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Korean to English: Across the Afternoon General field: Art/Literary
Source text - Korean 사무실 입구에서 여자의 ‘큐비클’까지는 꼭 마흔두 걸음이었다. 좌우 양쪽에 늘어선 큐비클들 사이를 따라 걷다 보면 좁고 막다른 골목 끝의 집처럼 여자의 큐비클이 나타났다. 다시 말하자면 여자의 자리는 사무실 가장 안쪽이었다. 사내에서 입사 연도가 제일 오래된 축에 낀다는 걸 의미했다. 하지만 요즘 여자는 자신이 밀릴 데까지 밀렸다는 생각을 하고 있다.
키스 해링의 그림엽서 옆엔 박항률의 소녀의 옆얼굴 그림이 붙어 있다. 전시회 포스터로 전시 기간은 이미 이 년이나 지나 있다. 화가 시리즈인가 싶어 다음엔 피카소나 김창렬 혹은 앤디 워홀의 그림이 아닐까 생각하지만 웬걸 웃통을 다 벗은 채로 열창하고 있는 프레드 머큐리가 있다. 1982년 퀸의 몬트리올 공연 포스터였다. 그렇다면 다음은 슬슬 스팅 정도가 나오지 않을까, 라는 예상도 보기 좋게 빗 나간다. 누군가 대학 체육회 때 입었던 듯한 티셔츠를 걸어두었다. 운동장을 한참 굴렀는지 빨렀는지 빨아도 지워지지 않는 붉은 흙물이 엷게 들어 있다. 강조하고 싶은 것이 가슴패기에 프린트된 출신 학교인 건지 운동장을 뒹굴던 그때의 열정인 건지 알 수는 없다.
활기차고 예측불허인 골목을 들어가다 보면 어느 순간 신도시와 구도시의 경계가 확연하듯 낯선 분위기의 큐비클들이 나타난다. 한 눈에도 낡고 얼룩이 튄 듯한 전체적으로 골고루 색이 바랜 큐비클들이다. 물론 이 큐비클들의 바깥 칸막이에도 장식은 있다. 사진이나 그림 같은 이미지보다는 활자 세대에 어울리는 글귀들이라는 것이 좀 다르지만.
“뒤로 물러서지 않기 위한 유일한 방법은 앞으로 나아가는 것이다”라고 말한 건 스티브 잡스 아니었나? 그런 문구를 낯 뜨거운 줄도 모르고 잘도 써서 붙여놓다니 모르긴 몰라도 대표의 자리가 확실할 것이다. 그렇다면 그 사람도 지금 밀리고 있는 건가?
여자의 쿠비클엔 무언가를 붙였던 압정 네 개만 꽃혀 있을 뿐이다. 마지막으로 뭘 붙였는지 그게 언제 떨어진 건지 기억나지 않는 걸 보면 일이 주 전의 일은 아니다. 종이에 뭘 적었는지도 기억나지 않는다. 하지만 뭔가가 붙어 있었다는 증거처럼 압정 하나 맡에 종잇조각이 간당간당 물려 있다.
칸막이 밖의 이런 장식들은 당연히 안에 앉은 장본인들에겐 보이지 않는다. 순전히 자신을 알리려는 일종의 메시지이다. 큐비클이란 폐쇄적인 구조 속에서 자신을 알릴 유일한 방법이다. 진로를 바꾸는 데 결정적인 역할을 했던 어릴 적 상장을 붙여놓기도 하고 경주 수학여행에서 사왔음 직한 조잡한 에밀레종을 달아놓은 이도 있다. 가장 많은 건 아무래도 대량 생산되는 포스터들이다. 무얼 장식하느냐에 따라 취향은 물론 자신의 정체성까지도 드러나는 것이다. 큐비클맨의 일상을 다뤄 유명해진 만화의 캐릭터 딜버트를 붙여놓았다면 그나마 의중은 쉽게 파악되고도 남는다. 외부에 자신을 알리고자 하는 욕구가 크면 클수록 칸막이 한 면이 온갖 이미지들로 도배되다시피 하기도 한다. 결국은 자신을 알리는 효과가 반감될뿐더러 중심이 없는 사람이라는 인상을 주기도 한다.
Translation - English It’s exactly forty-two steps from the office entrance to her cubicle. Her cubicle is at the very end of the row, like the last house on a narrow, dead-end street. Her place, in the innermost area of the office, meant she'd been at the office longer than anyone else. These days, though, she feels more like she'd been pushed until she reached that position.
