https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...ang-to-thank-me-for-translating-says-10438504
They invited me to Pyongyang to thank me for translating, says Korean-Singaporean NSman
NSmen Gim Joo Hyung and Terrence Lee and ICA officer Reshma Nair were among the thousands of people activated from the military and civil service to ensure the Trump-Kim summit ran smoothly.
image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
"It's easy to spot me because I'm the tallest in the photo," said Gim. He accompanied Chairman Kim Jong Un's entourage on a night out to several spots around Singapore. He's in the top-left corner of the photo. (Photo: Fann Sim)
By Fann Sim
16 Jun 2018 06:00PM (Updated: 16 Jun 2018 07:23PM)
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SINGAPORE: The North Korean delegation which was in Singapore earlier this week for the historic meeting between United States president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was suspicious at first of 25-year-old Gim Joo Hyung when they first heard him speak Korean.
Insp (NS) Gim, who was born in South Korea but moved to Singapore as a child, served National Service with the Singapore Police Force’s (SPF) Police Coast Guard and was called back as part of his reservist duties to help with translation work during the Trump-Kim Summit.
His job was to be the main translator for the SPF and to provide understanding of security measures for both the Singapore and North Korean sides. He also provided translation as and when either sides needed it.
APPREHENSIVE AT FIRST
When the SPF first broached the idea of doing translation work, Gim's immediate reaction was doubt and worry because he had no prior translation experience.
He eventually accepted the job after encouragement from his South Korean parents who told him that "for their child to contribute even a little bit in this summit is a huge thing for them".
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His work included classified-level translation work to more mundane duties such as helping the visiting delegation with directions or communicating discomforts during their hotel stay.
“You can imagine that security would be the most important thing when foreign delegates come, right? So that would require a clear passage of communication between the Singaporean police and the North Korean security team. The biggest challenge is the language barrier,” he said.
“I was thinking about the challenges I might face because growing up in Singapore, I’m not that great in Korean and the North Koreans speak with a different accent. They speak a bit faster. They have a different range of vocabulary,” he added.
Gim said that the vocabulary they used is more military-like. For example, a friend would be a “bro” to a South Korean, but a “comrade” to a North Korean. “I didn’t know how to address them before the summit. I didn’t know their ranking system before that. So that was more of an impromptu thing, and I [learnt] all the hierarchy on the job,” he said.
There was also the issue that he was in police uniform, has a Korean name and could speak Korean.
“The most sensitive issue would be that me, as a South Korean, I’m talking to a North Korean. If they know that I’m a South Korean, they might actually not be favourable of talking to me. They may not be responsive to what I’m saying,” he said.
However, when Gim met the North Koreans, he said that they were “very, very, surprised” that he could speak Korean. He interacted with both senior and junior security guards from the planning phase to the execution phase.
“The higher-ups, they said ‘Hey you can speak Korean really well. I said, ‘Yes I can. I have Korean blood in me’. I didn’t say I’m [South] Korean per se and they were cool about it,” he said.
“The normal guys in the security team … Let’s say, someone asks them a question, they will just rather not speak because they aren’t in a position where they can make decisions. But they came to me asking little, little stuff,” he added, and that was when Gim knew he had their trust.
STERN, AVOIDED EYE CONTACT
NSman 3WO (NS) Terrence Lee had a similar experience when he was tasked to make sure that the summit’s meeting venue Capella Hotel was free of any Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosive (CBRE) threats.
While Lee has performed similar preventative sweeps in the past, he said that this round’s sweep was challenging because it involved two foreign counterparts. The sweep, which started two days before the meeting, was done in the presence of representatives from the US and North Korea.
With the US, Lee said that it was easier because both teams spoke English. Members from both teams were friendly with each other and even shared techniques for explosive ordnance disposal as they conducted the checks.
As for the North Koreans, Lee said they struggled to communicate because there wasn’t a common language. They resorted to using hand signals to communicate because Lee’s team was not allocated a translator.
For example, both the US and DPRK had requested to sweep certain rooms themselves without Lee’s team. For some areas used by Chairman Kim, his guards signalled with hand signs to indicate that they will do the sweep themselves, said Lee.
