{"id":46347,"date":"2016-11-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gengo.com\/uncategorized\/hall-fame-charles\/"},"modified":"2019-10-23T17:59:10","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T08:59:10","slug":"hall-fame-charles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gengo.com\/community\/hall-fame-charles\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall of fame: Charles"},"content":{"rendered":"A Chinese-American who moved overseas to study Japanese, Charles has been a Japanese to English translator for five years. He believes cultural awareness is a prerequisite before learning professional translation tools, and advises translators to focus on constantly improving their language skills, too.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhat languages do you speak and what are your experiences with learning them?<\/b>\r\n\r\nI speak Chinese, Japanese and English. Although my family is Chinese, I was born in the U.S. so I grew up being exposed to English. As a rebellious teenager, I never wanted to learn Chinese so instead I studied Japanese at university. I had always wanted to visit Japan and studying abroad seemed like the perfect opportunity.\r\n\r\nI\u2019ve always had a non-traditional stance on learning, and find learning languages better through immersion than classes\u2014I improved my Japanese more during the four months I lived in Japan than I did in university for two years! I\u2019ve been translating for almost five years now with no signs of slowing down. Recently, I\u2019ve rekindled my interest in learning Chinese, too. Perhaps, in the future, I\u2019ll be able to join Gengo as a Chinese translator!\r\n\r\nWhat are your favorite translation tools?<\/b>\r\n\r\nI don\u2019t use any professional translation tools, but I\u2019ve been using for years is just Google Docs and the <\/span>Rikaikun<\/span><\/a> add-on for Google Chrome. The add-on enables quick dictionary searches for Japanese words, and Google Docs is easily accessible online. When I need to do research, I just use Google search.<\/span>\r\n\r\nI\u2019m also trying to pursue translation full-time, so I\u2019m open to learning new tools. However, I still believe what\u2019s important for translators are not the tools, but a better grasp of the language, culture, and different contexts.\r\n\r\nWhat are your tips to become a Wordsmith?<\/b>\r\n