On Sunday night, the Academy Awards awarded its first Best Picture Award to a Foreign Language Film, and it was Parasite! MJ was super giddy at this development, not only from the pride in Koreans that it inspired her with but also from the surprising result: The war film 1917 had been the frontrunner throughout awards season and oddsmakers (whom I look to for the most accurate chances because that's where people actually put real money on bets) had a really low chance for Parasite to win. But award after award went to Parasite, Director Bong Joon Ho (and his interpreter) went again and again up to the stage to accept the Best Foreign Film award, the Best Original Screenplay, Best Director (he kept promising more and more extravagant drinking excursions too) until finally the Best Picture goes to........Parasite! The whole cast of Parasite used one Korean-English translator, later found to be a young film director Sharon Choi, and she turned out to be the star of the show! She was excellent in her command of the English language, and I doubt I would have done as good of a job if I were pressed to be a Chinese-English interpreter. And she wasn't certified or professional or anything! Just in the right environment (both countries) to master both languages and be natural with both, like being able to write equally well with both hands. That's one of the true joys of life and especially language, to wield 2 languages equally well at the same time. It feels like a superpower that other people don't have.
Even in today's world of high tech tools and smartphones, I'm still fascinated by language (I should be, I profit immensely off it as a profession) and how important a tool it can be. Normal people like Sharon Choi can become heroes by being fluent in 2 languages. It's one of those weird disciplines that you can't just learn coding in 6 months, it's either you learn as a child or you have to dedicate a long, long time, of grueling practice and dedication to as an adult (I've learned the hard way and I'm not even that proficient). But when one does master it, it's great, and I'm not sure how technology eventually can replace it short of inserting a chip in one's brain that tells you what to say in various languages. And even then, it doesn't give the same feeling of gratification that interpreting does, to be able to seamlessly say exactly what was said by another person and express meaning, but with completely different words and noises coming from one's mouth that only makes sense to the other party. I've done interpreting a few times in Chinese-English (in court, in legal clinics, on the street with random Chinese people who got lost in downtown LA) and I never mind it; it's one of the one things I can know for sure I'm getting right, I'm confident I have the right answer (or at least, something functionally close to the right answer, as there can be multiple right answers) as opposed to trying to answer "How do we solve poverty in the world?" or "what are all the laws regarding reporting capital gains on your tax return?" etc., that I have some notion of but never the complete answer.
Anyway, yes, Sharon Choi was great, and she's my hero! But luckily I can be that hero too. Interpreting can happen for you too!
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