December 1998

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It seems like the holiday season is coming faster and faster. Doesn't it? I feel like I only have 2 days a week, just Mondays and Fridays. It's that time of year again when everyone gets mentally and physically busy. I too get busy writing this holiday letter. This is my third year sending this letter out and some of you told me you actually read it so I decided to continue doing it. I would like to wish you all the best in 1999, yes it's almost 2000, and share with you some of the highlights of my 1998 activities. If I have not talked to you or written to you for awhile, please forgive me and read this letter.

In January, I received a report card from my dear students of "Sight and Written translation: Korean <> English" class at University of California at Los Angeles Extension. I received 8.4 out of 9. I was extremely happy. The second bit of good news was that I became the first Korean interpreter outside of Korea who was admitted as an active member in the prestigious International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC).

As in previous years, I spent time in the air. I worked as a conference interpreter in many cities all over the US including my favorite city, New Orleans, and in Ottawa and Toronto, Canada, and all the way to Chiba, Japan (twice) and Hong Kong.

As a judiciary interpreter, I had many depositions concerning patent infringements, personal injury, divorces, and contracts. I had numerous court appearances throughout California and Montana (Really in the state capital, Helena). As an examiner of court interpreters' oral examinations for Korean, I provided my services to the states of Washington and New Jersey. I am still with the Judicial Council of California Court Interpreters Advisory Panel and trying to be the voice of interpreters without voices.

As a translator, editor, and proofreader I had a wide variety of assignments this year including banking terms, business cards, child supervision guidelines, company policies, contracts, domestic violence training material, employee surveys, holiday greetings, manuals, marketing materials, newsletters, and product specifications. I also evaluated lots of translation tests and potential names for new products and services. The jobs came from all over: the US, Canada, England, Korea, Singapore, and Sweden.

In voiceover, I worked on the compact disc of the gallery guide for the Motorola Museum of Electronics in the suburb of Chicago, after I translated the scripts.

Among all the assignments this year, two of my favorites involved meeting celebrities from Hollywood and the golf course. The first was working as an interpreter at a Los Angeles press junket for the movie, Deep Impact for Dreamworks (Yes, the one started by Steven Spielberg and his two talented friends). I worked for Korean journalists, including newspaper reporters, reporters from TV's weekly entertainment shows, and a TV producer. As a movie freak, it was truly a dream job. I watched the unfinished version of the movie, had wonderful meals with journalists (as a matter of fact, I had to baby-sit them), went to the Jet Propulsion Lab, and met famous and not-so-famous actors, actresses, directors, producers, technical experts, and consultants to the movie.

The second was a telephone/computer interview with Korean LPGA golfer Seri Pak, for an Internet chat service. I read the audience questions in English on the computer screen and interpreted them into Korean for Seri on a conference call. As Seri's answers were being interpreted into English by me, the special events producer typed them up so anyone in the world connected to the Internet could read the questions from the audience and the answers from Seri simultaneously. It was a really neat experience to witness what this Internet technology can do.

Between assignments, I was fortunate enough to take a ski trip, vacations in Cheju Island (Korea's Hawaii), Vancouver, British Columbia, Orlando, Florida, and Seoul, Korea, as well as my annual trips to New Orleans, Louisiana and New York. My best vacation was in Italy for three weeks in October. I visited Milano, Como, Venezia, Firenze, Pisa, Napoli, Pompei, Sorrento, Capri, and of course Roma.

As you can see I truly had another great year and would like to offer many many thanks from the bottom of my heart to all the people who helped me have another wonderful year.

That's it, Folks! Thanks for reading!
HERE'S WISHING YOU VERY HAPPY HOLIDAYS
AND A FUN, EXCITING AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!!!

With Love,
Jacki Noh