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I'm no Picasso
Joined: 28 Oct 2008
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 Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:52 am Post subject: |
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| Princess Soraya wrote: |
ROFL!!! Oh gosh this reminds me of my first few years teaching foundation English to students from the Science Faculty. I spent many nights WEEPING about their language usage or lack thereof... (btw this was back home so many were Eng. 1st lang. speakers) |
That's not a fantastic attitude to have toward your students, as a teacher, in my opinion. They specialize in science, not writing. So what? How do you think they'd feel trying to work with you in their field? As far as those who weren't even native speakers.... well, that's just harsh.
To the OP: That kind of work is impossible to do without someone responsible for the original production sitting down and working with you. I realize that's not what they want, because this is a school after all, and the other staff are busy. However, you have no way of pinning down the correct meaning unless you engage in a dialogue with the author (or someone who can speak on the author's behalf). You'll be amazed how much easier it is to do when you're working together. |
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Rusty Shackleford
Joined: 08 May 2008
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| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 3:13 am Post subject: |
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| This happened to me once. Another K-English teacher at my school bought me an essay to check over. I was happy to point out errors but she was prompting me to basically write the thing, "Do you think it's long enough?", for instance. By this point I was getting irritable so asked who it was for. The responce "My daughter", led me to terminate the endeavour right there. |
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The Gipkik
Joined: 30 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 4:49 am Post subject: |
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| andrewchon wrote: |
| Please do make corrections you see fit. |
I did this kind of convoluted translation work for over 2 years at a medical school. One paragraph is easy, try doing it daily; it will eat away at your brain cells like watching reality TV 24 hours a day. However, as the Romans once said: de gustibus non est disputandum: there is no accounting for taste. You just might like it! |
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hari seldon
Joined: 05 Dec 2004
Location: Incheon
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| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 5:41 am Post subject: |
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| andrewchon wrote: |
You tempted me.
Boys are driven extra hard at our school, because they are expected to be the leading examples of the school motto: strength, endeavor, skill. Through balanced development of knowledge, virtue and physique, our school, whose aim is 홍익인간 (person of allround goodness), has the prestige of our community. We promise to continue to put our utmost efforts in achieving our aim...
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How does the community feel about having its prestige usurped?  |
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halfmanhalfbiscuit
Joined: 13 Oct 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 1:14 pm Post subject: |
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I did some editing for a Casino promotion and hadn't a clue what they were wanting to say-the whole thing had a coma-inducing Arirang TV tone to it. Just slot in the trot soundtrack.
They wouldn't change the slogan they were going with. "Fortune smiles at you". Surely it ought to have been "Fortune smiles on you" ?
If fortune were a person then "at", but as a presence akin to the sun "on" |
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Slowmotion
Joined: 15 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:56 pm Post subject: |
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| hari seldon wrote: |
| andrewchon wrote: |
You tempted me.
Boys are driven extra hard at our school, because they are expected to be the leading examples of the school motto: strength, endeavor, skill. Through balanced development of knowledge, virtue and physique, our school, whose aim is 홍익인간 (person of allround goodness), has the prestige of our community. We promise to continue to put our utmost efforts in achieving our aim...
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How does the community feel about having its prestige usurped? |
And the school is in a crappy neighborhood, there's like bums who lay down on these benches near the school. So I'm not sure what prestige of our community is suppose to say lol
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To the OP: That kind of work is impossible to do without someone responsible for the original production sitting down and working with you. I realize that's not what they want, because this is a school after all, and the other staff are busy. However, you have no way of pinning down the correct meaning unless you engage in a dialogue with the author (or someone who can speak on the author's behalf). You'll be amazed how much easier it is to do when you're working together. |
Tried this, and while it was better than working by myself, it still wasn't so easy. She couldn't exactly explain the intended meaning, and just showed me the Korean words, and looking them up in the naver dictionary gave many choices of which were different. She was asking me to pick the best one when some of the meanings were totally different. |
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CasperTheFriendlyGhost
Joined: 28 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:38 am Post subject: |
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| I see what you mean. The writing could barely be considered a rough draft. You'll have to practically write it for them and include what you think it means where it's unclear. Actually, if I wasn't in Korea and I read that, I would think the person was psychotic. The communication skill is very poor. |
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Slowmotion
Joined: 15 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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Anyone wanna try these? I'm almost done with this 5 page mess.
