 0 1 9 3 53

0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 3 0 1 2 0 3 0 0 1 0 16

0 2 0 1 0 3 0 0 1 5 3 0 1 2 4 2 2 4 2 6 0 0 4 3 45

2 1 3 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 4 1 5 3 4 2 2 1 7 5

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

2 2 5 4 57

0 0 1 0 2

Pauses

Repetition

0 0 1 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 5 5 1 2 1 0 0 3 3 1 0 37

2 0 2 1 3 1 2 1 5 3 2 0 2 4 4 1 2 0 13 13 3 2 14 7 87

Total

10 8 9 14 14 11 6 4 10 12 15 9 16 23 21 12 17 15 27 36 13 10 38 20 370

18 23 25 10 22 24 39 33 32 63 23 58

Table 18.5 Correlation between interpretation performance and number of self-repairs

Number of self-repairs Score

Number of self-repairs

Score

1.000 –.627*

1.000

*p < .05, **p < .01

18.4.2.2

Directionality and the number of self-repairs

Unlike in the simultaneous interpretation setting, an interpreter needs to interpret in both directions, A-B and B-A, in community interpretation. In the pre-questionnaire, all twelve participants answered that it was generally easier to interpret into Russian, their mother tongue, although the degree of ease varies depending on the subject. Since self-repair is an attempt to solve problems after detecting them, it can be assumed that Russian interpreters will make fewer repairs when interpreting into Russian, which is their mother tongue. The Mann-Whitney U-test was conducted to examine the number of self-repairs according to directionality; the results are shown in Table 18.6. 285

Seoyeon Hong 홍서연 Table 18.6 Number of self-repairs according to directionality Variable

AB

Self-repairs

BA

Mean

S.D.

Mean

S.D.

65.33

22.811

58.00

18.358

Z

p

-1.091

.275

*p < .05, **p < .01 Table 18.7 Types of self-repairs by group (overt vs. covert-repairs) Self-repairs

Group

A B C

persons % persons % persons %

Overt

Covert

57 75% 104 69% 85 59%

19 25% 46 31% 59 41%

Total

Х2 (p)

76 100.0% 150 100.0% 144 100.0%

6.613* (.040)

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01

The average number of repairs is 65.33 in the A-B direction and 58.00 in the B-A direction. The Z-value is -1.091 and the p-value is .275. In other words, there was no difference in the number of self-repairs according to directionality, contradicting the research results of Dailidėnaitė (2009). However, two things should be considered. First, while the participants in this study were bilinguals whose language proficiency difference between their mother tongue and foreign language was not large, Dailidėnaitė (2009) conducted the study on students. Second, in the case of A-B interpretation, the number of covert-repairs increased, while in the case of B-A interpretation, the number of A-repairs increased, making the total number of repairs not significantly different by directionality.

18.4.2.3

Interpretation performance and self-repair types

Participants were grouped into A, B, and C types according to their interpretation performance. The Chi-square test was used to examine which was more frequently used among overt and covertrepairs by the groups, and Fisher’s exact test was performed for post-hoc verification. As shown in Table 18.7, X2 is 6.613, and the p-value is .040. There was a clear difference in the types of repairs frequently used by the groups. The better the group, the higher the overt-repair ratio and the lower the covert-repair ratio. The share of repair types by group is shown in Table 18.8. Group A, which had good interpretation performance, used overt-repairs frequently, with a higher proportion of A-repairs but a lower proportion of E-repairs and D-repairs, which are markers of non-fluency (Hennecke, 2013; Kormos, 1999; van Hest, 1996). Since participants with better interpretation skills tend to make fewer errors, the share of E-repairs was low, and A-repairs were often used to ensure that the interpreted content was accurately delivered without ambiguity. In contrast, the group with low interpretation skills had a high share of covert-repairs, consisting of pauses and repetitions. The results of this study are similar to those of L2 learners. As language and interpretation skills improve, more 286

Russian police interpreters in South Korea Table 18.8 Share of self-repair types by group Group

A B C

Directionality

Overt-repairs

A-B B-A A-B B-A A-B B-A

Covert-repairs

D-repairs

A-repairs

E-repairs

5% 3% 1% 4% 8% 6%

41% 65% 28% 41% 22% 26%

18% 19% 35% 30% 27% 30%

36% 14% 35% 25% 44% 38%

discourse-level repairs are made than the correction of errors in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation (Kormos, 1999, p. 330), while those with lower skills seem to use more covert-repairs as a strategy to buy time as the cognitive burden increases (Al-Harahsheh, 2015; Rieger, 2003).

18.4.3

Motivation for self-repairs

In retrospection, the participants were asked to read the original text sentence by sentence and talk about the types of repairs they made and the motivations behind them. Interestingly, those with a higher score in interpretation performance spoke in greater detail about where they made repairs and why. In contrast, those with a lower score in interpretation performance often did not remember where they made repairs and sometimes said that they did not face great difficulty in interpretation, even when there was misinterpretation. This result indicates that the participants with low performance are not aware of the errors or do not make repairs, believing that making repairs may do more harm than good (Kohn & Kalina, 1996; Petite, 2005; Dailidėnaitė, 2009).

18.4.3.1

Motivation for self-repairs through A-repairs

A-repairs appear more frequently in groups with high interpreting proficiency. The key point is that A-repairs are made to reduce ambiguity even when the interpretation is error-free. Example One is an AA-repair. Participant One added the word “происшествие” (incident) after interpreting the word “CCTV cameras on the site” in the original text to specify what kind of site it was. Example Two is an AL-repair that changes from a less accurate word to a more accurate one. Since the suspect had said sunglasses in Russian as “очки” (glasses), Participant Six also interpreted it as “очки” (glasses) at first, and then repaired with the word “солнечные очки” (sunglasses). Example Three and Example Four are ALC-repairs. In Example Three, although the police refer to the suspect in the third person in the original text, Participant Three uttered the word “подозреваемый” (the suspect) and added the word “вы” (you) in Russian to clarify that the Russian is currently being investigated as a suspect. In the police conversation in Korea, the police tend to refer to the suspect in the third person in the investigation process even though the suspect sits right in front of them. In the on-site investigation, Russian suspects often deny that they are the suspects (Hong, 2019, p.  135). Therefore, it seems that Participant Three specifies the target by adding the word to make sure that the Russian is the suspect. In Example Four, the subject is a personal pronoun, but Participant Three interpreted “она” (she) as her name (Minji) by specifying who the personal pronoun was, and then added that she was the suspect’s girlfriend to clarify the subject. It seems to be a strategy for participants to clarify the target, considering 287

Seoyeon Hong 홍서연

that there are many cases where the target is referred to by the name and position rather than by using personal pronouns in Korean. Example 1 ST:

TT:

Retrospection:

현장 CCTV 녹화자료에 따르면 판매대에 올려 있는 선글라스를 손으로 집어서 가방에 넣는 장면이 확인이 되는데, 아직도 실수라고 생각하나요? (According to CCTV recordings from the site, you took the sunglasses from the display stand and placed them in your bag. Do you still think that this was done by mistake?) После проверки камер видеонаблюдения на месте...месте происшествия в записи было видно, что Вы взяли очки с продожной витрины и положили их к себе в сумку. Вы всё равно отрицаете то, что это было сделано специально и говорите, что это было сделано ошибочно? (After checking the CCTV camera on the site . . . the site of the incident, the recording showed that you had taken the glasses from the display stand and placed them in your bag. Do you still deny that it was done on purpose and say that it was done by mistake?) ″I only wrote down keywords when taking notes, but added some details thinking about what I heard while interpreting.″ (AA-repair by Participant 1)

Example 2 ST: TT: Retrospection:

선글라스를 절취했나요? (Did you steal the sunglasses?) Было ли такое то, что Вы украли очки, солнечные очки? (Was it that you stole glasses, sunglasses?) ″The suspect once referred to sunglasses as glasses. So I first interpreted it as glasses, then changed it to sunglasses.″ (AL-repair by Participant 6)

Example 3 ST: TT:

Retrospection:

피의자는 변호인의 조력을 받을 권리가 있는데, 변호사를 선임하실 건가요? (You have the right to the assistance of a lawyer, will you hire a lawyer?) Подозреваемый, вы имеете право на помощь адвоката. Вы воспользуетесь этим правом? (Suspect, you have the right to the assistance of a lawyer. Will you exercise that right?) “Russian suspects sometimes don’t even think that they’re suspects. So I translated it as ‘suspect, you’ to make sure that the suspect knows that he or she is a suspect.” (ALC-repair by Participant 3)

Example 4 ST: TT: Retrospection:

Она всё время пыталась остановить меня. (She kept trying to stop me.) 민지, 제 여자친구 민지가 계속 저를 말리려고 했었습니다. (Minji, my girlfriend Minji kept trying to stop me.) “In Russian, personal pronouns are used frequently. However, it is awkward to translate it as it is in Korean. Also, you may not know who they are talking about. So I added a Korean name for who she is or what I said before.” (ALC-repair by Participant 3)

288

Russian police interpreters in South Korea

18.4.3.2

Motivation for self-repairs through E-repairs 18.4.3.2.1 LEGAL TERMINOLOGY

Police interpreters in Korea pointed out legalese as one of the difficulties of interpretation (Chang, 2022, pp.  40‒41). Even the students of specialized graduate schools of interpretation in Korea would find it difficult to interpret legal terms appropriately unless they receive specialized training (Lee, 2017b). Having linguistic and interpreting skills to interpret legal terms is not sufficient; training in legal knowledge and terms is necessary. In this experiment, participants used E-repairs frequently while interpreting legal terms. Example Five is an assault case, and the police ask whether the suspect knows what kind of injuries the victim has suffered. The words “pieuija” (the suspect) and “pihaeja” (the victim) appear in succession with similar pronunciations in Korean, and the police refer to the other party in the third person instead of in the second person, so the participant repairs it according to the context. At first, the “pieuija” (the suspect) was interpreted as “пострадавшая сторона” (the victim), then as “обвиняемая сторона” (the accused), and then again as “подозреваемая сторона” (the suspect). Example Six is the case where the participant makes a number of repairs not knowing the Korean word “byeonsang” (compensation). In Example Seven, since the participant did not know the word “gajung cheobeol” (aggravated punishment), it was first interpreted comprehensively as “более сильная ответственность” (stronger responsibility) and then it was repaired as “более сильно наказано” (be more severely punished). Other participants also had difficulty interpreting the word “gajung cheobeol.” Some understood the Korean word “gajung” (aggravated) as “gajeong” (home), which is similar in pronunciation, and interpreted it as “gajeong cheobeol” (punishment received at home). Many participants, in retrospection, said it would be helpful for the police officers to explain the legal terms in simple words, but it is risky for them to exclude legal terms to speak plain language (Nakane, 2007, p. 91). In Example Eight, the participant starts a sentence after listening to the original text and then restarted due to a deadlock. She first tried to use an infinitive as the subject of the sentence and then switched to adverbial participle, changing the sentence structure. Example 5 ST:

피의자는 피해자가 폭행으로 어떤 상처를 입었는지 아는가요? (Do you know what kind of injuries the victim has suffered by hitting him?) Пострадавшая, ой обвиняемая сторона . . . подозреваемая сторона, Вы TT: знаете какие телесные повреждения причинили пострадавшей стороне? (The victim, oops the accused party . . . the suspect, do you know what kind of injuries you caused to the victim?) Retrospection: “I couldn’t tell if I heard the suspect or the victim.” (EL-repair by Participant 12) Example 6 ST:

돈 없다고 선글라스를 변상 못하겠다고 하는 거는 너무 무책임한거 아니 냐고요? (Isn’t it too irresponsible to say that you don’t have the money and you can’t compensate for those sunglasses?)

289

Seoyeon Hong 홍서연

TT:

Вы говорите, что у вас не денег и не можете ммм вос.. при... компенсировать эти очки? (You say that you don’t have the money and you can’t mmm vos . . . pri... compensate for those glasses1) Retrospection: “I was hesitating because I didn’t know what the word ‘byeonsang’ meant. Then I interpreted it as ‘compensate’ considering the context.” (EL-repair by Participant 11) Example 7 ST:

피의자는 허위로 진술하면 가중처벌을 받을 수 있다는 사실을 알고 있나 요? (Do you know that making false statements can result in aggravated punishment?) TT: Знаете ли Вы, что если Вы будете давать ложные показания, Вас могут привлечь более сильную ответственность, более сильнее, более сильнее наказано. (Do you know that if you will make false statements, you may take stronger responsibility, be stronger, stronger punished?) Retrospection: “I was confused because of the similar Korean pronunciations.” (EL by Participant 10) Example 8 ST:

목을 조르면 사람이 죽을 수도 있다는 생각은 해봤나요? (Have you ever thought that if you strangle a person, he may die?) TT: Вы думали о том, что душать человека, человек может умереть, душив? (Have you thought about that to strangle a person, a person can die by strangling?) Retrospection: “There are times when I started interpreting, but want to change to a different sentence structure. Then sometimes I say a new sentence without ending the previous one.” (ES-repair by Participant 7)

18.4.3.3

Characteristics of Korean subject omission.

In Korean, the key elements of sentences—the subject, object, and predicate—are often omitted (Park, 2018, p. 157). In Example Nine, the person who discovered the lost sunglasses, whether it is the suspect or the museum staff, is not specified in the original text. Participant Six initially interpreted that the suspect had discovered it, but judging that the reference was to the museum staff in context, repaired the word “вы” (you) with the word “они” (they). Koreans will understand what the subject or object refers to even if omitted, but from the standpoint of a foreigner, determining who or what the omitted subject or object refers to is difficult. Example 9 ST:

선글라스가 발견이 됐으면 그 뮤지엄 직원한테 실수로 가방에 들어갔다고 솔직하게 말하면 되는거 아니었나요? (If sunglasses were found, shouldn’t you be honest with the museum staff that you accidentally put them in your bag?)

290

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TT:

А разве нельзя было сказать по правде этому сотруднику о том, что Вы по ошибке положили эти очки в сумку, если вы, они обнаружили эти очки в сумке? (Couldn’t you tell the truth to the museum staff that you mistakenly put those glasses in your bag if you, they found those glasses in the bag?) Retrospection: “In this part, I couldn’t tell who discovered the sunglasses, and I said ‘you’ first, and corrected to ‘they’ to fit the context.” (EL-repair by Participant 6)

18.4.3.3

Motivation for self-repairs through pauses and repetition

Covert-repairs are problematic data, as it is almost impossible to determine what the speaker is monitoring for (Levelt, 1983, p.  55). According to the retrospection, covert-repairs are used as a strategy to buy time to conceive of the next interpretation (Magnifico & Defrancq, 2019, p. 371). In Example Ten, the participant did not know how to interpret the Russian word “бить” (hit) into Korean and repeated specific words. The participants often use pauses while thinking about how to deliver the message clearly from the viewpoint of the recipient, as in Example Eleven. Police investigations in Korea generally ask for a person’s name, age, address, education, property status, and amount of alcohol consumption. Conversely, the amount of alcohol consumption is never asked in the course of investigations in Russian-speaking countries. Participant Nine used pauses to buy time prior to A-repair, to interpret so that it could be well received by the Russian-speaking suspect. Example 10 ST:

Я не заметил как разозлился и схватил его за шиворот, повалил и начал бить его. (I didn’t notice how angry I was and grabbed him by the collar, knocked him down and started hitting him.) TT: 나는 너무 화가나서 그 사람, 그 사람을 잡고 옷을 잡고, 넘어뜨리고 때리 기 시작했습니다. (I was so angry that I grabbed that person, that person, grabbed his clothes, knocked him down, and started hitting him.) Retrospection: “I was hesitating to determine how strong the Russian verb бить or hit, would mean in Korean.” (Repetition by participant 1) Example 11 ST:

피의자의 평소 주량은 어떻게 되나요? (What is your usual amount of alcohol consumption?) TT: ммм сколько вам нужно выпить, ммм чтобы вы себя более и менее, сколько вы выпиваете, чтобы вы более и менее чувствовали себя не совсем пьяным? (mmm how much do you need to drink, mmm to make yourself more or less, how much do you drink so that you more or less feel not quite drunk?) Retrospection: “As for the word, ‘Juryang’, unique to the Korean culture, I usually explain to the suspect what it means. In Russia, no one asks what is your usual amount of alcohol consumption (Juryang), whether between friends or in a police investigation. When I interpreted it like this, there were some suspects who complained about the inappropriateness of the question.” (Pauses by Participant 9).

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Motivation for self-repairs through D-repairs D-repairs are used to convey the message more efficiently by changing the order of information. In Korean, time is expressed in the order of year, month, day, and hour, but in Russian the order is the opposite 43 hour, day, month, and year. In Example Twelve, the time (11:00) was spoken in the order of the original Russian speech, but the order was changed to the order of month, day, and time. Participant Eleven took notes listening to the Russian source text and interpreted in the order of the text but realized that it did not fit the Korean word order and changed the order. Example 12 ST:

В 11:40 вечер 9-ого октября. (At 11:40 PM, October 9.) TT: 11시, 10월 9일에 11시 40분 즈음에. (At 11, on October 9, at about 11:40) Retrospection: “I took notes while listening to Russian, but when I was about to say it in Korean, I realized that dates should come first in Korea. Then I corrected it.” (D-repair by Participant 11)

18.5

Discussion

In this study, the motivations for self-repairs were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed to examine the challenges faced by Russian police interpreters. First of all, the quantitative self-repair analysis results are as follows: 1) The higher the interpretation performance, the lower the number of self-repairs. Participants with high interpretation performance make fewer linguistic and syntactic errors, so they make fewer errors, including fewer covert-repairs, a strategy used to buy time for the next interpretation. 2) In the case of bilingual police interpreters, there was no difference in the number of self-repairs according to directionality. This result is not consistent with that of Dailidėnaitė (2009). The subjects of this study are bilinguals, and the difference in language skills between languages A and B is not as significant as among students. This is also because the motivation for repairs differs according to the directionality. In the case of A-B interpretation, E-repairs and D-repairs increased; in the case of B-A interpretation, A-repairs increased. Thus, there is no difference in the number of repairs according to directionality. 3) Looking at the type of repairs by group, divided by interpretation performance, participants in the group with good interpretation performance showed a high proportion of overt-repairs, especially A-repairs, and a low proportion of E-repairs and D-repairs, which are markers of non-fluency, supporting the results of previous research (Hennecke, 2013; Kormos, 1999; van Hest, 1996). The higher the language proficiency, the higher the meta-language recognition; thus, the number of errors is reduced. This is similar to the tendency of foreign language learners who pay more attention to repairs at the discourse level than to lower lexical, grammatical, and phonological mistakes (Kormos, 1999, p. 330). Participants’ motivations and purposes for self-repairs are as follows: 1) A-repairs are used not to correct errors but to reduce ambiguities and specify the message for the recipient to understand it more clearly. This type of self-repair is used frequently in the group with high interpretation skills, as an interpreter’s strategy to facilitate communication at the discourse and pragmatic level. For example, a participant confirmed that the other party was currently being investigated as a suspect by using the word “suspect” as it was in the original text, followed by the personal pronoun “you.” In another case, the subject was specified by interpreting by name and adding the relationship with the suspect in consideration of the Korean characteristic of rarely referring to 292

Russian police interpreters in South Korea

people with personal pronouns. 2) E-repairs were related to difficulties in interpretation, especially of legal terms. The police’s questions include various technical terms, such as the law the suspect violated and the specific charge. In fact, the participants made E-repairs to modify the errors already uttered in interpreting the legal terms, such as byeonsang (compensation), gajung cheobeol (aggravated punishment), pihaeja (victim), and pieuija (suspect) into Russian by replacing with new words. 3) Covert-repairs are used to conceive the next interpretation or buy time to make overt-repairs. These types of repairs were more frequent in the group with lower interpretation skills. Since the generally asked questions in Korean investigation process may sound strange to Russian-speaking suspects or some questions were ambiguous as they are, these repairs were used as a strategy to buy time. 4) D-repairs were associated with note-taking problems. Korean and Russian have a different word order and express time and date in the opposite order; it is necessary to switch to the target language order from the original speech order. Many participants did not know the necessity of note-taking because they did not have professional interpretation and translation education or were not accustomed to reconstructing their notes to suit the target language.

18.6

Conclusion

This study quantitatively analyzed the motivations for self-repairs and the reasons for repairs through retrospection, in order to examine the difficulties encountered by the interpreters. Some of the results of the self-repair analysis of Russian police interpreters were consistent with those of previous studies, but others were not. Studies related to self-repairs were conducted with professional interpreters and students, or they examined the differences in the pattern of repairs between the two. On the other hand, this study targets police interpreters to examine the actual motivation of self-repairs and the difficulties encountered while interpreting, better reflecting the reality of police interpretation. However, there are limitations, as the subjects are limited to the bilingual Russian interpreters who are living in Korea. Future researchers would greatly benefit from expanding the scope of the study to various languages and compare interpreting patterns between citizens and foreigners in Korea to examine the interpreting pattern and difficulties of Korean police interpreters. This study provides an important implication by confirming the necessity of improving the police interpreter system. Unlike countries such as Australia and the United States, awareness of community interpretation has been raised only recently in Korea. Not surprisingly, institutional arrangements are still insufficient. In Korea, police interpreters are selected merely through document review and a simple conversation test; thus, it is difficult to verify the interpreter’s skills and qualifications. In addition, although the training for police interpreters is conducted once a year, it is not enough to enhance the trainees’ interpretation skills, as the duration of the basic course and advanced course is only six and fourteen hours, respectively. This study confirmed that police interpreters have to be provided with more in-depth education by increasing the hours of training, including note-taking practice, conducting sessions on the characteristics of Korean investigative culture, and teaching professional investigation terms.

Note 1 The participant 11 uttered the first syllables of several Russian words, not knowing how to translate the Korean word “byeonsang” (compensation) in Russian. The Russian sound is transcribed as it is because it could not be determined which word the interpreter meant to say.

293

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References Al-Harahsheh, A. M. A. (2015). A conversation analysis of self-initiated repair structures in Jordanian Spoken Arabic. Discourse Studies, 17(4), 397‒414. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445615578898 Bartlomiejczyk, M. (2006). Strategies of simultaneous interpreting and directionality. Interpreting, 8(2), 149‒174. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.8.2.03bar Chang, A. (2022). Difficulties encountered by interpreters in police settings: An in-depth interview with police interpreters in South Korea. Translation Studies, 23(2), 29‒67. http://doi.org/10.15749/jts.2022.23.2.002 Dailidėnaitė, A. (2009). Directionality: Types and frequency of repairs in simultaneous interpretation. VertimoStudijos, 2, 9‒25. https://doi.org/10.15388/vertstud.2009.2.10600 Dimitrova, B. E., & Tiselius, E. (2014). Retrospection in interpreting and translation: Explaining the process? MonTI. Monografías de traducción e interpretación, 177‒200. https://doi.org/10.6035/monti.2014.ne1.5 Ericsson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (1993). Protocol analysis: Verbal reports as data. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Hale, S. (2011). The need to raise the bar: Court interpreters as specialized experts. The Judicial Review, 10, 237–258. Hale, S., Goodman-Delahunty, J., & Martschuk, N. (2019). Interpreter performance in police interviews: Differences between trained interpreters and untrained bilinguals. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 13(2), 107‒131. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2018.1541649 Hennecke, I. (2013). Self-repair and language selection in bilingual speech processing. Discours: Revue de linguistique, psycholinguistique et informatique. A Journal of Linguistics, Psycholinguistics and Computational Linguistics, 12, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.4000/discours.8789 Hlavac, J. (2013). A cross-national overview of translator and interpreter certification procedures. Translation and Interpreting, 5(1), 32‒65. https://doi.org/10.12807/ti.105201.2013.a02 Hong, S. (2019). Interpreter-mediated police interviews: A conversation-analytic study of Korean-Russian face-to-face and telephone interpretation discourse. Unpublished PhD thesis. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Ivanova, A. (2000). The use of retrospection in research on simultaneous interpreting. Benjamins Translation Library, 37, 27‒52. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.37.05iva Kalina, S. (1998). Strategic processes in interpreting. Tübingen: G. Narr. Kaur, J. (2011). Raising explicitness through self-repair in English as a lingua franca. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(11), 2704‒2715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2011.04.012 Kohn, K., & Kalina, S. (1996). The strategic dimension of interpreting. Meta: Journal des traducteurs/Meta: Translators’ Journal, 41(1), 118‒138. https://doi.org/10.7202/003333ar Kormos, J. (1999). Monitoring and self-repair in L2. Language Learning, 49(2), 303‒342. https://doi. org/10.1111/0023–8333.00090 Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33(1), 159‒174. https://doi.org/10.2307/2529310 Lee, J. (2017a). The theory and practice of legal interpreting. Seoul: Ewha Womans University Press. Lee, J. (2017b). Interpreting criminal suspects’ rights: A case for legal interpreter training. Translation Studies, 18(2), 127‒150. http://www.dbpia.co.kr/Article/NODE07193634 Lee, J. (2021). An overview of KNPA police interpreter training projects: From a trainer’s perspective. Translation Studies, 22(2), 211‒241. http://doi.org/10.15749/jts.2021.22.2.007 Lee, J., Chang, A., Choi, M., & Huh, J. (2014). A case study of T&I services for marriage migrants and multicultural families. Translation Studies, 15(13), 177‒210. https://www.dbpia.co.kr/Journal/articleDetail?no deId=NODE02478892 Lee, J., Choi, M., Huh, J., & Chang, A. (2016). Community interpreting services by marriage migrants for marriage migrants in South Korea. Perspectives, 24(2), 179‒200. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2015.1052524 Lee, J., & Hong, S. (2020). The use of self-repairs by interpreters in investigative interviews: A case study of an untrained Korean-Russian interpreter. Translation Studies, 21(5), 237‒267. http://doi.org/10.15749/ jts.2020.21.5.009 Lee, J., & Hong, S. (2021). Help me to help you to help me: A conversation analytic study of other-initiated repairs in a case of Korean–Russian interpreter-mediated investigative interviews in South Korea. Perspectives, 29(4), 522‒538. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2020.1841811 Lee, J., Lee, Y., & Choi, H. (2019). Court interpreting assessment using rating scales. Translation Studies, 20(2), 81‒109. http://doi.org/10.15749/jts.2019.20.2.004 Levelt, W. J. (1982). Linearization in describing spatial networks. In P. Stanley (Ed.), Processes, beliefs, and questions (pp. 199‒220). Dordrecht: Reidel.

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19 A STUDY ON THE STATUS OF INTERPRETATION FOR ARAB REFUGEES IN SOUTH KOREA AND INTERPRETATION IMPROVEMENT Soonlei Gwag 곽순례 19.1

Introduction

According to UNHCR, the number of Syrian refugees reached one million in 2014. Most of them were displaced from their homes as social turmoil caused by the march of ISIS engulfed the country. This also led to South Korea experiencing an inflow of Syrian refugees, reaching 648 out of the total of 2,896 refugee applicants in 2014 (the Ministry of Justice of South Korea, 2015). As a result, the nation found itself in urgent need for interpreting services for Arab refugees. In 2018, more than 550 Yemenis entered South Korea’s Jeju Island, which allows visa-free entry, and applied for refugee status. This stirred up considerable controversy in South Korean society at the time. Interpreters for Arab refugees were urgently arranged to support the prompt screening of refugee applicants (Park, 2018). However, since a number of Korean-Arabic interpreters were recruited without a proper verification process in place, some interpreters were found to be insufficiently qualified to offer quality interpreting services, which led to further controversy in South Korean society. The purpose of this study is to examine the status of interpreting services for Arab refugees in South Korea and the recruitment and verification procedures of refugee interpreters, analyze the results of a survey conducted on interpreters for Arab refugees, and evaluate the quality of their interpreting. Based on the findings, this research will identify issues in terms of Arabic interpreting services for refugee applicants in South Korea and provide suggestions for their improvement. Instead of a theoretical approach comprising a literature review, the method of this study draws on the statistics and reports on refugee interpreting services in South Korea released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), results of a survey conducted on Korean-Arabic interpreters for refugees, and cases of evaluation of such interpreters.

19.2

Professional refugee interpreters in South Korea

South Korea adopted the Refugee Convention in 1992 and has handled refugee affairs since 1994. In 2013, its enactment and enforcement of the Refugee Act shed renewed light on its commitment to advancing human rights around the world. In accordance with Articles 14 and 15 of the DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-23

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Refugee Act and Article 8 of the Enforcement Decree of the Refugee Act, MoJ has operated the Professional Refugee Interpreter System, which mainly consists of Grade 1 and 2 refugee interpreters. Article 8(1) of the Enforcement Decree of the Refugee Act stipulates matters regarding professional interpreters for refugees. Grade 1 interpreters are defined as “persons fluent in foreign languages and deemed suitable to conduct the duty to provide interpreting services to refugees and who have completed the educational courses determined by the Minister of Justice,” while Grade 2 interpreters are specified as persons who are able to interpret the language of a refugee into a foreign language when there is no available interpreter dedicated to refugees for the language. With the enforcement of the Refugee Act in 2013, the number of refugee applicants has increased sharply each year. According to Yearbook of Korea Immigration Statistics 2021, the cumulative total of refugee applicants from 1994 to 2013 stood at a mere 6,643 but increased to 73,383 as of 2021 (p. 100–109). Given the increasing number of refugee applicants, many qualified interpreters dedicated to refugee services are needed in South Korea, but the reality does not meet this expectation. According to MoJ, as of November 2022, there are only 181 interpreters dedicated to refugee affairs for 31 languages: 35 for English, 35 for Chinese, 18 for Russian, 11 for Arabic, eight for Vietnamese, eight for Uzbek, six for Hindi, five for Mongolian, five for French, four for Nepali, and 46 for other languages as shown in Figure 19.1. As shown in Immigration Statistics 2021 (p. 100–109), the cumulative total of refugee applicants as of 2021 had reached 73,383, with 55,994 men (76.3%) and 17,389 women (23.7%). The breakdown by nationality (p. 101) included 7,452 from China, 7,181 from Kazakhstan, 6,923 from Russia, 6,613 from Pakistan, and 5,063 from Egypt in fifth place. The cumulative total of recognized cases of refugees as of 2021 was 1,163, with Myanmar nationals accounting for the most with 355 (30.5%), followed by Ethiopia with 145 (12.5%) and Bangladesh with 121 (10.4%). The number of

MoJ's Professional Refugee Interpreters by Language (Unit: person, 31 languages, as of 2021) English

35

Chinese

35

Russian

18

Arabic

11

Vietnamese

8

Uzbek

8

Hindi

6

Mongolian

5

French

5

Nepali

4

Others

46 0

5

10

15

20

25

Figure 19.1 MoJ’s professional refugee interpreters by language

297

30

35

40

45

50

Soonlei Gwag 곽순례

newly recognized refugees in 2021 (p. 105) was 72, in which Egyptian nationals were ranked first with 28 (38.9%). As of 2021, the cumulative total of humanitarian status holders was 2,412, of which Syrian nationals accounted for the most with 1,245 (51.6%), followed by 773 from Yemen (32.0%) and 41 from Myanmar (1.7%) in the second and third places. As such, Arab nationals accounted for a substantial 83.6% of the total. Of the 45 humanitarian status holders in 2021, Yemeni nationals came in first place with 16 (35.6%), followed by 14 from Syria (31.1%) and six from Libya (13.3%). In other words, the first to third places by nationality were all Arab nationals, accounting for 80% of the total (p. 109). Given that the cumulative 5,063 Egyptian applicants for refugee recognition and 83.6% of the cumulative total of 2,412 humanitarian status holders were Arab nationals, South Korea should have more Arabic interpreters dedicated to refugees in place. MoJ introduced the Professional Refugee Interpreter System in 2012 to provide professional interpreting services for the increasing number of refugee applicants during their refugee status determination procedures (MoJ, 2012). As refugee applicants had often failed to provide corroborating evidence to prove their eligibility, their statement during the interview for refugee status was critical to the assessment of their credibility, and accurate interpreting was essential to ensure the correct message was delivered as intended. However, interpreting services for refugees in South Korea had been severely limited in terms of the number of interpreters dedicated to refugees and the languages available for services. In addition, many had pointed out the issue of poor professional practice by interpreters for refugees due to inadequate or no training for interpreting in a refugee setting. Against this backdrop, MoJ openly recruited and appointed 64 interpreters dedicated to refugees for 18 languages on May 23, 2012, through document screening and interviews. This initial cohort included 16 interpreters for English, eight for Chinese, six for French, four for Russian, one for Arabic, and one for Kurdish. As a result, interpreting services for Arab refugees became available for the first time in the nation. MoJ expected that having the Professional Refugee Interpreter System in place would provide refugee applicants with opportunities to argue for themselves by freely conveying precise and clear messages, while also enhancing the fairness, efficiency, and effectiveness of the refugee status determination procedures. Following this, MoJ appointed 140 individuals as professional refugee interpreters for 17 languages on December 18, 2015. This resulted in an increase in the number of professional interpreters for refugees to 222 for 23 languages, and the number of Arabic interpreters increased to 12, with one appointed in the first cohort in 2012, four in the second, and seven in the third in 2015 (MoJ, 2015; Sohn, 2015). In 2019, MoJ outsourced the research project “Qualification of Professional Refugee Interpreters and Plan for Refugee Interpretation Quality Management,” and since 2021, it has implemented a program for the certification of refugee interpreters working with a third party as part of its endeavor to provide high-quality and reliable interpreting services for refugee applicants. Under the system, as of 2022, nine Korean-Arabic interpreters have been certified as dedicated to refugees, with four as Grade 1 and five as Grade 2. As a result, there are currently 11 Korean-Arabic interpreters dedicated to refugees enlisted with MoJ, including two who were previously appointed as dedicated interpreters by MoJ and whose appointment is still valid. Of the 11 Arabic refugee interpreters, eight are Korean (three men and five women) and three are Egyptian (two men and one woman). Among them, nine are based in the Seoul metropolitan area, one in Jeolla Province, and one in Gyeongsang Province. However, interviews for Arab refugee applicants are often delayed due to a shortage of interpreters. As an alternative, Grade 2 Arabic interpreters, who translate Arabic 298

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into languages other than Korean, are sometimes assigned to Arab refugee applicants for interview (Sohn, 2015).

19.3

Professional refugee interpreter certification system in South Korea

Articles 14 and 15 of the Refugee Act and Article 8 of the Enforcement Decree of the Refugee Act provide the legal grounds for interpreting services dedicated to refugees in South Korea. Based on these legal grounds, which were established with the Refugee Act coming into force on July 1, 2013, the Refugee Policy Division of MoJ introduced the Professional Refugee Interpreter System as a measure to ensure transparency and fairness in the refugee status determination procedures. Through this system, dedicated interpreters were selected and trained each year from 2013 to 2017. However, it was pointed out that the quality of interpreting in refugee settings remained substandard. If they are not reliable, accurate, and credible, interpretation services can incur damage not only to the individual refugee applicants but also to the national administrative powers in terms of critical issues, such as the protection of human rights and personal and national security. In the end, such inefficient handling of administrative procedures could cause substantial economic loss for a nation. In this regard, the Refugee Policy Division of Korea Immigration Service affiliated with MoJ has implemented the Professional Refugee Interpreter Certification System since 2021 by outsourcing the service to a third party selected as a specialized agency. According to “Announcement on the 2022 Professional Refugee Interpreter Certification Policy and Recruitment” (MoJ, 2022), the system is designed to offer certification for successful candidates to work as professional refugee interpreters selected through an objective and accurate evaluation process by an external agency with expertise, thereby improving interpreting quality and fairness in the refugee status determination procedures. The interpreter selection test is given as an oral exam for ten minutes, and successful candidates are appointed by MoJ as professional refugee interpreters. Qualification for the application process requires language abilities for Korean nationals and foreigners. The former should have the ability to interpret or translate the Korean language to at least one foreign language, or vice versa, while the latter should have native proficiency in one language or more and the ability to interpret or translate such a language to Korean or English. However, such qualification does not specify the exact levels, scores, or grades of language proficiency required or the language proficiency tests. In refugee settings, interpreting services are needed for the paperwork related to personal information during the application process for refugee status, interview to determine whether the applicant meets the definition of a refugee, and translation of related documents for deliberation. Given such considerations, the interpreter certification test is composed of four parts: conversation interpreting, consecutive interpreting, sight translation, and background knowledge and codes of conduct. Conversation interpreting is performed as a two-way practice between Korean and a foreign language, consecutive interpreting is carried out from the foreign language to Korean, and sight translation is directed from Korean to the foreign language. One of the two questions in each area of background knowledge and codes of conduct must be answered in Korean and the other in the foreign language. Successful candidates then participate in a ten-week training program, as shown in MoJ’s announcement. The program consists of an introduction to the Refugee Act, legal terms, interpreting and codes of conduct, and interpreting practicum.

19.4

Case study of professional interpreters for Arab refugees

In order to examine interpreting in refugee contexts, in particular for Arab refugee applicants, a survey was conducted on six interpreters, representing more than 50% of the 11 professional 299

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interpreters for Arab refugees included in the list of MoJ’s Refugee Division as of November 2022, who are affiliated with Korea Immigration Service in Seoul. The survey was performed over 14 days from November 1 to 14, 2022. 1) Profile of respondents Table 19.1 Profile of respondents No.

Age group

Gender

Education level

Length of stay in South Korea

Refugee interview interpreting period

No. of refugee interviews interpreted

1 2 3 4 5 6

30s 30s 30s 50s 30s 30s

Female Male Male Male Male Male

Bachelor’s degree Master’s degree Master’s degree Bachelor’s degree Bachelor’s degree Master’s degree

Korean national Korean national Korean national Korean national Ten years Korean national

Over 4 years 2 years 1 year Over 4 years Over 4 years 2 years

Over 50 interviews Over 50 interviews Over 20 interviews Over 50 interviews Over 50 interviews Over 50 interviews

As shown in Table 19.1, five of the six respondents are Korean and one is Egyptian, one is a woman and five are men. The breakdown by age group includes five respondents in their 30s and one in his 50s, and 50% of them have a bachelor’s and master’s degree, respectively, as their highest qualification. Their interpreting career for refugee applicant interviews ranges from one or two years to four years or longer for 50% of them. Of the six interpreters, five have interpreting experience of more than 50 interviews in refugee contexts, which attests to their career experience as professional refugee interpreters. 2) Path to becoming a professional refugee interpreter Each interpreter started conducting interpreting services for refugee applicant interviews via a different route. Interpreter 1 voluntarily applied to the position, referring to MoJ’s announcement on recruiting professional refugee interpreters (MoJ Notice No. 2015-211), posted on August 5, 2015. At the time, the number of applications for refugee status was on the rise due to the inflow of 650 Syrians into the nation in 2014. Interpreter 1 was appointed as a professional refugee interpreter on December 18, 2015 and started conducting interpreting services for refugee applicants after completing the training program executed by MoJ from November 20 to 21, 2015. Interpreters 2 and 3 majored in Arabic as undergraduates and pursued their academic paths at a graduate school for interpretation and translation. After being awarded a master’s degree, they began to serve as professional refugee interpreters by referral of an officer at MoJ’s Refugee Policy Division. Interpreter 4 majored in Arabic at a university and built up a strong career in the Arab region for a long time. He was contacted by the Refugee Policy Division to provide interpreting services when the number of Yemeni refugees seeking asylum in Korea surged in 2018. Interpreter 5 is an Arab national who studied Korean at an Arab university and has been living in Korea for about ten years. Interpreter 6 majored in Arabic at an undergraduate program and graduated from a graduate school of interpretation and translation. Interpreter 6 started in the refugee interpreter field after becoming a successful candidate for the 2021 Professional Refugee Interpreter Certification conducted by MoJ’s Refugee Policy Division. As described previously, of the six interpreters, two were appointed through the Professional Refugee Interpreter Certification System, while the remaining four started conducting interpreting 300

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services for refugee applicants via personal contact from the Refugee Policy Division due to the increase in Arab refugee applicants. Although the interpreters started their careers in refugee settings through different routes, all of them were registered as professional refugee interpreters in the Refugee Policy Division of MoJ through the “Professional Refugee Interpreter Certification System” introduced in 2021. 3) Education background of professional interpretation and codes of conduct Table 19.2 Respondent’s education background No. Mother tongue Professional interpretation education Duration 1

Korean

2

Korean

3

Korean

4

Korean

5 6

Arabic Korean

MoJ’s professional refugee interpreter training Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation Hankuk University of Foreign Studies MoJ, HUFS Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation

Education of codes of conduct Duration

3 days, twice MoJ’s professional refugee 3 days, twice interpreter training 2 years MoJ’s professional refugee 2 days, once interpreter training 2 years N/A 2 days, twice HUFS

1 day, once

2 days, twice MoJ, HUFS 2 days, twice 2 years MOJ Korea Immigration 2 weeks, once Service

As shown in Table 19.2, three respondents received professional interpreting and translation education for two years at a specialized higher educational institution, while the other three received short-term professional training for interpreting and translation. One respondent stated that she was not able to learn interpreting skills during the short training period, so she acquired some skills from books or other interpreters who had received professional training from a specialized educational institution, and that she wanted to have the opportunity to learn interpreting skills through such an institution. Another interpreter found the short interpreting training beneficial to learn note-taking skills. All but one of the respondents took the training program in codes of conduct. One of them stated that the session was beneficial, as she learned a lot of legal terms, of which she had little understanding in the early days of interpreting in refugee contexts. While she commented that the interpreting training session by language was useful, she highlighted the importance of practical interpretation training by providing additional sessions for each language. In addition, among the answers of the remaining four respondents who received codes of conduct education, one stated that the program was helpful in learning the concept and characteristics of refugees and enhancing interpreting skills in refugee settings. Overall, they wanted to have training on how to interpret specialized vocabulary—in particular, legal terms—learn various cases of refugee applicants and circumstances facing each Arab country, and acquire skills on how to deal with refugee applicants when they intentionally get off track. The one respondent who did not receive interpreter codes of conduct training from MoJ may have started conducting interpreting services in refugee contexts with little understanding of their characteristics. However, he/she must have received codes of conduct training in general from the graduate program. 301

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4) Difficulties in interview interpreting for Arab refugees Interpreters usually face different difficulties by field, but professional refugee interpreters experience more difficulties because of the unique contexts of refugees. The Arab League has 22 member countries, among which Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Palestine are at war. Those fleeing from these countries offer various reasons for their applications for refugee status, including economic difficulties posed by war, various social problems as well as sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites, religious conflicts between Muslims and Christians, and human rights issues related to Islamic law. Another notable difficulty facing Arabic refugee interpreters arises from the linguistic characteristics of Arabic. Spoken Arabic is much different from the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and Arabic dialect differs from region to region. For example, the Levantine, Maghreb, Egyptian, and Gulf dialects are all different from each other, and the Iraqi dialect is different from the Libyan dialect. One of the characteristics of Arabic is that different words are used for the same meaning across the vast Arab world, so even Arabs do not understand each other when speaking in dialect. As Arab refugee applicants come to Korea from different countries and with a wide range of political, economic, social, religious, and cultural backgrounds, professional interpreters for Arab refugee applicants face more difficulties than interpreters for other languages. In order to identify the difficulties experienced by professional refugee interpreters, the survey classified the interpreting process for the interview of refugee applicants into five areas: 1) interpreting of basic procedures such as interview records of refugee applicants or personal information; 2) conversation interpreting for refugee interviewers; 3) conversation interpreting for refugee applicants; 4) interpreting for the process to confirm refugee applicant interview records; and 5) sight translation or translation of documents submitted by refugee applicants. Subsequently, the respondents were asked to select the most challenging area during interpreting, and multiple selections were allowed. Two of them selected No. 5, two selected No. 3, and one selected No. 4. For others, two respondents stated that, since an interviewer’s question could be unclear, the answer from the refugee applicant was ambiguous, and that refugee applicants only answered the questions asked, not offering any statement if not asked, so interviews became inefficient and delayed from asking and answering every detail through interpretation. In some cases, interviewers or interviewees only said what they wanted to say without waiting for the interpretation to be finished, which was also pointed out as a difficulty. 5) Difficulties in conversation interpreting for refugee applicants Table 19.3 Difficulties in conversation interpreting No.

Difficulties

Answers

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Answers that did not match the question Speech without a logical sequence Speaking too long Speaking in a dialect Conversations that included the names of unfamiliar associations or places Little knowledge of the local situation Content that involved cultural differences Bad attitude Other

3 4 2 3 2 1 1 2

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As shown in Table 19.3, respondents stated, “It is difficult to understand when the refugee applicant’s pronunciation is not clear, or he or she mumbled, or when they could not articulate some pronunciations,” and “Understanding words or colloquial direct speech used in a certain Arab country or community is challenging since I have to reconfirm the exact meaning of their speech, and due to a high illiteracy rate among Arabs, linguistic communication with them is hard.” 6) Difficulties in interpreting in refugee settings This was an open-ended question to provide interpreters with an opportunity to freely describe the difficulties they usually face in interpreting in refugee settings. Four interpreters described that, when interpreting without any background information about the refugee applicant or knowledge of the statement the applicant provided in the previous interview, the applicant skipped the explanation of a certain situation or information, which posed difficulties to interpreting. The respondents also commented that they could not know every detail about the situations of each Arab country, and interpreting specific organization names correctly into Korean was also difficult. Moreover, they explained, refugee applicants from Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, which are located in the Maghreb region, spoke using both Arabic and French words, making it difficult for Arabic interpreters to understand if they do not know any French, and expressions in a dialect used only in this region were hard to understand. In the case of refugee applicants applying on the grounds of religious conversion, they used religious terms fairly different from general expressions, which are difficult to understand. In addition, respondents answered that it was difficult to interpret Arab and Islamic cultural nuances and legal terms, and that interpreting unnecessary answers that did not match the question was time consuming. While there were various comments that attributed the difficulty in interpretation to the interpreters’ lack of knowledge, two respondents offered a different point of view, stating that the interviewer was the source of difficulties. They stated that, when the interviewer had little knowledge about the culture or circumstances of the home country of the refugee applicant, they often asked for further explanations from the interpreter in addition to interpretation, or they failed to understand the applicant’s statement even if the interpretation was correct, thus adding difficulties to interpreting. Some respondents pointed to the interviewer’s lack of job skills as the cause of difficulties. For example, during the process of documenting the statements of refugee applicants, the interviewer was not able to focus on listening to the interpretation simply because they were not good at typing, so the interpreter had to repeat the interpretation twice or even three times. Since they could not focus on listening, their questions were unclear, which made it difficult for the refugee applicant to offer a statement because they could not clearly capture the gist of the questions. In turn, this made interpreting the questions and answers difficult, which could give a false impression that meaning was lost in interpreting. In the end, unclear questions led to unnecessary answers, which, in turn, resulted in unnecessary questions. As a result, interviews took longer than expected. This implies that, in order to improve the quality of interpreting in refugee contexts, it is necessary not only to help interpreters enhance their language skills and background knowledge but also to support interviewers to improve their background knowledge and job skills. 7) Difficulties in complying with codes of conduct as interpreters in a refugee context Regarding this question, no one answered that it was difficult to maintain fairness and confidentiality, and three interpreters responded that it was difficult to maintain neutrality. Cases of failure to comply with codes of conduct as refugee interpreters are as follows: 303

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Case 1: The refugee applicant whose wife had a high-risk pregnancy with a nearing due date asked for the interpreter’s contact information in case of medical emergencies for his wife. Sharing personal contact information is prohibited for refugee interpreters in principle, but the interpreter contacted the interviewer to inform him of the particular situation and provided her contact information to the applicant with the permission of the interviewer. Case 2: The interpreter had difficulty in maintaining neutrality during a refugee interview due to his prejudice against the applicant, who applied for refugee status due to death threats from others because of his inability to repay debts. (The interpreter thought, “Maybe, the applicant is economically motivated to apply when there is no real death threat.”) Case 3: Refugee interpreters are required to translate what has been said by the refugee applicant as accurately as possible without summarizing. However, there are cases where the applicant strays off the question or strays off-topic while giving a lengthy statement. Then, the interpreter may need to interrupt to remind the applicant of the question asked and provide a summary of the applicant’s answer. Case 4: There are many cases in which the statements of multiple refugee applicants citing persecution for the reason for their applications are very similar in content and anecdotal details, making the interpreter question the truthfulness of their statements. 8) The surveyed interpreters’ suggestions for interpreting quality improvement First, it is essential to prevent national losses such as waste of human resources and taxpayers’ money caused by an unspecified number of people trying to use the refugee status application irrelevant to the reasons for refugee status recognition prescribed in the Refugee Convention merely to extend their residence. It is therefore recommended that refugee applicants be mandated to submit evidence documents validating the reasons for their refugee application (political, religious, social issues, etc.) prior to filing a refugee application. Although this particular recommendation is not directly related to interpretation services rendered in a refugee context, the surveyed interpreters must have offered this recommendation because they met many cases where they sensed the refugee applications originated not from legitimate reasons but from irrelevant personal reasons. Second, it is recommended that a female interviewer and a female interpreter be assigned when interviewing a female refugee applicant who claims to apply for refugee status due to reasons related to “gender-based persecution,” such as circumcision, sexual violence, prostitution, early marriage, and honor killing. This will create a setting where the applicant can feel comfortable and speak candidly. “Khalwat”—an Islamic word that refers to a situation where a Muslim man and a Muslim woman are together in a secluded place—is forbidden in Islamic law. In the same light, Arab Muslim women are supposed to see female doctors for medical examination or even operation, except for inevitable medical emergencies. Given the Arab Muslim culture that strictly enforces gender distinction, to assign a female interviewer and a female interpreter for a female refugee applicant is not only culturally appropriate, but also an effective approach to induce a more candid statement from the applicant. Third, interviewers in charge of Arab refugees have to grasp the different situations of various Arab countries and are seriously overworked due to a rapid increase in the number of Arab refugee applicants. This situation makes them want to be rotated out to another department as soon as possible, and the frequent job rotation makes it difficult for the new interviewers to get up to speed and acquire refugee interview knowhow in a short period of time. Furthermore, the refugee interviewer is supposed to conduct the interview on an equal footing with the refugee applicant and cannot put any pressure on the applicants who are elusive and not candid. Interviewing a refugee is a type of 304

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emotional labor as the interviewer should conduct the interview, compromising according to the mood of the applicant in order to get an honest answer. Considering this unique nature of the job, it is necessary to secure qualified and experienced interviewers by offering various incentives, such as giving extra points in promotion evaluation to those who work as refugee interviewers for a certain period of time or assigning them to a position of their choice afterwards. This is a recommendation designed to enhance the effectiveness of refugee interviews rather than to improve interpreting quality per se.

19.5

Current status of Arabic interpreting services for asylum seekers and evaluation of Arab refugee interpreters

An evaluation was conducted, from April 2020 to November 2022, on the interpretation services rendered by refugee interpreters during the interviews of Arab refugees. The 57 interviews evaluated involved a total of 28 interpreters— 20 Korean and eight Arab interpreters. Of the twenty Korean interpreters, eight are male and twelve are female, and of the eight Arabs, two are male and six are female. Four out of the twenty Korean interpreters have not received any formal education in the Arabic language but have lived in an Arab country for a long period of time, which made them fluent in an Arabic dialect but not proficient in the MSA. Seven of the eight Arab interpreters were not fluent in Korean due to lack of formal training in the language. The evaluation results show that the interpreters provided additional explanations on the Arab and Islamic cultures elusive to the interviewer as well as rendering interpretation services. For example, there was a case where the refugee’s statement that he would “take revenge” on the killer of his son was translated verbatim into Korean for the interviewer, and the interviewer asked what the refugee meant by “taking revenge” when the perpetrator was punished by law. There is a saying in Arabic, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” which expresses the principle of reciprocal justice measure for measure. Under this principle, the killing of a family member by someone should be reciprocated by the killing of a member of the killer’s family. This reciprocation has nothing to do with legal punishment. The evaluation revealed a clear demarcation between the interpreters who received professional interpretation and translation training and those who did not, in language skills, terminology, interpreting skills, formal style, and delivery of cultural elements. The latter, the non-professionallytrained interpreters, omitted many details when interpreting lengthy statements due to lack of mastery of note-taking skills and experienced more difficulties in interpreting from Korean into Arabic. They interpreted in the third person rather than in the first person and frequently omitted sentence-ending suffixes. The interpreters commonly committed errors in address terms. This must be attributable to the complexity of the Korean family relationship titles and the subsequent mismatches between the Korean and the Arabic family relationship titles. The same Arabic title may be translated into different Korean titles, depending on the status of the speaker in the family chart. “Father-in-law” is a good example. In the Korean language, there are two different titles referring to “father-in-law,” one (jangin) used by married men and the other (siabeoji) by married women when addressing their father-in-law. The same applies to “mother-in-law” and other in-laws. The evaluation also showed a meaningful difference between Korean interpreters who are deemed, based on their Korean and Arabic pronunciations, to have been educated or have lived in an Arab country and the rest of the Korean interpreters who have neither studied nor lived in an Arab country. The latter showed a good command of the MSA while being substantially less proficient in speaking or comprehending Arabic dialects. They often reproduced in MSA what has been 305

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said by the refugee applicant in Arabic dialect for clarifications before interpreting. The former, on the other hand, demonstrated proficiency in speaking and comprehending Arabic dialect while being not proficient in the MSA and terminology, frequently made grammatical errors, and failed to use the formal style. None of the Arab interpreters are deemed to have been professionally trained in interpretation and translation skills. Most of them were interpreting in Arabic dialect, which made it impossible to evaluate their proficiency in MSA. Given the use of the Egyptian dialect, all of the Arab interpreters appear to be Egyptians. This made it difficult for them to communicate with refugee applicants from Arab countries other than Egypt, which often led to additional explanations for clarifications. Seven of the eight Arab interpreters failed to interpret in a logical manner due to their lack of Korean language skills. Their Korean language proficiency was generally inadequate in terms of pronunciation, word order, postpositions, and vocabulary. The errors in postpositions and sentence structure and the subsequent ambiguity of the subject and the object forced the listener to restructure what has been said to understand the messages based on the context. The use of inaccurate vocabulary can possibly cause confusion in gauging the degree of persecution or threat experienced by the refugee applicants. The Arab interpreters also failed to distinguish the passive voice from the active voice and made mistakes regarding numerical expressions. There were many occasions where some interpreters listed several Korean words and expressions and asked the interviewer to select or suggest the right one. Both Korean and Arab interpreters experienced difficulties when interpreting the situations of a particular country or region, or the names of associations. There were many cases where the interpreter searched the Internet to find the right words or expressions. The evaluation also revealed the interpreters’ lack of understanding of religious cultures of the refugee applicants. There was one case where the Arab interpreter omitted “the kafala system,”1 a very important Arabic word meaning persecution, because he/she did not know how to translate the term into Korean. In terms of codes of conduct for interpreters, there were frequent cases in which the interpreters answered the interviewer’s question themselves without giving the refugee applicant the change to answer or the interpreters asked the applicant several questions by themselves while the interviewer did not ask any questions. The most serious violation of the codes of conduct involved cases where the interpreter misinterpreted or omitted details when he/she did not understand the applicant’s statements due to lack of Korean or Arabic language skills, without telling the truth to the interviewer for fear of job loss.

19.6

Recommendations and conclusions

Interpretation services in a refugee context are generally rendered in face-to-face conversation settings, which require the interpreter to interpret from Korean into the language of the listener and vice versa and to possess professional interpreting skills due to the length of the statements. Based on the results of the aforementioned survey and evaluation of Arab refugee interpreters, this study offers the following recommends for improvement. First, regional dialects of Arabic. Most of the Arab refugee applicants are poorly educated and thus are not proficient in MSA. Therefore, the interpreters should be proficient in Arabic dialects to understand the applicant’s statements as well as in MSA to be able to translate the submitted certificates or documents

306

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evidencing the applicant’s eligibility for refugee recognition criteria. Korean interpreters were fluent in MSA but weak in Arabic dialect, whereas Arab interpreters were fluent in both dialect and MSA but failed to accurately deliver the messages in Korean due to poor Korean language skills. This problem can be addressed by teaching each of the Korean interpreters an Arabic dialect spoken in one or two Arabic regions and assign them to interviews according to the dialect they learned and by helping Arab interpreters improve their Korean language skills. Another solution worth considering is assigning two interpreters, one Korean and one Arab, to the same interview. This double interpreter presence will increase the chances of the reasons for the refugee application being delivered in a clear and detailed manner through the collaboration and cross-checking of the content of the applicant’s statements between the two interpreters, with the Arab interpreter interpreting the applicant’s statements made in Arabic dialect and the Korean interpreter helping with terminology and clarifications. However, this approach poses issues, such as the doubling of interpretation service costs per interview and additional training on how to split interpreting work between the two interpreters. Second, background knowledge on countries and regions and on social and cultural affairs. Interpretation generally requires language skills and background knowledge, and interpretation in refugee interviews demands a greater level of background knowledge due to its nature. Without prior knowledge, it is difficult to translate into Korean specific incidents or the names of groups, institutions, or places that are unexpectedly mentioned by the refugee applicant during the interview. According to the analysis of the 57 cases included in the interpreter evaluation, 11 cases concerned the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, five cases concerned the Houthi rebellion in Yemen, two cases concerned militia groups in Iraq, 24 were general retaliation cases, eight were honor killings, and five were related to religion and the remaining two applications were filed out of fear of war. This finding indicates that it would be beneficial to educate refugee interpreters on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Houthi rebellion in Yemen, militia groups in Iraq, and others that are repeatedly referred to in relation to the reasons for refugee applications. This paper recommends that the records of refugee interviews be analyzed and necessary information and knowledge be compiled and used as interpreter training materials. Third, differences in religion and cultures between Korea and Arab and Muslim countries. This study recommends that training materials contain information on family, social and commercial cultures of Arab and Muslim world, such as the four wives and one husband polygamy system, extended family system, complex inheritance law, family relationship titles, gender distinction, and honor killing. Fourth, interviewer training. Some of the surveyed interpreters pointed out that the nature of the refugee interview as emotional labor, difficulties experienced by the interviewer, and the interviewer’s lack of background knowledge and job skills compound refugee interview interpretation. This issue can be addressed by educating interviewers on the current status of Arab countries and regions and Arab Muslim cultures.

307

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Notes 1 The kafala, or sponsorship, system gives private citizens and companies in Jordan, Lebanon, and most Arab Gulf countries almost total control over migrant workers’ employment and immigration status.

References Moon, JY. (2022, Feb. 25). Significant manpower shortage for refugee interpreting services... not coordinated interview and court hearing processes. Hankookilbo. Retrieved from https://hankookilbo.com/News/ Read/A2022022308220000015?did=NA The Ministry of Justice of South Korea. (2012, May 23). https://search-home.moj.go.kr/search.jsp The Ministry of Justice of South Korea. (2022). Notice for refugee interpreter certification system and application guide. https://www.moj.go.kr/bbs/moj/184/558865/artclView.do Park, MJ. (2018, June 28). Screening Yemini refugee applicants in Jeju Island picks up speed with more officers and interpreters dispatched. Kukminilbo. http://news.kmib.co.kr/article/view.asp?arcid=0012465516& code=61121111&cp=nv Report of the Ministry of Justice of South Korea (2015, February 24). https://www.immigration.go.kr/ immigration/1502/subview.do;jsessionid=5dWHxmgRBHaMho57xjd704rTzOwtIixViBzyZvVP.wizard13-lst24?enc=Zm5jdDF8QEB8JTJGYmJzJTJGaW1taWdyYXRpb24lMkYyMTQlMkYzMTQ3MjYlM kZhcnRjbFZpZXcuZG8lM0Y%3D Sohn, DW. (2015, December 20). MoJ additionally appoints 140 interpreters dedicated to refugees . . . for 23 languages. Law Issue. http://www.lawissue.co.kr/view.php?ud=24820 Yearbook of Korea Immigration Statistics (2021).

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20 ON TRAINING SERMON INTERPRETERS With reference to interviews with sermon interpreters and surveys on user-expectations* Hayne Shin 신혜인 20.1

Introduction

Interest in sermon interpreting in vocal and spoken mode1 is g rowing around the world, as witnessed in the increased academic studies on this subject (Balci Tison, 2016; Downie, 2014; Hokkanen, 2016; Karlik, 2013; Rayman, 2007; Shin, 2013). However, such research is centered in Europe, and not many similar studies, if any, were carried out in Asia, although some of the vibrant Christian population is found in this region. In the case of Korea, the country has a history of hosting Billy Graham’s largest ever crusade in 1973, as confirmed by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), even with the mediation of a Korean interpreter.2 Looking at the history of the Korean church, many scholars quote the epochal 1973 Billy Graham Crusade in Korea (May 30–June 3, 1973) in relation to the emergence of Korea’s mega-size churches in the late 1970s. During the five-day crusade in Seoul’s Yoido plaza in 1973, the English sermons of Rev. Billy Graham, a prominent American evangelist, were interpreted consecutively into Korean by Rev. Billy Kim,3 the then 39-year-old pastor of Suwon Central Baptist Church in Korea. As Rev. Billy Graham himself and the crusade association staff record the 1973 Crusade in Korea as a “special and powerful moment” that drew a crowd of over one million (Pollock, 1979), the importance of the sermon interpreter who facilitated communication between the speaker and audience cannot be overlooked (Harkness, 2017). There are many Korean and foreign documents that record and commend the interpreter for the effective sermon interpreting, which ultimately encouraged some 75,000 people to make their decision to become Christians in the five-day crusade in 1973.4 One outstanding feature of the interpreting of Rev. Kim in the 1973 Crusade is the spirited and passionate renditions that demonstrated total unity with the speaker. The performance was so engaging that some commented that it was like “receiving the message directly from the speaker and not through the interpreter.”5 The video clips of the 1973 Billy Graham Crusade in Korea that can be accessed via Internet confirm the unity between speaker and interpreter not only in verbal language but also in non-verbal aspects, such as gestures, hand movements, facial expressions, voice pitch, speed, and intonation. Referring to the empirical data from this researcher’s PhD thesis on sermon interpreting in Korea (2013), this chapter attempts to clarify the conditions for high-quality sermon interpreting and methods of training sermon interpreters. To achieve this objective, this study will describe the 309

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-24

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interview results with Rev. Billy Kim and other well-known Korean sermon interpreters (section 2) and the results of user-expectations questionnaire surveys (section 3). After discussing the implications for training sermon interpreters, the chapter will introduce a model of sermon interpreting curriculum that encompasses training in both consecutive and simultaneous mode, currently being offered by the author at one of Korea’s graduate-level interpreting schools since 2004 (section 4).

20.2

Interviews with Rev. Billy Kim and other seasoned interpreters

Through the interview with Rev. Billy Kim that took place on June 16, 2009 at his office of the Far East Broadcasting Company in Seoul, Rev. Kim shared his personal experience as a sermon interpreter and gave recommendations on training sermon interpreters. Meanwhile, one-on-one interviews were carried out with seven incumbent Korean sermon interpreters from November 2011 to December 2012, some of whom often interpreted at large-scale Christian gatherings that involved many Protestant denominations. They were also asked to share their interpreting experience and give their opinions on approaches and methods for successful sermon interpreting and training. Summary of the interview results are as follows.

