The LocNavigator Newsletter

I first traveled overseas when I was 21 years old. I was pursuing an undergraduate degree in Japanese literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In 1992, I participated in an exchange program with Nanzan University, in Nagoya, Japan. I spent the next year at their Center for Japanese Studies learning about the people, customs, history, language, and culture of Japan.

It opened my eyes to the vastness of the world we live in. Ways of thinking, eating, worshiping, celebrating life. I was in awe.

I lived with a host family in Nagoya and quickly realized the challenges that come with trying to explain cultural difference to my friends and family back home.

One night, my host father, a dentist, handed me a one-page fax in Japanese. He asked me to translate it into English.

It was dense text. A single block of Japanese kanji and kana, no spaces, from top to bottom. I was intimidated, but curious to see what I could do.

Armed with a paperback bilingual dictionary, I poured over the text, character-by-character, line-by-line. I persisted and finished a semi-comprehensible translation. It was pretty horrible. We shared some laughs over the dinner table when reading it together. But my host father was gracious and deeply appreciative of the effort.

With this experience, I found translation to be a thrilling pursuit as a means for breaking through the langauge barrier. I studied kanji and Japanese vigorously throughout my 20's and ultimately became a legal translator.

Three decades later, I now work as a Senior Solutions Architect at a localization firm. I have a front row seat to some of the largest and most influential companies' localization programs.

This newsletter is where I do the work that no one else has time for. I thrive on details. I write articles about tools, services, emerging technologies and more so that I can share objective advice, perspectives and insights.

My mission is to help you make the right decisions about language technology and services. Please join me.

Traveling the World