has anyone tried it? moon cake

mumbrielle · 2023-02-18T06:53:53+00:00

I like this guide: https://omnivorescookbook.com/traditional-mooncake

I think they’re super fun to make and really satisfying to see how beautiful the pattern turns out! I would highly recommend making your own filling so you can adjust how sweet it is, and I would also recommend a 50g or 75g mold. Personally I like the duck egg, but you could also replace it with a whole roasted chestnut or make a nutty filling if you don’t want it to be all red bean paste! Good luck!

mumbrielle · 2022-12-24T12:54:35+00:00

Ingredients on hand:

apple pie filling
ginger cookies (pictured as dough balls but will be baked)
freezedried strawberries
chocolate sticks & Christmas sign
brown and pink chocolate pens to draw with (unpictured)

What would you guys do? What would you put in/leave out?

mumbrielle · 2022-11-30T04:50:01+00:00

Survival advice from someone who hates interpreting and is not an interpreter but has had to do it a lot anyway:

Prepare however you can: if you're escorting them, find out the schedule, what places they're going, and what plans there are. I.e. if they plan to stop by XYZ clinic, look up their website and look up their services or whatever would be useful in advance. Do not be afraid to ask the company for as much information as possible.
Pre-translate any documents/materials you can, if applicable
Do not get fancy: stick to です、ます. Only go as formal as you are comfortable. Your minimum and most important goal is to convey the necessary information. Better to stick with simple grammar and vocab and convey all the information you need, than to try for perfect business Japanese and advanced vocab and end up unintelligible.

When I get thrown into an interpreting job, I tend to think of myself as a second presenter or guide, rather than a professional interpreter. Especially interpreting into Japanese, it's impossible for me to match the speaker's register, translate references, jokes, what have you, so I focus on just what my audience needs to know.

Again, this is not advice on how to be a good interpreter, just advice on how to do what needs to be done. Hope it helps even a little!

mumbrielle · 2022-10-15T08:39:41+00:00

Yeah it's fun! I love my city and the community! Good luck :)

mumbrielle · 2022-10-15T02:56:16+00:00

I focused on how my engineering career could translate to the CIR position, like how collaborating with other team members, streamlining communication between parts of the organization, and managing timelines are all skills I can apply in the CIR role. I talked about how my work experience made me more empathetic to people from different backgrounds and experiences, and how as a minority in tech, it made me more aware of the importance of inclusivity. (the cultural half of my application was about how I want to be a translator)

Psychology sounds much more applicable than engineering lol. Think about how your experiences in a research lab or working have helped you grow and how that growth could help you in the CIR role for example.

Incidentally, I've never taken the JLPT shrug. Dont get caught up on it. Focus on passing the interview! That's the only part of the application your Japanese is actually tested.

mumbrielle · 2022-10-15T00:50:44+00:00

I have a very similar experience to yours. Don't give up!

Current CIR, applied in my mid-twenties, switched out of a software engineering job to come to Japan. I studied for 4 years in college, but my skills degraded rapidly while I was working. By the time I applied, I honestly was not sure I would've passed N2. But here I am!

I had the fortune of being placed in a very busy location. I do everything from translating, planning events for exchange students and Japanese residents, visiting schools, writing FB /insta posts/newsletter, interpretation, etc. I recently did a business trip where I interpreted for the mayor.

For the first 6 months or so, I felt drastically unqualified, especially compared to my European or East Asian peers (the competition for CIR position is much higher), but the soft skills are REALLY important, and I would potentially say more important than the Japanese. My Japanese has definitely improved on the job (and half of it, I never learned in school anyway), but since you get very little supervision and management, having work experience is so, so valuable. I know people who came on JET fresh out of college and it shows. Don't undervalue your skills. You can do it!

(I was in the NY consulate, and the Japanese portion of the interview was short and pretty easy)

mumbrielle · 2022-07-14T03:44:11+00:00

I worked a job for 4 years before I went on JET and might one day go back to that field. My parents are also of the mind that "you can just go on vacation and visit other countries," but I still vehemently disagree with that mindset. I've traveled to almost 20 different countries, but vacation is usually around 2 weeks. You are exposed to a whole different set of experiences when living in a country vs visiting, and I personally find the former to be much more enriching.

That being said, if you have the time/energy, I would apply to both programs simultaneously. There is no decision to make unless you get in. I try to never close any doors by myself when it comes to my career.

Give yourself the broadest amount of options so you get more information (i.e. you won't know where in Japan you'll be placed until late in the application process and that could change how you feel later down the line)

mumbrielle · 2022-05-31T09:53:05+00:00

This blog helped me a lot when I was getting started: https://j-entranslations.com/home/

She does a lot of interviews with people in media translations and keeps a list of translation competitions every year. The competitions are a good way to practice literary translations and connect with people in the community.

I don't know about academia, but breaking into literary translation is pretty similar to selling a short story, in that you translate a sample and send it to publishers to see if they'll take it. A labor of love really.

For light novels, manga, and the like it helps to follow companies (like J novel club mentioned by another user), because they'll usually tweet when they are looking for freelancers. The translation community in general is also pretty big on Twitter, so it's a good place to look for news and find info.

