Background.
I can't say that I have any professional experience in translating, but I've translated random things sporadically over the past few years. I started off by creating soft subs, translated from the Korean subs for the Japanese series, Anego (starring Akanishi Jin & Shinohara Ryoko) and completed 7/10 episodes before the series was completed by three other people (I think I was too slow and had lost interest ...). While subbing Anego, I also subbed half of the Kindachi special episode (featuring Kamenashi Kazuya), translated from the Korean subs.
Since then, I've translated little bits of articles here and there and have become more interested in this idea of translating. It's yet to see whether I'll see any professional advancement in the area as I am not academically qualified by degree (if that is of importance), but I feel that the area in general is lacking -- and I can empathize with those who face frustration at the lack of translations concerning their favourite fandom.
And, thus, Letters was born.
I'm not so interested in news articles; those can generally be done in rough fashion so long as the point is translated well. However, as far as blog entries or magazine articles or interviews are concerned, I feel that, sometimes, a rough translation doesn't do it justice. Maybe it's a waste of time to sit down and immaculately translate a multiple page article or interview, but, not only is it welcome practice, I believe it's also something that deserves to be done because, as many issues as I have with fandom aside, fans around the world do deserve something nice.
Now, if I could translate everything ever published about a certain celebrity, that would be ideal, but, unfortunately, that's impossible, so we'll just have to make do, won't we?
Translating Philosophy
I think anyone can tell you that Korean and English are diametrically opposed languages. Their grammatical structure is completely different, and, while one language allows for a certain pattern, the other doesn't welcome it. In that sense alone, translating between the two languages is incredibly difficult, and it's hard to find a translation job that does the original article full justice.
I don't claim to be perfect; I'm not; and I have a lot to learn especially as I'm not a hundred percent fluent in Korean. I don't see that as a flaw or shortcoming; this is all a learning process for me as well; and I know I have a lot to learn before I can translate well, so, please, be patient with me.
However, basically, I believe that translating isn't simply something that has to do with words. Translating words is easy, but it's capturing the personality that's difficult. Blog posts/personal messages tend to be a little tricky because there's so much colloquialism involved, so, as far as BoA's blog posts are concerned, I'll try to keep them in as original, posted form as possible. However, as far as interviews or magazine articles are concerned ...
Personally, when it comes to translations, I get a bit frustrated that so much of the speaker's personality gets lost in translation, along with ... so much of the original language. Many times, the original content is altered, whether unintentionally or not, and it's annoying to see so much lost, especially when it comes to original intent or meaning or voice because a good editorial writer will be able to relay all that in a good article. My intent, therefore, when it comes to translating, is to capture that voice while also presenting the content in fluent English. Or you can all tell me that I think way too much into articles, but I love reading interviews about my favourite people and being able to catch a glimpse of their personality -- and that's what I want to bring you, regardless of whether I'm overthinking this or not. (: