Brief Accounts of Autobiography, Skills & Work Experience (Bilingual)

        I came to Taiwan from Hong Kong and began studying at National Taiwan University in 1992. In 1997, I graduated as a bachelor of Economics. Holding an R.O.C. ID and unwilling to return to Hong Kong, I have been working in Taiwan since my graduation.

        I spent the last two of my five years at NTU attending classes in the Foreign Language Department (FLD), while studying economics at the same time. The FLD subjects I picked up included “English Composition”, “Translation and Exercise”, “History of Western Literatures”, and “Appreciation of Master Pieces”. The fact that I work as a translator now owes much to all these courses.

        As for personal capabilities, I am quite proud of my good literacy and memory, and ability to learn new things quickly. These capabilities were proved in late 1996, when I took the TOEFL examination for the very first time and scored 617 points. And these aptitudes were further acknowledged and trained in my daytime translator job at “InfoTimes Corp.” and “cnYES.com, Inc.” (The copies of the ID card, the certificates of college graduation and the TOEFL examination are available on Reference 1 in my personal website for your reference.)

        My job at InfoTimes is mainly to translate Chinese news reports on various domestic industries and to furnish English reports on SIMEX stock index futures and the bond market. The industry reports I am responsible for cover everything from electronics, cyberspace, telecommunications, biotechnology, petrochemicals, and aerospace, autos, to iron & steel. Some of these articles are available on Reference 2 for your reference, of which written by Kevin Liu are my articles.

        In order to polish up written English, I spent my spare time in reading English articles of quality. My favorite readings included “Time Express”, Wall Street Journal, and China Post. Whenever coming across memorable wording and phrasing, I would jot them down in “Word” files. Throughout the past two years they have already become massive records. Please check out some of them in Reference 3 (or Expression.zip) for collections of rhetoric, Reference 4 or (Word12.zip) for English collations, and Reference 5 (or Same12.zip) for synonyms.

        Being familiar with word-processing software “Word 2000” and compression software “WinZip 8.0”, as well as good at exploring the plentiful resources on the Web, I have accumulated a great deal of data, wording and phrasing relating to various industries, index futures and bond transactions. These materials were so rich and practical that they were not only the indispensable references for my daily work, but also made me become a “data source” among my colleagues. Please visit Reference 6 (or Database2000.zip) to check out the materials I spent most energy collecting, most of which are concerned with the high-tech, computer, and biotechnology industries. If necessary, please feel free to inform me to email you all of these materials.

        In fact, I have planned for a while to place these materials onto my websites in a bid to help people in need for translation (Chinese to English or English to Chinese), with online-ad incomes for returns. To study related software applications and networking technologies (with building online databases and Chinese-language search engines as focus) is indeed one of my motives to take the “E-commerce Software Applications Course” in Accnet.

        In cnYES.com, I translated the reports of Nasdaq and Net stock markets closing from certain websites into Chinese-language reports. After that, I translate articles picked up by myself or by a team leader of my department. I choose articles mainly from the CNET.com, and most of the articles I pick up fall on high-tech and computer industries, as they have become my favorites and the ones I am more compatible in translating than others.

        During the period in cnYES.com, I not only read more English articles, but also improved my written Chinese.

        Other than jobs, there was one thing noteworthy during cnYES.com days. I furnished a report on some browsing troubles of our website (www.cnyes.com/index.htm) by using PowerPoint 2000, and that contribution received sound appreciation from my supervisor in turn. The report is enclosed here as “Attachment 7： ‘cnyesdebug file’” for your reference. If you don’t have the PowerPoint software to view the file, please click Reference 7 and choose Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) for the browser.

        Since the advent of the information era, the knowledge of computer and networking has been playing increasingly vital role in our daily lives. That, compounding personal interests in network applications and building databases (which were inspired during collecting aforementioned materials), became a main drive for me to attend the Accnet’s “E-commerce Software Applications Course”. The course began in July this year and finished early this year.

        Thanks to that course, not only have I gained a better understanding of network, Win NT systems, and website-building know-how like HTML, VBScript, and ASP, but also, more importantly, got a key to the door of programming by learning Visual Basic 6.0, and SQL (used in SQL Server 7.0 and Access 2000). I am certain that these skills will be of significance for me to become a more compatible high-tech translator, and a database designer in the virtual or real world someday. In addition, the tutors and the classmates I have made acquainted with may become vital business partners of mine in the future. (The details of the course are available on Reference 8 for your reference.)

        In the ATS Group, a specialized translation organization where I work for, I have gained valuable experience and skills in Trados, one of the most famous translation software. Thanks to Trados, I have gained a better understanding of how databases work interactively with people. In addition, I have learnt well in ATS that being a professional translator means as much running a race against time as pursuing a balance between quantity and quality.       

        Throughout my college years, I had to work to support myself. In the early years, I did such backbreaking jobs as restaurant waiters, and the staff of Housekeeping and Room Service departments in hotels. Later, I began taking more “intelligent” part-time jobs, such as translating videotapes and Chinese-to-English documents (including translating “Study Schemes” and “Recommendations” for those candidates applying for graduate schools abroad.)

        While these jobs may seem hardly worth mentioning now, they still play a vital role in my life. Because of those work experience, I especially cherish any posts at which there is something to learn; in fact, I spare no effort in my work and always aim at the best. If you wish to contact my former employees and colleagues, they can verify my points.

        I am looking forward to an interview, so that we can gain a further understanding of each other.

(All the aforementioned hyperlinks can also be found in http://welcome.to/kevinliu_profile or Personal Profile .)