[KS] Foreign copy-editors and polishers in Pyongyang - andSeoul?

Tue May 22 07:29:37 EDT 2012

The only polishers I meet or knew of in the DPRK were foreign, and, as I
said, they were phased out in 2001-02 on cost grounds. According to the only
one I ever talked to in any detail, they seemed to be mainly used on the
glossy magazines and Pyongyang Times,  rather than other publications. They
could not change any words or phrases relating to Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong
Il. They were expected to complete their work by Tuesday but the Pyongyang
Times  did not go to press until Thursday, which allowed time for the Korean
staff to change things back to the way they wanted.

I never met any Korean-Americans or any others with a Korean background who
might have done this work. There are a lot of North Koreans who have studied
English abroad and who can write it in a satisfactory, if not perfect, way.
They include diplomats and their children; many of the latter attend the
Foreign Languages University on return to the DPRK andthen go into work
involving languages. We never received badly phrased texts from the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs  even if the English was not exactly as I might have
written it.

I have had a couple of conversations with DPRK officials sine 2001 who have
lamented the misuses of words in DPRK English-language publications but who
also indicated the difficulty in getting other organizations to change their
ways.

As for "cutesy" images, I blame Walt Disney and "Hello Kitty"..

Jim Hoare

  _____  

From: koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws
[mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws] On Behalf Of don kirk
Sent: 21 May 2012 22:18
To: Korean Studies Discussion List
Subject: Re: [KS] Foreign copy-editors and polishers in Pyongyang -
andSeoul?

Yes, really, since when are "cutesy....kids" as "nauseating," almost, as the
rat images for Lee M.B.? For sure, they've got some "polishers" up there
who're up on idiomatic English, as indicated in the passage presented by
Scott. Would be interesting to know who they are, whether foreign or Korean,
possibly Korean-American.

Don Kirk

--- On Mon, 5/21/12, Afostercarter at aol.com <Afostercarter at aol.com> wrote:

From: Afostercarter at aol.com <Afostercarter at aol.com>
Subject: Re: [KS] Foreign copy-editors and polishers in Pyongyang - and
Seoul?
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Date: Monday, May 21, 2012, 6:54 AM

Dear friends and colleagues,

Jim makes an important point. Foreign linguistic advisers

may get overridden - and by no means only in Pyongyang.

Our List surely includes some who have similarly proof-read

and polished in the other Korea, or are doing so right now.

I'd be interested to hear their views and experience.

This issue is almost as hardy a perennial as romanization.

But time and again one still runs across South Korean

websites, including those of large companies and official 

bodies, where the English just ain't right; sometimes badly so.

Thus the ROK transport ministry http://english.mltm.go.kr
<http://english.mltm.go.kr/> 

proclaims on its homepage: "Make Happiness, Happy Creator".

Amen to that - but what on earth are they on about?

Then again, in one classic corporate case where Koreans 

dreamed up an 'English' product name, the LG Viewty 

has sold very well. (Viewty is in the eye of the veholder?)

- Another thing. English apart, why are so many corporate

and official South Korean websites festooned with cutesy birds and
butterflies, winsome kids, cartoon characters and the like? 

Almost as nauseating, at the opposite end of the scale, as 

North Korea's bloody rats. (Perhaps I am hard to please.)

Kind regards

Aidan FC

Aidan Foster-Carter

Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds
University, UK

E: afostercarter at aol.com
<http://us.mc394.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=afostercarter@aol.com>
afostercarter at yahoo.com
<http://us.mc394.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=afostercarter@yahoo.com>    W:
www.aidanfc.net <http://www.aidanfc.net/>     

W in Korea:
<http://web.archive.org/web/20090202080126/http:/aidanfc.net/index.html>
http://web.archive.org/web/20090202080126/http://aidanfc.net/index.html

_______________

In a message dated 5/21/2012 08:02:22 GMT Daylight Time,
jimhoare64 at aol.co.uk writes:

I agree that KCNA did not seem to use polishers, The FLPH laid off the
remaining foreign staff while we were there in 2001-02 and thereafter seemed
to relay on Koreans - no doubt this explains the odd language. 

But even when they did employ foreign staff, the Korean staff would often
override what the native speakers had suggested.

On a slightly different note, what use would one make of photographs of such
people if one had them? 