20.2.1

Interview with Rev. Billy Kim

Rev. Kim recalled that Rev. Graham, as an experienced and eloquent communicator, was a very interpreter-friendly speaker whose speech was composed of short and powerful sentences that centered on the Bible. The following is an example of the sermon and the interpretation on June 3, 1973, the last day of the crusade. ST (Source Text) is the utterance of Rev. Billy Graham while TT (Target Text) refers to the interpretation by Rev. Kim. Back translation is provided in italics. ST ①: “I want to say something I hope you’ll never forget,” He said. TT ①: “이제 제자들에게 “내가 하는 말을 영원히 잊어버리지 말아라.” Now to disciples, “Don’t ever forget my words.” ST ②: “Love one another!” TT ②: “서로 사랑하라!” “Love one another.” ST ③: He said, “I have only one commandment to leave.” TT ③: “내가 계명을 줄 것이 하나밖에 없느니라.” “I have only one commandment to give.” ST ④: “Love one another.” TT ④: “서로 사랑하라!” “Love one another!” ST ⑤: He was getting ready to die. TT ⑤: 그는 죽기 직전입니다. He was just about to die. ST ⑥: He was getting ready to leave. TT ⑥: 이제 세상을 떠나시기 직전입니다. Now, it was just before leaving this world. 310

On training sermon interpreters

ST ⑦: And the last word He said to the people was, “Love each other.” TT⑦: 사람들에게 마지막 주시는 말씀은,“서로 사랑하라!” The last word to the people, “Love one another!” The foregoing sentences show that the interpretation often reduced renditions. For example, the interpreter did not translate the word “He said” in ST① and ST③. Concerning such an interpreting strategy, Rev. Kim said that he left it out on purpose, as he felt it was redundant information that consumed time, and rightly so, as the Korean language often omits the subject in speech. This showed that the interpreter was completely detached from the English ST in terms of vocabulary and grammar, and spontaneously reformulated the TT into natural-sounding Korean words and grammar for the Korean audience, resembling Seleskovitch’s interpretive model of sense or deverbalization (Seleskovitch & Lederer, 1984). Also, as can be seen in the last pair ST/TT⑦, the interpreter sometimes left the sentence incomplete. This strategy helped shorten time and enhance dynamic interaction between the speaker and the interpreter. On the other hand, the first pair ST/ TT① shows that, while the interpreter left out the word “He said,” he added the word “disciples” to remind the audience that this command was given to the disciples of Jesus Christ. Rev. Kim underlined the importance of transmitting the core message in a lively and fluent manner, in order to retain the attention of the audience, and emphasized “speed and fluency” as critical conditions for effective interpreting. He said that the prime qualities of sermon interpreter are “pliability and ability to replicate the same spirit of the speaker.” He said it was important to display unity in verbal and nonverbal approaches. Rev. Kim emphasized that sermon interpreters should act not simply as facilitators of communication but as “co-preachers” who interpret with passion and with a sense of ownership. This clearly differentiated sermon interpreting from other types of interpreting, such as conference and community interpreting, that advocate the principle of interpreters’ neutrality (Shin, 2019). Along this line, Rev. Kim advised that training for sermon interpreters should focus on practicing quick and fluent renditions that do not hinder the flow of the communication, using educated guesses, if necessary. While interpreters should try to become one with the speaker, he also mentioned that loyalty to the message did not mean a strict word-for-word translation, as it can confuse the audience if transferred without awareness of cultural and contextual differences. He said that there is room for interpreters to add or reformulate renditions for the purpose of promoting communication and understanding of the audience. An example of this can be any mention of “drink afternoon tea” by a Western speaker. When this is interpreted into Korean for Korean audiences who are not familiar with this English custom, the interpreter can briefly add and explain the situation as “there’s a unique tradition in Britain where people drink tea together in the afternoon and socialize,” to clarify that the speaker implied more than the action of drinking tea in the afternoon per se. Although Rev. Kim did not see seminary-level education as a prerequisite for sermon interpreters, he underlined interpreters’ deep knowledge of the Bible, as well as Biblical terminologies and expressions, for successful communication that meets the expectation of the audience.

20.2.2

Interviews with other sermon interpreters

All seven interviewed sermon interpreters were relatively well-known in Korea for their high-profile interpreting in consecutive mode from English into Korean in Christian gatherings, held individually or jointly by Korean churches. These seven interpreters were interviewed separately one on one during 2011–2012. Among the seven interviewees, only one interviewee was a lay person and the 311

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remaining six were pastors (3), one seminary student (1), and missionaries (2). Six were men, while one was a woman. Five of them were in their 50s and the other two were each in their 30s and 40s. It was a reflection of the situation in which many of Korea’s renowned sermon interpreters in EnglishKorean consecutive mode are male pastors or pastors-to-be in their 50s and under. The individual one-on-one interviews confirmed that the sermon interpreters modelled themselves after Rev. Billy Kim’s interpretation of the 1973 Billy Graham Crusade in Korea. As a result, opinions on the best practice of sermon interpreting did not differ greatly from those of Rev. Kim, with an emphasis on faithful yet natural sounding fluent translation, speed, pliability to form unity with speaker, ownership, and a sense of mission or calling. However, some specific suggestions were made for training future sermon interpreters, and those that were reiterated often by interviewees can be summarized as follows (Shin, 2013, pp. 172–195): • Sermon interpreters should be knowledgeable of the Bible for accurate translation of the message. Training should focus on enhancing understanding of the Bible, Biblical contexts, and Bible terminologies and expressions. In this line, students should be encouraged to memorize most popular and often quoted verses in the Bible. • Sermon interpreters should become familiar with the distinct features of religious discourse and communication. Students should practice preaching and delivering sermons in order to effectively act as co-preachers or semi-preachers while interpreting. • Sermon interpreters should refine their interpreting skills and learn to respond quickly to unexpected situations, such as difficult words and long and/or dense sentences. Students should learn risk management in the interpreting event and use educated guesses when necessary, in order to preserve the speed and flow of the sermon. • Training should also focus on cultivating humble and flexible character that can easily accommodate various types of speakers and preaching styles with a sense of ownership. • Last but not least, sermon interpreters should be trained as “worshippers,” who can experience the presence of God. The interviewees emphasized understanding of the Bible along with pronunciation of major names in the Bible, people, places, and other proper nouns, as they are pronounced differently and cannot be transferred automatically. Since many Biblical terminologies in the Korean Bible originated from a wide array of Bible translations in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, as well as English and Chinese, this often cause difficulties in sermon interpreting, especially for those unfamiliar with the Bible. For example, “Eve,” the first woman, and “Rebecca” in the Old Testament are called Hah-wah and Libugah, respectively, in Korean. Also, as the Chinese language heavily influenced early Korean Bible translation and churches, many expressions come from the Chinese characters. For example, the book of Numbers in the Old Testament is called Minsuki, literally standing for “people-number-record” and meaning “record of numbers of people” in Chinese characters (民數記). That is why interviewees emphasized a separate training that is devoted to learning the pronunciation of proper names in the Bible. In addition, memorizing famous Bible verses was recommended as a way to accustom students to Bible expressions. One sermon interpreter added that memorizing some 200 most-loved Bible verses can empower interpreters and infuse a sense of authority and confidence. Since sermon interpreters should not passively transmit the utterances of the speaker but take an active role with a mindset of a co-preacher, training to foster sermon delivery skills was also highlighted. Considering the fact that basic interpreting training often involves public speaking practicum with understanding of interpreting as an “act of communication” (Snell-Hornby, 312

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1988, p.  44), training for preaching seems like a reasonable method in preparing for sermon interpreting. As preaching involves both verbal and nonverbal communication (Childers, 2005, p.  1), sermon interpreters should also be able to mirror not only verbal but also diverse nonverbal expressions of speakers in a sincere and convincing manner. The importance of non-verbal communication may explain in part the reasons why consecutive sermon interpreting in Korean churches are done mostly by pastors or seminary-trained students. For lively and effective sermon interpreting that promotes the flow of communication, training that centers around developing interpreting skills, which include prompt and appropriate response to unforeseen surprises and unexpected situations along with educated guesses based on the knowledge of the Bible and context, was underscored. Many interviewees also mentioned switching large numerical data spontaneously as one of main challenges in interpreting, and suggested separate training that concentrates on spontaneously interpreting large numbers. Aside from interpreting skills and strategies, the interviewed sermon interpreters underlined a sensitive pedagogic emphasis; namely, character and faith issues of interpreters. Sermon interpreters considered “pliability” as an important virtue of sermon interpreters and unanimously agreed that an arrogant and obstinate person would have difficulty fulfilling the role of interpreter if he/ she cannot follow the initiation of diverse types and approaches of speakers. Some of the words that interviewees used to describe the character and personality of sermon interpreters were “love toward speaker and audience,” “servant heart,” “good conductor (as in electricity),” “ability to subscribe to the heart and passion of the speaker,” and “empathy.” These qualities and features were also highlighted in a research study based in Finland that looked into church interpreters in simultaneous mode (Hokkanen, 2016). Meanwhile, testimonies were made that, when sermon interpreters practice standing before God and experience His presence, a supernatural power enables successful sermon interpreting. Rev. Kim also recalled that interpreting for Rev. Billy Graham in 1973 was one of those indescribable moments where he felt the strong power of God working.

20.3 User-expectations surveys on effective sermon interpreting Alongside interviews of sermon interpreters as service providers, an extensive six-page questionnaire survey with eighteen questions was made on service users. The survey aimed to look into user-expectations on sermon interpreting and interpreters in consecutive mode who stand visibly in front of the congregation on the pulpit with the speaker when translating into the Korean language.6 As this kind of questionnaire assessing sermon interpreting was previously unheard of in Korea, the questionnaire was mostly composed of closed-ended questions in order to invite respondents to answer with ease and trigger their thoughts. The closed-ended questions included two Likert-scale questions; namely, on the method of sermon interpreting and on the eligibility of interpreters, in which various criteria were given, and users were asked to rate each item on a five-point Likert scale (i.e. very important, important, average, not so important, or not important at all). To double-check consistency of the data and verify the rating, a sub-question was added, asking respondents to look at the list of criteria and prioritize them in importance and number them one, two, and three. The list of criteria was produced in reference to the existing studies on interpreting competences and conditions (Neubert, 2000; PACTE, 2011; Pöchhacker, 2004; Seleskovitch & Lederer, 1984).7 The list of criteria also incorporated the interview results from Korean sermon interpreters as introduced previously, as well as the researcher’s personal experience in sermon interpreting. In this survey, questionnaires were collected from 530 people. A majority of 407 questionnaires were from two major mega-size churches in Seoul and were conducted with the support 313

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and cooperation of relevant pastors in the church. The other 123 responses were collected from faith-related and education institutes. Of 530 respondents, 35 questionnaires were discarded due to incomplete and/or missing data, and the final number for analysis totaled 495. This chapter will direct attention to user-expectations on (a) interpreting method, or best practice of sermon interpreting, and (b) interpreter’s eligibility conditions, which were measured in Likert-scale formats, and elicit practical lessons that can be applied in training sermon interpreters. In addition, it will refer to the two open-ended questions that invited users to freely express their opinions on the most positive or negative experience of sermon interpreting, and look into ways to further improve sermon interpreting.

20.3.1

Opinion on interpreting method

Respondents were asked to rate and prioritize from the list of seven criteria on method for quality interpreting; namely, 1) fidelity to original message, 2) addition/deletion to promote understanding, 3) fluent delivery, 4) replication of speaker’s non-verbal communication, 5) use of Korean-style preaching style,8 6) speed, and 7) use of correct Biblical terminologies. The answers of 495 respondents on each of the criteria on the Likert-scaled question from “not important at all” (rating 1) to “very important” (rating 5) were as follows. The foregoing table shows that “fidelity to the original message” was underscored the most (4.71), followed by “fluent delivery” (4.47) and “use of correct terminologies” (4.41). Mirroring speaker’s “nonverbal communication” (3.92), “speed” (3.74) and “reformulating to promote understanding” (3.45) were also considered important. Of note, the “use of Korean-style preaching style” in sermon interpreting received the lowest rating (2.69). The importance of ST fidelity was evident in the following sub-question that asked respondents to prioritize the criteria. Respondents reaffirmed that fidelity was by far the number one priority for quality interpreting (71.7%), followed by fluent delivery (15.1%). As shown in Figure 20.1, respondents confirmed the prime importance of accurate rendition of ST.

20.3.2

Opinion on the eligibility of sermon interpreters

The lists of nine criteria on eligibility of sermon interpreters were comprised of 1) language competence, 2) knowledge of the Bible, 3) fluent interpreting skill, 4) confident voice and eye contact, 5) faith and spirituality, 6) personality, 7) passionate attitude and sense of calling, 8) position in church, and 9) relation with the church/organization. Aside from language competence, thematic and

Table 20.1 Important quality condition in sermon interpreting Criteria

Mean

① Fidelity to original message ② Minor additions and/or omissions to promote understanding ③ Fluent delivery ④ Echoing speaker’s nonverbal communication ⑤ Use of Korean-style preaching style ⑥ Speed ⑦ Use of correct Biblical terminologies

4.72 3.45 4.47 3.92 2.69 3.74 4.41

314

Standard deviation .493 .965 .658 .794 1.085 .904 .659

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14.1 29.1

Faith & Spirituality (29.1%) Interpreting Skill (28.5%)

28.3

Language (28.3%) Others (14.1%)

28.5

Figure 20.1 Most important quality condition of sermon interpreters

Table 20.2 Eligibility requirements for sermon interpreters

Language Subject Interpreting skill Faith

Church

① Language competence ② Knowledge of the Bible ③ Fluent interpreting skill ④ Confident voice and eye contact ⑤ Faith and spirituality ⑥ Personality ⑦ Passionate attitude and sense of calling ⑧ Position at church ⑨ Relation with the church (attendance, etc.)

Mean

Standard deviation

4.46 4.40 4.68 4.34 4.50 4.10 4.34 2.73 2.94

.728 .719 .555 .801 .677 .828 .742 1.143 1.236

contextual knowledge, interpreting skill, and delivery factors (e.g., voice and eye contact), which are some of the basic competences of interpreters, other conditions, such as faith and spirituality, personality, and passionate attitude and sense of calling, were added in light of the interviews with sermon interpreters. Position in church and relation with the church were included to examine whether users thought interpreters should have a certain position in the church and/or come from the same church in order to establish trust. The outcome of the survey on the importance of each eligibility criteria for sermon interpreters on the Likert-scale was as follows: Table 20.2 shows that respondents rated highest the “interpreting skills” (4.68), followed by “faith and spirituality” (4.50), “language competence” (4.46), and “knowledge of the Bible” (4.40) as qualification for sermon interpreters. Along with delivery-related criteria, such as voice, eye contact, passionate attitude, that were underlined (4.34), the “personality” issue also received a relatively high rating of 4.10. On the other hand, interpreters’ “position at church” and “relation with the church” were considered not so important (2.73 and 2.94, respectively). When respondents were additionally asked to put the qualities in the order of importance to double-check the result, 29.1% of respondents marked “faith and spirituality” as the most important quality, followed by “interpreting skills” (28.5%) and “language competence” (28.3%). 315

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13.2 Fidelity (71.7%) 15.1 Fluent Delivery (15.1%) 71.7 Others (13.2%)

Figure 20.2 Most important eligibility requirement of sermon interpreters

As shown in Figure 20.2 and together with the Likert-scale question, respondents emphasized faith, interpreting, and language skills of interpreters at a more-or-less equal level. While further studies may be necessary to verify the reason for the slightly different result between the initial Likert-scale question and the sub-question on prioritizing importance, it can be interpreted as audiences underlining both the importance of the “sermon” aspect (faith-related) and the “interpreting” aspect (interpreting skill) in sermon interpreting.

20.3.3

Comments from open-ended questions and the issue of fidelity

Many answers to open-ended questions also highlighted the importance of faithfully transferring the core message of the speaker. However, many elaborated further that it should be done in a manner that communicated the message effectively. Comments were made from open question that fidelity did not mean literal interpretation but a reformulation for the sake of accuracy with the awareness of cultural and language differences. Of note, the issue of fidelity in sermon interpreting was examined in the author’s paper in 2019, titled “A Study on Fidelity in Sermon Interpreting: Implication from Sermon Interpreting of Billy Graham Korea Crusade 1973” (written in Korean). This paper argued that sermon interpreting involved what the author called “dual loyalty,” i.e., loyalty to the speaker (or the preacher) and to the word of God (Bible). Sermon interpreters need to communicate fluently and accurately not only the idea of the speaker that is anchored in the Bible but also the Bible itself as it is the foundation of the message. Considering the fact that loyalty to the core idea of the Bible as the para-text is only possible with subject area knowledge, users confirmed that the interpreter’s deep understanding of the Bible and, correspondingly, their ability to correctly use Biblical terminologies were an indisputable cornerstone of sermon interpreting. Furthermore, respondents evaluated highly those examples of sermon interpreting that made them feel like they were receiving the message directly from the speaker and not through the interpreter. Through the open-ended questions, words and phrases such as “semi-preacher,” “holy channel or conduit,” and “representation of God’s Word” appeared often to describe expectations of sermon interpreters. While the meaning and metaphors of “semi-preacher” and “holy channel or conduit” may differ, the survey result showed that users expected both speaker and interpreter to actively participate in delivering the divine message. These findings validate Furmanek’s call for 316

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“co-performance” as “co-preacher” (Tipton & Furmanek, 2016, pp. 241–245) and Downie’s expression of moving from “preaching through interpreters to preaching with interpreters” (Downie, 2014, p. 66). One unusual finding, however, was a regular mention of words such as meek character, humble attitude, courteous attitude, servanthood approach in explaining the relationship between the interpreter and speaker. Respondents underscored the need for interpreter to respect the speaker and not steal the spotlight. In this vein, some commented that the interpreter should support the preacher and try not to attract attention through excessive verbal and nonverbal expressions. Once again, conditions that were cited most often in the open questions as indispensable for high-quality sermon interpreting were as follows (translated into English by the researcher): • • • • • • • • •

Faithful and accurate translation with awareness of cultural difference. Natural-sounding and not mechanical, word-to-word translation. Full understanding of the Bible and Biblical context. Usage of correct Biblical expressions and terminologies. Lively and speedy interpreting that does not hinder the flow of the sermon. Unity between speaker and interpreter, as if one person is speaking. Exact reproduction of speaker in terms of voice pitch, speed, volume, and gesture. Confident and passionate verbal and facial expression of interpreter. Interpreter’s spirituality and humble attitude.

In summary, the survey on user-expectations confirmed faith, knowledge of the Bible, interpreting, and delivery skills as the basic components of competent sermon interpreting. Also, users commended interpreters who mirrored the speaker both in terms of verbal and nonverbal communication and who gave the impression that the audiences were receiving the message directly from the speaker and not through a mediator. The user-expectation for the humble character of sermon interpreters was in line with the comments made by the interviewed sermon interpreters and one which makes sermon interpreting distinct from other types of interpreting. In the meantime, there were also comments that sermon interpreters should be recognized as a unique and separate profession and be fostered accordingly.

20.4

Implication for training sermon interpreters and model curriculum 20.4.1

Implication for training sermon interpreters

The results from the interviews and questionnaire surveys showed common areas that are important in sermon interpreting. Based on the outcome and also backed by the Bible, three big pedagogical emphases can be extracted and introduced as 3 Fs: Fidelity, Fluency, and Faith. First is the emphasis on fidelity to the original message (ST) whose significance was repeatedly underlined by users. The Bible also strictly forbids distortion and alteration, as in, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it” (Deuteronomy 4:2)9 and “Until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18), among others.10 In addition, Koreans tend to be extra cautious when it comes to interpreting the Bible, whether by preachers or interpreters, as many Koreans witnessed numerous incidents of Christianity-related religious sects that misled and exploited believers, ultimately causing social problems.11 Therefore, training that strictly adheres to the message of the preacher, with the underlying assumption that the sermon and 317

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the Bible do not contradict each other, must be emphasized. For accurate interpreting, interpreters’ knowledge and understanding of the Bible and Biblical contexts are pivotal. Second is the emphasis on fluency for high-quality sermon interpreting. Service users in the survey expressed that sermon interpreting was most effective when unity between the speaker and the interpreter was achieved and gave the impression of being a single entity. The Bible also includes an incident of best practice, if not prototype of sermon interpreting, that appears in the well-known story of the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt. When Moses strongly protested to God at the Burning Bush against the mission of delivering the Israelites from oppression in Egypt, asserting that he was not an eloquent speaker (Exodus 3:11), God reassured that Moses’ brother Aaron will accompany him, who “will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth” (Exodus 4:16). Teaching interpreters to interpret skillfully and fluently, as if they were the mouth of the speaker, should be the ultimate goals of training. Unlike conference or community interpreting that advocate the interpreter’s impartiality as the code of ethics, sermon interpreting dethrones the concept of neutrality and advocates passionate and sincere delivery with a sense of ownership. This is inevitably one of the most outstanding features of sermon interpreting that leads to the third emphasis—i.e., the faith and character issues of interpreters. Faith was unquestionably highlighted in the interviews and surveys as the basic and core requirement of sermon interpreters, especially in consecutive mode, where the interpreter stands visibly in front of the congregation. Although faith is difficult to measure, users seemed to assess it in terms of the character and attitude of interpreters. As can be seen from comments in the open question, users called for a humble, sincere, and servant like attitude from interpreters. This may be related to the verses in the Bible that urge “whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Although faith and character are difficult to improve within one or two years of training, students need to be reminded continuously that, unlike other types of interpreting, successful sermon interpreting goes beyond interpreting skills per se.

20.4.2

Model curriculum

Handong Global University (HGU)12, situated in Pohang, on the east coast of the Korean peninsula, is the only interpreting and translating graduate school with a curriculum that corresponds to the demands of interpreting and translating Christian texts. While the university offers a master’s program that trains professional translators and conference interpreters, students are mostly Christians, or at least, interested in Christian faith. Korean-English is the only language combination provided by the university. The author designed and launched sermon interpreting classes at HGU from the fall semester of 2004 based on the actual simultaneous interpreting experience at a church service every week. With awareness that sermon interpreting differed somewhat from other fields of interpreting, the curriculum was modified continuously and improved to suit the purpose of sermon interpreting, being mindful of promoting fidelity to the message, fluency in delivery, and faith of interpreters. The academic year consists of two semesters of sixteen weeks each, and students are trained in both translation and conference interpreting for the duration of four semesters. Two consecutive mandatory courses that aim to train sermon interpreters take place in the second and third semester. The first and basic course, which is conducted in the second semester, centers more on lectures, while the second and more advanced course, which is available in the third semester, focuses on refining interpreting and delivery skills in both consecutive and simultaneous mode. Students are trained with an emphasis on language and delivery aspects, along with the faith aspect. In the case of simultaneous interpreting, the 318

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sermon scripts, either full or summarized versions, are provided ahead of time to give students time to prepare and grasp the core message in advance. This is done to remind students that they should at least be aware of the gist of the sermon and do some preparation before going into the interpreting booth, more so when interpreting sermon texts that are viewed as divine messages. Training for language enhancement is integrated throughout the course. Each class is two hours long. In the introductory course, lectures are made on topics such as the Bible, church history, and church calendar to enhance students’ understanding of the Bible, Biblical contexts, and expressions. Students are required to read the Bible (part of the Old Testament and the whole New Testament in the first and second course, respectively) and memorize major verses in the Bible. Although the introductory course allocates more time for lectures, lectures are often short and brief in order to secure time for interpreting drills. In relation to practicing interpreting, both in consecutive and simultaneous mode, each student’s interpreting performance is discussed among peers and the lecturer, where strengths and weaknesses

Table 20.3 Basic outline and contents of the sermon interpreting courses  

Focus

Assignments

Introductory course (Lecture centered)

Lectures - Introduction to features of sermon interpreting - Introduction to the Bible and the gospel - Introduction to Old Testament (OT) and terminologies - Introduction to New Testament (NT) and terminologies - Introduction to Intertestamental period - Introduction to church history - Introduction to Korean church history - Introduction to Church calendar - Introduction to church and worship service terminologies - Introduction to basic prayer expressions

- Memorizing some of the mostquoted Bible verses in OT - Individual reading of OT (Pentateuch and historical books) and regular submission of reflection paper - Summary/Paraphrasing of English sermons

Advanced course (Practice-centered)

- Practice interpreting sermons and prayer, both consecutively and simultaneously, with emphasis on accuracy and de-verbalization for high-quality sermon interpreting - Practice maintaining composure in tricky and difficult situations such as speed, long and dense sentences, and unfamiliar expressions (especially in simultaneous interpreting exercise)

- Memorizing some of the mostquoted Bible verses in New Testament (NT) - Individual reading of NT and regular submission of reflection paper - Summary/Paraphrasing of English sermons

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are identified and areas for further improvement are suggested. In the case of consecutive interpreting, students practice standing in front of an audience and interpret, mindful of their delivery such as voice, eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, and other nonverbal communication. Students also learn to maintain their composure and manage unexpected situations concerning high-density speech segments and unfamiliar expressions. In this line, students are asked to watch and monitor video clips of sermon interpreting in large-size Korean churches that are available online and refer to some of the interpreting strategies. In the case of simultaneous interpreting, students learn to interpret naturally from Korean to English, despite the different grammar of the two languages. The method and approach of simultaneous interpreting training is similar to that of training for conference interpreters. Taking into account the faith factor, mini-devotion is included at the beginning of each class in which students prepare a short prayer and select a praise song to sing together. Sometimes, parts of Psalms in the Bible are read together and devotions on the Bible are shared to remind each other of the importance of having a worshipping heart before learning the techniques of sermon interpreting. Also, students take turns to give their own personal testimonies, which are then interpreted by peers, either consecutively or simultaneously. Students are fortunate to have some Korean churches near the university in Pohang city that invite students to provide simultaneous interpreting service in their Sunday worship for foreign students and visitors to the church. This enhances relevance of the curriculum, and the actual sermons and Biblical speeches in the church are used as training material. The end-of-semester course evaluations show that the courses help students to prepare effectively for the actual sermon interpreting environment and situation.

20.5

Conclusion

This chapter looked into the conditions for high-quality sermon interpreting and the methods of training interpreters in this field, based on the results of interviews with sermon interpreters and a user-expectation survey. The interviews and survey showed that three major conditions are crucial for sermon interpreting: fidelity and accurate rendition to the original message, fluency in delivery, and faith of interpreters. Although the first two aspects are common conditions for all type of interpreting, the third aspect (faith) can be viewed as a unique aspect pertaining to sermon interpreting. The user-expectations surveys confirmed that sermon interpreters should not mechanically transmit verbal and linguistic factors in the communication process. These observations have many implications for training sermon interpreters. While training for simultaneous interpreting did not differ greatly from that of conference interpreting, training for consecutive interpreting emphasized both verbal and nonverbal aspects of communication, in order to convey the message accurately, in a convincing manner, with a sense of ownership. Most of all, training sermon interpreters should be directed not only to increase the knowledge of the Bible and interpreting skills but also to continuously remind students of the importance of faith, empathy, and a servant heart for successful sermon interpreting.

Notes * This chapter is based on the author’s previous studies, including doctoral thesis (Shin, 2013). 1 Many terminologies can be used to describe interpreting that occurs in religious settings, such as “church interpreting” and “sermon interpreting.” In this chapter, “sermon interpreting” will be used as sermon is a central discourse in Protestant church services, and the unique quality of interpreting in religious setting is manifested most evidently when interpreting sermons.

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On training sermon interpreters 2 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has testimony and Youtube video that introduces Billy Graham’s Seoul (Korea)’s crusade as legendary, such as www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQDLjd57vdE. and billygraham.org/ story/seoul-south-korea-a-look-back-at-billy-grahams-largest-ever-crusade/ 3 Rev. Billy Kim is currently Chairman of Korea’s Far East Broadcasting Company and former President of the Baptist World Alliance (2000–2005). 4 From BGEA’s video Still Looking Up (Feb.10, 2011). However, statistics tend to differ by publication and record somewhere between 36,000 to 100,000. 5 www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQDLjd57vdE 6 Face-to-face questionnaire surveys were conducted for two months during October and November of 2012, in four places (churches and Christian institutions) that actively invited foreign speakers annually and had sermon interpreters translate for the Korean congregation. The survey consisted of eighteen questions, which looked into how users view interpreter-mediated sermon preaching (1), eligibility of sermon interpreter (1), best practice (method) of sermon interpreting (2), the relationship between sermon interpreter and speaker (1), interpreter’s desired position at church (1), age scope (1), gender (1), payment issue (1), and open questions on positive and/or negative experience of sermon interpreting (1), suggestions for improvement (1), and finally, demographic data of the respondents (7). 7 The usefulness of these criteria is often questioned by some scholars (i.e. Downie, 2016; Eraslan, 2011; Vuorikoski, 1998). The precise discussion of this issue will be a subject for future research. 8 The “use of Korean-style preaching” referred to a situation when the interpreter undertakes verbal reformulation quite separately from the speaker in an effort to invite a response from the audience and add exuberance to the atmosphere of the service. Examples of this format are as follows. • •

Preacher: “It is important that you believe.” Interpreter: “Say ‘amen’ if you believe!” (Back translation from Korean)

A more indirect approach, yet still inviting the “amen” response in agreement is as follows. • •

9 10 11 12

Preacher: “God loves us.” Interpreter: “I pray that you believe in God’s love!” (Back translation from Korean)

Such a discourse style, which is often typically found among Korean evangelists, was added to the list, as some of the interviewed Korean sermon interpreters supported such communication approaches in interpreting foreign sermons into Korean. All Bible verses are quoted from the translation of English Standard Version (ESV) See also Deuteronomy 12:32, Proverbs 30:6, Galatians 1:8–9; Revelations 22:19. http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx? aid=2989684 For more information, visit www.handong.edu

References Balci, T. A. (2016). The interpreter’s involvement in a translated institution: A case study of sermon interpreting. Doctoral thesis, Rovira i Virigili University. Childers, J. (2005). Making connections: Preaching as theatre. The Journal of Religion and Theatre, 4, 1–7. Downie, J. (2014). Toward a homiletic of sermon interpreting. The Journal of the Evangelical Homiletics Society, 14(2), 62–69. Downie, J. (2016). Stakeholder expectations of interpreters: A multi-site, multi-method approach. Doctoral thesis. Heriot-Watt University. Eraslan, S. (2011). International knowledge transfer in Turkey: The consecutive interpreter’s role in context. Doctoral thesis. Rovira I Virgili University. Harkness, N. (2017). Transducing a sermon, inducing conversion: Billy Graham, Billy Kim and the 1973 Crusade in Seoul. Representations, 137(1), 112–142. Hokkanen, S. (2016). To serve and to experience an autoethnographic study of simultaneous church interpreting. Doctoral thesis. Tampere University. Karlik, J. (2013). Interpreter-mediated bible readings from English into Manjaku in a group of Gambian churches. Doctoral thesis. University of Leeds. Neubert, A. (2000). Competence in language, in languages, and in translation. In C. Schaffner & B. Adab (Eds.), Developing translation competence (pp. 3–18).

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Hayne Shin 신혜인 John Benjamins.-PACTE Group. (2011). Results of the validation of the PACTE translation competence model: Translation problems and translation competence. In C. Alvstad, et al. (Eds.), Methods and strategies of process research: Integrative approaches in translation studies (pp. 317–343). John Benjamin. Pöchhacker, F. (2004). Introducing interpreting studies. London: Routledge. Pollock, J. (1979). Billy Graham, evangelist to the world: An authorized biography of the decisive years. New York: Harper & Row. Rayman, J. (2007). Visions of equality: Translating power in a deaf sermonette. The Sign Language Translator and Interpreter, 1(1), 73–114. Seleskovitch, D., et Lederer, M. (1984). Interpréter pour traduire. Paris: Didier erudition. Shin, H. (2013). A research study on sermon interpreting in Korean churches. Doctoral thesis. Ewha W. University (in Korean). Shin, H. (2019). A study on fidelity in sermon interpreting: Implication from sermon interpreting of Billy Graham Korea crusade 1973. The Korean Association for Translation Studies, 20(3), 67–89 (in Korean). Snell-Hornby, M. (1988). Translation studies: An integrated approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Tipton, R., & Furmanek, O. (2016). Dialogue interpreting: A guide to interpreting in public services and community. London: Routledge. Vuorikoski, A. (1998). User responses to simultaneous interpreting. In B. Lynne, et al. (Eds.), Unity in diversity? Current trends in translation studies. Manchester: St. Jerome. InternetBilly Graham Evangelistic Association (2018, February 9). Seoul, South Korea: Billy Graham’s largest ever crusade. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQDLjd57vdE Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (2019, June 3). A look back at Billy Graham’s largest ever crusade. Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Stories. billygraham.org/story/seoul-south-korea-a-look-back-at-billygrahams-largest-ever-crusade/

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21 UNWRITTEN RULES AND INDISPENSABLE TOOLS Cultural aspects of Korean interpreting Anastasia Guryeva

21.1

Introduction

The role of the interpreter in the success of intercultural contacts, the scope of the interpreter’s functions, and the range of necessary skills have all been the subject of academic research, producing numerous academic works, related theories, and practical manuals. One of the issues to which special attention has been given is that of the communicative skills of an interpreter, with a key factor being awareness of intercultural issues. Lee-Jahnke writes: “Nowadays an interpreter is prepared not only for linguistic transition between two languages, but more and more for intercultural communication” (Lee-Jahnke, 2006, p. 64 in Garbovsky, 2012, p. 38). It is in the nature of the interpreting process that “the translating and coordinating aspects are simultaneously present, and one does not exclude the other” (Wadensjö, 1998, pp. 82,105 in Eraslan Gercek, 2008, p. 6). This statement has been questioned in the context of consecutive interpreting at conferences, but related research shows that, even in those settings, cultural mediation is still very important (al-Zahran, 2007). Conference interpreting is characterized by strict time restraints, providing only short windows of opportunity for commenting or other ways of introducing the participants to culturally conditioned content implied by speakers but not verbally expressed, as well as the unavoidable character of semantical losses caused by such an interpretative setting. The importance of cultural bridging is not always fully realized by the participants of any intercultural communication event, expecting the interpreter to be just a “scrupulous translator” (term by Marrone, 1993, pp. 38–9 in Eraslan Gercek, 2008, p. 8). As Eraslan Gercek’s research on the role of the interpreter shows, “expectations that the interpreter should explain cultural values ranked low among users, while most interpreters in the survey think that such explanations are a crucial part of the interpreter’s task” (Eraslan Gercek, 2008, p. 9). At the same time, one can hardly oppose the proposition that, in the process of communication, a lot is determined not only by the factual information transmitted and received but by how this information is perceived by the representative parties. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the success of communication depends on the general impression the parties have of each other, and the pure information is only an element among a mass of large and small factors creating it. In this situation, the perception of the information and the reaction to it, as well as the way this reaction is exposed, is founded on multiple individual specifics of the interlocutors, which, in turn, have a

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DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-25

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lot to do with their cultural backgrounds. Intercultural communication, as a science, systemizes and explains cultural features involved in communication, demonstrating how these features become a key clue for any participant in a communicative situation with a representative of another culture. Mediating cultural specifics that accompany the language may become a determining factor in successful communication,1 thus making it especially important to study the traits the interpreter should be concerned with in relation to each particular language and culture. The following case, which the author observed, can serve as an illustration for the foregoing: An offer to participate in a project comes from a Korean party. The answer from the counterpart is positive but contains the comment: ‘Could you specify the exact deadlines as I am currently very busy and must make sure that I will be able to keep the time guidelines.’ No reaction from the Korean side follows, and after questioning on the matter, the reply comes: ‘We understood that your busy schedule does not allow you to participate, so we already contacted someone else.’ In a culture avoiding straight negative answers, the comment about being busy was taken to be a polite way of rejecting the offer. In the present chapter, the author will ponder various cultural aspects of Korean2 interpreting. The significance of culture in the context of interpreting has been subject for research in Korean academic circles,3 as well as in Korean studies outside Korea, touching upon general theory issues, certain language pairs, as well as working with certain cultural contents.4 The main purpose of this work is to trace and to align some principal points that interpreters are to use as a foundation for coming up with proper linguistic decisions. While it makes references to the theory of intercultural communication, the text is expected to have a primarily practical orientation. Its main purpose is the systematization of cultural specifics invaluable for the forming of professional Korean interpreting skills. Though the training issues will not be tackled separately, the author would like to include people involved in the educational process in the target audience of the chapter aiming to trace and illustrate the cultural features that are necessary to be known at any point of communication with Koreans. Such features relate to other significant elements of communication (for example, etiquette), becoming a kind of “set of unwritten rules,” and following them serves as an indispensable tool for reaching mutual understanding between the parties. Focusing on Korean communicative culture, the paper centers around its pivotal aspects and uses concrete language material not only to illustrate the problematic points but also to provide answers for the questions raised as well as a set of tools to apply. Some cultural/linguistic features are explained also with the help of actual cases. The cases used for illustration are mostly taken from the author’s own experience of communicating with Koreans, including interpreting (since 1999)5 and observing others’ interpreting situations. Having in mind the importance of the cultural references of the nonKorean interlocutor, the author chooses those cases that have more of a general character and can illustrate the phenomenon of cultural gap or demonstrate certain specifics of Korean culture in the first place. For ethical reasons, the exact titles, names, and other data will be omitted. The examples will be set in English, though originally, the Russian language was used in many of the described situations. The chapter discusses predominantly specifics of Korean communicational culture, while the necessity for an interpreter to respect also the cultural perspective of the other party is being assumed. Arguing for the necessity of intercultural, along with linguistic, mediation, we are going to concentrate our attention mostly on cases when the intercultural competence of the interpreter can and should be applied without question. Such cases include, though are not limited to, a wide range of situations when the parties are in the initial stages of establishing their relationship (common for South Koreans searching for new partners abroad), at the stage of forming a long-term partnership, or are working on a certain project (including multilateral ones). Another common purpose of a 324

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visit, in the case of Koreans, is to learn some practice or system in the country being visited. Some highly formal cases will also be considered. Additionally, the chapter considers the wider framework of the expected role performance of the interpreter. The range of situations to be considered includes cases (which are rather common), when an interpreter is expected to advise; for example, a client may ask an interpreter to explain the reaction of their interlocutor counterpart; to analyze the perspectives of the potential partnership; to estimate the level of the counterpart’s interest. Another situation is when the interpreter accompanies a delegation for the whole day, and naturally, is asked to comment on the surroundings or to translate for a guide when sightseeing. Various aspects of verbal and nonverbal communication, starting with concepts laying the foundation of Korean communicative culture, are examined and serve as the principle of the chapter’s structural organization. After an introductory discussion of the importance of communication in Korean culture with regard to key communicative concepts, both nonverbal communication and verbal communication (etiquette and phatic6 expressions, lexeme semantics, grammatic tools) will be examined, followed by notes on background knowledge and extra-lingual activity.

21.2

The importance of communication in Korean culture

There are several concepts coined within Korean communicative culture as its main elements: chemyeon (체면), gibun (기분), bunwigi (분위기), and nunchi (눈치). Chemyeon—literally meaning “face”: this concept is one of the most well-known among the four, comprising the idea of a person’s dignity. It is important for interlocutors to respect each other’s face. Chemyeon is considered one of the more important tools in conflict resolution (see, for example, Kim & Yang, 2011). Gibun can be translated as “mood,” but as a concept, it is much more profound. Crane writes that “This is one of the most important factors influencing conduct and relations with others” (Crane, 1999, p. 25). Bunwigi, “atmosphere,” is the factor determining the general state of relations in a group or amongst the participants in a situation. While all the foregoing elements are needed in order to properly maintain relations in a group, for an individual, it is important to develop nunchi—an ability to grasp the situation and adequately react on it. This instrument helps to save one’s face (chemyeon) as well as the faces of others, to create a proper mood (gibun) and to maintain the general atmosphere (bunwigi). Interpersonal contacts as well as cooperative projects are often evaluated in these terms, serving the regulators of communication. Another main characteristic of Korean culture that relates to interpreting is that it belongs to “highcontext cultures,” as opposed to “low-context cultures.” The term was introduced by Edward Hall as a part of his theory on intercultural communication. Here is Hall’s definition: “A high-context (HP) communication is one in which most of the information is either in the physical context or internalized in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message” (Hall, 1989, p. 91). Most of the features commented on in the discussion that follows somehow relate to the high-context character of Korean culture. We will discuss them according to the importance of both of the contexts drawn by Hall; that is, relating to the verbal expression and to the nonverbal one. In the analysis that follows, we will consider them separately.

21.2.1

Nonverbal expression

Nonverbal etiquette is not the main focus of the chapter, but as it comes first in any communication, including intercultural communication, a short comment is appropriate. What matters as much as 325

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verbal skills is the ability of an interpreter to grasp specifics of the nonverbal communication elements, such as kinesics (body motions), tacesics (related to touch (Kauffman, 1971)), proxemics (“the study of people’s perception and use of personal space” (Hess, 2016, p. 208)), social cues, and so on. Especially in Korean culture, placing a special emphasis on etiquette (and originally, ritual), a counterpart is often judged by criteria related to politeness, and the latter also has both verbal and nonverbal aspects. The beginning of communication usually consists of greetings, introductions, and the sharing of basic information. The rules for the verbal part of this procedure are usually easy to find in multiple manuals. As for the nonverbal aspect, there are also several rules recommended to be followed at the first stage of communicating with Koreans. Among those: using two hands when giving and receiving something, bows (the bowing degree is also a part of the etiquette), exchange of namecards, then attentive reading of the text on the received card, and so on. The interpreter is not only supposed to know these rules and follow them but to be able to consult on this matter as well as to explain the cultural differences during this stage of communication. This is also an important part in training interpreters, and, indeed, in teaching the Korean language in any context. Difference in handshake intensity can serve as an illustration of how nonverbal aspects can affect communication. In the book Ugly Koreans, Ugly Americans (in which Americans probably represent the majority of Westerners), one can find an illustration and a comment on the loose and weak handshake habitual for Koreans, in opposition to an active and physically strong one for Americans (Min, 2004, p.  94). The Korean party may inquire of the interpreter the reasons for such an intense handshake, sometimes even taking it as a hint of dominance. If explained as a sign of a warm welcome, this difference may be turned from an obstacle into a tool of successful communication. Chronemics (time perception) is an aspect belonging to nonverbal communication, but it relates to verbal expression as well. The manner of delivering speech and its logic can serve as an illustration. During negotiations, Korean participants tend to deliver their message step by step, gradually getting to the main point. The speech portions may include examples, references, illustrations, and so on. Counterparts not familiar with these specifics may take each portion for the finished thought, giving replies for the portions before the Korean protagonist has expressed their complete idea. In such cases, if given an opportunity, the interpreter can regulate the situation by giving a hint to the non-Korean party. It can also become a part of the information explained during preparatory consulting. Regarding manner of speech, as Kopczyński states, many of the client respondents prefer that “interpreters should empathise with the speaker and imitate his/her tempo and voice intensity, but not gestures” (Kopczyński, 1994, p. 195 in al-Zahran, 2007, p. 141). In the case of Korean interpreting, that may not be enough. The difference of tone or the intensity of the emotional element in speech also may become a factor of miscommunication. The difference may need to be eliminated if it may cause misunderstanding. When the difference is meaningful and is endowed with a certain message, it is the job of the interpreter to find the equivalent tone and other means in order to convey the message correctly.7 Differences in perception of protocol during formal meetings can also be examined in relation to chronemics. One of the common differences encountered during meetings with Korean delegations arises from the way that Koreans tend to strictly follow a well-defined series of protocol components (this may be explained through the special place that ritual traditionally holds in Korean culture) that the (non-Korean) counterparts sometimes modify or even omit. One of the characteristic situations is the presentation of both parties during any official meeting at a table; this is a part that Koreans usually view as essential. As a rule, the representative of the Korean party starts the speech by introducing each of the participants (at least, the main ones). Meanwhile, for 326

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the sake of saving time, the other party may prefer to skip this part, as lists of participants and labels with the names written on them are usually provided, and it is easy to identify each person at the table. Besides, as a means of ice-breaking and to make the atmosphere less constrained, the party hosting the Korean delegation may use a more informal way of introducing the team and even try to involve the visiting party into a more relaxed dialogue. This may make the Korean party feel uncomfortable, provoking attempts on their part to fit the official presentation into a free and more specific conversation. As for the introduction, for Koreans, it usually consists of formal, set phrases prepared beforehand, while the non-Korean counterparts may prefer a less formal, more spontaneous manner for its sincerity, with the intention to make the guests feel special and individualized. The foregoing points belong to many features that an interpreter may be asked to comment on or to explain as well as to introduce to the client if a preliminary consultation takes place. As we may see, many nonverbal elements cannot be fully separated from verbal expression. In the following analysis, we will concentrate on verbal communication.

21.2.2

Verbal expression

As is widely known, the complex politeness system in the Korean language basically does not allow a speaker to say a phrase without having to choose the appropriate form, which, in particular, requires correlation of the interlocutors’ statuses as well as many other subtleties. Brown states: “Korean is well known as a language with a particularly complex honorific system, especially in the domain of addressee honorification, where between four and seven levels of politeness are distinguished, depending on the researcher, in the modern language” (Brown & Whitman, 2015, p. 127). The basic self-introduction “My name is . . . ” can be translated into Korean with different “my” and with different “is” in the variety of the speech styles. In this regard, the transmitted text should be adapted to Korean verbal etiquette rules. When starting a job, one of the first and most complicated challenges an interpreter encounters is that of how to address a person. The common English forms “Mister or Ms.” in most cases should be replaced with a more specific Korean variant, which an interpreter should choose from a seemingly endless list of statuses and titles. The basic rules for the use of personal names make the choice even more difficult: in Korean, a name without a status added after it is usually used either when addressing people without status (mostly children) or when the status is not relevant (mostly with friends). Besides, status is often used instead of a name. In this regard, it can be recommended to an interpreter to obtain a list of all potential Korean participants in advance and then to prepare for interpreting the addressing variants for each of the persons on the list. The Korean tradition of detailed homepages, provided not only for institutions but separately for projects and even sometimes just for events, is very useful for interpreters searching for actual information on the participants. Besides, it gives an opportunity to recheck the names themselves, as misspellings and odd transcriptions can also be an obstacle for correct addressing. For all of the foregoing, name-cards received during the first part of the meeting are usually helpful, but not in the situation when a Korean party hands over an English-language variant with a not-very-precise “Director” or “Manager” on it, both which have several Korean equivalents. Addressing through family terms is another issue to take into consideration. It is widely known that equivalents for naming close relatives abeoji/abeonim (아버지/아버님) father, eomeoni/ eomeonim어머니/어머님mother, hyeong(nim) 형(님) older brother, nuna / nunim 누나/누님 older sister) are often applied not only to family members but to people in the same social circle, especially when informal relations arise. It is important for the interpreter to be attentive to this in order to 327

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find the right equivalent as well as the proper tone conveying the level of informality and a suitable range of other emotions implied (tenderness, intimacy, respect, etc.). Discussing one’s family is one more task to be carefully considered. Among numerous examples is that, when addressing children, it is polite to demonstrate respect to the interlocutor by adding the esteemed nim (님) to the respective word, as in ttal–ttanim (딸–따님daughter—the daughter of respected yours though literally it is translated as “your respected daughter,” or adeul-adeunim아 들 – 아드님son—the son of respected yours, literally “your respected son”). At the same time, it will barely be proper to convey the rudeness of the expression uri nom (우리 놈), “our bastard,” Koreans commonly use when they speak about their own children while talking to someone of a higher status. In such a case, this form of address also serves as a tool of demonstrating respect to the counterpart. Likewise, one should be careful when using the word samonim (사모님), standing for the wife of an esteemed person. In certain contexts, when addressing a woman who has her own status besides being somebody’s wife, this word may sound disrespectful. When addressing a group of people, Koreans typically use the word yeoreobun (여러분), usually translated as “Ladies and gentlemen.” At the same time, this address can be varied by adding different definitions that contain sentiment: jongyeonghaneun yeoreobun (존경하는 여러분), dear ladies and gentlemen; chamseokhasin yeoreobun (참석하신 여러분), dear participants of; sonnim yeoreobun (손 님 여러분), dear guests; etc. Translating forms of address from a source language into Korean can also be a challenge. Case: During a lecture in a service centre, attended by a visiting Korean director, the speaker, aiming to establish a warm atmosphere, addresses the local audience, as usual, as ‘dear friends.’ The literal translation of ‘friends’ is chingu (친구): For a Korean this form of address to a group of people, especially including elders, sounds impolite and for the Korean observer it was distressing, as it must surely result in the atmosphere being ruined. It is important to find an equivalent which would not break the basics of etiquette, and at the same time preserving the relaxing hint of less formal expression to demonstrate care and personally-oriented attention. In this case as well as in a similar setting, the variant 친애하는 여러분 (chinaehaneun yeoreobun) could have been suitable as it conveys the idea of closeness (친 親 chin) and love (애 愛 ae – meaning ‘love’ in contemporary language, and originally in Classical Chinese meaning ‘to cherish somebody,’ which is close to care).

21.2.3

Etiquette phrases

There are plenty of words and expressions with a clear phatic function, but omitting them in Korean translation makes one’s speech sound coarse. The expression meonjeo gagesseumnida (먼저 가겠습니 다), literally meaning “I will go first,” is an example of a phrase related to a certain etiquette rule. In Korean culture, it is not polite to leave a gathering earlier than others. In the professional sphere, it also applies to leaving one’s workplace earlier than one’s superior. Therefore, in case someone is not going to wait for others to leave a place of common gathering, it is important to use this expression. As it may sound odd in case of a literal translation, it may be appropriate to reformulate it as “I am sorry, I need to go” or maybe even omit it. And in the opposite direction, if not used in the source language, it should be added in the Korean translation. Another similar expression is danyeoogesseumnida (다녀오겠습니다). Its literal translation, “I will go and then come back,” is not as natural as its situational equivalent, “I won’t be long/I’ll be back soon,” which, in certain situations, will be necessary for Koreans, while being optional in English. 328

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Another example is the lexeme deokbune (덕분에), meaning “owing to/thanks to.” It is often used as part of the reply to a question about how things have been going. The literal translation of the phrase, “thanks to you,” sounds unnatural, especially considering the fact that it may be used as an answer to someone whom the speaker has not seen for years. The less awkward variant for interpreting this phrase would be to convey the sentiment behind it, expressing appreciation for the attention and involvement: “Thanks for asking/Thank you for your care/interest” and suchlike. At the same time, this is one of those cases when the interpreter should not forget to input this phrase into the Korean translation of the client’s reply in a relevant situation. Nevertheless, it is widely known and commented on by Koreans themselves that some common phrases should not be taken literally. One of the illustrative examples set by Korean instructors during educational seminars for foreigners is the proposal to meet and eat together (eonje hanbeon siksareul hamkke halkkayo? 언제 한번 식사를 함께 할까요? “Shall we meet and eat together sometime?” and similar invitations). This phrase is rather a demonstration of a kind attitude, and basically, just a vague wish-to-do-something-nice-together, than a real invitation, as both parties should understand that it would be difficult in a hectically paced life. The same may be said about the phrase often accompanying the exchange of name-cards: “If you come to Korea (or any specific place in Korea), contact me (Hanguge/ . . . -e osimyeon yellak juseyo 한국에/ . . . 에 오시면 연 락 주세요).” At the same time, it would be wrong to generalize and say that the speaker using this kind of phrase never wishes to suggest a real opportunity to meet. If the conversation continues in a more specific direction with mentions of real times, places, and other details, it may definitely be a sign of the “non-phatic” character of the common phrase. It is the task of the interpreter to convey these nuances to the party not familiar with this specific aspect of Korean communicative culture. Some etiquette phrases serve also as peculiar cases of word usage in Korean. The simple-looking word jal (잘), “well,” is an illustrative example of a device capable of expressing multiple meanings. We will list, as follows, only some of them to demonstrate the variety of nuances embedded in this basic word: a) Expressing thankfulness. In this case, both the past tense form and the form with the modal suffix -get- (-겠-) can be used but in different situations. Meireul jal badasseumnida 메일을 잘 받았습니다 (lit. “I received the email well”), “Thank you for your letter [which you sent me].” Jal meokkesseumnida 잘 먹겠습니다 (lit. “I will eat well”) is an etiquette phrase, which the guest who is treated to a meal is supposed to use before eating. Jal seugesseumida잘 쓰겠습니다 is used as an equivalent of “Thank you for the present (as I will enjoy using it).” Basically, these expressions also can be interpreted as “Thank you” without further clarifications, which can sound redundant. But when translating “Thank you” into Korean, it is important to consider the context and add the necessary expressions of the foregoing kind in order to convey the same level of politeness. b) Expressing approval of the counterpart’s action. It is important to note common word combinations. Such phrases as Jal wasseumnida잘 왔습니다 (lit. “You came well”), “You did well to come,” and Jal haesseumnida잘 했습니다 (lit. “You did well”), “Well done,” should be used as fixed expressions. 329

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c) A greeting: Jal danyeoosipsio잘 다녀오십시오 (lit. “Go and return well”), “Have a safe trip/ Good luck” (depending on where the counterpart is going); Jal swisipsio 잘 쉬십시오 (lit. “Rest well”), “Have a good rest.” d) A part of fixed expressions: Chuwireul/Deowireul jal tada 추위를/더위를 잘 타다 (lit. “Take on cold or heat well”), meaning “not being able to withstand cold/heat.” Though not belonging to etiquette expressions, these phrases still have a relation to politeness because they serve as a reason to apologize for such a weakness.8 In the next section, we will take a separate look at word usage related to politeness and other cultural specifics.

21.2.4 Semantics of individual words Ter-Minasova writes: “Cases of word equivalence arising both in their full semantics and in their use in speech are found extremely rarely” (Ter-Minasova, 2000, p. 51). In this regard, an incorrect word translation can become an obstacle to communication. Owing to a significant number of Sino-Korean words, the Korean language has a rich vocabulary able to convey subtle nuances. This causes noticeable differences in word usage when, for one or two words in some other language, there are at least twice as many variants in Korean, many of them being unreplaceable semantically. But even the choice between two similar lexemes is not an easy task. This is a common factor causing misunderstandings in the process of interpreting. For a better understanding of these specifics, in the analysis that follows, we will examine several examples of similar words and comment on their cultural aspects. a) Daerip대립/daejo대조 Though translated differently in dictionaries, these two words are still similar enough to be confused with one another. Despite the first syllable being the same, the second one makes the key difference. Thus, in the first word, daerip, the idea of standing face to face makes this word close to the English “confrontation” and implies conflict. In the second lexeme, daejo (often translated as “contrast”), the syllable with the meaning “harmony” in the second position appeals to one of the core concepts of East Asian culture: a harmonious unification of two oppositions. The concept of harmony serves as the foundation for a great number of classical Korean texts and still remains the way for conflict resolution in contemporary culture (for example, in popular Korean TV-dramas). Therefore, the word daerip emphasizes the idea of opposition in a conflicting relation, and daejo implies that the conflicting elements will come to a harmonic resolution. Case9: During an academic discussion on Korean mythology, the word daerip was chosen for the English ‘conflict,’ which caused misunderstanding and non-acceptance of a foreign speaker’s theory. After detecting the mistake and replacing the word daerip with the word daejo, an understanding was reached, and the participants agreed with the speaker’s idea. As pointed out above, according to Korean literary tradition, including myths, the attaining and preserving of harmony is of crucial importance, while the variant daerip has the opposite connotation. In a less abstract context, especially if human relations are involved, confusion of the two words may cause a more serious miscommunication. 330

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b) Bulpyeonhada불편하다/mianhada 미안하다/eosaekhada어색하다 The first word usually appears as a variant for conveying the idea of being “inconvenient” as well as “uncomfortable.” At the same time, in Korean, there are separate lexemes reflecting different aspects of these meanings, and it is unusual for a more general variant to be used instead. Especially important in the context of Korean culture is the relation of the word mianhada (미안하다) to etiquette. As a reply to an offer or a favor, it is polite to say that one feels uncomfortable accepting it, and the word mianhada (미안하다) serves this purpose. The choice of the first word bulpyeonhada (불편하다) brings the connotation of personal inconvenience and may sound like an impolite rejection of the offer. The third word, eosaekhada (어색하다), also meaning “uncomfortable,” usually represents an emotion of feeling awkward, odd, and not fitting the general atmosphere (used, for example, to express the incorrect choice of an expression in language). Thus, if it is applied instead of the phatic mianhada, the phrase may create an impression of feeling odd because of receiving an exact offer and become a communicative barrier. Thus, the choice among three similar words carries communicative importance. c) Swida 쉬다/nolda 놀다 The former word, literally meaning “to have a rest,” is usually applied to a passive rest as well as to a pause or break in activity. The latter, literally meaning “to play,” basically stands for “not working” and includes a wide range of leisure activities. As the Japanese language variants of these words hold the same difference with respect to English (and other European languages) as Korean, it may be helpful to refer to the novel Tokyo Fiancée by the Belgian writer Amelie Nothomb, in which there arises a miscommunication related to these lexemes: A francophone narrator is trying to maintain a dialogue with her Japanese boyfriend and his pals and discusses the activities they prefer for leisure. She hears that they like to play and inquires what game or what instruments they like to play. As other lexemes are used for these cases, the Japanese counterparts do not understand her. The origin of the word nolda 놀다, often translated literally as “to play,” traces its roots to a philosophical concept of Ancient Chinese culture: “to enjoy idleness” (遊) (Alekseev, 1916). The profound meaning of this concept, comprising various aspects from social to individual, makes the contemporary equivalent multifunctional. d) Mullon(ida) 물론(이다)/danyeonhada당연하다 or geurota그렇다 In some cases, Korean variants for a source language lexeme may include whole phrases with grammatic markers. They may not have an obvious relation with the intended semantics, but failure to use the particular variant implying the required semantics may cause a communication failure. An illustrative example is the complicated choice of variants for the seemingly simple English “of course.” The word mullon 물론, most commonly associated with this English expression, is actually used predominantly as an introductory word (for example, Mullon, igeotto jungyohan geosimnida 물 론, 이것도 중요한 것입니다 “Of course, this is also important”). At the same time, if used as a reply, it may sound offensive (as if pointing to the obvious character of the question). Therefore, the answer mullonimnida (물론입니다) should not be used by a junior towards a superior. Similarly, in an answer, the word dangyeonhada (당연하다), “naturally,” is usually used in informal speech and can also bring up a negative sentiment (as if to say that a question refers to something that should be naturally known). It is this lexeme, which entered the slang forms: dangeuniji (당근이지) (similar 331

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to dangyeonhaji 당연하지, where the ending –ji- (-지-) has the function of emphasis or exclamation). The optimal expression of the English “of course” is geureota (그렇다) (one of its meanings being “to be so”). It is important to note that, in informal speech, this predicate is often used for emphasis with the ending -ji(yo)- (-지(요)), or the substantive form geureom(yo) (그럼(요)), while, in formal speech, emotions are redundant and no separate markers for emphasis are applied. Thus, the most generalized variants of reply, which would convey the meaning of the English “of course” (or its variants in many other languages), are: geureochi(yo)/geureom(yo) (그렇지(요)/그럼(요)) for an informal expression, and geureosseumnida (그렇습니다) for a formal one. e) 음/양 Eum/yang (Yin/Yang) in language Some Korean lexemes reflect a dual character of a phenomenon, while their close equivalents in English do not. For example, “elevator/lift vs seungganggi승강기,” where the Korean word explicitly implies that the machine can be used for both going up and coming down. In the context of Korean culture, this potential of some lexemes is explained through the concept of the two oppositions Yin and Yang. In high school education, these specifics are presented as an advantage of the Korean language (Traditional Ethics, 2006). In some interpreting situations, there is a significant need to choose between the lexical unit reflecting both aspects of a phenomenon at the same time, or, on the contrary, a shortened lexeme reflecting only one of them. For example, “Exit/Entrance vs churipgu 출입구”: containing the syllables meaning “exit” and “entrance,” respectively, the Korean word implies the possibility to use a single door as an exit and as an entrance at the same time (Traditional Ethics, 2006). Depending on the situation, it may be more exact to use the word with either one of the syllables and specify whether the speaker means exit or entrance only. f) Bab 밥/ppang빵 Some words have metonymic character with a cultural component. For example, the word bap (밥), “rice,” can stand also for food in general as well as for the Korean style of eating, with the word ppang (빵), “bread,” marking Western food culture. Case: A foreign subsidiary of a Korean company, run by a Korean manager, provided no specific lunch-time for local employees who were supposed to take opportunities of short breaks allowing only to use hot water for coffee/tea from the boiler with a sandwich or a snack. The employees addressed the Korean manager with a request to change this situation, using the argument ‘we can’t keep going on bread anymore.’ In a culture where sandwiches are associated with a snack as opposed to a normal meal, this argument implied a request for an opportunity to have hot food. This phrase, translated directly and without comment, was taken by the manager as a change in the employees’ eating habits, turning to prefer Korean rice to western bread. This interpretation can be explained by the usual understanding of bread as the staple food (jusik 주식) for many westerners just as rice is for Koreans and for many of their neighbors. It is quite a reasonable interpretation considering the advantages which Koreans associate with rice. Jeong Kyeong-jo writes ‘The Korean Rice-Based Staple Food Culture has had much effect on the development of community spirit, and the flexibility to foreigners.’ (Jeong, 2018, p. 309). Therefore, the request for a longer breaktime, or better equipment, was misunderstood, despite the fact that the interpretation made by the Korean manager took cultural differences into account. 332

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21.2.5

Indirect expression

Korean culture is a high-context culture, implying that there is a high level of implicit meanings, and the meaning of a phrase may not be the same as its explicit expression. One of the significant consequences of this factor is the avoidance of direct expression and preferring circumlocutory ways of saying something. Koreans tend to apply a wide range of instruments to deliver the message in as mild a form as possible. In expressing one’s opinion, in giving recommendations, and especially, in giving negative answers, various linguistic tools help to mitigate the message in Korean. These can be lexical tools (e.g., jom 좀 a little bit, hoksi 혹시 by chance), grammatical tools (-neun/(eu)n geot gatta -는/(으)ㄴ 것 같 다, – ji aneulkka sipta -지 않을까 싶다, – neundeyo -는데요 etc.), not to speak of intonation10 and sometimes gestures and facial expressions. When translating into Korean, it is important not to leave the message “plain,” and so insufficiently polite. Naturally, it still depends on the situation; there may be cases when mitigation is not appropriate and the speaker intends the rigid meaning of an expression. Let us see some examples of common mitigated Korean phrases in the following Table. The last example in the Table deserves special attention as one of the most common phrases used to convey a refusal to do something. Whatever emotion comes with it (“I do not want to do it,” “I do not care about it,” “I am not able to do it,” “I am not allowed to do it,” or, the closest to the explicit wording, “It is too difficult for me”), this answer is given as clearly negative and normally requires no further discussion. At the same time, the literal interpretation can be easily taken as just a piece of information for discussion. Hearing about “a little bit difficult,” counterparts start giving suggestions about how to Table 21.1 Examples of mitigated phrases Korean phrase

Literal meaning

Implied meaning

Igeon jom geureosseumnida 이건 좀 그렇습니다 Ige jom anin geot gasseumnida 이게 좀 아닌 것 같습니다

This is a little bit like this.