“We couldn’t engage. I think they can’t converse in English so we didn’t have any conversation with them,” Lee said.
There were also not many opportunities to make friends because of rotating shifts between both teams. “They were doing their own rotations within themselves, basically we do not have time to actually chat with each other,” he said.
Even if they had time to chat, like when waiting to pass through Singapore’s customs as a whole delegation, they would most likely not do so.
When Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer Insp Reshma Nair and her colleagues had hundreds of passports from both sides to process, she found that the North Koreans to be less chatty than the Americans.
“It was really amazing to see because they’re all very professional and they avoid eye contact with you until the Chairman has passed,” she said.
INVITED THOSE WHO HELPED TO PYONGYANG FOR COLD NOODLES
Gim said that the relationship between him and the North Korean officers slowly thawed and became less formal as they saw each other more.
"In the morning, they will greet me. ... When I talk to them first, they will be like, 'Have you had lunch?'," Gim said.
Despite the short time spent interacting during the summit, their familiarity grew to a point where the North Koreans extended an invitation to Gim and the rest of the SPF to visit Pyongyang.
"When they were leaving, they said, 'Next time, let’s meet in Pyongyang and let’s have Pyongyang naengmyeon (cold noodles)'. I was pleasantly surprised. Yeah, I said let’s do that next time,” Gim said.
The experience challenged his opinion of North Koreans, which was shaped by media depictions that they are rough, military-trained and inflexible people.
“I know that they appreciated my efforts and the SPF when they were leaving, they offered to eat Pyongyang noodles together in their home country. When they thanked everyone in the SPF, everybody said this, 'I hope to meet you soon in Pyongyang'. I mean, that just shows how much they are appreciative and grateful they are. That really showed me that these people are nice," said Gim.
This, Gim said, was the most memorable moment for him throughout his seven-day reservist recall.
"I helped the place I was born, the place I grew up, and I helped my mother country Korea," he said.
Source: CNA/fs
Tagged Topics
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...ang-to-thank-me-for-translating-says-10438504
They invited me to Pyongyang to thank me for translating, says Korean-Singaporean NSman
NSmen Gim Joo Hyung and Terrence Lee and ICA officer Reshma Nair were among the thousands of people activated from the military and civil service to ensure the Trump-Kim summit ran smoothly.
image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
"It's easy to spot me because I'm the tallest in the photo," said Gim. He accompanied Chairman Kim Jong Un's entourage on a night out to several spots around Singapore. He's in the top-left corner of the photo. (Photo: Fann Sim)
By Fann Sim
16 Jun 2018 06:00PM (Updated: 16 Jun 2018 07:23PM)
Share this content
Bookmark
SINGAPORE: The North Korean delegation which was in Singapore earlier this week for the historic meeting between United States president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was suspicious at first of 25-year-old Gim Joo Hyung when they first heard him speak Korean.
Insp (NS) Gim, who was born in South Korea but moved to Singapore as a child, served National Service with the Singapore Police Force’s (SPF) Police Coast Guard and was called back as part of his reservist duties to help with translation work during the Trump-Kim Summit.
His job was to be the main translator for the SPF and to provide understanding of security measures for both the Singapore and North Korean sides. He also provided translation as and when either sides needed it.
APPREHENSIVE AT FIRST
When the SPF first broached the idea of doing translation work, Gim's immediate reaction was doubt and worry because he had no prior translation experience.
He eventually accepted the job after encouragement from his South Korean parents who told him that "for their child to contribute even a little bit in this summit is a huge thing for them".
Advertisement
His work included classified-level translation work to more mundane duties such as helping the visiting delegation with directions or communicating discomforts during their hotel stay.
“You can imagine that security would be the most important thing when foreign delegates come, right? So that would require a clear passage of communication between the Singaporean police and the North Korean security team. The biggest challenge is the language barrier,” he said.
“I was thinking about the challenges I might face because growing up in Singapore, I’m not that great in Korean and the North Koreans speak with a different accent. They speak a bit faster. They have a different range of vocabulary,” he added.