Jim Hoare

-----Original Message-----
From: Afostercarter <Afostercarter at aol.com>
To: koreanstudies <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
CC: jsburgeson <jsburgeson at yahoo.com>
Sent: Sun, 20 May 2012 18:34
Subject: Re: [KS] Foreign copy-editors and polishers in Pyongyang

Dear friends and colleagues,

Scott raises the question of native speakers of English (etc)

as copy-editors - also known as 'polishers' - in North Korea.

Having in the past recruited at least two people for such roles

- Michael Harrold, and the late Andrew Holloway
http://www.aidanfc.net/a_year_in_pyongyang.html

- this is a topic about which I'm curious, but not up-to-date.

Michael, Andrew and others were hired by the DPRK

Foreign Languages Publishing House (FLPH). The texts

they worked on were mostly books, as best I recall.

By contrast, I've never heard of KCNA using foreigners.

My guess would be that they don't, given some stilted

expressions and the odd mistake.

For example, surely if a native English speaker were

involved they would have recommended a different word

- be it technical or colloquial - for "bottom hole" in the 

third sentence of the caption to the cartoon below.

There are other linguistic infelicities here as well,

not least the title. Either tear apart or tear to pieces,

but not tear apart to pieces.

(On the substance: In my article I likened doing the research

for this to wading through sewage. You can see why.)

- But back to polishers. FLPH still uses at least one, but he 

lives in Beijing. See an interesting interview with Paul White

at Tad Farrell's ever more indispensable NKNews:

 <http://www.nknews.org/2012/04/the-british-voice-of-kim-il-sung/>
http://www.nknews.org/2012/04/the-british-voice-of-kim-il-sung/

Kind regards

Aidan FC

Aidan Foster-Carter

Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds
University, UK

E: afostercarter at aol.com
<http://us.mc394.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=afostercarter@aol.com>
afostercarter at yahoo.com
<http://us.mc394.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=afostercarter@yahoo.com>    W:
www.aidanfc.net <http://www.aidanfc.net/>     

**************

>From http://www.kcna.kp/2mb/eindex.html (cartoon 5)

  <http://www.kcna.kp/2mb/resource/images/05.jpg> 

Tear Apart Lee Myung Bak to Pieces

The dirty hairy body of rat-like Myung Bak is being stabbed with bayonets.
One is right in his neck and the heart has already burst open. Blood is
flowing out of its filthy bottom hole. This is not too much to Lee as he
committed only sordid acts of flunkeyism and treachery. And this is not all.
It is the strong will and pledge of the army and people of the DPRK to tear
apart Lee Myung Bak to pieces.

_______________

In a message dated 5/20/2012 11:27:17 GMT Daylight Time,
jsburgeson at yahoo.com
<http://us.mc394.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=jsburgeson@yahoo.com>  writes:

Thanks for the great article, Aiden! Did you have to put bandaids on your
eye-balls after reading so much slashing, violent fulmination? 

Any chance you can dig up photos of some of the foreign devils who
copy-edited this stuff in English? One wonders if they have PTSD by now;
hopefully they were sharp enough to ask in advance to be paid in soju!

--- On Fri, 5/18/12, Aidan Foster-Carter <afostercarter at aol.com
<http://us.mc394.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=afostercarter@aol.com> >
wrote:

From: Aidan Foster-Carter <afostercarter at aol.com
<http://us.mc394.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=afostercarter@aol.com> >
Subject: [KS] (no subject)
To: Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
<http://us.mc394.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws> 
Date: Friday, May 18, 2012, 9:56 AM

Dear friends and colleagues,

Just to let you know that the new issue of Comparative Connections

- the thrice-yearly online journal published by Pacific Forum-CSIS -

includes what I think is the first full account and detailed analysis

in English of North Korea's ongoing bloodthirsty fulminations

against South Korea and especially its President, Lee Myung-bak.

In over 40 years of following North Korea, I've read tons of rich

DPRK invective - but never anything as bizarre and nasty as this.

(They don't much care for Park Geun-hye, either; for all that she

dined with Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang less than a decade ago.)

In case of interest, this article is freely available to all at

 <http://csis.org/files/publication/1201qnk_sk.pdf>
http://csis.org/files/publication/1201qnk_sk.pdf

The full issue, which as ever also has three further articles on Korea

covering the two Koreas' relations with the US, China and Japan,

can be accessed at  <http://csis.org/program/comparative-connections>
http://csis.org/program/comparative-connections

All good wishes

Aidan FC

Aidan Foster-Carter

Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds
University, UK

E: afostercarter at aol.com     afostercarter at yahoo.com   W: www.aidanfc.net
<http://www.aidanfc.net/>    

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