There are suddenly foreign cars everywhere. Stylish late car models manufactured in many countries parade down the roads. According to data on the Web site of the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association, some 6,000 imported new cars were sold in October versus 110,000 local new cars sold during the same month. That means foreign cars made up more than 5 percent of cars sold here. It seems not so long ago that foreign cars were so rare they caused heads to turn in awe.
It turns in the fourth paragraph:
Unfortunately, many driving foreign cars present the wrong role model. Many tend to dash through intersections despite red lights. Pedestrians feel particularly insulted when this happens. Foreign car drivers are also among the most obnoxious drivers at intersections, shifting suddenly from the left-turn lane to race forward when light changes to green. Drivers in the back point fingers and grumble that they probably had made their money through such sneaky means. Some can be found speeding in highway bus lanes. Those watching shrug and think they probably have too much money to be bothered about fines.
And concludes:
Of course, some drivers of foreign cars also have good hearts. They obey traffic rules. Finding a pedestrian crossing, the driver stops no matter what the light says. When small cars or trucks signal, they slow to make room for them to cut in. They whisper blessings to small cars and truck owners that they, too, can one day be better off. If many driving foreign cars have such kind hearts, we will one day find ourselves in a warmer and more noble society.
Okay then.
21 comments:
yeah that one sucked. To me it looks like someone's freewrite, which should then be made into a proper essay.
Is this class resentment dressed up as xenophobia, or xenophobia dressed up as class resentment? Either way, it's pretty ugly.
I just got back from a trip to NE China, where well over half of the cars on the road are foreign models from Europe, Japan and the US (some imports, some manufactured locally), and literally every taxi is a Volkswagen.
Compare that with a measly "5%," which suddenly has the local frogs hurling themselves madly against the walls of the well.
Everything said about "foreign" cars is true of domestic cars. It's totally irrelevant, but gave him some way to disguise his resentment.
Funny, given his position, he probably drives a large car. But maybe it's domestic, so he couldn't be talking about himself:)
Very gonzo.
Yeah. Many times I've tried to point out disjointed failures in logic and basic thought progression to a couple of my co-workers and Korean friends--sometimes in textbooks, other times in news articles.
They inevitably tell me it is because the education system and culture in Korea are different, and I should "understand."
Sigh. It, therefore, isn't that there is something lacking in what I am reading, but rather that I am failing to understand it. When will I ever learn?
Reading that made my head hurt, too.
||"There are suddenly foreign cars everywhere."||
vs.
||"That means foreign cars made up more than 5 percent of cars sold here."||
One out of twenty is "everywhere"?
||"So what prompted the increase in the population of foreign cars? Car-owners give varying answers. A surprisingly large number of them say they came to distrust local cars manufactured at industrial sites that suffer frequent strikes and walkouts."||
So, Korean companies give consumers good reason to be suspicious of their products, and yet, it the consumer who must be villainized, for making an informed choice.
||"Some believe foreign cars are safer while others select them for exhibitionist purposes."||
I've heard Koreans brag that they love their children more than any other race or ethnic group, and yet, if they make a choice based upon safety, accusatory fingers must be pointed at them.
||"Unfortunately, many driving foreign cars present the wrong role model. Many tend to dash through intersections despite red lights. Pedestrians feel particularly insulted when this happens. Foreign car drivers are also among the most obnoxious drivers at intersections, shifting suddenly from the left-turn lane to race forward when light changes to green."||
Drivers of domestic cars also behave exactly like that. There's no connection whatsoever between reckless driving and foreign vs. domestic cars.
||"The driving manners of foreign car owners help to support that cynicism [of the way they accumulated wealth]."||
What does reckless driving have to do with white-collar crime? Some of the worst drivers are taxi drivers and bus drivers, and they're hardly rich.
Then there was the bit about his trip to Mount Jiri, which had nothing to do with anything.
||"If many driving foreign cars have such kind hearts, we will one day find ourselves in a warmer and more noble society."||
Why only those driving foreign cars? Many people who drive domestic cars would make Korea a much better place if they, for example, would stop suddenly cutting across two lanes of traffic without signaling.
This just further cements my belief that a lot of so-called "professors" here are absolute morons.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Too much (cold, inhumane, foreign) "logic" in this here thread.
