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Article published In:
APTIF 9 - Reality vs. Illusion: From Morse code to machine translation
Edited by Frans De Laet, In-kyoung Ahn and Joong-chol Kwak
[Babel 66:4/5] 2020
► pp. 550–569

History and challenges of translation and interpreting in Modern Korea

On the 40th anniversary of The Graduate School of Interpretation & Translation (GSIT) of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS)

| Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
In 1979, a graduate school with a hitherto unusual name opened its doors at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, the ‘Graduate School of Simultaneous Interpretation’, as the school GSIT, HUFS was called at that time. Up to then, translation and interpreting had not been considered as proper occupations in Korea. It was actually not known which people with what kind of qualifications performed translation or interpreting. It was therefore a completely novel idea that translators and interpreters should be trained at a higher education institution. Yet, GSIT proved to be a huge success. GSIT attracted a great deal of public attention and many talented young people. The hitherto accumulated T&I needs in society and the trend of globalization played their part in GSIT’s popularity.
As the only educational institution for T&I for the first 18 years and beyond, GSIT has written key chapters in the history of T&I in modern Korea. This paper summarizes GSIT’s footsteps in order to discuss the developments of the past four decades in Korea in T&I education and studies, in the T&I profession and the economic and socio-cultural aspects of those developments. Based on the results of the discussion, the current situation of T&I in Korea is observed with a focus on ‘professionality’ so as to identify tasks for the future.
Keywords: 40 years of T&I in modern Korea, economic aspects of T&I, socio-cultural aspects of T&I, professionality
Article outline
  • 1.Foreword
  • 2.Footsteps of GSIT, HUFS
    • 2.1Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation (GSIT)
    • 2.2Center for Interpreting and Translation (CIT)
    • 2.3Interpretation and Translation Research Institute (ITRI)
  • 3.The past 40 years of T&I in Korea
    • 3.1Training and research
    • 3.2T&I as a profession
    • 3.3Economic aspects
    • 3.4Social aspects
      • 3.4.1The birth of new elites and strengthened national competitiveness
      • 3.4.2T&I and women
  • 4.The current situation and challenges – Focusing on ‘professionality’
    • 4.1The conceptual aspect of ‘professionality’
    • 4.2The institutional aspect of ‘professionality’
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
  • Web sources
Published online: 9 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00180.ahn
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