As an 8 year old in Korea where I was born, I once saw a Korean sales assistant at a department store in Seoul talking to a Japanese customer. I was mesmerised by her perfect fluency in Japanese and elegant confidence, which made me realise that there was an unknown world that existed beyond the boundaries of my own limited experience, and that the key to open the door to that exciting world was the power of language.
My family moved to Tehran when I was 11 where I learnt English for the first time at an international school, before we migrated to Australia when I was 13. I studied several languages for my Arts/Law degree at Sydney University and loved it, and in my heart felt an undefined but strong desire to pursue a career of some kind in languages. I started working as a lawyer after graduating from Uni however due to my need for financial independence, but I often interpreted in Korean for family, relatives, friends and community organisations and sometimes also at work for many years as a volunteer.
From 1998 I lived in the USA where I passed a Court Interpreter exam, marking the beginning of my new career as a professional interpreter. I really enjoyed the interpreting work I did in America including in New York, so upon returning to Australia in 2001, I obtained the Level 3 NAATI Interpreter and in 2003 the NAATI Translator qualifications – Yay ! Despite working full time as a lawyer, I did my best to keep up my interpreting and translation skills by volunteering my language services whenever I could. Then in 2018, I finally quit my job and became self-employed to my great satisfaction, as I had the freedom at last to do the work I love as a NAATI interpreter and translator without constraints (and get paid for it!), while still practicing part time in criminal law.
“…you belong to a very special professional community of highly intelligent, learned, caring and interesting individuals with a genuine interest in people, culture and society”
We all know from COVID that interpreters, like nurses, child care workers, aged care workers, etc, are underpaid and under-appreciated but are essential workers in our society. Despite the unjust and discouraging pay and conditions for interpreters and translators in Australia, I still believe they are very interesting and rewarding professions. Few other occupations offer such great opportunities to meet such a wide variety of people, see so many different life situations, perform work that actually helps individual human beings and make a valuable contribution to the community, apply your talent for and love of languages so usefully, and constantly learn something new and achieve personal growth. Also importantly, you belong to a very special professional community of highly intelligent, learned, caring and interesting individuals with a genuine interest in people, culture and society. So we should all take pride in the important work that we do as interpreters and translators, which is challenging but also fulfilling, and always support each other standing in solidarity and comradeship.