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Massive materials for entrance examination and skills for going on to university through the time-honored tradition and entrance examination guidance which is different from other schools through our own's education program
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Maximizing accomplishment effect of English, Math under guiding students in their studies according to dividing classes by ability for regular classes.
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maximizing accomplishment??
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Discovering and instructing excellent students with motivating for their study about English and Math, holding an intramural English, Math meeting yearly.
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If they there are classes for these advanced students, why are they still "discovering?" them?
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Having developed and supported a school-run pipe music band designated by Gyeonggi province since 2007.
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*sigh* |
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saw6436
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Daejeon, ROK
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| Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 9:30 pm Post subject: |
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Slowmotion, how much are you paying people to do your job? Just kidding. I do this sort of stuff all the time at my PS. I don't mind it much as I can generally take time off from teaching when I get one of these little projects. It is also a nice thing to do for a co-worker.
What I don't like is that the "higher-ups" who probably innitiated these little projects have no idea about English. So, essentially, you are wasting your time. |
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Slowmotion
Joined: 15 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 2:53 am Post subject: |
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| saw6436 wrote: |
Slowmotion, how much are you paying people to do your job? Just kidding. I do this sort of stuff all the time at my PS. I don't mind it much as I can generally take time off from teaching when I get one of these little projects. It is also a nice thing to do for a co-worker.
What I don't like is that the "higher-ups" who probably innitiated these little projects have no idea about English. So, essentially, you are wasting your time. |
Your school let's you skip your classes to complete this work? Wish I could sa y the same  |
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benji
Joined: 21 Jul 2009
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| Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 3:57 am Post subject: |
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| andrewchon wrote: |
You tempted me.
Boys are driven extra hard at our school, because they are expected to be the leading examples of the school motto: strength, endeavor, skill. Through balanced development of knowledge, virtue and physique, our school, whose aim is 홍익인간 (person of allround goodness), has the prestige of our community. We promise to continue to put our utmost efforts in achieving our aim.
Or, did you want that translated into Korean? |
Your translation is speculation. |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 2:40 pm Post subject: |
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| I had to do this kind of thing once, a few years ago. The head English teacher at the school I was working at wanted me to check over a short speech she had written. It was less than a page, but I think it took me almost an hour to correct what I could, figure out what she was trying to say, and rewrite the whole thing. Very tedious. |
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cruisemonkey
Joined: 04 Jul 2005
Location: Hopefully, the same place as my luggage.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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The only things I translate into English are: the (public school) �mid-term� and �final� English exam questions my Korean co-teachers write.  |
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DeliciousFish
Joined: 29 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 4:49 pm Post subject: |
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About 6 months into my contract, my boss demanded we assign notebooks to the kids, which translated to correcting 1500 sentences a week of this nonsense for me. My absolute favorite was "my favorite food is pi ss." That made me laugh for days. I always wondered what kind tastes the best for the kid; maybe dog or cow or something. Of course, I just translated that to pizza, but some were so incredibly bad I just rewrote the whole sentence to be completely different and tried to use the grammar of the day.
In the end, I knew my contract was finished, so I only focused on grading students whose mom's would complain if I didn't. The students never even read my corrections anyway, and I don't blame them as they had enough hw which functioned exactly the same way. After a while, you just put a check mark on stuff like this, turn it back in, and focus on more important parts of teaching.
My friend worked part time translating this kind of stuff, and he would stress for hours, only to find as others have that companies have already built there campaigns on crap like "Special Happy Car gives you Feel Good Power of Fun Daily Times." It's even more hilarious if you ever watch the English Teaching shows on Korean TV. Even at that level, they were constantly making mistakes, and while there theory might be sound, speaking without colloquialisms or outside of the common vernacular is absolutely useless.
I think a lot of teachers including myself have problems with all of the technical rules of English, as we learned most of them so young, but we know what sounds right and are still adept at the language. The reverse coin is Koreans who have practiced all the grammar points, but still can't make a coherent sentence without over thinking it, or saying things in such a strange and unnatural way.
Good luck with the re-translation, it looks like a daunting task as re-phrasing it into a correct sentence will probably take away from the intended meaning as perceived by your school. |
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fruitcake
Joined: 18 Apr 2004
Location: shinchon
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| Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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| you just gave me a headache |
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