대학에서의 번역 교육의 난제

Some Thorny Problems with Translation Education at the Universities in Korea

In a sense, Republic of Korea is a blessed land of translation. According to the New York Times analysis, 29% of published books in 2004, are translated ones. This indicates that Korea is a first-rate country of translation in the world. In fact, 16 translated volumes are in the 30 best sellers, being compared with Japan which has only two in the same level best seller list. The Korean translation market share also leads to more than 50%, which is definitely different from those of most European countries and the USA. The Korean market, nevertheless, still has a lot of mistranslated and slipshod pieces of works. Apparently this comes from producing less qualified translators and being an unsatisfactory educational system for them. Most English departments of universities in Korea, are clearly responsible for this kind of inefficiency. Most of them have an at least 50-year old history. But it is estimated that they have not properly functioned for efficient English teaching. At the moment, skillful English abilities are in constant demand, particularly for the recent trend of globalization. It is the time to find out better ways for providing the university students with strong language skills and a balanced conception of translation.