I’m a big believer in comprehensive input, but sometimes it takes time to find media that I enjoy enough to immerse myself in. I’m a fan of the game Genshin Impact, and I’ve been using it to work on learning Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean vocabulary!
I’ve found it to be a great way to make the languages fun. Even if some of the words are niche, it can allow me to connect to the larger player community to talk about a hobby. I’m sharing my resources/research below.
Anki decks coming soon!
I provided Japanese language translation services for a Live Aware Labs research project.
I provided Japanese translation services for Niantic.
I worked with Teance Fine Teas to produce a short documentary series featuring some of their tea providers. I traveled with them to China and Taiwan and documented their tour, as well as assisted with translation for and guidance of guests. After the trip, I edited the videos and subtitled the content which was in Chinese.
You can see more about this project HERE.
August 2015, I accompanied Irene Herrera to assist on these interview shoots. I manned one of the cameras, and explained procedures to the two ex-pilots. Speaking with older generations is always a challenge in foreign languges if speaking styles have changed over time. Ms Herrera and I worked together to conduct powerful interviews.
You can read the accompanying article HERE.
Examining Spanish Clitics is one example of a linguistic research project which I completed at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This paper deals with the structure of Romance Languages
Excerpt:
Clitic pronouns provide one of the biggest challenges for English speakers who are trying to learn a Romance language. A clitic is “a word that is treated in pronunciation as forming a part of a neighboring word and that is often unaccented or contracted” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). English clitics include contracted auxiliary verbs such as I’m or you’ve. Romance languages all have clitic pronouns, although some have more than others. Clitic pronouns are unlike other pronouns because they are not full nominal phrases, and ‘lean’ on other elements in the sentence. In this paper, I gave a basic explanation of how clitic pronouns work in Spanish.
please request for full access via ysabelking@gmail.com
What's the Deal with Semelfactives? is one example of a linguistic reserach project which I completed at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This paper deals with linguistic reasoning and semantics.
Excerpt:
Kearns (2000) and Dowty (1979) wrote about aspects of verbal predicates and suggested diagnostics to differentiate them. An aspect distinguishes “different ways of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a situation” (Dowty). Aspectual classes have to do with whether a verbal predicate (VP) is bounded (having a natural finishing point beyond which the event cannot continue), durative (the event occupies some time, instead of being instantaneous), and presence or absence of change (i.e. whether the event is heterogeneous or homogenous from moment to moment). Different combinations of these three characteristics yield different aspectual classes. Four classes - state, achievement, activity, accomplishment - are relatively easy to define. But there is still one that eludes us -- and that is the “semelfactive.” I explored the meaning of the classes, and make claims about the value of their telicity, durative-ness, and homogeneity.
please request for full access via ysabelking@gmail.com
While working at Filmatography, some projects came in which contained Japanese interviews. I subtitled the material and created multiple edits to create new promotional content.
In the summer of 2015, I interned at Temple University’s Japan Campus Communications department through the Institute for Contemporary Asian Studies. During the internship I worked with professors Carr and Herrera to edit four different short documentaries, focusing on Tokyo, Mumbai, Manila, and Dhaka. I also conducted contextual research and learned about many social issues in Asia. My responsibilities included logging footage, adding subtitles, editing and finalizing the projects.I also recorded and photographed many of the ICAS evening public lecture events, and attended a course on contemporary Japanese film and anime. I was able to attend many of the ICAS events with the other interns such as the embassy and U.S. naval and air bases tours, as well as gain access to events at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club.
My time at Temple tested and helped me improve my Japanese and Mandarin Chinese language skills.
You can read more about the fellowship program HERE.
During my final two years at UCSC, I actively worked to share and spread my knowledge of the Japanese language. I worked for Learning Support Services as a tutor, and attended lectures as a Teaching Assistant.
At UCSC, I pursued socio-linguistic research as part of degree. Here you can see an example of how I focussed on Japanese dialects and their affects.
is an inquiry entirely in Japanese on the use of dialects and 役割語 (role language). In this romantic comedy anime, Lovely Complex, the protagonists parody the comedian combo "All Hanshin Kyojin" by using rapid Osaka slang. Their word choices give insight into their inner emotions and self-concept.
In 2014, I had the honor to be chosen for the Peter Rushton Award by the University of California Santa Cruz Language Department, This award supported my linguistic research and pursuit of fluency in Mandarin Chinese.
“This scholarship was established in memory of the life and work of Dr. Peter Rushton. Dr. Rushton received his Ph.D. in Chinese Language and Literature from Stanford University prior to becoming a lecturer in Chinese language at UC Santa Cruz in 1984. He was an active scholar, dedicated teacher, and champion of students interested in Chinese language and culture.”