let’s make the world better together.
Since 2015, I’ve provided pro-bono services to one Korean project per year. I’m passionate about the arts, storytelling and amplifying diverse voices. There’s nothing better than working with people who want to change the world!
Sound like something you might be interested in? Drop me a message, let’s see if there’s a match between your project and my interests, and discuss. I’ll work for no or reduced fee, depending on your financial situation (after all, I already have a day job that pays the bills!).
cinemasia 2024
“Over three decades ago, Korean migrant nurses LEE Soo-hyun and KIM In-sun met at a Korean Christian Women’s Association retreat in Germany and fell in love. Now in their seventies, their youthful love remains unchanged, despite the challenges and difficulties of living in a foreign country..”
This delicate documentary lovingly reflects the elderly couple’s life journey, their resilience, and their activism, interwoven with scenes of mundane domesticity. Both Soo-hyun and In-sun regularly attend protests championing queer rights and women’s rights both in Seoul and Berlin, despite opposition from their own community. They have stood in solidarity with other foreigners and diasporic communities in Berlin through their servitude, first as nurses, then as founding members of an international hospice for immigrants.
In October, I saw Life Unrehearsed at the Grüner Salon (Berlin) at a screening organised by MeToo Asians e.V. I recommended this film to a programmer at Cinemasia, and after many months, we were thrilled to have Jieun Banpark, the director, as well as Soo-hyun and In-sun join the screening in Amsterdam. I interpreted the Q&A - and we ended the evening with karaoke, led by the loving couple.
Services: Interpreting, Consecutive/Simultaneous
Industry: Documentary Film / Narrative Film
Subject: Feminism / Migration / LGBTQ+
— March 2024
CODA Korea is a Seoul-based nonprofit working on promoting the rights of Children of Deaf Adults. Co-founded by filmmaker Bora Lee-Kil and Korean Sign Language interpreter Lee Hyunhwa, the group has made CODAs visible in the South Korean media landscape, youth groups, and public policy - Culminating in Lee becoming the first person to interpret the Declaration of Independence in Korean Sign Language on March 1st, 2020.
I translated grant proposals for CODA International Conference 2023, and helped strategically review them, in coordination with Seoul Youth Hub and the Korean Association of the Deaf. The 2023 CODAcon will be the first such conference held in Asia.
Services: Translation / Event planning / Grant application
Industry: Advocacy / Community-building / International Conferences & Events
Subject: Disability / Diversity / Communication
— June to December 2021
between goodbyes
“Between Goodbyes follows a queer Korean Adoptee who was raised in the Netherlands as she attempts to reconcile her relationship with her Birth Mother. Weaving together the perspectives of both mother and daughter, the film explores the ache of missing loved ones and the ambiguity of finding them.”
Having adoptee friends and experience interpreting for adoptees’ meetings with their Birth/First Families, I reached out to producer Jota Mun. I am currently working on reviewing translations for their footage and website, making sure language used is consistent and follows the correct vocabulary used within adoptee-centererd and feminist narratives.
Services: Translation / Localization / Proofreading
Industry: Documentary Film / Narrative Film
Subject: Feminism / International Adoption / LGBTQ+
— November 2020
No, Thank You (며느라기) is a webcomic exposing the embedded sexism in everyday family relations. It has since won numerous awards, including the 2018 Cheonggnag Gender Equality Award and the 2017 Today’s Webtoon Award from the Korean Manhwa Contents Agency.
I translated pilot episodes of the web comic into English as well as PR materials for the 2019 Angoulême International Comics Festival (sponsored by KOCCA). The project is now being translated by a literary translator (which I’m not), and is set for release in late 2021/early 2022.
Services: Translation / Localization / PR
Industry: Web comic, Webtoon / Manhwa
Subject: Feminism / Sexism / Family Relations
— January 2019
Arierang, the Dutch Association for Korean Adoptees, has been conducting community-building activities within the Korean Adoptee community since 1991. It is a member of the International Korean Adoptees’s Association, and is operated entirely by adoptees.
In May, I interpreted an adoptee’s week-long reunion with their birth family. Later in the year, I translated birth certificate documents for adoptees starting the search for their birth family.
Services: Interpreting (Consecutive) / Translation
Industry: Advocacy / Community-building / Events
Subject: International Adoption / Intercultural Communication
— May 2018
Hao and Ozon are photographers based in China and South Korea.
I translated their contract documents and social media copies.
Services: Copywriting / Translation
Industry: Photography / Social Media / Visual Arts
Subject: Art
— 2017