Jom mani apeumnida 좀 많이 아픕니다 Jom jal hamnida 좀 잘 합니다 Jom butakdeurimnida 좀 부탁드립니다 Hasyeoya dwel geot gasseumnida 하셔야 될 것 같습니다 Hasineun ge joheul geot gasseumnida 하시는 게 좋을 것 같습니다

I am a little bit in much pain.

Gasigesseumnkka? 가시겠습니까? Jeo gillo gasijiyo 저 길로 가시지요 Jom eoryeoul geot gasseumnida 좀 어려울 것 같습니다

Would you like to go?

Mitigating negative attitude: This is not good. Mitigating negative attitude: This is not what (how) it should be. Mitigating own negative situation: It really hurts. Mitigating own advantages: I am good at it. Mitigating the request: Please. Mitigating the recommendation: You must do it. Mitigating the recommendation: You should do it (can be replaced with the previous variant). Mitigating the order: Go/Let’s go. Mitigating the order: Go there. Giving negative answer: It is impossible to do it

I guess, this is a little bit not it.

I am a little bit good in doing it. I ask you a little bit. It seems to me that you will have to do it. It seems to me that it will be better if you do it.

Maybe you go this way. I guess it will be a little bit difficult to do

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overcome those minor difficulties and why efforts should be put to do it, while it may sound annoying for the Korean party, who already expressed the final decision. The same specifics can be considered also in the opposite direction (as was exemplified in the first case in the introduction). As Lee Haiyoung explains, when communicating with foreigners, Koreans are sensitive to politeness-related mistakes, especially when concerning the expression of refusal, and tend to associate them with the interlocutor’s original manners. Based on an experiment, she concludes: “Pragmatic errors of learners could be misapprehended as a personality issue, and the native speakers of Korean were more sensitive to the messages conveyed by the non-native speakers rather than the grammatical accuracy” (Lee Haiyoung, 2009, p. 226). Apart from mitigating the negative or excessive aspects of a message, it is important to put every phrase on the necessary level of politeness, as if “dressing it up” to sound reverential enough. At the same time, a superfluous expression can break the informality built between the parties. It is the job of the interpreter to gauge the atmosphere and other aspects of the communicative situation in order to deliver the message in an appropriate style. Transmitting this style adequately is another task. Choosing between polite and neutral lexical variants, grammatical forms, and applying various stylistic means are all part of skillful interpreting. Compare the following two variants for formulating the same idea: 1 Baegopeusijiyo? Peurogeuraemi kkeunnamyeon jeomsimsiksaga itgesseumnida. 배고프시지요? 프로그램이 끝나면 점심식사가 있겠습니다. “Aren’t you hungry? After the program it will be lunch-time.” 2 Sijanghasijiyo? Iljeongeul machisin daeum jinjireul deusil gihwega maryeondweeo isseumnida. 시장하시죠? 일정을 마차신 다음 오찬이 있을 예정입니다. “You must be hungry. After you finish the program, there will be a (specially prepared) opportunity to have a meal (all in a reverential form).” Both variants are applicable (and there can be yet more ways to express the same idea), but their choice depends on the complex specifics of the given situation. Another aspect concerning culture and relating to grammar concerns cases when the meaning of the form strictly depends on intonation. Grammatical forms of this group deserve special attention and demand exactness. An illustrative example is the form –(neun/n)dani/rani –(는/ㄴ)다니/라니, which may be used to quote somebody, but may also convey a sentiment of perplexity when hearing something odd. Let’s compare two examples, with the first two words coinciding: Magameun toyoilirani sigani isseumnida (마감이 토요일이라니 시간이 있습니다), “As they say that the deadline is Saturday, we have time.” Magameum toyoirirani . . . (마감이 토요일이라니 . . .), “What did you say? The deadline is Saturday?” (meaning “it sounds strange to me”). A very widely used form belonging to this group is: -janayo—(-잖아(요)). As it refers to something the listener presumably should know, or even to common sense, the phrase may sound like a reproach, or as too explicit a way of reminding of—or even imposing—something. For the same reason, the common expression asidasipi (아시다시피), “as you know,” used in a personal dialogue, may sound not polite enough, though, depending on the context, it is also used to reaffirm common knowledge between the interlocutors. All of the foregoing forms can negatively affect the face (chemyeon) of the interlocutor, as the speaker is impolite enough to make the listener feel embarrassed (if applied with a wrong intonation). 334

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An interpreter should be especially careful in applying forms of this kind to avoid a mistake, and in a situation when it may be perceived as being ambiguous, should be inclined to opt for some other means of delivery. However, it is important to understand them and to differentiate their meaning, depending on the Korean speaker’s intonation. Despite the importance of intonation, grammatical tools in Korean often convey meanings, which, in other languages, are expressed through lexical or even prosodic features, as grammar markers take a significant part of the emotional scheme of a phrase. There are many cases when a grammatical form reflects the main meaning of the phrase, so the interpreter should be attentive enough to hear the subtleties and to find the most appropriate form. The following example illustrates the polysemy and, therefore, the multifunctional character of some grammatical forms. The grammatical device –(eu)n/neunde –(으)ㄴ/는데 belongs to widely used forms in both formal and informal speech styles conveying various semantics: a) Introductory: Naneun Hanguge chuljangeul ganeunde piryohasin ge eobnayo? 나는 한국에 출장을 가는데 필요하신 게 없나요? “I am going on a business trip to Korea. Do you need anything?” Oneul nalssiga chuunde gongweone gaji malkkayo? 오늘 날씨가 추운데 공원에 가지 말까요? “Today is rather cold. Shall we not go to the park?” b) Concessive: Babeul mani meogeonneunde tto baegopayo. 밥을 많이 먹었는데 또 배고파요. “I ate a lot, but I am still hungry.” Bupumeul jumunhaenneunde deo piryohaneyo. 부품을 주문했는데 더 필요하네요. “I ordered components, but more are needed.” c) Concessive implying apology: Moreugenneundeyo 모르겠는데요 “[I am sorry, but] I don’t know.” Piryohasin sajeoni eobneundaeyo. 필요하신 사전이 없는데요. “[I am afraid] we don’t have the dictionary you need.” Uri samusireun eeokeoni jom ganghandeyo. 우리 사무실은 에어컨이 좀 강한데요 “The air-conditioning is too strong in our office [so you must feel uncomfortable, I feel bad about it, but can’t help it].” d) Indirect refusal: Kkok geureochi aneundeyo. 꼭 그렇지 않은데요 “It is not necessarily so [I can’t agree with you].” Oneul naega jom bappeundeyo. 335

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오늘 내가 좀 바쁜데요. “Today I am a bit busy [so you should not ask me to give up my time].” e) Variety of implications: Gagyeogi jom bissandeyo. 가격이 좀 비싼데요. “The price is very high [so are you sure you can afford it?]/[Could I have a discount?].” Masi jom eomneundeyo. 맛이 좀 없는데요. “It is not very tasty [why are you ordering it?]/[I would not recommend it].” f) Giving turn to speak to the counterpart: Eoje gwangjueoseo osin sonnimeul mannanneundeyo. 어제 광주에서 오신 손님을 만났는데요. “Yesterday I met guests from Gwangju [you must be interested to know more about it, you can go ahead and ask me].” Igeon jom bissandeyo. 이건 좀 비싼데요. “The price is very high [so do not hesitate to ask for a different one].” Considering the foregoing grammar examples, though rather obvious for a specialist, is useful not only for training interpreters but also in general Korean language training. Thus, it can help students form a special approach: first, to recheck things that seem obvious, to be aware of possible differences in semantics of similar words and expressions; second, to be attentive to nuances and to take into account the cultural context of a translated text, thinking of its significance in various communicative situations. All of the foregoing are fundamental for developing professional skills.

21.3

Background knowledge

Proper interpreting requires a whole range of knowledge of the related country. In various discourses, Korean speakers refer to the history of their country, input proverbs, cite famous people and exemplify literary works, apply metaphors11, and make use of abundant phraseology. The latter is not always used as a tool for enriching expression but also as the main semantic unit, and a big part of it contains elements relating to Korean culture as well. For example, guksureul meokda (국수를 먹 다) (literally “to eat Korean noodles guksu”), meaning “to get married,” or bagajireul sseuda (바가지 를 쓰다) (literally “to wear a gourd”) means “to get overcharged/fooled.” Transmitting analogous elements of one’s own culture into Korean is also not a simple task. Besides, an interpreter may be expected to exhibit background knowledge in the process of translation. Case During a business conference, upon receiving a question about Korean literature, a Korean representative asks the interpreter for advice, with the comment that someone who majored in Korean studies should give a better reply corresponding to the perception of the audience. However well-prepared, any interpreter encounters an unlimited range of situations demanding creative thinking, wit, and, of course, intercultural competence. 336

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There are cases when interpreting may intentionally differ from the original. Especially when it concerns a situation when reality in the two cultures or background knowledge of the interlocutors differ significantly or do “not correspond to any reality they have experienced” (Reeves, 1994, p. 42 in Eraslan Gercek, 2008, p.  8). The right “to intervene actively, change the original speech, add explanations or omit” parts of speech (Eraslan Gercek, 2008, p. 8) in such situations contributes to the success of the cultural encounter. A good illustrative example comes from interpreting guided excursions. The content explained by guides does not always correlate with the level of its perception by the listeners. An abundance of names and of details about historical events not only makes this perception difficult but also affects any willingness to learn them. In such cases, the interpreter should find a way to intensify the listeners’ interest; this might be advising the guide or adding some extra details in the story in order to create “liaisons” between events recounted by the guide. To be able to carry out such multiple tasks, an interpreter should also develop the skill of working with information. Garbovsky writes: “The search for necessary information of thematic, semantic, historical, stylistic and other character has always been one of the main elements of the translating process” (Garbovsky, 2016, p. 41).

21.4

Extra-linguistic activity: cultural consulting

In this part of the chapter, we will briefly tackle another important part of the activity of interpreting. In the case of a long-term partnership or some lasting projects, interpreters are sometimes expected to become a part of it. This means not only regular interpreting during meetings with (potential) Korean partners, but also participating in general project maintenance. It may include written correspondence, decisions on the format of some steps, and other matters. Consulting is one of the most important functions performed by the interpreter. Indeed, this is one of the areas where the intercultural competence of the interpreter has a significant impact. Some special features of nonverbal character, having a significant importance for an interpreter working with Korean, are explained as follows.

21.4.1

Planning (long-term orientation) and avoidance of uncertainty

This is one of the “cultural dimensions” defined by Geert Hofstede in his cultural and sociological study (Hofstede, 2011). Some specifics of Korean communicative culture have been explained in academic circles with regard to its agricultural traditions in certain geographical and climatic circumstances in a mountain territory. As is widely known, the importance of food reflected in the language (greetings, etc.), collectivism, and many more cultural specifics, trace their roots to the way of life of ancient Koreans. The emphasis placed on planning belongs to the same group of features. At the stage of preliminary discussion of a project, Koreans place great importance on having a detailed plan of each stage. This will even include situations in which it is difficult to know the schedule in advance. At the same time, in case the counterpart is reluctant to prepare a precise plan (e.g., on the basis of the impossibility to predict the circumstances determining the time), the Korean party may take it as a sign of reluctance to continue the project or an indication of lack of seriousness (Guryeva, 2016, p. 54).

21.4.2

Role of text

In Korean culture, part of the planning stage concerns the special importance attached, since ancient times, to texts. Priority of written text over oral speech is rather common in various cultures, but 337

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in Korean culture, it is especially prevalent. It is one of the reasons why Koreans put such emphasis on having detailed plans, such as the protocols of meetings and the fixing of all results, including preliminary ones. This is why they usually ask for the support of orally reached agreements through special written correspondence. The role of text also explains the importance placed onto various written materials—brochures, booklets, leaflets etc.—in both business and cultural spheres. The absence of such printed textual representations of activity is likely to be taken as a sign of lack of experience or even lack of expertise (Guryeva, 2016, pp. 54–55). An interpreter planning to work at the first meeting of two parties may be able to familiarize the client with all of these nuances. It may also be helpful, in terms of communication, to explain to the Korean party about differences in demands toward the representation of a company or an institution.

21.4.3

Specifics of written correspondence

There is a high probability for interpreters who work in the context of a long-term project to get involved in the translating of emails and other correspondence between the parties. In this situation, it is usually expected of an interpreter to be able to make texts culturally adapted. Clients not familiar with Korean etiquette may entrust an interpreter with the task of making a full text out of a certain question or answer. For example, maybe the client needs to find out whether certain documents have been received and assigns the task to send an email with this inquiry, and the interpreter creates a text with all the necessary greetings, etiquette expressions, and (when relevant) some informal phrases. This is possible when the interpreter has been regularly performing interpreting services for the project, has experience of communicating small talk between the parties, and has a grasp of the qualities of relations between them. Peculiarly enough, there is an “unwritten rule” to include notions regarding weather and nature into business correspondence. It is polite to ask the business question after comments about seasonal changes. Otherwise, the text may look too reserved.

21.4.4

Collective meal

For Koreans, the collective meal has an almost sacred significance. The list of reasons for this is long and can be traced back to roots from ancient times in types of agriculture and other social specifics. Various records of events dating back to the time of the first states on the Korean Peninsula demonstrate the ritual character of a shared meal as a symbolic embodiment of a wedding ritual. It also served to restore a relationship after a separation (Nikitina, 1982). In contemporary Korean culture, a shared meal remains one of the key tools for building ties, and is an important aspect in the development of relations between parties. The invitation to eat together after an official meeting can be made outside of the plan as a result of satisfaction at the current stage of negotiations, and serves as a sign of an intention to move to another stage of the relationship. Therefore, a rejection can be taken as a lack of mutual interest. There are situations when the decision to accept an invitation can be of crucial importance in terms of future partnership, and it should be understood by the party making this decision. In case negotiating with Koreans is a new experience for their counterpart, the interpreter may be the only source of information about these cultural specifics, playing a determinative role in the success of the whole process. To be precise in conveying the foregoing nuances, it is very important for an interpreter to rely on the various key concepts of Korean communication discussed in the beginning of the text: “face” 338

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chemyeon (체면), “mood” gibun (기분), “atmosphere” bunwigi (분위기), and nunchi (눈치). Besides, the language proficiency of the interpreter should include the ability to “read between the lines”— in order to fully grasp the speaker’s message and to properly convey it. This skill can be mastered through careful attention to the elements of the text and to elements accompanying it, developing skills of textual analysis with a reference to culture. In his theory of multi-measure analysis of text,12 Kurbanov calls it a “culturological dimension” of perceiving a text through discovering codes immanent in the related culture (Kurbanov, 2016, pp. 58–59). Apart from this, the necessity to keep a high level of native language skills and to know one’s own culture well enough should also not be underestimated. In the theory of translation and interpreting, plenty of mechanisms, techniques, and tools have been elaborated,13 and it is an interpreter’s mission to make them work when applied to a particular case.

21.5

Conclusion

With regard to the cultural specifics reflected in linguistic and extra-linguistic tools, it can be argued that an interpreter working with Korean acts as a cultural mediator, even when no comment or additional rendering is done. At the same time, Korean culture changes dynamically, with the language changing in tandem, bringing a diversity of practices and individualization of approaches. Very soon, we might have to describe new features becoming the unwritten rules of successful communication. And possibly, it will be interpreters who will create new bridges based on the reliable support of intercultural competence and built with the indispensable tools of profound understanding of texts and contexts.

Notes 1 Newmark writes: “communicative translation attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original” (Newmark, 1988, p.  41). For the overview of Translation and Interpreting related theories, see Pym (2018). 2 When referring to contemporary matters, “Korean” will mean “South Korean” if not specified otherwise. A comparison of specifics when interpreting with South Korea and with North Korea has been presented in Sukhinin (2018). 3 Some Korean scholars emphasize the importance of research related to communication in the context of “establishing the identity of Korean language and culture” (Ha Byeong-Hak 2006). 4 Cultural aspects of language are often discussed in the context of counselling interpreting for migrants (e.g., Lee, 2021) and other kinds of community interpreting. 5 The author belongs to a generation of Korean studies specialists in Russia whose student years fell in the early period after the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Republic of Korea, which created a high demand for interpreters. At that time, students and graduate students were involved in interpreting for important cultural projects, business talks, and a wide range of other events and meetings. This situation helped in the learning of foundational aspects as well as professional subtleties, through active personal experience. At the same time, for Korean studies at Saint Petersburg State University, the tradition of close reading and detailed analysis of any oral or written text has been one of the main principles of education and research (as a part of the Asian studies academic school in Russia). It served as a great help in the process of acquiring a variety of necessary interpreting skills based on an attentive respect for cultural differences, and the author is greatly thankful to all the specialists from whom she had the valuable chance to study. 6 Phatic expressions: non-informational expressions aimed to establish a better communication with the interlocutor. 7 For an examination of the elements involved in public speaking and relating them to interpreting skills, see Lim Hyang-Ok (2008). 8 The author would like to thank the associate professor of the Russian State University of Humanities, Dr. Maria Soldatova, for drawing attention to this example.

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Anastasia Guryeva 9 The author would like to express gratitude to a professor of Stockholm University, Dr. Sonja Haeussler, for explaining this case from the cultural perspective. 10 For an example of research on the relation between politeness and tone, see (Winter & Grawunder, 2009) 11 P. Newmark distinguishes six types of metaphors “in relation to their contextual factors and translation procedures” (Newmark, 1988, p. 100). 12 A profound approach to textual analysis, which allows the tracing of meanings in a multilayered text, is presented in Kurbanov 2016. The author would like to extend gratitude to Professor Sergey Kurbanov, Head of the Department of Korean studies at Saint Petersburg State University, for generously teaching methods and techniques discovering the opaque levels of culture in Korean texts and meta-texts, as well as valuable practical recommendations. 13 For a systematized explanation of principal ones serving a part of Translation and Interpreting training in Russia, see Pokholkova (2013).

References Alekseev, V. M. (1916). Chinese poem about the poet. Ssukong Tu's Stanzas [Китайская поэма о поэте. Стансы Сыкун Ту (837–908)]. Petrograd: Phototypy and Printing-House of A.F. Dressler. al-Zahran, A. (2007). The consecutive conference interpreter as intercultural mediator: A cognitive-pragmatic approach to the interpreter’s role. PhD dissertation. Salford. https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/2060 Brown, L., & Whitman, J. (2015). Honorifics and politeness in Korean. Korean Linguistics, 17(2), 127–131. http://doi.org/10.1075/kl.17.2.001int Crane, P. S. (1999). Korean Patterns. Seoul: Royal Asiatic Society. Korea Branch. Seoul Press. Eraslan Gercek, S. (2008). “Cultural mediator” or “scrupulous translator”? Revisiting role, context and culture in consecutive conference interpreting. In P. Boulogne (Ed.), Translation and its others. Selected papers of the CETRA research seminar in translation studies 2007. Leuven. http://www.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/papers.html Garbovsky, N. K. (2012). Seven issues of translation didactics: Skopos didactics of translation [Семь вопросов дидактики перевода или scopos- дидактика переводческой деятельности]. In Moscow university translation studies bulletin (Vol. 4, pp.  36–54). Moscow: Moscow State University. https://cyberleninka.ru/ article/n/sem-voprosov-didaktiki-perevoda-ili-scopos-didaktika-perevodcheskoy-deyatelnosti Garbovsky, N. K. (2016). Translation as a search activity. Post-machine translation: What is necessary to consider in training [Перевод как поисковая деятельность. Постмашинный перевод: что необходимо учитывать в обучении]. In A. A. Pogorelov (Ed.), The role of contemporary information technologies in enhancing of translation quality and developing effective communication: Collected papers of the conference 2016.02.26 (pp. 36–43). Saint Petersburg: President Library. Guryeva, A. A. (2016). Borderlines of conveyed meaning: On issues of cultural aspects of interpretation (basing on Korean) [Границы передаваемого смысла: к вопросу о культурологическом аспекте перевода (на примере корейского языка)]. In A. A. Pogorelov (Ed.), The role of contemporary information technologies in enhancing of translation quality and developing effective communication: Collected papers of the conference 2016.02.26 (pp. 52–56). Saint Petersburg: President Library. Ha, B.-H. (2006). Understanding Korean communication and culture through the analysis of differences between Asian and Western languages [동서양의 언어 차이 분석을 통한 한국인의 의사소통과 문화 이해]. In Academic conference of the international association of Korean language and literature (Vol. 2006, No. 5, pp. 5–19). Seoul: International Association of Korean Language and Literature. RISS 검색 – 국내학술지논문 상세보기 Hall, E. T. (1989). Beyond culture. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, and Auckland: Anchor Books, Doubleday. Hess, U. (2016). Nonverbal communication. In H. S. Friedman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of mental health (2nd ed., Vol. 3, pp. 208–218). Waltham, MA: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-397045-9.00218-4 Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing cultures: The Hofstede model in context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014 Jeong, K.-J. (2018). A study of Korean rice-based staple food culture [‘밥과 빵’ 주식(主食)문화가 낳은 한국 과 서양의 문화 차이]. In Hanguk sasang-gwa munhwa [Korean thought and culture] (Vol. 94, pp. 309–335). Seoul: The Society of Korean Thought and Culture. RISS 검색 – 국내학술지논문 상세보기 Kauffman, L. E. (1971 [2009]). Tacesics, the study of touch: A model for proxemic analysis. Semiotica, 4(2). DeGruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1971.4.2.149

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Unwritten rules and indispensable tools Kim, Y.-W., & Yang, J.-E. (2011). Face chemeyon, communication, and conflict resolution: Chemyeoncommunicative models, and search for communication opportunities. [체면, 소통 그리고 갈등해소: 체 면-소통모델과 소통의 가능성 모색]. In Materials of symposium and seminar of the Korean press association, 2011 (5) (in Korean). RISS 검색 – 국내학술지논문 상세보기 Kopczyński, A. (1994). Quality in conference interpreting: Some pragmatic problems. In M. Snell-Hornby, F. Pöchhacker, & K. Kaindl (Eds.), Translation studies – An interdiscipline (pp. 189–199). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Cited in al-Zahran, Aladdin, 2007. Kurbanov, S. O. (2016). Contemplations on historical science and the role of the individual in history (with Examples from History of Korea) [Размышления об исторической науке и роли личности в истории]. Saint Petersburg: Russian Christian Academy of Humanities. Lee, H. (2009). A study on the Korean native speakers’ acceptability of the non-native speakers’ refusal speech acts [외국인의 한국어 거절 화행에 대한 한국인의 반응 연구]. Journal of Korean Language Education, 20–22, 203–228. Lee, Y.-J. (2021). A fundamental study on Korean for counselling interpreting purposes in Korean language education in a multicultural society [다문화사회 한국어교육에서의 상담통역 한국어를 위한 기초 적 논의-이주민 상담통역 현황 관련 매체 기사를 중심으로]. Eomun nonch’ong (No. 38, pp. 145–187). Gwangju: Chonnam National University. RISS 검색 – 학술지 상세보기 Lee-Jahnke, H. (2006). The translator, a bridge between cultures [Le Traducteur, Passeur Entre les Cultures]. In M. Forstner & H. Lee-Jahnke (Eds.), CIUTI-forum. Paris 2005. Regards sur les Aspects Culturels de la Communication. Berne: Peter Lang SA, Editions Scientifiques Internationales. Cited in: Garbovsky Nikolai K. 2012. Lim, H.-O. (2008). The art of public speaking and the art of interpretation. FORUM, 6, 2. https://doi. org/10.1075/forum.6.2.07lim Marrone, S. (1993). Quality: A shared objective. The Interpreters’ Newsletter No. 5, 35–39 Cited in Eraslan Gercek Seyda, 2008. Min, B.-C. (2004). Ugly Koreans ugly Americans (cultural and behavioral differences between Koreans and Americans). Seoul: BCM Media. Newmark, P. (1988). Textbook of translation. New York: Prentice Hall. A Textbook of Translation by Peter Newmark (1).pdf (ilts.ir) Nikitina, M. I. (1982). Ancient Korean poetry in relation to myth and ritual [Древняя корейская поэзия в связи с ритуалом и мифом]. Moscow: Nauka. Pokholkova, E. A. (2013). Experience of the Korean department of the Moscow State Linguistic University in the Spheres of translation and translation studies [Наработки корейского отделения Московского государственного лингвистического университета в сфере перевода и переводоведения]. In Proceedings of the center for Korean language and culture (Issue 15, pp. 30–57). Saint Petersburg: Saint-Petersburg State University Press. Pym, A. (2018). Exploring translation theories. London and New York: Routledge. Translated by T. I. Kazakova, edited by A. V. Achkasov. Saint Petersburg: Saint-Petersburg State University Press. Reeves, N. B. R. (1994). Translating and interpreting as cultural intermediation – Some theoretical issues reconsidered. In R. K. Seymour & C. C. Liu (Eds.), Literary studies east and west, translation and interpreting: Bridging east and west, selected conference papers. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Sukhinin, V. E. (2018). Translation and Politics (based on Korean Language Material). [Перевод и политика (на материале корейского языка)]. In The DPRK and the ROK: The 70th anniversary of the foundation (pp. 346–357). Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Far Eastern Studies. Ter-Minasova, S. G. (2000). Language and intercultural communication. Moscow: Slovo. Traditional Ethics [정통윤리]. Textbook for High Schools. (2006). Seoul: State-approved Educational Literature Compilation Committee. Wadensjö, C. (1998). Interpreting as interaction. London and New York: Longman. Cited in Eraslan Gercek 2008. Winter, B., & Grawunder, S. (2009). The polite voice in Korean: Searching for acoustic correlates of contaymal and panmal. In Sang Yee Cheon (Ed.), Japanese/Korean Linguistics 19. https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/267425599

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22 KOREAN COURT INTERPRETING IN THE US History, obstacles, and advanced techniques Robert Holloway

22.1

Introduction

This chapter aims to examine how Korean court interpretation has developed across time and space in the United States, as well as the findings of a research study into challenges faced by active Korean court interpreters and interpreter trainers. The court interpretation research included an online survey as well as a phone interview. Three active trainers/court interpreters were interviewed or surveyed. Respondents were asked about the greatest challenges Korean court interpreters face in the courtroom while interpreting, including legal terminology, the speed at which individuals in the courtroom speak, emotional cases, etc., and were also asked about country-wide court interpreter exams. These responses, together with the author’s experience, were used to generate the following report, which identifies the top three challenges as well as methods Korean court interpreters in the US can employ to overcome these challenges. The section on deposition interpretation presents findings of interviews with six different active Korean deposition interpreters, in which they were asked about the greatest linguistic challenges they face when interpreting at depositions. Current and aspiring Korean court interpreters must take these results into account in order to maximize their expertise and survive in the US court interpretation market.

22.2

Methodology

The court interpretation study is a compilation of results from an interview and survey conducted with three active Korean court interpreters, in addition to the author’s courtroom experience. Combined, the individuals have over 40 years of experience, train other court interpreters, and have interpreted for diverse fields, including IP, personal injury, worker’s compensation, murder, etc., in both state and federal courts. The interview questions specific to this study are located in the appendix at the end of this chapter. The results used to produce the section on deposition were compiled through phone interviews with six active Korean deposition interpreters who also have experience in a variety of fields.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-26

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22.3

The history of court interpretation in the United States

Court interpretation in the United States had its beginnings in 1964 with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s passing of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, providing that: “no person in the United States shall, on the grounds of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” (Civil Rights under Federal Programs, 1964). This act in effect guarantees that, regardless of whether an individual speaks English fluently (or at all), they cannot be denied access to the services of the court. Meaning, they have the right to understand and make subsequent decisions with regards to matters in court. It then became possible for individuals whose English language skills aren’t proficient (“LEP,” or Limited English Proficiency) to receive the assistance of a court interpreter for courthouse matters. Since that time, court interpreters started to be utilized throughout the United States. However, cultivating an interpreter to be adequately skilled to interpret in court is not an easy feat. For this reason, court certification was born, but not until almost fifteen years later. The first regulation of the quality of interpretation in US courts occurred when the Federal Court Interpreters Act was passed in 1978 (Gonzalez et al., 1991). This legislation required that Spanish interpreters working in the federal courts demonstrate proficiency by passing a certification exam. (Mikkelson, 1999, Ch. 2, p. 3) This became a trend as California, New Mexico, New Jersey, and other states began establishing state court interpreter proficiency exams for interpreters. It then led to the creation of the “consortium.” “This trend accelerated in 1995 when the National Center for State Courts [NCSC] founded a consortium of states to pool resources for interpreter training and testing” (Mikkelson, 1999, Ch. 2, p.  3). NCSC has since been the entity responsible for court interpreter certification in the United States. Court interpreter certification tests evaluate interpreters’ ability to accurately and effectively interpret in court using the three modes of interpretation existent in court interpretation work: sight translation, consecutive interpretation, and the notoriously difficult “simultaneous” interpretation. The test in itself is exceptionally rigorous for all languages, with “an average of only 15% of test takers passing their first attempt without previous training” (de la Mora, 2022). There is also a federal court interpreter certification exam, also known as the “FCICE.” This exam, while more rigorous than State Certification, is not currently offered in the Korean language. Korean language interpreters, however, can become federally approved to interpret in Federal Courts in the US by meeting at least one of the following criteria: 1 A US Department of State Office of Language Services Interpreter (Seminar Level Interpreter or Conference Level Interpreter), 2 A United Nations Interpreter, 3 A current member in good standing of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) or The American Association of Language Specialists (TAALS). Today, court interpreters’ role may expand beyond the courtroom. Court interpreters may be seen interpreting for attorney/client meetings, witness preparation, and depositions, any of

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which may occur in person, via phone, or remotely via Zoom or another platform. Depositions aren’t an aspect of South Korea’s legal system, but they are a stage in the legal system of the United States. In US lawsuits both parties have the right to perform a formal investigation to find out more about the case. This information allows them to prepare a good strategy before entering the courtroom. A deposition is one type of investigation and it is the taking of an oral statement of a witness before trial under oath. The two greatest goals of a deposition are to find out what a witness knows and to preserve their testimony. (Holloway, 2020) Historically, certified Korean court interpreters have been difficult to acquire by courthouses because of a lack of interpreters who’ve passed the exam, which is largely due to the difficulty of the exam itself. For example, in the state of New Jersey from 2017 through 2021 eleven Korean language exams were conducted. Of those, seven (64%) failed and four (36%) New Jersey Courts. (2022a, February 9) failed but were conditionally approved. None passed. For that same time period, the average scores for each section were as follows: Sight translation—61%; Consecutive interpretation—57%; Simultaneous interpretation—44%. (New Jersey Courts, 2022b, February 9) With the exception of the sight-translation section, the Korean language average scores were the second lowest among French, Hatian Creole, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. (Vietnamese scores were the lowest.) But this situation isn’t isolated to just New Jersey, and over time, this has made it difficult for courthouses to locate interpreters who have accumulated the skills necessary to interpret effectively in court. In fact, this has become a major issue in the state of California, not just with Korean interpreters but with interpreters for all languages. California now has about 2,000 qualified court interpreters but still too few to handle the demand. Getting certified is a hurdle. Only about 10% pass the state examination. (Dolan, 2017) In relation to the difficulty of the exam, one of the interviewees referenced the need to have a more practical, courtroom-like approach to interpreter training to best prepare trainees for tests and the courtroom (see Challenges and solutions). Time and history have proven that it takes a substantial amount of practice, dedication, and expertise in order to become a certified Korean court interpreter.

22.4

Working in the field

Court interpreters are commonly requested to work calendar updates (which usually last less than fifteen minutes), hearings, and trials (which can last weeks). Calendar updates, hearings, and trials consist of simultaneous interpretation, which is the most common mode of interpretation used in court. Simultaneous interpretation is the most common kind of interpreting used in court . . . actual courtroom simultaneous interpretation you do will virtually always be from English into Korean. (Mikkelson, 1994, p. vii)

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Witness testimony, on the other hand, is conducted using consecutive interpretation because it is a situation “in which everyone in the courtroom needs to hear the interpretation” (Mikkelson, 1998, pp. 2–1). The interpreter’s version of a testimony is what goes on the record, so it calls for the highest level of accuracy. Unlike conference or business interpretation, court interpretation doesn’t allow for the flexibility of summarization; everything must be interpreted as-is, which makes court interpretation quite difficult. [A] very high standard of accuracy prevails in consecutive interpretation. Not only must you convey the content of the source-language message, but you must also convey structural elements of that message that are not contained in the words: pauses, tone of voice, stress, etc. Many interpreters regard consecutive as the most difficult mode of interpreting because it is so hard to retain all of these aspects of the source language message, particularly when a question or answer is very lengthy or is not entirely coherent (an unfortunate fact of life in court interpreting). (Mikkelson, 1998, pp. 2–1)

22.5

Korean court interpretation: challenges and solutions

There is an array of challenges that Korean court interpreters are statistically met with in the courtroom. Based on the responses from the three survey participants, the three most common challenges are terminology, the speed at which lawyers and judges speak, and idioms. This section will explore, in detail, each of these challenges as well as processes Korean interpreters can take in order to avoid or overcome them.

22.5.1

Terminology

Terminology and legal concepts used in court are quite different from those used colloquially and are made up of English, Latin, and French. For example, pro per (Latin) means to represent oneself without an attorney, or voir dire (French), which is a process that verifies the qualifications of a potential jury member. Interpreters must not only memorize the Korean equivalents of courtroom terms like these but must also understand the concepts themselves. The necessity of learning these large amounts of terms can be likened to initiating into a courtroom cultural language. The uninitiated would not be able to understand and may have to treat it as a foreign language. Not only this—interpreters may also be met with terminology from other fields and specialties, including IT, agriculture, intellectual property, biology, forensic pathology, and narcotics. One of the most frequent challenges for court interpreters can be the terminological precision of legal language, because legal terms differ from everyday English (Hale, 2007). According to Mellinkoff (1963), courtroom language can be dated back to its origins of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and French. He points out that court language is largely inaccessible to lay people due to its wordiness, lack of clarity, pompousness, and dullness. Other than legal language, court interpreters must have a wide range of vocabulary from a variety of domains, such as forensic pathology, chemistry, and narcotics, in case any relevant expert witnesses speak about these issues in the court. (Wang & Grant, n.d., p. 53)

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These all add another level and are akin to learning another language, although difficulty already exists for Korean-speakers with regards to learning the English language. Fortunately, there are Korean-language resources available to interpreters to allow them to become acquainted with courtroom vernacular. One resource is the Korean tape set for The Interpreter’s Edge, a book specifically designed for court interpreter trainees and instructors. Another is Washington State Court’s Korean Legal Glossary (Administrative Office of the Courts, 1994). These are perhaps the two most commonly used resources in Korean court interpreter training programs across the United States. Additionally, terminology becomes vital in the courtroom for interpreters because if an interpreter were unfamiliar with a word they’d have to stop and ask for its definition. Simply put, if an interpreter doesn’t know the meaning of a word, they can’t interpret it. However, there is minimal time to ask for such clarifications. This is due to the speed at which proceedings occur, which presents another challenge in itself and is explained in the following section. Judges and attorneys speak at very fast paces, anywhere from 160 to 180 words per minute, and interpreters are expected to be trained and know all terms. If an interpreter weren’t equipped with such terminology, they would not be able to keep up. The solution that the participants provided to this issue was to increase one’s vocabulary. However, they didn’t quote particular vocabulary words and legal concepts that Korean interpreters must be wary of, but rather, emphasized the need to become acquainted with as many as possible. Increasing one’s vocabulary can be achieved through a wide array of reading and watching documentaries so that one becomes familiar with what terminology to apply in a given situation. Essentially, court interpreters should be able to interpret terms, legal or not, swiftly and on command.

22.5.2

The speed at which attorneys and judges speak

Another challenge that Korean court interpreters in the US are faced with is the speed at which attorneys and judges speak. This section is referring to simultaneous interpretation specifically, which can present a challenge to certified Korean interpreters too. In court, judges and attorneys often speak at a pace upwards of 180 words per minute. However, the state court interpretation exam requires that interpreters are able to simultaneously and accurately render a passage which is given at 120 words per minute. So, if an interpreter were able to pass the exam, become certified, and were comfortable with interpreting simultaneously at a pace of 120 words per minute, it wouldn’t mean that they would have the necessary speed to interpret in the courtroom. Many of the proceedings are conducted at a rapid pace, as judges and attorneys are going through routine steps that they have done countless times before. (Mikkelson, 1998, pp. 1–1) Although it is possible for interpreters to request individuals to speak more slowly, the desired results aren’t always realized. This is because it is difficult for a person to change lifelong habits within minutes; specifically, the speed at which they speak. Another reason why desired results may not be realized is that judges and lawyers typically have multiple cases and hearings they are dealing with on any given day and with limited time. So, the tendency is to handle cases as expeditiously as possible. In order to interpret effectively in these circumstances, interpreters would, of course, need to be equipped with extensive knowledge of legal terminology, as referenced in the previous section. The solution to the issue of speed, the participants concluded, is large amounts of practice. Although 346

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the court interpreter exam’s simultaneous section is set at 120 words per minute, it would be wise for interpreters to practice at speeds upwards of 160 or 180 words per minute. Once an interpreter becomes adequate at interpreting at these speeds, interpreting for slower speakers will become much less challenging. Another practice method presented by a participant that could be utilized to overcome this wall was to read and interpret actual court transcripts and videos, and to observe actual cases at the courthouse. The most appropriate videos would be those that display actual courtroom settings and cases, with an emphasis on situations involving Korean defendants, plaintiffs, etc. As was stated earlier, proceedings are often conducted at a rapid pace because judges and attorneys are going through routine steps and sentences, which they’ve repeated countlessly before, so the tendency is to speed up. For example, an introductory sentence and closing paragraph used in traffic court one day will be the same, perhaps the exact same, as any other day, much like a template. Once interpreters become used to interpreting these various “templates,” they are very prepared to interpret effectively at high speed.

22.5.3

Idioms

The final challenge presented in this chapter is the interpretation of idioms and expressions. When interpreting between Korean and English, one must exhibit a keen understanding of both cultures, as solely interpreting verbatim doesn’t prove to be adequate. With regards to idioms in the court setting, verbatim interpretations are considered as a last resort, while equivalent expressions which carry the same core meaning are the first choice. It is the interpreter’s task to convey the meaning of the original message. Every language organizes meaning differently, and trying to find direct equivalents in two languages often leads to absurd results. For example, consider the English expression to hand down a ruling. To translate that literally into another language is likely to produce ludicrous results [.] (Mikkelson, 1998, pp. 1–1) If, in English, someone were to use the phrase “as straight as an arrow” to explain a person’s personality and it was interpreted verbatim as “활만큼 똑바로 되어 있다,” it would become an example of a ludicrous result that the foregoing citation is referring to. Being that the phrase refers to a candid person, “솔직하다” or something similar would be appropriate and would display the interpreter’s knowledge of English/American and Korean culture and vocabulary. While this is just one example, one can hear and observe the use of dozens, perhaps hundreds of idioms in the courtroom. Based on the interview/survey results, the solution to the issue of idioms is to not only observe actual court cases and read and interpret actual court transcripts and videos, like in dealing with fasttalking speakers, but also to make one’s own transcripts. In making one’s own transcripts, it forces the brain to identify and create the types of situations in which a certain idiom will apply, and in order to identify those situations, it requires one to have a high understanding of the idiom itself. These transcripts may include opening statements, closing arguments, witness testimonies, and sight translation documents. This approach is different from merely interpreting an already-existing script. It is similar to the difference between reading comprehension and writing.

22.6

Korean deposition interpretation: challenges and solutions

The following section explores deposition interpretation. Court interpreters of all languages in the US will, or at the very least, expect to be requested to interpret at legal depositions. In fact, legal 347

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depositions are so common that in languages of a higher demand, such as Spanish, interpreters may specialize strictly in deposition interpretation and cease activity in the courts, even though their initial training was for court interpretation. Depositions involve a witness (Korean speaker), one or two interpreters (one main interpreter and one check interpreter), and at least two opposing attorneys. Attorneys will ask questions to the witness, or “deponent,” and the witness will provide answers. Depositions as a standard are interpreted in the consecutive mode and typically last at least three hours. In the analysis that follows the top two challenges that Korean interpreters face during deposition interpretation are presented together with methods to overcome them.

22.6.1

Speaking English

Korean deponents, whether adept or not at English, have the tendency to reply to attorneys’ questions using English or mixing English and Korean. It is believed that deponents will do this in part because they have a sense of pride in being able to speak English and wish to display this capability when they can. However, this tendency is cumbersome for interpreters because interpreters expect to only deal with rendering one language at a time, so when two languages are mixed inside of the same sentence, it can become confusing and disturb the flow of interpretation. It is also challenging because Korean deponents pronounce English words with a Korean accent, so the word will sound like a Korean word, but it will actually be English (loanwords). Or, deponents may use Konglish (words borrowed from English that don’t carry the same meaning in Korean as when they’re used in English). An interpreter may not recognize this and will end up having to ask for clarification, which results in time spent on linguistic issues. As a solution, it was advised to encourage Korean deponents to rely on and confide in the interpreter and to speak only in Korean to ensure the accuracy of their words. It was also suggested to encourage deponents to imagine that all parties in the room are Korean, as Koreans tend to use little or no English when speaking to other Koreans.

22.6.2

Speaking to the interpreter

Another tendency Korean deponents display during depositions is speaking directly to the interpreter. The role of interpreters in depositions is simply to convert the message of one person to another language neutrally. However, some witnesses treat interpreters as another party in the room with whom they can hold a conversation or sometimes ask for advice. Hence the term, “side conversations.” Side conversations are a challenge for interpreters, even dangerous, because unless all attorneys are Korean bilinguals there will be parties in the room that don’t speak Korean, and if the interpreter and witness engage in one, then it is a display of bias or conflict of interest, particularly if the conversation isn’t interpreted. Either way, a non-Korean speaker wouldn’t be able to gauge the accuracy of the interpretation, even if the side conversation were interpreted. Thus, it’s strongly advised for deposition interpreters to avoid side conversations altogether. This tendency appears to be the result of a level of comfort that witnesses feel when there is someone else who speaks the same language as them in a room full of non-Korean individuals. From the witness’ perspective there is a bond formed based on the fact that the other person is from the same culture and speaks the same language. Thus, that person should understand them better and may even take their side, give advice, or support them in some way. Respondents even reported instances where witnesses will say to them, “말 좀 잘해 주세요,” or “이렇게 말해도 돼요?” 348

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In order to cope with this dynamic it’s advised for interpreters to tell witnesses that any and everything they say, even if they speak to the interpreter, will be interpreted, and if there’s something they don’t want interpreted and put on the record, they simply shouldn’t say it at all. Another tactic is to leave the room during breaks, since side conversations often arise during break time off the record. Although what they say wouldn’t be added to the record, there’s still the danger of accusations of bias or conflict of interest.

22.7

The future

In the roughly 60 years of Korean court interpretation in the United States the profession has seen the advent of exams, certification programs, an expansion of interpretation into different settings, and a myriad of linguistic challenges. What will the next 60 years bring? Or, beyond? While there is a demand for Korean court interpreters throughout the United States, the demand is relatively moderate compared to languages in higher demand, so it would not be easy to achieve one’s economic stability working solely as a court interpreter. With this in mind one respondent urged the importance of diversifying one’s portfolio and breaking into other fields of interpretation as well, such as immigration, international meetings, conferences, etc., to be able to build one’s career. An interpreter who makes an entire living solely on Korean court interpretation is a rarity. It’s not clear that this level of demand will change, as “there’s no influx of immigrants” (Holloway, 2022, November) currently in the US for whom Korean court interpreters can interpret.

22.8

Conclusion

This chapter explored the history of court interpretation in the United States and the most prevalent linguistic challenges for Korean interpreters in court. Findings indicate that respondents viewed legal terminology, the speed at which attorneys and judges speak, and idioms to be the most difficult challenges. Through practicing in very specific ways it was presented that highly experienced interpreters have methods through which they overcome these challenges. With regards to depositions, witnesses display habits stemming from Korean culture that become pitfalls that interpreters must avoid and handle appropriately in order to protect their own profession and provide the highest quality of service. The study points to the need to customize and reinforce one’s mode of practice and also to diversify one’s skill set in a changing market. These qualities are necessary if one expects to survive as a Korean court interpreter in the United States.

Acknowledgements The author would like to express sincere gratitude to the Korean interpreters who participated in both studies in order to produce this chapter.

References Administrative Office of the Courts. (1994). Washington State Courts – English-Korean Glossary. Washington State Courts Washington Courts. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://www.courts.wa.gov/ programs_orgs/pos_interpret/content/glossary/ Civil Rights under Federal Programs: Analysis of Title 6, Civil Rights Act of 1964 (1964). Bill. de la Mora, A. S. (2022). Future interpreters. De la Mora. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://delamorainstitute.com/future-interpreters/

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Robert Holloway Dolan, M. (2017, September 5). With 220 languages spoken in California, courts face an interpreter shortage. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-lncourt-interpreter-20170905-story.html Gonzalez, R., Vasquez, V., & Mikkelson, H. (1991). Fundamentals of court interpretation: Theory, policy and practice. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. https://docs.google.com/document/d/11dPIb58HgLUFCTW6S KiulU3BYNgJB6NI/edit#bookmark=id.18smvu3o6209 Hale, S. (2007). Community interpreting. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Holloway, R. (2020, September 9). The 5 biggest mistakes that Koreans make at depositions – full (2).PDF. The 5 Biggest Mistakes That Koreans Make at Depositions – Full (2). Retrieved December 6, 2022, from. https:// drive.google.com/file/d/1eb-wDi18uLSmrElLKZwl8qDSrFsXcwLJ/view?usp=sharing Holloway, R. (2022, November). Korean Court interpretation in the United States, personal. Mellinkoff, D. (1963). The language of the law. Boston, MA: Little, Brown. Mikkelson, H. (1999, May). Court interpreting at a crossroads. ACEBO. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://acebo.myshopify.com/pages/court-interpreting-at-a-crossroads#:~:text=The%20first%20regulation% 20of%20the,by%20passing%20a%20certification%20exam Mikkelson, H., Lee, M. Y., & Noh, J. J. (1994). The interpreter’s edge: Generic edition (Using the Korean Tape Set). San Diego, CA: ACEBO. Mikkelson, H., & Willis, J. (1998). The interpreter’s edge: Generic edition (Generic). San Diego, CA: ACEBO. New Jersey Courts. (2022a, February 9). Court interpreter candidate performance by language. New Jersey Courts. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://www.njcourts.gov/sites/default/files/public/languageservices/candidatebylanguage.pdf New Jersey Courts. (2022b, February 9). Court interpreter oral exam statistics. New Jersey Courts. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://www.njcourts.gov/sites/default/files/public/language-services/ candidatebyexam.pdf Wang, D., & Grant, L. E. (n.d.). Challenges of court interpreting: Implications for . . . tigerprints. tigerprints.clemson. edu. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=110 3&context=ijie

Appendix Court Interpretation Interview Questions • • • • • • • •

• • • • •

How long have you been state court certified? Are you an interpreter for federal court as well? What sort of training did you have before you started interpreting in your very first case? How prepared did you feel? Explain. What was missing from your training that could have served to better prepare you for court interpreting? What are the top three challenges Korean interpreters face when interpreting in court? Explain. How can interpreters overcome these challenges? In your experience, how do judges and attorneys view interpreters in court? (For example, interpreters are seen as “translation machines” expected to know every single term. Or, they’re regarded as officers of the court.) In your experience, how do defendants/clients (Korean LEPs) view interpreters in court? What is the greatest issue Korean interpreters have on the State Court Interpreter Oral Exam? How can interpreters overcome this issue? If you interpret in federal court, what are the top three differences between interpreting in state vs federal courts? What would help you improve your court interpreting expertise? What’s the future of the Korean court interpretation market in the United States? How can interpreters prepare for that future?

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23 A STUDY OF INTERPRETERS’ SPEECH ACTS BASED ON A CORPUS OF CHINESE-KOREAN DIPLOMATIC INTERPRETING Min Li, Zhu Zhu, Xin Yu, and Xin Chen 23.1

Introduction

Interpreting, in essence, is a kind of speech act (Zhu & Yan, 2015, p. 43), in which interpreters perform the acts of receiving information in the source language from the speaker and communicating it to the audience in the target language. In this process, language is the medium. Interpreting is not pure language equivalence. In this oral inter-language communication process, interpreters are not conveying certain individual “words” or “sentences,” but the “sense” (Seleskovitch & Lederer, 1995). Therefore, interpreting can be deemed as a speech act that conveys “sense.” One of the focuses of interpreting studies is the process of constructing sense from the source language to the target language (Chen & Xiong, 2014, p.  75). Interpreting is not about dealing with the meaning of isolated words but conveying the “information” or “sense” of the utterance. Then the question is: How is “sense” conveyed? When a sentence is uttered, the speaker is performing three kinds of speech acts simultaneously: locutionary acts, illocutionary acts, and perlocutionary acts (Austin, 1962). A locutionary act is “the act of ‘saying something’” (Austin, 1962, p.  94). Explaining his theory, Austin argues that locutionary acts, in and of themselves, did indeed have meaning. An illocutionary act is “the performance of an act in saying something” (Austin, 1962, p.  99). Austin (1962) points out that there is illocutionary force in an utterance and that such illocutionary force can be understood as the speaker’s intent. As Austin (1962, p. 101) argues, “saying something will often, or even normally, produce certain consequential effects upon the feelings, thoughts, or actions of the audience, or of the speaker, or of other persons.” Austin calls the performance of an act of this kind a perlocutionary act (ibid.). According to Chen and Xiong (2014, p.  76), interpreting, as a speech act, can be regarded as a hypertextual system that preserves and transfers meaning cross-linguistically. It includes a series of personal judgments and understanding, especially the interpreter’s comprehension and interpretation of the meaning in the ST. The interpreter’s locutionary act is composed of subjective concepts, such as identity, emotional awareness and intention of the original speaker, the interpreter, and the audience, as well as paralanguage, such as facial expressions, body language, tones, and intonation. The source language conceptual structure, when connected with the

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interpreter’s subjective thinking, is reshaped into a new structure in the target language, which not only conveys meaning but also reflects the interpreter’s thinking. This process constitutes the illocutionary acts in interpreting. This new spatial structure is then connected with the thinking of the target audience and forms a new locutionary act in the target language, conveying meaning to the audience and realizing the purpose of interpreting. This completes the perlocutionary acts in interpreting. Based on a self-built corpus of Chinese-Korean consecutive interpreting on diplomatic occasions, this chapter attempts to describe the speech acts of interpreters in consecutive interpreting, so as to explain the interpreters’ locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act in the process of conveying “information,” and analyzes the motivations behind these acts. Interpreting studies has long focused on the exploration of cognitive processing in interpreting behaviors and the development of interpreter skills and competences oriented toward teaching interpretation (Wang & Qin, 2015, p. 598). Only recently have descriptive studies on interpreting behavior started to surface. Illustrated with two press conferences, a descriptive study of spoken/ written shifts in Chinese-English consecutive interpreting was done by Hong and Wang (2011). Wang (2012, p. 198) described the norms of ST-TT relations in Chinese-English consecutive interpretation, where four typical norms are identified: the norm of adequacy, the norm of explicitation in logic relations, the norm of specificity in information content, and the norm of explicitness in meaning. Hu and Tao (2012) examined the syntactic operational norms of Chinese-English interpreting at press conferences. Li and Wang (2012) examined the linguistic patterns used in Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting. Wang and Qin (2015) described the communicative norms in the target language by analyzing the addition shifts based on a corpus of on-site interpreting. Li (2018) provided a detailed description of modality shifts in Chinese-English interpreting of government press conferences. There have been some descriptions of consecutive interpreting behaviors, mainly from the perspective of interpreting norms. However, it is important to note that the speech act of interpreting is performed through constant conceptual collisions between the speaker, the interpreter, and the audience, which is achieved through mutual assistance of different roles, emotional extension, and intent reconstruction (Chen & Xiong, 2014, p.  78). Therefore, a more detailed depiction of interpreters’ speech acts not only contributes to clarifying the distinctive patterns of interpreters’ locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act, but also helps to expand the scope of interpreting studies. Based on a corpus of Chinese-Korean consecutive interpreting in diplomatic settings, this chapter employs the paradigm of descriptive translation studies and attempts to study the speech acts of interpreters in Chinese-Korean consecutive interpreting, describing how interpreters convey “meaning” and accounting for the interpreters’ choice. It helps to broaden the study of interpreters’ behavior to more language pairs and more interpreting scenarios.

23.2 23.2.1

The interpreting corpus Data collection and processing

Access to a sizable, homogeneous on-site interpreting corpus is necessary for a systematic representation of the speech acts of interpreters. This study has collected the on-site consecutive interpreting data of ten events that have occurred in the political and diplomatic spheres of China and South Korea in recent years, totaling 3 hours, 30 minutes, and 51 seconds. Hu Jintao胡锦涛, Roh Moohyun 노무현, Lee Myung-bak 이명박, Xi Jinping 习近平, Park Geun-hye 박근혜, and Kwon

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Young-se 권영세, among others, are the main speakers of the ten diplomatic events. The on-site interpreting is done by seven interpreters, including three Chinese interpreters and four Korean interpreters (three male and four female). The raw data of the on-site interpreting collected in this study are all videos sourced from the internet. Each video lasts for at least ten minutes and ten videos add up to 3 hours, 30 minutes and 51 seconds. A two-way parallel Chinese-Korean interpreting corpus is built after transcription and data processing, with 63,454 words in total, 24,598 Chinese words and 38,856 Korean words.

23.2.2

Corpus retrieval and analysis

There are 537 information units in the parallel texts, according to AntConc keyword search. The annotated keywords appear 558 times. Direct translation,” which is identified by Vinay and Darbelnet (in Munday, 2016, p.  88) as a general translation strategy, is employed 357 times, making it the most essential and prevalent strategy adopted by interpreters. The frequency of using “direct translation” by the seven interpreters is 63.98%, 6.45%, 13.08%, 15.23%, 0.36%, and 0.90%, respectively, in their interpreting sessions. “Direct translation,” as a translation strategy adopted to process information, varied significantly across the seven interpreters, according to a one-sample T-test (t = 7.466, p = 0.0000.05). This suggests that one of the most fundamental translation strategies in the interpreting process is “direct translation.” It is also the most fundamental way through which interpreters “express meaning with words.” However, in order to better convey the source language message to the target audience and further realize “what to do with words” and “what effect to achieve with words,” the interpreter also makes certain “shifts” according to the source text content, the interpreting occasion, the interpreter’s cognitive competence, and the cognitive need of the audience. “Shifts” refer to the “changes” in the target text, as compared to the source text, which includes “obligatory shifts” and “optional shifts.” Obligatory shifts are those that had to be made in interpreting because the ST and TT are of different grammatical structures; optional shifts occur because of the decision-making of the interpreter. In other words, the interpreter takes the initiative to make changes in the TT at his or her discretion. Optional shifts therefore reflect the decisions made by the interpreter (Wang, 2015, p. 598). The keyword search reveals that, among various types of “shifts,” there are 36 instances of “addition,” 73 instances of “reduction,” and 85 instances of “correction.” Besides, there were two instances of “zero translation,” zero instances of “errors,” and five instances of “missing information.” The occurrence ratio of “shifts” in keyword search is 63.98%, 6.45%, 13.08%, 15.23%, 0.36%, and 0.90%, respectively. This study further investigates the “optional shifts” of the interpreters and analyses what the interpreters “do” with “words” in the information-transfer process and what effect is achieved with “words.”

23.3

Results and discussion 23.3.1

Addition [A]

“Addition” refers to the addition of information that is not in the source text to the target text. A micro-analysis of the corpus reveals three main sub-types of “addition”: [A1] addition of semantic information for clarification; [A2] explication of the implied meaning; [A3] addition of information for better communicative effect.

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23.3.1.1 [A1] Addition of semantic information for clarification: Interpreters add semantic information to the target text based on the contextual information, for further supplementation and elaboration, so as to convey the content clearly and completely. Example 1: (332)N: 그 4년 뒤에 우리는 중국과 수교됐고, 그리고 지금까지 그야말로 손에 손잡고 벽을 넘어서 이처럼 두터운 친선 우호관계를 만들어내고 있습니다.

I: 那么，时隔四年之后，也就 是1992年，我们同中国建立了 正式邦交。（那么）手拉手超 越了万难，（那么）一致实现 了快速的这种发展，（那么） 建立了深厚的友谊。A1

Then, four years later, in 1992, we established formal diplomatic ties with China. (Then) hand in hand, we overcame huge difficulties, and (then) realized together fast development, and (then) established profound friendship.

(from Roh Moo-hyun’s speech at Tsinghua University, July 9, 2003)

Example 1 is taken from a speech given by President Roh Moo-hyun at Tsinghua University on July 9, 2003. The three key messages, “establishing formal diplomatic ties with China four years later,” “working together to overcome barriers,” and “establishing profound friendship,” have all been interpreted correctly. However, the interpreter adds the information “in 1992” after “four years later” when interpreting the adverbial of time “4년 뒤에.” This addition specifies the exact year in the time noun “4년 뒤에.”

23.3.1.2 [A2] Explication of the implied meaning: Interpreters make further explanation or elaboration of their production or choose different expressions in order to convey the meaning more clearly and completely; or in some cases, interpreters make explicit in the target text what is intended but implicit in the source text. Example 2: (313)N: 우선 대화와 교류를 꾸준히 늘려나가고, 구체적인 협력사업에서부터 하나 하나 실천하면서 신뢰를 쌓고 공동의 이익을 확대해 나가야 합니다.

I: 当然，什么事情都不能一Of course, nothing can be accomplished overnight. The 蹴而就。首先应该不懈 two parties should start with 地进行对话和交流，应 continuous dialogues and 该从具体的合作项目开 exchanges and engage in specific 始，一件一件地做起， cooperation projects. Step by 以增进信任和不断地扩 step, one project after another, 大共同利益。A2 mutual trust will be strengthened and common interests will be expanded.

(from Roh Moo-hyun’s speech at Tsinghua University, July 9, 2003)

Example 2 is taken from a speech by President Roh Moo-hyun at Tsinghua University in 2003. There are several key points in the source text: “enhancing dialogue and communication continuously,” “engaging in specific cooperation projects,” “one action after another,” “building trust,” and “expanding common interests.” All have been interpreted correspondingly. With expressions like “continuously,” “step by step,” “one project after another,” the speaker apparently implied that things must not be rushed. Therefore, the interpreter adds at the beginning a general

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statement “nothing can be accomplished overnight” to explicitly emphasize the implied meaning in the ST.

23.3.1.3

[A3] Addition of information for better communicative effect: Interpreters add information to enhance communicative effect.

Example 3: I: 我们创造了过去连想象都不 What we’ve achieved today (290)N: 우리가 과거에는 is unimaginable in the 敢想象的今天，那么同理， 생각하지도 못했던 오늘을 만들어 past. Similarly, we can also 我们（也可以）也可以创造 왔듯이, 만들어 왔듯이 우리가 create a future beyond our 任何超乎想象的未来。这就 지금 생각하지도 못했던 미래를 imagination. This is why I am 是我对东北亚的未来坚信不 얼마든지 우리는 만들어나갈 수 totally convinced of the bright 疑的一个依据。A3 있다고 생각합니다. future of northeast Asia. (from Park Geun-hye’s speech at Tsinghua University, June 29, 2013)

Example 3 is excerpted from President Park Geun-hye’s speech at Tsinghua University on June 29, 2013. The last sentence is added by the interpreter. This is an act out of the interpreter’s own will. But it doesn’t damage the original information. On the contrary, the addition helps the audience to better understand why the speaker stays confident about the future of northeast Asia and boosts the audience’s confidence in northeast Asia too. The addition strengthens the communicative effect between the speaker and the audience. Statistics show that addition occurs 36 times in the parallel texts constructed in this study, accounting for 6.45% of all types of shifts. Addition aims to clearly convey the semantic meaning of the ST, enhance communicative effect, and promote speaker-audience communication. Tai (1999, p.  154) argues that “additions” and “omissions” are unavoidable, given the fact that Chinese and Korean are two vastly different languages in terms of syntax and structure. Translation is also deemed as an act of transferring information between two media; namely, the SL and the TL. In addition to the literal meaning, there are many extended meanings in idioms, common sayings, and enigmatic expressions in the source language. These extended meanings are derived from the scene beyond the text, which is present in the linguistic context and blended between the contexts. Transfer of meaning in these cases depends on the interpreter’s background knowledge and how he or she understands the implicit meaning between the lines. As a result, additions are inevitable.

23.3.2

Reduction [R]

“Reduction” refers to the absence of content in the TT, as compared to that in the ST. By comparing the parallel texts, individual phrases or even lengthy paragraphs of the ST are sometimes found missing or otherwise compressed in the TT. A micro-analysis of the corpus reveals three main sub-types of “reduction” shifts: [R1] omission of redundant information (e.g., greetings, repetitions, embellishments, etc.); [R2] compression of lengthy utterances; [R3] deletion of information to avoid communicative conflicts; [R4] omission of individual words or short phrases for conciseness.

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23.3.2.1 [R1] Omission of redundant information: Interpreters omit some information that they deem to be redundant and of no significance to the core meaning in the ST, such as repetitive greetings and expressions or long-winded and complex structures. Example 4: In addition, we would like to give (443)T: 另外呢，我们想送这个模 I: 저희가 선물한 교문의 you this model as a gift, because 型啊，因为是校门的模型，希望 모형을 보실 때마다 저희 this is the model of the university 总统女士看到这个校门的模型的 청화대학을 생각해 주시고 gate. We hope this model of our 时候，就想到我们清华大学。因 또 다음 번에 청화대를 university gate can remind you 为啊，我们还有一个心愿，我们 다시 한번 방문해 주셔서 of Tsinghua University every 希望总统女士再来清华大学访 훌륭한 연설을 해 주시기 time you look at it, because we 问，再来给我做精彩的演讲。R1 바랍니다. R1 have another wish. We also wish Madame President will visit our university and speak to us again. (from Park Geun-hye’s speech at Tsinghua University, June 29, 2013)

Example 4 is taken from what Professor Weiping He of Tsinghua University said when he presented a gift to President Park Geun-hye after her speech at Tsinghua University on June 29, 2013. Part of the ST (i.e., “In addition, we would like to give you this model as a gift, because this is the model of the university gate” and “because we have another wish”) is omitted by the interpreter because it overlaps with the rest of the utterance. “The information in spoken language is sometimes ambiguous and loosely structured” (Bao, 2005, p.  27). Therefore, the interpreter chooses to omit redundancy, which is exactly what’s been proposed by Li (2015). Li argues that, in order to help the audience better understand the core content of the ST and the main idea of the speaker, the interpreter often converts the complex structure into concise ones and removes repetitive and redundant information (Li, 2015, p. 160).

23.3.2.2 [R2] Compression of lengthy utterances: Interpreters compress loosely structured and lengthy utterances into condensed summaries. This makes the TT streamlined with better logical hierarchy and succinct language, and hence underlines the core meaning of the utterance. Example 5: (48)J:그 후진타오 주석님께 북한 핵 문제 해결 과정에서의 중국의 주도적 역할에 관한 질문을 좀 드리겠습니다. R2

I: 向胡锦涛主席 阁下提问。

A question for his Excellency President Hu Jintao.

