Page 31 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL13

Yingluck Shinawatra. She performed the same duty for Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s trip to a Korea- ASEAN summit in Busan, South Korea.“Any profession has its own fascination,” she said, and she has pursued many career opportunities. A dream since she was young was to become a teacher. And now that she succeeded in that, interpreting jobs help her contribute to language understanding and benefit the nation. She found the task of translating Infected Language into Thai to be rewarding as well.“Translating exposes us to new fields of knowledge,” she said. “Transforming Infected Language into Thai was a great challenge. Even though the book was compiled from linguistic articles, the broad knowledge of the author contributed in a very sharp and logical way and required historical and cultural comprehen- sion both of Korea and the world. I worked hard on research and spent half a year to finish it.“The style was another challenge. The author has been working in journalism for more than 20 years. He was a popular columnist, a linguist and an established novelist in Korea, so Infected Language was embellished with well crafted language. I aspired to deliver this beauty to Thai readers.”After finishing the translation, Prof Park suggested that the title might give readers a new perspective on languages. When a language is not just a tool for people to communicate but represents a national identity – in certain periods of history such colonial- ism or economic crisis – it can be a tool for fostering nationalism. However, when situations return to normal, such nationalism can border on extremism.Living in a world of connectivity, the idea of linguistic purity is impractical. Languages interact and as a result they mix and absorb one another in a way not much different from living creatures faced with evolution. Strictly prohibiting any modification can cause a language to become obsolete and lifeless.Apart from the social and linguistic aspects, Prof Park also applies moderate, liberal ideas to her personal life. Korea, while increasingly developed, has many social pressures, much depression and one of the highest suicide rates in the world. The professor, however, tries to find balance in life.“In the past, Korean society praised being a workaholic, but now we’re turning to quality of life and family.” Despite the workload of a university professor, Prof Park manages to find time to travel,Elite+ 29