My love for Vietnam began when I was a high school student. At that time, we learned about Vietnam through a few short films and photographs. In 1989, during my first trip to Vietnam, I went searching for Vietnamese language books at a secondhand bookstore in Da Kao Market, Ho Chi Minh City. There, I bought Prison Diary by President Ho Chi Minh and The Tale of Kieu by Nguyen Du. This love for the country and its people has driven me over nearly four decades, regardless of my position, to continue translating Vietnamese literary works — especially poetry and writings by great cultural figures — into Korean. Through this, I hope to further introduce Vietnamese literature and cultural beauty to the Korean public.

The more I learn about Vietnam, the more I want to know. I am currently working on translating "Hich tuong si" by Tran Quoc Tuan from Vietnamese into Korean, and plan to release it to the public in the near future.