hankyoreh

A group of immigrants from a number of South Asian nations will distribute four South Korean comic books and movies, after having translated them into their mother tongues. The project was initiated as a way to help future immigrants adapt to life in South Korea, but faced a number of obstacles following a crackdown on migrant workers that took place last year.

On January 17, Cultural Action, a liberal civic group which is actively engaged in affirmative action and cultural reforms, announced that eight to nine immigrants from various South Asian nations had completed the translation of four South Korean comic books and films into Tagalog, Vietnamese, Chinese and English. The four works are: the comic book “Lini’s Grand Operation to Cook Her Own Food”; the movie “A Walk”; and two animated films, “I Need Father” and “A Walk on a Rainy Day.”

The group has been working on the translation project, which was carried out with financial support from the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, since May. The group hopes that the translated cartoons and films will help foreigners more easily adapt to everyday Korean life and will be something that their children can enjoy.

However, the project has been on shaky ground almost since its inception. Hundreds of undocumented migrant workers, including those who had expressed a desire to participate in the project, were scattered during a government crackdown on illegal immigrants between August and December.

The project was ultimately completed by those immigrants who had married South Korean citizens, and thereby had legal permission to stay in the country. Translation into Bengali, however, was not completed. A 43-year-old Bangladeshi man known as Masum, who was one of the most ardent supporters of the project, was expelled to his country last November during the government raids.

Maria, a 38-year-old Filipina who participated in completing the Tagalog translations, talked about the difficulty of the translation work and said that she and her husband had gone through the dictionary together looking for the right words.

The translated books and DVDs will be delivered to organizations nationwide for use by migrant workers or the foreign spouses of Korean nationals.

Jang Young-ran, an activist with Cultural Action, said that the books and DVDs “will be a big help to future immigrants to South Korea or those who aren’t accustomed to the local culture.”

There are approximately one million migrant workers and foreign brides from over 100 Southeast Asian countries - including China, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Indonesia - living and working in South Korea. Many are subject to harsh working conditions for little pay in the industrial sector or may have arrived as the spouse of a Korean citizen. Though the issues faced by this portion of the population are becoming more widely known in Korea, many of the services for migrants have been provided by non-governmental organizations or within the migrant community itself.


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