With the first Units of the Korean translation of The Economy 2.0: Microeconomics now available, we caught up with translation lead Jung-Kyoo Choi to discuss the process.
Jung-Kyoo Choi is a professor at Kyungpook National University, where he teaches microeconomics and game theory. His research is in institutional economics and evolutionary economics. He leads the Korean translation team for The Economy 2.0.
Hi Jung-Kyoo, thank you for joining us. Could you tell us a bit about how you first got involved with CORE?
I’ve been working with CORE co-founder Sam Bowles for many years, and we have co-authored several papers. I knew that The Economy was being developed, and when I had a chance to look through it, I found it to be a truly innovative way of teaching economics. Many of my colleagues in Korea felt the same way. We were all excited about the project and decided to translate it.
What is the Korean economics teaching landscape like, and what drew you to CORE specifically?
The way economics is taught in Korea is actually very similar to the way it is taught in the United States and in many European countries. Most universities in Korea use ‘standard’ economics textbooks, whose organisation and content are quite similar to Mankiw’s. As a result, the material covered is largely the same across institutions.
What I particularly like about CORE is the use of real-world examples and questions. This approach immediately captures students’ interest. The Economy 2.0 addresses the kinds of issues that motivate students to study economics in the first place, and then introduces the appropriate economic models to help them understand those issues and their underlying economic logic.
Another strength of CORE is the way it integrates modern technology into the learning process. Today’s students are far more accustomed to reading online than working through a thick printed textbook. With CORE, for example, when you come across a figure, you can easily access the underlying dataset, manipulate the data yourself, and explore the results interactively. I think this is an excellent way to teach economics today. It not only makes learning more engaging but also makes economics more accessible to a broader audience, not just specialists.
Were there particular challenges in translating economics terminology into Korean? When we spoke to the Finnish translation team, they told us they had to invent new Finnish words for some economic concepts, like ’economic rent’, because the words simply didn’t exist. The Indonesian team had the opposite problem: too many possible words to choose from, and difficulty agreeing on which to use. What was the situation in Korea?
Both of the situations you described also applied to us. The economic concepts themselves were not new to us. The challenge was finding the most appropriate Korean terms and using them consistently throughout the book. Since consistency is essential in a collaborative translation, we held several meetings to discuss the translation of key concepts, coordinate our terminology, and reach a consensus. Once each translator had completed a first draft , I read everything to make sure we were using consistent terminology throughout.
Did you use AI tools as part of the translation?
When we started the translation, AI translation tools were not very good, although they were improving rapidly. We translated the book ourselves and tried to limit our use of AI. We tended to use it only when we encountered a difficult expression or were unsure about a particular translation. In those cases, we sometimes used AI for suggestions.
I understand that in Korea it’s normal to credit the translator on the cover of a translated book, alongside the author. That isn’t usually the case in the UK or the US. Why is translation treated this way in Korea?
There is a saying that ‘translation is a second creation’. Translation requires a great deal of work. You cannot simply translate word for word; you must think carefully about the most appropriate words, accurately convey the original meaning, and make the text natural and readable. Since Korea is not an English-speaking country, translation is important to make these books accessible to a wider audience.
Was there anything about the translation process that was particularly difficult?
Not particularly, no. The ebook production company is based in a different time zone, and both teams were working remotely. We thought these differences might create some challenges, but the publisher provided several online tools that made remote collaboration much easier. The editing and proofreading process was straightforward despite the distances involved. We worked well together and enjoyed the process.
Thank you for your time, Jung-Kyoo. It’s a great achievement, and we look forward to seeing CORE used by Korean students for years to come.