A Keith Haring postcard is put up next to a print of Park Hang Ryul's "Girl, in Profile" from an exhibition two years ago. You might expect the next piece of art to be Picasso, Kim Chang Ryul or Andy Warhol, but instead it’s a poster of Fred Mercury, bare-chested and singing passionately in Queen's 1982 Montreal concert. After that, you might expect Sting or someone like that, but you’d be far off the mark. In fact, it’s a t-shirt that looks like it was worn at someone's university sports day. It’s splattered with faded crimson mud stains, left over from a tumble, that haven't washed off. You can't tell whether the shirt is there to show off the school name (printed on the chest) or the mud stains.
Walking down that unpredictable alley, at some point you’ll find the atmosphere changes. It’s as clearly distinct as the change at the boundary between the old and new parts of a city. On one side are equally faded cubicles that appear shabby and stained. Naturally, the walls of these cubicles are decorated, but rather than pictures or photos, they’re decorated with phrases for the print generation.
"And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become." That was Steve Jobs, wasn’t it? The slogan seemed like it might be a bit brazen, even for the CEO whose cubicle it adorned. Was he too being pushed now?
She has just four thumbtacks sticking things to her cubicle. She can’t remember what had been stuck under the last one, when it had fallen off, or even what had been written on the paper, so it must have been a while ago. But a little bit of paper, almost completely eaten away, serves as evidence that something was once there.
Naturally, the decorations on the outside of the cubicle don't show the person within. They’re sort of a way for people to show off their uniqueness, to help people get to know them, in a closed world like an office full of cubicles. Where the route changes directions, there’s a certificate of merit won as a child and a crude likeness of the Divine Bell of Queen Seondeok bought on a school field trip to Gyeongju. Mass-produced posters are the most common. The decorations chosen show both one's preferences and one's identity. The bigger a person’s desire to be understood by the outside world, the more pictures they plaster on their cubicle wall. It sometimes causes others to lose interest and consider those people to be uncentered. If, on the other hand, they’d simply chosen a Dilbert comic, from a famous cartoon which deals with the everyday life of a cubicle worker, it would have been easy to grasp what was on the person’s mind.
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Other - Yonsei University Korean Language Academy
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Years of experience: 11. Registered at ProZ.com: Dec 2012. Became a member: Mar 2015.
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I offer fast and accurate translations from Korean or French into English. As a native speaker of English with a perfectionist mindset and the will to fully understand and apply any language I use, along with several years of experience as an English teacher, I have developed impeccable writing skills and frequently work as a proofreader or editor for documents translated by others. This includes millions of words proofread for several MMO games. I am adept at tailoring my writing style to my audience and I especially enjoy the challenges of transcreation, where I can use my abundant creativity to put my writing skills to full use.
I am a native speaker of Canadian English, but I translate into perfect American English and can also work in British English when required.
I primarily work in translation fields that require excellent writing skills; this includes video games and TV shows as well as some marketing. I have also studied a little and have some experience in the medical field, so I can handle translations of comparatively general medical content such as patient notes.
A life spent in the digital era and a job that involves full-time computer use, combined with my eagerness to learn the intricate details of everything I am involved in, mean that I have developed excellent computer skills and computer knowledge, and I am especially good at translations related to software and computer hardware. I'm studying web development on the side, and so I have a solid grasp of programming concepts and am fluent in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python and familiar with Node.js, Bootstrap, React, and others. I have worked on a few user guides as well as release and patch/update notes for software.
In recent years, I have translated several books, which include The Having by Jooyun Hong, What My Mother Left Behind by Yoonhee Oh, Aina the Healer by Suyoung Kim, The Algorithm of Luck by Hoido Jeong, and The Making of a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist in America by Dr. Susan Chung. As a former teacher, I enjoy working on educational materials and have translated science, math, and art curriculum as well as several storybooks to be used in schools.
I have been interested in languages my whole life and have always worked to learn more and to understand the origins and context of words and grammar in different languages. I initially directed this passion toward a BA in French at Dalhousie University in Canada, which included courses in French literature and translation. I later moved to South Korea to teach English, and while there I studied at the Korean Language Institute at Yonsei University, one of South Korea's premier universities. My in-depth knowledge of the Korean language and desire to understand the language and also help others led to a book, Essential Korean Grammar, published by Tuttle and available on Amazon.com and in shops; since then, I have worked on revising several other Korean language books for Tuttle.
Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to see my resume or have any questions about my skills or experience.
Keywords: Korean-English, video game, business, general, editing, proofreading, French-English
Member since Mar '15
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