The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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22 The Linguist Vol/57 No/6 2018 ciol.org.uk/tl as a result, english-korean interpreters began to suffer from falling demand and remuneration levels, and thus came under pressure to enhance their competitiveness. the gendered nature of the market in which predominantly female interpreters serve predominantly male clients has worked in favour of the clients, who had to woo interpreters when they were in short supply but now have the luxury of choosing. In interpreter job advertisements, it is not uncommon to see requirements such as 'neat and modest appearance' and even height specifications. the service nature of the profession was not prominent when interpreters were scarce, but they are now forced to present themselves as a 'desirable' service package, that includes language as well as aesthetics, in order to survive in a market full of competitors with a similar profile. the involvement of aesthetics in english-korean interpreting is fundamentally an issue of gender power. It shows why interpreting is a 'woman's job' in which the seeming dominance of females in the workforce is only cosmetic, and real power belongs to the mainly male clients, who can now require beauty as a professional qualification. Jinhyun Cho looks at this issue in more detail in her book english Language Ideologies in korea: Interpreting the past and present (2017), reviewed in the next issue. Notes 1 Warhurst, c & Nickson, D (2001) Looking Good, Sounding Right. London: the Industrial society 2 cho, J (2017) 'Why do Interpreters Need to be Beautiful? aesthetic labour of language workers'. In Gender & Language, 11(4) 3 cho, J (2017) English Language Ideologies in Korea: Interpreting the past and present. cham: springer 4 choi, J & Lim, h-o (2002) 'the status of translators and Interpreters in korea'. In Meta, 47(4), 627-635 5 hermans, J & Lambert, J (1998) 'From translation markets to Language management: the implications of translation services'. In Target, 10(1), 113-132 6 oecD (2017) The Pursuit of Gender Equality: An uphill battle; www.oecd.org/korea/gender2017-kor-en.pdf 7 Op.cit. cho, J: springer work that attracts many women, who want to balance home life with a career that uses their bilingual skills. In the korean context, a man who wants to pursue this kind of career may be seen as out of step with a society in which educated men are expected to have job security and a regular income to fulfil the role of breadwinner. the local labour market has long favoured men over women, and it is reported that the gender pay gap in korea is the highest among the 36 members of the oecD (organisation for economic co-operation and Development). 6 as of 2017, korean women earn only 63% of what their male counterparts are paid. the reputation of translation/interpreting as a 'women's job' in korea should be understood in this context. When the profession of simultaneous interpreting drew public attention in 1988, with seoul hosting the olympic games, highly educated korean women were facing an uphill battle in terms of career progression. their job prospects were limited to certain professions, such as nurse, teacher and flight attendant, and those working for companies were expected to resign when they got married. Before and during the olympics, however, simultaneous interpreters frequently appeared on television, providing many educated women with a career vision. Its freelance nature represented a perfect opportunity for them to fulfil their career ambitions without the need to belong to an organisation and worry about gender discrimination. It was viewed as a strictly merit-based profession: the better your language skills, the more opportunities you had. the high rate at which simultaneous interpreters were paid was also attractive. as there were only a handful of people who could handle interpreting at the highest level, some reportedly earned nearly three times as much as the monthly median household income in a single day. 7 Saturating the market During the olympics, simultaneous interpreting was established as a glamorous profession, which only people with apparently 'perfect' bilingual skills and a high level of intelligence could do. although their clients were mostly men in powerful positions (e.g. ceos and high-ranking officials), the law of the market, in which demand far exceeded supply, worked in interpreters' favour. In the first decade of the 21st century, however, the interpreting market became saturated as multiple degree courses were established. Whereas there had only been one translation and interpreting institute in korea until the mid-1990s, there are currently 10 institutes, with more than 200 graduates entering the market annually. In addition, non-professionals who had learnt english through the popular practice of short-term study abroad began to penetrate the market offering a reduced rate. FEATURES AESTHETIC DEMANDS Wearing make-up may be a given for most professional female interpreters in Korea (below); while some have resorted to plastic surgery (bottom) Interpreting is a 'woman's job' in which the seeming dominance of females in the workforce is only cosmetic