Translator Speaks on Program’s Anti-U.S. Beef Episode

The MBC investigative news program “PD Notebook” is under fire for fueling public anger over the safety of U.S. beef through murky reporting. Translator Jeong Ji-min, who proofread the final translation of the April 29 episode on the topic, talked to The Dong-A Ilbo.

Q: Why did you recommend (to MBC) that it would be risky to associate downer cows with mad cow disease?

Jeong: The term “downer cow” does not refer to a disease; it simply refers to a cow that cannot walk because of reasons like aging or disease. This was why I wanted to translate it as “a falling cow.” Of course, mad cow disease has drawn global attention and the word “downer cow” has started to be used widely. There is a significant difference between the two terms, though. A falling cow does not necessarily mean a cow stricken by the disease. And the U.S. Humane Society and its hidden camera clip focused on promoting public awareness about animal abuse. It was not about mad cow disease.

These days, people have associated downer cow with the disease. Still, MBC should have started defining the term as a cow unable to walk or a falling cow. Then it moved on to point out the causes for the condition. This would have been no problem at all. But the production staff set out to highlight the dangers of mad cow disease. Thus, they must have connected the two. It was legitimate to raise the suspicious connection between the two, but they should have considered to what degree they were associated with each other.

Q: When reviewing the translation for the episode, what deviations, if any, did you notice from your original translation?

Jeong: I had no trouble with alternative uses of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) and CJD. Aretha Vinson’s mother used them that way, but they showed a dairy cow right after a downer cow clip. Then, the dairy cow was dubbed “this type of cow.” The assistant writer insisted on this expression, but I told them that the English expression was definitely a dairy cow.

Q: You wrote a post on the online bulletin of “PD Notebook,” saying the cause of death of Vinson was unconfirmed. Why?

Jeong: Until I finished proofreading my translation, it was clear in the context that nothing had been confirmed on the cause of Vinson’s death. That’s why I said nothing. I thought that since an autopsy was not conducted, nobody would blame her death on (mad cow) disease. But that was a big mistake. I reviewed the translation and its appearance on the edited version of the show. I had no idea how MBC would mix the Korean and Japanese data. The same denotation can convey different connotations, depending on speech methods and other factors. Viewers reach different conclusions from the same fact.

Q: What was your reaction after watching the April 29 episode of the program?

Jeong: They collected a huge volume of data, but it wasn’t easy to maintain balance in editing the information. To highlight their preset theme of the disease’s danger, the production staff sacrificed many details. Actually, I was upset when the staff talked about context-based translation. They pushed the envelope too much, I guess. In any case, efforts should be made to keep balance.