SB11 Transcript

Olivia Plowman
Hello, everyone, welcome to the TLM roar podcast. I am your host for today. My name is Olivia Plowman. And I am here with Sachi Salehi who works as a translator in the games at a service department for Sega. And we’re very, very excited to have you here on the podcast, Sachi.

Sachi Salehi
Hi.

Olivia Plowman
Congratulations, by the way, I think you’ve only been working there for two or three months, right?

Sachi Salehi
Yeah, I just started in September. But yeah, thank you.

Olivia Plowman
Yeah. Congratulations. You’re buddies with Sonic right?

Sachi Salehi
Yeah, day one. I shook hands with him.

Olivia Plowman
Oh, sweet. It’s amazing. So just to start off, could you please talk about your onboarding experience with Sega? Like, what was your transition between coming from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies into this company?

Sachi Salehi
Sure. So I’m not sure how common my personal experience is. I had a few people that graduated the same year as me who had this. But um, I came into MIIS straight from undergrad. So I didn’t go into another job or anything. A lot of my colleagues, I feel like had a good amount of job experience coming into MIIS, and I’m sure other TLM students have experienced that same thing where people come from various backgrounds of doing different things. And then they all want to study localization. But since I kind of transitioned quickly from undergrad, grad school, and then just went out, I don’t have a lot of job experience, I think for the biggest thing, in my experience was definitely becoming like a full-time worker in transitioning out from being a student. I was a student for such a long time. So making that transition, finding a work-life balance that’s very different from like school-life balance. And a lot of those kinds of things were the biggest things for the transition.

Olivia Plowman
That’s a bit like the Japanese experience where you just go to school, and then you go to college, and then you get picked up by a company, hopefully.

Sachi Salehi
Yeah, pretty much. Does feel like that now that you mentioned it.

Olivia Plowman
So your background is in Japanese, right?

Sachi Salehi
Yes, I grew up speaking both Japanese and English. I went to Japanese school also. So it’s a little bit hazy. It depends on who you ask. I’m technically bilingual. Technically, a heritage speaking speaker. Just depends on who you ask.

Olivia Plowman
That’s really interesting. So working at Sega, how do your original impressions of working at such a prominent game company, such as Sega, compared to the experience of your exciting new position. So impressions versus the actual?

Sachi Salehi
Oh, obviously, I came into, like, I applied to Sega because I love video games. And I was super excited. Like, it’s a name that a lot of people know. When I was telling my mom, she was like that Sega? Like, even, you know, someone who doesn’t really play video games usually kind of has heard of the name somewhat. So it was definitely really exciting. And I definitely say I’m still kind of in that like honeymoon phase of being very excited about things and learn, like just excited to learn new things and get better at my job. But no matter how much you love it, any job is definitely going to be a job. There’s going to be those days where just you know, work is work. So it’s kind of, I think, a little bit toned down now, my overall excitement. But because I’m actually working like, behind the scenes and things like you get to see how passionate people are about the projects that they work on. And you kind of get to see like, what goes into a game and like it definitely has like developed a new appreciation. I think for the medium and like, it makes me really just happy to be a part of it in some way.

Olivia Plowman
That’s really great. So you’ve been translating Japanese to English, I assume?

Sachi Salehi
So for my position, I actually do both ways. And I do translation and interpretation. And I do both J-E and E-J.

Olivia Plowman
Oh, wow. Did you do interpretation at MIIS?

Sachi Salehi
No, actually. That was one of my bigger challenges while starting the job too. It’s that while I was at MIIS I was TLM-L. So I focused on mostly localization courses, but I did translation courses all four semesters just because I liked it. And it was fun. I’m only J-E for all four semesters, though, because I couldn’t do both at the same time. But so I don’t have any formal experience in interpretation at all. So it’s definitely a lot of learning as I go.

Olivia Plowman
That’s really interesting. But are you getting like a good feel for it at least? I know, it’s only been a few months, but…

Sachi Salehi
I definitely think so. Like, it was really scary at first. But I think that now that I’ve actually been doing it, I feel a little bit more confident. I don’t think that I would go into like any simultaneous interpretation or anything like that yet. That’s a little bit too big of a hard hurdle, I think without any proper training. But at least for like, the topics that come up, and like the things that I need to interpret, I’m feeling a little bit better.

