language barriers

So my cousin always recommends me all these books by Korean authors, but then it's frustrating because I can never find any English translations for these books that she constantly raves about. I also wonder why there are no notable Korean authors in the American book market (maybe with the exception of Chang Rae Lee, though he doesn't really count because he's Korean-American). I am totally jealous of people who are fully bilingual in Korean and English (e.g. Tablo), and if I had this gift, I would quit my day job (if only I had one) and become a book translator.

Which reminds me... while I was in Korea, every single person and their moms were reading this book on the subway:


translated in Korean, or course:

And seeing how it's practically like the Twilight equivalent (in terms of popularity among the common folk, not re: content or quality), of course I wanted to get my hands on a copy.**

But then I found out there was no English translation for the book! (It's originally written in French.) What the heck? Well, I realized Koreans are huge fans of the author Bernard Werber, so I guess it would be a given that they would translate his work in Korean, but regardless~ isn't English the most popular/most-used language in the world? Wait, actually that would probably be Mandarin... but still~ English is still up there! Needless to say, I was very disappointed.

And recently, my cousin picked up the newest Murakami book from the bookstore:

and suggested we both read it together (her in Korean, me in English of course), so we can discuss it. But lo and behold- they didn't translate it into English yet! And the English translation won't be released until September 2011! Ummm... that's over a year from now. What's with the hold-up?! So as I just sit here as she gushes on about how good it is, I'm tempted to take the book and stick it in google translate. Why why why?

**(I also see everyone and their moms reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in the subways too, but I am reluctant to read it because of the ugly cover art and the distasteful title... makes me think of aZn girls from high school sporting dragon tattoos on their backs... no thank you...)