December 2011

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Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Clients:

Happy Holidays! Greetings from the beautiful San Francisco Bay area – current temperature 54°F (12°C)! I treasure this moment when I reflect the past 12 months while looking out at the strikingly beautiful Golden Gate Bridge through my living room windows and offer my sincerest gratitude to you for your continued love, friendship, patience, understanding, support, and confidence in my work. Thank You! You certainly made my life much more beautiful and livable. In this 17 year-old annual letter (hard to believe), I will share some of the highlights hoping to answer that most frequently asked question, "Where have you been, Jacki?"

My 2011 started out in sunny and warm San Diego and Maui, then jumped to winter in Seattle and Vancouver, then back to Orlando. My body must have been quite confused. Business trips I took this year included our northern neighbor Canada (Edmonton, Alberta and Nanaimo, British Columbia), Central America (Guatemala City) and the Middle East (Doha, Qatar). Like in years past, I interpreted on a wide range of topics. Some of these were airplanes, cotton, dental implants, education, entertainment, financial services, information technology (IT), marketing, nutrition and salmon. Fortunately, I enjoyed almost all the topics I had to research and interpret. The ones I enjoyed more than others were airplanes (as I love to fly), cotton (as I like to wear it), IT (hard to imagine the world without IT) and salmon (my favorite food). Recurrent IT assignments gave me the impression that the IT industry is bouncing back with virtual machines (VM) and cloud computing.

As a judiciary interpreter, I worked both in the United States Federal and California State courts as well as at depositions, attorney-client conferences, and various hearings. Court cases ranged from speeding citations (a welcome source of income for municipalities) to disturbing the peace and attempted murder. One of my favorite assignments was to interpret for judges and their support staff from Korea who came to the United States to learn about the jury trial system and court e-filing although they were surprised to learn that their 7 month-old e-filing system is more advanced than one of the California state courts' 10 year-old one. I also provided my interpretation services during focus group sessions as well as medical and psychiatric evaluation sessions. Furthermore, I worked as a translator, editor, proofreader, and voiceover talent, which was very rewarding and satisfying.

Aside from work, I tried to spend as much time as possible with Mother Nature. This year I hiked in Mammoth Lakes, Mendocino, Big Sur, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Mt. Tamalpais, Briones Regional Park, and Tilden Park, just to name a few. To me, hiking is like being in love. Both activities never let you know in advance what you will find once you start your journey. They never show the same face twice. Both activities require ample courage, patience, endurance, perseverance, and curiosity. Whatever the weather, I can always hike and be enamored. We can never have enough of nature or love. Mother Nature is also my teacher; as Lao Tzu, philosopher of ancient China put it: "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."

To satisfy my intellectual curiosity, I attended a symposium on Russia and Russian Civilization in the North Pacific sponsored by the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and a lecture titled "Does WikiLeaks Threaten American Interests?" among others. I also had scintillating conversations with esteemed colleagues when I attended "Train-the-Trainer" workshops and conferences for interpreters and translators.

On a personal note, in May when my nephew Peter married Justina – whom I have been considered as my little sister for over 10 years – I became the happiest aunt on earth. In late August, these newlyweds moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan so Peter could start his MBA program at the University of Michigan. In late July, Peter's younger brother Joseph moved to Philadelphia to study at Jefferson Medical School. Their baby brother, Philip, also left home to begin his freshman year at my alma mater, UC Berkeley. My other nephew, Robert, received a master's degree from the University of Southern California (USC) and has been working in Southern California. His younger sister, Christine, is still enjoying her environmental studies at USC. I believe this is why so many immigrant parents say they came to the United States for their children despite all the hardships that they know they will have to endure in a foreign land. I am so proud of my nephews and niece, who seem to be thriving quite happily as proud Americans.

Some of the cultural activities I enjoyed this year are: San Francisco Ballet "The Little Mermaid" (absolutely beautiful); musical "Mamma Mia" (5th time); The Music of ABBA: Arrival with the SF Symphony (Yes, I am a huge fan of ABBA's bubblegum music); Sarah Chang violinist concert in Boston; and a Rod Stewart concert in Las Vegas. The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso and the Parisian Avant-Garde at SF Museum of Modern Art was very interesting as well.

Between assignments, I was fortunate enough to squeeze in mini-vacations to visit dear friends: I played with a snowman in Vancouver, Canada; I had loads of fun with Mardi Gras parades 3 days in a row in New Orleans; and I enjoyed the gorgeous autumn and the best lobster imaginable during my week-long trip to Boston/Cape Cod/Provincetown, Massachusetts with my boyfriend, Rob. We also had a chance to visit his alma mater in Boston, Berklee College of Music.

Now, as I have done each year, let me share my picks of the year and kindly ask you to share your favorite books and films of 2011:
Among all the books I read this year, the following books stand out: While Mortals Sleep by Kurt Vonnegut; Gilead by Marilynne Robinson; A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini; World and Town by Gish Jen; Shanghai Girls by Lisa See and Gold Boy, Emerald Girl by Yiyun Li

Since I did not watch as many films in theaters this year, it was easier to pick my favorite films than it was to pick the books. Here they are: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Biutiful; David O. Russell's The Fighter; Gilles Paquet-Brenner's Sarah's Key, which prompted me to read The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach by Alice Kaplan; Park Jung Bum's The Journals of Musan (Mr. Park received New Directors Award at San Francisco International Film Festival. It was an exhilarating experience interpreting for him during media interviews, award ceremony, and Q&As after the screening as I thoroughly enjoyed his film and saw it 6 times); Jesse Peretz's Our Idiot Brother (very charmingly funny); two best DVDs were Florian Henckel-Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others and Denis Villeneuve's Incendies.

I have posted some of the pictures from my travels on
www.flickr.com/photos/jackinoh

"That's it, folks! Thanks for reading.
HERE'S WISHING YOU VERY HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!"

With warmest regards,
Jacki Noh