About Me
I’ve always been an language enthusiast, and I got a BA degree in Translation and Interpreting in Shanghai International Studies University. During the four years in Shanghai, I’ve worked as part-time translator for companies including DeTao, where I translated the subtitles of course lectures from English to Chinese; and Shanghai Yingling Advertisement Company, where I translated product descriptions and website articles for the Italy-based fashion brand Hogan. On September 2014, I had the honor to be the consecutive interpreter for mayor of Antwerp during Antwerp Diamond Networking & Antwerp Diamond Night held in Shanghai.
People always say that one should never risk taking an interest as life-time job, or they’ll lose it forever. I started out being interested in translation and interpreting, and seriously, these are the only things in my life so far that would make me completely forget about sleeping and eating.
The word “localization” came into my life quite accidentally. When I was an international student at Washburn University of Topeka, I got really interested in the book Secrets of the Tsil Café written by one of my professors. When I tried to translate some of the recipes in the book for myself, I found the translated text meaningless because some of the ingredients are total strangers to Chinese readers. On second thoughts, it occurred to me that I could just
substitute some of the ingredients into China-friendly ones. I would then have some experiments to do and some copyright issues to worry about, but that’s when localization really came into my life! That’s when I started to see translation as a bridge from one project to another (be it recipes, applications or videos) rather than from one text to another. This incident led me to where I am right now — studying Translation and Localization Management at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. I believe I’m in an excellent place to start my career as a localizer. And I’m making every endeavor to achieve the goal.