isaacchan (isaacchan)

My name is Isaac. I was born in Taiwan but raised up to the age of ten in America. I have a good command of English and can speak and write it fluently, paying attention to the many nuances of words and wordings. At age ten, I returned to Taiwan and got my Chinese up to speed, but my days were nevertheless filled with English Wikipedia pages, as I used the English Wikipedia as a crutch for learning. It later turned out to be an invaluable stepping stone ahead of time.

I have a major interest in mathematics and the natural sciences, particularly Physics, even though I landed a major in Chemistry. I used to hate memorizing due to its tedious and rote nature, but now I've accumulated a certain degree of respect for it, since considering the goals of Chemistry, the proportion of memorization and rationalization is not unmerited. However my love for physics remains steady and strong, and I try to read and understand what I can from modern physics in my spare time. Besides, calculations are fun.

I've also done Chinese (Traditional) - English translation and vice versa for about 5 years, and have realized how different it is from what people may think: Read, think, and write. "Think" is almost always preceded by "check the glossary." And that process would actually become the most time-consuming one of all. Due to my impatience in working, I've developed a considerable typing speed to raise my salary per hour.

I consider myself to be well-invested in languages, having learned the grammar, inflections and vocabulary of 5 other languages. I am currently concentrating on French (which I find to be rather beautiful and exotic), while giving Hebrew and Russian a go as well. I plan to use these languages for future academic work.

I have also studied Japanese for about 3-4 years, and am looking forward to doing Japanese-to-English translation work. My confidence in being able to do so stems from my Chinese knowledge, which will allow me to decipher Kanji accurately, more so than other Western learners of Japanese.

My Chinese to English translations have been published through Business Wire, and have been directly and indirectly quoted by Bloomberg, Reuters and other media platforms.