A way with words

Thai translator gets published

By Suwitcha Chaiyong
Photos by Varuth Hirunyatheb

Many people dream of having a book that they wrote or translated published. Waristha Sribenchapueks (Mink) is a young writer who realised that dream when her Thai edition of the educational Korean comic book Khua Lok Nuea Lae Khua Lok Tai (The North and the South Pole) was published recently.

The book relates to history, geography and the discovery new lands in the past. It also has information about famous navigators and shipping routes to both the North and South Poles.

Mink recently finished translating her second book, another educational Korean comic book about fossils and dinosaurs. This book is still being edited and is due to be released next year.

The 25-year-old Mink also has a full-time job working at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea. She spends her free time working as a tutor and a translator.

Student Weekly recently met up with the busy Mink during her lunch break to chat about her work as a translator.

Student Weekly: How did you get the opportunity to release your first book?

Mink: I was lucky to have a senior at Srinakharinwirot University who is a translator at Post Books. She told me that the publisher was looking for a new translator. I’d dreamed of having my own book published for a long time, so I sent my resume and some samples of my translations to the publishing company.

Student Weekly: Do you think it’s important to have connections at a publishing company?

Mink: Having an inside connection is important because if you don’t know anybody you will have to go through a complicated process. But a friend of mine who now works as a professional translator just walked in to apply for a translator position at a publishing company. She just had to take a translating test. If you can do well in a test like that, there’s a chance that you’ll get a job.

Student Weekly: What should aspiring translators do if they want to release a book?

Mink: Start by translating documents and getting together a collection of samples. That way you can improve your translating skills, and you’ll have samples ready when a position becomes available to apply for.

Student Weekly: Have you ever been to Korea to study the language?

Mink: Yes. I went to a language school in Seoul for three months. It was fun because there were lots of foreign students. Aside from learning Korean language, I learned about other cultures from places like China and Vietnam.

Student Weekly: What was it like working on The North and the South Pole?

Mink: It’s an education book, so the information had to be accurate. There were a lot of names that differ in Korean and Thai language.

For example, the name of a navigator was translated from the original French. I had to figure out who the navigator was from the information before translating it into Thai. I did a lot of research from books and the Internet to make sure that I got the right information. Finding accurate names was the hardest part of working on this book.

Student Weekly: How did you feel when you saw your first book in bookstores?

Mink: I felt great. When I was told by the publisher that my book was released, I wandered around to find it in shops. I was so happy to see my name on a book shelf and to see my hard work become a beautiful book.

Student Weekly: Since you have several jobs, which one do you enjoy the most?

Mink: I think I’m best at tutoring. I enjoy meeting different kinds of people and keeping up to date about how the language has changed. I also use Twitter to learn about new slang words.

Student Weekly: Is there any particular kind of book that you’d like to work on in the future?

Mink: I like watching TV dramas, especially period dramas, because they provide information about history and political battles. I’m interested in translating a novel, because some novels tell stories in a similar way to TV dramas.

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