Ms. Tran Thu Phuong (34 years old) “fell in love” with the translation job thanks to… showing off that she is “an idol”

When her first son was over 2 years old, Ms. Phuong took the time to follow the Kpop entertainment industry. “During a time watching popular music videos on YouTube, I was recommended by this platform a MV by  the group BTS.  After enjoying it, I just watched MV after MV and learned everything about it. about BTS”, Ms. Phuong shared about the reason why she became a fan of the Korean boy band.

Even Phuong’s office corner is full of pictures and items about the BTS group

Since then, she actively collected albums, pictures as well as many items related to idols. In particular, she participated in two of the group’s live performances in Thailand and Korea to be able to see the members in the flesh.

At the same time, she constantly expressed her love for idols on social networks and almost all her friends knew this. Among them, there was one person who was a Korean book translator who connected her with a company that published books about BTS.

She shared: “Because I’m not a Kpop fan, that friend introduced me to the publisher so I could take on the  task of translating books  about my idol. After passing a test, I was assigned I took over that task and translation became my side job.”

Her first translated work is a comic book called “I am BTS” published in 2021, in Vietnam.

Talking about the difficulty of translating her first work, she said: “When I first started working, I realized my vocabulary was quite poor even though I often read books before. Furthermore, there were Korean words even though The meaning is clear, but when placed in a specific context, it becomes “awkward” and inappropriate. In addition, at first, I did not dare to arbitrarily refine the translation for fear of skewing the author’s style and thinking it was editor’s job. Therefore, the translation products early in my career were still quite rigid.”

She added that at that time, because she still had a main job and her son was only 4 years old, after taking care of the family, she took advantage of spending 1-2 hours every evening to translate books instead of entertaining herself. with personal preferences.

When she actively listened to readers’ suggestions, she gradually improved her translation ability and has now “pocketed” 15 works for herself, including 8 published books. In particular, the Vietnamese edition of  the work  titled “Beyond the story: 10-year record of BTS” was “released” in September 2023, leaving her with many memorable memories.

The Vietnamese edition of the book “Beyond the story: 10-year of BTS” translated by her and two other translators was released in September 2023.

Specifically, the above book is divided into 3 parts, each part will be handled by 1 translator. As the member who “conceived” the Vietnamese version, she said: “Because this is the first book in which BTS members directly recount their 10-year career journey, I invested a lot of effort into it.” Regarding the content, even though I understood the group’s activities very well, I still had to find interview videos as well as events they had participated in to get accurate information. Regarding form, when translating The original version was translated into Vietnamese, I constantly looked up the dictionary to find a flexible and valuable style, whether it was a common or rare word.”

After its launch, on the website of Az Vietnam bookstore alone, the Vietnamese edition of the above work sold nearly 1,000 books. As a close friend of Ms. Phuong, Ms. Vu Thuy Linh (34 years old) living in Hanoi City, commented: “Phuong’s translated works, in addition to demonstrating fluency in translation techniques, also create a feeling of It feels like you’re telling a story about your loved one.”

Breaking the stereotype of ” crazy fans “

The sweet achievements that Ms. Phuong has now also come from her tireless efforts when she was a student at the Faculty of Korean Language and Culture, Hanoi University. Specifically, to have the motivation to study well in the major she has chosen, she volunteered to be class president. Besides, she also reviews the knowledge she has learned every night and prepares carefully for the next morning’s lessons. At the same time, she actively participates in cultural exchange activities with Korean students to practice listening and speaking skills.

To date, Ms. Phuong has participated in translating 15 books, of which 8 have been released