Chief financial regulator volunteers to show Korea’s sympathetic friendship

“Translation volunteer service is an activity that one can do even in office or in a vehicle, as long as he or she can take calls. As we can use English amid high vigilance every day, there is no better opportunity to learn English."

Choi Soo-hyun, 58, head of the Financial Supervisory Service, has become an “English interpreter.” Choi has proudly passed a test for selecting English interpreters by “BBB Korea,” a volunteer club for 24-hour telephone interpretation service. More than 1,300 people applied for the latest test, which recruited 431 interpreters.

Choi passed the entire three-phase recruitment process, including document screening, an interview, and three-way call between an applicant, a foreigner and a Korean, and made it to the finalist list. College students who had lived overseas for a long time, and professionals including professors, lawyers, and medical doctors applied for the test en masse, but many of them failed in the highly challenging language skills test.

“I applied for the program at recommendation of my daughter, who has been conducting volunteer service with BBB Korea,” Choi said in an interview with The Dong-A Ilbo on Monday. “When I applied for the program with my daughter three years ago, I failed. It is great that I have passed at a second trial.” In his application submitted to BBB Korea, he stated the reason for application, “I took courage to apply for the program, because if we combine the culture of “jeong (sympathetic friendship),” we could offer help to foreigners and elevate their perception towards Korea.”

Since Choi is the head of the financial watchdog, he is extremely busy and has to spend his time by the minute. But he said, “I decided to engage in English volunteer service because I am busy.” It means that since he has had strong desire to learn English and wanted to take time to study the language at any rate, he has come to engage in study and volunteer activities simultaneously through interpretation of calls, killing two birds with one stone.

Choi started learning advanced English when he was seconded to the World Bank in 1998, while working with the Finance and Economy Ministry. He is so proficient in English that he recently conducted conferences in English at breakfast meetings with CEOs of foreign invested financial companies in Korea. In addition, he participates in the Financial Supervisory Service’s English lessons once or twice weekly and constantly strives to learn English.

“I have been studying English for more than 10 years, but I have a long way to go,” Choi said. “Since the most effective way to learn English is to practice it just for 10 minutes every day, I will continue learning English,” he added renewing his commitment.