Don Ryland:
CLASS OF 1978
Sonora Union High SchoolClass of 1978
Sonora, CA
San Jose State University - MusicClass of 1984
San jose, CA
Don's Story
Life
I am happily married to my wife of 27 years and have 2 daughters. My wife works as a Registered Nurse. My eldest daughter attends college at UC Santa Cruz. My youngest daughter attends San Jose City College. I am currently working at Nikon Precision as a technical translator and compose/arrange music for the Global Jazz Orchestra in Osaka, Japan when I have the time (which isn't often).
We have 5 cats, so we have quite a busy family!!
School
Three teachers had a significant effect on my life: Mr. Keith, my Spanish teacher at SUHS; Mr. Minor, my music teacher at SUHS; and Mr. Lemon, my chemistry and physics teacher at SUHS. Mr. Keith showed me that learning a language is not possible without also learning the culture that goes along with it. (Thanks to him, I realized I have an aptitude for languages which is why I minored in Japanese at San Jose State.) Mr. Minor put up with all my lousy first attempts at composing and arranging and had the SUHS jazz band perform them for me. Thanks to him, I went to San Jose State (where I met my wife, by the way). Thanks to Mr. Lemon, I came to appreciate physics, still one of my favorite subjects. Because of my interest and knowledge of physics, I was able to learn to read physics i...Expand for more
n Japanese and therefore became able to translate it back in English.
Workplace
From musician to technical translator: what a ride! First, I worked as a park musician at Marriott's Great America while attending San Jose State. When I graduated, I went to Japan to rethink my career. I had doubts about my future financial stability as a music teacher. I worked as an English Teacher and studied Japanese on my own. When I got married, I needed a second job, so I started working as an import/export clerk at Tachikawa & Co., Ltd. a trading company in Osaka. It was here that I found I have a knack for translation. I read science magazines in Japanese to "beef up" my vocabulary.
While in Japan, I studied for, and passed the Level 1 Japanese Proficiency Exam, which certifies me as a bilingual with the equivalent ability of Japanese as a native speaker.
Back in the States, I started working at Nikon as a technical translator in the semiconductor manufacturing field. After 5 years there, I moved on to Toshiba, where I worked for 14 years as a technical translator in the semiconductor design field. In 2010, I went back to Nikon. In addition to translation, I am also doing interpretation at technical meetings, and terminology management.
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