Olivia Plowman
Oh, good. So on the translation side, are you focused more on the technical translations? Or are you diving into like, complex dialogue and story-driven content?

Sachi Salehi
So my main job is actually… Communication support is kind of how I would describe it. I translated a lot of the communications between Japan and US. So instead of focusing more on technical or like, story and things like that, it really becomes like, knowing the situations like everything that’s going on, and like being really aware of the certain problems and things that people are dealing with at the time. So that I can effectively communicate what someone is trying to say to another person when they need help fixing something, or they need to let them know what a current situation is, and things like that. So it’s really a lot of understanding people and making sure I know what they want to convey, and then making sure my communication skills are good enough that I can convey that to someone else.

Olivia Plowman
Okay. So you’re focused on within the company itself?

Sachi Salehi
Most of my work, yeah, is focused on within the company.

Olivia Plowman
Okay, back and forth type of things.

Sachi Salehi
Yeah.

Olivia Plowman
So you need a good understanding of not just what people are conveying, but what is going on, in like that particular part of the company versus the other side.

Sachi Salehi
Yeah, exactly. So like, let’s say, Person A has a specific question about the specific problem that they’re dealing with. But the way they ask, it could be interpreted as like, just any kind of, like, simple issue that they’re having. I would need to make sure that I was communicating about that specific issue. So that other person knows what exactly they need help with.

Olivia Plowman
Okay, okay. I know that one thing that I have trouble with is asking the right question. But that’s only English for my job. That must be really difficult to do in both English and Japanese.

Sachi Salehi
It’s definitely like, you have to know when to ask questions. And then I feel like most of the time, I just choose to ask more questions along the way. Because it’s better to, you know, double check something that you already knew, instead of making assumptions. I think that’s a big thing about translation and interpretation. It’s that you don’t want to assume what someone’s saying, because a five minute conversation of just like “Is A B? Yes, it is. Okay, we can move on.” could turn into like a 30 minute discussion back and forth, including like the interpreter, you know, just because it didn’t get communicated correctly the first time.

Olivia Plowman
Yeah, yeah. You know what they say about to assume so…

Sachi Salehi
I feel like in my position, especially when you’re trying to make sure that something is being conveyed correctly, because like with a story and things like that, when you’re translating, there are certain reasons why you might kind of stray away from the original. But when you’re trying to make sure that people are working towards this, when like, people who speak different languages are working towards the same thing. Everyone needs to be on the same page.

Olivia Plowman
Sweet. What are some unique challenges or speed bumps that you have encountered during your first few months on the job? And do you think that your education has helped you find solutions to these or at least to think outside the box?

Sachi Salehi
I definitely think that, um. I haven’t had any huge things that I’ve kind of encountered, I’d say that were really challenging. I think that there’s definitely some things that I’m foreseeing. Like, there since we’re in-house translators and interpreters, not a lot of people are familiar with the basic best practices like let’s say instead if you went to like an LSP and got someone to do work for you, like the project manager in the LSP would understand certain best practices of like, how to manage certain projects. But because it’s kind of on the translators and stuff. I think that certain knowledge about like how to do like evangelization presentations and kind of share that information to others is going to be really important. Since I feel like we talk a lot about like client evangelization, and like knowledge sharing and things like that. I think that could be helpful down the line when like, especially you have meetings with people who have never been in a meeting with an interpreter before. And they’re kind of small things. But I feel like a lot of the technical knowledge has helped me like knowing how to do certain things in CAT tools has definitely helped. And a lot of information like that, since other people weren’t sure about them. But I’ve actually used CAT tools before and things like that thanks to MIIS. So I’ve known how to get through some of like, small technical difficulties because of that.

Olivia Plowman
Oh, that’s great. I know that second-years have started to learn about the evangelization process. And it is actually very difficult to get stakeholders to understand like, how you do your job and how it’s necessary because they’re so outside of the realm of localization and translation.

Sachi Salehi
Yeah, it’s definitely like, and there’s also just kind of making sure that like, you know, managing relationships and things like that, too. Like, you’re not trying to tell someone just like, oh, do it like this, because I need it this way. It’s just like you’re trying to share information on how something can be done more effectively for everyone. Because it makes everyone’s life better. It makes the project go smoother and things like that.

