University of Queensland student Mariko Senoo hopes to use her translation and interpreting skills to help international companies communicate across different languages.
Ms Senoo will graduate with a Master of Arts in Japanese Interpreting and Translation (MAJIT) degree at 2pm on December 14 and hopes to work in Australia or Japan for a private company.
Originally from Japan, she moved to Australia to enrol in the UQ program after it was recommended by an interpreting teacher.
“I had been working in Japan where I was taking some courses on note-taking techniques for German-Japanese interpreting,” Ms Senoo said.
“My teacher at that German language institute in Tokyo, who was also working as a conference interpreter for German, English and French, recommended the course at UQ.”
Ms Senoo spent most of her childhood years in Japan but also spent some time living in the United States and Germany.
She completed her undergraduate degree in linguistics in Canada and then wanted to expand her skills and study a field which used languages but also established a career.
“I was always interested in languages and so linguistics study developed out of that interest,” Ms Senoo said.
“My Bachelors degree in linguistics was quite theoretical. It gave me an understanding of the nuts and bolts of language – the structure and sounds which make up language.
“After completing my undergraduate degree, I knew I wanted more and wanted to see what I could study with languages, but get a career.”
The MAJIT program is offered through UQ’s School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies and is the leading Japanese interpreting and translation program in Australia.
The school offers teaching and research in major world languages and the cultures in which they are spoken.
MAJIT includes practical, professional and theoretical translation and interpreting skills and covers topics such as business, politics, science, technology, law and medicine.
The program includes a weekly forum where final-year students practise interpreting for a live guest speaker on a wide variety of topics.
Ms Senoo agrees that learning about culture when learning languages is important.
“I believe it is essential that you understand the cultural aspect of the languages you learn because different languages use different logic, and we have to be very flexible and open,” Ms Senoo said.
“When you learn a foreign language it is important to be able to accept different ways of thinking.”
Friends and family of graduating students who can’t make it to the UQ ceremonies will be able to watch them live on the web by clicking on either of the following links:
Quicktime: www.uq.edu.au/graduations/live-broadcast, or
Windows Media Player: www.uq.edu.au/graduations/broadcast-windows-media
Media: Mariko Senoo (0433 420 049, komari501@hotmail.com) or the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies (07 3365 6311, slccs@uq.edu.au)