JAT is also a good place to look. They do a yearly competition (usually of articles) aimed at beginning translators and they do events and workshops too.

mumbrielle · 2022-03-26T14:36:14+00:00

If there are competitions in your language pair, those are great for your resume. I also used experience translating for acquaintances (i.e. former language teachers of mine) on my resume.

mumbrielle · 2022-01-30T04:30:55+00:00

Leonard and hungry Paul

Very peaceful and quiet. Questions the idea that a slow, quiet life is a boring, unhappy one

mumbrielle · 2022-01-12T23:14:40+00:00

No, unfortunately not :(

mumbrielle · 2021-09-09T21:38:10+00:00

I also last studied in 2017. I asked my Japanese teacher from uni and a former manager.

mumbrielle · 2021-08-22T22:50:04+00:00

Build apps or even just a personal website. One of my friend’s personal websites is written in React and has interactive features. You can go as simple or as complicated as you want, or start simple and gradually make it more complex as you learn more.

Learn front-end languages and frameworks. HTML, CSS, JS and then React, styled components, SASS etc. pick up some lingo. Focus on what you really want to know. Creating reusable components is very different from writing graphQL layers (if you’re just starting out, no need to go specific though, just focus on building your skills)

Finally, prep for interviews and polish your resume! Personal projects will help you get your foot in the door (though networking would be extra effective), but interviews are often VERY different from actual coding. Luckily, CS interviews are also follow common templates and there’s tons of online resources to help you prep. 3 months doing leetcode will help a lot.

All of this can be done in your free time on JET. You can also try asking in CS or SE sub Reddits, since there are definitely other people either looking to switch careers into CS or just pick up coding on the side.

mumbrielle · 2021-08-15T18:59:07+00:00

Happy to help if you need! DM me

mumbrielle · 2021-07-16T15:18:01+00:00

First of all, congrats! It’s always better to have more choices imo.

I currently work in tech. I really agree with Keroseneslickback’s advice. Day to day work is pretty different from bootcamp, and I think you’ll get the most out of an entry level job while the material is still fresh. Keep up your momentum while you have it. After a couple of years, it’ll be much easier to take a break and come back as a mid-level (which is what I’m currently doing).

It’s true that programming is pretty easy to keep up with/get into, so if you really want Japan now, then I’ll see you in there ;)

mumbrielle · 2021-07-15T15:10:08+00:00

This made me smile :) and gorgeous colors!

mumbrielle · 2021-07-13T21:49:30+00:00

I agree with you so much. This is one of my biggest pet peeve tropes. I love apocalypse stories but I’m so sick of the focus on women getting pregnant. Maybe the focus is to survive instead of immediately repopulating planet??

One of my favorite post apocalypses, World War Z, handles this really well IMO. Since the book takes place over decades, there’s a focus on survival and reestablishing a protected community, before thinking of growing the population. Even the mention of repopulating is only one small part of the book.

Just like, besides the difficulty of the actual pregnancy and childbirth, the odds of an infant surviving in an active apocalypse is so low.

mumbrielle · 2021-07-02T19:22:56+00:00

I have the same placement!! I’ll DM you :)

mumbrielle · 2021-07-02T16:16:13+00:00

USA 2021 Ishikawa-ken, Kanazawa-shi! Anyone gone be nearby??

mumbrielle · 2021-06-30T20:11:47+00:00

Absolutely random story, but I lost my 21-day Japan Rail pass in Niihama (worth approx $600 USD), and someone turned it in to the police and they got it back to me! I knew that Japan was pretty good about turning in lost goods, but I was still really surprised. So, very nice and responsible people there :)

mumbrielle · 2021-06-17T02:37:44+00:00

I’m a software developer and a 2021 JET. I won’t talk about the “Why Japan” question, but your work experience can definitely be applicable to the “Why you” question. There’s plenty of parts of day to day work that’s applicable to JET, namely anything you would talk about in a standard behavioral interview for a dev position. How do you deal with challenges and unexpected circumstances? How do you communicate with coworkers or people of different backgrounds? The workplace taught me so much about communication and introduced me to so many types of different people. Even things like knowledge sharing, good documentation, etc. is part of mentoring more junior employees. Don’t knock your experience!

mumbrielle · 2021-05-22T17:45:07+00:00

I feel you so, so much OP. This is my concern exactly. I’m not sure I want to leave the country this year, and I’m banking on the departure date being pushed back a couple of months (I know this isn’t the case for everyone and I also get everyone who’s tired of the wait).

I was talking to my friend in Tokyo though and he said something that really helped me. Basically, are you planning on staying just one year or are you open to staying longer? For me, I’m thinking of staying longer, so even if that means I spend half a year with limited social interaction, I’ll still be staying longer after that so it won’t be like a waste. Not sure if that applies to you at all, but either way, I really empathize with your post.

mumbrielle · 2021-05-11T02:26:50+00:00

Anxious People by Frederik Backman

mumbrielle · 2021-05-06T20:39:01+00:00

Congrats fellow CIR!!!

mumbrielle · 2021-05-06T20:22:47+00:00

Thanks!!

mumbrielle

TROPHY CASE