Olivia Plowman
Yeah, you really need to be transparent about these things. You have to understand the “why” not just the “do it because I said so”.

Sachi Salehi
Yeah, definitely.

Olivia Plowman
You’re currently working remotely? I believe.

Sachi Salehi
Yes I am.

Olivia Plowman
Are you going to go to in-person work at anytime soon?

Sachi Salehi
I was hired with the idea that like we were going to eventually be back in person. So I’m going to be moving to the area and things like that. That’s all been decided.

Olivia Plowman
Okay, do you have any sort of timeframe to when you get back? Versus actually go in for the first time?

Sachi Salehi
Yeah, well I haven’t heard anything so far.

Olivia Plowman
Okay. What kind of changes do you expect, will take place?

Sachi Salehi
I think that, at least for like, really basic communication, it’ll be a lot easier. I feel like when you’re in the same like, space as someone like when you just need a hey, like, quick, “hey, could you do this for me really quick, I need to talk to you about something.” Since right now, you have to go into like a meeting every time and online meeting and talk about something for like five minutes, and then you get out of that meeting. But that could just be a two second thing if you were together. So I think that’ll be quicker. But for me, since I do interpretation as well, one of the big things is note taking at the same time to make sure I get in everything that someone’s saying. And I’m really worried about how loud my keyboard is going to be because I have to type really fast and I’m just, it’s not even good typing. So it’s just about getting as much information as I can that I’m worried that I’m going to forget. So that’s a personal concern of mine of how loud am I going to be in person.

Olivia Plowman
I know that one of my friends who is doing a bit of Japanese to English interpretation studies. She doesn’t use her computer, I think. She writes handwritten notes, but uses Japanese kanji for certain ideas that are just easier to write in one character than in, say, I don’t know, a 10-letter word in English.

Sachi Salehi
That’s definitely a good idea. I’m just like not that fast at handwriting. I think I’d be a little too behind. Since it’s a little bit too cumbersome to like switch between languages while typing. If there’s something that I need to remember like the Japanese word for “in the moment”, I’ll type in a romaji, so I don’t forget it when I’m interpreting.

Olivia Plowman
I am a bit curious. Just from the Japanese standpoint, how good is your kanji / how good is your kanji writing skills because me, a non native speaker, I’m terrible at remembering how to write.

If it’s handwriting them, I’m very, very bad. But it’s enough to the point where like reading them is a lot better. And like, in context, I can tell when it’s the wrong one. But if I need to handwrite everything on the spot, I’m not going to do so well.

Yeah. That’s why we have technology.

Sachi Salehi
Exactly.

Olivia Plowman
Yeah. I know, a lot of native Japanese speakers who, especially after they came to spend time in the US. They told me, I don’t remember how to write that word. Let me look it up real quick. I’ll stop geeking out about Japanese. Can you talk a little bit about your application process to Sega?

Sachi Salehi
Sure, I actually applied to a post that was pretty kind of generic through a recruiter. And the recruiter is the one who kind of put me through and told me later on that it was actually for Sega and things like that.

Olivia Plowman
Okay, that’s really interesting. So you had no idea?

Sachi Salehi
Yeah, it just said that it was for a video game company.

Olivia Plowman
Okay. So you have no idea?

Sachi Salehi
So I was like, yeah, could be interesting.

Olivia Plowman
It could be interesting. It could be any old thing. But instead, it’s Sega, and Sonic. What aspects of your education background do you think helped you to stand out for your position?

Sachi Salehi
I think that definitely, like my MIIS degree was a big thing, things that I have, like, even if it wasn’t directly just in translation, that I have some kind of background in, like translation processes, and my job isn’t localization. But having that kind of knowledge, you know, language related knowledge and things like that was definitely big. And I think that my bilingual background probably helped too, since that’s, like pretty necessary for my job. My interviews, were all in Japanese. So I think that was pretty important.

Olivia Plowman
Your interviews are all in Japanese?

Sachi Salehi
Yep.

Olivia Plowman
Was there any English portion at all?

