About two hours ago, the Donga Ilbo published an English translation of their Korean language version of a story on General Honore’s book. Compare a few lines of their translated story with translated text from my post:
Donga:
“Honore also said the major responsible for issuing public statements on the incident gave explanatory details rather than showing an apologetic attitude, which was a mistake in light of Korean culture. “I was distressed and disappointed to leave (South) Korea as demonstrators called me a murderer and demanded that the U.S. military leave Korea,” Honore said. ”
My post:
“The major who was responsible for issuing public statements gave explanatory details rather than showing an apologetic attitude. This was a mistake, and by the time we realized it, it was too late. The demonstrations were in full force.
I was distressed and disappointed to depart Korea while demonstrators outside Camp Casey in Dongducheon were calling me a murderer and demanding that the US military leave Korea.”
The Donga’s Korean version is a bit shorter than the Chosun’s and uses reported speech instead of direct quotes to convey the words of General Honore.
There are a number of different English equivalents for some of the key words in the Korean original, so the nearly identical phrasing in some parts is suspicious.
Plagiarism or not?
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
It does appear that someone there copied your text – although in Korea plagiarism is treated a lot more lightly than in the States. What’s funny is that they copied the same, in my opinion, awkward phrase from your initial translation. “showing an apologetic attitude” holds close to the original, but I think most native English speakers would rather say “expressed regret” and “give explanatory details” is also more wordy than necessary. But they copied it just as you wrote it.
I disagree with you about “apologetic attitude” versus “regret.” Koreans are quite clear on the difference and carefully choose whether to use “apologize” or “regret” in public statements.
The big problem with translating between languages, especially two languages with very different syntax, is whether to stick close to the original or rework the language to make it sound more natural. Korea Beat translations tend to follow the original wording closely and thus sound Korean in tone. I tend to favor closer translations as more liberal interpretations leave the translator open to accusations of misrepresentation. I played a bit loose with my original translation in parts owing to the late hour I posted.
You must understand Donga Ilbo’s unique situation.
Well I would say that it is plagiarism personally. It is just too similar not to be IMHO.
This has echoes of another plagiarism debate being played out right now surrounding the ATEK (Association of English Teachers in Korea) and their book The English Teachers Guide to Korea Sparkling.
Take a look at what’s happening here: http://atekforming.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/plagiarism/
Koreans plagiarisers are getting much better at using google.
It would be more interesting to compare the English to the Korean… At first glance they appear completely different so unlikely to be straight translations (by a translator, one would assume). More, I’d be willing to bet the English was ripped from Sonagi and then paraphrased into Korean… Any bilinguals care to take a quick look?
I suppose how close a translator chooses to stay to the original version depends on the target audience. If the audience is from a different country and culture, I don’t really see the point in staying close to the original, since stilted English would make Koreans appear as odd or exotic, when that’s not how other Koreans would view them. On the other hand if the objective is to show mastery of Korean to Koreans, it makes a lot of sense.
@Bipolar:
The Donga published its Korean version first.
@dokdoforever:
I agree that the target audience is a factor in choosing how to translate. The importance of the text and the medium also matter. If someone is being quoted, then it’s better to stay closer to the original words for accuracy. Accuracy is important because, as you see, many commenters reacted to my translated text, not the original Korean. One bilingual commenter chided me for skipping over one part while another challenged my interpretation as too strong yet failed to provide his own version.
Translations of fiction require more interpretation to make the story flow naturally.
I did not worry too much about a precise translation of General Honore’s quotes because the Korean text itself was a translation and not his original words.
I’m definitely missing something here – why doesn’t Donga just quote straight from the book instead of having it go through English->Korean->English?
@Yuna:
The translator did not have access to the book. The Chosun Ilbo and Donga Ilbo used this YTN story as their news source. The Chosun’s version is virtually identical to the original Yonhap story while the Donga Ilbo’s was edited and reorganized. Some of the editing is rather interesting. For example, Donga omitted “반미” from the phrase “…반미와 북한에 유화적인 젊은 정치인들로…”
Who’s the English?
I’m currently attempting to get two classes of university students bound for study in Australia to appreciate the dire need not to plagiarise (or to cheat). There are some helpful guides at:
Griffith University: Academic integrity for staff: Managing academic integrity
at
https://intranet.secure.griffith.edu.au/teaching/academic-integrity-staff
Griffith University:
INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR PROMOTING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AMONG STUDENTS
at
http://www62.gu.edu.au/policylibrary.nsf/xmainsearch/03ee5c37f0926a0e4a25736f0063eaea?opendocument
Is the book not out? I thought they published it on 6th? Can they not have it Fed-exd? or Amazon Priority Shipped? Or have an electronic copy sent?
Such shoddy journalism, sigh,- cannot be even bothered to get hold of the book before quoting from it & goes around pinching from a BLOG?
No professionalism whatsoever.
@rmeurant,
I’m afraid, you just have to tell them, to survive in Australia, “Switch the Janmori off”.
“Plagiarism or not?”
It depends how you define intertextuality
@Yuna:
The book is out. The YTN story was filed by a Korean reporter in Atlanta, who probably has a copy of the book. I did a search and located a May 7 version at the Donga, which like the Chosun’s, is identical to the YTN story. The Korean version I linked to earlier was – are you ready for this – a Donga Korean translation of the Donga English translation of the original Donga Korean, the second Korean version basically a patch job of portions from the original Korean re-organized and edited to match the English translation. It looks like Honore’s remarks got a little massaging in the English version.
@ Sonagi, I know I have less janmori than even my German colleagues. Your story reminds me of that episode from Friends where Phoebe and Rachel were trying to outdo Monica and Chandler about them knowing about them knowing about them knowing about the M&C’s relationship.
I feel like Joey, all confused.
“It depends how you define intertextuality”
Someguy, is this your way of suggesting to us that your IQ is off the charts?
I demand that you do better.
I haven’t had a chance to go through all of the above comments or compare the Korean versions of Donga and Chosun, but I agree that the “explanatory details” part is the smoking gun. Given that the Korean version refers to the explanatory “자세(attitude),” I find it incredibly unlikely that someone would by chance choose to use the rather awkward phrasing you used (but make no mistake, your translation was top notch, and far better than anything I could come up with). I think most people would go for something like he “tried to explain the situation instead of . . .”
Seems like a pretty clear case of plagiarism to me. Somebody should dig up this person’s identity and send a laudatory email in praise of her translation skills.
JW,
Do you call a mechanic vain for dropping the words of his trade in a conversation? Discourse analysis is my thing, not that I get the chance to use it very often at my current job.
Besides, had you bothered to read Sonagi’s posts you know that my suggestion was the right one to make.
you would know…
then can you please explain intertextuality and place it context relative to the greater bullshittery milieu?
Textbook plagiarism. But then the Korean media is rife with it. I still remember an incident where one of the JoongAng Daily’s English print competitors ripped off one of our articles nearly word for word — including quotes. The Korean managers here were reluctant to do anything about it at all. It was only at the insistence of the Western editors that they sent a complaint to the other paper. The story was not corrected and as far I know the writer was never punished.
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