(from President Hu Jintao and President Roh Moo-hyun’s Joint Meeting with the Press, July 8, 2003)

Example 5 is from the Q&A session at President Hu Jintao and President Roh Moo-hyun’s Joint Meeting with the Press, July 8, 2003. In the ST, the journalist not only expresses his wish to ask a question but also mentions the specific content of his question. Later in the next information unit, he further elaborates on the question again. Therefore, the interpreter compresses the lengthy opening into a simple and short sentence.

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23.3.2.3 [R3] Deletion of information to avoid communicative conflicts: Interpreters intentionally delete certain information in the ST because it might cause unnecessary conflicts in communication if interpreted “equivalently.” Example 6: （71）N: 동북 아시아의 평화와 번영의 질서에 대한 문제는 대체로 말 그대로 거시적 관점에서 또한 그 포괄적인 의미로 서로 인식을 함께 하고 또 함께 추진해 나가기로 합의했다. 이런 수준에서 이해하시면 좋겠습니다. R3

I: 就有关东北亚的和平稳 定以及（秩序）新秩序 问题呢，这个是一个宏 观的问题，而且是全面 性的问题。就这个问题 上，韩中两国的首脑基 本上达成一致的认识。

Peace and stability of northeast Asia and (order) new order is a macro and comprehensive matter. Leaders of ROK and China have reached a consensus on this matter. Let’s just stop here as to how to interpret that.

(from President Hu Jintao and President Roh Moo-hyun’s Joint Meeting with the Press, July 8, 2003)

Example 6 is from the Q&A session at President Hu Jintao and President Roh Moo-hyun’s Joint Meeting with the Press, July 8, 2003. In the ST, President Roh Moo-hyun said: “With regard to the peace and prosperity of northeast Asia, the two countries decided to reach a consensus from a macro and comprehensive perspective.” He also noted: 이런 수준에서 이해하시면 좋겠습니 다 (Let’s just stop here as to how to interpret that). This additional note is of no significance in the entire information unit. But if it is preserved in the TT, it might cause confusion among and even prompt new questions from the journalists, which could spoil the atmosphere of the joint press conference. On diplomatic occasions of this kind, bilateral relations and issues of international interest are usually the key topics, where discussions very often touch upon policies and even sensitive issues. Even minor mistakes of the interpreter could result in major consequences or repercussions on the political image, economic development, and diplomatic relations of the countries concerned. Therefore, it is very demanding for interpreters when they interpret for political and diplomatic activities, leaving little room for negligence (Hwang, 2003, pp. 442—443). Interpreters must be able to accurately comprehend the meaning, differentiate the delicate nuances, and grasp the implications in diplomatic language (ibid., p.  443). Based on the experience and judgement of the interpreter on site, intentional deletion is made in this example, to avoid possible confusion or misinterpretation.

23.3.2.4 [R4] Omission of individual words or short phrases for conciseness: Interpreters omit individual words, short phrases or brief expressions in the ST. In such cases, there is usually little interpreter subjectivity. Example 7: I:所以我也今后也会 为了我们两国在文 化方面的合作项目 做出我的努力。

（514）K:그런 부분, 서로의 문화를 서로에게 단순히 소개하는 것 떠나서 문화와 관련된 사업을 공동으로 하는 부분에 대해서 앞으로 노력을 많이 할 생각입니다. R4

So, I will also make my contribution to bilateral cultural exchanges.

(from the Press conference of Ambassador Kwon Nyong-Seok to China, January 30, 2014)

Example 7 is from the press conference of Ambassador Kwon Nyong-Seok to China on January 30, 2014 shortly after he reported to this new position. In the ST, Ambassador Kwon talks about two main tasks for him in the future: to introduce Korean and Chinese culture and to promote bilateral cultural cooperation projects. However, the ST “는 것 떠나서” also implies these two tasks

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are not of equal importance. His top priority is to promote bilateral cultural cooperation projects, whereas introducing Korean and Chinese culture is of minor significance. Therefore, the interpreter omits the first task and only keeps the second task, as a way to give more weight to the most important message.

23.3.3

“Correction” [C]

“Corrections” occur when the target text is a “non-equivalence” of the source text. When speakers make extemporaneous or impromptu speeches, language could be vague and loosely structured and discourse could be of logical flaws and loose organization. Spoken discourse might confuse the target audience because of cultural differences and even has common sense errors from time to time. This requires the interpreter to reorganize and restructure the source information into a more tightly-structured, articulated, and logical target text. In many cases, the interpreter takes the initiative to correct the mistakes in the ST. There are four sub-types of “Corrections”: [C1] correction based on interpreters’ background knowledge; [C2] correction to build better rapport or avoid communicative conflicts; [C3] paraphrase of the ST; [C4] replacement of some expressions in the ST.

23.3.3.1 [C1] Correction based on interpreters’ background knowledge: The interpreter makes some changes to the content of the ST; in other words, the interpreter “speaks his own words.” Correction of this sub-type is made based on the interpreter’s knowledge of the event background or subject matter. Example 8: (561)K:그 방금 전에 한중 간의 청소년 교류 행사를 담당하시는 분과 면담이 있었는데 단순히 청소년 교류가 아니고 단순히 문화 교류가 아니라 두 개를 합쳐서 지금 질문에서도 나왔습니다만은 청소년 때부터 이 문화적인 측면을 주제로 갖고 교류를 하게 된다 그러면은 그 한중간의 더, 앞으로 발전에 큰 도움이 되리라 생각합니다.

I:我们刚才在先于这个采 访，我与这次进行“同心 同行”韩中青少年艺术 节的有关方进行了一个简 短的采访。确实这样的一 个活动不仅是结合了青少 年交流和文化交流的这个 层面，确实我相信这样的 一个交流活动能够为韩中 两国关系发展起到非常重 要的作用。C1

I just came from another brief interview about “Walk Ahead Hand in Hand” KoreanChina Youth Arts Festival. Indeed, this Festival not only promotes the cultural communication between young people of South Korea and China, but also contributes to strengthening bilateral relations.

(from the Interview of Ambassador Kwon Nyong-Seok to China by Hong Kong Economy Net, March 17, 2014)

On the whole, correction of this kind achieves “equivalence” between source and target texts. However, it is not an equivalence of words and sentences but an equivalence in the meaning of the overall text. In Example 8, “청소년 교류 행사, ”if literally translated, is “Youth Exchange Activities,” which is a bit general and vague. On-site is an in-house interpreter of the Embassy, so based on the knowledge of the events held by the Embassy, the interpreter specifies a general expression by naming the exact youth exchange activity. This helps the journalist better understand the theme and nature of the youth exchange activity, improves the communicative effectiveness, and provides more useful information for the media report.

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Interpreters’ speech acts based on Chinese-Korean

23.3.3.2 [C2] Correction to build better rapport or avoid communicative conflicts: A word-for-word interpretation may sometimes result in uncomfortable feelings among listeners. So, interpreters intentionally modify the source language to avoid communicative conflicts. On other occasions, sometimes even a literal interpretation is possible and the interpreter still chooses to “spice it up” in the TT with some corrections. This might sound “disloyal,” but it can add vitality to the communication, bring the speaker and the audience closer, and realize better communication. Example 9: (434)A:以至于今天这个音 响系统，以前没有这个问 题，今天他们也有了反应。

I:사실 이렇게 마이크에 문제가 생긴 경우가 없었는데요. 아마 마이크 음향 시설 조차 대통령님의 연설에 감동을 받은 모양입니다. C2

This sound system has been in good condition and a problem of the kind never occurred before. I guess it is touched (by your speech) too.

(from Park Geun-hye’s speech at Tsinghua University, June 29, 2013)

Former President of ROK, Park Geun-hye visited Tsinghua University on June 29, 2013. Example 9 is from the concluding remarks by President of Tsinghua University, Professor Chen Jining. The sentence “I guess it has a reaction too” is rendered as “대통령님의 연설에 감동 을 받은 모양입니다,” which means “I guess it is touched (by your speech) too.” This correction not only explicitly praises the speech, but also highlights the emotional resonance of the audience.

23.3.3.3 [C3] Paraphrase of the ST: The interpreter, after comprehending the source information, rephrases the messages in the target language. In other words, the ST is first deciphered in the interpreter’s brain and then rephrased and restructured in the TT. Example 10: (402)P: 그래서 만약에, 그럼 한반도부터 우리가 어떻게 해서든지 한반도의 평화를 정착시키고 더 나아가서 평화 통일을 이루는 데 우리가 역량을 집중해서 노력을 해 나간다면 한국이 할 수 있는 그런 역할을 잘 해 내는거라고 생각을 합니다.

I: 是的，是的。我们将要 从韩半岛问题入手，希 望韩半岛实现和平，实 现和平统一，为实现和 平统一做出努力。C3

Yes, certainly. We will start with the Korean Peninsula issue and strive for the peace and the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

(from Park Geun-hye’s speech at Tsinghua University, June 29, 2013)

Example 10 is taken from the answer of President Park Geun-hye after her speech at Tsinghua University on June 29, 2013. Since this is an impromptu response to a question, it is colloquial with some redundancy. A more literal interpretation reads like “So, if, then we should start with the Korean peninsula, no matter what, to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula and then peaceful reunification, and in this regard, we should concentrate our efforts and work hard, if so, Korea will play its due role. That’s what I think.” Having said so much, the key message is that “South Korea has a role to play in achieving peace and the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula.” After decoding the original utterance, the interpreter captures the core meaning and renders it in a concise and clear manner.

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23.3.3.4 [C4] Replacement of some expressions in the ST: The ST cannot be literally interpreted because this will result in loss of certain kind; for instance, loss in smoothness. Therefore, the interpreter chooses to replace some wording or expressions in the ST with seemingly different expressions in the target language to achieve dynamic equivalence. Example 11: (89)N:저는 중국도 이제 그 2008년 북경 올림픽 그리고 2010년 상해 엑스포를 이렇게 치르어 나가면서 아니 그 이전부터 꿈은 이루어진다는 확신을 가지고 지금 뛰고 있고 또 확실한 증거를 발견하게 될 것이라고 저는 생각합니다.

I: 我相信也期望，中国 在2008年的北京奥运以 及2010年的上海世博会， 或者是那以前开始，我们 都非常清楚地了解，只要 我们有一个远大的这种梦 想，朝向这个去努力的 话，一定可以实现。C4

I’m convinced that as long as we make efforts in the same direction, the goal will for sure be realized. This has been evidenced by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and 2010 Shanghai Expo and many other successful events held by China before 2008.

(from President Hu Jintao and President Roh Moo-hyun’s Joint Meeting with the Press, July 8, 2003)

In the ST, a literal interpretation of “확실한 증거를 발견하게 되다” is “solid evidence has been found.” However, the interpreter replaces the expression with “the goal will for sure be realized,” in order to help the audience better understand the future plan of the speaker.

23.3.4

“Zero Translation” [Z]

In this study, “Zero Translation” means the interpreter contributes his own words while rendering the messages in the target language. These words are the original utterance of the interpreter and are not transferred from the source text. A micro-analysis of the Corpus shows that “zero translation” appears only twice out of 537 information units. Example 12: (476) K:그 때 제가 그 중국분들에게 얘기하는 말이 중국이 만리장성이나 병마용과 같은 대단한 기적을 만든 나라다.

J: 那么刚才大使先生是不是在说 中国的一些历史古迹，对吗？ (477) I: 不是。Z I:但是我会对他们，会对我的那 些中国朋友们说，中国在过去 已经创造了像万里长城和兵马 俑等这些奇迹。C2

J: Was the Ambassador talking about some historical sites in China? (477) I: No. Z I: But I would tell my Chinese friends that China did create many miracles in the past, such as the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors.

(from the Interview of Ambassador Kwon Nyong-Seok to China by Hong Kong Economy Net, March 17, 2014)

In this example [476], the journalist should be waiting for the interpretation of the Ambassador’s answer to his previous question. However, before the interpreter starts interpreting, he cuts in with a follow up question, confirming whether his understanding of the Ambassador’s answer in Korean is correct or not. Therefore, before he starts to interpret the Ambassador’s answer [476], the interpreter first clarifies that the journalist’s understanding is wrong by saying “No”[477]. This is an original utterance of the interpreter that does not appear in the ST. It is a “zero translation” shift with which the interpreter responds to a sudden change of course in the middle of a ST to TT conversion process.

23.4

Conclusion: motivation of interpreters’ speech acts

The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Chinese and Korean consecutive interpreting corpus in this study shows that interpreters make shifts of various kinds to convey the “sense” to the target 360

Interpreters’ speech acts based on Chinese-Korean

audience, such as “addition,” “reduction,” “correction,” and “zero translation.” It is worth exploring how interpreters express meaning, play their roles, and achieve their desired results through their interpreting behaviors on diplomatic occasions.

23.4.1

Locutionary act

Locutionary act, performing an act of saying something, refers to an utterance that has definitive propositional meaning—i.e., the content of utterance (Zhu & Yan, 2015, p.  44). Based on the analysis of the Chinese and Korean diplomatic interpreting corpus, it is found that “equivalence” is the core guiding principle of interpreters, which, however, differs from “absolute fidelity” to the ST. Influenced by the ST content, interpreting environment, and the interpreter’s cognitive ability, “absolute fidelity” is not always possible and appropriate. In order to better convey the “sense,” interpreters make such shifts as “addition,” “reduction,” “correction,” and “zero translation” (where the interpreter contributes his own words). Whatever shift there is, the interpreter does not deviate from the core meaning of the discourse. It is noticed that, even on political and diplomatic occasions where interpreters tend to be more prudent on making adjustments, there is still certain “freedom” left. Interpreters may still make shifts to externalize logical relations, specify information, and articulate meaning (Wang & Qin, 2015, p. 608). As a result, the locutionary act of interpreters are motivated not just by converting language and conveying meaning but also by other factors.

23.4.2

Illocutionary act

Illocutionary act, performing an act in saying something, refers to the act of enabling understanding and arousing reaction in communication; namely, the intent of an utterance (Zhu & Yan, 2015, p. 44). “Intent” here is defined from the perspective of the message sender; that is, what the message sender intends to achieve in the target context. Interpreters tend to pursue “the most optimized” communicative function in the target language (Wang & Qin, 2015, p. 608). To that end, interpreters sometimes have to complement what’s missing, omit what is redundant, articulate what is vague, and restructure what is chaotic (Ren, 2010, p.  137). In other words, interpreters add information in the TT to complement and clarify meaning, to articulate the implied sense, and to remove ambiguity; interpreters summarize and streamline information in the TT by omitting repetitive and redundant information, so that listeners can better understand the core content of the ST; interpreters may also contribute their original words and content in the TT, perhaps as a reply to a question or a question for the speaker, or intentionally interfere the communicative process, in order to build a bridge for communication.

23.4.3

Perlocutionary act

Perlocutionary act, performing an act by saying something, focuses on the effect achieved after making an utterance with a specific intention (Zhu & Yan, 2015, p. 44). In this study, it is found that: in order to better convey the core meaning, interpreters add necessary information, omit redundant and repetitive language, and make corrections of the ST; in order to strengthen the communicative effect and please the audience, interpreters add information; in order to avoid unnecessary communicative conflicts, interpreters delete information; in order to activate and adjust communicative rapport, interpreters make corrections of the ST. Such speech acts enable interpreters to play the role as a facilitator of communication, a “coordinator of language, communication and discourse” in interlingual and cross-cultural communication. 361

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23.5

Suggestions for future research

Based on a self-built corpus of Chinese and Korean diplomatic interpreting, this is a descriptive study of interpreters’ speech acts, aiming to describe how interpreters perform the locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act in interpreting. This is the first attempt to describe interpreters’ behavior from the perspective of “meaning” transfer. It provides on-site interpreting evidence for studies on professional ethics of interpreters and interpreters’ subjectivity. However, the study of interpreters’ perlocutionary acts needs to be further verified in more ways, such as interviewing and surveying the audience and speakers, and building larger corpuses for more evidencebased analytics. In particular, it is necessary to do more studies on interpreters’ perlocutionary acts in interpreting between different language pairs, as a way to cross-verify the research findings.

References Austin, J. (1962). How to do things with words? Oxford: The Clarendon Press. Bao, G. 鲍刚. (2005). Kouyi lilun gaishu 口译理论概述 [Interpretation studies]. Beijing: China Translation & Publishing Corporation. Chen, L. 谌莉文, & Xiong, Q. 熊前莉. (2014). “Kouyi yanyu xingwei guocheng de zhutixing xietong gainian kuangjia” 口译言语行为过程的主体性协同概念框架 [A conceptual framework for subjectivity synergy in interpreting speech acts]. Waiyu yu waiyu jiaoxue 外语与外语教学 [Foreign Languages and Their Teaching], 4, 75–80. Hong, L. 洪磊, & Wang, B.王斌华. (2011). Hanying jiaotichuanyi zhong kouyuxing/shumianxing pianyi de miaoshuxing yanjiu 汉英交替传译中口语性/书面性偏移的描述性研究 [A descriptive study of colloquial/formal shifts in Chinese-English consecutive interpreting]. Zhongguo fanyi 中国翻译 [Chinese Translators Journal], 2, 73–77. Hu, K. 胡开宝, & Tao, Q. 陶庆. (2012). Jizhe zhaodaihui hanying kouyi jufa caozuo guifan yanjiu 记者招 待会汉英口译句法操作规范研究 [Syntactic operational norms of press conference interpreting (Chinese-English)]. Waiyu jiaoxue yu yanjiu 外语教学与研究 [Foreign Language Teaching and Research], 5, 296–302. Hwang, J.황지연. (2003). Gwanyong pyohyeon ui tongyeog yuhyeong 관용표현의 통역유형 [Common expressions at the international conference]. Nonmunjip 논문집 [Journal of Interpretation & Translation Institute], 7, 245–261. Li, D. 李德超, & Wang, K.王克非. (2012). Hanying tongchuan zhong cihui moshi de yuliaoku kaocha 汉 英同传中词汇模式的语料库考察 [A corpus-based study on lexical patterns in simultaneous interpreting from Chinese into English]. Xiandai waiyu现代外语 [Modern Foreign Languages], 4, 409–415. Li, M. 李民. (2015). Jixi kouyi zhongde xianhua, jianhua tezheng jiqi guiyin fenxi--yi hanguo zongtong piao jinhui qinghua daxue yanjiang xianchang kouyi weili 即席口译中的显化、简化特征及其归因分析–以 韩国总统朴槿惠清华大学演讲现场口译为例 [Simplification and explication in the consecutive interpretation: based on the speech of South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye at Tsinghua university]. Zhongguoxue yanjiu 中国学研究 [The Journal of Chinese Studies], 4, 145–164.Li, X.李鑫. (2018). Zhengfu jizhehui hanying kouyi zhong qingtai pianyi de miaoshuxing yanjiu 政府记者会汉英口译中情态偏移 的描述性研究 [A descriptive study of modality shifts in Chinese-English government press conference interpreting]. Waiyu jiaoxue外语教学 [Foreign Language Education], 4, 86–91. Munday, J. (2016). Introducing translation studies: Theories and applications (4th ed.). London and New York: Routledge. Ren, W. 任文. (2010). Lianluo kouyi guocheng zhong yiyuan de zhutixing yishi yanjiu 联络口译过程中译员的主 体性意识研究 [The liaison interpreter’s subjectivity consciousness]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Seleskovitch, D., & Lederer, M. (1995). A systematic approach to teaching interpretation. Translated by J. Harmer. Luxembourg and Paris: Didier Erudition. Tai, P. 太平武. (1999). Hanchao fanyi lilun yu jiqiao 汉朝翻译理论与技巧 [Chinese-Korean translation theories and techniques]. Beijing: The Press of Central University for Nationalities. Wang, B. (2012). A descriptive study of norms in interpreting: Based on the Chinese-English consecutive interpreting corpus of Chinese Premier Press Conferences [J]. Meta, 57(1), 198–212.

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Interpreters’ speech acts based on Chinese-Korean Wang, B. 王斌华. (2015). Kouyi guifan de miaoxie yanjiu – Jiyu xianchang kouyi jiaoda guimo yuliao de fenxi 口 译规范的描写研究 – – 基于现场口译较大规模语料的分析[A descriptive study of norms in interpreting – Based on the analysis of a corpus of on-site interpreting]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Wang, B. 王斌华, & Qin, H. 秦洪武. (2015). Hanying kouyi mubiaoyu jiaoji guifan de miaoxie yanjiu-Jiyu xianchang kouyi yuliaoku zhong zengbuxing pianyi de fenxi 汉英口译目标语交际规范的描写研究 – 基 于现场口译语料库中增补性偏移的分析 [Describing the target-language communication norms in Chinese-English Interpreting – an analysis of addition shifts based on a corpus of on-site interpreting]. Waiyu jiaoxue yu yanjiu 外语教学与研究 [Foreign Language Teaching and Research], 4, 597–610. Zhu, C. 朱纯深, & Yan, X. 鄢秀. 2015. Cong yanyu xingwei lilun kan ‘shiyi’ yu ‘dayi’: kouyi de yanyu xingwei benzhi jiqi dui yiyuan xunlian de yiyi 从言语行为理论看“释意”与“达意”：口译的言语行为本质 及其对译员训练的意义 [On “interpreting” and “making sense” based on speech acts theory – the speech acts nature of interpretation and its implications for interpreter training]. Zhongguo fanyi 中国翻译[Chinese Translators Journal], 2, 42–48.

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PART IV

 

Opportunities for the future

24 RESEARCH ON INTERPRETERS’ AND TRANSLATORS’ COGNITION IN KOREA Hye-Yeon Chung 정혜연

24.1

Introduction

Research on translators’ and interpreters’ (henceforth, T/Ier) psychology and cognition began in Korea in the early 2000s, decades later than in Europe, where psycholinguists such as GoldmanEisler (1972) published studies on simultaneous interpretation (SI). The number of Korean researchers in this field is accordingly small. Even so, the early 2000s were not too late for a country in which the history of modern translatology began in the 1980s, after the first Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation (GSIT) was founded in 1979. Early studies in the 2000s dealt with different theories of the translation/interpretation (T/I) process. Korean researchers have discussed and applied them to language pairs, including Korean (e.g., Korean–English, Korean–French). Among the various components of the T/I process, researchers focus on those that are striking at first sight, such as input rate and pause. Lee, M.-G. (2008, 2014), for example, investigated interpreters’ performance, depending on input speed and note-taking types, and Lee, T.-H. (2005, 2006, 2009, 2019) examined the temporal aspects of SI. Others such as Lee, G.-H. (2006) and Kim, D.-J. (2003, 2005) critically reviewed T/I models and revised them after analyzing the process of SI based on theories of bilingualism. Around 2010, Korean translatologists approached adjacent disciplines and began conducting interdisciplinary research. They reviewed psychological and (neuro)cognitive studies and put theories to the test using diverse empirical methodologies. For example, Kim, H.-M. (2019, 2020), Chung, H.-Y. (2014, 2023) and Won, J.-H. (2011a, 2014) formulated hypotheses about T/Iers’ memory, mental lexicon, and competence after examining and empirically testing psychological and (neuro) cognitive studies related to T/I and/or languages. In recent years, Bae, M.-J. (2021a, 2021b), Han, S.-H. (2020), and Lee, K.-H. (2021)—the second-generation researcher—have conducted empirical research utilizing more modern equipment, such as psychology software and eye-trackers. As for interdisciplinary studies, psychologists and (neuro)cognitive scientists have not yet found their way to T/I in Korea (Figure 24.1). Unlike Europe and the Americas, where Cowan, Christoffels, Hervais-Adelman, Elmer, and García have published numerous papers on T/I, cognitive scientists and psychologists in Korea have not demonstrated any noticeable interest in T/I-related topics. Even those who have investigated bi- and multilingualism have not extended their interest to T/I subjects.

367

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-29

Hye-Yeon Chung 정혜연 cognitive science machine cognition

human cognition

computer science

human/animal psyche

cognitive neuroscience neuropsychology

computer linguistics

machine

neurolinguistics

psychology mind

cognitive psychology cognitive linguistics

psycholinguistics

language

mind

body

Figure 24.1 Cognitive science1

As mentioned previously, only a small amount of studies has been conducted on T/Iers’ cognition in Korea.2 However, the number of researchers and topics within this field is steadily growing as is the case with Europe and the Americas because the primary interest of translatologists (and practitioners) is the same all around the world. T/I is primarily a practical subject, and those who are interested in the profession also ask a very practical question; What makes a good translator/interpreter? This question, however, concerns one of the most well-known theoretical concepts of psychology and psycholinguistics—“competence,” a concept coined by Chomsky (1965). The competence of T/Iers includes language, memory, and attention. The combination of these elements results in a set of T/Iers’ practical abilities, such as vocabulary, text analysis, verbal fluency, multitasking, and other T/I strategies. The sub-chapters of “Research on Interpreters and Translators’ Cognition in Korea” are named after the keywords of T/Iers’ competence: language, memory, and attention (sections 2, 3, and 4). These keywords are generally recognizable as components of introductions to cognitive psychology or cognitive neuroscience, but also those of Chabasse (2008). These components were further divided into smaller sections; the sub-chapter “Language”, for example, includes “Bilingualism,” “Language switching,” “Mental lexicon” and “Directionality.” In section 5, I review and discuss the research on T/I models (and revised models), including all the subjects mentioned previously and introduce, in section 6, neurocognitive research on interpreters’ brains in Korea.3 In section 7, I give a brief outlook on the future of (neuro)cognitive translatology.

24.2 24.2.1

Language Bilingualism

The first idea that people usually have upon hearing “interpreter” or “translator” is that they are good at language. This shows that language competence is one of the most salient features of T/Iers. What is special about their language ability? What differentiates their language systems from those of other professional groups (“competence”)? What goes on in their minds when they read a text or switch between languages (“process”)? In Korea, numerous researchers, and not only practitioners, have tried to answer these questions. Kim, D.-J. (2003, 2013) was one of the first researchers in Korea to show interest in this topic. He reviewed studies on bilingual language acquisition and analyzed the process of SI based on theories 368

Research on interpreters’ and translators’ cognition in Korea

of bilingualism. Kim, D.-J. (2003) gave an overview of the bilingual language system and elucidated the process of interpreters’ language production, underlining the difference between dominant and non-dominant languages, and later focused on interpreters’ lexical decisions and semantic creation. Recently, Han, S.-H. (2020) examined the period of language acquisition. In Han, S.-H. (2020), three groups of trainee interpreters—early-, mid-, and late-bilinguals—were tested for their language-switching performance (E-E, K-K, E-K, K-E). Mid-bilinguals displayed the longest reaction time, but the gap between them and the two other groups was significantly reduced with increasing lexical difficulty.

24.2.2

Mental lexicon

Interpreters’ lexical decisions are also the main topic of research in Chung, H.-Y. and Ko, H.-J. (2013) and Kim, H.-M. (2019, 2020). Chung, H.-Y. and Ko, H.-J. (2013), who hypothesized that synonymy is the most strongly connected word type in interpreters’ mental lexicon among the four types of coordinates (Aitchison, 1987); they tested this hypothesis by means of an association experiment. Chung, H.-Y. (2016b) extended the concept of “synonymy,” which, according to Chung, H.-Y. and Ko, H.-J. (2013), builds the core in interpreters’ mental lexicon to “paraphrase,” because a paraphrased passage stands in a paradigmatic relation with other passages on a textual level, as synonyms do on a lexical level. Chung, H.-Y. (2016b) investigated different types of paraphrases theoretically and empirically and found that professional interpreters perform more concept-based paraphrasing than trainee interpreters and undergraduates, who often paraphrase through lexical substitution or syntactic restructuring. Kim, H.-M. (2019, 2020) studied more practical topics, such as interpreters’ lexical competence and its predictability for interpreting performance. Kim, H.-M. (2019) measured student interpreters’ lexical competence using productive and receptive vocabulary tests and found that receptive vocabulary size has the largest predictive power for both BA and AB consecutive interpreting. Another study, concerning the translators’ mental lexicon, examined the effects of lexical diversity and sophistication on translation performance (Kim, H.-M., 2020). The researcher measured these effects using type-token ratio and lexical frequency. The results showed that lexical diversity significantly correlated with translation scores, explaining 25% of the variance in translation scores, whereas the correlation between lexical sophistication and translation scores was not statistically significant. In addition, the lexical, syntactic, and pragmatic aspects of translation were investigated by Lee, K.-H. (2021). Two groups of student translators (English and Korean natives) were instructed to translate sentences containing compound words and relative clauses from their mother tongues into German, and the researchers recorded their eye movements during the translation process with Tobii Pro Studio eye tracker. Lee, K.-H. (2021) assumed that the two groups would utilize different translation strategies, as their mother tongues were English and Korean, two languages with different lexical and syntactic systems. The analysis of eye movement, heat map, and questionnaire revealed that both language groups had a longer and more frequent fixation on target text (TT) than source text (ST), and Korean subjects had a longer fixation on relative clauses than English subjects. This difference pattern was observed in translating compound words as well. This result indicates that the translation of German relative clauses and compound words into Korean requires more cognitive loads than that into English.

24.2.3

Language switching

Language switching (or language transfer, depending on the researcher) is one of the most popular research subjects of translatologists in Korea. Won, J.-H. (2007) used code-switching theories from 369

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bilingualism and translatology and highlighted the importance of this component in the interpretation process. She added an elaborate explanation of code-switching to Setton’s (1999) model of SI, which, in her opinion, did not pay enough attention to this crucial component of interpretation. Code-switching (or language switching) can improve if a task is repeated occupationally. When searching for cues that can explain the accuracy of professional interpreters’ performance, Chung, H.-Y. (2013) hypothesized that interpreters’ language switching and its automatization are influenced by the interpreting experience; the degree of automatization was measured by efficiency, defined as the rapidity and correctness of language switching (in her experiment, word translation), as well as by performance stability, assessed by the coefficient of variability (CV) (methodology based on Segalowitz & Segalowitz, 1993). The results showed that correctness and CV, but not rapidity, were significantly correlated with years of interpreting experience. Language switching has also been a traditional research topic in the field of psycholinguistics. Lee K.-E. et al. (2019) examined the asymmetry of the translation priming effect between highand low-proficiency bilinguals. Two groups of bilinguals with high and low L2 proficiency were instructed to translate lexical items from L1 to L2 and vice versa. The result indicated that the translation priming effect was greater in the L1–L2 situation in both groups, and the asymmetry of this priming effect was smaller in the high-proficiency group.

24.2.4

Directionality

Won, J.-H. (2010, 2011b) and Lee, M.-G. (2013) focused on the directionality of language transfer. Based on the research of Kohn and Kalina (1996), Riccardi (2005), Won, J.-H. (2010) made a systematic list of interpreting strategies and analyzed the occurrence of each strategy during the actual process of SI (English-Korean, Korean-English). The same methodology was adopted by Won, J.-H. (2011b), who analyzed self-monitoring patterns; namely, how interpreting strategies and selfmonitoring patterns change according to language directionality (Won, J.-H., 2010, 2011b). Additionally, Lee, M.-G. (2013) explored how interpreters utilize omission as a strategy during the SI process. Analyzing actual conference interpreting data, Lee, M.-G. (2013) found that conference interpreters strategically allocate their cognitive resources by omitting the semantically subordinate unit of sentences to overcome time constraints.

24.3

Memory

Research on interpreters’ memory is dominated by studies of working memory (WM). Korea is no exception. This can be attributed to the definition of WM itself, which is a type of memory that temporarily holds information until a task is completed. Memorizing phone numbers through verbal rehearsal is a representative example of WM. Interpreters also hold information of ST temporarily, until it is used in the verbal reproduction in the target language (TL). The WM plays a crucial role in SI. Memory retention could go over two to three minutes in consecutive interpreting (CI), while it is within the range of two to ten seconds in SI (Paneth, 1957). In fact, simultaneous interpreters rely heavily on temporary memory systems during interpretation. A question arises: Do simultaneous interpreters have a special WM system? If this is the case, is their WM inborn or has it been developed through training? Researchers have attempted to find the secret of simultaneous interpreters’ expertise in WM. Cowan (2000) even indicated that individuals differ in focus of attention (FOA) capacity, and those who naturally have a greater FOA capacity might have the potential to become an interpreter. According to Cowan (1988), FOA is a part of the WM system. 370

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24.3.1

Working memory

Kim, D.-J., Lee, M.-G., and Lee, K.-H. were the first to investigate interpreters’ WM in Korea (Kim, D.-J., 2005; Lee, M.-G., 2010, 2011a, 2011b; Lee, K.-H., 2008)). In the most recent years, Bae, M.-J. (2021a) and Bae, M.-J. and Jeong, C.-J. (2021) published their works on this subject. Kim, D.-J. (2005) and Lee, M.-G. (2010, 2011a) recruited simultaneous interpreters for their experiment, whereas Bae, M.-J. (2021a) and Bae, M.-J. and Jeong, C.-J. (2021), who examined student interpreters’ WM, did not distinguish between CI and SI in their experiment. Kim, D.-J. (2005) investigated SI with a particular emphasis on WM and the development of intuition. He compared interpreters with bilinguals in their language understanding and speaking process and stressed, in particular, the role of WM in SI. Based on these theories, he proposed that the SI process can be automatized by creating cognitive patterns out of each process step. He referred to this automatization process as the “development of intuition.” The WM of simultaneous interpreters also inspired Lee, K.-H. (2008), who pointed out that the differences in syntax are the biggest obstacles for English–Korean simultaneous interpreters in creating WM and made practical suggestions to help them overcome it. In another study on interpreters’ WM, Lee, M.-G. (2011a) divided sixteen professional interpreters into high-span and low-span groups and compared them on their ability to transfer information. The high-span group not only transferred a higher percentage of information but also produced a more coherent output. Lee, M.-G. (2011b) recruited seven professional interpreters and compared them with sixteen student interpreters to determine whether information transfer in SI is influenced by WM span and topic knowledge. The professionals displayed a higher percentage of both general and essential idea units. Student interpreters were more influenced by WM span than by knowledge, while professionals were influenced more by topic knowledge. Lee, M.-G.’s studies (2011a, 2011b) regarding topics and experimental design are comparable with the empirical research conducted on interpreters’ memory in Europe and the Americas in the 1990s and early 2000s. Bae, M.-J. (2021a) conducted a combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional studies, measuring the development of interpreters’ WM by using various span tasks. A total of 37 student interpreters (sixteen first-year and 21 second-year students) were instructed to perform three WM span tasks (reading span, digit span, and operation span task), which took place twice, at the beginning (March) and end (December) of the school year. The results of each measurement point (longitudinal) and group (cross-sectional) were compared with one another. She attempted to determine whether students’ WM was influenced by interpreter training. The results indicated that the firstyear students’ WM indeed improved throughout the year, but the improvement seemed to stagnate at some point in training. Bae, M.-J. and Jeong, C.-J. (2021) also conducted an experiment with student interpreters and analyzed the correlation between interpreters’ WM-span and their performance in CI and SI. CI performance did not show any significant correlation with any of the span tasks, whereas SI showed a significant correlation with the operation span task. Given that the students had only had one semester of SI training, they concluded that students’ performance was more strongly influenced by WM when dealing with a less familiar type of interpreting (SI).

24.3.2

Memory system

WM is not the only important type of memory in the interpretation process. Short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) are also important aspects of interpreters’ memory. STM (with a duration longer than 30 seconds), in particular, plays a crucial role in CI (context information, 371

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situation knowledge) and LTM, in CI as well as in SI, as the latter is related to interpreters’ knowledge of all kinds (common knowledge, expert knowledge, etc.). The duration of an STM depends on the features of what is to be remembered. Information not transferred from the STM to the LTM can disappear in a short time. Won, J.-H. (2016) studied the duration of STM, depending on information type, and asked the question, “Which language do interpreters remember more and better while listening to and interpreting (CI) a text?” The experiment was designed to repeat a memory recall session after listening to ten English texts and interpreting the other ten English texts in Korean, consecutively. The results indicated that the subjects (third semester student interpreters) had a better verbatim memory of the mother tongue (Korean) in the listening condition than that of the foreign language (English) in the CI condition. Won, J.-H. (2016) concluded that the form and meaning of words are more strongly connected in the mother tongue than in foreign languages, which facilitates memory in the listening condition. As for the CI condition, the subjects might have paid stronger attention to ST, as English was not their mother tongue. The difference between the two conditions was stronger among the late bilinguals. Memory is not limited to temporal aspects. Depending on the content, it can be further divided into phonological (PM) and semantic (SM) memory. These aspects of memory did not attract the attention of translatologists until Mizuno (2005), because, until then, research on interpreters’ memory had heavily focused on WM. Highlighting that memory span tasks usually contain semantically unrelated words, Chung, H.-Y. (2014) claimed that span tasks are disadvantageous for interpreters who have been trained to extract meaning from the text (“sense” in Seleskovitch, 1978). Chung, H.-Y. (2014) compared professional interpreters with undergraduates and student interpreters in text memory as well as word span tasks and found that professional expertise was clear in the SM but not in the PM. However, this does not mean that interpreters are not good at remembering phonological information. PM is not widely known for its expertise, but professional interpreters’ high accuracy in their performance indicates that interpreters could also have excellent verbatim memory (phonological memory). In an experiment with texts containing proper names and numbers, Chung, H.-Y. (2023) found evidence that professionals are attentive not only to semantic information but also to phonological information when embedded in context. Interpreters use their excellent PM to strategically create SM. Key terms (PM) in this semantic network (SM) serve as stimuli to activate the next semantic memory sequence (SM). Owing to this kind of interaction between PM and SM, interpreters’ memory can be created and retrieved sequentially. This process can account for the high accuracy of the performance. To test this hypothesis, Chung, H.-Y. (2018) analyzed the memory-retrieval process of interpreters and non-interpreters using My Screen Recorder and WordSmith 6.0. The results indicated that professional interpreters were the group with the highest sequentiality and the least influenced by the recency effect. The studies mentioned above mostly dealt with interpreters’ memories. Translators’ memory is not a popular subject either in Korea or in Europe and the Americas. One of the studies investigating translators' memory is e.g. Ghiselli (2020). She made a comparison between translators’ memory with interpreters’ memory. The role of memory is less salient in the translation process and is considered less important than in the interpretation process. Empirical research on translators’ memory (How often should they switch between ST and TT in the translation process?) could also be of great interest to researchers to clarify the T/I process in general.

24.3.3

Span task or not

Span tasks (digit, word, speaking, listening, and operation span tasks) are widely used to measure WM capacity. Originally invented in psychology and neuroscience, span tasks have been adopted by 372

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translatologists to assess interpreters’ memory. However, from early on, translatologists were aware of the limitations of these tasks when they were applied to T/Iers. They asked whether span tasks were an adequate tool to grasp the characteristics of interpreters’ memories. Köpke and Signorelli (2011) pointed out that even the same set of span tasks could yield different results, depending on the test condition; for example, whether subjects maintain the original order or not. Christoffels et al. (2006) reported similar results, as when they forbade the subjects to recall the word lists beginning with the last word to prevent the recency effect, the difference between the interpreter and control groups increased (interpreters outperformed the control groups); maintaining the original order seemed to be advantageous for interpreters. Based on these studies, Chung, H.-Y. (2014) also claimed that the contradictory results of memory research in interpreting studies are partly ascribed to their methodology. To investigate interpreters’ memory more elaborately, it is more effective to focus on what interpreters remember, instead of how much and how long they remember it for. Chung, H.-Y. (2014) contrasted word and text memory tasks and found that the superiority of interpreters’ performance was more evident in the latter. More recently, Bae, M.-J. (2021b) examined reading and operation span tasks for reliability. Two sets of reading span tasks (Korean and English) and one set of operation span tasks were administered to student interpreters twice. The same procedure was repeated after ten months. The results of the first two sessions (parallel-form reliability) and those of the first and second measurements (test-retest reliability) were compared with one another. As for the reading span tasks, the results obtained from the second test did not show a significant correlation with that of the first test, while the operation span task yielded a reasonable correlation coefficient (0.652***). The operation span task was interpreted as a more reliable tool for measuring interpreters’ WM. Given the fact that the operation span task does not involve a language task, it might be more appropriate to measure the “pure” memory capacity of interpreters.

24.4

Cognitive load or attention

Translation and Interpretation (T/I) is a complex process. Language reception, production, notetaking, memory formation, and language switching run parallel or in combination with one another. The success or failure of this task depends on how the T/Iers’ limited cognitive resources are allocated to each of those subtasks (effort model, Gile, 1985). The allocation of cognitive resources is controlled by the attention mechanism. The ways how this attention is directed and to which task determine how much and how effectively one’s cognitive resources are consumed and whether the task succeeds or fails. Simultaneous interpreting (SI), in particular, is an extreme type of multitasking. As such, it has attracted not only translatologists’ interest but also that of psychologists and neuroscientists who investigate attention mechanisms. One of the crucial questions for simultaneous interpreters is when they should start speaking, or how much input they need to form a meaningful unit in their mind. These questions were addressed in papers and books on SI with the keywords such as “input rate” and “idea unit.” The secret of interpreters’ idea units can be deciphered by examining the duration and the characteristics of “ear-voice span (EVS).” The greater the cognitive loads on simultaneous interpreters, the longer the EVS gets, and vice versa. In order to relieve cognitive loads, simultaneous interpreters often exploit the strategy of syntactic or semantic changes; in other words, paraphrasing or “shift” of ST. The keywords mentioned previously—multitask, effort, cognitive load, EVS, pause, input rate, and shift—are the words that shed light on different aspects of attention. How these words are related with the attention in the individual contexts are explained in the following section. 373

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24.4.1

Cognitive efforts in interpreting

Only a few researchers in Korea were interested in this subject, since attention mechanism is not counted among the salient features of T/I and is difficult to fathom. But a small number of researchers who investigated the subject attempted to deal a broad spectrum of the topic. The relationship between interpreter performance and temporal aspects was the main research topic of Lee, T.-H. (2005, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2013a, 2013b, 2019). Lee, T.-H. (2005) had examined the influence of the information processing strategy on the SI accuracy. Since then, he adopted interpreters’ cognitive load as his main research topic and has mainly studied the temporal aspects of interpreting, such as extended pauses, EVS, etc. Won, J.-H. (2011a, 2014) addressed the topic of input rate in SI and analyzed the authentic interpreting products of conference interpreters and their retrospective think-aloud protocol to examine the influence of input rate on coverage, error types, and flow of logic. She found that input rates have significant effects on interpreters’ rate of coverage and flow of logic but little effect on the types of errors interpreters make while interpreting. In Won, J.-H. (2014) the performance of trainee interpreters was examined and evaluated to find out the patterns of their idea units in SI (English-Korean) and which idea units are adequate to enhance the accuracy of SI. Input rate, idea units, and cognitive loads are the recurring topics of research in Lee, M.-G. (2007, 2008, 2014). Based on the authentic interpretations of three simultaneous interpreters (English-Korean), Lee, M.-G. (2007) analyzed shape changes between ST-TT (“shift”) and categorized them into five different types (ellipsis, deletion, addition, substitution, and errors). In Lee, M.-G. (2008), she also investigated various types, aspects, and causes of these shifts. Above all, she asked what effects input rate has on the frequency, type, and pattern of the shift. It turned out that “deletion” and “addition” is the most common type of shift and, with the exception of “substitution,” all shift types correlate positively or negatively with the input rate. In Lee, M.-G. (2014), she turned to consecutive interpreting (CI) and note-taking. Here, she analyzed different methods of note-taking to examine how cognitive loads in CI change depending on the types of note-taking (occurrence of word class, symbols, use of mother tongue, foreign language, etc.) and how the notetaking technique ultimately influences the interpreter’s performance. Chung, H.-Y. (2016a, 2017a) studied attention as a subcomponent of the working memory system (Cowan, 2000). Interpreters are known to be skilled at processing and retaining semantic information, but not necessarily phonological information (verbatim memory). Retaining phonological memory requires certain favorable biological conditions, such as a good auditory system and young age (Nittrouer et al., 2016), more so than in retaining semantic memory. Chung, H.-Y. (2016a, 2017a) observed that interpreters also perform better on the phonological memory tasks once the phonological information is embedded in a context. In a memory task with professional interpreters and three control groups, she found that the interpreters were able to strategically split or shift their attention4 for a short period when they had to remember both semantic and phonological information at the same time (e.g., in a phrase containing proper names or numbers).

24.4.2

Cognitive load in post-editing of machine translation

While perhaps cognitive loads are not positioned as high in the translation process as in the SI process, they are not to be neglected. Can machines alleviate these burdens? How great, then, will be the cognitive loads on humans? An increasing number of translatologists have asked these questions in recent years, especially after the remarkable development of machine translation, thanks to the neural network translation (NMT) (transformers and other large language models in the recent years 374

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have improved its quality even more than simple RNN models in the beginning of the NMT era). In the translation market, an increasing number of agencies and translators rely on the so-called machine translation post-editing (MTPE) practices, where texts are translated first by machines and then revised by humans. Researchers often compare human translation to MTPE in terms of cognitive loads to find out whether MTPE can save time and effort. Numerous studies have already been carried out on these questions in Europe and Asia. In Korea, Lee, J.-H. (2021a, 2021b), in particular, examines and tests this question with the English-Korean language pair. Lee, J.-H. (2021a) measured cognitive loads in MTPE and those in human translation and analyzed the correlation between productivity (number of words translated within a minute) and the quality of the translations. He found that the productivity increase varies from person to person, and some who achieved high productivity did it at the expense of quality. Lee, J.-H. (2021b) went one step further and analyzed the temporal aspect, keystrokes, and the pause in the MTPE using Translog II. The results showed that MTPE turned out to be less time-consuming than human translation, and thus, more productive. But the low correlation between keystrokes and time and that between pause and time indicates that less time does not necessarily mean less cognitive loads.

24.5

Aptitude and expertise

Translators/Interpreters’ competence is a foundation of their performance. In other words, studies on T/Iers’ competence indicate the types of psychological components which T/Iers should have to perform T/I and how this competence system is organized in their mind and brain. Language, memory, and attention are known to be parts of the T/Iers’ competence system. Not only translatologists but also psychologists found their interest in the psychological system of this special kind of bilingualism.

24.5.1

Competence models

Lee, G.-H. (2006), Won, J.-H. (2007), Chung, H.-Y. (2010), among others, investigated T/Iers’ competence systems from various perspectives and attempted to formulate their own models or to revise the existing models. Lee, G.-H. (2006) reviewed four communication and T/I models (decoding/re-encoding (Nida, 1969), interpretative (Seleskovitch, 1987), constructive (Schmidt, 1987), and cognitive creation model (Wilss, 1989; Neubert & Shreve, 1992)) and described the aspect that each of these models focuses on and what they have in common. She argued that none of the models pay sufficient attention to the importance of translators’ decision and demonstrated with examples how translators regulate the translation process with their strategies. On the basis of this analysis, she built a translation model explaining the translators’ perspective of the process. The interpreting process is similar to the translation process in many ways, but the former differentiates from the latter in the aspects such as orality/literacy, temporality, and mode of codeswitching. Code-switching during interpreting process, especially in SI, is often bi-directional and multimodal. In other words, the subtasks of code-switching take place at the same time. Won, J.-H. (2007) criticized existing interpreting models for not paying a sufficient attention to the aspect of code-switching and tried to integrate it into Setton’s (1999) SI model. Chung, H.-Y. (2010) attempted to formulate an interpreting process model from a neurocognitive perspective. She understood the interpreting process as an interactive network in which biological (auditory/visual system, vocalization system) as well as cognitive (L1, L2-system, language switching, memory, attention) subcomponents interact with each other in real time. She attempted to substantiate the model with neurocognitive findings. 375

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Figure 24.2 From aptitude to expertise

24.5.2

From aptitude to expertise

T/Iers‘ developmental process was examined in Chung, H.-Y. (2010) and Kim, H.-M. (2014) (Figure 24.2). Following Piaget (1950), Chung, H.-Y. (2010) described the cognitive development of T/I in three stages: language balancing, discourse management, and automatization. The developmental features that each sub-competence (memory, attention, and language) demonstrates was illustrated for each stage. The aptitude test for T/Iers in Chung, H.-Y. (2011) is based on this study. Kim, H.-M. (2014) investigated the influence of trainee translators’ sub-competences (general vocabulary knowledge and reading competency and on the degree of familiarity with texts) on their translation performance. Using multiple regression, he found that general vocabulary knowledge explained a larger portion (19.9%) of the variability in translation performance than reading competency (12.8%). The effect of the text familiarity did not have a significant effect on translation performance. T/I aptitude develops into T/I expertise. Expertise forms the other pole on the competence scale. Research on T/I expertise is different from that on T/I competence, inasmuch as the latter is about constructing a model that accounts for T/Iers’ overall performance, whereas the former examines T/Iers’ individual sub-competences. Among the sub-competences, lexical competence was one of translatologists’ favorite research subjects because it directly influences the T/Iers’ performance. Pöchhacker (2011) and Russo (2014), who investigated the lexical competence of undergraduates and student interpreters, found that interpreters are not significantly better than their bilingual counterparts in cloze tests. It was synonym and paraphrase tests where they showed their strengths. Inspired by these studies, Chung, H.-Y. (2017b) conducted cloze tests5 on professional interpreters, trainee interpreters, and undergraduate students to find out how the syntagmatic connections are organized in interpreters’ mental lexicon and whether they are as strong as the paradigmatic connections (such as synonymy). The cloze tests in Chung, H.-Y. (2017b) consisted of tests in three different levels (word, sentence, and text level). None of the results showed a significant difference between professional interpreters and control groups and confirmed once again6 that paradigmatic, particularly synonymic connections, are stronger than syntagmatic one in interpreters’ mental lexicon. If the translators do not have the necessary background knowledge for translation, they have to resort to references and tools such as lexicons, encyclopedia, and the internet. Effective search for necessary information also requires knowledge and strategy. PACTE (2020) called this type of competence “instrumental competence” and integrated it into the translation competence system. Chung, H.-Y. and colleagues (2010) compared professional translators with trainee translators in terms of their internet searching behavior. They found that the main difference between the groups lies in the information types they search for. Trainee translators looked more for lexical or syntactic information, while professionals more often searched for pragmatic information. Lexical competences of 376

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translators and interpreters were also examined by Choi, M.-S. (2019). Analyzing the transcripts of presentations at a major IT conference (SI), she made a list of words containing the core vocabulary reflective of the lexical features of the corpus (lower lexical variety, shorter word length, and higher proportion of low frequency words). Examining this list, she concluded that abbreviations/acronyms and proper names that represented a group of core IT vocabulary required relatively shallow lexical knowledge for an interpreter to process, but phonetic processing of these words was deemed demanding during comprehension.

24.6

Interpreters’ brain

In the studies mentioned previously, various aspects of T/Iers’ mind were examined. We need, however, further evidence that can substantiate the findings of these studies because they come from experiments which have multiple variables and leave considerable room for interpretation. This is where brain research can help. Rinne et al. (2000/2001) is one of the first and probably the most cited research on the interpreters’ brain. Although T/Iers’ brain has been explored before Rinne et al. (2000/2001), it was often not the main topic or the studies were not conducted within an empirical framework with strictly controlled conditions. In the early phase of T/Iers’ brain research, cases of unusual translation behavior (paradoxical translation, compulsive translation, etc.) were reported in the studies on aphasia (Kauders, 1929; Veyrac, 1931). Several decades later, Paradis (1984, 1993, 2004 etc.) studied T/Iers’ brain along with other bilingual groups’ brain. His theoretical studies are often cited even now. Empirical studies at those times were mostly behavior studies (Kraushaar & Lambert, 1987; Fabbro et al., 1990; Fabbro et al., 1991; Green et al., 1990; Gran & Fabbro, 1991) or those using brain wave technique (i.a., EEG) (Kurz,1995). But after the development of neuroimaging techniques in the late 1990s, brain research on bi- or multilinguals was dominated by neuroimaging studies. Until the turn of the millennium, however, hardly any brain researchers were interested in topics on T/I per se. Until then, T/Iers had been employed as a high-proficiency bilingual in bilingualism studies (Price et al., 1999; Lehtonen et al., 2005; Proverbio & Adorni, 2011 etc.) and were given simple word translation or code-switching tasks in the experiment. Attempts have been made to use the findings from these experiments for explaining the T/I process, but it was by no means satisfactory. As described previously, a considerable amount of studies on the bilingual brain had already been done before Rinne et al. (2000/2001). Rinne et al. (2000/2001) is acknowledged as one of the first studies on T/Iers’ brain because they made interpreting as their main research subject and examined the professional interpreters’ brain in an authentic condition.7 In the 2000s, more so since 2010, further neurocognitive studies on interpreting have followed. During this time, neuroscientists such as Hervais-Adelman, Elmer, and García published not only empirical but also theoretical studies on the T/I brain. In 2019, Hervais-Adelman and Babcock (2019) and García (2019) published a review paper/book that gave an extensive overview of neurocognitive studies on T/I from their own perspective. Since 2000, an increasing number of translatologists found their interest in neuroscience, even though the discipline is rather difficult for humanities scholars to approach, and looked for opportunities to collaborate with neurocognitive scientists (i.a., Annoni et al., 2012; HervaisAdelman et al., 2011, 2014, 2015a, 2015b; Koshkin et al., 2018). The number of psychologists and neuroscientists interested in translatology seems to be accordingly on the increase.

24.6.1

Questions and hypothetical answers

Korean translatologists’ interest in the cognitive neuroscience or neurolinguistics began around 2008. Bilingual brain research has been already quite active in Korea before 2000 (some studies 377

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were conducted outside Korea by Korean scientists abroad, such as Kim et al., 1997), but it took some time for translatologists to become aware of this field (the number of translatologists interested in cognitive neuroscience has remained relatively small till date). In 2008, Chung, H.-Y. presented European and American studies on the T/I brain in her book “Introduction to Interpreting Studies,” where she reviewed and analyzed numerous bilingual brain studies from a T/I perspective (Chung, H.-Y., 2008, 2010). Around 2010, another set of papers about T/Iers' brain was published in Europe, i.a. by cognitive neuroscientists. Chung, H.-Y. (2012) reviewed these works in relation to several common beliefs about interpreting, such as “interpreters are born, not made” or “women are better interpreters than men.” Almost a decade later, Chung, H.-Y. (2019) wrote another overview of brain research on T/I between 1920s and 2010s. Based on these studies, she tried to give tentative answers to some practical questions about interpretation, including “Is interpreting into the foreign language is more difficult than into the mother tongue?” and “What makes simultaneous interpreting possible in the first place?” These questions and their answers are used to set up hypotheses about interpretation at the end.

24.6.2

Neural basis of interpreting competence

After the mid-2010s, more translatologists were attracted to brain research. Kim, D.-J. (2016) wrote a review of Hervais-Adelman et al. (2011), Hervais-Adelman et al. (2014) and Hervais-Adelman et al. (2015a, 2015b), explaining the role of basal ganglia in the interpretation process. Brain regions apart from basal ganglia also play an important role during interpretation. Based on previous neuroimaging studies—i.e., García (2019)—Chung, H.-Y. (2023) named three brain circuits that are responsible for the respective sub-processes of interpreting and in which several parts of the brain actively communicate with one another. The first circuit is comprised of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which is responsible for conflict resolution and response selection, and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which plays a key role in monitoring language use, allocating attention, conflict monitoring, and error detection. The second is called the “perisylvian circuits” (García, 2019), of which the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) is the core part. IPL plays a crucial role in interpreting because visual and auditory inputs are integrated into a semantic representation in the area. The third circuit lies in a subcortical region of the brain and comprises of the caudate nucleus, a part of basal ganglia that is known to be responsible for procedural memory—i.e., automatized actions. Several neuroimaging studies found that these three regions are positively or negatively correlated with increasing years of interpretation experience (i.e., Elmer et al., 2014; Hervais-Adelman & Babcock, 2019) (see endnote 9).

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24.6.3

Neuroimaging Studies

Rare empirical studies in this area include Park, H.-J. (2014), Jeong, H.-J. et al. (2014), and Jeong, H.-J. (2017). In her doctoral dissertation, Park, H.-J. (2014) examined the brain activities of twenty professional and student interpreters. She divided the subjects into three comparison groups: 1) high performer vs. low performer, 2) experienced interpreter vs. student interpreter, and 3) early bilinguals vs. late bilinguals. Using fMRI, she examined their brain activities throughout four tasks: sight translation, consecutive interpreting, working memory task, and attention task (Simon task). In the behavior performance, no significant differences between the groups were found. However, in the fMRI analysis, the group of experienced interpreters demonstrated stronger brain activities in the brain areas responsible for semantic processing than the control group. Another interesting result was that the brain areas responsible for language production was activated in the experienced interpreters as soon as they received the ST. Control groups did not share this brain pattern. This result is in line with Elmer and Kühnis (2016), who compared the EEG pattern of twelve simultaneous interpreters with that of twelve multilinguals in a multilingual semantic decision task. Jeong, H.-J. et al. (2014) and Jeong, H.-J. (2017) compared, in their fMRI study, the performance of professional and non-professional interpreters in SI and found that the activities in the caudate nucleus9 a part of the basal ganglia, decreased with increasing years of interpretation. These findings are in line with Hervais-Adelman et al. (2015a), who interpreted this result as a sign of automatization of interpreting activity in the brain.

24.7

Future of (neuro)cognitive translatology

Because of the fundamental nature of psychological and neurocognitive studies, these fields can provide answers to a broad spectrum of questions. Their applicability is almost endless. The remarkable development of machine translation in recent years is also based on the findings of cognitive science (connectionist models). Many practical questions about T/I can also be answered in cognitive science; for example, is it better to acquire interpreting skills at young ages? (Is there a critical period in the acquisition of interpreting skills?) Or, what makes SI possible? (In what way is simultaneous interpreters’ brain organized?) This is the reason why more inter- or transdisciplinary research between translatology and cognitive science needs to be conducted worldwide. Such inter- or transdisciplinary research is already actively underway in Europe and the Americas. Translatologists who initially asked practical questions based on their experiences began to seek answers in cognitive science. Cognitive scientists who initially delved into their own research

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Hye-Yeon Chung 정혜연

topics—i.e., human cognition in general—found a new territory in the T/Iers’ cognition. This encounter creates a synergy for both these branches of science. Translatologists go beyond the horizon of pragmatic interest into the field of human psychology. Psychologists and cognitive scientists for whom T/Iers were mere high-proficiency bilinguals discover them anew as interesting research subjects in their own right. In Korea, the research field has not yet taken these leaps. The translatologists are in the process of expanding their research areas and methodology into the field of cognitive science. Since the turn of the millennium, an increasing number of Korean translatologists have discovered their interest in psychology and cognitive science. However, Korean cognitive scientists have not fully recognized T/I as a new research field yet. The time will come when both research areas meet, as is the case in Europe. In the era of brain and artificial intelligence, the evolution of (neuro)cognitive translatology is—in my opinion— inevitable. Translatology, a relatively young branch of science, still lacks the knowledge and the technology which are required in neuro(cognitive) research, and cognitive science needs the knowledge and the inspiration from practical experience. The necessity of inter- or transdisciplinary research in this area is, thus, as great as in many others. Sometimes one plus one equals more than two.

Notes 1 This figure does not represent a strict demarcation of the sciences from each other, but a rough representation of traditional research areas in the respective branches of science. 2 Papers and books mentioned in this chapter are mostly written in Korean. You can find English abstracts of these studies if you search them with their English titles in https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/main.kci (Korean Citation Index). 3 Research on T/Iers’ cognition does not provide T/Iers with the answers that they can directly apply in everyday practice. Research topics such as strategy, evaluation, and didactics can be more helpful. The number of researchers who investigate T/lers’ strategy, evaluation, and didactics is greater than that of those who study T/lers’ cognition (Yu, H.-N., 2020, p. 150). In this chapter, however, the studies on the former subjects are not mentioned, unless absolutely necessary. 4 The question of whether interpreters divide (Gile, 1985) or switch their attention between sub-tasks (Cowan, 2000; Seeber, 2011) has not been satisfactorily clarified. Recent neurocognitive research results provide increasing evidence that interpreters use their attention selectively—i.e., divide it (Yagura et al., 2021). 5 Cloze tests are exploited to assess the lexical and grammatical competence of a test person. He/she are instructed to fill the blank, for example, in a sentence or in a phrase. 6 See Chung, H.-Y. & Ko, H.-J. (2013). 7 The brain research on T/I interpreters’ brain attracts far more attention than that on translators’ brains because neurocognitive studies on T/I are greatly inspired by simultaneous interpretation. One of the few pieces of research examining translators’ brain is Van de Putte et al. (2018), even though translators are exploited as control group to SI in this study as well. 8 Images in Figure 24.3~Figure 24.6 are from Wikimedia commons. 9 Caudate nucleus is a subcortical region of brain that is related to procedural memory—i.e., automatized actions. Jeong, H.-J. et al. (2014) found that activity in the caudate nucleus is negatively correlated with increasing years of interpretation experience. Hervais-Adelman et al. (2015a) also found the reduced recruitment of the caudate nucleus and interpreted it as the result of automatization caused by interpretation training.

