외국어로서의 한국어 교재 개발에서의 번역 양상 문제

Abstract

This study investigates aspects of the translation of beginning-level Korean language textbooks and analyzes the translations in terms of glocalization. The textbooks have been developed for use at King Sejong Institutes all around the world and are translated into English, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Thai, Russian, and Spanish. For this, I asked seven Korean language teachers who have professional language abilities in each language or majored in the language to translate the textbook from Korean as literally as possible. I also asked them to analyze its tone and nuances in each language. As I analyzed these materials, I also asked professionals in each language (professors who majored in each language) and native speakers to verify or confirm my questions. Through this, I classified sections of the translations in terms of literal and liberal translation, as well as analyse what different aspects the translations have according to each language. As I examine the general pattern of the translation, Anglicisms are found in many other language versions. This is, in part, due to the fact that the English version was developed first, and other language versions were developed later based on the English. Additionally, each translation has its own style. Among these, the Japanese textbook is translated liberally to help Japanese-speaking students understand easily. Similar strong points are found in the Chinese translation, but not in the terminology. Terms that are nonexistent in Japanese or Chinese are translated ambiguously. This would imply point to a need to develop proper educational terms. In the Mongolian version, the translation is liberal and, for the most part, was not translated from the English version into Mongolian. Instead, the proper Mongolian lexicon was used to help students understand well. Hopefully the result of the analysis in this study will be helpful for translation of glocal Korean Language textbooks used at the King Sejong Institute.