I had the pleasure of interviewing with Christina Chong (정영희, Jeong Yeong-hui) of the local Korean-language paper, The Korea Times. She apparently knows my mother quite well (you'll recall that Mom is very plugged in to the local Korean community, and last year finished a term as president of the Washington Korean Women's Society). The interview took only a few minutes, as Miss Chong had had no time to read over my book. Most of her questions were about my background and education, my reasons for writing the book, my thoughts on living in Korea, and so on. The interview was conducted almost entirely in Korean, so it was a good thing that Mom was on hand to interpret when I failed to understand a question (which was distressingly often).
The following ten pics give you an idea of where today's interview took place and where the book-signing event will be held. An additional two pictures are completely irrelevant to the interview; they simply feature my brother Sean's dog Maqz (pronounced "max," but the dog insists on the contrarian spelling).
I hope the exterior pic of the Korea Times building will help people find it if they're driving to the book signing.
And now, the dog pics:
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Kudos on the interview. Let us know when the interview will be published. I'd love to read it.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering whether it annoyed you that she hadn't read the book...or did she seem sincere in her excuse for not doing so?
ReplyDeletebk,
ReplyDeleteThanks & will do. It'll probably be in Korean and will require some translation. I'll scan the article and slap it on the blog, then see if I can't get Mom's help in translating it. I'm sure Charles will let me know where I go wrong in the translation, since that sort of thing is his bread and butter. (I'm assuming you speak and read Korean pretty fluently; I, on the other hand, am struggling.)
daeguowl,
It's not Christina Chong's fault that she had no time to read the book before our interview. My folks were supposed to get her an advance copy before my arrival, but that didn't happen. She said she would read the book (or parts of it, anyway) and incorporate that into her article. I have no handle on her English ability, but I suspect she's not that great a speaker/reader. She might get someone more fluent to pore over the book and give her a breakdown. Here's hoping that very little gets lost in translation.
Kevin