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Hye-Yeon Chung 정혜연 활용한 한영 인간번역과 포스트에디팅의 차이 분석 [A pilot investigation into Korean to English post-editing efforts]. The Journal of Translation Studies (JTS), 22(5), 271–298. https://doi.org/10.15749/ jts.2021.22.5.010 Lee, K.-E., Woo, Y.-H., & Lee, H.-W. (2019). Bigyunhyeonjeok hangukeo-yeongeo ijungeoneojaui beonyeokjeomhwa hyogwa 비균형적 한국어-영어 이중언어자의 번역점화 효과 [Translation priming effects in unbalanced Korean-English bilinguals]. Korean Journal of Cognitive and Biological Psychology (KJCBP), 31(3), 211–221. https://doi.org/10.22172/cogbio.2019.31.3.002 Lee, Kwang-Ho (2008). Dongsitongyeokeseo natananeun suhaenggieokui banghaeyoin mit geukbokbangane daehan injisimlihakjeok yeongu 동시통역에서 나타나는 수행기억의 방해요인 및 극복방안에 대한 인지심리학적 연구 [A cognitive psychological study of factors interfering with working memory in simultaneous interpreting and how to overcome them]. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 12(1), 65–90. UCI: G704-002016.2008.12.1.005 Lee, Kyeong-Hwa (2021). Pragmatic aspects of translation: A contrastive analysis of translation processes illustrated by inductive-empirical eye-tracking, writing process analysis, and a questionnaire. In M. KirnerLudwig (Ed.), Fresh perspectives on major issues in pragmatics (pp. 181–202). New York: Routledge. Lee, M.-G. (2007). Accounting for shifts in SI. Interpretation and Translation (I&T), 9(2), 113–132. UCI: G704-001020.2007.9.2.009 Lee, M.-G. (2008). Variances in source language input speed and typology of shift occurrences during simultaneous interpreting. The Journal of Interpretation and Translation Education, 6(1), 55–78. UCI: G704-SER000008991.2008.6.1.001 Lee, M.-G. (2010). Implications for working memory and knowledge on information transfer during simultaneous interpreting. Interpretation and Translation (I&T), 12(1), 157–177. UCI: G704-001020.2010.12.1.011 Lee, M.-G. (2011a). Suhaenggieokgwa dongsitongyeok gwajeongeseoui jeongbocheoriui chai 수행기억과 동 시통역과정에서의 정보처리의 차이 [Working memory and individual differences in language processing during simultaneous interpreting]. The Journal of Translation Studies (JTS), 12(1), 167–189. https://doi. org/10.15749/jts.2011.12.1.006 Lee, M.-G. (2011b). Working memory performance of expert and novice interpreters. Journal of Universal Language, 12(1), 95–110. https://doi.org/10.22425/jul.2011.12.1.95 Lee, M.-G. (2013). Dongsitongyeok gwajeongeseoui eoneobanghyangseonggwa saengryak – hanyeoung vs yeonghan dongsitongyeok data bigyo 동시통역 과정에서의 언어방향성과 생략 – 한영 vs. 영한 동시 통역 데이터 비교 [Language directionality and omission as strategy during simultaneous interpreting]. The Journal of Translation Studies (JTS), 14(1), 155–181. https://doi.org/10.15749/jts.2013.14.1.005 Lee, M.-G. (2014). Tongyeoksaui jeongbocheori buhawa notetakingui yangjeok gwangye 통역사의 정보처 리 부하와 노트테이킹의 양적 관계 [Notetaking quantity and interpreter’s information processing load: A case analysis of Korean-into-English consecutive interpreting]. The Journal of Interpretation and Translation Education, 12(3), 105–127. UCI: G704-SER000008991.2014.12.3.002 Lee, T.-H. (2005). Tongyeoksaui jeongbocheori jeonryakgwa dongsitongyeokui jeonghwakdo 통역사의 정보 처리 전략과 동시통역의 정확도 [Interpreter information processing strategy and accuracy of simultaneous interpretation]. Interpretation and Translation (I&T), 7(2), 139–156. UCI: G704-001020.2005.7.2.003 Lee, T.-H. (2006). A comparison of simultaneous interpretation and delayed simultaneous interpretation from English into Korean. Meta, 51(2), 202–214. https://doi.org/10.7202/013251ar Lee, T.-H. (2009). Yeonghan dongsitongyeokui munjang jeonhu sicha bigyo 영한 동시통역의 문장 전후 시차 비교 [A comparative analysis of two time lags in English into Korean simultaneous interpretation]. Interpretation and Translation (I&T), 11(2), 163–181. UCI: G704-001020.2009.11.2.010 Lee, T.-H. (2012). Yeonghan dongsitongyeokui munjang nae gwadohan hyuji yeongu 영한 동시통역의 문장 내 과도한 휴지 연구 [Prolonged in-sentence pauses in English into Korean simultaneous interpretation]. Interpretation and Translation (I&T), 14(2), 197–214. UCI: G704-001020.2012.14.2.009 Lee, T.-H. (2013a). Yeonghan dongsitongyeok yeonguui sigangjeok byeonsu 영한 동시통역 연구의 시간 적 변수 [Temporal variables in English into Korean simultaneous interpretation research]. Interpretation and Translation (I&T), 15(1), 125–144. UCI: G704-001020.2013.15.1.003 Lee, T.-H. (2013b). Yeongeo hangukeogan sunchatongyeokui siganjeok yangsang 영어 한국어간 순차통역 의 시간적 양상 [Temporal aspects of consecutive interpretation between English and Korean]. Interpretation and Translation (I&T), 15(2), 191–213. UCI: G704-001020.2013.15.2.005 Lee, T.-H. (2019). Sajeon wongoga dongsitongyeokui siganjeok yangsange michineun yeonghyang 사전 원 고가 동시통역의 시간적 양상에 미치는 영향 [The effect of text in advance on the temporal aspects of simultaneous interpretation]. The New Studies of English Language & Literature, 73, 183–203.

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Research on interpreters’ and translators’ cognition in Korea Lehtonen, M. H., Laine, M., Niemi, J., Thomsen, T., Vorobyev, V. A., & Hugdahl, K. (2005). Brain correlates of sentence translation in Finnish-Norwegian bilinguals. Neuroreport, 16, 607–610. https://doi. org/10.1097/00001756-200504250-00018 Mizuno, A. (2005). Process model for simultaneous interpreting and working memory. Meta, 50(2), 739–752. https://doi.org/10.7202/011015ar Neubert, A., & Shreve, G. M. (1992). Translation as text. Kent, OH: The Kent State UP. Nida, E. A., & Taber, C. R. (1969). The theory and practice of translation. Leiden: E. J. Brill. Nittrouer, S., Lowenstein, J. H., Wucinich, T., & Moberly, A. C. (2016). Verbal working memory in older adults: The roles of phonological capacities and processing speed. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59, 1520–1532. https://doi.org/10.1044/2016_JSLHR-H-15-0404 PACTE Group (2020). Translation competence acquisition. Design and results of the PACTE group’s experimental research. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 14(2), 95–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/17503 99X.2020.1732601 Paneth, E. (1957). An investigation into conference interpreting. Unpublished M.A. thesis. London University. Paradis, M. (1984). Aphasie et traduction. Meta, 29(1), 57–67. https://doi.org/10.7202/003781ar Paradis, M. (1993). Multilingualism and aphasia. In G. Blanken et al. (Eds.), Linguistics disorders and pathologies (pp. 278–288). Berlin: De Gruyter. Paradis, M. (2004). A neurolinguistic theory of bilingualism. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing. Park, H.-J. (2014). Analysis on brain activation and cognitive task performance of Korean-English interpreters using fMRI analysis on brain activation and cognitive task performance of Korean-English interpreters using fMRI. Doctoral dissertation. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Piaget, J. (1950). The psychology of intelligence. London: Routledge. Pöchhacker, F. (2011). Assessing aptitude for interpreting – the SynCloze test. Interpreting, 13(1), 106–120. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.13.1.07poc Price, C. J., Green, D. W., & von Studnitz, R. (1999). A functional imaging study of translation and language switching. Brain, 122(12), 2221–2235. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/122.12.2221 Proverbio, A. M., & Adorni, R. (2011). Hemispheric asymmetry for language processing and lateral preference in simultaneous interpreters. Psychology, 2(1), 12–17. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2011.2100 Riccardi, A. (2005). On the evolution of interpreting strategies in simultaneous interpreting. Meta, 50(2), 753–767. https://doi.org/10.7202/011016ar Rinne, J. O., Tommola, J., Laine, M., Krause, B. J., Schmidt, D., Kaasinen, V., Teräs, M., Sipilä, H., & Sunnari, M. (2000). The translating brain. Neuroscientific Letters, 294(2), 85–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/ s0304-3940(00)01540-8 Russo, M. (2014). Testing aptitude for interpreting. Interpreting, 16(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1075/ intp.16.1.01rus Schmidt, S. J. (1987). Der Diskurs des Radikalen Konstruktivismus. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Seeber, K. G. (2011). Cognitive load in simultaneous interpreting: Existing theories – new mode. Interpreting, 13(2), 176–204. https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.13.2.02see Segalowitz, N. S., & Segalowitz, S. J. (1993). Skilled performance, practice, and the differentiation of speed-up from automatization effects: Evidence from second language word recognition. Applied Psycholinguistic, 14, 369–385. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716400010845 Seleskovitch, D. (1978). Language and recognition. In D. Gerver & W. Sinaiko (Eds.), Language interpretation and communication (pp. 333–341). New York: Plenum Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9077-4_29 Seleskovitch, D. (1987). Context-free language and sense in translation. In W. Lörscher & R. Schulze (Eds.), Perspectives on language in performance (pp. 441–446). Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. Setton, R. (1999). Simultaneous interpretation. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. van de Putte, E., Baene, W. D., Pentón, L. G., & Woumans, E. (2018). Anatomical and functional changes in the brain after simultaneous interpreting training. Cortex, 99, 243–257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. cortex.2017.11.024 Veyrac, G. J. (1931). A study of aphasia in polyglot subjects. Readings on aphasia in bilinguals and polyglots. In M. Paradis (1983) (Ed.), Readings on aphasia in bilinguals and polyglots (pp. 320–338). Paris: Didier. Wilss, W. (1989). Multi-facet concept of translation behavior. Target, 1(2), 129–149. https://doi.org/10.1075/ target.1.2.02wil Won, J.-H. (2007). Code-switching and cognitive models of the process of simultaneous interpreting. Interpretation and Translation (I&T), 9(2), 89–112. UCI: G704-001020.2007.9.2.011

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Hye-Yeon Chung 정혜연 Won, J.-H. (2010). Yeonghan dongsitongyeok jeonryakui banghyangseong yeongu 영-한 동시통역 전략 의 방향성 연구 [Directionality in Korean-English simultaneous interpreting strategies]. Interpretation and Translation (I&T), 12(1), 131–155. UCI: G704-001020.2010.12.1.010 Won, J.-H. (2011a). Effects of input rates on the performance of novice simultaneous interpreters. Interpretation and Translation (I&T), 13(1), 37–57. UCI: G704-001020.2011.13.1.010 Won, J.-H. (2011b). Effects of directionality in self-monitoring patterns among Korean-English simultaneous interpreters. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 14(2), 205–226. UCI: G704-002016.2011.14.2.015 Won, J.-H. (2014). Yeonghan tongyeok jeonghwakdo pyeonggareul wihan idea danwi yeongu 영한 통역 정 확도 평가를 위한 아이디어 단위 연구 [A study on idea units for evaluating the accuracy of graduate students’ interpretation]. The Journal of Translation Studies (JTS), 15(2), 123–148. https://doi.org/10.15749/ jts.2014.15.2.005 Won, J.-H. (2016). Tongyeokdaehakwonsaengui eoneobanghyange ttareun daneogieok somyeol yangsang yeongu 통역대학원생의 언어 방향에 따른 단어기억 소멸 양상 연구 [Directionality in the decay of memory for words among graduate students of interpretation]. The Journal of Translation Studies (JTS), 17(2), 35–64. https://doi.org/10.15749/jts.2016.17.2.002 Yagura, H., Tanaka, H, Kinoshita, T., Watanabe, H., Motomura, S., Sudoh, K., & Nakamura, S. (2021). Selective attention measurement of experienced simultaneous interpreters using EEG phase-locked response. Frontier in Human Neuroscience, 15(Article 581525), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.5815 Yu, H.-N. (2020). Keyword network bunseokeul tonghan guknaeoe tongbeonyeok yeongugonghyang bigyo 키워드 네트워크 분석을 통한 국내외 통번역 연구동향 비교 [Comparison of research trends in translation and interpreting through keyword network analysis]. Interpretation and Translation (I&T), 22(1), 135–158. https://doi.org/10.20305/it202001135158

List of Korean Journals (KCI) Beoneokhak-Yeongu 번역학연구 [The Journal of Translation Studies (JTS)]. Dokeodokmunhak 독어독문학 [Koreanische Zeitschrift für Germanistik]. Dokeohak 독어학 [Zeitschrift der Koreanischen Gesellschaft für Deutsche Sprachwissenschaft]. Hanguk-Simlihakhoe-Ji: Inji mit Saengmul (Simriinsaeng) 한국심리학회지: 인지 및 생물 (심리인생) [Korean Journal of Cognitive and Biological Psychology (KJCBP)]. Inmun-Sahoe 21 인문사회 21 (인문사회 21) [The Journal of Humanities and Social science (HSS21)]. Sin-Youngeo-Yeongmunhak 신영어영문학 [The New Studies of English Language & Literature]. Tongbeoneok-Gyoyuk-Yeongu 통번역교육연구 [The Journal of Interpretation and Translation Education]. Tongbeoneokhak-Yeongu 통번역학연구 [Interpreting and Translation Studies]. Tongyeok-Gwa-Beoneok 통역과 번역 [Interpretation and Translation (I&T)].

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25 EXPLORING THE POSSIBILITY OF USING SPEECH-TO-TEXT TRANSCRIPTION AS A TOOL FOR INTERPRETING Juriae Lee 이주리애 25.1

Introduction

Speech-to-Text (STT) (or automatic speech recognition), a technology that outputs text from voice recognition input, has boasted an accuracy of over 95% for the past several years (Lee, 2021, p. 2408). Most document applications include STT dictation functionality, and the Korean language also has a high recognition rate in these systems. Despite some recognition errors, the use of STT as a means of Computer Assisted Interpreting (CAI) is worth considering. Currently developed online systems for simultaneous interpreting, such as KUDO Interpreter Assist (Fantinuoli et al., 2022) and Smarterp (Rodriguez et al., 2021), are equipped with automatic speech recognition functionality. These systems can detect the speaker’s entire utterance, as well as numbers, technical terms, and proper nouns, among other inputs. These are separately extracted and presented, showing that tools for assisting interpreters are evolving rapidly. Indeed, with the advancement of IT, communication technology, and natural language processing, we have come to accept that a technological shift is taking place in the field of interpreting (Fantinuoli, 2018, p. 6). However, in most cases, Korea uses general-purpose online video-conference systems rather than specialized systems for simultaneous interpreting. With the increase of online video conferences, it has become more common for interpreters to connect to these systems and manage the settings of their interpreting environments directly. For some languages, conference audio is provided in the form of subtitles within the video conferencing system so that the interpreter may check the contents of the speech through transcribed text. As STT has the potential to transform the interpreting task (Pöchhacker, 2016), it will be possible for interpreters to view the transcribed speech in the form of subtitles. Although newly developed CAI tools for interpreters are very useful, they tend to be underused (Martin, 2020, p. 44) or poorly maintained, in comparison to Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools. In addition, it is worth considering that a general-purpose STT tool can be easily utilized as a CAI tool, as the widespread adoption of bespoke CAI tools takes time and the threshold of their operation is high. Of course, transcribing the contents of speech verbatim can place a cognitive burden on interpreters (Desmet et al., 2018; Defranc & Fantinuoli, 2021) and can have a negative effect due to the impact of technology on the overall quality of interpreting and on the interpreter’s work process. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to sufficiently identify the advantages and disadvantages of this technology and to conduct sufficient research with focus on its 387

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-30

Juriae Lee 이주리애

users; namely, the interpreters (Corpas, 2018, p. 166). STT is part of the interpreting data received by interpreters, and only the interpreters themselves can determine its worth for future use on the basis of convenience and helpfulness. This study, therefore, seeks to gather a range of opinions on STT from professional interpreters who have undergone experimental trials designed to test its usefulness in simultaneous interpreting. Interpreters were asked to undergo three trials, as a single trial was deemed insufficient to adequately explore the viability of STT for its potential use in the future due to participants’ lack of experience with STT-assisted interpreting. Changes in familiarity with the use of STT were also observed throughout the stages of these experiments. Questions were presented to participants following each trial. The main questions were as follows: 1) Based on the experiment, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using voice recognition (STT) in simultaneous interpreting? 2) Do you feel that you have become accustomed to using STT after three trials? 3) How did you make use of the STT during simultaneous interpreting? In order to examine the various perspectives that can arise from using a general-purpose STT, the responses of participants were analyzed through a questionnaire consisting of closed-ended and open-ended questions.

25.2

Literature review

Speech recognition is one of the tools of CAI (Fantinuoli, 2017), and research to utilize it for interpreting has been appearing since the mid-to-late 2010s. Precedent research into STT tools show that, among the CAI tools organized by Ortiz and Cavallo (2018), the STT app currently available is Dragon NS (Lee, 2021). According to the test results of Gaber et al. (2020), STT tools continue to change in performance and type, with Otter AI and YouTube being selected as having highly accurate STT, among others. Lee (2021, 2022b) studied and categorized voice recognition apps that could be used for interpreting. Apps were categorized by device into PC type and mobile type, and by functionality by whether they could provide timelines and real-time recordings. Studies that have conducted interpreting experiments using voice recognition have focused mainly on numbers. First, as an example of system construction, Fantinuoli (2017) introduced a prototype that extracts numbers and proper nouns, asserting that an interpreting-assisting tool using ASR does not significantly distract the interpreter in the booth but helps improve the accuracy of performance. Desmet et al. (2018) conducted a simulation study examining whether an automatic voice-recognition system for numbers assists in simultaneous interpreting, and the results confirmed that the number of errors was reduced by two-thirds. In Choi (2022), a prototype of a system that supports interpreting with numbers was built. It also implemented a screen that extracts and visualizes only numbers, along with a function that highlights numbers when they appear in a sentence. For research that utilized students as experimental subjects, Defrancq and Fantinuoli (2021) conducted an experiment involving a method that highlighted numbers using ASR for those interpreting in the booth, confirming an increase in accuracy regarding the interpreting of numbers. Wang and Wang (2019) conducted an experiment where numbers and proper nouns highlighted within the text obtained by voice recognition with Dragon NS were then put through Google Translate to provide auxiliary data for consecutive interpreting. The results of this experiment showed that such assistance was more beneficial to students who were relatively more proficient than it was to students who were less proficient. Frittella (2022) used Smarterp, a remote system for simultaneous interpreting, to analyze the accuracy of voice-recognition-aided interpreting for numbers. The 388

Speech-to-text transcription as a tool for interpreting

results of this experiment pointed out that, even if the interpreting accuracy for numbers increased, there could be errors in context, indicating that the accurate interpreting of numbers does not lead directly to accurate interpreting. Moreover, these precedents show that voice recognition enhances the actual quality of interpreting when compared to interpretings conducted without its assistance, proving that the use of voice recognition does assist with interpreting. On the other hand, there were cases where interpreting experiments were conducted presenting entire utterances using general-purpose voice recognition tools that were not designed for interpreters. Li and Wang (2018) conducted an experiment using a speech recognition app called iFlytek, which was provided as an interpreting aid for students at a beginner level in simultaneous interpreting. Results showed that STT helped students to cope with their psychological anxiety. In Wang (2021), the researcher used voice recognition for simultaneous interpreting, stating that, while it was helpful to refer to missed information, the transcription of all contents within the speech interfered with providing a concise interpreting. Lee (2021) conducted an experiment in which Google STT and Google Translate were provided as auxiliary materials to graduate students majoring in interpreting. Students were provided with two types of data: a screen displaying STT in real time and a screen displaying STT of the entire utterance following its conclusion. Results showed that STT gave students the advantage of being able to refer to missed information, thereby providing some psychological relief. However, during consecutive interpreting, students found it difficult to match specific text on the screen with their notes when confirming details. Concerning simultaneous interpreting, students found that the continuous and automatic updating of text on the screen caused confusion. However, these precedent studies were mainly one-off experiments targeting students. Later, Lee (2022a), considering that the negative results may have been due to participants’ unfamiliarity with the use of voice recognition for interpreting, conducted a consecutive interpreting experiment where professional interpreters were brought in to test the usefulness of STT for three trials. After the experiment, the interpreters responded that the advantages of STT were psychological relief and the chance to reconfirm the contents of their notes, adding that it felt like note-taking was unnecessary. The disadvantages of STT, as they described, were that the longer the transcribed paragraph, the harder it became to find the sought-after content, along with some confusion. Meanwhile, as the three trials progressed, they were observed to become increasingly accustomed to looking at both their notes and the screen, developing their own know-how on how to use the tool effectively. Results of these precedents show that, while STT transcription of entire utterances has advantages as an interpreting-assisting tool, the display of excessive information can hinder the interpreter by causing confusion. Nevertheless, as in the case of the consecutive interpreting experiment conducted by Lee (2022a), interpreters could become accustomed to using STT for simultaneous interpreting as well after several trials. Researching such aspects would be meaningful from an educational point of view.

25.3 25.3.1

Research method Research subjects

The experiment, consisting of three trials, took place in August 2021. Test subjects were international conference interpreters with master’s degrees from graduate schools of interpreting and translation in Korea. A total of 21 interpreters participated in the experiment, and none had any experience using STT in simultaneous interpreting. Explanations and consent forms regarding the research were given in writing. In the three trial experiments (Trial 1, Trial 2, and Trial 3), four interpreters underwent a single trial, four participated in two trials, and thirteen interpreters 389

Juriae Lee 이주리애

participated in all three trials, totaling 21 participants. A survey was conducted at the end of each experiment, and the number of respondents for each round was twenty in Trial 1, sixteen in Trial 2, and fifteen in Trial 3. The participants’ genders, language majors, and age groups are shown in Table 25.1. Shaded cells in Table 25.1 show subjects who participated in all three trials (one to three) and these thirteen subjects are the ones considered when analyzing the patterns of change throughout the entire three-trial experiment. Pattern analysis for individual trials considers all experiment participants accordingly.

25.3.2

Research tools

Experiment trials were conducted via Zoom, an online conference app, and the materials (audiovisual and audio) used for the trials were as follows. [Trial 1] Audiovisual Material in Korean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSRiq9VBlt8&t=962s [Trial 2] Audiovisual Material in Korean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki-Ws5OodgM [Trial 3] Audiovisual Material in Korean: https://irsvc.teletogether.com/samsungsds/samsungsds.php?c=samsungsds&y=480 https://irsvc.teletogether.com/samsungsds/samsungsds.php?c=samsungsds&y=369 Trial 1 through Trial 3 consisted of playing video speeches in Korean, and STT subtitles were provided in real-time as individual videos were played. Each trial consisted of two five-minute sections of interpreting, one with subtitles provided and one without. The sections were selected from the same audiovisual material to avoid discrepancies arising from difference in difficulty level. The following is an overview of the audiovisual materials used in the experiment. Microsoft calculates the word error rate (wer) of its STT software by dividing the sum of errors [including “Insertion (I),” “Deletion (D)” and “Substitution (S)”] by the total number of words transmitted and multiplying by 100. The term “Insertion” refers to the insertion of words that have been recognized to be unnecessary; “Deletion” refers to words that have been recognized to be missing; and “Substitution” refers to words that have been recognized to be mistakenly replaced for others. All data collected from experiment trials demonstrated a credibility interval of 95% to 97%. Trial 1 employed a lecture, and Trial 2 employed a conference presentation. Both of these trials consisted of speeches in which the speakers gave their presentations using PPT slides. Trial 3 consisted of a conference call in which the speaker was only heard but not seen on screen, giving a performance review presentation involving several large numbers in the vicinity of 100 billion. In this trial, STT was provided using the MS PowerPoint slide show option, which allowed participants to both hear the Korean audio and read what was being spoken through Korean subtitles. Figure 25.1 is an example of how STT subtitles were provided.

25.3.3

Research procedure and analysis

Subjects participating in each trial connected via Zoom at the agreed time and date, and settings were adjusted so that the researcher could observe their interpreting. Figure 25.2 depicts the Zoom screen where participants are interpreting for the experiment.

390

Speech-to-text transcription as a tool for interpreting Table 25.1 Overview of experiment participants Respondent

Gender

Interpreting language

Mother language

Age group

Interpreting experience

Participating trial

J1

Male

Japanese

Japanese

40s

5 yrs. and above

J2

Female

Japanese

Korean

40s

1 yr. and above ~ less than 3 yrs.

J3

Female

Japanese

Korean

30s

1 yr. and above ~ less than 3 yrs.

J4

Female

Japanese

Japanese

20s

1 yr. and above ~ less than 3 yrs.

J5

Female

Japanese

Japanese

20s

1 yr. and above ~ less than 3 yrs.

J6

Female

Japanese

Korean

30s

Less than 1 yr.

J7

Male

Japanese

Korean

30s

Less than 1 yr.

J8 J9 J10

Female Female Female

Japanese Japanese Japanese

Korean Korean Korean

30s 40s 30s

J11 J12

Male Female

Japanese Japanese

Korean Korean

40s 30s

J13

Female

Japanese

Korean

30s

5 yrs. and above 5 yrs. and above 3 yrs. and above ~less than 5 yrs. 5 yrs. and above 1 yr. and above ~ less than 3 yrs. 5 yrs. and above

Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3 Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3 Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3 Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3 Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3 Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3 Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3 Trial 1 Trial 1 Trial 1

E1

Female

English

Korean

30s

3 yrs. and above ~ less than 5 yrs.

E2

Female

English

Korean

20s

1 yr. and above ~ less than 3 yrs.

E3

Female

English

Korean

30s

3 yrs. and above ~ less than 5 yrs.

E4

Female

English

Korean

30s

Less than 1 yr.

E5

Female

English

Korean

30s

5 yrs. and above

C1

Female

Chinese

Korean

30s

3 yrs. and above ~ less than 5 yrs.

C2

Female

Chinese

Korean

40s

5 yrs. and above

C3

Female

Chinese

Korean

20s

Less than 1 yr.

391

Trial 1 Trial 1, Trial 2 Trial 1, Trial 2 Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3 Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3 Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3 Trial 1, Trial 2 Trial 1, Trial 3 Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3 Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3 Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3

Juriae Lee 이주리애 Table 25.2 Overview of audiovisual materials (Korean) used in the experiment  

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Field: Topic (Displayed on screen) Section w/o subtitles

Lecture: Artificial Intelligence (Speaker, PPT) 00:11:06~00:16:02

Presentation: Urban Foods (Speaker, PPT) 00:06:22~00:11:06

Section with subtitles

00:30:03~00:34:57

00:34:56~00:40:02

Average speaking rate Word error rate

144.16wpm 3.41%

113.17wpm 3.29%

Conference Call: Performance Review (Speaker’s voice) 00:00:00~00:05:12 (2021, 2nd qtr.) 00:00:00~00:05:18 (2020, 4th qtr.) 87.69wpm 5.24%

Figure 25.1 Example of screen providing subtitles in Trial 1

After joining via Zoom, participants were given the keywords for their interpreting through the chat window with ten minutes to check them. After checking the keywords, they were shown the Korean video and audio materials and began interpreting the speeches into their respective foreign languages. They first began interpreting a video section that did not provide any subtitles for about five minutes. They then proceeded to interpret another video section of about five minutes with the subtitling function of MS PowerPoint turned on. However, screen lag problems arose during Trial 1, depending on the connection status of individual participants, which occurred as real-time STT subtitles using PPT were being provided through Zoom’s screen share function. After becoming aware of the screen lag problem during Trial 1 through the questionnaires that were filled out soon after, a URL link to a pre-recorded STT subtitled video, created using Zoom, was distributed to interpreters participating in Trial 2 and Trial 3 so that they could play and watch the subtitled video 392

Speech-to-text transcription as a tool for interpreting

from their own PC (Figure 25.3). No complaints about the subtitle delay caused by screen lag were reported for Trial 2 and Trial 3. While speakers and their presentation materials were audio-visually displayed in Trial 1 and Trial 2, Trial 3 was conducted with only the audio of speech without any visuals of the speaker, as seen in Figure 25.4. A questionnaire file to be filled out immediately was distributed to participants following the conclusion of each interpreting trial. Filled-out questionnaires were retrieved for analysis afterward. The content of the questionnaire was modelled on that of Lee (2022a), which was elaborated from a preliminary experiment conducted by Lee (2021). To ensure reliability and validity, the wording was preserved, replacing only “consecutive interpreting” with “simultaneous interpreting.” The questionnaire consisted of open-ended questions and closed-ended questions employing a six-point

Figure 25.2 Experiment scene for simultaneous interpreting trials

Figure 25.3 Example of subtitled video screen provided through Zoom URL in Trial 2

393

Juriae Lee 이주리애

Figure 25.4 Example of subtitled video screen provided through Zoom URL in Trial 3

scale assessment [zero points (not very much), one point, two points, three points (average), four points, five points (very much so)]. The same questions were asked following every trial (from Trial 1 to Trial 3) in order to determine whether participants were becoming accustomed to interpreting using STT. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS/PC version 26.0 program. The method used for data analysis is as follows. First, frequency analysis and descriptive statistics were used to identify the general characteristics of the subjects and the characteristics of the participants. Second, in order to analyze differences in experience and age of the participants, the difference between the groups was verified using the Kruskal-Wallis H-test, a non-parametric statistical-analysis method. Kruskal-Wallis statistical analysis is an analytical technique often used when the sample collected is less than 30 (Elliott & Hynan, 2011). Third, open-ended questions were repeatedly read and transcribed with consultation from fellow researchers and qualitative research experts. After primary coding of the transcribed data, axial coding and visualization were performed using KoNLP (Korean Natural Language Process) Simpos09 and Ucinet 64 version.

25.4 25.4.1 25.4.1.1

Experiment results

Response results from Trial 1 to Trial 3 Response results of closed-ended questions

Questions were divided into those regarding the environment of the interpreting experiment (Q1: sound quality; Q2: screen display) and those regarding the utilization and usefulness of STT (Q3~Q10). Scores rated by respondents were calculated to yield an average. The average for sound quality (Q1), from Trial 1 to Trial 3, was around four points, which was suitable for conducting an interpreting experiment. As for the question regarding screen display (Q2), which inquired into whether the STT subtitles displayed on the screen were satisfactory, the average score from Trials 1–3 was above three points (average). Responses with low scores (one or two points) involved cases 394

Speech-to-text transcription as a tool for interpreting

where the monitor of the interpreter’s PC was too small and cases in which the interpreter disliked the subtitle style. There were no participants in the experiment who raised a problem with regard to image quality. The following are questions regarding the utilization and usefulness of STT (Q3-Q10). Q3. How reliable do you find the STT to be in terms of quality? Q4. Did you refer to the STT transcription where provided? Q5. Was STT useful? Q6. Did your cognitive load decrease when using STT? Q7. Did STT reduce the psychological burden of interpreting? Q8. Would you be willing to use the STT function for simultaneous interpreting in the future? Q9. Were you more satisfied with your interpreting with reference to STT or without? Q10. Would you prefer interpreting with the aid of STT or without? The response trend to Q3 through Q8, according to each trial, were as follows. 5 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Trial 1 Q3

Trial 2 Q4

Q5

Trial 3 Q6

Q7

Q8

Figure 25.5 Response trend to questions regarding the use of STT

Reliability of STT in terms of quality (Q3), whether STT was referred to (Q4), whether STT was useful (Q5), and whether there was relief of psychological burden (Q7) rose gently from Trial 1 to Trial 2, then showed a relatively steep rise in Trial 3. In particular, the response to whether or not STT was referred to (Q4) was in the two-point range in Trial 1, marking the lowest score. However, it rose sharply in Trial 3, exceeding a score of four points, marking the steepest rise. Response scores on whether STT helped decrease the cognitive load (Q6) declined in Trial 2 and ascended significantly in Trial 3, reaching the four-point level. Q8, regarding the willingness to use STT in the future, marked the highest score in all three trials, indicating that the use of STT was viewed 395

Juriae Lee 이주리애

positively. All response scores to these six questions show an upward curve from Trial 1 to Trial 3, which can be seen as a change indicating that the interpreters were becoming accustomed to using STT with repeated trials.

25.4.1.2

Statistical analysis of closed-ended questions

The analysis of differences by age and experience of respondents was verified using the KruskalWallis H-test (Q3-Q8). As a result of analyzing the difference in interpreters’ experience, statistically significant results were shown in participants’ willingness to use the voice recognition function for simultaneous interpreting (Q8, p < .001), confidence in the quality of voice recognition (Q3, p < .01), and reference to voice recognition in interpreting when provided (Q4, p < .05). In particular, the intention to use the voice recognition function for simultaneous interpreting was verified to have the highest difference by experience. Among those with three years of experience and above, three participants had between three and five years of experience and two had more than five years of experience. Table 25.3 shows that, in the case of participants with more than three years of interpreting experience, trust in the quality of speech recognition and reference to speech recognition showed low scores, while the highest score was in the intention to use speech recognition in the future. Differences by age are shown in Table 25.4, as follows. Survey responses, sorted in order of Q3 (reliability of STT quality, p < .01), Q4 (referring to STT in sections where provided, p < .01), Q8 (willingness to use STT for future simultaneous interpretings, p < .01), Q5 (usefulness of STT, p < .01), and Q7 (relief of psychological burden, Table 25.3 Difference analysis by experience Experience

N

Less than 1 yr. 1 yr. and above ~ less than 3 yrs. 3 yrs. and above Total

Q8

Q3

Q4

M

P

M

P

M

P

3 5

3.7 3.5

3.624***

4.0 3.5

3.094**

4.0 3.5

2.911*

5 13

4.1 -

3.4 -

-

3.2 -

-

-

*p < .5, **p < .01, ***p < .001

Table 25.4 Differences analysis by age AGE

20s 30s 40s Total

N

4 6 3 13

Q3

Q4

Q8

Q5

Q7

M

P

M

P

M

P

M

P

M

P

5.38 4.29 5.07 -

3.998**

4.28 4.59 4.68 -

3.904**

4.58 4.39 4.69 -

3.624***

5.09 4.42 4.76 -

3.126**

5.41 4.86 5.00 -

2.969*

-

-

*p < .5, **p < .01, ***p < .001

396

-

-

-

Speech-to-text transcription as a tool for interpreting

p < .05) showed significant results. In terms of mean scores, reliability of STT quality was highest among interpreters in their 20s, and referencing to STT was highest among interpreters in their 40s. Two people among interpreters in their 40s had more than five years of experience; therefore, it can be construed that interpreters with more experience are more able to multitask by referring to STT while interpreting. Willingness to use STT for future simultaneous interpretings was also highest among those in their 40s, whereas scores regarding whether STT was useful and whether it reduced the psychological burden of interpreting were highest among those in their 20s. Interpreters in their 20s consisted of one person with less than one year of experience and two people with between one to three years of experience; therefore, it can be said that the relief of psychological burden is higher for those with less experience. In addition, while responses to whether participants were more satisfied with the interpreting using STT or with the interpreting without its aid (Q9) showed that 30.8% of respondents were more satisfied with the interpreting they performed without STT in Trial 1, while 0% of responses in Trials 2 and 3 chose the interpreting without the aid of STT over the interpreting with reference to STT, and responses stating that the two were “similar” in satisfaction were 7.7% (Trial 1), 38.5% (Trial 2), and 30.8% (Trial 3), respectively. The ratio of those preferring the interpreting aided by STT over the interpreting without its aid were 53.8% (Trial 1), 53.8% (Trial 2), and 69.2% (Trial 3), respectively, indicating that respondents found interpreting with the aid of STT to be satisfactory, overall. As to the question asking whether the interpreter would prefer interpreting with the aid of STT or without (Q10), responses showed that 84.6% (11 participants) would prefer to interpret with the aid of STT.

25.4.1.3

Network analysis of open-ended questions

Social network analysis is a representative analysis technique used to identify the knowledge system of each field. It assumes that relationships are important and focuses on the structure of relationships (Serrat, 2017). A link signifies a connection between nodes having a specific meaning, and link data represents a direction and a weight (value). In this study, topic analysis was conducted after preprocessing, and categorization was derived based on the topic analysis results. Based on categorization, axial coding was performed to construct a matrix, and network analysis was performed. As a result, voice recognition, function, and psychological burden appeared as high-ranking keywords. The degree of centrality increases as the number of directly connected neighboring keywords increases, and since the size of direct influence can be measured, keywords with high influence in the research field can be identified. A link-centrality analysis with the aim of examining how voice recognition is perceived among interpreters lists the top ten keywords (among a total of 64) with high link centrality, as shown in Table 25.5. Results from the foregoing degree-centrality analysis show that the most frequently connected keywords within the network were “voice recognition,” “function,” “psychological burden,” “train,” “experience,” “sequential,” “technology,” “method,” “reference,” and “difference.” The influence of keywords related to training for voice recognition functions was high; this is believed to be due to opinions reflecting the need to adapt to the evolving field of interpreting through constant training. In addition, “education,” “coping skills,” “native language,” and “foreign language” were also found to be highly influential keywords.

25.4.1.4

Response results of open-ended questions

Open-ended questions were analyzed by categorizing the responses of participants following each trial. The questions asked respondents to describe three things: the “advantages (Q1)” and 397

Juriae Lee 이주리애 Foreign language

Psychological burden

tough

training

Cognitive dissonance

text

to read subtitle situation

technology translate

environment

naver experience

Voice recognition

adaptation reference

coping

function high

translator

method Come out

The same time ability

error

assistance

Figure 25.6 Topic analysis-based network analysis subtitle To follow

ability

difference

technology environment

experience

need

To happen

difference

speed

number

function training difference

word

The same time actively Come out recognition text translator

adaptation decrease Foreign language

voice

coping

education

step

experiment error

Figure 25.7 Degree centrality map

398

understanding

need

decrease

Speech-to-text transcription as a tool for interpreting

“disadvantages (Q2)” of using STT for simultaneous interpreting, and “how they managed their gaze (Q3)” during simultaneous interpreting using STT. Q1. What were the advantages of interpreting with the aid of STT? Responses to this question, from Trial 1 to Trial 3, were divided into three categories; namely: “Reference to Omission,” “Mental Stability,” and “Help with Numbers.” “Reference to Omission” refers to checking and referencing through STT where there is missed information with respect to context, content, and flow, among others. Causes for omission were overload, sound quality issues, and the speech rate of the speaker. Analysis of responses, including descriptions covered under the subcategory “Mental Stability,” revealed that the interpreter’s psychological state was affected by external factors, such as sound quality and speech rate, as well as by internal, content-related factors, such as proper nouns, jargon, numbers, and memory issues. Sound quality becomes another burden factor for interpreters as online interpreting increases (Sang, 2020; Chang, 2021; Choi, 2021), suggesting that STT can serve as a tool to compensate for poor sound quality. • Because the speech volume was low, I missed the speaker’s utterance for a moment. I performed most of the last interpreting watching the voice recognition (STT) screen. (C2)

Table 25.5 Degree centrality analysis No.

Keyword

Degree centrality

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Voice recognition Function Psychological burden Train Experience Sequential Technology Method Reference Difference

0.335570 0.127517 0.060403 0.053691 0.046980 0.046980 0.033557 0.026846 0.026846 0.026846

Table 25.6 Advantages of using STT for interpreting Subcategory

Category

- Reference to missed content (context, flow, proper nouns) - Reduced fear of low sound quality - Reduced burden caused by speaker’s speech rate - Reduced burden caused by specific factors (proper nouns, jargon, numbers) - Relief of having a source to reference - Reconfirming uttered numbers - Increased number interpreting accuracy

Reference to Omission Mental Stability

399

Help with Numbers

Juriae Lee 이주리애

• I didn’t watch the screen as much for simultaneous interpreting. However, it could be because the sound quality was quite good for this test, so maybe it was because I didn’t have the need to. But, if the sound quality wasn’t so good, it would have been very helpful. (J3) Responses falling under “Help with Numbers” were relatively high regarding Trial 3. Due to the nature of performance review presentations, many numbers were uttered in large units, such as billions and trillions. As these numbers were recognized and textualized with relatively high accuracy, many respondents found STT beneficial in improving the quality of interpreting. There were also response descriptions that included a combination of “Reference to Omission,” “Help with Numbers,” and “Mental Stability.” • There were fewer omissions, as voice recognition was provided, and the fear of numbers that always lingered inside when interpreting was reduced, bringing a sense of relief. (J2) • I think it will be used as a reference when it is difficult to hear the speaker’s tone or catch up to his speech speed. For now, I think it would be good as a reference tool that could bring relief to situations where one fails to hear the speaker or bumps into temporary trouble. (J7) These subcategory response descriptions can be linked and sorted to indicate that interpreters relied on STT to verify utterances that they had missed, as well as to confirm numbers and jargon, thereby experiencing a sense of relief that could be defined as “Mental Stability.”

Table 25.7 Disadvantages of using STT for interpreting Subcategory

Category

- Hindered concentration - Decreased interpreting speed - Ungrammatical, out-of-syntax sentences were created due to de-verbalization failure - Hard to spot the part that is being spoken within the subtitles - Hindered as gaze is unwittingly drawn to subtitles - Hard to determine the accuracy of subtitles - Leads to relying on reading subtitles rather than listening - Slower than the speaker’s utterance - Text appears after the interpreting is given - Time discrepancy between what is heard and read - Failure to recognize jargon - Failure to textualize numbers accurately - Distracted as the text was automatically corrected in the STT process - Consistency issues such as numbers appearing in letters - Bottom subtitle format was inconvenient - Would be better if subtitles consisted of 3 lines or longer - The subtitle and play buttons were located in the same place, which caused click errors - English translations appeared over STT, causing overlap

Multitasking

400

Recognition Delay

Accuracy Issues Subtitle Issues

Technical Issues

Speech-to-text transcription as a tool for interpreting

Q2. What were the disadvantages of interpreting with the aid of STT? Based on the responses, the disadvantages were categorized into “Multitasking,” “Recognition Delay,” “Accuracy Issues,” “Subtitle Issues,” and “Technical Issues.” In terms of “Multitasking,” many respondents stated that concentration was hindered as they had to listen to the speaker while simultaneously looking at the data he was presenting, the STT appearing on the screen, and the keywords that were provided. • The speaking speed of the speaker was so fast and I had to explain what was being said while watching the presented materials. I was so busy with it that I couldn’t refer to the voice recognition results at all. It was confusing me instead. (J3) • It was difficult to interpret while referring to the voice recognition contents as it broke my concentration. It slowed down my interpreting causing omissions. (C1) “Recognition Delay” was a problem related to subtitles appearing after the speaker’s utterance and the respondent’s interpreting. The delay time for generating subtitles after the speaker’s utterance ranges from about 1.14 seconds to about 3.57 seconds at the longest. From the interpreter’s point of view, such delay may be perceived as significant. In particular, there seemed to be a connection delay problem pertinent to individual participants, causing the subtitles to appear even slower in certain cases. “Accuracy Issues” refer to errors in presenting technical terms or errors in number representation. In the case of numbers, for example, “346 billion won” was transcribed as “3000 400 6 billion won.” “Subtitle Issues” refer to cases where the conversion process of STT is fully visible (e.g., 15000 → 15100 → 15120) and where the representation of recognized numbers appeared inconsistently either in numeric form or spelled out letters, such as “800” or “eight hundred.” Such problems caused confusion for the interpreter. These were issues that could be sorted and defined as the burden of “Multitasking,” which ultimately forces the interpreter to choose between listening and reading. • As the text changed according to context, it felt like it was interfering rather than serving as a reference. There were occasions where I couldn’t focus on the speech for relying too much on the text. (C3) Table 25.8 Gaze management during STT-aided interpreting Subcategory

Category

- Gazed at speaker only - Gazed mostly at speaker - Tried not to gaze at the subtitles except when necessary - Gazed at subtitles only - Gazed at subtitles mostly - Gazed at subtitles when there was no on-screen material - Gazed at subtitles and on-screen material alternately - Gazed at STT, but later switched to gazing at speaker and material - Gazed mainly at speaker and material, but later switched to gazing mainly at the subtitles - Interpreted gazing into space, but later switched to gazing at subtitles - Interpreted gazing at subtitles, but later switched to gazing into space

Speaker & material Oriented

401

Subtitle oriented Combination Transition

Juriae Lee 이주리애

In addition, regarding subtitles, some participants were uncomfortable with the two-line bottom subtitle format. In contrast, others expressed that they would prefer that the subtitles appear in the format of three lines or longer. Q3. Describe how you performed and operated (managing gaze, etc.) while simultaneously interpreting with the aid of STT. Participants’ gaze management in regard to the provided STT subtitles was categorized into “Speaker & Material oriented,” “Subtitle oriented,” “Combination,” and “Transition.” Most of the responses stated that they gazed, exclusively or mainly, either at the speaker and material, or at the subtitles. Responses where gaze orientation alternated were sorted into “Combination,” and responses in which gaze orientation shifted from one category to another during the first half and second half of the interpreting were categorized as “Transition,” which was divided again into four subcategories. The following are some examples. ①“Subtitle oriented”  “Speaker & Material oriented” • At first, I put a lot of weight on the voice recognition, but when the discrepancy caused by the speed difference between the speaker and the content provided was great, I went back and forth at my own pace, so the flow of the interpreting wasn’t smooth. (J2) ②“Speaker & Material oriented”  “Subtitle oriented” • At first, I interpreted looking at the screen where the speaker appeared and referred to voice recognition at parts that I did not understand in the middle of the interpreting. However, I couldn’t stop once I started to refer to voice recognition, so from a certain point on, I continued to interpret looking at the voice recognition content. (C1) ③“Subtitle oriented”  Gazing into space • Although voice recognition was provided, I couldn’t help but rely on listing when conducting simultaneous interpreting. So even though I glimpsed at the screen occasionally, I eventually stopped looking at it. (J7) ④Gazing into space  “Subtitle oriented” • I let my gaze wander about just as I would if no voice recognition subtitles were provided, but came to refer to the subtitles mainly when I missed something during the interpreting, or when numbers came out. (E2) Cases in which participants began by referring to subtitles but eventually stopped considering them were related to the time discrepancy between the transcription of STT and the speech itself. However, there were also cases in which participants started interpreting without referring to subtitles, but once they began to refer to them, found it difficult to stop. Interestingly, there were cases in which participants gazed into space while interpreting. As it turned out, there are interpreters who gaze into space in order to concentrate on listening. On the other hand, some respondents consciously tried to avoid looking at the subtitles. • I tried not to refer to voice recognition a lot. I think I liked resorting to it only when necessary (numbers, etc.). (J5) • At first, I deliberately tried not to read the subtitles in order to concentrate on listening, but later I ended up just reading the subtitles. (J1) • I interpreted looking at the voice recognition subtitles, since no screen was being provided, until I felt like I was relying too much on reading than on hearing, which led me to consciously turn my gaze from them in the course of interpreting. (J6) 402

Speech-to-text transcription as a tool for interpreting

However, there were also cases in which the interpreter failed to refer to subtitles selectively and relied on them until the end. In addition, one participant stated that the subtitles decreased the use of their hands during simultaneous interpreting, while they usually gesture actively while interpreting.

25.4.2

Response results of closing questions (n = 16)

Closing questions were given to the thirteen interpreters who participated in all three trials and to the three interpreters that participated in two trials. The responses of these sixteen participants were analyzed.

25.4.2.1

Closed-ended questions

The closing questions consisted of five questions that also employed a six-point scale assessment [zero (not very much), one point, two points, three points (average), four points, five points (very much so)]. The questions were as follows. Q1. Have you become accustomed to using STT for simultaneous interpreting during the course of these three trials? Q2. Do you think that special training is needed in order to use STT for simultaneous interpreting? Q3. Do you think that it is necessary to educate interpreters on the use of STT for simultaneous interpreting? Q4. Do you think that STT is needed for offline simultaneous interpreting? Q5. Do you think that STT is needed for online simultaneous interpreting? For each response, a score of four to five was considered high for the purpose of analysis. About 80% (nine people) marked four points or above in Q1, indicating that many respondents felt like they became accustomed to using STT in the course of repeating the trials. Q2 and Q3 were given four points or above by 85% (eleven people) and 80% (nine people), respectively, indicating that many respondents felt the need to train and educate themselves on using STT. On the other hand, Q5 (online interpreting) scored higher than Q4 (offline interpreting) regarding the need to use STT.

25.4.2.2

Analysis of open-ended questions

There was a total of five open-ended questions, responses to which are summarized as follows. Q1. How did you deal with the difference in content between the speaker’s utterance and the STT during simultaneous interpreting? Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 0%

10%

20%

40%

30%

0

1

50%

2

Figure 25.8 Response to closing questions (closed-ended)

403

60%

3

70%

4

80%

5

90%

100%

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In instances where there was a difference in content between the speaker’s utterance and the STT, the number of participants who resorted to relying on their own listening (eleven people, 68.7%) was more than twice as high than the number of those who resorted to relying on STT (five people, 31.2%). In terms of listening, that is, depending on one’s own memory, STT was either not heavily referenced or selectively referenced. • Basically, I did not rely on or refer to the voice recognition results, so I did not have to do anything in particular about it. (J3) • I interpreted trusting my memory; however, I trusted the voice recognition text over my memory when it came to numbers. (C1) Interpreters relied on STT in instances where they didn’t have the time to grasp the difference in content or instances in which their short-term memory had failed them. They did so because it was the only available option to resort to rather than because they trusted the STT. • Regarding numbers, I didn’t have time to figure out the difference, so I just relied on voice recognition as if in ST (Sight Translation). (J2) • I relied on short-term memory, but it didn’t work well. At times I lost my short-term memory while focusing too much on understanding the STT when it was provided. (J1) • I couldn’t cope with it (seemed like I was losing concentration on listening as I relied on visual information rather than on auditory information). (J6) Q2. Did you acquire any know-how on how to use STT for simultaneous interpreting? If so, please elaborate. Respondents’ know-how on using STT was classified into “Use it as an assistant tool” and “Perceive subtitle speed.” However, some had not developed any know-how, and some stated that they believed one should not focus on using STT but instead on listening and memorizing, which was classified as “Other.” “Use it as an assistant tool” refers to conducting an interpreting that is not dependent on STT, but selectively refers to it when necessary. •

I became more familiar with using voice recognition as backup data. I prepared ahead for the following sentence by referring to voice recognition while interpreting. (E1)

Table 25.9 Know-how on using STT for simultaneous interpreting Subcategory

Category

-Prepare for the following sentence looking at the STT -Use it only when an utterance is missed -Use it to replace the note-taking of numbers -Perceive the time discrepancy between utterance and STT and use it in a manner that doesn’t delay the interpreting -Use it as backup data for overdue interpretings -Memorize the utterances and slow down the pace of interpreting so that you may follow the STT with your eyes - Accurate reading of subtitles improves as you get used to the subtitle output pattern -Focus on listening and memorizing

Use it as an assistant tool

404

Perceive subtitle speed

Other

Speech-to-text transcription as a tool for interpreting

• I was particularly surprised to find that the voice recognition input of numbers was faster than my note-taking. It seemed like I would be able to avoid much panic and fluster if I were to make good use of that aspect. (J7) “Perceive subtitle speed” refers to recognizing that STT appears later than utterances, suggesting a conscious pacing to the STT so that the interpreting is not delayed, along with getting used to reading STT subtitles accurately. •

Because it takes time for the voice to be recognized, you have to wait a bit before doing it. Then, I thought it was not good to rely entirely on voice recognition because the content would be pushed behind. (E3) • As you get used to the subtitle output pattern, the accuracy of reading subtitles increases. (C2)

Even when know-how was not developed, some respondents answered that they became more accustomed to using STT than the first time. It was noted that their opinions regarding the use of STT changed for the better as they repeated the trials. Q3. What kind of training would be required for using STT in simultaneous interpreting? The training necessary for simultaneous interpreting using STT was categorized into “Multitasking,” “Sight Translation,” “Pre-training,” and “Other.” “Multitasking” here refers to training to watch while listening, as well as to focus on the next utterance even after the subtitles have passed. It also includes developing the ability to select adequately between auditory and visual information. •

I think it is necessary to train to properly distribute energy and effort in this series of tasks involving listening, memorizing, seeing, and reading. If you were to rely 100% on voice recognition, you would not be able to cope with errors in voice recognition. Therefore, understanding the flow of content should be the basis, and it would be best if training to utilize voice recognition takes place over that ground. (J2)

In addition, there were responses stating that sight translation would be necessary, as STT is a text, and that it might be good to simulate sight translation using STT in advance, as it is a new format to most.

Table 25.10 Training for using STT in interpreting Subcategory

Category

-Adequate allocation of energy and effort for listening, seeing, memorizing, and reading -Perceiving time discrepancy and accuracy -Adequate selection of reference -Organizing the STT content to be used for interpreting -Don’t interpret the STT as it appears, but follow it at a certain pace -Try simulating in advance -Practice using numbers output by STT -It is not necessary -Not sure -Simultaneous interpreting without STT subtitles should remain as the standard. Training should be limited to using it as an aid.

Multitasking

405

Sight Translation

Pre-training Other

Juriae Lee 이주리애

Q4. What abilities do you deem necessary for interpreters in the future? The abilities suggested by participants were categorized into “Using technology,” “Multitasking,” and “Sight Translation.” Among these, 50% (eight people) of respondents considered “Using Technology” to be a necessary ability for interpreters in the future. •

In addition to steady efforts to improve basic interpreting ability, I think that interpreters should try different methods and training involving the use of AI or IT devices, in order to provide better and more efficient interpreting results, in line with the rapidly changing era. (J2) • While existing interpreting surroundings were focused on on-site interpreting, it is highly likely that new media, such as online interpreting and voice recognition, will be used in conjunction with interpreting in the future, so the ability to quickly adapt to different changes is deemed necessary. (E1) In addition to the ability to use technology, the ability to operate a PC and the flexibility to learn to use technology as an auxiliary means were also mentioned as being necessary. As to responses regarding sight translation, the comments were as follows. •

Assuming that factors such as voice recognition accuracy are remedied, there would indeed be a need for interpreters that are good at sight translation. I think that clients would like an interpreter that can smoothly change the order of sentences and convert them into natural expressions rather than literal translations. (J5) • I don’t think the interpreting would keep up with the speed of flow if one’s sight translation wasn’t fast enough. Although it is necessary that voice recognition technologies be further developed, it is also important that interpreters develop fast reading skills. (J7) Other responses regarding abilities included the improvement of memory capacity and humanity. Q5. Please feel free to write your impressions of participating in this experiment. As for impressions of the experiment, most of the participants’ comments expressed that the STT quality was better than they thought and that they had expectations for its use in the future. • At first, it was very unfamiliar, so interpreting with the aid of voice recognition was rather burdensome and did not seem to be helpful. But as trials were repeated, I learned to make good use of it during interpreting. (J2) Table 25.11 Abilities deemed necessary for interpreters in the future Subcategory

Category

-Learning and adapting to the use of AI and IT technologies that aid interpreting -Knowing how to operate devices -Selecting adequately -Hearing and reading simultaneously -Translating smoothly and naturally -Translating in a simplified and concise manner -Fast reading -Humanity -Memory capacity

Using Technology

406

Multitasking Sight Translation

Other

Speech-to-text transcription as a tool for interpreting

• Actually, this was the first time that I’ve ever used the voice recognition function. I never used it because I didn’t have much trust nor expectations for such technologies. But after trying it in this experiment, I felt the urge to actively use it for consecutive interpreting and wanted to learn to use it as an auxiliary means. (J3) • I used Clover or MS Word for self-criticism, and the idea of using it for interpreting was new to me. I’d like to think further about its application and use for the future. (J6) • I could only imagine what it would be like if voice recognition was provided to assist interpreting, so it was quite interesting to actually try it. In particular, I think it would help to greatly decrease one’s cognitive burden during interpretings where a lot of numbers appear, as in situations like the third trial, since it would dramatically improve accuracy. I thought it would be great to have it in actual interpretings in the future. (C1) Other comments expressed that it “requires training,” “helps with numbers and proper nouns,” and “decreases cognitive load.” • Because there were different types of difficulties for each trial, I felt that a lot of exposure and continuous training would be required to get used to this new way of interpreting. (E1) • I think that voice recognition greatly improves the quality of interpreting when there are a lot of numbers or when there is extremely technical content. (E3) • I thought it would be a big plus to have voice recognition technology actively implemented for interpreting, given that it would reduce the cognitive load of the interpreter. (E2) Interpreters who participated in the experiment had no prior experience using STT for interpreting and were very unfamiliar with it. Nevertheless, they came to reflect on the use and application of STT through this experiment, and many expressed the will to learn about it actively.

25.5

Discussion and conclusion

This study reconfirmed the results mentioned in precedent studies (Fantinuoli, 2017; Wang & Wang, 2019; Lee, 2021, 2022a), with its results obtained through simultaneous interpreting experiments using STT, in which all speeches of speakers were transcribed. First, when STT was provided for the interpreting, the advantages were that it alleviated the interpreter’s psychological anxiety, being particularly helpful in interpreting core contents such as numbers. On the other hand, the disadvantages included cognitive load due to too much information and difficulties in multitasking. Despite these disadvantages, the study aimed to determine if interpreters would become more comfortable and accustomed to using STT through repeated trials of STT-assisted simultaneous interpreting. In the course of three experimental trials, the reliability of STT quality, its reference, its usefulness, the reduction of cognitive load, the decrease of psychological burden, and the interpreter’s willingness to use it in the future were all confirmed through a series of survey questions conducted immediately following each trial, which included questions employing a 6-point scale assessment. Assessment questions in the survey showed higher scores with each successive trial, and a high percentage of participants stated that the interpreting provided using STT seemed more satisfactory than the interpreting provided without it, as well as that they would prefer to have the aid of STT for interpreting. Based on these results, it would be possible to make educated suggestions regarding the use of STT for interpreting with reference to responses and comments delivered by the participants. Even though there were some negative reactions to the use of STT for interpreting, most participating interpreters were observed to acclimate to its use within the course of three trials. Participants expressed that interpreting with reference to STT, the actual use of which for interpreting was 407

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unfamiliar to them, turned out to be beneficial and better than expected. Further, their response to the need for special training and education for using STT was positive, overall. Just as spoken captions are provided in current online video conferencing systems, offering STT services for interpreting could become a common practice in the operation of conferences, regardless of the interpreters’ wishes, and interpreters themselves could choose to equip themselves with STT tools for better interpreting. Therefore, it would be necessary to consider introducing STT into educational settings related to interpreting. Searching for high-quality STT technology would be suggested as a priority for the educational setting, as it is essential to be up to speed with current STT error rates, transcription speeds, language service status, and availability of useful functions. Secondly, it would be important to strengthen the basic training of interpreters, especially in terms of improving memory capacity, sight translation, summarizing with speed, and pacing oneself to the output of STT, as mentioned by the interpreters who participated in the experiment. Among the participants, two Japanese interpreters whose mother tongue was not Korean mentioned experiencing difficulty quickly reading STT in Korean, which for them would be considered language B (interpreter’s major foreign language), so strengthening one’s reading comprehension ability for language B might also be important in terms of using STT. Thirdly, it would be essential to train and strengthen one’s multitasking ability. Simultaneous interpreting is an instantiation of multitasking that requires the interpreter to engage in a language comprehension task and a language production task at the same time (Seeber, 2011). Interpreters work in a state of saturation, engaging in listening, production, and memorizing, which are effort models for simultaneous interpreting (Gile, 1997, 2008, 2009). In addition, interpreters must focus on the speaker’s performance, lip movements, and supplementary material, both paper-printed and screen-displayed, while utilizing search tools (Prandi, 2018). Even though STT is provided with the aim of improving the quality of interpreting, it would be added on top of all this, opening the possibility for excessive cognitive load. While it is not necessary to use all the tools provided for interpreting, it would be desirable to have training so that one could refer to them when necessary. And as pointed out by Braun (2019), training and education are important for the use of technology in interpreting. Even in cases where interpreters did not refer to STT frequently during the trial, responses stating that they would prefer to be provided with STT were overwhelmingly high, indicating that it could also serve as a positive mechanism that relieves the psychological burden caused by sound quality, speech rate, numbers, and jargon, and other factors. Nevertheless, there would be a need to be a method of enabling and disabling STT, as it may sometimes interfere with the interpreting. It was necessary to conduct the experiment trials online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the equipment used for the experiment was not unified. Devices varied according to individual participants, leading to a difference in screen size and sound, which, in turn, might have affected their reaction to using STT. The STT transcription rate also varied according to participant due to connection delay. After experiencing these problems during Trial 1, Trial 2 was conducted using a Zoom URL. However, it would still be hard to say that STT conditions were the same for everyone. As a future task, the necessity for a bidirectional STT experiment is proposed. As the effectiveness of STT is expected to differ depending on whether or not the interpreter’s native language is used, strengthening reading and comprehension of language B could also be an important factor in the utilization of STT. Secondly, a suggested task would be to conduct an experiment providing various styles of STT. Experiment trials for this research were set up to display STT in a two-line subtitle format, as it was the common format provided in online video conferences. However, some participants stated that they would prefer to have three-lined subtitles or a text format with several lines instead of two-lined subtitles that disappear quickly. 408

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The significance of this study lies in its structure as a three-trial experiment that employed non-scripted colloquial speech while implementing a current-level STT. It is also meaningful in its assessment of the practical use of STT through the participation of actual professional interpreters. It is hoped that the interpreters’ responses to their use of STT during this research may serve as a reference for future studies.

Funding This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2020S1A5A8047479, NRF-2021S1A5A2A03062819).

References Braun, S. (2019). Technology and interpreting. In The Routledge handbook of translation and technology (pp. 271–288). New York: Routledge. Chang, A. (2021). Study on interpreting competence needed in the age of distance interpreting. Interpretation and Translation, 23(1), 213–236. Choi, M. (2021). Interpreting 4.0: Norms and realities of remote interpreting. The Journal of Translation Studies, 22(1), 279–312. Choi, M. (2022). Prototype development for an AI-based CAI tool: Technological support for interpretation of numbers. The Journal of Translation Studies, 23(4), 9–35. Corpas Pastor, G. (2018). Tools for interpreters: The challenges that lie ahead. Current Trends in Translation Teaching and Learning E, 5, 138–182. Defrancq, B., & Fantinuoli, C. (2021). Automatic speech recognition in the booth: Assessment of system performance, interpreters’ performances and interactions in the context of numbers. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies, 33(1), 73–102. Desmet, B., Vandierendonck, M., & Defrancq, B. (2018). Simultaneous interpretation of numbers and the impact of technological support. In Interpreting and technology (pp. 13–27). Berlin: Language Science Press. Elliott, A. C., & Hynan, L. S. (2011). A SAS® macro implementation of a multiple comparison post hoc test for a Kruskal–Wallis analysis. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, 102(1), 75–80. Fantinuoli, C. (2017). Speech recognition in the interpreter workstation. Proceedings of the Translating and the Computer, 39, 25–34. Fantinuoli, C. (2018). Interpreting and technology: The upcoming technological turn. Interpreting and Technology, 1–12. Fantinuoli, C., Marchesini, G., Landan, D., & Horak, L. (2022). Kudo interpreter assist: Automated real-time support for remote interpretation. arXiv preprint arXiv:2201.01800. Frittella, F. M. (2022). CAI tool-supported SI of numbers: A theoretical and methodological contribution. International Journal of Interpreter Education, 14(1), 32–56. Gaber, M., Pastor, G. C., & Omer, A. (2020). Speech-to-text technology as a documentation tool for interpreters: A new approach to compiling an ad hoc corpus and extracting terminology from video-recorded speeches. TRANS: revista de traductología, 24, 263–281. Gile, D. (1997). Conference interpreting as a cognitive management problem. Applied Psychology-London-Sage, 3, 196–214. Gile, D. (2008). Local cognitive load in simultaneous interpreting and its implications for empirical research. FORUM. Revue internationale d’interprétation et de traduction/International Journal of Interpretation and Translation, 6(2), 59–77. Gile, D. (2009). Basic concepts and models for interpreter and translator training. Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training, 1–299. Lee, J. (2021). Preliminary research on the application of automatic speech recognition in interpretation. The Journal of Humanities and Social Science (HSS21), 12(5), 2407–2422. Lee, J. (2022a). A case study on the usability of automatic speech recognition as an auxiliary tool for consecutive interpreting. The Journal of Humanities and Social Science (HSS21), 13(4), 937–952. Lee, J. (2022b). A study of interpreter training in the changing digital environment: Focused on the use of automatic speech recognition. The Journal of Korea Association of Japanology, 133, 95–114.

