The Dream Life of a Korean-Malay Translator: Meeting K-pop Idols & Visiting Korea

Rojak Daily sat down with Shah for an exclusive interview on her line of work, and how exactly you can sign up for this gig too. Note: despite the lack of hair on her head, the 29-year-old amusingly stresses that she is a girl, and she is only bald because she has epilepsy.

Previously working full-time as a Korean Content Analyst (basically filtering words from social media) before she got retrenched recently as AI has taken over her job (gasp), Shah does this gig as a freelancer on weekends.

She recalls, “My first ever concert that I worked at as an interpreter was back in 2017, at iKON and Winner’s back-to-back weekend concert. Though I have been doing this for seven years, I still find it very exciting, and no concert is the same when it comes to the setup, workflow, and strain.”

Detailing the scope of her job, Shah said, “It's pretty straightforward, my team and I start working a few days ahead of a concert to help with the equipment, stage, lighting and camera setup. Most of the time the Korean team fly in and use local Malaysian equipment, therefore our job as interpreters is to help Korean directors and engineers communicate with the local equipment operators.

For example, when I worked for the camera team at NCT Dream TDS2 Concert in May 2023, I helped translate for the Korean director to tell the local cameramen who operate the cameras in Bahasa Malaysia.”

She continued, “The Korean director would say something like ‘Camera 13, wide-shot angle ready, camera 2 and 3 switch to close-up’. This has to be translated quickly, usually within a 1-2 second timeframe, as the singer might finish his line before I can say anything. If he/she misses his camera moment, everything would go downhill from there.”

If you’ve ever wondered how TV shows get translated into different languages, Shah has all the details for us. “Usually when I get a translation job for a variety show, it is almost always a contract-based job, as the job would usually take 1-2 months to complete, from filming up until broadcast. I get a new episode every week and I would have to finish subtitling each episode within one to two days. The process is split into three phases: transcription, translating (including proofreading), and time-stamping.”

“First, after obtaining the media file from the broadcasting station, I need to watch the video two or three times to understand the content. I then watch it again while typing out every single word that is being said in the video in Korean onto a Word file. When I have the transcript ready, I then translate the script into either English or Bahasa Malaysia. Some broadcasting stations request all three languages (Korean, English, and Bahasa Malaysia) for reference which causes me sleepless nights.”

“When translating, rather than translating word-by-word, I usually translate the meaning and context in order not to misinterpret the whole conversation, as the Korean nuances can be very different from English. Once the translated scripts are ready, I key in every line into software that aligns the subtitle to the audio, down to the millisecond. This is what we call time-stamping and it is the most tedious part of the job as I have to manually check the timing. Lastly, I send in the transcripts, translations, and the file with subtitles to the broadcasting company!” Phew, it sounds like a lot of work!

Although many Hallyu fans start learning Korean because of K-pop and K-dramas, Shah had always been fascinated by languages and wanted to be a polyglot. “I started learning Mandarin and Japanese when I was in school.”

“However, the Korean language never crossed my mind, until I worked at an English Centre and there was a Korean grandmother who would wait patiently for her grandchildren to finish their classes every weekend. I wanted to have a conversation with her, but I couldn’t as I didn't speak Korean and she didn't speak English.

"That was when I started to learn Korean on my own, and we were able to quickly befriend each other. I still try to make time to meet her and have a meal together every time I go to Seoul. I was also exposed to the great world of K-pop by learning Korean which made my learning experience more exciting. My first ever K-pop bias was Girls' Generation’s Yuri, and she still is!”

Shah then took a huge step to learn Korean. “I was learning Korean by myself for about four months, but I had limited resources. My only way to practise speaking was with the Korean grandmother, so I decided to drop everything and fly to Korea just to stay there without working or studying.

"I had to navigate and solve everyday problems using my limited Korean language skills but through it, I was able to pick up Korean pretty quickly. After spending a year in Seoul, I was able to converse, read, and write in Korean well enough to land me Korean-related jobs in Malaysia.”

For those who may be discouraged by the thought of studying for Korean language tests, Shah divulged, “You wouldn't believe this, but I actually scored pretty badly on my last TOPIK (Test of Certificate in Korean) exam in October 2023. I wasn't able to sit down and study Korean properly due to my work schedule.

“At concerts, they don't care about your usage of grammar, but more about the speed and accuracy of your interpretations. I was able to get a high score on the listening part (perhaps it's due to my work nature), but I pretty much failed the writing and reading part as the words I needed to use during the exam were too formal for me,” she added.

Despite having numerous memorable celebrity encounters, one stands out the most for Shah, “The one who left the biggest impression was Girls' Generation’s Hyoyeon. The first time I worked as her personal interpreter (I don't usually work as a direct artiste translator, but this time it was different), she was so down to earth, friendly, and extremely professional when performing.”

“I had the chance to work for her again recently for the second time and the moment she got off the plane she said "Hi, Shah! I'm so happy to see a familiar face again!" and asked me how I'd been.

It was quite surprising that she remembered me and a very pleasant surprise.” We’ve heard many good things about Hyoyeon and it seems that they’re probably true. Unfortunately, due to SM’s policy, Shah isn’t allowed to share her photo with Hyoyeon with RD.

Shah also worked with Lip J, a member of the Korean dance group PROWDMON who has also taught at 1 Million Dance Studio Korea.

me with Lip J as her interpreter for last night @ battleground on astro!she is really one of the nicest people i’ve ever met ?????? pic.twitter.com/qGZqLApnSt

— akak botak tauke gym (@asoshiation) November 4, 2023

Naturally, Shah also gets to travel to the Land of the Morning Calm for work. “I usually travel to South Korea every five to six months for work, be it for filming, meetings, or on-site translation jobs. I joined a documentary filming for a local broadcasting station, and we had to film outdoors for 10-11 hours a day in the middle of winter.”

After getting retrenched, Shah is now in the process of opening her very own gym, which will be called Clouds. “When I lived in Korea, I would often see gyms that only females could enter and thought that was such a brilliant idea. As a female, we usually are very self-conscious especially when working out in public. I tried searching for all-female gyms in my area and there were none. I also brought in the 'Stairway to Heaven' machine which is widely popular in Korea. People can also come to work out and practise speaking Korean with me!” she laughed. Follow Shah on X.