Alumni Updates

Julian Tash, ASIA ’18
(update shared November 2024)

Enrolling in Introduction to East Asian History during my first semester at UMBC (Fall 2014) started me on the path that led me to spend half of my young adulthood in Asia and ultimately to pursue a PhD in East Asian history. Two years and an intensive summer of Japanese later, I enrolled in Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan for the 2017-8 school year. At Nanzan, I participated in the Japanese comedic art of Rakugo,
which enabled me to travel around Japan and forge close friendships that I maintain to this day. In fact, last summer, I even had the opportunity to attend the wedding of my senpai in Nagoya.

As my studies in Nagoya drew to a close, my academic trajectory pivoted towards Taiwan. My time working with Buddhist statues in the Walters Art Museum alerted me to the transnational connections between East Asian states and it ignited my desire to acquire new languages. Eager to gain further international experiences, I applied for a Huayu Scholarship through UMBC to study Mandarin in National Taiwan University.  With the robust support of my UMBC advisors in Asian Studies, History, and the Study Abroad Office, I successfully applied to a Fulbright to pursue an MA in Asian Studies at National Chengchi University in Taipei. My time in Taiwan culminated in a thesis on Taiwanese autonomy movements in the Japanese empire.

Currently I am a third year doctoral student in the History program at the University of Pennsylvania studying modern Japanese and Taiwanese history. I was the recipient of a summer research grant to return to Taiwan in Summer of 2023 and a grant from the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) to spend the past summer (2024) developing my thesis project in Kyoto. In the course of these experiences, I wrote and delivered multiple academic presentations in both Mandarin and Japanese. Throughout these international programs and fellowships, my undergraduate preparation and support of UMBC advisors was indispensable— my
studies and travels as a UMBC student were enriching and provided an excellent foundation for my current work.

Vadim Rubin, ASIA ’13
(update shared November 2024)

The opportunity to study in Taiwan in the summer of 2012 opened a world of possibilities for me that I had never previously imagined. When I returned to the US and graduated from UMBC in the spring of 2013, I immersed myself in Chinese language and culture. I studied in China during the summer of 2013, which led to a position as an assistant Chinese teacher at a Montessori school in Baltimore, where I worked for two years. To further enhance my Chinese proficiency, I returned to Taiwan in 2015, where I continued to work and study.

During my time in Taiwan, I taught English at various skill levels for two years before receiving a scholarship to pursue a Master’s in Translation and Interpretation at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). My dissertation focused on the misinterpretations of Chinese culture in Western mainstream media. This program significantly improved my Chinese and being able to speak English and Mandarin fluently helped to significantly expand my professional opportunities both in Taiwan and the U.S.

After completing my Master’s, I taught a range of subjects, including SAT and TOEFL prep, U.S. History, East Asian geography, and literature. Simultaneously, I took on diverse freelance translation and interpretation projects, such as Taiwan government contracts, short story fiction, college campus brochures, and museum exhibitions.

Currently, I work full-time as a translator for Yotta Games in Los Angeles, a video game company with headquarters in Shanghai. My role involves close collaboration with developers and translators, maintaining constant communication exclusively in Chinese. This position perfectly blends my passion for video games with my expertise in Chinese.