Korean Job Discussion Forums

greg1973 · Joined: 11 Jun 2003

Hi, I have been offered a job proofreading/editing, making sure Korean to English translations read well. Is anyone doing this kind of work? As I have not done this before I would appreciate any personal experiences or could someone point me to a thread for more advice.

Cheers
Greg

Blue Flower · Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2003 10:57 pm Post subject:

No - but i would love to do it. Is the pay good?

Zyzyfer · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2003 1:06 am Post subject:

If I may ask, where'd you find the job? Not the company, but the ad service or agency or something. You can PM me if you want to answer, but don't want to say it to the entire board..

Seriously, I'm trying to break into the editing field, since it's my strongest ability, but I can't find much. I'd vastly appreciate it...

And as for your question, not a lot of posters here have broken into this field. The topic came up once, with people saying, "Wow, that sounds great!", and not much else.

Trinny · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

Something I can offer my two cents' worth.

I did the Yahoo Korea search using Korean keyword for translation. Then Yahoo found the list of translation/interpretation agencies. From there, I visited their websites and registered myself as a translator. Before long, I started getting calls from these agenices I sent my resume to.

It is a ok gig for me, because I have been able to work from home and saved up most of what I have made, living off on my hubby's income. I have been working with one particular agency for over 4 fours now and got a lot of English-related jobs other than translation through this particular agency.

Broccoli · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2003 6:23 am Post subject:

But what if you don't speak Korean? My editing skills are much stronger than my teaching skills and I inherently enjoy editing much more. Greg1973, are you fluent in Korean?

If anyone has tips, please pm me as well. Thanks folks!

pucheon · Joined: 13 Apr 2003 Location: Bucheon

I'm currently working for a web design company editing their web content. I'm a gyopo. it's pretty good pay, 5,000 won per page and it's interesting work. I'm almost finished my current 60 page project and, having done private tutoring, I know it sure as hell beats sitting with some brat for an hour trying to get them excited about English.

I work in IT/Finance so maybe that helped.

I got this through a personal contact. That's the way to do it, try to just get the word out between all your local friends that you're interested and willing to do editing.

Zyzyfer · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2003 9:37 pm Post subject:

Trinny · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

Zyzyfer,

It is ��. Korean translation agencies are not as stringent as North American companies with regards to the qualification of translators. I had about 4 years of off-again and on-again translation experience before taking it up full-time.

Real momey comes from Japanese ones. They charge minimum of 5,000 yen per page, which is twice that of Koreans charge from their clients and the pays for editors are better, as a result. Go to yahoo.co.jp and do the same with the Japanese companies as well. You don't have to have good Japanese to get contracts with them.

Besides, editing is not rocket science. Anybody who have a little bit of writing skill can do it.

Blue Flower · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2003 8:40 pm Post subject:

Do you have to be able to speak the language? Or is it just correcting the grammer, and making sure the words sound right?

Sucker · Joined: 11 Feb 2003

It all depends on three things � the quality of the original translation, the amount of money that they give you and the amount of time.

Sometimes it is just correcting the English. More often it is more akin to translating.

The money can be good if you get a corporate contract (press releases, etc), if irregular. Working for an agency on the other hand (like I do), you tend to earn a little less than the average teacher. Longer hours too.