Tamina Hauser 

Tamina Hauser will translate Park Sol-moe’s Future Walking Practice [미래 산책 연습] from Korean.

Tamina Hauser was born in Vienna, Austria and has always been fascinated by languages and literature. She first began her foray into the world of translation when she pursued a double major in Cross-Cultural Communication (for the languages German, English, and Chinese) and Korean Studies at the University of Vienna.

She became enamored with the Chinese language by watching Taiwanese dramas, and later went on to do an exchange semester at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei. She has long been intrigued with Chinese characters, especially the four-character idioms called ‘Chengyu’, which always carry more meaning than might be discernible at first glance.

The realization that learning a new language can open up a whole new world of knowledge led her to take up Korean as well. While knowing Chinese characters–Hanja in Korean language use–sometimes proved helpful, the wide differences in grammar and Korean’s unique writing system turned the learning experience into an intriguing challenge.

Tamina’s first experience with literature translation came during her MA studies in Translation at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. As part of a graduation project titled “HK Literature in Translation”, she was involved in translating and editing stories by Hong Kong writers, including Xi Xi and Liu Yichang, among others. This project lit the spark for her interest in literary translation, although she did not pursue it until a few years later.

Following graduation, she decided to stay in Hong Kong and worked as an Editor in the English Language Teaching department at Oxford University Press. This experience was instrumental in refining her linguistic skills and helping her get a deeper understanding of the publishing industry. In addition, it reignited her fascination with languages and fuelled her desire to take up translation again, in the hopes to someday find her own name printed on the cover of a book.

Prompted by this desire, Tamina submitted an entry for the LTI Korea Award for Aspiring Translators in 2020. She won with her German translation of the short story 파묘 (German: “Grabauflösung” [Gravedig]). Encouraged by this result, she applied for and was accepted into the Regular Course at the LTI Korea Translation Academy in 2021. During her first semester there, she translated a short story by Pak Sol-moe and became interested in the author’s other works. Under the guidance of the experienced translator Janet Hong, Tamina will work on a translation of Pak Sol-moe’s full-length novel Taking a Stroll in the Future, which deals with the past and future of the two main protagonists, connecting them through narrative strings running parallel to each other. She is grateful for this opportunity to refine her translation skills and introduce a piece of Korean prose to a global audience.

Image description:

Tamina, a white woman with medium-length brown hair, is sitting outside on a sunny day. She wears a woolen hat and is smiling, with her head turned sideways. The backdrop is a bed of purple flowers with green stems.