-Multilingual website design: Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese Sign Language -Proofreading of English and Japanese language academic texts -Design of video academic presentations -Video design in Japanese Sign Language -Academic writing coaching
On June 26th 2013, MID Academic Promotions inc. located in Chiba city, Japan opened “Tabisyuwa” (Travel Sign Language) for people working in the travel industry. As a background, many Japanese Sign Language (JSL) beginners face a difficulty in trying to catch the meanings in a stream of JSL articulated by native signers in the general learning style, which requires to memorize each single word. In order to solve this problem we have focused on the movements between the first sign and the next sign. In 2008, the CEO proposed “Rhythm Learning” in her phD thesis, entitled “A Study of Non-linguistic Information in Japanese Sign Language and its Application for Assisting Learners and Interpreters”, which used scientific knowledge of Physical Skill Science, Linguistics, and Well-being Information Science. Since then we have tried to improve the e-learning system, and today we have implemented “Rhythm Learning” in “Tabisyuwa”, focusing on expressions for people working in travel industry who may need to communicate with deaf customers. With “Rhythm Learning”, not only the learners’ JSL skills themselves, but also the interpersonal communication skills for serving all types of customers are expected to be improved. Please try out “Tabisyuwa”, if you are one who needs to brush up your communication skills. Finally, we send our appreciation to all deaf people, JSL interpreters, students, and researchers who have generously helped us to develop this e-learning system.
Do you find it difficult to communicate through your website the outcome of your research that has taken you a lot of time and efforts to complete? Do you feel at a loss when trying to explain the results in a way that even non-academics would understand? Usually, people working for big companies can rely on the support of a PR department whose team of professionals design and produce various effective campaigns to promote their products. Researchers at universities and scientific institutions however, have to invest their own time and efforts into promoting their research or the products they have developed. If you are one of those researchers, you probably feel that you cannot devote a sufficient amount of time to explaining your research or you feel anxious that your explanation might not be clear enough for the general public to understand. MID provides timely service to such researchers. We will help you develop website content that is not only informative but also easy for everyone to understand – from researchers to non-academics and funding organizations. Furthermore, if you want to increase the appeal of your work at international level, we will translate your Japanese website into English, Chinese or Korean. We can also develop a video presentation of your research in Japanese Sign Language with subtitles, so that visitors to your website can view simultaneously the scientific text and a video image with a subtitled explanation in easier terms. This service is in high demand not only by people who use sign language but by many of our other clients as well.
Are you having difficulty writing an academic paper by yourself? At universities in the United States, students can attend classes where they learn how to write an academic or scientific paper, while Japanese students seem to have fewer opportunites to learn even basic writing skills. Our coaching sessions enhance the academic writing skills of adult students who enter university from the workforce as well as foreign students who need to write papers in another language. We can also translate your paper from Japanese into English or write an abstract in English.
“MID” is an acronym of Multilingual, Information and Design. MID is also short for “middle”. Our mission is to serve as a communication interface between our clients and society in order to bridge the knowledge, digital and cultural divides.
Saori Tanaka, the director of MID, studied philosophy, ethics and information Science at Chiba University in Japan. She received her M.A. degree in Literature in 2002 and her Ph.D degree in Information science in 2008 from Chiba University. She was a visiting scholar at the University of Connecticut in the Unites States from 2003 to 2005. Her articles have appeared in several academic journals. Most of her writing focuses on information science, language, philosophy and ethics. She has worked as a technical staff at universities, a public institute and a company in Japan. Through her academic experience both in Japan and the United States, she came to realize the importance of public relations and good writing in the academic field. She continues to do research in addition to her responsibilities at MID which include copywriting, Web content design and managing translators.
Email: [email protected]
You can see a list of publications here