Sang Jun Suh

At 26, he's a lieutenant completing three years of mandatory military service in the South Korean Air Force. Suh spent his early childhood in South Korea before moving to Mexico City and then attending Stanford University, where he graduated with dual degrees in computer science and economics in 2004. He plans to pursue investment banking in the Asia-Pacific region after his military service.

It's 5:55 a.m. in Seoul. I drag myself into a conference room at a U.S. Army garrison in the heart of Seoul. A videoconference link to Washington, D.C., has been established, and Korean government officials are waiting for the caffeine to kick in before negotiations start. We desperately try to stay awake, while people 10 time zones away are working late into the night.

As the military interpreter, I will translate every statement made by officials. This requires fluency in four tongues: not only the two primary languages but also the military versions of them.

I didn't expect to be doing this after graduation. I grew up in a trilingual, tricultural household. I'm fluent in Korean, English, and Spanish and was poised to graduate and most likely begin a corporate career in the U.S. But my parents' decision to rescind all their permanent residencies or citizenships other than Korean left me with a difficult decision. In order to become a true South Korean citizen, I needed to do military service. The pursuit of a glamorous career in investment banking or strategic consulting faded away.

Instead I have become a peon in a military chain of command, where I'm compensated with low disposable income and unpaid overtime work. But my decision has also provided me with intriguing challenges I couldn't have anticipated. Where else could a recent college graduate work on multibillion-dollar government procurements, ride a UH-60 Blackhawk next to the National Defense vice-minister, and give a briefing to a room full of general officers—all on the same day?

And while the job might be stressful, it's also gratifying. As the tsunamis of globalization sweep across the globe, and as people accept English as the lingua franca, are we, the translators, obsolete assets? I believe the answer is no. Globalization and information technology have only increased the demand. Only human beings can capture intricate nuance and sentiments—even if this does require four languages on occasion.