Sachi Salehi
So there wasn’t a translation test for my job. But there was an interpretation test. I had two rounds of interviews. And each interview had an interpretation test that was pretty short. And the only time I spoke English in either of my interviews was when I was interpreting from Japanese to English in those interpretation tests.

Olivia Plowman
Okay. Do you remember if on the job description that they said you would be doing interpretation?

Sachi Salehi
Yeah, the job description did ask for that.

Olivia Plowman
So I’ve heard some places might only put down that they’re looking for translators, but they want you to kind of interpret on the spot sometimes.

Sachi Salehi
Yeah, at least for me, the job description and like the recruiter, made sure to like, get in touch with me that the job was both translation and interpretation. So like, at least I wasn’t bamboozled about that.

Olivia Plowman
That’s really good. I know that when I lived in Japan, sometimes I had to interpret for a friend of mine who knew no Japanese, and me having had no formal training at the time, and I hadn’t been to MIIS yet. My Japanese was worse than it is today. That was a very difficult time. So luckily, my friend was never in any accidents or anything like that.

Sachi Salehi
Yeah, like I think the only time I can really think of when I actually did interpretation was like, my grandmother got sick while she was visiting us in the US. And I had to say like the medication she was on in English, and I didn’t know how to explain certain medications.

Olivia Plowman
Did you have to tell her how expensive the medication was versus how expensive it was in Japan?

Sachi Salehi
Luckily, I was only like, I think I was like nine or ten at the time, so I don’t I had no clue about healthcare and things like that.

Olivia Plowman
Oh, to be young. Oh, my gosh. How many stages were there to the application/ interview process? I know you said there were two rounds of interpretation?

Sachi Salehi
Yeah, so I had two interviews total. And then the first one was just with, like the people who are actually going to be in the team that I work with every day. And then the second interview had, like some higher up people and people from Japan in it.

Olivia Plowman
Well, are you intimidated?

Sachi Salehi
Definitely. Yeah.

Olivia Plowman
I guess you can’t say who was in the meeting, but…

Sachi Salehi
Or like it was just, um, like, department heads, things like that.

Olivia Plowman
Do you have any sort of advice or things that you wish you had done differently? At MIIS, or during the application process?

Sachi Salehi
Well, I mean, considering my current position, I wish I studied interpretation. That’s definitely big. But in terms of like, advice and stuff, I think that, I guess maybe for second-years, it might be a little bit late at this point. But definitel try doing different things like just because you’re in TLM-L or TLM- doesn’t mean you have to like specifically go into a project management position, or like, you know, just go directly into that, like, obviously, if you want to do that, that’s really wonderful. And I’m rooting for you. But I’m like, I did TLM-L, completely going into grad school thinking, I’m going to be like a localization project manager or something like that. And I ended up at the end of my last semester, just wanting to do translation. That’s what I wanted to do. And I think it was good that just out of curiosity, I ended up taking all of those translation classes, electives. It was really fun and like helped me figure out more what I wanted to do. So like, if there’s some like side elective that you’re interested in, and you’re just like, well, I might not use it and graduate school is expensive. Like, just go for it. Like you’re already there. Enjoy it. Maybe it’ll, it’ll lead to something different. Maybe it won’t. It’s not that huge of a deal. But I think definitely like, you know, don’t lock yourself into one thing just because that’s what you think you have to do. There’s so many positions that you could do. I’m personally still interested in things like DTP and stuff like that too. In your career you can go in like so many different directions. So like, take all the opportunities you have.

Olivia Plowman
Yeah. Do you know if you have any opportunities to not just move up the ladder, but move like sideways on the ladder, and maybe go into like, some kind of DTP work for Sega, or anything like that?

Sachi Salehi
I’m not sure, on any official capacity at all. But there’s definitely I would say, a culture of trying to promote what you’re interested in, and like, what you want to do. I would say is like the feeling I get. Like, I feel like they’re very encouraging about like, trying to get people to like, do what they’re interested in. So like, I don’t think it’s, completely impossible, but I can’t say on like, any official capacity, if that’s something down the line for me or not.

Olivia Plowman
Yeah, that’s fine. Would you want to?

Sachi Salehi
Oh, yeah, definitely. I think that’d be super fun. If I could, like continue doing some translation stuff and branch out into other things, too.

Olivia Plowman
Yeah, that sounds really awesome.

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