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Juriae Lee 이주리애 Li, X., & Wang, M. (2018). 基于语音识别APP的同声传译能力培养教学模式建构与研究-以科大讯飞语 记APP为例 [Construction and research on teaching mode of simultaneous interpretation ability cultivation based on speech recognition APP-take iFlytek APP as an example]. 外语电化教学 [Foreign Language Teaching], 1, 12–18. Martin, W. I. L. L. (2020). Computer Aided Interpreting (CAI) for conference interpreters. concepts, content and prospects. ESSACHESS: Journal for Communication Studies, 13(1(25)), 37–71. Ortiz, L. E. S., & Cavallo, P. (2018). Computer-assisted interpreting tools (CAI) and options for automation with automatic speech recognition. Tradterm, 32, 9–31. Pöchhacker, F. (2016). Introducing interpreting studies. New York: Routledge. Prandi, B. (2018). An exploratory study on CAI tools in simultaneous interpreting: Theoretical framework and stimulus validation. In C. Fantinuoli (Ed.), Interpreting and technology (pp. 29–59). Berlin: Language Science Press. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1493293 Rodriguez, S., Gretter, R., Matassoni, M., Alonso, A., Corcho, O., Rico, M., & Daniele, F. (2021). SmarTerp: A CAI system to support simultaneous interpreters in real-time. In Proceedings of the translation and interpreting technology online conference (pp. 102–109). Held Online. INCOMA. Ltd. https://aclanthology.org/2021. triton-1.12.pdf Sang, W. (2020). Educational suggestions based on the current situations of remote interpreting and demands for interpreters. The Journal of Translation Studies, 21(5), 129–159. Seeber, K. G. (2011). Cognitive load in simultaneous interpreting: Existing theories-new models. Interpreting, 13(2), 176–204. Serrat, O. (2017). Social network analysis. In Knowledge solutions (pp. 39–43). Singapore: Springer. Wang, X. (2021). A brief analysis of the dual influences of speech recognition assistance on simultaneous interpretation. In 2nd international conference on language, art and cultural exchange (ICLACE 2021) (pp. 450–452). Atlantis Press. Available Online 10 June, 2021. http://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210609.089 Wang, X., & Wang, C. (2019). Can computer-assisted interpreting tools assist interpreting? Transletters. International Journal of Translation and Interpreting, 2, 109–139.

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APPENDIX

Survey questionnaire [Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3] [Closed-ended Questions] 0

1

2

3

4

5

Not very much

-

-

Average

-

Very much so

1. Were you satisfied with the sound quality of the ST (Source Text) presenter? 2. Was the STT (voice recognition) screen comfortable to look at? 3. How reliable do you find the STT to be in terms of quality? 4. Did you refer to the STT transcription where provided? 5. Was STT useful? 6. Did your cognitive load decrease when using STT? 7. Did STT reduce the psychological burden of interpreting? 8. Would you be willing to use the STT function for simultaneous interpreting in the future?

In-depth questions 9. Were you more satisfied with your interpreting with reference to STT or without? 1) Interpreting without voice recognition 2) Interpreting with reference to voice recognition 411

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3) Similar 4) Other___________________ 10. Would you prefer interpreting with the aid of STT or without? A) Interpreting without the aid of STT B) Interpreting with the aid of STT

Open-ended questions 1. What were the advantages of interpreting with the aid of STT? 2. What were the disadvantages of interpreting with the aid of STT? 3. Describe how you performed and operated (managing gaze, etc.) while simultaneously interpreting with the aid of STT. [Closing Questions] [Closed-ended Questions] 0

1

2

3

4

5

Not very much

-

-

Average

-

Very much so

1. Have you become accustomed to using STT for simultaneous interpreting during the course of these three trials? 2. Do you think that special training is needed in order to use STT for simultaneous interpreting? 3. Do you think that it is necessary to educate interpreters on the use of STT for simultaneous interpreting? 4. Do you think that STT is needed for offline simultaneous interpreting? 5. Do you think that STT is needed for online simultaneous interpreting?

Open-ended questions 1. How did you deal with the difference in content between the speaker’s utterance and the STT during simultaneous interpreting? 2. Did you acquire any know-how on how to use STT for simultaneous interpreting? If so, please elaborate. 3. What kind of training would be required for using STT in simultaneous interpreting? 4. What abilities do you deem necessary for interpreters in the future? 5. Please feel free to write your impressions of participating in this experiment.

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26 MARKET DEMAND FOR PROFESSIONAL INTERPRETING SERVICES IN SOUTH KOREA Jiun Huh 허지운

26.1

Introduction

Interpreting facilitates communication and understanding in cross-border communications. Despite the English language’s expanding reach as the lingua franca in many communication settings, the need for interpreting has not subsided. Indeed, the number of international conferences—the major market for interpreted communications—grew steadily in Korea between 2007 and 2017 (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 2019). Meanwhile, the supply of interpreting services has also expanded. There is a total of twelve graduate schools that offer interpreter training programs in Korea and produce a high number of graduates every year. These surges in supply and demand create fierce competition and cause disruptions in the market, potentially undermining the sound conditions interpreters used to enjoy. As the market shifts from a supplier’s to a buyer’s market, occupational prestige may grow vulnerable to buyers’ perceptions and needs. These dynamics have been simmering under the surface for at least a decade. Dam and Zethsen (2013) reported that, while interpreters were satisfied with the occupational prestige that came with their jobs, they were also often perceived in a negative light by the public and by their clients, who often played down the critical role of the interpreting profession. A decade later, a market shift, technological advances, and global events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have only amplified these concerns. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic caused face-to-face meetings and conferences and, with them, the demand for interpreting, to almost grind to a halt. Technological advances have both helped and exacerbated the situation. Interpreted meetings and conferences have resumed, thanks to the emergence of online conferencing and remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI) tools, such as Zoom and Interprefy, but are still progressing at a slow pace, compared to their pre-pandemic levels. RSI meetings have aggravated interpreters’ working conditions, with their poor sound quality and extremely complicated multitasking environments (Brady & Pickles, 2022). Platform technologies have also served as a double-edged sword. While some platforms have emerged to address the information asymmetry about interpretation/ translation quality and credentials between suppliers and buyers (Pym et al., 2016, pp. 39–41), others have only triggered a race to the bottom in terms of price by operating without screening mechanisms and by attracting an influx of unqualified interpreters (Huh, 2021b, p. 25). This situation is concerning, as it might lead to an even more serious information asymmetry between buyers and suppliers, with clients who lack knowledge about interpreting being

413

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-31

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disproportionately affected. While knowledgeable clients would refer to the most relevant information, such as accreditations, membership in professional interpreter associations, and academic credentials that signal interpreting quality (Mikkelson, 1999), those without knowledge might rely on irrelevant qualifications and choose based on price, potentially hiring unqualified interpreters (Chan, 2005). This potential scenario runs the risk of triggering a vicious cycle of low prices and bad working conditions, which might drive quality interpreters out of the market (ibid.). Against this backdrop, this study explores the market demand for professional interpreters, both conference interpreters and in-house interpreters,1 in South Korea. It focuses on (i) the key elements that users deem important, and (ii) the key factors that drive buyers’ recruiting decisions. This chapter uses a questionnaire-based survey and in-depth interviews with users in South Korea to explore these research questions.

26.2

Literature review

Market demand for interpreting services can be analyzed from multiple angles. Existing studies have tended to focus on users’ assessments of interpreting quality. Multiple user surveys conducted in the 1990s suggested that users placed more importance on content-specific aspects, such as accuracy, logical cohesion, fidelity, and terminology, than on form-specific aspects, such as prosodic elements, accent, grammar, and voice (Marrone, 1993; Moser, 1996; Kopczynski, 1994; Kurz, 1993). Their focus on interpreting quality dovetails with the attention the interpreting research community paid to quality measurement and performance assessment studies between the 1980s and the early 2000s (Pöchhacker, 2004, pp. 155–157). However, the analysis of market demand might benefit from taking a broader scope by considering interpreting as a business service (Huh, 2021a) and by addressing interpreting services’ overall lifecycle, which encompasses promotional activities, service inquiry, order, delivery, evaluation, and customer satisfaction activities, in the case of conference interpreting. In-house interpreting positions have a similar overall lifecycle, but the latter extends over a longer timeframe. This broader approach would contribute to a better understanding of users’ decision-making process. Service inquiry is the first stage of the service lifecycle. When the need arises, users search for information on interpreting services. Whether they search for service providers online, read or watch promotional materials, or get recommendations from their own networks, their quintessential task is to find the right interpreter. What does it mean for users to have the “right interpreter”? Stepping outside the interpreting field, studies on general service delivery or recruiting processes may offer some insights. In light of the abstract, inconsistent, intangible, and perishable nature of the service and the challenges in pre-delivery testing and verification (Du Tertre, 1999; Hirschman, 1980; Lin, 2015; Lovelock & Gummesson, 2004; Shostack, 1977; Zeithaml et al., 1985), credentials, such as job candidates’ occupational certifications and academic degrees, serve as important and reliable indicators of quality service or qualifications (Spence, 1973, p. 356). However, credentials, such as a master’s degree in translation and interpretation or an occupational certification, seem to offer minimum or little help in recruiting interpreters, even though users rely on them by default. This lukewarm reception is attributable to a lack of trust in and knowledge of the job of interpreting and how the supply side of the market works. In the market for translations, for example, clients’ lack of trust in the authenticity of academic degrees has led to the creation of a commercial online platform for translator certification, Proz.com, where translation quality, reliability, training, and experience inform individual translators’ qualifications (Pym et al., 2016). Nevertheless, professional certifications offer little help because users have little understanding of how the certification systems work (Chan, 2009). Users are aware of the value of the national

414

Market demand for interpreting services in South Korea

certification system, but they often do not fully understand what it means to be endorsed and certified by professional associations (Chan, 2009; Huh, 2021a). It all boils down to an information asymmetry between users and providers of interpreting services. Users with little access to information about interpreting find it difficult to recruit quality interpreters and may, instead, rely on prices. When consumers have little information, they are likely to make price-quality associations and choose to purchase highly priced services, assuming that quality providers are likely to set higher prices for their services (Ding et al., 2010; Lambert, 1972; Rao & Monroe, 1988; Stiglitz, 1987). Users may mainly consider quality and price, but they seem to also have other needs, such as aesthetic quality. Cho (2017) reports that Korean professional interpreters expressed concerns about the perceived trend of prioritizing aesthetic values and the ageism in the Korean interpreting market. The predominantly female employment structure, the rise in media coverage about interpreters, and the influx of unqualified, self-made interpreters worry professional interpreters because they believe that such trends could undermine the interpreting profession’s quality standard and occupational status (Cho, 2017). Huh (2021a, 2021b) builds on this research, focusing on the end-to-end lifecycle of an interpreting service based on the concept of “signaling” and adopting an interpreting-as-a-service approach to South Korea’s interpreting market. Huh’s (2021a) quantitative survey of users’ demand for conference interpreting suggests that clients value the content-specific, rather than the formspecific, aspects of interpreting, do not highly value providers’ academic background in interpreting, consider domain-specific experience very important, and expect interpreting to be provided as a business service covering an end-to-end process. Although the respondents in Huh’s (2021a) survey considered providers’ aesthetic qualities and their promotional efforts on social media networks to be less important, their responses were permeated by ageism, which both confirmed and rejected the interpreters’ concerns present in Cho’s (2017) study. A follow-up survey should examine the reasons for ageism, in particular, in more detail, as Huh (2021a) does not provide concrete reasons for the result. Huh’s (2021b) qualitative study is an attempt to explore the motivations of users of conference interpreting services in South Korea. The study asked its interviewees to rank fictitious resumes that were carefully designed to reflect different academic backgrounds, length of interpreting experience, and price differentiators, and to answer questions about their choices. The results confirmed the importance of interpreting quality, such as content-specific aspects and terminologies, and experience in the relevant domain (Huh, 2021b). Unlike Huh’s (2021a) respondents, who included general users of interpreting services, the interviewees in Huh’s (2021b) study, who were recruiters of interpreting services, placed more value on interpreters’ academic degrees in interpreting. But they had mixed responses when asked about the price they were willing to pay for interpreting services (ibid.). The latter depended on their familiarity with the interpreting market (ibid.). The less informed wanted to pay less, while the more informed were ready to pay more to ensure the quality of the service they were using (ibid.). The research method for this study was more helpful than simply asking a list of questions, in terms of eliciting responses from a variety of angles, as interviewees’ resume choices served as good leads for exploring the rationales for their choices. The present work follows up on Huh’s (2021a) questionnaire-based survey and Huh’s (2021b) fictitious resume-based interview on conference interpretation. To gain fuller insight into Korea’s interpreting market, this study explores users’ opinions of both conference interpreting and in-house interpreting, as they are the two most representative types of professional interpreting services in Korea. The present study consists of two parts, with the first part presenting the findings on the market demand for conference interpreting and the second, for in-house interpreting.

415

Jiun Huh 허지운

Market demand for conference interpreting

26.3

Methodology

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to explore users’ perceptions of conference interpreting and to understand the potential criteria they would use to hire a conference interpreter for their organization’s events or meetings. The present study adopts the questionnaire inventory used in Huh’s (2021a) survey, which presents a snapshot of users’ perceptions as of 2019. By conducting an iteration of the survey, the present study aims to gain an update on users’ perceptions and compare the latter with Huh’s (ibid.) results. The questionnaire includes 26 closed-ended questions that ask how important the respondents would consider the presented qualities if they had to hire a freelance conference interpreter for their organizations’ events or meetings. There are two questions that ask how much respondents are willing to pay for a simultaneous interpreting service and a consecutive interpreting service. The present inventory includes one open-ended question inviting general comments and three open-ended questions, which follow the questions about the interpreter’s fees and age, meant to elicit further insights into users’ perceptions of price and age. Table 26.1 outlines the items of the questionnaire that this study focuses on. The survey’s implementation was outsourced to Macromill Embrain, a market research service provider in South Korea. The survey was fielded between October 13 and 18, 2022. The questionnaire was sent to 21,912 potential respondents in South Korea. The firm collected a total of 150 complete responses. All respondents had received conference interpreting services at least once in the previous five years. Students and professional interpreters were screened out of the sample to target users, rather than providers, of interpreting services. I used Jamovi 2.3.18.0 to analyze the results. The survey was conducted in Korean, and I translated the excerpts used in this paper into English. Table 26.2 presents an overview of the survey’s respondents.

26.4

Results

This section presents the results of the survey. Overall, the results for both simultaneous interpreting (hereafter, “SI”) and consecutive interpreting (hereafter, “CI”) are in line with Huh’s (2021a) findings, except for the response about academic degree requirements.

26.4.1

Credentials

Credentials were not regarded as highly important factors when hiring professional interpreters. While experts highlight the importance of professional training (Pöchhacker, 2004; Setton & Dawrant, 2016), users seem to think otherwise. The results show that respondents are neutral on whether an interpreting degree is necessary for simultaneous interpreting and consecutive interpreting. This marks a slight improvement from Huh’s (2021a) findings, which stood at 3.16 for SI and 3.15 for CI. Respondents were more receptive to interpreter certifications, with a mean score of 3.82 for SI and 3.71 for CI. These results run counter to the reality of the interpreting market in South Korea. South Korea has no official system that certifies professional interpreters. This function is implicitly assumed by individual graduate schools, which administer strict graduation tests to make sure that only students with adequate interpreting skills earn a degree in interpreting. These degrees serve as de facto certifications, a mechanism that the general public is not familiar with (see Huh, 2021b).

416

Market demand for interpreting services in South Korea Table 26.1 Questionnaire design2 Category

Question items

Scale

Credentials (2)

Master’s degree in interpreting Certified conference interpreter General interpreting experience Domain-specific interpreting experience Interpreting experience specific to respondent’s organization Interpreting experience in high-profile events Accuracy Terminology Completeness Fluency Grammar Pronunciation Speedy inquiry handling Systematic quotation and invoicing Friendly attitude Communication of service details Fast recruiting Recommendation from a personal source Interpreting agencies Professional ethics Social skills Social media Website Appearance Celebrity interpreter Preferred age group Reason for choice on the question about age Simultaneous interpreting

Five-point scale: (1) Strongly disagree (2) Disagree (3) Neutral (4) Agree (5) Strongly agree

Work experience (4)

Interpreting quality (6)

Interpreting as a business service (5)

Interpreter sourcing (2) Ethics (2) Promotional efforts (2) Others (3 + 1)

Price (2 + 2)

Reason for choice Consecutive interpreting

Demographics (10) Comments (1)

Reason for choice Gender, age, sector, organization size, job title General comments

26.4.2

Multiple choice Open-ended Sliding scale: KRW 0 – 900,000 – 1,800,000 Open-ended Sliding scale: KRW 0 – 900,000 – 1,800,000 Open-ended Multiple choice Open-ended

Work experience

While credentials attract moderate attention from respondents, interpreting experience seems to take center stage. Respondents are generally interested in interpreting experience and pay particular attention to whether interpreters have domain-specific interpreting experience. Interpreting experience with high-profile international conferences is not important to them, either. The results show that respondents are very practical when they choose interpreters for meetings and events they organize and that they expect interpreters to be equipped with domain-specific knowledge.

417

Jiun Huh 허지운 Table 26.2 Respondent profile Item

Breakdown

N

%

Gender

Female Male 20–29 30–39 40–49 Private Public University/Research NGO/NPO 1–5 y 6–10 y 11–15 y ≥ 16 y Staff Assistant Manager Section Chief Department Head Executive CEO Others < 30 ≥ 30, < 100 ≥ 100

53 97 33 63 54 115 19 10 6 48 33 40 29 33 32 33 39 10 1 2 34 44 72 150

35.3% 64.7% 22.0% 42.0% 36.0% 76.7% 12.7% 6.7% 4.0% 32.0% 22.0% 26.7% 19.3% 22.0% 21.3% 22.0% 26.0% 6.7% 0.7% 1.3% 22.7% 29.3% 48.0% 100%

Age

Sector

Career

Job title

Organization size (no. of employees)

Total

Table 26.3 Credentials Item

Simultaneous interpreting mean (SD)

Consecutive interpreting mean (SD)

Master’s degree in interpreting Interpreter certification

3.49 (1.07) 3.82 (0.89)

3.35 (1.03) 3.71 (0.89)

Table 26.4 Work experience Item

Simultaneous interpreting mean (SD) Consecutive interpreting mean (SD)

Interpreting experience (Domain-specific) Interpreting experience (General) Interpreting experience (Organization-specific) Interpreting experience (High-profile international conference)

4.21 (0.74)

4.09 (0.81)

4.07 (0.75)

3.91 (0.71)

3.75 (0.90)

3.81 (0.86)

3.43 (0.86)

3.47 (0.86)

418

Market demand for interpreting services in South Korea

26.4.3

Interpreting quality

Respondents perceive interpreting quality as important. Accuracy, terminology, completeness, and fluency are all very important and their relevant mean scores are all above 4.0. Pronunciation and grammar are regarded as important, with mean scores between 3.7 and 4.0. The results suggest that respondents prioritize content-specific quality items, rather than language items. The emphasis on content-specific quality items is in line with respondents’ preference for domain-specific interpreting experience, as described in the previous section, as accuracy, correct terminology, completeness can be achieved with sufficient level of domain-specific knowledge.

26.4.4

Price

Respondents are willing to pay a “fair” price for interpreting services when they are given a reference price for professional interpreting services. The survey supplied respondents with a reference price of KRW 900,000 for a single day (up to six hours) of SI or CI service. The mean price of SI (KRW 947,266.7) was higher than that of CI (KRW 872,666.7), which suggests that, while respondents generally believe that both SI and CI services deserve the reference price, SI deserves higher pay than CI. This difference becomes more prominent in Table 26.7. While 70.0% of the respondents said that they were willing to pay KRW 900,000 or higher for SI, only 59.4% did so for CI. Table 26.5 Interpreting quality Item

Simultaneous interpreting mean (SD)

Consecutive interpreting mean (SD)

Accuracy Terminology Completeness Fluency Pronunciation Grammar

4.38 (0.72) 4.38 (0.82) 4.31 (0.78) 4.13 (0.76) 3.85 (0.81) 3.76 (0.83)

4.38 (0.69) 4.37 (0.72) 4.31 (0.77) 4.05 (0.75) 3.95 (0.75) 3.93 (0.80)

Table 26.6 Price Item

Simultaneous interpreting mean (SD)

Consecutive interpreting mean (SD)

Average

KRW 947,266.7 (283,709.6)

KRW 872,666.7 (290,700.8)

Table 26.7 Price breakdown Item

Simultaneous interpreting N

Consecutive interpreting N

KRW 900,000 < KRW 900,000 < KRW 900,000 TOTAL

85 (56.7%) 20 (13.3%) 45 (30.0%) 150

64 (42.7%) 25 (16.7%) 61 (40.7%) 150

419

Jiun Huh 허지운

Respondents’ comments provided more details about their price choices. Respondents generally appreciated the expertise required for providing a professional interpreting service. Here are some excerpts and the price respondents are willing to pay: Interpreting is a profession that requires expertise. (Respondent 46, KRW 1,500,000 for SI, KRW 1,200,000 for CI.) I am willing to pay more if the interpreter has lots of domain-specific knowledge and experience and is capable of interpreting accurately and fluently. (Respondent 51, KRW 1,340,000 for SI, KRW 1,340,000 for CI.) I am willing to pay as much as I could as per industry practice because quality interpreting plays a big role in achieving our organizational goal. (Respondent 25, KRW 1,300,000 for SI, KRW 1,200,000 for CI.) I would like to hire the right talent for important events, even if it means paying more than the average price. (Respondent 18, KRW 1,300,000 for SI, KRW 1,200,000 for CI.) I would like to pay above average because interpreting for my industry requires domain-specific expertise. (Respondent 104, KRW 1,000,000 for SI, KRW 1,000,001 for CI.) Respondents’ comments supported the view that SI is a more difficult task that requires a higher level of expertise compared to CI: CI does not require the same competency and speed as SI. (Respondent 45, KRW 1,000,000 for SI, KRW 800,000 for CI.) CI is not as difficult as SI, so this is about the right amount. (Respondent 86, KRW 900,000 for SI, KRW 750,000 for CI.) CI has a time lag, unlike SI, so it has to be less expensive. (Respondent 96, KRW 700,000 for SI, KRW 600,000 for CI.) CI takes up more time than SI and the flow of speech is interrupted. (Respondent 76, KRW 1,000,000 for SI, KRW 500,000 for CI.) Their price choices were also affected by overall wage level and economic conditions: Interpreting fees should be aligned with the recent inflation and wage rise. (Respondent 41, KRW 1,100,000 for both SI and CI.) Respondents are willing to pay more to incentivize interpreters to raise the quality of their service: I think if I pay more, the quality of interpreting may go up as well. (Respondent 118, KRW 1,100,000 for SI, KRW 900,000 for CI.) Many wanted to follow the provided reference price because they preferred to pay a standard price: I put down a slightly higher price than the reference price, KRW 900,000. (Respondent 39, KRW 1,000,000 for both SI and CI) I think the standard price is just the right amount. (Respondent 38, KRW 900,000 for both SI and CI.) I prefer to pay the average price. (Respondent 127, KRW 900,000 for both SI and CI.)

420

Market demand for interpreting services in South Korea

There always is demand for discounts and preference for hourly rates: I am interested in getting a discount, rather than paying the standard price. (Respondent 31, KRW 800,000 for both SI and CI.) Because interpreters are not interpreting six hours non-stop. (Respondent 111, KRW 750,000 for SI, KRW 510,000 for CI.) I figured KRW 100,000 per hour is just about right. (Respondent 147, KRW 600,000 for both SI and CI.)

26.4.5

Interpreting as a business service

The business side of interpreting services is another aspect that respondents find important. The mean scores for business services related to interpreting are high or very high for both SI and CI. From a user’s perspective, interpreting is a business service that leads customers on a journey through inquiry response, systematic quotation, recruiting, and post-service invoicing. The process of interpreting itself accounts for a large part of the overall service, but it seems that this does not lessen the importance of the business side of the service package. The gap between user aspirations and reality emerges over interpreting sourcing. Both recommendations from personal sources and interpreting agencies—one of the most widely adopted methods of choosing an interpreter—return moderate mean scores (see Table 26.9). This may be related to users’ preference for obtaining direct evidence of the quality of interpreting, as Huh’s (2021b) study indicates. Some of the users quoted in the study declared that they wanted to listen to audio files of interpreters’ previous interpreting or to conduct interviews to test job candidates’ interpreting skills, instead of reviewing resumes, which they considered indirect evidence (Huh, 2021b). In the real world, however, it is not feasible for interpreters to sit down for interviews for every single one-day event, and sharing audio files may involve copyright or confidentiality matters. Even if the audio file is available and open to the public, one should consider the various factors that affect an interpreter’s performance, which makes it difficult to properly assess their work based on audio output alone. Table 26.8 Interpreting as a business service Item

Simultaneous interpreting mean (SD)

Consecutive interpreting mean (SD)

Communication of service details Systematic quotation and invoicing Speedy inquiry handling Friendly attitude Fast recruiting

4.13 (0.67) 4.11 (0.68) 3.95 (0.64) 3.94 (0.68) 3.83 (0.75)

4.07 (0.72) 3.99 (0.72) 3.95 (0.68) 3.86 (0.74) 3.78 (0.81)

Table 26.9 Recommendation Item

Simultaneous interpreting mean (SD)

Consecutive interpreting mean (SD)

Recommendation from a personal source Recommendation from Interpreting agencies

3.24 (0.95) 3.19 (0.89)

3.19 (1.05) 3.19 (0.97)

421

Jiun Huh 허지운

26.4.6

Ethics

Respondents consider ethics and social skills important. The importance placed on professional ethics and social skills suggests that respondents view interpreting as a professional job that requires professional ethics and social skills to facilitate communication.

26.4.7

Promotion, appearance, and age

Despite the growing hype of social media platforms, respondents are not inclined to use social media posts to look for interpreters. The mean scores of social media and websites in Table 26.11 are all negative. Other factors, such as interpreters’ appearance and their status as celebrity interpreters, are not deemed important either. Contrary to the concerns raised in Cho’s (2017) study, the respondents in this study are not interested in recruiting “good-looking” interpreters, as Table 26.12 clearly indicates. Nor are they searching for celebrity interpreters, which is in line with their disinterest in social media posts or online promotional materials when they have to find interpreters, as the foregoing discussion made clear. When it comes to interpreters’ age, respondents prefer the 30–39 age group (68.0%) and the 40–49 group (54.0%) the most. Only a handful of respondents selected the youngest group or those above 50. Nevertheless, many believe that age is not an important factor (see Table 26.13).

Table 26.10 Ethics Item

Simultaneous interpreting mean (SD)

Consecutive interpreting mean (SD)

Professional ethics Social skills

4.01 (0.71) 3.83 (0.83)

3.97 (0.80) 3.83 (0.84)

Table 26.11 Promotion Item

Simultaneous interpreting mean (SD)

Consecutive interpreting mean (SD)

Social media Website

2.66 (1.05) 2.85 (1.02)

2.65 (1.13) 2.78 (1.14)

Table 26.12 Appearance and celebrity interpreters Item

Simultaneous interpreting mean (SD)

Consecutive interpreting mean (SD)

Appearance Celebrity interpreter

2.61 (1.10) 2.43 (1.16)

2.67 (1.10) 2.51 (1.07)

422

Market demand for interpreting services in South Korea Table 26.13 Age Age group

N (Multiple choice allowed)

20–29 30–39 40–49 50–59 > 60 Age doesn’t matter

13 102 81 9 1 26

% 8.67% 68.0% 54.0% 6.0% 0.67% 17.3%

In fact, they had a strong preference for the age groups of 30–39 and 40–49 because they were interested in hiring interpreters with experience and excellent interpreting skills, not necessarily because they preferred “younger” interpreters. In the words of the respondents: I think interpreters in their 30s have just the right amount of experience and passion in their jobs. (Respondent 119) I think interpreters in their 30s and 40s are in their height, as they have sufficient work experience and competency. (Respondent 118) People in their 30s and 40s are the ones most well prepared professionally and most active in their work. (Respondent 19) Simultaneous interpreting requires agility and domain knowledge. But twenty-somethings are too young to have enough experience. I think those in their 30s and 40s are most active and have a lot of experience. (Respondent 51). Age does not matter. The interpreter’s expertise is all that matters. (Respondent 113) The findings suggest that appearance and ageism are yet to pose a serious threat to the profession, at least as far as conference interpreters are concerned. However, given that interpreters gain more knowledge and skills over time, users’ strong preference for the 30–49 age group might do them a disservice, as they might miss out on opportunities to hire more experienced interpreters because of their misconceptions. Market demand for in-house interpreting

26.5

Methodology

The study on in-house interpreting adopted a qualitative approach. Semi-structured individual interviews about interpreting services in South Korea were conducted with fourteen users between February 15, 2019, and July 22, 2019 (see Table 26.14). Interviewees are classified into three categories: end clients/users, organizers, and agencies. The interviews used fictitious resumes of interpreters applying for in-house interpreter positions to elicit interviewees’ reactions. The author presented a total of twelve resumes that had different combinations of academic degrees (MA in interpreting/BA only with no interpreting degree), length of interpreting experience in years (3/8/15 years of experience across various sectors, such as private sector enterprise/government department/public company/financial institution), and salary requirements (45 million KRW/50–60 million KRW). Interviewees first ranked the resumes based on the preferences and needs of their organizations and then explained the reasons for their choices. Table 26.15 presents the details of the twelve resumes. 423

Jiun Huh 허지운 Table 26.14 Participant profile Interviewee (No.)

Profession/Organization

Work experience

Group

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Foreign Broadcasting Network Interpreting Agency Headhunting Agency Legal and Accounting Services HR Consultancy Foreign Embassy Conference Organizer Research Center Public Organization Interpreting Agency Financial Services Conference Organizer Public Organization Medical Practitioner

9y 4y 7y 6y 25y 8y 5y 15y 15y 7y 11y 10y 2.5y 30y

End client/User Agency Agency End client/User End client/User End client/User Organizer End client/User End client/User Agency End client/User Organizer End client/User End client/User

In addition to asking questions about interviewees’ motivations, the author also asked the following three questions to gain deeper insights: (1) What are the key qualifications you consider when you hire in-house interpreters in your organization? (2) What would the job description of an in-house interpreter be if your organization were to hire one? (3) What are your thoughts on the salary level and employment status of in-house interpreters? All interviews were conducted in Korean, and the English excerpts presented in the following sections were translated by the author.

26.6 26.6.1

Results

Resume ranking

This section presents a summary of participants’ resume preference based on their ranking choices. The resumes that earned the most votes for the first place were resumes five and six (see Table 26.16). The resumes that were most frequently selected for one of the top three places were resumes one, three, and four (see Table 26.17). The resumes that were most frequently ranked among the lowest three places were resumes eight, seven, and twelve (see Table 26.18). The results suggest that participants overwhelmingly prefer in-house interpreters with a master’s degree in interpreting. Most of the preferred resumes are with mid-to-long experience in interpreting (eight and fifteen years). The resume with only three years of experience was among the top three when the accompanying salary requirement was on the lower end. The following sections will elaborate on the reasons behind these choices.

26.6.2

Credentials and level of remuneration

Interviewees deemed resume credentials important indicators of in-house interpreters’ expertise. The results of the preference rankings illustrate that participants value expertise, understood as long experience in interpreting and an interpreting degree. However, the reasons behind their choices reveal a rather complicated picture. Although resumes with fifteen years of experience won the most votes for the first place regardless of the accompanying salary requirements, many interviewees 424

Market demand for interpreting services in South Korea Table 26.15 Fictitious resume profile 1. Master’s degree in Interpreting 3 years of interpreting experience - Private sector ICT enterprise (1y) - Government department (2y) Salary requirement: KRW 45 million

2. Master’s degree in Interpreting 3 years of interpreting experience - Private sector ICT enterprise (1y) - Government department (2y) Salary requirement: KRW 50–60 million

5. Master’s degree in Interpreting 15 years of interpreting experience - Financial Institution (5y) - Public energy company (5y) - Private sector ICT enterprise (3y) - Government department (2y) Salary requirement: KRW 45 million 8. 7. BA in Economics from one of the BA in Economics from one of the top universities in Korea top universities in Korea 3 years of interpreting experience 3 years of interpreting experience - Private sector ICT enterprise (1y) - Private sector ICT enterprise (1y) - Government department (2y) - Government department (2y) Salary requirement: KRW 50–60 Salary requirement: KRW 45 million million 11. 10. BA in Economics from one of the BA in Economics from one of the top universities in Korea top universities in Korea 15 years of interpreting experience 8 years of interpreting experience - Financial Institution (5y) - Public energy company (4y) - Private sector ICT enterprise (2y) - Public energy company (5y) - Private sector ICT enterprise (3y) - Government department (2y) - Government department (2y) Salary requirement: KRW 50–60 Salary requirement: KRW 45 million million 4. Master’s degree in Interpreting 8 years of interpreting experience - Public energy company (4y) - Private sector ICT enterprise (2y) - Government department (2y) Salary requirement: KRW 50–60 million

3. Master’s degree in Interpreting 8 years of interpreting experience - Public energy company (4y) - Private sector ICT enterprise (2y) - Government department (2y) Salary requirement: KRW 45 million 6. Master’s degree in Interpreting 15 years of interpreting experience - Financial Institution (5y) - Public energy company (5y) - Private sector ICT enterprise (3y) - Government department (2y) Salary requirement: KRW 50–60 million 9. BA in Economics from one of the top universities in Korea 8 years of interpreting experience - Public energy company (4y) - Private sector ICT enterprise (2y) - Government department (2y) Salary requirement: KRW 45 million 12. BA in Economics from one of the top universities in Korea 15 years of interpreting experience - Financial Institution (5y) - Public energy company (5y) - Private sector ICT enterprise (3y) - Government department (2y) Salary requirement: KRW 50–60 million

Table 26.16 Resumes with most votes for the first place Frequency rank

No. of resume

Resume profile

Frequency

1

5

MA in interpreting; 15 years of interpreting experience; Salary requirement of KRW 45 million MA in interpreting; 15 years of interpreting experience; Salary requirement of KRW 50–60 million MA in interpreting; 3 years of interpreting experience; Salary requirement of KRW 45 million MA in interpreting; 8 years of interpreting experience; Salary requirement of KRW 45 million MA in interpreting; 8 years of interpreting experience; Salary requirement of KRW 50–60 million

3

6 2

1 3 4

425

3 2 2 2

Jiun Huh 허지운 Table 26.17 Resumes with most votes for the top three places Frequency rank

No. of resume

Resume profile

Frequency

1

3

8

2

1

MA in interpreting; 8 years of interpreting experience; Salary requirement of KRW 45 million MA in interpreting; 3 years of interpreting experience; Salary requirement of KRW 45 million MA in interpreting; 8 years of interpreting experience; Salary requirement of KRW 50–60 million

4

7 7

Table 26.18 Resumes with most votes for the lowest three places Frequency rank

No. of resume

1

8

2

7

12

Resume profile

Frequency

BA in economics (No interpreting degree); 3 years of interpreting experience; Salary requirement of KRW 50–60 million BA in economics (No interpreting degree); 3 years of interpreting experience; Salary requirement of KRW 45 million BA in economics (No interpreting degree); 15 years of interpreting experience; Salary requirement of KRW 50–60 million

3

2

2

thought that the required salary levels were, in fact, too low considering candidates’ length of experience. And some even questioned the fictitious job candidates’ self-assessed levels of competency or their attitudes toward work. Overall, the interviewees believed that in-house interpreters should be fairly paid, in accordance with the length of their professional experience, and that their salary and benefits package should be in line with those of other occupational groups in their respective organizations. An employee with only a Bachelor’s degree earns about 40 to 50 million won per year at a large enterprise. But when a person with a Master’s degree in interpreting expects only 45 million won, it means that this person probably wants a very low workload, for example, interpreting only once a week, while enjoying a high quality of life. Otherwise, I don’t think anyone [with 15 years of experience] would like to work for that salary. (Participant 1) Companies do not always favor candidates who propose lower salaries. If a candidate with 15 years of experience expects to receive only this much, I would be rather suspicious of that person. There must be something wrong with this candidate. (Participant 5) As long as he/she is not working freelance, an in-house interpreter’s salary level should be determined fairly, considering other employees’ salary levels. Especially if it’s a regular position and not an irregular one. Every company has its salary table, so I do not think that an in-house interpreter should receive less than others. (Participant 3) If you work for a large enterprise for 15 years, you earn over 100 million won. But we’re talking about an interpreter. Fifty-sixty million is too low for a person with 15 years of experience. And 100 million is not even high, judging by today’s standards. (Participant 11) 426

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As mentioned previously, a master’s degree in interpreting was perceived as an important criterion. However, some interviewees thought that even candidates with no interpreting degrees would be qualified for the position of an in-house interpreter, as long as they had sufficient experience with interpreting. This was due to these interviewees’ perception of the nature of the in-house interpreting position. They believed that the position of an in-house interpreter is not as challenging as the position of a conference interpreter and that, unlike simultaneous interpreting, consecutive interpreting can be performed without much training, as long as one is bilingual. Interviewees’ perceptions of the in-house interpreter’s job description will be further discussed in section 6.4. We did not have a candidate with an interpreting degree in mind when we first set out to hire an in-house interpreter, because we did not have a high interpreting and translation workload. Someone fluent in English was enough for us. But then, a candidate with an interpreting degree applied for the position. And that’s how we ended up hiring that person. We thought it would benefit both sides. (Participant 9) My second choice is a candidate without an interpreting degree. I myself have worked in these types of organizations [written on the resume], and I thought if this candidate had not had good interpreting and translation skills, he/she would not have been able to work for 5 years. In-house interpreters’ main job is interpreting and translation. But they belong to a team [predominantly composed of non-interpreters], so they need to go along with the team well. I think those with interpreting degrees do not blend well. So, if the interpreting and translation work accounts for a large part, then I would recommend a candidate with a Master’s degree in interpreting, but if his/her requested salary level is too high, then I would recommend a candidate with only a Bachelor’s degree. (Participant 2) My organization is a research institute, so If I were the director, I would prefer a candidate majoring in our field, not necessarily a person with an interpreting degree. I would ask the in-house interpreter to do other jobs as well, for example, work required for hosting academic events. I do not think we can offer a high salary. Because this is a research institute, we cannot pay a lot, so we would prefer a candidate who has a short career, young, and working in this field. (Participant 8)

26.6.3

Ageism or a hierarchy issue?

Interviewees valued long experience in interpreting, but most preferred to work with younger inhouse interpreters. Such an attitude cannot be attributed to ageism, per se. Most of those who expressed concerns about older candidates cited hierarchy issues. As interviewees were in the position of managers assigning interpreting or translation jobs, they wanted to have someone comfortable to work with or who would fit a typical subordinate profile. This was because they didn’t want to feel too burdened when they had to assign a demanding workload to in-house interpreters. Hence, many settled for resumes with eight years of experience. While this has to do with the seniority culture in Korea, it is also deeply intertwined with my interviewees’ perceptions of the profession. Many interviewees viewed interpreting and translation (hereafter, T&I)3 as a simple, mechanical task, rather than sophisticated work that requires competency and a wealth of knowledge that grows with experience. Age is quite important. We need a young in-house interpreter with an interpreting degree who can translate massive number of documents very quickly. But this person on the resume has a very long career and I have a feeling that we cannot push that hard. So, it seems that she is overqualified for this position. (Participant 4) 427

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We need to assign T&I jobs to in-house interpreters. But if the interpreter is too old, or holds a higher title, such as ‘deputy head,’ then it becomes quite tricky to assign work to the interpreter. In fact, we are always short on time in our organization. Something always happens on short notice, as we cannot control the schedule of the counterparties in other countries. Which means we have to ask favors of our in-house interpreters. And if the interpreter is older and hard to approach, then things will become quite uncomfortable. (Participant 13)

26.6.4

Job description and expertise

In-house interpreters’ job descriptions varied widely, depending on the need of each organization. Moreover, the interviewees’ perceptions of the profession depended on the type and amount of work assigned to in-house interpreters. If T&I was critical to their operation and the T&I workload was high in their organizations, the interviewees placed a higher value on the expertise of the profession and thought that in-house interpreters’ job description should be confined to T&I work only. In contrast, those working for organizations with lower T&I workloads and criticality thought that in-house interpreters should be given additional tasks outside the T&I realm, to cover idle hours. While many considered freelance conference interpreters as experts with a clear job boundary, they regarded in-house interpreters simply as fellow employees performing one of the many tasks required of the organization. I would definitely assign T&I work only. I would assign simultaneous interpreting or translation jobs. In our case, we need to quickly translate news reports into English for broadcast. But if the in-house interpreter has no simultaneous interpreting work to do, then I do not think we would offer a high level of salary because other T&I tasks are not urgent. (Participant 1) In our organization, in-house interpreters take on non-T&I jobs, too. They engage in administrative work as well, rather than specializing in T&I only. T&I workload is not very high. But the main job description for in-house interpreters is, of course, T&I. They do translation a lot and interpreting from time to time. In-house interpreters cannot focus on T&I only. They have to accompany officials just like secretaries in order to resolve language barriers in everyday affairs for the officials. (Participant 6) Many interviewees regarded in-house interpreting function as a cost center because they believed T&I does not contribute to the generation of direct revenue. Many also thought that T&I is repetitive and mechanical work and that T&I competency does not mature beyond a certain point. Some interviewees suggested an alternative career path, such as positions related to the organization’s core business. They believed that T&I does not help build a long and prosperous career, as it is not a core position in their organizations. People usually want to get promoted and gain greater authority and responsibility within an organization. But organizations do not usually give such positions to interpreters if they want to do T&I only. So, if an interpreter thinks that he/she needs to broaden his/her job scope to secure a longer career in the organization, he/she needs to be competent enough to compete with those from other positions. (Participant 9) In most companies, people get promoted if they have worked for 15 years. Staff become assistant managers, and then section chiefs. By the time they have worked for the company for 15 years, they may as well become department heads. But I haven’t seen an in-house 428

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interpreter become the head of a department. In-house interpreters do not advance and grow with the company. They simply support the company within a certain department. T&I is not about making decisions for a company. And T&I doesn’t directly affect the top line. So, I think interpreters should add more skills and competency that can help them branch out to positions that are core to the company. (Participant 4)

26.7

Discussion and conclusion

This study has explored market demand for conference interpreting and in-house interpreting in South Korea based on a questionnaire survey and open-ended interviews. The questionnaire survey is a reiteration of Huh’s (2021a) survey on conference interpreting and the interviews that use fictitious resumes are an extension of Huh’s (2021b) survey. This study thus presents an overview of users’ demand and perceptions of interpreting provided by both conference interpreters and inhouse interpreters in South Korea. The findings of this study present some interesting viewpoints. First, users’ perceptions of conference interpreters and in-house interpreters differ in many respects. Whether simultaneous interpreting is provided or not seems to determine users’ perceptions and attitudes. For conference interpreting service, participants are willing to pay more for simultaneous interpreting than for consecutive interpreting, and many believe that simultaneous interpreting requires special skills, as it has to be performed simultaneously. This logic applies to inhouse interpreters as well. If the in-house interpreter’s job in an organization requires simultaneous interpreting, users are willing to pay a higher salary. Otherwise, an in-house interpreter is regarded as just another employee with a different job description. However, because participants view in-house interpreters as fellow employees, they believe that in-house interpreters should not be discriminated against when it comes to their salary levels. Many think that in-house interpreters deserve to be paid based on seniority, which is the predominant pay scale adopted by Korean organizations (Shim, 2022), and even raise concerns about job candidates’ competency or work attitudes when the requested salary in the fictitious resume is too low. At the same time, however, many participants regard in-house interpreting function to be in a supportive role and as a cost center, rather than adding to profit. And this view runs the danger of encouraging ageism in the workplace. In-house interpreting takes on a passive role in the organizational hierarchy, responding to T&I requests from other functions with decision-making powers. Orders run from a higher authority to lower levels, which means that work can be better facilitated when those at the receiving end are either younger or with lower ranks. Many participants do, indeed, say that they prefer younger interpreters for this exact reason. However, the category “younger” is rather subjective, as it depends on the age of the employee interfacing with the in-house interpreters. Ageism, however, does not feature strongly in the hiring of conference interpreters. Most of the respondents prefer conference interpreters in their 30s and 40s, not necessarily because they favor “younger” or “good-looking” interpreters, but because they believe that these age groups are at the height of their interpreting competency. Overall, users view freelancing conference interpreters as experts in interpreting, while they regard in-house interpreters as fellow employees with a different job function outside the mainstream. Second, users prioritize interpreting experience and interpreter competence, with a special highlight on “domain-specific” experience and competency. They have a very practical attitude toward interpreting, with their sole focus on interpreting quality. And even among quality items, content-specific aspects, such as accuracy, completeness, and terminology, are deemed more important than language items, such as pronunciation, grammar, and fluency. They are fairly interested in certification, as it might officially attest to interpreting competency, but they are only moderately 429

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interested in whether a prospective hire has an interpreting degree or not when hiring a conference interpreter. They are not interested in relying on recommendations from others or on social media posts. They are not looking for celebrity interpreters, either. The most important things for users are interpreting quality, professional ethics, and a systematic business process. Moreover, they are ready to pay a fair price for a professional service. The findings highlight South Korean users’ practical demand for professional interpreting services. Third, users’ practical attitude may serve as a double-edged sword. While their practical approach might work fine with conference interpreting, the same attitude may put a strain on in-house interpreting jobs. Instead of respecting in-house interpreters’ job as an independent professional function, it is often treated simply as a supporting role that focuses on interpreting and sometimes translation but is also available for other administrative tasks. Their career prospects are also limited, as T&I is not regarded as a revenue-generating job. However, the notion that in-house interpreters do not add to profit could be a myth. Korea is an export-driven economy, where language communication is key to boosting exchange. Both in-house interpreters and conference interpreters are involved in a wide spectrum of business activities that encompass sales, promotion, executive meetings, board meetings, investor relations, press conferences, one-on-one meetings, seminars, conferences, online meetings, broadcasting, etc. While interpreters work in the shadow of key activities, they clearly contribute to the latter’s final outcome. However, interpreters’ contributions have not been measured so far. Just as promotional campaigns are measured and linked to the outcome of sales, interpreters’ work should be measured to produce evidence of their contributions. It is about time we measured their contributions and recognized both conference interpreters and in-house interpreters as active players in global communication. This study presents an overview of market demand in South Korea by exploring users’ perceptions of the jobs undertaken by two representative types of professional interpreters: conference interpreters and in-house interpreters. The study uses both quantitative and qualitative research methods and presents a follow-up to previous studies, thereby building an original historical data set that can be compared to the results of future studies for further analysis. The sample size, although larger than that in Huh’s (2021a, 2021b) studies, is still limited and needs to be bigger to allow for generalizations. Further studies should be conducted to create broader, yet in-depth insights into the demand for interpreting services in South Korea, in order to benefit both the interpreters and the users of this professional service.

Notes 1 Interpreters working as employees in organizations, either as regular or non-regular workers, are called “inhouse interpreters” or “staff interpreters.” 2 The questionnaire battery used in the present study is adapted from “Appendix: Questionnaire” by Jiun Huh, used under CC BY 3.0. 3 In-house interpreters in South Korea often perform both interpreting and translation tasks.

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27 A STUDY OF TECHNOLOGICAL COMPETENCE FOR REMOTE INTERPRETING AND CURRENT STATUS OF COMPETENCE AMONG KOREA’S INTERPRETERS Jimin Lee 이지민 27.1

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic that swept the world from 2020 to beyond 2021 has greatly affected the landscape of meetings and conferences. Travel bans between and lockdowns within countries have, in many cases, prohibited people from gathering offline for international conferences. Therefore, such gatherings had to either be canceled or alternatives chosen—using the equipment and technologies that enable online meetings. Speakers and audiences, as well as interpreters, were forced to use such devices to join meetings online, and this has greatly affected how interpreters work. Two previous interpreting breakthroughs—namely, the introduction of wired systems for speech translation and the internet—led to the rise of simultaneous interpreting and fundamentally changed how knowledge is acquired, respectively (Fantinuoli, 2018, p.  3). The third interpreting breakthrough—a technological turn—now seems to have arrived. Against the expectations of Fantinuoli, who thought the realization would be slow, the COVID-19 pandemic sped up this realization. Remote interpreting (RI) is part of the turn, and the related enabling technologies have become pivotal. Indeed, during the pandemic, interpreters went through considerable adaptation efforts from the set-up process to learning how to use tools for RI (Przepiórkowska, 2021). In other words, the pandemic has affected the processes that interpreters go through before, during, and after interpreting, and, consequently, the competence that interpreters need to have. Korea is a global information and communication technology (ICT) leader and has ranked at the top for ICT development in each of the past five years (Mills, 2020, May 29). Against this backdrop, this chapter aims to answer these three research questions: 1) What are the technological processes and competence for RI? 2) What technologies are Korean interpreters using for RI and how competent are those interpreters? 3) What are the training or educational implications for the development of RI competence in Korea? DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-32

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27.2 27.2.1

Literature review Remote interpreting

Remote interpreting (RI), which is also called distance interpreting, refers to interpreting a speaker in a different location from that of the interpreter, enabled by ICT (AIIC, 2020, p. 9). RI is a broad concept, commonly used to refer to forms of interpreter-mediated communication delivered by means of ICT (Fantinuoli, 2018, p. 4). Braun (2015, p. 1) defines RI as the use of communication technologies to gain access to an interpreter in another room, building, town, city, or country. This term covers different settings, such as events where participants are in one place, while the interpreters are at a different venue or where the interpreter and one of the interlocutors are both present in the same place (Fantinuoli, 2018, p.  4). RI also includes different modalities, such as with either only sound from speakers (audio remote-interpreting) or sound and image from speakers (video remote-interpreting) being transmitted to interpreters (AIIC, 2020, p. 9). RI includes over-the-phone interpreting or telephone interpreting, video remoteinterpreting (VRI), and remote simultaneous-interpreting (RSI). The first and foremost feature of RI, in comparison to onsite, in-person interpreting, is the usage of ICT. For consecutive RI, platforms for online meetings, including Zoom, MS Teams, Cisco Webex, Google Meet, and Polycom, are often used, while for RSI, platforms with RSI functionality, such as KUDO, Interprefy, VoiceBoxer, and InterpreCloud, are popular (Chang, 2021, p.  218). RI gives interpreters less multi-model information than onsite interpreting, as they are forced to use only the video images chosen by a camera operator (Moser-Mercer, 2005, p. 733). Unstable and poor audiovideo quality, multi-sensory integration efforts, and interpreters’ sense of limited presence lead to poor performance and reduced motivation, compared to onsite interpreting (ibid., pp. 733–735). In addition, it is difficult to control how fast a speaker talks, since the participants are not physically together (Pyoun, 2022, pp. 169–170). In RI, meeting materials are often not received on time, and immediate updates are not made. For information storage and exchange, cloud drives are often used. Due to the potential for network disruptions, pre-recorded speeches or lectures are often used, which increases the need for automated transcription, machine translation, and post-editing (ibid., pp. 175–178).

27.2.2

Interpreting competence

There are not many studies on competence—let alone on technological competence—for RI. Consequently, this chapter will first cover research on interpreting competences in general before defining technological competence for RI. There are studies that derive interpreting competences from the translation competence study by the PACTE group. The PACTE group (2003) states that translation competence comprises bilingual sub-competence, extra-linguistic sub-competence, knowledge about translation, instrumental sub-competence, psycho-physiological components, and strategic sub-competence. Bilingual sub-competence is “predominantly procedural knowledge required to communicate in two languages” (PACTE, 2003, p.  16). Extra-linguistic sub-competence refers to “predominantly declarative knowledge, both implicit and explicit, about the world in general and special areas” (ibid., p. 16) and includes bicultural knowledge, encyclopedic knowledge, and subject knowledge (16). Knowledge about translation is “declarative knowledge about what translation is and aspects of the profession,” specifically meaning knowledge in types of translation units, processes, methods, procedures, types of problems, and knowledge related to professional translation practice (16). Instrumental sub-competence refers to “knowledge related to the use of documentation sources and ICT applied to translation” (17). Strategic sub-competence is “procedural knowledge to guarantee the efficiency of the translation process and solve the problems encountered” (17). It includes the functions to plan and evaluate the process, activate different sub-competences and compensate for deficiencies therein, and to identify 433

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problems and apply the necessary procedures to solve them (17). Psycho-physiological components refer to “cognitive and attitudinal components and psycho-motor mechanisms,” which include cognitive ability, attitudinal aspect and creativity, logical reasoning, analysis, etc. (17). Based on the PACTE group’s translation competence, Lee (2018) defines competence for onsite consecutive interpreting as consisting of bilingual sub-competence, extra-linguistic sub-competence, knowledge about interpreting, instrumental sub-competence, strategic sub-competence, and psycho-physiological subcompetence. Overall, her definitions are similar to those by the PACTE Group (2003), except for knowledge about interpreting and instrumental sub-competences. In Lee (2018), knowledge about interpreting refers to knowledge about the functions of interpreting and professional interpreting practices, while instrumental sub-competence refers to the knowledge about how to utilize technologies to collect information related to the interpreting and the ability to use a variety of technologies for interpreting, such as sending and receiving or uploading or downloading meeting materials or operating audiovisual conference devices and simultaneous-interpreting equipment (Lee, 2018, p.  201). Lee (2018) emphasizes, among other things, the importance of strategic sub-competence or the ability to mobilize and coordinate other sub-competences to resolve problems, thus leading to successful interpretation, and points out the value of specific understanding of the communicative situational factors, such as the size of the gathering (presenters and audience), distance between speaker(s), interpreter, and audience, the power relationship between the participants, communication purpose, linguistic features (official or casual), non-linguistic materials, medium, interactions (one-way or two-way) between participants, and note-taking dependence. Kalina (2006) explores interpreting competence from a process perspective: pre-, peri-, in-, and post-process. Albl-Mikasa (2012) adds what is called para-process skills to Kalina’s research. According to Albl-Mikasa (2012), pre-process covers high-level command of working languages, low-key computer-assisted terminology management, a generalist’s informed semi-knowledge, and streamlined assignment preparation. Peri-process skills includes teamwork and a cooperative attitude, unimposing extroversion, professionalism between instinct and a sense of realism, pressure resistance, and frustration tolerance. In-process skills consist of comprehension skills, transfer skills, production skills, post-process skills, terminology wrap-up, and quality control. Para-process skills are business know-how, customer relations and professional standards, lifelong-learning predilection, and metareflection “because the interpreters reported business-related matters to be of major relevance for their work” (Albl-Mikasa, 2012, p.  61). In other words, this para-process refers to the interpreter’s business-running aspects from building up his/her own business to management and runs “along, as well as above and beyond all other processes” (61). Combining the existing translation competence models (Kelly, 2005, pp. 32–33; PACTE Group, 2017, pp. 39–40) with interpreting-competence-specific models (Abril Marti, 2006, pp. 667–669; Albl-Mikasa, 2012, p.  62; Angelelli, 2002, p.  26), Martínez-Gómez (2020) classifies interpreting competence into bilingual sub-competence, extra-linguistic sub-competence, strategic competence, knowledge of interpreting, instrumental sub-competence, and psycho-physiological sub-competence, and creates a new subcompetence—interpersonal sub-competence—referring to assertiveness, active listening, negotiation skills, and conversation management—emphasizing its importance in establishing and maintaining professional relationships and working with colleagues and other actors involved, such as clients and users. This shares similarity with the aforementioned para-process skills. Martínez-Gómez (2020, p.  306)’s model includes instrumental sub-competence mainly being procedural knowledge related to the use of documentation resources and IT tools, especially in preparation for the interpreting assignment and of interpreting equipment and new technologies used in interpreting. This model is important, in that it considers the stage of preparing for interpreting, as with Kalina (2006) and Albl-Mikasa (2012)’s pre-process. 434

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Wang et al. (2020) define interpreting competence based on a communicative language competence model, which consists of comprehensive cognitive abilities, bilingual competence, knowledge for interpreting, interpreting strategies, and professionalism. However, this model only deals with the cognitive and psychological part of interpreting, missing the ability to use or knowledge about tools or technologies that are oftentimes necessary in carrying out interpreting tasks.

27.2.3

Competence for RI and technological interpreting competence

Chang (2021, pp.  227–233) studies competence for RI, considering the foregoing distinctive features of RI, and offers five RI skills: technological, storytelling, research, problem-solving, and rights protection. Technological skills refer to knowledge about RI platforms, networks, and technologies. Interpreters also need to know how to deal with urgent technological problems during interpreting (ibid.). Since network instability can cause information to be missed during RI, interpreters should be able to collect information and fill in the gaps to deliver a full story to the audience, thus requiring storytelling skills (229). Research skills refer not only to subject-matter knowledge but also to all the background knowledge in interpreting occasions, including information on the participants, purpose for the meeting, etc. (230–231). Problem-solving skills refer to the ability to prevent problems from occurring during remote meetings, communicate problems with technicians, and resume the meeting if the connection is lost, etc. (231–232). Rights protection skills are about protecting interpreters’ property rights and health from the harms of RI, mainly related to noise (232–233). The technological dimension of interpreting is now growing in importance. Language service providers and advisory companies view the application of interpreting technology as a necessary competence for interpreters (Wang & Li, 2022, p. 370). Professional interpreters’ organizations have also included technological knowledge or competence as part of their guidelines. The American Translators Association (ATA, 2011), the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators (AUSIT, 2012), the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC), and The Korean Association of Translators and Interpreters (KATI, 2020) all ask their interpreters to be aware of and even use the latest technologies for their work. Pöchhacker (2016, pp.  187–194) introduces, in his book Introducing Interpreting Studies, automation, RI technology, and equipment for interpreting—both consecutive and simultaneous—as important technology for interpreting. Fantinuoli (2018) anticipates a third breakthrough in interpreting or a technological turn in three areas: computer-assisted interpreting (CAI), RI, and machine interpreting (MI). CAI is a form of oral translation in which a human interpreter makes use of computer software designed to support and facilitate some aspects of the interpreting task, with the goal of increasing quality and productivity (Fantinuoli, 2018, p.  4). It refers to the tools used to create glossaries, look up terms, extract information from documents, and even expands to natural-language process features—automatic terminology extraction, summarization, automatic speech recognition, and so forth (4). MI refers to automatic speech translation and automatic interpreting or speech-to-speech translation. It involves technology that allows the translation of spoken text from one language to another by means of a computer program. It combines at least three technologies: automatic speech recognition (ASR) to transcribe the oral speech into written text, machine translation (MT), and speech-to-text synthesis (STT) to generate an audible version in the target language (5). However, the three areas are not exclusive to one another because professional interpreters use, although partially oftentimes, all three technology categories for interpreting. For example, in the RI setting, interpreters use CAI to create terminology lists and utilize ASR tools – part of MI – to transcribe speeches before interpreting and operate RI devices during interpreting. This also brings 435

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our attention to the importance of considering the pre- and post-processes of interpreting, not just the interpreting process itself. Wang and Zhang (2015) coined the term interpreters’ technical competence by deriving a basic model from the PACTE model (Wang & Li, 2022). However, it is suggested that the word technical be renamed to technological, since interpreting technology is the prevailing term, according to Wang and Li (2022, p. 369), who also classify interpreting technologies into six categories based on previous studies (Berber, 2010; Pastor & May Fern, 2016; Pastor, 2018; Wang et al., 2018), as follows: computer application, computer-assisted translation (CAT), information retrieval, interpreting device application, terminology management, and other interpreting technologies. Computer application—for example, OCR software and office software—gives interpreters an operational foundation on which to quickly communicate, share resources, sort, and organize information (Wang & Li, 2022, p.  384). Information retrieval refers to the ability to use search engines, online corpora and dictionaries, and professional databases and is about familiarizing oneself with and mastering specific background information, knowledge, and terminology in a short time (384). Terminology management refers to the use of terminology software or tools, such as MultiTerm, InterpretBank, Introgloss, and SDL, in order to collect, describe, process, store, edit, present, search, maintain, and share terms (384). CAT is about using translation memory and/or machine translation tools (384). Other interpreting technologies include speech recognition and machine interpreting. Using these tools, Wang and Li (2022) create an interpreting-technological-competence framework. According to the study, competence acquisition comes after completing three processes: becoming aware of interpreting technology, learning how to use interpreting technology, and gaining skills and knowledge of interpreting technology. Wang and Li’s 2022 study is significant because it highlights technological competence from a comprehensive process point of view. It deals with a variety of technologies that are used not only during interpreting but also before interpreting, although it does not specifically mention the stages. However, the term computer application is too broad. According to the study, this applies to using anything running on a computer, despite the many different software products and their many different purposes. Therefore, this needs to be more finely classified, in accordance with the purpose of activities. In addition, CAT consists of machine translation, translation memories, and term-bases, which stretch into terminology management. In other words, functionalities overlap between CAT, terminology management, and even machine translation. Moreover, while translation competence considers the ability to use a CAT tool important, interpreting does not necessarily require a comprehensive ability to use a CAT tool itself. Wang and Li (2022) reveal Chinese interpreters’ perceptions toward and levels of skill and knowledge of interpreting technology. The survey, conducted on 647 respondents as part of the study, reveals that only 219 people, or 22.85%, engaged in terminology management. Over 70% of respondents believed that interpreters need to master a variety of interpreting technology for such things as information retrieval, terminology management, machine translation, speech recognition, corpus, CAT, and equipment for remote video, simultaneous interpreting, and telephone interpreting. An interesting outcome of the survey is that some participants were aware of the existence of technologies and believed that they could be useful to some degree, but had never used them. Those who held a negative view of machine translation outnumbered those holding positive views. As already mentioned by Pym (2011) and Fantinuoli (2018), Wang and Li (2022) suggest there were doubts and skepticism about interpreting technology. 436

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Regarding the need to learn how to use interpreting technology, 84.07% agreed or strongly agreed that it should be included in interpreter training and education programs (Wang & Li, 2022, p. 381). But the study failed to reveal which area should receive the most focus.

27.3

Research design

This study aims to outline the process of RI, develop a technological-competence model for it, investigate the technologies Korean interpreters are using and their competence levels for RI, and identify the implications for related training and education. First, to identify the RI process and develop a competence model, the researcher conducted an interview and a survey. Four professional interpreters with over 100 RI experiences over the past three years were interviewed. Three have more than twenty years’ interpreting experience each, and one has eight years’ experience. The interview was done over the phone for about an hour each, during which the interviewees were asked to describe their steps of RI from the preparation stage. At each stage, the researcher asked about the tools or technologies they use and difficulties they have at each step. After the survey, these interpreters were contacted again for clarification. Based on the process identified through the interview, a framework on technological competence for RI was developed. The framework was updated with the survey findings. Based on the interview results, a questionnaire was developed, which was reviewed by three academic experts. Using their feedback, the questions and choices were edited and clarified, overlapping choices were deleted, and the questions that actually harbored two questions or more were divided accordingly. The questions were then organized along the interpreting process. The survey consists of demographic information, pre-process questions, in-process questions, and a post-process question. The demographic information includes gender, age, freelancer/inhouse interpreter, language pair, and years of service. The pre-process part contains questions about technologies that interpreters use for RI application set-up, information retrieval, terminology management, MI (text-to-speech and machine translation), and levels of difficulty in using those technologies. The in-process part covers questions about RI applications used by interpreters during interpreting and levels of difficulty in using them. Finally, the post-process question asks about the activities they perform after RI. The questionnaire was created using a survey-creation engine named Naver Form. An electronic link to the questionnaire was created, and a pilot survey was conducted with five professional interpreters, after which some fine-tuning of wording was done. After the pilot survey was finished, the questionnaire was distributed to interpreters. A snowballing method was used. The survey was conducted from October 10 through November 17, 2022. A total of 85 questionnaires were collected, with eight incomplete questionnaires excluded from this number. SPSS27 was used for statistical analysis, including ANOVA and Pearson’s correlation tests. After the results were collected, additional interviews with professional interpreters were conducted for clarification and identification of reasons.

