Welcome to my ePortfolio for my Japanese major at CSU Monterey Bay
Personal Statement
While in high school I was required to take a foreign language course as a graduation requirement. Feeling too detached from Spanish due to some complications with my schooling years prior, I decided to enroll in Japanese courses. I quickly latched on to the language and all of the relevant material taught to me throughout high school, taking initiative and even performing well in the more creatively driven assignments (illustrating, presentation script writing, etc.), which I typically vehemently despised in other classes. I did not know it at the time, but my passion for excelling in Japanese was due to acknowledging its connection to two of my greatest interests: Video games and animation. From the moment I graduated high school, to my transfer to CSUMB via community college, I knew I could use my knowledge of Japanese to somehow make it into either industry and fulfill a childhood dream.
Because of the unavailability of Japanese language courses at my community college, Hartnell College, there was a gap between when I first learned Japanese in high school and transferring to CSUMB. Therefore, I went ahead and took both JAPN101 and JAPN102 simultaneously upon starting my first semester there to “refresh” my mind on Japanese I had previously learned. From there and the later semesters throughout, I both regained previously forgotten communication techniques and expanded upon them with new lessons on both interpersonal and interpretive Japanese. Additionally, there were culture courses that would help supplement my understanding of the cultural aspects of Japan, such as the one on pop-culture and modern Japanese entertainment; it lied closer to the realm of the aforementioned interests that got me to pursue the Japanese major to begin with.
Through this course pathway at CSUMB, I’ve grown ever closer to entering the video game industry as a game translator and localizer. I never would have imagined as a child being able to take part in an industry that’s brought me so much joy over the years, through the mastery of a foreign language of all things. However this new future seems even more plausible as I go on, since a guest speaker from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey recently got in touch with me to inform me of the existence of a course explicitly meant for training game translators. Overall, CSUMB feels like a fresh new start on the path to my desired career through bilingualism, as my BA in Japanese language & culture will prove to be only a part of the prologue that is my journey into a work field I've always wanted to be a part of.
While in high school I was required to take a foreign language course as a graduation requirement. Feeling too detached from Spanish due to some complications with my schooling years prior, I decided to enroll in Japanese courses. I quickly latched on to the language and all of the relevant material taught to me throughout high school, taking initiative and even performing well in the more creatively driven assignments (illustrating, presentation script writing, etc.), which I typically vehemently despised in other classes. I did not know it at the time, but my passion for excelling in Japanese was due to acknowledging its connection to two of my greatest interests: Video games and animation. From the moment I graduated high school, to my transfer to CSUMB via community college, I knew I could use my knowledge of Japanese to somehow make it into either industry and fulfill a childhood dream.
Because of the unavailability of Japanese language courses at my community college, Hartnell College, there was a gap between when I first learned Japanese in high school and transferring to CSUMB. Therefore, I went ahead and took both JAPN101 and JAPN102 simultaneously upon starting my first semester there to “refresh” my mind on Japanese I had previously learned. From there and the later semesters throughout, I both regained previously forgotten communication techniques and expanded upon them with new lessons on both interpersonal and interpretive Japanese. Additionally, there were culture courses that would help supplement my understanding of the cultural aspects of Japan, such as the one on pop-culture and modern Japanese entertainment; it lied closer to the realm of the aforementioned interests that got me to pursue the Japanese major to begin with.
Through this course pathway at CSUMB, I’ve grown ever closer to entering the video game industry as a game translator and localizer. I never would have imagined as a child being able to take part in an industry that’s brought me so much joy over the years, through the mastery of a foreign language of all things. However this new future seems even more plausible as I go on, since a guest speaker from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey recently got in touch with me to inform me of the existence of a course explicitly meant for training game translators. Overall, CSUMB feels like a fresh new start on the path to my desired career through bilingualism, as my BA in Japanese language & culture will prove to be only a part of the prologue that is my journey into a work field I've always wanted to be a part of.
Resume (via link in Google Docs):
ILP (as of Fall 2020):
richard_perez_japn_.ilp_.docx | |
File Size: | 48 kb |
File Type: | docx |