Feel the jong, y'all!
Two notes:
First, this is a translation work, so somethings could be lost.
Second, let's give credit to this guy. "Foreign car" and "rich guy" could be pretty close concepts here. He is not talking about the car but about the driver.
Haha, I started to read that essay and honestly stopped after the first paragraph. I had no idea what she was talking about.
Funny how you never noticed the drivers of Korean made cars doing the exact same thing.
The writer commits the classic confirmation bias fallacy. If this were a high school student, fine, but the article was written by "a professor of media studies at Korea University". Geez.
I noticed the worst possible drivers in North America drive Hyundais. What's up with that, huh?
These behaviors may be considered matters of small consequence. But they lead to a collective stereotype about the rich. In a capitalist society, making money is good and having money should be praised. Yet many view the wealthy in an unfavorable light. They are suspicious of the way they accumulated wealth. The driving manners of foreign car owners help to support that cynicism.
His ultimate argument is akin to saying "Many view black people as being dangerous. I've seen black people commit crimes. But many black people have good hearts. So black people out in society should do their best to be quiet and know their place in society and not scare white people by being uppity and loud."
Klogic at its finest.
What I find most disturbing is that this guy is an academic. While I have proofread well-written essays and research papers by Koreans, this guy clearly doesn't have it; Korean or Anglo-American essay styles. An angst ridden little frog who doesn't like the odd Saab or Lexus falling into his neo-mercantilist well.
Is it right to criticize a person or his essay writing skills using his/her translated work as a basis? Has anyone here (proficient in Korean language) actually read the original manuscript?
Somebody here said it well, something could be lost. That's a fair call.
This guy may or may not be stupid in terms of essay writing skills or journalistic skills, but what is worse is criticizing without verifying.
Somebody here said it well, something could be lost. That's a fair call.
Fair that something could be lost, yes. But the meandering topic-less spaghetti-threaded style of writing is distinctly Korean.
I've taught writing here for many years, and it takes me a good month (or two, if the students are young) to get them out of this habit/style, and write in the 1-3-1 top-down "logical" style we use in English.
At the beginning of the month when I assigned their first writing assignment, their point would be all over the place and the topic/thesis statement might not be mentioned at all until the final few sentences.
As an exercise to illustrate how much they learned in their semester with me, I have them write their first assignment over again. They can't believe how COMPLETELY different the two answers are.
@ arvinsign
I was going to answer you, but Darth Babaganoosh beat me to it.
It's true that a word here or a phrase there might be poorly translated, but the organization is the writer's. Like Darth B., I have also taught writing to Korean students, and organization is one of my priorities. Spelling and some grammar mistakes are relatively easy to fix, but when an essay is poorly organized, there is little to be done except hand it back to the student and say, "Sorry, but you have to do it again." Even though I am not as strict about the 1-3-1 structure as Darth might be, I am insistent that: a. All paragraphs have a central idea. b. Everything within that paragraph must be related to that central idea. And c. Each paragraph must follow logically from the one before. Getting Korean students to follow these simple rules can be a headache. Now look at my criteria and look at what this so-called "professor" wrote. If he were my student, I would give him a D. Seriously.
@ DB and extrakorea,
Great points. I somewhat agree with your insights. Personally, i also find the organization of the essay so amateurish (or actually a level lower than that). However i have another question. Is the organization of the essay not part of the translation work? Does the translation work limited only to a verbatim translation? The great Danish physicist Niels Bohr always complain of not being able to finish english manuscripts, because of lack of skill on this matter so he usually asks someones help to write his thoughts/ideas.
Because seriously, most of the blame here should be on Joongang Ilbo and their staff. As well as other Korea english newspapers who will accept any submission as long as its in English and as long as it serves their interests. I actually dont understand why many bloggers or readers keeps on submitting to these journals then later on criticize it or its contents. Hypocrisy at its finest.
In Gwangju, we have the " Gwangju News" that serves as the local english news/feature magazine. I think the magazine is fine as far as information is concerned, however if im going to be nit picky, i'll say i subjectively find that many of the articles were poorly written, proofread and edited. Majority of which were written by people proficient in English or uses English as their primary language, or probably "professionals". But i dont hold that against them, i appreciate every bit of information i get from those articles and i believe they are doing a good service, in short it doesnt make my head hurt.
