Looking Back on 4 Decades of Professional Interpreting in Korea
(unauthorized translation)
Kwak Joong-Chol, Professor Emeritus, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Published on Daily Hangyeore Newspaper, Seoul, Korea, on July 11, 2019

The year of 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the first professional graduate school in interpreting and translation in the Republic of Korea. Thanks to the wise foresight of the authorities of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), Korea could establish the first graduate school for simultaneous interpretation in September 1979 in Asia, earlier than in China. The idea was to cultivate professionals who could do translation from Korean into English and French, the official languages of the Olympic Games, as Korea was preparing to host its first Olympics. which was realized in 1988.
HUFS officials went out and pleaded with the leading interpreting and translation schools around the world to take in Korean students “for the sake of world peace and humanity”. In 1980, some students who had just finished their first school year at HUFS were sent to Europe and the U.S. to be trained professionally, including myself - I was fortunate to be trained on a scholarship of the Korean government for as long as 3 years in ESIT, University of Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3.
Unlike doctors or lawyers, interpreters and translators have no “safeguards” in their profession. One is licensed as a doctor only after graduating from a medical school and passing the national exam. Lawyers, likewise, must pass state-issued bar exams to be licensed and practice law. But an M.A. in interpreting and translation is not a mandatory prerequisite for interpreters and translators. The public’s misguided belief that language ability equals interpreting and translation skills has fostered a growing number of unqualified interpreters and translators.
After the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation (GSIT) of HUFS was established, newcomers such as Ewha graduate school started to enter the market and even undergraduate courses began springing up like a fad, all engaging in a seemingly meaningless competition. Back then, regardless of regions, the public often did not have a good eye for, nor awareness of, foreign languages and interpreting and translation, and the situation does not get better within a short period of time.
Then one day, an incident occurred that suddenly shifted the paradigm of everyone including interpreters and translators. In March 2016, Alpha Go, an AI-based Go-playing machine, beat Korean professional Go player Lee Se-dol 4:1 on a Go match. Of all places, the match of the century was hosted here. Korean media outlets and the AI industry blew this hugely out of proportion, with some even saying that the “Tower of Babel” would soon be torn down, rendering the troublesome and agonizing process of foreign language learning obsolete.
The craze continued until last year but seemed to have quieted down in 2019. Looking back, to my surprise, the interpreting and translation industry and market haven’t changed much. Except for a few agencies that provide machine translation services for product descriptions or manuals, it is humans that are still the actual translators. Professional human interpreters are still providing interpreting services in hotels’ international conference halls and are paid the same fees as before. Though the number of applicants decreased, talented language enthusiasts are still studying night and day at graduate schools, aspiring to become professional interpreters and translators. Even to this day, the demand for interpreters still outweighs the supply in Korea. China offers graduate programs in interpreting and translation in hundreds of schools. It almost feels strange that nothing much has changed.
Obviously, interpreting and translation require a final “human touch”. Even with the most state-of-the-art X-ray machines, radiologists make the final diagnosis. Even with the most advanced and sophisticated operation technology, surgeons actually perform the surgery. The same goes with interpreting and translation – we eventually need professional human interpreters in the end. That’s why one of the presentations of the APTIF 9 hosted by GSIT earlier this month was titled “Why translators are going to be the ones to turn off the lights in the offices after everyone else has long gone home.” What’s more pressing for Korea now is not to foster AI interpreting and translation but to establish a “state-run interpreting and translation organization” that will comprehensively plan and manage interpreting and translation tasks for the country, ranging from those for the Blue House to those for the local governments. (End)