27.4

Results and discussion 27.4.1 27.4.1.1

RI process Pre-process

Before interpreting, interpreters receive materials for meetings via email or a data storage on the cloud. Since large conferences involve a large number of interpreters, and online meetings tend to involve relatively large amounts of audiovisual materials or pre-videotaped speeches due to 437

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the potential for network instability during the meetings or conferences, interpreters are asked to download the received materials from cloud-based storage, such as Google Drive, Webhard, or Dropbox. Interpreters then search for and study terms and expressions in the materials, build a terminology list, set up an RI device, earphones, microphone, and other needed accessories, and adjust the ambient environment, such as noise level, brightness, communication channel with the engineer, if any. At the same time, they transcribe audiovisual speeches or translate text (if any), with or without machine translation. Interpreters then post-edit the machine translation results. Since remote meetings oftentimes involve pre-recorded speeches, which are usually faster than those in onsite, in-person meetings and very formal and leave no possibility of improvisation on the part of the speaker, interpreters tend to translate the speeches beforehand, if time allows. When simultaneously interpreting, interpreters agree on how to communicate with each other—whether to use a chat system on the RI system, a messenger program, or text messaging, or to gather in one place to communicate face-to-face. One of the interpreters interviewed, after suffering through trial and error, decided that physically being with her partner was best, whether she was engaged in RI or not.

27.4.1.2

In-process

During the interpreting, interpreters search for new words that come up on an ad-hoc basis, and use the interpreting device—for example, operating the interpreting channels, checking the chat window, and communicating with technicians, if any. Although some of the RI systems have speechto-text or machine translation functions, these were not used by any of the interpreters interviewed, since the voice-recognition function is especially weak in Korean, as is the machine translation capability. They sometimes keep the speech-to-text function on during interpreting only to verify numeric information or to create meeting minutes.

27.4.1.3

Post-process

After interpreting, they update their terminology list. They are sometimes requested by their clients to re-record some parts where the sound quality was not sufficient or to take meeting minutes, in which case, they turn on the speech-to-text function during the meeting and create the minutes from the resulting transcript. Some interpreters are also asked to create subtitles for the speeches they interpreted. Figure 27.1 shows an interpreter’s typical technology-related activities before, during, and after RI.

Pre-process  Create terminology list: software  Retreive information: cloud storage, Internet  Set up RI device & environment  Speech to text, machine interpreting, post-editing

In-process

Post-process

 Retrieve information: Internet  Operate RI device: meeting operation, communication channel mgmt., etc.  Speech to text

Figure 27.1 Process-specific technology-related activities for RI

438

 Update terminology list  Retrieve information: Internet  Speech to text  Subtitling

Remote interpreting among Korea’s interpreters

27.4.2

Framework on technological competence for RI

A competence framework is developed based on the process of RI, analysis of necessary competence for each process, and review of existing literature. Wang and Li (2022) classify interpreting technological competence into interpreting device application, computer application, information retrieval, terminology management, CAT, and other interpreting technologies. As already mentioned, the disadvantage of this model is that it uses overly broad terms, and concept overlaps exist between categories. Moreover, since it aims to cover interpreting in general, an RI-specific application category is missing. Therefore, this chapter classifies interpreting technological competence for RI into the following sub-competences: RI device application, information retrieval, terminology management, machine interpreting, and other interpreting technologies. RI device application sub-competence refers to the ability to set up and operate an RI device or application before and during RI. This includes the ability to meet the client-imposed requirements to use the application, including noise levels and headset and microphone specifications, etc. Information retrieval sub-competence means the ability to search for, obtain, and collect necessary information by the means of technology. Terminology management sub-competence refers to the ability to manage terminology using office programs, CAT tools, or other terminology management software. Machine interpreting sub-competence refers to the ability to convert speech to text or text to speech or

RI device application

Other interpreting technologies

Information retrieval Interpreting technological competence

Machine interpreting

Terminology management

Figure 27.2 Interpreting technological competence for RI

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translate one language into another using a computer program. This consists of automatic speech recognition (ASR) to transcribe speech into written text, machine translation (MT), and speech synthesis to generate speech in the target language. Wang and Li (2022, p.  383) defines machine interpreting as voice recognition and machine translation, which it puts in the “other technologies” category, since the authors view this as an assisting tool in general interpreting. However, in RI, this machine interpreting technology has become significant, and many users use voice recognition and machine translation separately or in combination, so this chapter treats machine interpreting as an equally important sub-competence. Other interpreting technologies include subtitling programs and other technologies that are emerging. Based on the process-specific activities and the definition of technological competence for RI, the sub-competences for each stage are as follows:

Pre-process

In-process

 Terminology management  Information retrieval  RI device application  Machine interpreting  Other technologies

Post-process

 Information retrieval  RI device application  Machine interpreting

 Terminology management  Information retrieval  Machine interpreting  Other interpreting technologies

Figure 27.3 Process-specific technological sub-competences for RI

27.4.3 27.4.3.1

Survey

Demographic information

The 77 respondents consisted of five men (6.5%) and 72 women (93.5%). In regard to the age breakdown, as shown in Table 27.1, the largest group were those in their 40s, followed by those in their 30s, 50s, and 20s, in that order. There were no respondents in their 60s or older. A total of 66 (85.71%) were freelancers and eleven (14.29%) were in-house interpreters. Table 27.2 shows the language pairs. The largest group was English-Korean pairing, accounting for 54.55% of all respondents. The second-largest group was Chinese-Korean pairing, representing 14.29%, followed by Russian-Korean, Japanese-Korean, and French-Korean, in that order. The others include Spanish-Korean, Arab-Korean, and Indonesian-Korean pairings. Table 27.1 Survey respondents by age group Age group

Number of respondents (%)

20s (20–29) 30s (30–39) 40s (40–49) 50s (50–59) 60s or older (60-) Total

2 (2.6) 33 (42.86) 37 (48.05) 5 (6.49) 0 (0) 77 (100)

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Remote interpreting among Korea’s interpreters Table 27.2 Language pairs Language pair

Number of respondents (%)

English-Korean Chinese-Korean Russian-Korean Japanese-Korean French-Korean Others Total

42 (54.55) 11 (14.29) 8 (10.4) 6 (7.79) 5 (6.49) 5 (6.49) 77 (100)

Table 27.3 Years of experience Service period

Number of respondents (%)

3 years or less 4–10 years 11–15 years 16 years or longer Total

6 (7.79) 29 (37.66) 22 (28.57) 20 (25.97) 77 (100)

Table 27.4 RI experience in the past three years RI sessions

Number of respondents (% of total)

Less than 10 10 to less than 30 30 to less than 50 50 to less than 70 70 to less than 100 100 or more Total

4 (5.19) 12 (15.58) 23 (29.87) 11 (14.29) 13 (16.88) 14 (18.18) 77 (100)

With respect to their years of experience, as shown in Table 27.3, the largest group were those with four to ten years’ experience, accounting for 37.66%, while the second largest group were those with eleven to fifteen years’ experience. The smallest group was made up of those with three years’ experience or less. As with other studies, Korean interpreters also see an increase in RI, compared to the preCOVID period, as observed by 72 of the 77 total respondents, or 93.5% of all respondents. The one respondent (1.3%) who disagreed had engaged in RI fewer than ten times. Four interpreters (5.19%) answered that they don’t know. Table 27.4 shows the number of RI sessions the respondents engaged in during the pandemic (Jan. 2020 through Dec. 2022). Twenty-three interpreters, or 29.87% of all respondents, engaged in between 30 and 50 RI sessions, followed by over 100 instances and 70 to 100. One in-house interpreter for a global company said she had engaged in over 1,000 RI sessions over the past three years. 441

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27.4.3.2

Pre-process

Regarding the tools they use to collect or retrieve information (multiple choices allowed), as seen in Table 27.5, most respondents, or 75 (97.4%), resort to the internet, meaning they actively use technology to gather information. Two respondents who did not choose the internet chose physical dictionaries and materials from the client and said they are not comfortable using a computer. Overall dependence on physical books or dictionaries was low, at only 20.78%. When it comes to terminology management, 75 of 77 respondents, or 97.4%, engage in terminology management. This is very high compared to that recorded in Wang and Li (2022, p. 377), where only 33.85% engage in this. Regarding the methods used, as shown in Table 27.6, office software took the largest portion: spreadsheet programs (i.e. Excel) are the most favored tools (similar to Wang and Li (2022, p. 378)), followed by word editing programs, such as MS Word or Hangul Office. There were six people who create terminology lists by hand, while five use CAT tools’ term-bases or memory exclusively or together with a spreadsheet. None of the respondents reported using terminology management software. As with information retrieval, this also shows that interpreters are actively utilizing technologies in terminology management, although very few or none used CAT tools or terminology management-specific software. For transcription, 41.56% of respondents said they use a speech-to-text application, and 26.4% manually write down the audio (visual) materials (see Table 27.7). Sixteen people (20.8%) do not create a transcript because, according to them, they don’t see the need for transcription (text is too short or listening to the materials is enough). Table 27.5 Source of information Source

Number of respondents (% of total)

Internet Materials from client Physical dictionaries or books Experts in the field Other

75 (97.40) 61 (79.22) 16 (20.78) 12 (15.58) 0 (0)

Table 27.6 Methods used in terminology management Terminology management

Number of respondents (% of total)

Spreadsheet Word editing program Manual (By hand) CAT tool No terminology management

65 (84.42) 13 (16.88) 6 (7.79) 5 (6.49) 2 (2.6)

Table 27.7 Transcription method Transcription

Number of respondents (% of total)

Voice recognition tool Manual dictation Don’t transcribe Other Total

32 (41.56) 28 (36.36) 16 (20.78) 1 (1.3) 77 (100)

442

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Of the 45 respondents who do not use a speech-to-text tool, 51.11% or 23 people, said they are satisfied with how they do it. Eighteen people, or 40% of the respondents, were not aware of such applications. The same number of people said they are not satisfied with speech-to-text tools. Five (11.11%) answered they don’t use them because they cost money. And four respondents (8.89%) said they are not comfortable using computers. Compared to other technologies, speech-to-text tools were less actively used and almost one-third of all respondents were unaware of their existence. Functional and monetary considerations were also reasons interpreters chose not to use them. As shown in Table 27.8, of the 32 respondents who use a speech-to-text tool for transcription, most favored Naver Clova,1 followed by Sonix and Otter. Among “Others” chosen by five respondents, Samsung’s voice recording application, capable of recording voice and generating text simultaneously, YouTube, Kapwing (video-editing program), and MS Word’s voice recognition function (two people) were used. This shows that interpreters are using a wide range of voice recognition tools, even including a video-editing program, raising the need to study details of tool functionalities for further investigation of interpreting technologies and educational needs. With regard to machine translation, eleven respondents, or 14.3%, said they don’t use machine translation due to there either being no need or the poor quality. Unlike the speech-to-text tools, there was no one who answered that they didn’t know the existence of machine translation tools or how to use them. Of those who use machine translation, 84.8% (56 people) answered that they use Google Translate, followed by 51.5% (34 people) using Naver Papago. Nine people (13.6%) said they use a CAT tool. Regarding the complexity of pre-process technologies for RI (Figure 27.4), those who think installing RI applications is complicated accounted for 27.27%, which was outnumbered by those who disagree or strongly disagree (31 people, 40.26%). Figure 27.5 shows that those who are comfortable with using a computer or application represented 45.55% (35 people), while those who are not accounted for 18.18% (14 people). Figure 27.6 indicates that more respondents found accessing cloud storage easy (42.86%, 33 people) than those who found it not easy (29.87%, 23 respondents). Overall, it can be said that interpreters are comfortable with the technological aspects of the preprocess for RI. However, when it comes to procedures, interpreters experienced difficulty: as shown in Figure 27.7, a total of 49.35% (38 respondents) agreed that the increase in audiovisual materials made preparation more complex, and, as many as 48 respondents or 62.3% found it inconvenient to meet client requirements for RI; for example, maintaining noise and light at required levels and using headsets and microphones with designated specifications, whereas only 20.78% (16 people) disagreed (see Figure 27.8).

Table 27.8 Speech-to-text tool used for RI Voice-recognition tool

Number of respondents (% of total)

Naver Clova Sonix Otter Others Total

13 (40.63) 10 (31.25) 4 (12.5) 5 (15.62) 32 (100)

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30 25 25 19

19

20 15

12

10 5

2

0 Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Figure 27.4 RI device installation is complicated

30

28

25 19

20

16

15 10 10 5

4

0 Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Figure 27.5 Using a computer or an application is NOT easy

27.4.3.3

In-process

For simultaneous interpreting, as many as 73 respondents, or 94.81%, used Zoom, followed by Interprefy (sixteen respondents, 20.78%) and KUDO (four respondents, 5.19%). These were the only three applications reported. As for consecutive interpreting, Zoom again accounted for the highest percentage, at 93.51% (72 respondents), followed by MS Teams (46 people, 59.74%), Google Meet

444

Remote interpreting among Korea’s interpreters 25 21

21

20

20 13

15 10 5

2

0 Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Figure 27.6 Accessing cloud storage is NOT easy

30

28

25 20

17

15

12 10

10

10 5 0 Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Figure 27.7 The increase in audiovisual materials makes preparation more complex

(35 people, 45.45%), Skype (seventeen respondents, 22.08%), and RemoteMeet (three people, 3.9%), with Gotoweb and Adobe Connect accounting for only 1.3% (one person) each. Compared to consecutive interpreting, simultaneous interpreting applications are somewhat limited in Korea. Regarding the technical difficulties they have during interpreting, 38.96% of respondents (30 people) found operating the RI applications complicated (Figure 27.9). And as shown in Figure 27.10, as many as 67 respondents (87.01%) agreed or strongly agreed that resolving technical problems by themselves is difficult, whereas only three respondents, or 3.9%, disagreed. Ten of the respondents

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35

32

30 25 20

16 13

15

13

10 3

5 0 Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Figure 27.8 Meeting clients’ RI requirements (equipment and environment) is NOT easy

30

28 25

25 20

17

15 10 5 5

2

0 Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Figure 27.9 Operating an RI application during interpreting is complicated

and the interviewees emphasized the importance of client preparedness and technological problem solving. However well prepared the interpreter is proves useless if the speaker speaks too quietly or technical problems occur on the client side. This indicates the need to raise the awareness of all parties involved of the need for technological readiness as well as remedies available. Figure 27.11 shows that a total of 64 respondents, or 83.12%, said it is not easy to communicate with their interpreting partners, and only six people, or 7.8%, disagreed. There was no one who

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45

41

40 35 30

26

25 20 15 7

10 5

0

0 Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Figure 27.10 Resolving technical problems by myself is NOT easy

45

42

40 35 30 22

25 20 15

7

10

6

5

0

0 Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Figure 27.11 Communicating with my interpreting partner is NOT easy

strongly disagreed. Forty-nine respondents, or 63.7%, answered that they find RI more tiresome than onsite, in-person interpreting (Figure 27.12). Only thirteen respondents, or 16.9%, disagreed. Sixty-two respondents (80.52%) said that checking the chat window during RI is “tiresome,” whereas only two (2.6%) disagreed (Figure 27.13).

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30

27

25

22

20 15 15 10 10 3

5 0 Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Figure 27.12 RI is more tiresome (than onsite, in-person interpreting)

40

35

35 30

27

25 20 13

15 10 5

2

0

0 Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Figure 27.13 Checking the chat window during RI is tiresome.

27.4.3.4

Post-process

After inter preting, 38 respondents (49.35%) answered they engage in terminology management; fifteen respondents, or 19.48%, said they create minutes for the meetings they were in; thirteen respondents, or 16.88%, said, respectively, that they were asked to create subtitles for the meetings

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they were in or re-record the interpreting for the parts where recording quality was bad due to technical issues. This involves new activities and technological needs that were hard to find in non-RI settings. This gives rise to the need for training in the relevant areas.

27.4.3.5

Knowledge about RI technology

To the statement “I understand RI technologies well,” 27 respondents (35.1%) agreed or strongly agreed (Figure 27.14). Thirty-five respondents, or 45.45%, chose “Neutral,” possibly indicating they have a medium-level of knowledge or they are not sure about their knowledge levels. Of those fifteen respondents (19.48%) who answered they don’t know much about RI technologies, most, or 93.33% (14 respondents), said they lack knowledge in RI applications most, followed by knowledge in voice recognition devices (nine people, 60%), terminology management (six respondents, 40%), cloud storage access (three people, 20%), machine translation (two people, 13.33%), and researching on the internet (one respondent, 6.67%), thus helping to identify the areas for training.

27.4.3.6

RI technology training and educational implications

When asked if training or education on RI technologies would be helpful, 84.42% (65 respondents) of the total 77 respondents agreed (Figure 27.15). Only two respondents (2.6%) disagreed, both of whom said those technologies are not so difficult as to require separate education. One of them answered that he has an IT background. Those who answered that training or education on RI technologies would be helpful said, “I am now comfortable with the technologies since I taught myself,” “I went through a lot of trial and error to get to where I am,” “Training would have saved a lot of time,” “I still think I don’t know enough about the technology,” “I think there is more I need to learn,” and “I only know how to operate the basic functions.” Despite the fact that 35.1% of the respondents said they understand RI technology well and only 19.48% answered that they don’t, over 80% of the respondents supported RI technology training, and their specific answers confirm

40

35

35 30 25

20

20 14

15 10

7

5

1

0 Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Figure 27.14 I understand RI technologies well

449

Disagree

Strongly disagree

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40 35

34 31

30 25 20 15

10

10 2

5

0

0 Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Figure 27.15 Training or education on RI technologies would be helpful

that they spent time and energy to reach their current levels of understanding but remain unsure whether their current level of knowledge is sufficient. Regarding the area in which training or education would help (Figure 27.16), an absolute majority of the respondents (74 respondents, 96.1%) answered RI applications, followed by voice recognition tools (39 respondents, 50.65%), terminology management software (28 people, 36.36%), machine translation (22 people, 28.57%), and cloud storage usage (eleven respondents, 14.29%). Only one respondents, or 1.3%, answered internet search. Except that more respondents chose cloud storage usage than machine translation in the previous question about the areas the respondents lack knowledge in, the overall order is identical. This shows that interpreters believe that building RI applications competence should take the highest priority in RI technology training, and that, while most respondents are using office software, CAT tools, or other technology to manage terminology, they are looking for better ways to do so.

27.4.3.7

Correlations between variables

Regarding differences among groups or co-relations between variables, such as service period and knowledge about RI technologies, age and knowledge about RI technologies, number of RI occasions during the pandemic and levels of knowledge about RI technologies, and knowledge levels of RI technologies and levels of support for RI training or education, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation tests were conducted, and there was no statistically significant difference found, except for the number of RI sessions performed during the pandemic and the levels of knowledge about RI technologies, with a positive correlation between the two variables: the more RI experience interpreters have, the more knowledgeable about RI technologies they become. In other words, when it comes to RI, variables such as years of interpreting experience or age do not impact the level of knowledge of RI technology, and interpreters’ level of knowledge about RI is one thing and their wanting RI training is another.

450

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80

74

70 60 50

39

40 28

30

22

20

11

10

1

0 RI Voice Terminology Machine application recognition translation mgmt. tools software

Cloud storage usage

Internet search

Figure 27.16 In which area(s) would education help you the most?

Table 27.9 Correlations between RI experience and knowledge about RI  

Knowledge about RI technology

RI Experience

–.384*

Note: *p = .001

27.4

Conclusion

This study aimed to define the process of RI and RI competence from a technological perspective, identify technologies used by interpreters in Korea and their technological competence levels for RI, and seek RI training or educational implications based on interviews with professional interpreters and a survey of interpreters with RI experience. With technological advancement, more technologies are on hand for interpreters, and RI, specifically, demands more technological applications. In this regard, RI can be divided into the three stages of pre-process, in-process, and post-process, with each sub-process involving different technological activities. Based on the analysis of technological activities performed by interpreters, technological sub-competences for RI were defined to comprise RI device application, information retrieval, terminology management, machine interpreting involving speech-to-text and machine translation, and other interpreting technologies, including subtitling programs and others. A survey was conducted on 77 respondents comprised of various age groups, lengths of interpreting experience, language pairs, and RI sessions performed. Most respondents made active use of the internet as a source of information. Over 80% of respondents use spreadsheets for terminology management. Only a few use CAT tools. In terms of audio (visual) materials, almost half of the respondents, or 32 people, use speech-to-text tools, with Naver Clova—a local Korean too—most popular. The fact that eighteen people, or 40% of the 45 respondents who do not use

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a speech-to-text tool, said they were not aware such tools existed strongly indicates the need for training. Google Translate is the most popular machine translation tool, followed by Naver Papago, a Korean machine translation engine, and CAT tools. Regarding the complexity of RI preparations or pre-process technology difficulties, the respondents found it difficult to satisfy clients’ equipment and environment requirements and agree that the increase in audiovisual materials made the pre-process phase more complex. However, they do not think it is all that difficult to install RI devices, use computers or a variety of applications, or take advantage of cloud storage options, proving that they have successfully adapted to the technological aspects of RI. With respect to RI applications, only Zoom and Interprefy are used for simultaneous interpreting, whereas consecutive interpreting sees a wider range of applications, including Zoom, MS Teams, Google Meet, Skype, RemoteMeet, Gotoweb, and Adobe Connect. Zoom is the most prevalent, with 94.81% of respondents using it for simultaneous interpreting and 93.51% for consecutive interpreting. While the respondents view installing RI applications as not that difficult, they consider using the applications while interpreting complicated. Difficulty in communicating with partners and the fact that they have to resolve technical problems by themselves turned out to be the difficulties agreed upon by the largest number of respondents. The fact that RI involves multitasking, including constantly checking the chat window, also turned out to be troublesome to many interpreters. Regarding the levels of knowledge about RI technologies, almost half the responding interpreters remained neutral, indicating they are not sure whether their level of knowledge is sufficient. More respondents said they have a good level of knowledge than those who felt they don’t. Nevertheless, most respondents believe that training or education on RI technologies would be of help, especially as many went through a lot of trial and error and spent much time and energy getting themselves to their current levels, or they believe there is so much more to learn than what they already know. As for the areas in which to receive training, RI applications topped the list, followed by speech-to-text tools, terminology management software, machine translation, and cloud storage. Training on internet search was chosen by the lowest number of people. These answers can serve as guidance for designing a curriculum for RI technology education. Interpreter development organizations may want to consider producing RI training courses and retraining their alumni to reduce their burden of having to teach themselves. This study is meaningful, in that it defined technological competence specifically for RI, along with giving a detailed analysis of each step, from the preparation for RI to actual interpreting and the post-completion activities of interpreting. In addition, this research investigated how interpreters in Korea have been coping with RI during the pandemic and identified needs for future training and education, thus laying a foundation for curriculum design. However, this study also has a shortcoming. The sample size for the survey was not large enough for robust statistical analysis. This is due to the short survey period and limited interpreting human resources in Korea. However, considering the survey was done on RI interpreters in one country, this study can be used as grounds for comparison across countries going forward.

Note 1 Naver is a Korean search engine and Clova stands for cloud virtual assistant. It has voice recognition and synthesis functions enabling speech-to-text and text-to-speech capabilities.

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References Abril Marti, M. I. (2006). La interpretación en los servicios públicos: caracterización como género, contextualización y modelos de formación. Hacia unas bases para el diseño curricular. PhD dissertation. Universidad de Granada. https://digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/handle/10481/1075/16235320.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y AIIC. (2020). AIIC guidelines for Distance Interpreting. AIIC. https://aiic.org/document/4418/AIIC%20Guidelines%20for%20Distance%20Interpreting%20(Version%201.0)%20-%20ENG.pdf Albl-Mikasa, M. (2012). The importance of being not too earnest: A process- and experience-based model of interpreter competence. In B. Ahrens, M. Albl-Mikasa, & C. Sasse (Eds.), Dolmetschqualität in Praxis, Lehre und Forschung: Festschrift für Sylvia Kalina (pp. 59–92). Tübingen: Narr. American Translators Association. (2011). American translators association code of ethics and professional practice. https://atanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/code_of_ethics_commentary.pdf Angelelli, C. (2002). Designing curriculum for healthcare interpreter education: A principles approach. In C. Roy (Ed.), New approaches to interpreter education (pp. 23–46). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. AUSIT. (2012). AUSIT code of ethics and code of conduct. https://ausit.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Code_ Of_Ethics_Full.pdf Berber, D. (2010). Information and communication technologies in conference interpreting. PhD dissertation. Universite Rovira I Virgili. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266486536_ICT_INFORMATION_AND_ COMMUNICATION_TECHNOLOGIES_IN_CONFERENCE_INTERPRETING_a_survey_of_ their_usage_in_professional_and_educational_settings Braun, S. (2015). Remote interpreting. In H. Mikkelson & R. Jourdenais (Eds.), Routledge handbook of interpreting (pp. 352–367). London and New York: Routledge. Chang, A. L. (2021). Study on interpreting competence needed in the age of distance interpreting. Interpretation and Translation, 23(1), 213–236. https://doi.org/10.20305/it202101213236 Fantinuoli, C. (2018). Interpreting and technology: The upcoming technological turn. In C. Fantinuoli (Ed.), Interpreting and technology (pp. 1–12). Berlin: Language Science Press. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1493289 Kalina, S. (2006). Zur Dokumentation von Maßnahmen der Qualitätssicherung beim Konferenzdolmetschen. In C. Heine, K. Schubert, & H. Gerzymisch-Arbogast (Eds.), Text and translation. Theory and methodology of translation (pp. 253–268). Tübingen: Narr. KATI. (2020). KATI’s guidelines on preparation for remote interpreting. http://www.i-kati.or.kr/community/news/ view.asp?seq=51&pagec=1&find=&searchword= Kelly, D. (2005). A handbook of translator trainers. Manchester: St. Jerome. Lee, J. (2018). Defining consecutive interpreting conditions and sub-competences and developing an appropriate consecutive interpreting training model in consideration of the Korean situation. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 22(3), 197–225. https://doi.org/10.22844/its.2018.22.3.197 Martínez-Gómez, A. (2020). Language brokering experience among interpreting students: Pedagogical implications for the development of interpreting competence. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 14(3), 303–321. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2020.1736436 Mills, T. (2020, May 29). How the republic of Korea became a world ICT leader?. International Telecommunication Union. https://www.itu.int/hub/2020/05/how-the-republic-of-korea-became-a-world-ict-leader/ Moser-Mercer, B. (2005). Remote interpreting: Issues of multi-sensory integration in a multilingual task. Meta, 50(2), 726–738. https://doi.org/10.7202/011014 PACTE Group. (2003). Building a translation competence model. In F. A. Fabio (Ed.), Triangulating translation: Perspectives in process oriented research (pp. 43–66). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pre-print version. https:// ddd.uab.cat/pub/caplli/2003/158624/2003_Benjamins_PACTE.pdf PACTE Group. (2017). Translation competence model: A holistic, dynamic model of translation competence. In H. Albir (Ed.), Researching translation competence (pp. 35–41). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pastor, G. C. (2018). Tools for interpreters: The challenge that lie ahead. Current Trends in Translation Teaching and Learning, E, 5, 138–182. http://www.cttl.org/uploads/5/2/4/3/5243866/cttl_e_2018_5.pdf Pastor, G. C., & May Fern, L. (2016). A survey of interpreter’s needs and practice related to language technology. Technical Report. [FFI2012-38881-MINECO/TI-DT-2016-1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/ 303685153_A_survey_of_interpreters%27_needs_and_practices_related_to_language_technology Pöchhacker, F. (2016). Introducing interpreting. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315649573 Przepiórkowska, D. (2021). Adapt or perish: How forced transition to remote simultaneous interpreting during the COVID-19 pandemic affected interpreters’ professional practices. Przekład ustny. Historia – współczesność – wyzwania, 4(54), 137–159 https://doi.org/10.12797/MOaP.27.2021.54.08.

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Survey Questions 1. Has the number of RI sessions (including both consecutive and simultaneous) increased compared to the pre-pandemic period? ① Yes ② No

③ I don’t know

2. During the pandemic (Jan. 2020 – Dec. 2022), how many RI sessions did you do? ① less than 10 ② 10 to less than 30 ③ 30 to less than 50 ④ 50 to less than 70 ⑤ 70 to less than 100 ⑥ 100 or more ⑦ Others ( )

Before Interpreting 3. Where do you search for words or ideas? ① Internet ② Materials from client ③ Physical dictionaries or books ④ Experts in the field ⑤ Others ( ) 4. What tool(s) do you use for terminology management? ① I don’t manage a terminology list. ② Manually (Handwriting) ② Terminology management software ④ Spreadsheet (i.e. Excel) ⑤ Word editing program (i.e. MS word, Hangul, etc.) ⑥ CAT Tool

⑦ Others ( )

5. How do you create transcriptions for audio-visual materials? ① I don’t create a transcription. ② I manually (handwriting) transcribe the audio-visual materials. ③ I use a speech recognition application(s). ④ Others ( ) 5–1. (This is only for those who answered they don’t use a speech recognition application) Why do you not use a speech recognition application? (Multiple choice allowed) ① I am satisfied with the status quo. ② I dint’ know there are such tools for that. ③ I am not satisfied with their functionality.

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④ Such tools cost money. ⑤ Other ( ) 5–2. (This is only for those who answered they use a speech recognition application.) What tool(s) do you use? ① Sonix ② Naver Clova ③ Otter ④ Others ( ) 6. What tool(s) do you use for machine translation? ① I don’t use machine translation. ⑤ Others ( )

② Google Translate

③ Naver Papago

④ CAT tool

Strongly agree – Agree – Neutral – Disagree –Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 7–1. RI device installation is complicated. 7–2. Using a computer or an application is NOT easy. 7–3. Accessing cloud storage is NOT easy. 7–4. The increase in audiovisual material makes preparation more complex. 7–5. Meeting clients’ RI requirements (equipment and environment) is NOT easy.

7. How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

During Interpreting 8. What tool(s) have you used for Remote Simultaneous Interpreting? ① Interprefy ② KUDO ③ VoiceBoxer ⑦ Skype ⑧ Google Meet ⑨ Others ( )

④ InterpretCloud

⑤ Zoom

⑥ MS teams

9. What tool(s) have you used for Remote Consecutive Interpreting? ① Zoom ② MS teams ③ Skype ④ Google Meet ⑤ RemoteMeet ⑥ Adobe Connect ⑦ Others ( ) 10. How much do you agree or disagree with the following comparisons of RI over onsite, inperson interpreting? Strongly agree – Agree – Neutral – Disagree –Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 10–1. Operating an RI application or platform during interpreting is complicated. 10–2. Resolving technological problems by myself is NOT easy. 10–3. Communicating with my interpreting partner is NOT easy. 10–4. RI is more tiresome (than on-site, in-person interpreting). 10–5. Checking the chat window during RI is tiresome.

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After Interpreting 11. What did you do after RI? ① Terminology management ② Re-recording interpreting due to poor recording quality caused by technical problems during meeting ③ Subtitling ④ Creating meeting minutes ⑤ Others ( )

Knowledge about RI Technology 12. I understand RI technology well. ① Strongly agree

② Agree

③ Neutral

④ Disagree ⑤ Strongly disagree

12–1. Why did you choose that? (Open-ended question) 12–2. (This is only for those who answered they don’t know well.) Which area(s) do you need more knowledge in? (Multiple choice) ① Internet search ② Terminology management tools ③ RI applications ④ Voice recognition tools ⑤ Machine translation ⑥ Cloud storage usage ⑦ Others ( )

RI Technology Training and Education 13. Training or education on RI technology would be helpful. ① Strongly agree

② Agree

③ Neutral

④ Disagree ⑤ Strongly disagree

14. In which area(s) would education help you the most? ① Internet search ② Terminology management tools ③ RI applications ④ Voice recognition tools ⑤ Machine translation ⑥ Cloud storage usage ⑦ Others ( )

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28 REMOTE INTERPRETING DURING COVID-19 A case study of an in-house interpreter in Korea Juyeon Lee 이주연

28.1

Introduction

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, businesses were forced to make use of technology and online solutions to continue their operation. For companies that resorted to simultaneous interpretation for internal and external business communication, remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI) was the only viable option. By then, there already existed several platforms that supported RSI, including KUDO, Interprefy, VocieBoxer, and InterpretCloud (Chang, 2021). In addition, a video-conference platform called Zoom provided language interpretation functionality before the outbreak of the pandemic. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development and choice of available options for distance interpreting. A range of terms exist to refer to situations where interpreters work away from all or some participants in the actual, physical venue, including distance interpreting (DI) and remote interpreting (RI) (Choi, 2021). Before COVID-19, studies on the practices and challenges involved in remote interpreting were carried out, mainly in the context of community interpreting, such as medical interpreting (Klammer & Pöchhacker, 2021), public service interpreting (René de Cotret et al., 2020), police interpreting (Hale et al., 2022), and interpreting in legal contexts (Braun, 2013, 2017), which often involved telephone interpreting (Fernández & Russo, 2020). After the outbreak of the pandemic, several studies (Chang, 2021; Cheung, 2022; Choi, 2021; Kim, 2020; Matsushita, 2022) were conducted to investigate diverse aspects of RSI provided by conference interpreters at large international events. Yet, more research is needed to understand the experience of in-house interpreters in providing remote interpreting. The present study aims to contribute to enhancing our understanding of remote interpreting by presenting a case study on an in-house interpreter who had to provide remote interpreting via Zoom in Korea due to COVID-19 related restrictions. Qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews and journal entries reveals unique challenges associated with remote interpreting in the in-house interpreting context.

28.2 28.2.1

Literature review Remote interpreting

With the development of telecommunications technology, interpreters were enabled by technologies to provide interpretation services from a distance. In the early years, such settings were mostly applied 457

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-33

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to consecutive interpreting, but simultaneous interpreting has come to be supported by advanced technology in recent years. AIIC, an international association of conference interpreters, provided a checklist for interpretation over the internet as early as 2002 (AIIC, 2002). The checklist advises interpreters to check specific technical settings to ensure the most optimal setting for quality interpreting. As for the categorization by AIIC, “distance interpreting” is the broadest category, which is further divided into “teleconference interpreting (TCI)” and “remote interpreting (RI),” depending on whether interpreters have direct view of participants. When the interpreters cannot see participants directly, they are considered to perform remote interpreting, which is further categorized into video remote-interpreting and audio remote-interpreting. (Constable, 2015) Terms referring to interpreting settings where interpreters may be physically separated from some or all participants of the interpreter-mediated interaction vary depending on contexts and researchers. Im (2015) provides an overview of diverse terms used in different geographies. While distance interpreting may be the broadest term to cover diverse technical settings, remote interpreting (RI) is also widely used to refer to a modality of interpreting where the interpreter is linked to the participants by ICT technologies, such as videoconferencing (Braun, 2017). Before COVID-19, studies on remote interpreting were conducted in the context of community interpreting, mainly in the mode of consecutive interpreting. Braun (2013) compared the quality of performance in onsite and remote interpreting in legal contexts. Two simulated police interviews were interpreted by eight professional interpreters involving English and French. It was found that there were more interpreting problems and a faster decline of interpreting performance over time in remote interpreting, suggesting challenges associated with remote interpreting. More recently, Hale et al. (2022) compared the performance of 103 qualified interpreters in three language combinations (English plus Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish) in three conditions (onsite, video remote interpreting, and audio remote-interpreting) in the context of simulated police interviews. There were no significant differences between onsite and video interpreting but a significant decline in performance in audio remote-interpreting. In clinical communication, Klammer and Pöchhacker (2021) conducted a multimodal analysis of a consultation between a doctor and a patient mediated by video remote-interpreting and concluded that video remote-interpreting requires appropriate technical and spatial arrangements as well as skills on the part of users to deal with the constraints inherent in this modality of communication. While telephone interpreting and remote audio and video consecutive-interpreting used in community interpreting settings present technological and psychological challenges and require special attention to technical arrangements, remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI) adds additional complexity due to its cognitively challenging modality. Mouzourakis (2003) discusses the challenges associated with RSI, including physical discomfort (eyestrain, backaches, sore throats, headaches), psychological and mental hardships (stress, lack of presence, isolation, lack of concentration, fatigue, quality deterioration, and a decline in short-term cognitive function). Roziner and Shlesinger (2010) report on a study where 36 professional interpreters worked in interpretation booths placed away from the conference venue with a large screen set up about six meters from the interpreters’ eyes. They found that the interpreters themselves were significantly less satisfied with their performance, while the objective judgments of a panel of judges found almost no decline in interpretation quality, suggesting that the main issue of remote interpreting is psychological rather than physical. Another study on a setting where booths were placed outside the main venue was conducted by Seeber et al. (2019), who employed a mixed-methods approach to analyze the attitudes of interpreters providing video remote simultaneous-interpreting during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The study found that the interpreters expressed satisfaction with their working experience and proposed several technological improvements to enhance the technical setup of RSI. 458

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RSI in settings where booths are situated a good distance away from the conference venue present multiple challenges to interpreters, as discussed previously. RSI before the pandemic was mainly performed in a booth, which is a familiar work setting for interpreters. However, online platforms started to be utilized for RSI after the start of the pandemic, which does not involve the use of interpretation booths. Travel restrictions and lock-down measures have been in place around the world due to COVID-19, which prevented people from traveling to attend physical meetings. Conference organizers had to resort to online platforms to provide a virtual space for speakers and audiences to gather together. Simultaneous interpreting provided via online platforms on the computer presents a completely different work setting for interpreters. Due to the novel technical arrangements involving RSI on the computer, a new set of challenges are faced by interpreters. Challenges associated with RSI over the internet, a predominant modality of remote interpreting during COVID-19, are discussed in several papers. Choi (2021) discusses how RSI increases the number of cognitive tasks to be performed by the interpreter concurrently, tends to cause difficulty in coordinating with a partner who is physically distant from the interpreter, and has the potential to cause health issues due to technical issues, such as unstable connection, lower quality of audio input, and background noise, which may result in hearing loss and fatigue. Chang (2021) also provides a list of auditory, visual, spatial, and technology-related difficulties in RSI. As Im (2015) states, remote interpreting was not widely used in the Korean market before the COVID-19 pandemic. While remote interpreting is commonly practiced in the context of community interpreting in the US and Europe, a majority of Korean conference interpreters were not familiar with the mode of remote interpreting (Chang, 2021). With the unprecedented global pandemic, they had to struggle to adapt to RSI suddenly. The situation in the Japanese market is similar (Matsushita, 2022). Kim’s (2020) survey of 23 conference interpreters in Korea shows that they were asked to perform RSI due to the pandemic and that they performed RSI in a diverse range of settings, ranging from a setting where everyone, including the interpreters, joined online individually to a setting where the interpreters were together, while conference participants were all separated. While there are several studies on the RSI experience of freelance conference interpreters who may perform RSI on an occasional basis, in-house interpreters may be placed in a rather different situation, as they work as full-time interpreters for a company or a government agency. Thus, research on in-house interpreters in Korea is reviewed in the following section.

28.2.2

In-house interpreting in Korea

In Korea, many graduates who undergo intensive, two-year training at specialized T&I graduate programs are employed as in-house interpreters at government agencies, industry associations, and companies (Hong, 2018). As the present study aims to examine the experience of an in-house interpreter in providing remote simultaneous-interpreting, it is deemed necessary to review previous studies on in-house interpreters in Korea. Research on in-house interpreters in Korea can be categorized by topic. First, several studies have reported on roles and responsibilities performed by in-house interpreters in Korea. Kim, H.-J. (2015) collected work reports and interview data from Korean-English in-house interpreters at a metropolitan city government, which showed that they did more translation than interpreting and were asked to undertake a range of diverse tasks aside from T&I that included research. Kim, J.-H. (2015) studied Korean-Japanese and Korean-Chinese in-house interpreters in a private company and found that the in-house interpreters initially struggled at work due to the lack of an on-boarding process and had trouble interpreting with respect to specialized terminology. 459

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Second, several studies (Choi & Lim, 2002; Im, 2018; Lee, 2017) examined the status of inhouse interpreters. Choi and Lim (2002) “more and more competent interpreters are choosing to work as in-house interpreters for one to two years before beginning to work as freelancers. In the past, any interpreter worth his/her salt would work freelance upon graduation. But now, even the top graduates choose to work in-house. This not only eases them into the harsh world of interpretation, but also helps them to learn more about a specific field, providing a firm foundation for their work as freelance interpreters” (p. 635). Lee (2017) compared job satisfaction between conference interpreters and in-house interpreters and found that in-house interpreters were less satisfied with their jobs, compared to freelance interpreters. Im (2018) conducted a qualitative study on the work status of in-house interpreters and reported that their status depended on how much value they contribute to the organization and how much work autonomy is guaranteed for the interpreter. Third, several narrative studies were conducted (Hong, 2018, 2019, 2020a, 2020b; Lee, 2022) to gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of in-house interpreters in diverse work settings. Narrative studies reveal the struggles experienced by in-house interpreters as they try to adapt to work. For instance, an in-house interpreter at an art museum (Hong, 2020b) struggled in gaining knowledge on art, a new field for the interpreter, and providing whispered interpreting, a new mode of interpreting. Initially, the interpreter complained that she had to play a role of a secretary in addition to interpreting, but she came to develop her identity as a communication facilitator and cultural mediator in performing her role as a secretary and interpreter. Also, a novice interpreter in a bank (Hong, 2020a) had trouble in adapting to work due to cultural differences between foreign executives and Korean employees but gradually realized that interpreting was not merely translating messages from the source language to the target language but an active communicative act based on a deep understanding of the message in each context. A brief review of research on in-house interpreters in Korea illustrates that experiences of inhouse interpreters tend to be shaped and influenced by the context of the workplace, status, and tasks expected to perform, which is different from freelance interpreters who may work for diverse clients in a wide range of settings on different topics. Therefore, understanding on the RSI experience of an in-house interpreter in Korea may be enhanced through a qualitative study by contextualizing the experience.

28.3

The study

The study recruited one participant who began to work as a Korean-English in-house interpreter at a large e-commerce platform company in Korea in late 2020. Amy (pseudonym) received T&I training at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Korea. After graduation, Amy worked as a freelancer for nearly a year, taking occasional interpretation and translation assignments. She decided to work full-time as an in-house interpreter, in consideration of the reality that the conference interpretation market was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Before participating in the study, she signed an informed consent form. Two types of data were collected from Amy: journal entries and in-depth interviews. Journal entries were collected for ten months, from mid-November 2020 till mid-January 2022. They were mainly about what she did as an in-house interpreter and how she felt about her work experience. In addition, three in-depth interviews were conducted during the period of data collection in April 2021, July 2021, and January 2022. Each interview lasted approximately two hours. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Data were originally collected for an in-depth qualitative analysis of the experience of a novice in-house interpreter in Korea, but the scope of 460

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the present study is limited to the experience of remote interpreting. A narrative analysis of the interviews is found in Lee (2022). Amy works at a large e-commerce platform company that has a large foreign workforce. To facilitate communication between Korean and foreign employees, the company operates a large in-house interpreter pool with more than 100 full-time interpreters and dozens of part-time interpreters. While most in-house interpreters in the Korean market are hired on a contract basis, Amy’s company hires interpreters as regular employees who receive the same benefits as other employees. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, in-house interpreters provided simultaneous interpretation at various internal meetings, mostly using a portable interpretation system. They sometimes offered whispered interpretation when there were only a few foreign participants who needed interpretation. However, after the pandemic, the company quickly transitioned to a work-from-home model to prevent the spread of the virus, and in-house interpreters found themselves interpreting on Zoom, which was the main platform the company adopted for internal work-meetings. To use language interpretation on Zoom, the meeting host must enable the function and assign interpreters. When the host starts interpretation, a message pops up, as in the left side of Figure 28.1. Then, meeting participants can select a language of their choice by clicking on the globe icon and selecting the language as shown on the right side of Figure 28.1. Setting up language interpretation and activating the function on Zoom is relatively simple, but it takes a reliable Internet connection and user familiarity with the function to ensure smooth provision of interpretation. For qualitative data analysis, aspects related to remote-interpreting experience were selected from the journal and interview transcripts. Then, these parts were read and re-read multiple times to pay closer attention to emerging categories and themes, which are summarized in Table 28.1.

Off

Language interpretation available. Click here to get started.

English Indonesian Mute Original Audio EN

Reactions

Interpretation

Apps

English

Figure 28.1 Language interpretation function on Zoom (Left: how it appears on the user’s screen. Right: how to select a language for interpretation)

Table 28.1 Categories and themes Category

Invisibility

Technology

Theme

Interpreters not considered in meetings Lack of users’ awareness of interpretation Perceived as a function on Zoom Difficult to coordinate with users

Need for user education on technical aspects Poor audio quality Physical discomfort in the throat and ears Need to handle more technical tasks

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28.4

Results

As the participant in the study started working as an in-house interpreter during the COVID-19 pandemic, she had to work from home and provide simultaneous interpreting remotely. Amy was appreciative of the technology, which enabled her to work as an interpreter even during the global pandemic, and of her colleagues in the interpretation team who supported her onboarding. Nevertheless, remote interpreting presented unique and unprecedented challenges to interpreters, compared to onsite interpreting. Careful reading and thematic analysis of Amy’s journal and interview transcripts revealed that challenges associated with providing remote interpreting as an in-house interpreter were largely attributable to invisibility of the interpreter and technology-related difficulties. In the following sections, Amy’s experiences with respect to interpreter invisibility and technology-derived difficulties are discussed with quotations from her journal and interviews.

28.4.1

Invisibility of the interpreter

On a video-conferencing platform, meeting participants typically have their video on so that their faces are visible to the other participants. They unmute themselves when they need to speak, in which case the frame of the speaking participant is highlighted to draw attention to the speaker. However, simultaneous interpreters in the remote-interpreting environment typically have their video turned off and remain invisible, which was the case for Amy as well. Participants in need of interpretation select their preferred language by clicking on Zoom’s language-interpretation function, indicated with the globe icon. Due to the technical settings of Zoom, meeting participants may not be aware of the existence of interpreters, especially when bilingual participants do not use the interpretation function. The resulting invisibility of the interpreter may cause multiple challenges for the interpreter. Amy felt that she was reduced to a function available on Zoom rather than being recognized as an employee providing a specialized service. The perceived downgrade of the status of an in-house interpreter due to invisibility had a negative impact on Amy’s work morale, as seen in the following quotations from her interviews and journals. All quotations are provided with source information in parentheses, in which J refers to quotations from journal entries and I refers to quotations from interview transcripts, followed by a date for data from the journal and a number for data from the interviews. English translations of the quotations from the data were translated by the author, who is a professional Korean-English interpreter. (1) 어떤 직원이 하는 말을 들었다. “이번 회의에서 통역 기능을 써야 돼요” 그 직원의 말에 서 통역을 바라보는 관점이 느껴졌다. 사람이 하는게 아니라 줌 기능에 불과한 것이다. 줌 화면 하단에 보이는 지구본 뒤에 사람이 보이지 않는 것처럼 느껴졌다. (J-03–30) (I overheard an employee saying, ‘We need an interpretation function for this meeting,’ which revealed his/her perspective on interpreting. It is perceived merely as a Zoom function, not something done by a human. I felt that the people behind the globe icon on the bottom panel of Zoom were invisible.) (2) 그 지구본, 그냥 우리는 지구본 기능일 뿐이지 사실 어떻게 보면 사람은 싹 빼고 인공 지능 통역기를 딱 갖다 놔도 아무도 모를 그 세팅이거든요. (I-1) (We are just a function marked by the globe. Nobody would even notice a difference if an AI interpreter completely replaces human interpreters.) 462

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(3) 그저께인가 팀원들과 이야기하다가 내가 느꼈던 공기 같은 통역사의 존재를 다른 사 람들도 느끼고 하소연하는 것을 들었다. 통역에 대한 배려 없는 유저의 메일에 대해 다 들 “우리는 줌 기능이 아니라고” “지구본 뒤에 사람이 있다고” 이런 하소연을 했다. 역 시 나만 그런 걸 느낀 것이 아니었구나. (J-11–28) (A couple of days ago, I overheard other (interpretation) team members complain about how they were treated like pieces of furniture. The complained about an email from a user that displayed a lack of consideration for the interpreter, saying ‘We are not a Zoom function,’ and ‘There are real people behind the globe icon.’ So it was not just me who felt that way.) The perceived lack of visibility of the interpreter not only affected Amy’s morale and spirit but also resulted in unique challenges in managing meetings as an interpreter. Since the interpreter is not visible to the meeting participants, people often forget that interpretation is being provided and speak too fast or speak over other participants at the same time, causing an immense cognitive challenge for the interpreter. (4) 유저들이 같은 공간에서 통역하는 모습이 보이면 아직 통역을 하고 있구나, 이게 동시 통역이어도 좀 보일텐데 줌에서는 통역하는게 안 보이고 안 들리고 그래서 겹쳐서 말 하는 경우에 정말 힘들어요. 통역을 사용하는 유저는 연사의 말이 안 들리고 통역만 들 리니까 누구의 말을 통역하는지 혼란스러울 거에요. (I-2) (If the interpreter is in the same physical space with the users, they know if the interpreter is still interpreting or not, but on Zoom, the interpreter is neither seen nor heard, so when people talk at the same time, it is really difficult to make sense of what is going on. Users that listen to the interpretation channel cannot hear the speaker, so they may be confused as to which speaker I am interpreting.) In the context of in-house interpreting, interpreters often sit in the meeting room with other participants and use portable interpretation systems to interpret. In this type of setting, the interpreter is clearly visible and often audible. Meeting participants can see if the interpreter is speaking, and they may adjust their speed to make sure their utterances are properly rendered. Also, participants who have interpretation receivers on their ears can also hear the speaker and recognize which speaker the interpreter is covering. However, in the context of remote interpreting on Zoom, this lack of affordance of visibility may cause meeting participants to speak without any consideration for the interpretation. As a result, the interpreter may suffer from increased cognitive burden during interpreting. As described previously, the data show that interpreter’s invisibility affects the interpreter’s psychology and increases cognitive burden when interpreting. In addition, the study found that the invisibility of the interpreter and separation of the audio channels between the floor and interpretation on Zoom makes it difficult to communicate with users. (5) 어떤 유저는 bilingual하기 때문에 통역을 안 켜요. 그런데 그 사람에게 뭔가 안내를 해 야 할 때가 있는데, 예를 들면 배경음 너무 시끄러우니까 좀 꺼달라, 내지는 제가 어떤 사람을 통역하고 있는데 무슨 말 했는지 한 번 더 확인하고 싶을 때가 있어요. 웬만하면 안 하지만 가끔 필요하면 한단 말이에요. 그런데 이 사람은 통역 채널을 듣지 않기 때문 에 제 이야기를 못 듣고 그냥 진행하는 거에요. 그런 커뮤니케이션이 좀 힘들어요. (I-1) (Some users are bilingual, so they do not turn on interpretation. Sometimes, I need to say something to them such as ‘please turn off the background noise,’ or I sometimes need to confirm what the speaker has just said. I rarely do so but once in a while, I need to check 463

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with the speaker. But bilingual participants do not listen to the interpretation channel, so they cannot hear me and just continue speaking. Communication with users is difficult in this type of setting.) (6) 줌 회의에서는 ‘잠깐만요’ 하는게 어려워요. 각자 한 채널만 듣고 있고 일단 존재감이 없고 얼굴도 안 나오고. 그리고 통역 채널 안 써도 되는 사람들은 ‘다시 말씀해 주시겠 어요?’ 이 말을 전달할 수가 없어요. 현장 회의에서는 부담이 없는데 줌에서는 제가 파 워가 없는 느낌이 딱 드는 거에요. (I-2) (On Zoom, it is difficult to say ‘wait a second.’ Each meeting participant is listening to a different channel. I don’t have much presence and my camera is turned off. I cannot ask those not using interpretation, ‘can you repeat what you just said?’ During onsite interpreting, I have no problem doing that, but on Zoom, I feel powerless.) The foregoing quotations illustrate how remote interpreting presents added challenges in managing communication with users. Since the interpreter has no presence or visibility to the other participants, Amy struggles in communicating with them when it is deemed necessary. Sometimes, Amy was forced to provide assistance to users with respect to the simultaneous interpretation function on Zoom and intervene in the middle of the meeting to ensure smooth interpretation service for everyone. Sometimes, she wanted to interrupt and ask speakers for clarification to ensure accurate rendition of their remarks. However, she was not able to do so because of the lack of interpreter presence perceived by meeting participants and the separation of audio channels between interpreters and speakers. As a result, Amy often suffered from a lack of agency. On the other hand, Amy became animated when she described her onsite interpreting experience. From time to time, she was asked to go to the office and provide onsite interpreting, during which she felt more visible, respected, empowered, and valued. (7) 나는 현장 통역이 훨씬 좋은 것 같다. 오늘 출근하는 날이었다. 통역하는데 통역이 술 술 나올 때 짜릿함도 느껴졌고 뭔가 신났다. 그리고 집중이 정말 잘 됐다. 연사를 뚫어 지게 쳐다보면서 리시버에 대고 줄줄줄 말할 때 기분이 정말 좋았다. 줌 통역하면서는 한번도 갖지 못한 느낌이다. 좀 더 살아 있는 느낌이랄까. 연사와 뭔가 커넥션이 있어 서 좋았달까. 진짜 호흡이 뭔가 맞춰지는 느낌이랄까. 나의 presence가 확실히 유저들에 게 인식이 되니까 나도 뭔가 기여하고 있다는 느낌을 받아서 좋았던 것일까. (J-05–26) (I like onsite interpreting a lot more. Today, I went in to the office. During onsite interpreting, I interpreted with ease and felt thrilled and excited. Also, I was able to really concentrate. I liked the feeling of interpreting into the receiver seamlessly while looking at the speaker intently. I never feel this way when interpreting on Zoom. I like that I was more connected with the speaker and our pace was in sync. Maybe I like that my presence was clearly recognized by the users and I was making a definite contribution.) (8) 현장에 있을 때 좋은 점이 뭐냐면 회의를 끊고 중재하기가 훨씬 좋아요. 어떤 공사 용 어가 나왔는데 정말 모르겠는 거에요. 그런 상황에서 부담이 없이 중단하고 담당자에 게 물어볼 수 있어요. 용어를 물어보면 자연스럽게 디스커션이 되기도 하고 그게 굉장 히 자연스러워요. 현장 회의에서는 통역사가 굉장히 파워가 생기는 것 같아요. (I-2) (What I like about onsite interpreting is that I can interrupt and mediate the meeting. There was a term about construction that I really did not know. In such a situation, I can interrupt and

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ask the speaker about the meaning of the word. Sometimes, my question leads to a group discussion, which takes place naturally. I think interpreters are empowered during onsite interpreting.) Amy’s description of her onsite interpreting experience and her own feelings provide a contrast with her remote interpreting experience. During onsite interpreting, she focused on interpreting without much distraction. Being in the same room with the speakers, she was able to see them and hear them. When necessary, she was able to interrupt and engage with speakers for clarification and effective communication. On the other hand, she felt less empowered, respected, and valued in online interpreting settings. She felt invisible, as was the case for her interpreting colleagues. These constraints added to the psychological and cognitive burden placed on interpreters. Moreover, remote interpreting in the context of in-house interpreting raises technology-related issues for the interpreter, which are discussed in the following section.

28.4.2

Technology-related difficulties

Remote interpreting on a virtual conference platform poses unique technology-derived challenges to interpreters. In her journal and interviews, Amy discussed several technology-related issues she had to deal with during remote interpreting. As the company switched to Zoom interpretation at the onset of COVID-19, users were not fully aware of how the language interpreting functionality worked on Zoom and what considerations needed to be made for successful interpretation service, such as internet connection, equipment, meeting setup, and other factors. As a result, in-house interpreters are sometimes expected to educate users and show them how to use Zoom’s interpretation interface. Amy believes this is not part of the interpreter’s job description but is the responsibility of the meeting organizer who is responsible for setting up the Zoom meeting. (9) 통역을 안 써 본 유저들이 제일 힘들어요. 지난번에는 회의 주관자가 통역에 대한 안내 도 안하고 바로 시작하니까 저는 막 통역을 시작했는데, 한참 떠들다가 대답이 안 나오 는거에요. 알고보니 통역을 안 틀어놓고 있었던 거에요. 그래서 제가 줌 채팅으로 회의 주관자에게 통역 설명 좀 해 주셔야 할 것 같다고 했는데 잘 전달이 안 돼서 제가 결국 통역을 풀고 중단해버리고 회의 통역 세팅에 대해서 설명을 했어요. 이런 식으로 중요 한 회의에서도 통역에 대해 고려를 안 하고 들어오면 결국 통역사가 알려줘야 해요. 그 런데 저는 그게 통역사의 역할이 아니라고 생각하거든요. 그런데 저희가 이런 식으로 개입해서 알려주니까, 통역 세팅이 안 돼 있으면 약간 통역사에게 설명하라고 하는게 있어요 (I-3) (Users that have never used interpretation on Zoom are the most difficult to deal with. The other day, the meeting leader started the meeting without even mentioning interpretation, so I started interpreting, but after a while, a participant did not respond to a question. It turned out that the participant had not turned on interpretation. So, I sent a message via Zoom chat to the meeting leader stating that assistance with enabling interpretation was needed, but the message was not received well. So, I had to turn off the interpretation function and explained it myself. As such, when interpretation is not properly considered even for an important meeting, it is up to the interpreter to provide guidance to participants on how to use interpretation, but I don’t think this is the job of the interpreter. But since interpreters often intervene and help, they are expected to deal with situations when interpretation is not properly set up.)

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On top of this, Amy had to manipulate additional computer functions during remote interpreting. Having to control multiple functions on Zoom may distract interpreters. Amy became quite accustomed to the technical setup of remote interpreting as time went by, but she still considered remote interpreting more challenging than onsite interpreting due to this issue. (10) 손이 3개였으면 하고 생각할 때가 있다. 왼손으로는 채널 전환해야 해서 키보드에 올 라가 있고 오른손으로 이어폰 마이크를 들고 있다가 필기가 필요할 때에는 잽싸게 왼 손으로 오른손에 들고 있던 이어폰 마이크를 집어들고 오른손으로 필기해야 한다. 그 리고 사람들마다 목소리가 달라서 음량 조절도 해야 한다 (J-06–04) (I sometimes wish I had three hands. The left hand is on the keyboard for channel switching and my right hand is holding the microphone attached to the earphones. When I need to write something down, I quickly use my left hand to hold the mic and write with my right hand. What’s more, I need to adjust the volume because people speak at different volumes.) Furthermore, poor audio quality caused immense challenges for Amy. Audio quality of speakers depended on several factors, including internet connection, types of equipment used, and background noise. (11) 이어폰 없이 회의하는 사람, 회의실에 여러 명이 들어가서 노트북 한 대로 회의하는 사람들, 회의실에 들어가지 않고 자기 자리에 앉아서 회의하는 사람들, 정말 다양하 다. 음량 차이 엄청나는데 통역사는 그냥 다 감당해야 한다. 오늘 회의에서는 헤드셋 을 쓴 외국인은 소리가 엄청 컸지만 다른 사람은 소리가 엄청 작아서 너무 힘들었다. (J-06–04) (In a meeting, some people connect without earphones. Some people join an online meeting together in a meeting room with only one laptop. Some people join the meeting at their own desk. They speak at varying volumes, but the interpreter had to somehow adapt. At today’s meeting, a foreign participant with a headset sounded very loud but the volume was too low for everyone else, so I had a hard time interpreting.) Poor audio quality and the extra burden of managing the technical aspects of interpreting on Zoom resulted in physical discomfort in the ears and the throat. Amy described remote interpreting as physically challenging. (12) 목이 너무 아픈데 이게 사운드가 안 좋아서에요. 현장에서 한 시간은 어렵지 않더라고 요. 위스퍼링이기 때문에 조근조근 말을 해서 한 시간을 해도 전혀 안 힘들었어요. 그 런데 줌 회의는 잘 안 들리니까 소리를 크게 하고 하는데 그러다보면 제가 점점 큰 목 소리로 통역을 하게 되어서 목이 너무 아파요. 그리고 어떤 사람은 볼륨이 크고 어떤 사람은 작아서 너무 안 들리니까 볼륨을 최대로 하고 듣게 되는데 그러면 귀가 찢어질 것 같고 아파요. (I-2) (My throat hurts a lot because the sound quality is less than ideal. In an offline meeting, interpreting for an hour is not hard. Since I offer whispered interpreting, it is not hard to talk for an hour. But on Zoom, the audio quality is not particularly satisfactory, so I turn up the volume to hear what’s being said. Then, I end up interpreting with a louder voice, so my throat hurts. Some people speak in loud volumes while others are not really audible, so I have to turn the volume up to the max. Then my ears feel like they’re going to explode.) 466

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Amy acknowledges that the company has been trying to ease technology-related challenges faced by interpreters by providing them with headsets and offering guidance to employees on how to set up and use language interpretation on Zoom. Nevertheless, the inherent limitations of technologymediated remote interpreting have been difficult for in-house interpreters like Amy who need to use the function daily for a wide range of users within the company.

28.5

Discussion

The thematic analysis of the data provided by Amy in her journal entries and interviews shows that she has been experiencing distinct challenges in providing RSI during COVID-19 via Zoom as an in-house interpreter. Some of the challenges reported in the foregoing section were reported in previous studies, such as physical discomfort and quality deterioration (Mouzourakis, 2003). While conference interpreters may deal with these challenges during occasional RSI assignments, Amy’s struggle continues on a daily basis. Therefore, the intensity and frequency of the challenges that she must endure may be greater than average conference interpreters, given her employment status as a full-time in-house interpreter. The biggest source of Amy’s frustration with RSI via Zoom was lack of interpreter visibility. Roziner and Shlesinger (2010) point to the lack of direct feedback from the audience in RSI settings, which may dampen the interpreter’s morale. Engagement with listeners is important, and “often a single appreciative nod from a listener is enough to spur [interpreters] on under difficult condition” (Roziner & Shlesinger, 2010, p. 219). Amy was not able to get such appreciation from her listeners, as she was often perceived as a language interpretation functionality available on Zoom rather than a colleague who provides professional services to facilitate communication in important meetings. In contrast, during onsite interpreting, she enjoyed a high level of visibility and received appreciative recognition from the users. This finding suggests that continued utilization of RSI for in-house interpreting may pose a risk of lowering the status of interpreters and depressing their morale, unless there is effort to improve the RSI settings and conditions to empower in-house interpreters and elevate their visibility and presence. Furthermore, Amy has been expected to educate users and show them how to use Zoom’s interpretation function, which marks a key difference between the RSI experiences of inhouse interpreters and freelance interpreters. In conference interpreting settings, technical support is provided by technicians who are responsible for technical setup and technical issues that may arise during a conference. However, in in-house interpreting settings, especially when RSI is utilized, in-house interpreters may be expected to provide assistance to meeting participants with respect to technical setup and guidance to help users be familiar with the interpretation function. As several studies on in-house interpreters in Korea show (Hong, 2020a; Kim, H.-J., 2015), in-house interpreters are often expected to perform a wide range of tasks, in addition to translation and interpreting. As the company made a swift transition to RSI due to COVID-19, Amy has been given an extra task of aiding meeting participants on the technical setup of RSI. Finally, Amy has experienced technology-related challenges, which have been extensively reported in the literature, including poor quality of audio input and issues arising from unstable internet connection. Seeber et al. (2019) discusses the importance of the quality of the technical team on site for successful RSI in a conference setting. However, Amy is not provided with technical support, partly because she is mainly working from home and partly because such technical team may not be readily available for in-house interpreters. Findings also show that poor audio quality and technical setup result in physical discomfort in the throat and ears. Amy discussed 467

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how she often needs to raise the volume because people speak at different volumes, which can hurt her ears. Therefore, companies that rely on RSI may consider providing necessary technical support to in-house interpreters to address technology-related issues, help protect their health, and improve their job satisfaction.

