Anthony McManaman is a proud graduate of KSI at the Korean Cultural Center Sydney and the Grand Prize winner of the 2nd LTI Korean Webtoon Translation Contest English Division. We met this elementary school English teacher and aspiring translator to hear about how he polished his skills and what he envisions for his future.

Hello. You have studied in KSI at the Korean Cultural Center Sydney, Australia, and now you’re living in Korea. I’m curious about what you are doing in Korea. Please give us a brief introduction of yourself!

Hello! I’m Anthony McManaman, and I’m an English teacher at an elementary school in Seoul.

What intrigued you about the Korean language at first, and how long did you study at KSI? Was there any special occasion that elevated your skills much further?

I think I fell in love with Korean because Hangeul was interesting and easy to learn. One day, I saw a webtoon that taught Korean and within 30 minutes, I was able to roughly identify the characters which used to look strange. I was amazed by that experience. Since then, the Korean language has been an interest of mine.

I went to KSI at the Korean Cultural Center Sydney from 2013 to 2018. It wasn’t a non-stop process, but I did take some breaks then went back. I took all sorts of classes at KSI from the beginner program to speaking classes. I’m forever grateful for the fun and passionate lectures my instructor Jooyeon Yang gave. My Korean language skills didn’t jump all of a sudden, but it was a slow and steady process.

You are a KSI graduate and the winner of the 2021 LTI Korean Webtoon Translation Contest English Division. What made you participate in this contest? You must have made much effort. Can you tell us how you prepared for the competition?

Well, I was actually confident about myself going far in this contest. The process of preparation, briefly, I read the Korean webtoon before downloading the image files of the webtoon. Then, I translated each text balloon into English using Photoshop. The balloons were rather tight but I adjusted the length of my sentences to fit in each balloon. This was a very helpful process. I proofread the work several times after finishing the translation and editing. After I was satisfied with my own translation, I moved it to the application form and submitted it.

I heard that you are currently pursuing your dream to become a translator. Please share the efforts you’re investing to become a translator, and your own way of polishing your translation skills for students at KSI who have the same vision.

First, if you are to become a professional translator who makes money out of it, you need to change your visa. I’m preparing a visa change to point-based resident early next year. Besides that, I’m improving my Korean skills through language exchange video calls once a week. Come to think of it, the textbook I’m using right now is also from KSIF. It’s called “Korean Grammar for International Learners 2. Usage” and you can read the e-book version on KSI website without having to login. And for those who wish to develop their translation skills, I’d like to recommend the Translation Academy at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. I took their cultural content course late 2020, which was really helpful for learning the know-how and building confidence. I would also like to tell other aspiring translators that you should trust yourself and keep trying. It might not happen all of a sudden, but it will come true as long as you don’t give up. I failed at the preliminaries twice before winning the webtoon translation contest. The Grand Prize wouldn’t have happened if I had given up after the failure. If you believe that you can make it, you’ll succeed one day!

The year 2022 is almost over. Are you going to stay in Korea and pursue your plans to become a translator? Are there any personal or career goals you’d like to achieve while you are in Korea?

Once my visa application goes through next year and if there’s a nice opportunity, I’d like to start working on a project as a freelance translator. I’m also thinking of applying for the night course at the LTI Translation Academy. And I’m trying to decide on whether I should try another category of the translation contest.