Gim said that the vocabulary they used is more military-like. For example, a friend would be a “bro” to a South Korean, but a “comrade” to a North Korean. “I didn’t know how to address them before the summit. I didn’t know their ranking system before that. So that was more of an impromptu thing, and I [learnt] all the hierarchy on the job,” he said.
There was also the issue that he was in police uniform, has a Korean name and could speak Korean.
“The most sensitive issue would be that me, as a South Korean, I’m talking to a North Korean. If they know that I’m a South Korean, they might actually not be favourable of talking to me. They may not be responsive to what I’m saying,” he said.
However, when Gim met the North Koreans, he said that they were “very, very, surprised” that he could speak Korean. He interacted with both senior and junior security guards from the planning phase to the execution phase.
“The higher-ups, they said ‘Hey you can speak Korean really well. I said, ‘Yes I can. I have Korean blood in me’. I didn’t say I’m [South] Korean per se and they were cool about it,” he said.
“The normal guys in the security team … Let’s say, someone asks them a question, they will just rather not speak because they aren’t in a position where they can make decisions. But they came to me asking little, little stuff,” he added, and that was when Gim knew he had their trust.
STERN, AVOIDED EYE CONTACT
NSman 3WO (NS) Terrence Lee had a similar experience when he was tasked to make sure that the summit’s meeting venue Capella Hotel was free of any Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosive (CBRE) threats.
While Lee has performed similar preventative sweeps in the past, he said that this round’s sweep was challenging because it involved two foreign counterparts. The sweep, which started two days before the meeting, was done in the presence of representatives from the US and North Korea.
With the US, Lee said that it was easier because both teams spoke English. Members from both teams were friendly with each other and even shared techniques for explosive ordnance disposal as they conducted the checks.
As for the North Koreans, Lee said they struggled to communicate because there wasn’t a common language. They resorted to using hand signals to communicate because Lee’s team was not allocated a translator.
For example, both the US and DPRK had requested to sweep certain rooms themselves without Lee’s team. For some areas used by Chairman Kim, his guards signalled with hand signs to indicate that they will do the sweep themselves, said Lee.
“We couldn’t engage. I think they can’t converse in English so we didn’t have any conversation with them,” Lee said.
There were also not many opportunities to make friends because of rotating shifts between both teams. “They were doing their own rotations within themselves, basically we do not have time to actually chat with each other,” he said.
Even if they had time to chat, like when waiting to pass through Singapore’s customs as a whole delegation, they would most likely not do so.
When Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer Insp Reshma Nair and her colleagues had hundreds of passports from both sides to process, she found that the North Koreans to be less chatty than the Americans.
“It was really amazing to see because they’re all very professional and they avoid eye contact with you until the Chairman has passed,” she said.
INVITED THOSE WHO HELPED TO PYONGYANG FOR COLD NOODLES
Gim said that the relationship between him and the North Korean officers slowly thawed and became less formal as they saw each other more.
"In the morning, they will greet me. ... When I talk to them first, they will be like, 'Have you had lunch?'," Gim said.
Despite the short time spent interacting during the summit, their familiarity grew to a point where the North Koreans extended an invitation to Gim and the rest of the SPF to visit Pyongyang.
"When they were leaving, they said, 'Next time, let’s meet in Pyongyang and let’s have Pyongyang naengmyeon (cold noodles)'. I was pleasantly surprised. Yeah, I said let’s do that next time,” Gim said.
The experience challenged his opinion of North Koreans, which was shaped by media depictions that they are rough, military-trained and inflexible people.
“I know that they appreciated my efforts and the SPF when they were leaving, they offered to eat Pyongyang noodles together in their home country. When they thanked everyone in the SPF, everybody said this, 'I hope to meet you soon in Pyongyang'. I mean, that just shows how much they are appreciative and grateful they are. That really showed me that these people are nice," said Gim.
This, Gim said, was the most memorable moment for him throughout his seven-day reservist recall.
"I helped the place I was born, the place I grew up, and I helped my mother country Korea," he said.
Source: CNA/fs
Tagged Topics
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...ang-to-thank-me-for-translating-says-10438504
