I’m a translator.
And the most important skill for a translator is, of course, writing.
That’s why I bought this book.
Actually, I bought it last year when I visited Korea, so it has been sitting on my shelf for almost eight months. I was too busy to read it — I had to attend a language school, work, and deal with many problems in a new country.
Recently, I worked on a Korean-to-English translation project for a week.
It was much harder than I expected.
That experience made me realize something again:
👉 my English writing skills are still not good enough.
I already knew that, but this time, it really hit me.
That’s why I’m writing this post now.
I need more practice.
This morning, after finally finishing that exhausting work, I had some free time.
So I decided to start reading the book.
The beginning was surprisingly interesting.
The author emphasizes the importance of argumentation in writing.
He says that writing is not good if it only contains opinions without any logical support.
According to him, there are three elements in speaking and writing:
- Facts
- Arguments
- Confession of taste
I found the term “confession of taste” quite funny.
It perfectly captures the meaning, but the wording itself sounds a bit unusual.
To explain this idea, the author shares an example from his time in Germany.
He participated in a discussion group where two men were arguing.
One was from Munich, and the other was from Hamburg.
There was also a woman working in government who was wearing nine piercings.
The man from Munich said,
“Is she insane? Instead of spending money on piercings, she should donate to charity.”
The man from Hamburg replied,
“What’s wrong with that? It’s just her way of expressing beauty. Then is it okay to wear earrings?”
Munich answered,
“Earrings are normal.”
Then Hamburg asked,
“What’s the difference? Why don’t people with earrings have to donate to charity?”
At that point, Munich couldn’t respond.
In this argument, Hamburg clearly won.
Why?
Because Munich presented his personal taste as if it were a logical argument.
If he had simply said,
“I don’t like people who wear many piercings,”
the conversation would have ended differently.
But instead, he tried to justify his opinion as something objective —
and that gave Hamburg the opportunity to challenge it.
I found this example really interesting.
This book is full of stories like this, based on the author’s real experiences.
I think I’ll keep reading and share more thoughts as I go 🙂
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