Your low reading comprehension in Korean may not be your fault.
By: Sangbin Lee
Tags: Reading Comprehension, Korean Language, Korean, Foreign Language, Language Learning

Your low reading comprehension in Korean may not be your fault.

Have you ever thought that you should study Korean more when you couldn’t understand what you were reading even if you’ve learned it for a couple of years? If you’re intermediate or advanced learners, you might experience it at least once(or many). In that situation, you might tend to blame yourself, especially your lack of effort to study grammar rules or vocabulary. It’s not easy for language learners to suspect that native speaker’s writings could be wrong. But your low reading comprehension in Korean is sometimes not your fault. You should rather sometimes blame someone else(not all the time though).

I like to read news magazines. One of them is Le Monde diplomatique which is originally a French monthly newspaper on current affairs and translated into 22 languages including Korean. A couple of weeks ago, I read an article in Le Monde Korea for my lesson; the original title is «La bourgeoisie intellectuelle, une élite héréditaire» ; translated into English, “The meritocrats shall inherit the earth”; translated into Korean, ‘현대판 귀족’ 메리토크라트의 배타적 특권. This article was not easy to understand at a glance. So I sit at a desk and put on my glasses, then read it again thoroughly. I, however, couldn’t understand it well again!

Did I have no background knowledge on meritocracy? No, I’ve already read a few books about it. Did the article target highly educated readers? Yes, but I’m doing a Master in politics, so I think that I am one of them. Did I read the article in another language like French? No, I’m learning French but I read the article translated in Korean which is my mother tongue. There was no reason to blame myself, so I shifted responsibility onto others: the writer or translator(maybe both).

I wanted to prove that the translation was bad. So I searched for the same article translated in English, and I luckily found it. The result is… I was right! Here I’m going to share the critical two mistakes that I found.

Two Examples of Bad Translation.

The first one is «le lancer de pavés». The Le Monde Korea translated it into “보도블럭 깔기(paving blocks)”, whereas in the English edition, “protesters”. Do you think which translation is correct? If you’re French, you can easily say the answer, but if you’re not, we have Google. When you search «le lancer de pavés» on Google, the first picture you’ll see is this:

(Google Image Search: le lancer de pavés / The Original Photograph: Un manifestant lançant un pavé, Réseau-Canope.fr)

Considering the context, 보도블럭 깔기(paving blocks) doesn’t make sense at all in the article. The right translation of «le lancer de pavés», therefore, should be “protestors”. Then my question is why it happened. Le Monde Korea is not a cheap and rubbish magazine. As far as I know they hire qualified translators. The only reasonable guess I think of is that the Korean translator would have a diploma in french language, but would not have proper knowledge on meritocracy whereas the English translator would have both.

[Le Monde Diplomatique, The Original Text]

De la surcharge scolaire dès 3 ans aux journées de douze heures comme associé d’un cabinet d’avocat, les méritocrates s’aperçoiventàleurs dépens que le capital, même culturel, a besoin du travail — le leur!–pour produire du profit. Cette aliénation à des entreprises souvent dépourvues d’utilité sociale, qui érigent l’autodestruction par épuisement en critère d’excellence professionnelle, incite une fraction, minuscule mais croissante, à faire défection pour se reconvertir dans l’artisanat, l’humanitaire et, plus rarement, le lancer de pavés. Pareil sursaut reste l’exception. [Le Monde Diplomatique English edition]

From starting Greek aged three to 12-hour days as a partner in a law firm, meritocrats realise to their cost that capital, even cultural capital, demands work if it is to yield a profit. The resultant loss of affection for businesses often without social utility, which make self-destruction through exhaustion a criterion of professional excellence, leads a small but growing number to defect and reinvent themselves as artisans, charity workers or, more rarely, protestors. They are the exception [Le Monde Korea]

3세부터 고대 그리스어를 배우기 시작해, 하루 12시간 일하는 로펌의 파트너로 근무하기까지 메리토크라트들은 자본과 심지어 문화적 소비에 투자하기 위해 일, 그것도 ‘자기 자신만의 독자적인 일’을 통해 이익을 창출할 필요성을 깨닫는다. 사회적 유용성이 없어진 채 전문성을 최우선가치로 여기는 기업에서 퇴출 돼버린 사람은 수공업, 인도주의 활동, 보도블럭 깔기 등 작지만 점점 성장하는 부문에서 일을 시작한다. 물론 이렇게 새로운 일을 하는 경우는 매우 예외적인 현상이다. [My Translation in Korean]

