Not merely content with providing an inside look inside the industry you may or may not care about, we will also be doing an outside the industry feature over here. What exactly do they do when they’re not working on their craft? Could they be working in another industry? Do they just go to sports events every week or something? Could almost be anything! You get to find out in this space every month, or third Friday of the month specifically. Just like the Inside the Industry feature, this is still in the early stages, so any improvements or suggestions you can send by email (organizationasg at gmail dot com).
So, this month’s feature will continue the manga theme left off with Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, and feature the editor/proofreader of Attack on Titan: Before The Fall and No Regrets, and Vol 9 & 13 of Cage of Eden, Lauren Scanlan, who will find something to do full time after she graduates from school. Seriously. – Justin
When I’m not working on proofing manga… I’m still usually working on something!
I’m currently a student at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (now the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey), getting my MBA in Localization Management. I chose the program because I wanted to focus on the business aspects of localization (as opposed to becoming a translator), and so I could use my expertise from my time doing Linguistic QA to help build more effective localization processes. I plan to work in media localization, especially for games, movies/TV/anime, and/or comics (of course!). Part of school also includes language study, so I spend a lot of time on Japanese (working on total fluency) and Korean (still a total beginner). I’m still in my first year, and while my schoolwork takes up much of my time, it’s one of the things I enjoy, so I don’t mind it too much. Ask me again next semester, though, and you may get a different answer.
If I do have free time, I tend to spend it on playing a variety of games (I call it “work research,” but it is also fun!) or bingeing on Hulu. I’ve been trying to broaden my horizons in terms of which kinds of games I play (I’m usually just a JRPG girl), so I can see what kinds of games are getting localized, and what is expected from different genres. Currently I’m looking at iOS otome games, which has been a real eye-opener! I’m also playing some of the more influential games in the JRPG genre that I haven’t played before – currently I’m working on Tales of Symphonia. My best games for 2014 (of the few I had time to play!) were Tales of Xillia, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, and Monument Valley. I’ve found some ways to multi-task fun and work – for example, I found that I could put my Tales of Symphonia party on Auto and have them level while I worked on my finals – but usually the fun gets put on hold until everything else is done.
I am a huge fan of Running Man, the South Korean variety show (not the Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi film), and I catch up with that every week (via DramaFever’s channel on YouTube). Some of my favorite long-running shows (outside of Running Man) are Brooklyn 99, @Midnight, and The Daily Show, and some of my favorite shows from this year are Kill La Kill, Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun, Barakamon, and It’s Okay, That’s Love (Kdrama). I’m not usually a K or J drama watcher, but It’s Okay, That’s Love is a little more on the “normal” side of things (no surprise amnesia that threatens to tear a young couple apart! Everyone communicates! It’s crazy!) and has a Running Man (Lee Kwang Soo) as a fantastic supporting actor, so it made my list.
I am also a creative writer, and though I haven’t been as good this year at submitting stories/essays, I have been in the past. I write mostly fantasy and creative nonfiction essays, and am working (“working”) on a few novel-length projects. I’ve attended workshops in the past, including the Center for the Study of Science Fiction’s (CSSF) Novel Writing Workshop, as well as many at The Lighthouse in Denver, CO – both of which I highly recommend, as they’re a great way to meet people and improve your craft. One of my new year’s resolutions is to spend way more time on my writing, because it makes me happy and I forget sometimes that I do enjoy it.
Aside from that – I try to go to lectures and meet-ups in and around San Francisco for localization (especially game localization), and I’m helping to organize the International Ambassador (IA) program for the 2015 Game Developers Conference (GDC). I keep an eye on the media localization industry (by reading articles on Twitter and keeping up with the Localization SIG in the IGDA) and will often retweet my findings (you can follow me at @lsscanlan). Other hobbies include baking, snowboarding, traveling, reading, long drawn-out conversations with my cat… I could go on. Every so often, I’ll take a day off and hang out with my friends, but I generally try to keep busy (too busy, sometimes!) in order to get the most out of graduate school, and to keep improving myself.
Some of my goals for this next year include: finishing at least one novel-length project, even one that may never see the light of day; writing more short pieces and finding homes for them; getting fit (as a graduate student and freelancer, this is my biggest challenge!); and finding an internship that will fit my skills and allow me a chance to really learn about and gain expertise in the game localization industry. It sounds like a lot, but I’m ready – let’s go 2015!
