ABSTRACT
South Korea, like other Asian nations in recent decades, has rapidly undergone major changes in its political, economic, and social connections with other countries, particularly those in the West. The English language, and English interpretation and translation, have played a huge role in South Korea’s transition from a poor, postwar nation in the 1950s and 1960s to an economic and geopolitical world power today. This chapter reviews information gathered from numerous interviews and conversations with interpreters and translators in Korea at all stages of their careers about their education, lives, and work as English interpreter–translators in South Korea. The interpreter–translators address topics such as the varying paths that many of them trod to find their way to this unique career, social pressures and issues of status regarding the educational and career choices they made, and the challenges faced by professional women in Korean society.