28.6

Conclusion

To develop an understanding of remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI) experience of an inhouse interpreter in Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic, qualitative data were collected from an in-house interpreter working at an e-commerce platform company. Thematic analysis of in-depth interviews and journal entries revealed unique challenges associated with RSI in the in-house interpreting context. While technology has enabled in-house interpreters to continue to provide RSI via Zoom while working from home, several challenges have also emerged. The participant in the present study struggled with the perceived downgrade of the status of an in-house interpreter due to invisibility on Zoom. She felt less appreciated and less empowered in conducting her job as an interpreter. Due to the unique technical setup of the languageinterpretation functionality on Zoom, she was not able to communicate with her listeners effectively. In addition, as an in-house interpreter, the participant did not receive necessary technical support but instead was asked to assist meeting participants concerning technical setup of the meeting and the interpretation function. Finally, she experienced physical discomfort in her throat and ears due to poor quality of audio input. While some of these challenges may be commonly experienced by freelance interpreters, the intensity and frequency of such challenges can be greater for in-house interpreters who provide RSI daily. As technology continues to advance, remote interpreting may become a prevalent mode of interpreting, even after the pandemic. Remote interpreting has several benefits in a sense that interpreters can work from home without the need to travel to a conference venue. Companies can save cost by employing RSI. However, as the present study demonstrates, RSI may pose a new set of psychological, physical, and cognitive challenges for interpreters. Measures to address these challenges are desirable. Furthermore, RSI-specific skills may be included as part of T&I training curriculum. Chang (2021) suggests that remote interpreting requires adaptive expertise in terms of the ability to use technology, research ability, problem-solving ability, and ability to defend one’s rights and interests. These skills can be nurtured during interpreter training so that new graduates can be prepared to perform remote interpreting successfully. The present study is not without limitations. The scope of the study is limited to only one participant in the context of in-house interpreting in Korea and in the language combination of Korean and English. Therefore, findings of the study may not be generalizable to other populations. To expand our understanding on RSI experiences of in-house interpreters, a study may be designed in the future to collect data from more diverse groups of interpreters in the private sector as well as the public sector in different language combinations. In addition, a quantitative study including a survey can be carried out to identify specific types of support and improvement needed to enhance RSI performance.

References AIIC. (2002). Draft checklist for interpretation over the Internet. https://aiic.org/document/4420/Draft%20checklist% 20for%20interpretation%25 Braun, S. (2013). Keep your distance? Remote interpreting in legal proceedings: A critical assessment of a growing practice. Interpreting, 15(2), 200–228.

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Remote interpreting during COVID-19 Braun, S. (2017). What a micro-analytical investigation of additions and expansions in remote interpreting can tell us about interpreters’ participation in a shared virtual space. Journal of Pragmatics, 107, 165–177. Chang, A. (2021). Study on interpreting competence needed in the age of distance interpreting. Interpretation and Translation, 23(1), 213–236. Cheung, A. K. F. (2022). Listeners’ perception of the quality of simultaneous interpreting and perceived dependence on simultaneous interpreting. Interpreting, 24(1), 38–48. Choi, J., & Lim, H. (2002). The status of translators and interpreters in Korea. Meta, 47(4), 627–635. Choi, M. (2021). Interpreting 4.0: Norms and realities of remote interpreting. The Journal of Translation Studies, 22(1), 279–312. Constable, A. (2015). Distance interpreting: A Nuremberg moment for our time? AIIC 2015 Assembly Day 3: Debate on Remote. https://aiic.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/di-a-nuremberg-moment-for-our-timeandrew-constable-01182015.pdf Fernández, E. I., & Russo, M. (2020). A multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework for the study of telephone interpreting. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 14(3), 240–258. Hale, S., Goodman-Delahunty, J., Martschuk, N., & Lim, J. (2022). Does interpreter location make a difference? A study of remote vs. face-to-face interpreting in simulated police interviews. Interpreting, 24(2), 221–253. Hong, S. (2018). A narrative inquiry of occupational stress and internal conflict experienced by a novice in-house translator working for a consulting firm. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 22(1), 265–297. Hong, S. (2019). A narrative inquiry of a TV interpreter/translator’s work adaptation. Interpretation and Translation, 21(2), 195–230. Hong, S. (2020a). A narrative inquiry of a novice in-house bank interpreter’s work adaptation process. The Journal of Interpretation and Translation Education, 18(1), 213–243. Hong, S. (2020b). Juggling roles and identities: A narrative inquiry of an art museum interpreter. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 24(2), 255–288. Im, S. (2015). Wongyeok tongyeokeui gaenyumgwa yeonju donghyang gochal 원격 통역의 개념과 연구 동 향 고찰 [Remote interpreting: An overview of the definition and key research]. Interpretation and Translation, 17(3), 163–189. Im, S. (2018). A qualitative research on the perceived occupational status of in-house translators. Interpretation and Translation, 20(1), 147–176. Kim, H. (2015). In-house tongbeonyeoksaeu eupmunaeyong bunseok yeongu 인하우스 통번역사의 업무내 용 분석 연구 [Focusing on work reports made by translators in Busan city government]. Japanese Language and Literature, 67, 27–43. Kim, J. (2015). In-house tongbeonyeoksaeu jikmugyeongheome gwanhan jiljeok sarye yeonju 인하우스 통 번역사의 직무경험에 관한 질적 사례 연구 [A case study research on job experience of an in-house translator]. Japanese Language and Literature, 65, 111–127. Kim, S. M. (2020). Challenges and opportunities of distance interpreting in the post-COVID era. Interpreting and Translation Studies, 24(4), 1–33. Klammer, M., & Pöchhacker, F. (2021). Video remote interpreting in clinical communication: A multimodal analysis. Patient Education and Counselling, 104, 2867–2876. Lee, J. (2017). Professional interpreters’ job satisfaction and relevant factors: A case study of trained interpreters in South Korea. Translation and Interpreting Studies, 12(3), 427–448. Lee, J. (2022). A narrative inquiry of the work experience of a novice in-house interpreter. The Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 13(3), 907–922. Matsushita, K. (2022). How remote interpreting changed the Japanese interpreting industry: Findings from an online survey conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. InContext, 2(2), 167–185. Mouzourakis, T. (2003). That feeling of being there: Vision and presence in remote interpreting. The AIIC Webzine, 23. https://aiic.org/document/520/AIICWebzine_Summer2003_7_MOUZOURAKIS_That_ feeling_of_being_there_Vision_and_presence_in_remote_interpreting_EN.pdf René de Cotret, F., Beaudoin-Julien, A., & Leanza, Y. (2020). Implementing and managing remote pubic service interpreting in response to COVID-19 and other challenges of globalization. Meta, 65(3), 618–642. Roziner, I., & Shlesinger, M. (2010). Much ado about something remote: Stress and performance in remote interpreting. Interpreting, 12(2), 214–247.

Seeber, K. G., Keller, L., Amos, R., & Hengl, S. (2019). Attitudes towards video remote conference interpreting. Interpreting, 21(2), 270–304. 469

29 EVALUATION OF KOREANCHINESE AUTOMATIC INTERPRETATION QUALITY Pum-Mo Ryu 류범모 and A-Young Kim 김아영

29.1 Introduction Machine Translation (MT) has recently emerged as a key research topic in Korean Interpretation & Translation (I&T) studies (Lee, S.-B., 2020, pp. 76–79). Kim and Kwak (2022, Sep.) noted that, out of the top ten papers identified in the Korean Citation Index,1 only one piece of research regarding MT was found between 2013–2015; however, such research had expanded to ten as of August 2022, after the emergence of Neural Machine Translation (NMT) in 2016. On the other hand, automatic interpretation is not a very appealing research topic in Korean Interpretation & Translation studies. In regards to automatic interpretation, Choi (2022, p.  138) put forth “in this field, a result that end users feel is as innovative as MT has yet to emerge,” adding “in the near future, artificial intelligence could not completely replace human interpretation.” Meanwhile, with the rapid development of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and NMT, engineering studies have actively conducted automatic interpretation research, also pursuing the implementation of simultaneity.2 Considering that the main automatic interpretation model consists of ASR and MT technologies,3 the development of MT can have positive effects on the performance improvement of automatic interpretation in the future. Therefore, with the development of MT technology, consistent attention is required for automatic interpretation. According to recent research in the interpretation studies on automatic interpretation, several scholars have summarized the technical principles and representative services available. Chang (2017) examined the current status of mobile automatic interpretation services with a focus on KoreanChinese pairs, Kim (2020) conducted research on the current status of automatic interpretation focusing on mobile services, and Choi (2022) analyzed the types, development, and characteristics of computer-assisted interpretation tools. Meanwhile, research on the application of specific services has increasingly been conducted in the field. For example, Kim (2021) discussed the problems and perspectives of automatic interpretation services in the criminal field. Just as MT is divided into 1) human translation, 2) machine-assisted human translation, 3) human-assisted machine translation, and 4) fully automatic machine translation, automatic interpretation can be similarly divided (see Figure 29.1).

DOI: 10.4324/9781003349723-34

470

Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation quality Human translation

Human interpretation

Machine-assisted human translation

Machine-assisted human interpretation

Human-assisted machine translation

Human-assisted machine interpretation

Fully automatic machine translation

Fully automatic machine interpretation

Translation

Interpretation

Figure 29.1 Classification of translation and interpretation involving humans and machines

In the second type of machine-assisted human translation, “machine” refers to a computerassisted translation (CAT) tool, while, in the second type of machine-assisted human interpretation, “machine” refers to a computer-assisted interpretation (CAI) tool. In this regard, Lee (2021) introduced commercial ASR and MT services among CAI tools and confirmed their validity through simple experiments. Looking at the fourth type of fully automatic machine interpretation, Ryu and Kim (2019, 2020) conducted demonstrations to confirm the possibility of a “real-time lecture interpretation system” developed by the Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI),4 and the main contents of 2019 were published by Choi and Kim (2020). This research explores the principles and practices of automatic interpretation—with the main gist of simultaneity claimed as a core problem by Ryu and Kim (2019) and Choi and Kim (2020)— evaluates Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation quality through a few major foreign and domestic commercial I&T systems—i.e., Google, Papago, and LLSOLLU5—and puts forth suggestions for improvement.

29.2 29.2.1

Literature review

Principles and practices of automatic interpretation

In a large sense, automatic interpretation can be classified into a cascaded model (Kim et al., 2010; Kim et al., 2011; Kim et al., 2014; Choi & Kim, 2016) and an end-to-end model (Weiss et al., 2017; Bérard et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2019). The former approach consists of speech recognition, machine translation, and speech synthesis. First, speech recognition converts the speech of the source language (SL) into the text of the SL; second, machine translation translates the text of the SL into the text of the target language (TL); and third, speech synthesis converts the text of the TL into the speech of the TL (Choi & Kim, 2016, p.  125). However, many automatic interpretation studies mainly employ a “speech translation” mode consisting of ASR and MT, excluding speech synthesis. This process supports only oneway interpretation, and the modules, translating SL and TL, respectively, are required for two-way interpretation (Kim et al., 2011, p. 2; Choi & Kim, 2016, p. 126). Since the ASR and MT can be optimized separately training on large-scale corpora, the cascaded model remains the dominant approach and presents “superior” performance practically (Xiong et al., 2019, p. 14). In particular, the recent development of artificial intelligence has enabled the process to be almost instantaneous. Due to this advancement, engineers involved in the field frequently

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Pum-Mo Ryu 류범모 and A-Young Kim 김아영

name it “real-time” translation, and the possibility of a simultaneous mode (“simultaneous translation”) is also put forth through the cascaded model. However, the latter approach directly translates the acoustic speech of one language into the text of another language without generating the intermediate transcription for the SL. This process can reduce errors occurring in ASR. As a result of the complexity of the translation task as well as the scarce training data, prior literature has explored effective techniques to boost the performance, including pre-training (Bansal et al., 2019), multi-task learning (Bérard et al., 2018), attention-passing (Sperber et al., 2019), and knowledge distillation (Liu et al., 2019). In terms of practice, Ryu and Kim (2019, 2020), who applied the cascading model to lecture interpretation, confirmed the following achievements and tasks through the creation of a learning environment, accumulation of training data, and demonstration analysis. In terms of simultaneity, there were big gaps between the demonstrations and simultaneous interpretation by interpreters, as Choi and Kim (2020) pointed out, since ASR and MT modules operated in order; after ST was completed, TT could be created. “Simultaneity”6 generally refers to the simultaneous occurrence of ST understanding and TT utterance in interpretation or the TT utterance almost simultaneously7 with the ST utterance (Lee, 2014, p.  137). Accordingly, recent automatic interpretation studies adopt an interpreter’s strategy to implement simultaneity, which will be examined in 2.2.

Table 29.1 Summary of studies on usability improvement in a real-time lecture interpretation environment (Ryu & Kim, 2019, 2020) Research contents

Further tasks

•Established a real-time lecture interpretation environment in the classroom and tested the system •Built learning data for lecture speech recognition and translation ○Collected and transcribed acoustic files: approximately 12.5 hours in 2019 and approximately 13.5 hours in 2020 ○Collected learning data for translation: 7,898 sentences of Korean-English pairs in 2019; 4,248 sentences of Korean-English pairs and 4,248 sentences of Korean-Chinese pairs in 2020 •Conducted focus group test on a real-time lecture interpretation system ○In regards to long source text (ST) sentences, the corresponding target text (TT) subtitles were created very slowly ○Sentence by sentence translation significantly reduced simultaneity ○Lengthy texts of information in subtitles were overlooked and vanished ○Some respondents pointed out that providing subtitles and speeches of TT at the same time hindered understanding the contents of the lecture • Require to improve the performance of ASR in lecture situations due to inconsistency of meaning and errors in meaning recognition in the process of ASR and MT • Consider switching to a consecutive interpretation mode due to technical limitations • Require a strategy to show that the TT is “Pausing” until it is produced (for example, “ . . . ”) • Consider the specificity of subtitle translation in TT outputs • Require an interface that allows user to select TT mode between subtitle or speech (for example, mute function display)

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Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation quality

29.2.2

Current foci on simultaneity of automatic interpretation

In simultaneous interpretation, interpreters perform the multi-tasking of constantly listening to ST, segmenting chunks of meaning, and uttering TT while constantly monitoring his or her speech at the same time, with a few words of ear to voice span (EVS) (Won, 2010, p.  133). At this time, the simultaneous speech ratio of ST and TT ranges from 60% (Lee, 1999) to 75–85% (Gerver, 1975, p.  124), so that it is particularly important to resolve cognitive load, and the key is to maintain the simultaneity of ST and TT while mediating language and cultural differences. To this end, by applying techniques such as segmentation,8 prediction, and supplementation (abbreviation, elimination/deletion, and repetition), the units or layers of TT in simultaneous interpretation may differ from those of consecutive interpretation and ST. Accordingly, Xiong et al. (2019, p.  5) pointed out that “conventional NMT models rarely do anticipation. In simultaneous interpretation, however, human interpreters are often required to anticipate the up-coming input and render a constituent at the same time or even before it is uttered by the speaker” and cited that, in the prior work (Ma et al., 2019), training strategy did help the model anticipate correctly, most of the time. Based on this, Xiong et al. (2019) revealed that their model constantly read streaming text from the ASR model and simultaneously determined the boundaries of Information Units (IUs), one after another. Each detected IU was then translated into a fluent translation with two simple yet effective decoding strategies: partial decoding and context-aware decoding. Specifically, IUs at the beginning of each sentence were sent to the partial decoding module. Other information units, either appearing in the middle or at the end of a sentence, were translated into TL by the context-aware decoding module. This module can exploit additional contexts from context that precedes it so that the model can generate a coherent translation (Xiong et al., 2019, p. 5). Xiong et al. (2019) enhanced simultaneity in automatic interpretation of Chinese-English pairs with SVO word order; however, Korean is an SOV language. There are more restrictions on securing simultaneity when forming a language pair with Chinese or English. To overcome the difference, Choi (2019, p. 54) discussed the segmentation method by communication units as a strategy for implementing simultaneity in automatic interpretation of Korean-English pairs. “Communication unit” refers to a unit of simultaneous interpretation that can maintain interpretation accuracy while minimizing EVS (see Figure 29.2). speech utterance speech recognition

So you give rkcp a source text

If analyzes the source text

automatic translation

uh in order to find out how it uses language

automatic translation

and then it regenerates language that emulates that first text

automatic translation

automatic translation

RKCP- ST- ---

RKCP- -- ----

--- --- ------ ----

speech synthesis

speech synthesis

speech synthesis

speech synthesis

speech interpreting

speech interpreting

speech interpreting

speech interpreting

Figure 29.2 Communications units and automatic interpretation

473

--- -- ------ ------

Pum-Mo Ryu 류범모 and A-Young Kim 김아영 Apply has not pinned an exact date when the first Intel machine will arrive saying only that they should be on the market by June.

--- --- --- ----- ---. - -- -- --- ---- 6---- ------ ---

Figure 29.3 Example of learning corpus by communication units for automatic interpretation

However, since the existing full-text corpus was inappropriate for learning data for automatic interpretation, Choi (2019, pp.  57–58) put forth a corpus with a communication unit-centered approach and suggested a method of constructing a learning corpus, as follows. Figure 29.3 shows an example of learning corpus using communication units for automatic interpretation. • (Step 1) To generate English-Korean word alignment results: Learn self-attention-based sentence classification and extract alignment information • (Step 2) To recognize translation units (segments): If the alignment density between Korean words and English words is greater than or equal to a specific value, it can be counted as a translation unit • (Step 3) To adjust the Korean segment word order: Move Korean segments according to the corresponding English segment word order • (Step 4) To change the style of TT: Attach the ending • (Step 5) To generate TT corpus reflecting alignment information Han et al. (2021, pp. 1–2) also paid attention to interpreters’ strategy of producing monotonic translations that followed the word order of the ST sequence and proposed a paraphrasing method to generate a monotonic parallel corpus, as follows. • (Step 1) To chunk ST and TT sequences into segments • (Step 2) To monotonically reorder TT segments based on ST-TT word alignment information • (Step 3) To refine reordered TT to enhance fluency and syntactic correctness In conjunction with the positive effects, Han et al.’s (2021, pp.  7–8) experiments in the foregoing method confirmed differences in performance improvement, depending on the differences in language typologies. The overall monotonicity in English-Korean pairs and EnglishJapanese pairs were enhanced after paraphrasing, while monotonicity scores of German-English pairs remained almost the same, only showing slight improvement. The extent of monotonicity enhancement in English-Chinese pairs was between that of English-Korean/English-Japanese pairs and that of German-English pairs. The change in the monotonic scores led to BLEU improvement. There was about 8% BLEU improvement in English-Korean pairs, whereas there was about 3% improvement in English-Chinese pairs and about 2% improvement in GermanEnglish pairs. Amid such research in the engineering studies to improve the performance of automatic interpretation, the quality of commercial I&T systems needs to be observed, including simultaneity from the perspective of I&T studies. Furthermore, according to the previous literature, noted previously, the language pairs with active automatic interpretation research include Chinese-English and 474

Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation quality

Korean English, but there are few targeted Korean-Chinese pairs available in either interpretation or in translation.9 Due to the aforementioned difference in word order, the research on Korean-English pairs may have be transferrable to Korean-Chinese pairs, but considering differences in word order between Chinese and English, a separate study on automatic interpretation of Korean-Chinese pairs is required. In this regard, the researchers should conduct and evaluate an automatic interpretation demonstration from Korean to Chinese. Regarding the evaluation, Ryu and Kim (2019, 2020), who conducted cascaded automaticinterpretation demonstrations, and Lee (2021), who did a CAI demonstration, only surveyed “usefulness.” Since the cascaded automatic-interpretation model includes the MT process, it is necessary to perform both automatic and manual approaches for more detailed evaluation. In the automatic evaluation, this research compares the MT with reference translation to reveal the MT quality of commercial I&T systems and the MT for source speech with the MT for source text to reveal ASR quality of the commercial I&T systems. In terms of the manual evaluation, this research establishes evaluation criteria, surveys four–five questions, and analyzes the outcomes.

29.3

Evaluation of Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation through commercial I&T systems 29.3.1

Research design

This research followed the simultaneous translation model, which has been frequently adopted in cascaded automatic-interpretation research. This model is similar to “live subtitling” among the types of interpreting, in that it converts the speaker’s source speech into target text in real time. In general, simultaneous interpretation takes place in one space, but the speaker’s speech and the interpreter’s speech are distinguished by the interpreter as a node, and the audience listens only to the interpreter’s speech through the equipment. However, the simultaneous-translation model allows respondents to check ST and TT at the same time so that it is in line with the purpose of automatic interpretation evaluation (see Figure 29.4).

Speech recognition

Machine translation

---! speaker

audience Figure 29.4 Design of Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation demonstration

475

Google Papago LLSOLLU

Pum-Mo Ryu 류범모 and A-Young Kim 김아영

ST delivered lecturing materials on specific topics in class, including technical terms, in the form of improvised speech. Nowadays, student-centered teaching methods are spotlighted in education; however, this research focused on conveying the information unilaterally to the students (refer to the title and relevant information that follows) and produced a fifteen-minutelong video. ▪ Course Title: Understanding sight translation ▪ Course Objective: The course-takers can grasp the definition, types/characteristics, practices, and methods of sight translation ▪ Participants: Five Chinese students have learned some basic interpreting theories and practices Essentially, simultaneous interpretation is carried out with interpreters who completed certain curricula, experienced real practice in the field, and have fully familiarized themselves with the contents of the conference, while the commercial I&T systems had not learned the speaker’s pronunciation, lecture contents, and technical terms in advance. Therefore, when filming the lecture, the researcher spoke slowly on purpose and gave very long pauses consciously between sentences. In regards to commercial I&T systems, this research selected Google Translate,10 Naver Papago,11 and LLSOLLU (ezNTS)12 for ASR and MT from Korean to Chinese.13 The three systems are common, in that they apply cascaded automatic interpretation and neural network-based translation models. However, the streaming periods of their web or app services are limited. Accordingly, while playing the lecture video, the researchers manually operated each I&T system in turn so as to produce three demonstration videos (a video including lecture material, speaker, Korean source speech, and Chinese source text) and provided them to the respondents (see Figures 29.5–29.7).

Figure 29.5 Example of Google’s automatic interpretation

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Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation quality

Figure 29.6 Example of Papago’s automatic interpretation

Figure 29.7 Example of LLSOLLU’s automatic interpretation

29.3.2

Automatic evaluation and analysis

Automatic metrics for evaluating translation quality have numerous advantages. They are very fast and virtually free to run when a reference translation is already available. Their scores are also reproducible. As such, automatic metrics remain at the center of MT evaluation for the past two decades. BLEU (bilingual evaluation understudy) is the most popular algorithm for automatically evaluating the quality of text that has been machine-translated from one natural language to another (Papineni, 2002). Almost 99% of the MT papers report with BLEU scores (Marie et al., 2021). BLEU’s output is always a number between 0 and 1. This value indicates how similar the candidate text is to the reference texts, with values closer to 1 representing more similar texts. BLEU score is a weighted geometric mean of all the modified n-gram precisions, multiplied by the brevity penalty. The BLEU score is highly related to accuracy among manual evaluation criteria.

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Pum-Mo Ryu 류범모 and A-Young Kim 김아영

This research employed the NLTK (Natural Language TookKit)14 library to automatically calculate BLEU-4 score for system generated translations. NLTK is a leading platform for building Python programs to work with human language data. It provides easy-to-use interfaces to over 50 corpora and lexical resources such as WordNet, along with a suite of text-processing libraries for classification, tokenization, stemming, tagging, parsing, and semantic reasoning, wrappers for industrial-strength NLP libraries. The BLEU-4 scores are calculated by applying equal weights up to 4 grams. For automatic evaluation, Korean source speech of the video was transcribed into text, and then three sets of Chinese reference translations (human TT 1, 2, 3) were prepared. Three translators who majored in Korean-Chinese interpretation and translation as native Chinese speakers translated the ST into TT that correspond to, utilizing the characteristics of simultaneous interpretation. Before evaluating the performance of automatic interpretation, the degree of mutual agreement between three set human translations was evaluated using the BLEU metric. As shown in Table 29.2, three pairs of reference and test data were constructed, each BLUE score was calculated, and the average value was presented. The average value, 0.678, means the maximum score of automatic interpretation results that can be expected in this experiment. In the next step, the researchers generated MT results using Google, Papago, and LLSOLLU translator for the source text and evaluated them using the BLEU metric. These scores show the performance of pure MT that does not include errors in ASR (Table 29.3). The difference between the two average BLEU scores in Table 29.2 and Table 29.3 is 0.337. This score represents the performance difference between the current level of MT and expert translation. Next, the researchers generated simultaneous translation results using Google, Papago, and LLSOLLU systems for the source speech and evaluated them using the BLEU metric. In this experiment, the overall performance is lower than that of studies that only target MT (Table 29.4). The difference between the two average BLEU scores in Table 29.3 and Table 29.4 is 0.104. This Table 29.2 BLEU-4 scores for three human translations References

Test

BLEU-4

Human 1, Human 2 Human 1, Human 3 Human 2, Human 3 Average

Human 3 Human 2 Human 1

0.501 0.748 0.784 0.678

Table 29.3 BLEU-4 scores of Google, Papago, and LLSOLLU: MT  

Google

Papago

LLSOLLU

Average

BLEU-4

0.314

0.394

0.315

0.341

Table 29.4 BLEU-4 scores of Google, Papago, LLSOLLU: automatic interpretation  

Google

Papago

LLSOLLU

Average

BLEU-4

0.147

0.309

0.256

0.237

478

Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation quality

occurred due to errors in the ASR module. In the case of the ASR module, the score is not sufficiently high due to ambiguity of sentence boundary of speech and untrained voice tone of speakers. In addition, ASR and MT modules are sequentially applied, resulting in errors in ASR that are propagated to the later stages. In Table 29.3 and Table 29.4, Google shows the lowest scores. When a long streaming ST sentence was uttered, the interface usually began interpreting soon and disclosed the continually changing TT, while the ST sentence was not completed. Accordingly, the system gave up translation of the previous sentence and tried to translate the next sentence, resulting in a few sentences in the middle of the utterance being lost. Of the 72 ST sentences, Google missed 23 interpretation results in this experiment. On the contrary, Papago shows the highest scores. It was similar to Google in that it disclosed the continually changing TT during the speaker’s utterance. However, not a single case of missing translation occurred due to the manual operation of the system. Moreover, since its MT performance is the best among the three systems, as shown in Table 29.3, the overall automatic interpretation performance is the best. It seems that Papago developed by a Korean developer NHN shows better performance in interpreting Korean into other languages. LLSOLLU’s scores are placed between Google and Papago. It produced fewer omissions than Google due to the strategy close to consecutive interpretation mode for each sentence. This sentence-level strategy is efficient for interpretation between language pairs with different word order, such as Korean-Chinese pairs. As seen in Table 29.3, however, the MT score of LLSOLLU is lower than that of Papago, affecting the overall accuracy of automatic interpretation. In addition, a domain-adaptation strategy is needed to recognize and translate terms commonly used in the domain applied to the experiment. Since the ASR module lacked prior knowledge of domain terms and symbols, all three systems derived different ASR results for terms such as “ST” and “TT.” If the speech stream segmentation strategy, intermediate TT presentation strategy, and domain adaptation strategy of commercial I&T systems are improved, better performances in automatic interpretation could be possibly achieved.

29.3.3

Manual evaluation and analysis

Manual evaluation is widely used in a way that evaluates translation on a 1–5 point scale (CallisonBurch et al., 2006), mainly based on accuracy and fluency. It can also be used when reference translations do not exist, and it can be comprehensively evaluated on language systems such as words, phrases, sentences, and texts. In translation studies and linguistics, research has recently been conducted on the criteria for manual evaluation of MT. In addition to the existing criteria for translation quality evaluation— i.e., accuracy (or clarity) and fluency (or readability)—translation studies have evaluated “syntactic structure” and “typo” separately (Seo & Kim, 2018; Lee, 2019, etc.) (see Table 29.5). Academia of Chinese linguistics in Korea mainly presented quantitative evaluation criteria centered on accuracy (omission/addition/mistranslation) that subdivided the linguistic system and subtracted points in the error section (Kang & Lee, 2018; Ki, 2018; Hwang & Yang, 2020 etc.). In addition, the overall quality of translation was evaluated by considering contextual errors as well as syntactic errors (Kwon et al., 2019). In this research, the linguistic system was not subdivided and evaluated, since this research has no purpose in analyzing linguistic errors. Instead, this research conducted a survey (5-point Likert scale) on MT and overall interpretation.15 Among the criteria for evaluating MT, the research put “syntax structure” and “typo” into the subcategory of fluency, in that they mean the grammatical 479

Pum-Mo Ryu 류범모 and A-Young Kim 김아영 Table 29.5 Manual evaluation criteria for MT in translation studies  

Seo and Kim (2018) Upper classification

1

Accuracy

2

Readability

3

Syntactic structure

4

Typo

Lee (2019) Lower classification Meaning incorrect, omission Contextual error, Word/clause alignment error Sentence incomplete, others

Upper classification

Lower classification

Clarity

Mistranslation, omission, addition, accuracy Readability, naturality, unity, understanding

Fluency

Syntactic structure

Grammar, opposite meaning

Typo

Spelling, punctuation, simple mistakes

aspect of TT.16 On the other hand, considering that the importance of “punctuation” is less than that of translation in terms of evaluating interpretation, the researchers excluded it from the evaluation criteria. As a result, the operational definition and question, in terms of accuracy and fluency, were confirmed as the criteria for manual evaluation of MT. Next, in the case of the evaluation criteria for the overall interpretation, this research focused on simultaneity, which was examined independently. Considering the insight of Choi and Kim (2020) that automatic interpretation was still performed by sentence units in the 2019 demonstration, the research defined “simultaneity in automatic interpretation” newly as “beginning to deliver the contents of ST in structured expressions before the sentence of ST is completed.” Next, since the purpose of interpretation is to achieve the goal of communication through language and cultural intermediation in the process of intercultural communication, this research attempted to find out whether automatic interpretation helps to understand the lecture. As a result, the operational definition and question, in terms of simultaneity and usefulness, were confirmed as the criteria for manual evaluation of interpretation, and the suggestions for improvement were stated in a free description method (Table 29.6). Ten Chinese-native speakers were recruited as respondents, including five experts from the interpreters’ point of view (all engaged in simultaneous-interpretation practices and professional-interpretation training after completing the GSIT course) and five graduate students (four from GSIT and one from KTFL) from the audience’s point of view. They were asked to listen to three videos in order and were then questioned, but one question about simultaneity was excluded from the survey for students who had not directly experienced simultaneous interpretation practices. The results of the survey on accuracy, fluency, simultaneity, and usefulness are as follows. In the question on accuracy such as mistranslation, omission, and addition of TT for ST, the results show LLSOLLU > Papago > Google in order; however, all three systems are evaluated low at less than “normal” (overall average about 2.27) (see Table 29.7). 480

Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation quality Table 29.6 Manual evaluation criteria for automatic interpretation of this research Accuracy

Did the automatic interpretation service accurately convey the contents of the source text? * Evaluate how many differences there are in the interpretation of subtitles, such as mistranslation, omission, and addition, compared to the contents of the source text.

Fluency

Is the automatic interpretation service fluent? * Evaluate whether the word/phrase/clause combination of interpretation subtitles are natural, completed, grammatical, and typographical. Does the automatic interpretation service implement simultaneity? * Evaluate whether the source text begins to deliver the contents of ST in structured expressions before the sentence of ST is completed. Does the automatic interpretation service help you understand the lecture? How do you think the automatic interpretation service should be improved?

Simultaneity

Usefulness Suggestions for improvement

Table 29.7 Accuracy evaluation results by commercial I&T systems  

I&T system

Response 1 Not accurate at all (10–20% accurate). 2 Less accurate (30–40% accurate). 3 Normal (about 50% accurate) 4 Generally accurate (60–70% accurate). 5 Very accurate (80–90% accurate). Average

Google S* 1 3 1

1.8

Papago E** 2 3

S 2 1 2 2.1

LLSOLLU E 3 1 1

S

4

E 1 2 2

1 2.8

* S: student ** E: expert

In the question on fluency, such as grammaticality and translationese17 of TT, the results also show LLSOLLU > Papago > Google in order, and all three systems are evaluated lower than accuracy at less than “normal” (overall average about 1.93) (see Table 29.8). In the question on simultaneity between ST and TT, the results show Google = Papago > LLSOLLU in order, and all three systems are evaluated very low at less than “less implemented” (overall average about 1.73) (see Table 29.9). In the question on usefulness of the service, the results show LLSOLLU > Papago > Google in order, and all three systems are evaluated low at less than “normal” (overall average 2.2) (see Table 29.10). The results of the free description of the suggestions for improvement are as follows. Omissions were pointed out in all systems with respect to accuracy (1). The omissions of foreign words were pointed out in Papago and the omissions were also pointed out in LLSOLLU, but criticism on the omission accounted for a large portion of the evaluation in Google. This seems 481

Pum-Mo Ryu 류범모 and A-Young Kim 김아영 Table 29.8 Fluency evaluation results by commercial I&T systems   1 2 3 4 5 Average

I&T system

Google

Response Not fluent at all Less fluent Normal Generally fluent Very fluent

S* 4

Papago E** 4 1

S 2 1 1 1

1

1.3

LLSOLLU E 4

S

E 1 2 1 1

2 2

1

1.9

2.6

* S: student ** E: expert Table 29.9 Simultaneity evaluation results by commercial I&T systems   1 2 3 4 5 Average

I&T system

Google

Papago

LLSOLLU

Response Not implemented at all Less implemented Normal Generally Implemented Implemented well

Expert 2 2 1

Expert 3 1

Expert 3 1 1

1 1.8

1.8

1.6

Table 29.10 Usefulness evaluation results by commercial I&T systems   1 2 3 4 5 Average

I&T system

Google

Response Not helpful at all Less helpful Normal Generally helpful Very helpful

S* 1 3 1

Papago E** 3 2

1.7

S 1 1 1 2 2.2

LLSOLLU E 3 1 1

S 1 2 1 1 2.7

E 1 2 2

* S: student ** E: expert

to be related to Google’s lowest score in 3.2 automatic evaluation and 3.3 manual evaluation of accuracy. (1) • Google S: There is almost no one-to-one correspondence in the translation（译文中，几乎没有一一 对应）；Only the head and the tail are recognized, but most of the middle is directly omitted（只识 别到头与尾，但中间中大部分直接省去了）

482

Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation quality

• Papago S: Foreign words, alphabets, etc. . . . are not translated （外来语、字母等 . . . 不翻译） • LLSOLLU E: Too much content is omitted when reading long sentences （读长句子时，省略过 多内容）；there are omissions (of whole sentences) and some words are missing（有漏译现象（整 句的那种），也有少量单词漏翻） In terms of errors, they were pointed out in all systems with respect to accuracy and fluency. Respondents presented various opinions, not only in terms of accuracy such as word mistranslation, but also in terms of fluency such as awkward collocation, inappropriate sentence structure, and style, etc. (2). In particular, learners showed low acceptance for lack of textuality (3) or foreignization strategies of abbreviations such as technical terms “ST” and “TT” (4). This seems to be related to the overall low evaluation scores for accuracy and fluency. (2) • Google S: There are some inappropriate words and translation errors（有一些不合适的用词（用 词不当）、翻译错误）；The whole translation is weird（译文整体很奇怪） • Papago S: Sometimes the use of translated words is inappropriate（有翻译的词使用不当的情况）；E: There is no correct sentence, so I can’t get any help in understanding the class. • LLSOLLU S: Some words . . . are inappropriate（有一些 . . . 用词不当情况）；E: In terms of translation quality, both accuracy and fluency are poor, but word selection is particularly inadequate. (3) • Google S: Lack of continuity and logic. • Papago S: There is also a problem with tone（语气也有问题） • LLSOLLU S: (There are so many literal translations) It’s like translationese when reading Chinese（有 许多直译，中文读起来有点翻译腔） (4) • Google S: English should not appear in Korean-Chinese translation（韩译中时，不应该出现英文） • Papago S: There are mixed translations of Korean and English in Korean-Chinese translation（韩译 中时出现韩、英混译情况） Respondents cited the low accuracy of ASR as one of the reasons for omission and mistranslation. Of the three systems, only Papago could visually check ASR in the video, but some respondents were convinced that it was the reason for the omission in Google and also presumed it to be one of the reasons in LLSOLLU (5). Meanwhile, a respondent pointed out domain differences and interface problems as one of the reasons of low accuracy and fluency (6). (5) • Google E: There are some sentences that the machine doesn’t recognize even though the speaker provides a lot of pauses in between. • Papago S: Word identification should be more accurate. For example, “eonje” is recognized as “yonsei,” “aye” is recognized as “ai,” and “manyage” is recognized as “anyage.” • LLSOLLU E: (There seems to be some omissions. However,) it is impossible to see how the source text is recognized, so it is impossible to determine whether the error is in the speech recognition stage or in the machine translation stage.

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Pum-Mo Ryu 류범모 and A-Young Kim 김아영

(6) • LLSOLLU E: Perhaps it can be more helpful for general conversational interpretation than professional lectures. In order to apply it to professional lectures, I think it should be improved in both the presenting method and accuracy of translation. Simultaneity was not questioned for students, but like experts, they pointed out through free descriptions. First of all, two conflicting opinions were raised about TT’s time, in that the TTproducing period took time (7), while the retention time was too short, which had a significant impact on understanding the lecture (8). (7) • Google S: It’s a little slow, delayed, (which affects understanding the content of the lecture)（速度有点 慢，有延迟（影响理解讲义内容）） • Papago S: The reaction is too slow（反应太慢） • LLSOLLU S: Translator response is slow（翻译器反应迟钝）; Compared to Google and Papago... the speed of translation is appropriate. However, because it is a machine, the reaction speed is not comparable to that of humans （比papago、谷歌相比 . . . 翻译速度很及时，但因为是机 器，反应速度不能够与人工相比） (8) • Google S: I hope to speed up the translation because it’s passing by in an instant（译文一闪而过， 望改进速度）; E: The way the translation comes out, . . . needs to be improved. • Papago S: The translation has been flashed. There is no time to check; E: It’s a visual implementation of the lecture contents, so it needs time to read (I only read half of all the sentences). • LLSOLLU S: The time to display the translation is too short （译文出现时间过短）; E: The time to display the translation is equally too short. For a user, it takes a certain amount of time to see and understand the lecture, but it runs away too fast. The reaction speed corresponds to the EVS of simultaneous interpretation, which learners mainly raised as a problem. This originates due to the inability to understand EVS caused by the absence of a simultaneous interpretation experience. On the contrary, the short retention time of TT was a common point among students and experts. Short retention time varied by systems, as follows (9). (9) • Google S/Papago S: The word order changes continually during the speech process, affecting the speed and degree of understanding of the lecture（说话过程中不断更改语序，影响理解讲义的速度 和理解程度） • Google E/Papago E: The accumulation of eye fatigue due to frequent changes in sentences in the realtime implementation of translations; Google E: It seems to put more pressure on recognition as the sentences in the front are also changed in real-time. • LLSOLLU S: After reading a sentence, the translation appears when there is a pause（每读完一句 话后，停顿的时候翻译文出现）；E: It is different from the previous two translation engines in that it has not secured simultaneity. It feels like consecutive translation rather than simultaneous translation; It’s not the way translations change frequently, such as Google or Papago, so it’s less eye strain, but it’s a form of waiting for a speaker’s long pause before presenting the translation, affecting simultaneity and listening to the lecture. However, it is easy to understand by showing the completed sentence visually. 484

Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation quality

To sum up, Google and Papago scored relatively high in simultaneity; however, LLSOLLU had relatively high accuracy, fluency, and usefulness. The higher scores of Google and Papago for simultaneity reflect two systems’ strategy attempting a human interpreter’s segmentation, but respondents had great difficulty in understanding the contents of ST because they had to continually re-recognize intermediate TT, while the retention time of the final TT was too short. On the other hand, the higher scores of LLSOLLU for accuracy, fluency, and usefulness seem to be resulted from the consecutive interpretation mode. Therefore, the implementation of simultaneity affected the quality of the automatic interpretation service.

29.4

Conclusion

Automatic interpretation is increasingly popular in engineering studies. To bridge the void between Interpretation & Translation studies, this research examined the principles and practices of automatic interpretation with a focus on simultaneity, demonstrated the currently-challenging barriers involving Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation through three commercial I&T systems, and conducted automatic and manual evaluations. Simply put, overall outcomes from commercial I&T systems verified the comprehensively lower level of automatic-interpretation quality that prior studies already noted had challenging aspects for completion in the near future. In particular, the implementation of simultaneity seems to affect the quality of the automatic interpretation service. It strongly implies that overall improvement is required, as follows. First, it is necessary to improve personal/domain customized ASR performance (Adaptive learning). In this regard, an automatic-interpretation performance study using an end-to-end model should be attempted. Second, it is urgent to improve MT quality through the establishment of a learning corpus for each domain for each language pair (Adaptive learning). Respondents in the manual evaluation pointed to the low accuracy of ASR, and low accuracy and fluency of MT as the causes of poor automatic interpretation quality due to domain maladjustment. Moreover, simultaneous interpreters should actively participate in the construction of learning data to enhance simultaneity. Third, an audience-friendly automatic-interpretation interface should be advanced so that TT can be presented in a structured form without exposing the real-time correction process. The research findings of the translation studies on “subtitle translation” can be applied to simultaneous translation—e.g., summary strategy with word limit and interface configuration. Despite the foregoing achievements, this research has various limitations. First, the research employed only ten respondents. It does not guarantee the reliability of the survey regarding the ranking of commercial I&T systems. In addition, the evaluation system is still focused on MT. Evaluation research accumulated in the interpretation field should be applied for a more comprehensive evaluation on automatic interpretation, and the fulfillment of further studies will be the next step.

Notes 1 www.kci.go.kr 2 Basically, the orientation and interest of the Interpretation & Translation studies and engineering studies in automatic interpretation differ due to expectations of perfection. In engineering studies, human-level perfection is not viewed as the current goal at the time of research, while in Interpretation & Translation studies, it is based on “the extent to which the end user can feel it.” 3 This is called the “cascaded model,” and it will be discussed in 2.1. 4 https://www. etri.re.kr 5 LLSOLU (former Systran International) is an AI solution company with speech recognition, machine translation, and natural language processing technologies. (https://www.llsollu.com/llsollu/)

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Pum-Mo Ryu 류범모 and A-Young Kim 김아영 6 This research does not employ “monotonicity” (Han et al., 2021), etc., that refers to the interpretation phenomenon according to the token order. 7 The notion “almost simultaneously” means that the EVS between ST and TT does not exceed the average level (average EVS is 1.5 seconds in interpretation between Indo-European languages, and average EVS is 4 seconds in interpretation with large differences in typology) (Lee, 2014, p. 137). 8 “Segmentation” is adopted in this research instead of “salami technique” (Jones, 1998/2002; Gile, 2009) and “chunking” (Han et al., 2021) that refer to the interpreting methods for securing simultaneity. 9 In terms of MT, Choi (2019, p. 289) analyzed MT research in Korean translation studies and showed that nineteen Korean-English pairs papers and only four Korean-Chinese pairs papers were published. 10 https://translate.google.com/ 11 https://papago.naver.com/ 12 https://www.llsollu.com/demo/rti.html 13 This research did not employ “Baidu Translator” (https://tongchuan.baidu.com/), a representative Chinese commercial I&T system that only serves from Chinese to Korean, but not from Korean to Chinese. 14 https://www.nltk.org/ 15 This research employed the survey system of Lee (2019, p. 188). 16 Lee (2019) also conducted a survey by dividing it into only “clarity” and “fluency”, and the remaining question “applicability” had the characteristics of usefulness; that is, a comprehensive evaluation of the translation engine. 17 “Translationese” is a term that refers to artifacts present in text that was translated into a given language that distinguish it from text originally written in that language. Gellerstam (1986) as cited in Riley et al. (2020, p. 7737).

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Pum-Mo Ryu 류범모 and A-Young Kim 김아영 Lee, J.-H. 이준호. (2019). Singyeongmang gigyebeonyeogui gaekkwanjeok pyeonggareul wihan yebi yeongu: jadongpyeonggawa sudongpyeonggaui gyunhyeongjeom 신경망기계 번역의 객관적 평가를 위한 예비 연구: 자동평가와 수동평가의 균형점 [A pilot study toward an objective assessment of neural machine translation: Balance between automatic and manual assessment]. Tongbeonyeokhak yeongu 통번역학연구 [Interpreting and Translation Studies], 23(3), 171–202. Lee, J.-R.-A. 이주리애. (2021). Jadong eumseonginsigui tongyeok hwaryonge gwanhan yebi yeongu 자동 음성인식의 통역 활용에 관한 예비연구 [Preliminary research on the application of automatic speech recognition in interpretation]. Inmunsahoe 21 인문사회 21 [The Journal of Humanities and Social Science (HSS21)], 12(5), 2407–2422. Lee, J.-S. 이정순. (2014). Han-jung dongsitongyeogui hyoyul jego bangan yeongu: bunjeolhagiwa uimidanwi choesohwareul jungsimeuro 한-중 동시통역의 효율 제고 방안 연구: 분절하기와 의미단위 최소 화를 중심으로 [Study on improving overall efficiency of korean to chinese simultaneous interpretation: Focusing on segmentation and minimizing sense unit]. Tongbeonyeok kyoyug yeongu 통번역교육연구 [The Journal of Interpretation and Translation Education], 12(1), 135–155. Lee, S.-B. 이상빈. (2020). Gigyebeonyeoge gwanhan KCI yeongu nonmun ribyu: inmunhak jeoneol nonmun(2011∼2020nyeon cho)ui nonui naeyonggwa yeongu bangbeobeul jungsimeuro 기계번역에 관 한 KCI 연구논문 리뷰: 인문학 저널 논문(2011∼2020년 초)의 논의내용과 연구방법을 중심으로 [Review of literature on machine translation: Based on arts and humanities journals covered in KCI journal database (from 2011 to early 2020)]. Tongyukkwa beonyeok 통역과 번역 [Interpretation and Translation], 22(2), 75–104. Lee, T.-H. (1999). Simultaneous listening and speaking in English into Korean simultaneous interpretation. Meta, 44(4), 560–572. Liu, Y.-C., Xiong, H., He, Z.-J., Zhang, J.-J., Wu, H., Wang, H.-F., & Zong, C.-Q. (2019). End-toend speech translation with knowledge distillation. Interspeech. arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.08075.Ma, M.-B., Liang, H., Xiong, H., Liu, K., Zhang, C.-Q., He, Z.-J., Liu, H.-R., Li, X., & Wang, H.-F. (2019). STACL: Simultaneous translation with integrated anticipation and controllable latency. ACL, abs/1810.08398. Marie, B., Fujita, A., & Rubino, R. (2021). Scientific credibility of machine translation research: A metaevaluation of 769 papers. Paper presented at the 59th annual meeting of the association for computational linguistics and the 11th international joint conference on natural language processing (Volume 1: Long Papers) (pp. 7297–306), Online. arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.15195. Papineni, K., Roukos, S., Ward, T., & Zhu, W. J. (2002). BLEU: A method for automatic evaluation of machine translation. Paper presented at the 40th annual meeting of the association for computational linguistics (pp. 311–318). Online. https://scholar.google.co.kr/scholar?hl=ko&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_vis=1&q=Papineni% 2C+K.%2C+Roukos%2C+S.%2C+Ward%2C+T.%2C+%26+Zhu%2C+W.+J.+%282002%29.&btnG= Riley, P., Caswell, I., Freitag, M., & Grangier, D. (2020). Translationese as a language in “Multilingual” NMT. arXiv preprint arXiv:1911.03823. Ryu, P.-M. 류법모., & Kim, A.-Y. 김아영. (2019). Silsigan gangyeon tongyeok hwangyeongeseoui sayongseong gaeseone gwanhan yeongu bogoseo 실시간 강연 통역 환경에서의 사용성 개선에 관한 연구 보고서 [Report of study on usability improvement in real-time lecture interpretation environment]. Busan oegugeodaehakkyo sanhak hyeopryeokdan 부산외국어대학교 산학협력단 [Industry-academic collaboration foundation of Busan University of Foreign Studies]. Ryu, P.-M. 류법모., & Kim, A.-Y. 김아영. (2020). Silsigan gangyeon tongyeok hwangyeongeseoui sayongseong gaeseone gwanhan yeongu bogoseo 실시간 강연 통역 환경에서의 사용성 개선에 관한 연구 보고서 [Report of study on usability improvement in real-time lecture interpretation environment]. Busan oegugeodaehakkyo sanhak hyeopryeokdan 부산외국어대학교 산학협력단 [Industry-academic collaboration foundation of Busan University of Foreign Studies]. Seo, B.-H. 서보현., & Kim, S.-Y. 김순영. (2018). Gigyebeonyeok gyeolgwamurui oryu yuhyeong gochal 기 계번역 결과물의 오류유형 고찰 [An analysis of errors in machine translation]. Beonyeokhak yeongu 번역 학연구 [The Journal of Translation Studies], 19(1), 99–117. Sperber, M., Neubig, G., Niehues, J., & Waibel, A. (2019). Attention-passing models for robust and data-efficient endto-end speech translation. Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 7, 313–325. https://direct. mit.edu/tacl/article/doi/10.1162/tacl_a_00270/43517/Attention-Passing-Models-for-Robust-and-Data Weiss, R., Chorowski, J., Jaitly, N., Wu, Y.-H., & Chen, Z.-F. (2017). Sequence-to-sequence models can directly translate foreign speech. arXiv preprint arXiv:1703.08581.

488

Korean-Chinese automatic interpretation quality Won, J.-H. 원종화. (2010). Yeong-han dongsitongyeok jeollagui banghyangseong yeongu 영-한 동시통역 전략의 방향성 연구 [Directionality in Korean-English simultaneous interpreting strategies]. Tongyukkwa beonyeok 통역과 번역 [Interpretation and Translation], 12(1), 131–156. Xiong, H., Zhang, R., Zhang, C., He, Z., Wu, H., & Wang, H. (2019). Dutongchuan: Context-aware translation model for simultaneous interpreting. arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.12984.

489

INDEX

accreditation 172, 194, 227, 246, 259–260, 414 accurate rendition 314, 320, 464 action research 133–135, 140, 142, 144 ad hoc knowledge acquisition 133 ageism 415, 423, 427, 429 aggression 252 AI interpreter 90, 462 analytic assessment 202, 204, 207 anterior cingulate cortex, ACC 378 aphasia 377 applied interpreting studies 102, 105, 109 aptitude 127, 146, 375–376 Arabic 296–307 Arab refugees 296–307 assessment criteria 200–211, 217, 228, 239 assessment methods 173, 202, 207, 212, 239 atmosphere bunwigi 325, 339 attorneys 346–350 audiovisual translation 153–154, 156 Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights 246 Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship 258 automatic speech recognition (ASR) 387, 435, 440, 470 automatization 370–371, 376, 380 axial coding 394 background knowledge 119–120, 130, 149, 203–204, 299, 303, 307, 325, 336–337, 355, 358, 376, 435 background noise 459, 463, 466 Billy Graham Crusade in Korea 309, 312 Bill Yu 61, 69–70 bo-bing-sa 65–66 Buyeo 77

490

caudate nucleus 378–379 celebrity interpreter 417, 422, 430 China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters (CATTI) 172, 194 chronemics 326 Chung Kyeong Mo 60–61, 70 closed-ended question 197, 313, 393–394, 403, 411–412, 416 cloud storage 443, 445, 449–450, 452, 455–456 cognitive assessments 251, 253–254 cognitive burden 287, 288, 407, 463, 465 cognitive challenge 468 cognitive competence 353 cognitive complements 130 collaborative learning 134–135, 137–138, 149–150, 160, 216 communication breakdowns 276 communication facilitator 460 communicative culture 324–325, 329, 337 community interpreting 243–365 competencies for professional interpreters and translators 120 computer assisted interpreting (CAI) 387 computer assisted translation (CAT) 387 condensation 154–155 conference interpreting practices 177–189 consortium 343 constructivism 131, 148, 215 constructivist approach 155 content-based learning 131 conversation analysis 106 coping techniques 166 co-preacher 311–312, 317 cost center 428, 429 court interpreter exam 342, 347

Index cultural beliefs 252, 261, 269, 273, 275 cultural bridging 323 cultural broker 259, 263, 276 cultural brokerage 259 cultural dimensions 337 cultural diversity 256 cultural expectations 252 cultural issues 252–253, 255, 260, 264 cultural mediation 323 curriculum design 192, 195–196, 452

Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (GDUFS) 190–198 guided instruction 4, 137, 149 Hall, Basil 63, 64 handbrake 157–159 healthcare communication 267 healthcare interpreting 245–245 healthcare practitioners 245–246, 249, 252, 254–256 hearings 344–346 hereditary interpreters 24 high-context culture 333 holistic assessment 202, 204, 207

dapdaphada 248 deponent 348 depositions 342–344, 347–349 diachronic meta-research approach 109 diplomacy 24–33, 117, 136 diplomatic interpreting 351–365 diplomatic relations 24–33 direction of the interpretation 183 doctoral T&I program 100 domain-specific knowledge 419

ideational 228–229, 237 idea unit 371, 373–374 idioms 345, 347, 349, 355 incompetence 276 independent learning 134–135, 138, 159 in-depth interviews 414, 457, 460, 468 indirect expression 333 inferior parietal lobule 378 informal interpreters 246 information retrieval 436–437, 439, 442, 451 in-process 434, 437–438, 444, 451 input rate 140, 367, 373–374 intercultural communication 36, 258–279, 323, 325, 480 interlingual subtitling 155 interpersonal skills 262 Interprefy 413, 433, 444, 452, 455, 457 interpretation booths 458–459 interpretation politics 78, 81, 90 InterpretCloud 455, 457 interpreter education 133, 201, 216, 218, 238 interpreter-mediated consultations 252 interpreter-mediated interaction 458 interpreter’s role 88, 261, 266 interpreter trading 28 interpreter training 31–32, 78, 85, 130, 200–201, 215–216, 301, 307, 343–344, 346, 371, 413, 437, 468 interpreting as a business service 414, 417, 421 interpreting choices 237 interpreting competence 192–193, 279, 313, 378, 433–435, 439 interpreting industry 99–100 interpreting market 118, 178–179, 188, 415–416 interpreting pedagogy 103, 135, 143–144, 178, 222 interpreting quality 168, 201, 210, 227–228, 299, 304–305, 414–415, 417, 419, 429–430 interpreting strategy 237, 249, 311 interpreting technology 102, 435, 436–437, 440 inter-social setting 82 intra-social setting 82 invisibility 461–463, 468

ear-voice span, EVS 373 educational technology 131, 149 EEG 377, 379 empathy 130, 212, 313, 320 employment rate 119, 122–124 encyclopedic knowledge 130, 193 engagement with listeners 467 enterpreter 81, 85 eogulhada 248 ethical breaches 276 etiquette 324–331, 338 extra-linguistic activity 337 face chemyeon 325, 334, 339 faith 313–315, 318, 320 family involvement 266–268, 275 fansubbing 159 federal court 343, 350 fidelity 208, 314, 316–317 flipped learning 146, 164 fMRI 379 focus of attention 370 focus lesson 134–135, 137, 140 freelance conference interpreters 428, 459 freelance interpreters 87, 460, 467–468 globalization 78, 79, 83, 90, 115–116, 124, 193 globe icon 461–462, 463 Goguryeo 77–78 Goryeo 24–33, 37, 39 Goryeo dynasty 24–25, 31 gradual release of responsibility (GRR) 133–134, 144 Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation (GSIT) 18–20, 86

491

Index Jo Dae-bok 63–64 Joseon dynasty 13–14, 24, 26, 33–44, 56, 63, 65, 77–78, 86 Joseon Wangjo Sillok (Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty) 63 judicial interpreting 105 Jungin 14, 24, 28 Jurchen 34–35, 78

medical anthropology 266 medical interpreting 105, 166 medical paternalism 252 mental illnesses (mental health issues) 251–252, 254 mental lexicon 251 Microsoft Video Editor 158, 159 middle-class 24, 34, 36, 43 mood gibun 325, 339 multiple perspectives 142 multi-tasking 473

Kim, Billy 309–310, 312 Kim, Y.P. 61, 69 kinesics 326 K-MICE platform 89 knowledge enhancement 130 Konglish 348 KoNLP (Korean Natural Language Process) 394 Korean Armistice Agreement 48, 69–70 Korean Armistice Negotiations 50–51 Korean court interpretation 342, 345, 349–350 Korean MTI education 190–198 Korean Systemic Functional Approach (KSFG) 226, 229, 231–234, 237–239 Korean Treaty with the United States: Treaty of Amity and Commerce 64–65 Korean wave 78 Kruskal-Wallis H-test 394 KUDO 387, 433, 444, 455, 457

National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) 246, 259 National Center for State Courts (NCSC) 343 native speakers 24, 167, 171, 334, 480 natural interpreter 85–86 neuroimaging 377–379 non-native accents 168, 171 non-professional interpreters 82, 279, 379 non-renditions 168 non-verbal aspects 309 number trainings 166 online platform 21, 89, 149, 156, 414, 459 online video resources 153 onsite interpreting 433, 462, 464–467 open-ended question 9, 205, 303, 314, 316, 388, 393–394, 397, 403, 412, 416, 456

language direction 208–209, 259, 370 language discordant patients 246 language interpretation on Zoom 461, 467 language service 78, 84, 119, 190, 195–196, 343, 408, 435 lawyers 83, 253, 345–346 learners’ perceptions 201, 205 learners’ view 207 learning experience 130–144 learning management system (LMS) 137 learning sciences 131, 144 legal interpreting 283 less commonly used languages 190–191 lexeme semantics 325 lingua franca 166–167, 181, 186, 413 linguistic approach 105, 107 linguistic decisions 324 listeners perception 168 loanwords 167, 348 long-term memory (LTM) 371

paraphrasing exercises 166 patient autonomy 252, 266, 268–269, 275 pedagogical guidelines 120 peer-assessment 201, 209 phatic expressions 339 phonological information 372, 374 phonological memory 372, 374 physical discomfort 458, 461, 466–468 pivot language 167, 173 pliability 311–313 police interpreting 282, 457 politeness 229, 237, 326–327, 329–330, 334, 340 poor audio quality 21, 461, 466, 468 portable interpretation system 461, 463 power asymmetries 253 practice-oriented educator 99, 105, 108–109 practicum training 193–196 prefrontal cortex 378 preparation work 179, 181, 186 pre-process 437, 442–443, 451–452 presentation medium 181 principle of accuracy 272 principles of accuracy and impartiality 263 process-oriented 142–144 professionalization of interpreting 105, 107 professional refugee interpreter 296–302 proxemics 326

machine interpreting 435–436, 439–440, 451 machine translation tool 184–185, 436, 443, 452 Manchu 34–35, 39–40, 43, 70 Maxwell, Murray 63–64 meaning errors 202–204, 206–208, 210 meaning shifts 202–204, 208 media reports 77, 79, 86

492

Index psychological burden 395–397, 399, 407–408, 411 public service 82, 84, 169, 457

T&I practice report 194–195 T&I training base 194 tacesics 326 teachers’ assessment 201, 205–212, 239 teachers’ assessment practices 208 technological competence 432, 452 tech-savvy digital natives 159 terminology management 9 text to speech 440 thematic analysis 226, 247, 462, 467–468 thematic progression 226, 232, 237 theoretical discussion 100, 102, 106–107, 109 theory-oriented researcher 108 think-aloud demonstration 135, 137–138, 140, 142 title VI of the Civil Rights Act 343 To Yu Ho 52, 55, 58, 61, 69, 71 Tongmungwan 22, 24, 31, 33, 35, 38–39, 41, 42–44 tongsa (interpreting official for envoys) 34, 38 translation technologies 193, 196 Translators Association of China 190, 192

qualitative research 222, 247, 394, 430 quality assessment 102, 109, 201, 227–228 real-life setting 185–186 reformulation 154–155, 316, 321 remote interpreting 432–457 remote simultaneous interpreting 413, 455, 457–458, 468 remuneration 118, 424 repair 279–293 reported speech 168 responsive interviewing 247 Richard F. Underwood 51–52, 55, 69 RI device application 439, 451 Sayeokwon (Office of Interpreters) 13–14, 22, 24, 34–35, 37, 39, 42, 44 seaweed soup 261 self-assessment 215–225 semantic information 353–354, 372, 374 semantic memory 374 semantics of individual words 330 semi-preacher 312, 316 sense of ownership 311–312, 318, 320 sermon interpreting 309–320 short-term memory 281, 371, 404 side conversations 348–349 sight translation 83, 165–166, 169–170, 173, 299, 302, 343–344, 347, 379, 404–406, 408, 476 Silla 77 Simpos09 394 simultaneous interpretation booth 179 social cues 326 social media 90, 170, 233, 282, 415, 417, 422, 430 social network analysis 397 sociological approach 102, 105, 109 sourcing 299, 417, 421 specialized discourse 131 speech acts 351–365 speech mode 181–183, 187 speech to text 440 staff interpreter 246, 430 student interpreters 200–201, 211, 215–293, 369, 371–373, 376, 379 Subtitle Edit 156–157, 159 subtitle software 156–157 subtitle translation 147, 150, 154–157, 160, 472, 485 Sul Chun Sik 52, 55–56, 69, 71 summary exercises 166 survey of interpreters 179, 451 systemic functional linguistics 225, 239

Ucinet 394 UCLA Online Archive Korean Christianity 67 undergraduate interpretation and translation education 115, 127 undergraduate T&I program 100, 110 Underwood, Horace G. 51, 55, 69, 70 Underwood, Richard F. 51–52, 55, 69 United Nations 15, 48, 51–52, 117, 165–166, 168, 343 user-expectations surveys 313, 320 vaccination 269 videoconferencing 458 video remote interpreting 458 VoiceBoxer 433, 455, 457 waegwan 36, 39 whispering interpretation 71, 83 Wihang literature 28 witness testimony 345 word error rate 390, 392 words per minute 282, 346–347 work experience 260, 271–272, 417–418, 423–424, 460 working conditions 17, 274, 276, 413–414 working memory 281, 370–371, 374, 379 yangban 14, 24, 34, 36, 38, 43 yeokbae 33 yeokgwan 33–36, 41, 43–44 yeokkwa 24 Yu, Bill 61, 69–70 Yu Kil-Chun 67 Yuk-young-gong-won 65, 66

493