The truth is, most english media entities here in Korea are not staffed with so many professional writers/journalists etc, in the same magnitude as those in North America. So i dont expect that much.
@arvinsign
"In Gwangju, we have the " Gwangju News"i'll say i subjectively find that many of the articles were poorly written, proofread and edited. Majority of which were written by people proficient in English or uses English as their primary language, or probably "professionals". But i dont hold that against them, i appreciate every bit of information i get from those articles and i believe they are doing a good service, in short it doesnt make my head hurt."
Actually a very large number of the articles written in the Gwangju News are by young, adult, Korean's who wish to practice their writing skills. For example, the December issue has 18 authors listed. Some articles have multiple people contributing to them so there are 11 Korean's listed there. Maria Lisak and Doug Stuber both wrote two articles each and at least two of the people writing aren’t even in Korea anymore. The magazine struggles to find enough articles to make an issue each month and so unfortunately not much gets turned away. They need to make do with what people send in.
Have you ever volunteered to write or edit for this magazine? I have. At the extreme it sometimes takes an entire month to help these writers get their articles to a point where it is printable while not erasing the voice of the author.
As for the "native" English speaker written articles, most of these writers have never written for a magazine before and the magazine requires that simple language be used so that it is accessible to the large Korean readership of the magazine. At times an article written in a scholarly tone must be changed so that it is accessible. Many magazines must do this though. Usually a newspaper does not have such restrictions
The Gwangju News is put out each month by a group of volunteers who do their best each month to put out a publication while holding down full time jobs, raising children and dealing with their other duties so it may not be surprising that they are not doing a “professional” job. They do the best they can. This month they only had 6 people helping with proofreading. The staff of the Joongang Ilbo are paid, should be professional journalists and do this full time.
There has been a major change at the magazine in the last couple of months but if you are catching so many problems with proofreading and editing why don’t you volunteer a bit of your time each month?
Hey! Fabulous thread.
I think there is a big movement and controversial discussion going on in Korean in Korea regarding the difficulty of quality translation. What is it, who says it's quality.
At the last Gwangju News meeting, Max Ahn mentioned that one of the reasons that there has never been a Nobel Literature winner from Korea is because of the difficulty and controversy of translation quality. Lots of infighting amongst the "scholars."
Gwangju News always suffers in Dec, Jan, Feb, and Jun, Jul, Aug when most contributors are busy with other life priorities.
The Jan issue is being mailed out today (thanks to a group of Korean and Chinese student volunteers from CNU) and I know Minsu (the mag layout coordinator) and Jon Ozelton (editor) were understaffed this issue, especailly for coy editting.
Since Jon stepped up as editor, we haven't had a commitment from someone to replace him as copy editor. We have proofreaders but there is lots of churn because, as fattycat mentioned, this is a volunteer magazine - we aren't professionals and don't get paid.
What institutions and organizations are thought to put out quality translated publications in Korea? Can we start a list here to evaluate them?
Interesting discussion here. I was out of town for January and am just catching up on old comments.
My point here was to highlight the different essay styles in Korean and English, and to note how jarring they can read when translated from one language to another. The ridiculous subject matter was just a bonus. My focus was on the form.
Regarding the Gwangju News, when I contributed articles there and helped proofread I heard all the time that they were really in need of content.
To be fair, and to be perfectly honest, the worst articles I ever had to edit there came from other native English speakers. One time I was shocked by how bad an article was, and was surprised to find, after Googling him, that he was an English teacher. But, not everybody can write. I used to work as a tutor in a university writing center back home, and the American students struggled just as much as the ESL ones with making sentences, forming paragraphs, and creating coherent and cohesive essays.
But Gwangju News isn't a professional magazine, and the people who write for it and edit are volunteering their time. A lot of the people are just happy to write something, to share some news or pictures, and to see their name in the paper. On very rare occassions the articles are shockingly bad, or there's an editing fail or something, but I guess they do the best they can.
For what it's worth, I thought the quality of Gwangju News has gone way up since Jon took over. I no longer have to read political tracts and anti-American articles in a magazine about life in fucking Gwangju.
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