메리토크라트들은 3세부터 고대 그리스어를 배우기 시작해, 하루 12시간 일하는 로펌의 파트너로 일하게 되면서, 그들이 가진 자본이란, 심지어 문화 자본까지도, 그들의 노동을 대가로 한다는 사실을 깨닫게 된다. 그 결과 메리토크라트들은 직업적 우수함이라는 기준을 충족시키기 위해 자기 자신을 착취해야 하고 결국 자신을 파멸로 이끌게 하는 기업들에서 일하는 것에 대한 애착을 잃게 된다. 주로 이런 기업들은 사회에 유용하지 않다고 여겨진다. 이렇게 생각하는 메리토크라트들이 소수지만 증가하기 시작했고, 그들은 기존의 삶을 떠나 자신을 수공예자, 인도주의 활동가, 그리고 매우 소수지만 사회 저항운동가으로 새로운 삶을 살기로 한다. 물론 이들은 매우 예외적인 사례들이다.

(Google Image Search: 사료 / The Original Photograph: CAT FOOD, Pixy.org)

The other mistake is «nos corps nourris bio». The Le Monde Korea translated it into “유기농 사료를 섭취하고”. This is a terrible translation, and Le Monde Korea shouldn’t say any excuse for it. I tell you why; the word, “사료”, means “animal feed”; we, at least I, have been taught that we should not use the word for human being unless you mock someone. The context in the article, as you can see below, is a new elite’s bragging about their lifestyle. Why do they suddenly make fun of themselves? Whoever translated the line would be the same as the google translator or worse.

[Le Monde Diplomatique, , The Original Text]

Nous, les 9,9 % (…), nous nous promenons en jeans et T-shirts hérités de nos débuts soi-disant modestes. Nous préférons signaler notre statut en parlant de nos corps nourris bio, des exploits de notre progéniture et de la rectitude écologique de nos quartiers. [Le Monde Diplomatique English edition]

Our class walks around in the jeans and T-shirts inherited from our supposedly humble beginnings. We prefer to signal our status by talking about our organically nourished bodies, the awe-inspiring feats of our offspring, and the ecological correctness of our neighborhoods. [Le Monde Korea]

우리, 상위 9.9%에 속하는 사람들은 (…), 소위 ‘비천한 출신’일 때 입던 청바지와 티셔츠 차림으로 걸어 다닌다. 우리는 유기농 사료를 섭취하고, 자녀들이 거둔 사회적 성취 및 우리가 사는 지역의 생태주의적 환경에 대해 이야기함으로써 사회적 지위를 알리기를 좋아한다. [My Translation in Korean]

우리, 상위 9.9%에 속하는 사람들은 (…), 소위 ‘비천한 출신’일 때 입던 청바지와 티셔츠 차림으로 걸어 다닌다. 우리는 우리의 사회적 지위를 알리기 위해 어떻게 유기농 식품으로 건강을 가꾸는지, 어떤 사회적 영예를 자녀들이 거뒀는지, 그리고 우리 지역의 생태를 지키기 위한 방법이 무엇인지에 대해서 이야기하고 싶어한다.

How to select good writings out of bad writings.

One of the ways to find good writings is to use your logical mind. Bad writers easily lose the logical structure of their writings and never get back to the right point. Bad translators don’t even know what is the main idea of the original text. They just translate foreign languages into Korean like a machine, word-by-word translation. While some native Koreans can easily catch illogical structure and point a finger at writers or translators, Korean learners may have some trouble to realize that what they are reading is badly written or translated. Here is my tip:

Do you know all the words and grammar rules in a text?

Do you have background knowledge about a text?

If you say “yes” to both questions but you cannot still understand the text well, close it and start a new one. Trust yourself!

The second tip is to check words with contexts. Most language learners just memorize words without contexts. But, in a certain situation, a grammatically perfect sentence doesn’t make sense at all. Take a look at the second example above. “유기농 사료를 섭취하고” is a grammatically perfect expression itself. It doesn’t, however, fit in the context because it should be used to describe what animals eat, not human beings. Here is a practical tip; if you want to check whether a word is properly used in a text which you are reading now, I recommend you to compare the word in the text to the dictionary’s examples. Dictionaries usually suggest examples based on their frequency. If a writer is not a magician of words, he/she will follow word choices that other people have already used to describe things and situations.

I hope those tips are helpful for you.

P.S.

Feel free to leave links in the comment section below if you want me to check whether or not books and articles in Korean are written well.