Tracie L Whiting Kipper- MAFLT Portfolio

Proficiency

My language learning journey is not a straight and smooth path from student to teacher. My wild adventures, once in a life time opportunities, and death defying moments all prepared me to teach what I know from experience.

The ACTFL blog Lead with Languages featured my story twice.

From Nebraska to Nagano

University Lecturer & Consultant

Language Learning & Using Experience

Getting started

I began learning Japanese through immersion when I was 17. As an exchange student on the Youth For Understanding program, I spent three months in a suburb of Osaka. I chose Nebraska Wesleyan University because I was allowed to enroll in the first ever Japanese course there. This course was taught in the audiolingual method. My instructor was from Tokyo so she was quite taken aback by my Osaka influence speech patterns. While a freshman, I was invited to audition for a role on a new educational program sponsored by SER-C. I won the role of "Terry Kelly" an American exchange student who did many things wrong. My junior year was spent at Kwansei Gakuin University in Nishinomiya. There I learned to use the Kansai, Kyoto and Sanda dialects while living with a host family. Upon my return to Nebraska Wesleyan I was hired as the Japanese instructor for beginning students who had taken Japanese in high school and also returned to the television program, but this time as an assistant teacher.

JET Program & the Nagano Olympics

After graduation I returned to Japan on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program as a Coordinator for International Relations. CIRS need to function near the JLPT N2 level. I was assigned to the Nagano Prefecture government and eventually promoted to English manager of the Nagano Olympic News Agency. I translated official correspondence, interpreted and served as a liaison for VIPs including Emmy- and Oscar-winning directors, edited the Official Guide Book and official publications, assisted with an interpreting course, and narrated several television program in Japanese about the upcoming Nagano Olympic Winter Games.

Nagano Olympic Winter Games

Consulate General of Japan

After some time off to explore other languages and countries, I was recruited to the Consulate General of Japan at Kansas City where I assisted with the daily press briefings for the Japanese diplomats, general translations, interpreting, and other government duties. I was also the regional JET Program Coordinator. This office was in the US, but functioned in Japanese.

Consulate General of Japan Economic Analyst

Kansas City Art Institute

Upon the closure of the consulate office, I was hired as the Japanese language and culture lecturer at the Kansas City Art Institute in 2008 According to the 2018 Japan Foundation Survey of Japanese Language Education, my courses at KCAI are the only Japanese language program at an independent art college in the USA.

Freelance Translation & Interpreting

I have done freelance translation and interpreting work for major companies. My clients include: H&R Block, KCI Inc, and Tokyo Electric Power Company, and our sister city organizations in the region. My specialties are the steel and insulation manufacturing industries. I was almost blown up in an explosion in my most dangerous assignment abroad.

Construction site interpreting

Other languages I have explored with intension and purpose:

Spanish: High school classes and travel through Mexico. My husband grew up in Chiapas, Mexico so we travel to Mexico as often as possible. I also traveled with a classmate from Kwansei Gakuin.

French: All Nagano Olympic Committee employees were required to study either French or English, the official languages of the Games. I became adept at answering the phone at my desk in three languages.

Danish: Language school in Helsingør, Denmark for one summer. I was able to explore where most of my family is from and share customs and foods long forgotten in land locked Nebraska.

Thai: Immersion as I traveled the country extensively and was nearly bitten by a deadly snake... twice.

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