about
me, wtage
who am i?
my name is wataru, also known as wateroo.
the latter spelling is phonetic but both are pronounced the same: ipa /ˈwɑtəɹuː/.
i am an english-japanese bilingual linguist based in london, united kingdom.
i graduated from ucl (university college london) with a bachelor of arts with honours in linguistics in 2018.
what is linguistics?
linguistics is a scientific study of language and languages.
i have always been fascinated by language and languages as far as i remember, and attempted to learn several languages.
i am curious about human communication in which language plays a crucial role.
this led me to study linguistics at one of the world leading universities with some of the world’s most influential researchers.
what languages do i speak?
i have bilingual proficiency in english and japanese (日本語), and have limited proficiency in french (français) and hungarian (magyar nyelv).
people often misunderstand that linguistics is all about learning various languages.
linguistics leads you a career in research or to become a scientist in the language-related field.
optionally, though, you may learn additional languages which will certainly help your study of linguistics, which i did.
what and why did i study at ucl?
i gained a broad knowledge of linguistics, in the fields of syntax (sentence structures), semantics and pragmatics (meaning), phonetics and phonology (sound), psycholinguistics, sociophonetics (the interface between sociolinguistics and phonetics), philosophy of language, and language acquisition and its development.
ucl linguistics department is within the division of psychology and language sciences, in the faculty of brain sciences.
this uniqueness makes the degree programme predominantly scientific and beyond what ordinary linguistics programmes at other institutions could involve.
london, where the institute is located, is an exemplar of multinational and multilingual cosmopolitans in the world.
having studied linguistics in the heart of the metropolis enabled me to have access to extensive resources from the world leading libraries as well as overhear conversations in various languages on the street.
i conducted a research on how specific learning difficulties (splds), in particular dyslexia, affect language acquisition amongst native japanese speakers who speak english as a second language, under the supervision of professor chloë marshall, professor of psychology, language and education at the ucl institute of education (ioe).
what do i do?
i started my professional career whilst i was a university student.
i work in human resources, and i am an in-house translator and interpreter, from english to japanese and vice versa.
i am also an event consultant and have supported several japanese alcohol events where i closely worked with organisers and venue staff members, at various locations including olympia london and central london hotels.
i have been invited to an annual summer school for pre-university students from the uk and japan, the ucl-japan youth challenge as a guest speaker to give a talk on education in the uk to japanese high school students in 2017 and 2018.
i have been a committee member of the ucl-japan youth challenge since 2017.
my roles require full professional language skills in both english and japanese and there is a close link with linguistic knowledge.
what else?
along with natural languages, i also have knowledge of markup languages.
i built and maintain this website myself and have experience in building several websites.
as an english-japanese bilingual with linguistic knowledge, i specialise in spld- and multilingual-friendly web design.
my background in biochemistry and history of art enhances my design perspective.
i also have experience in creating an extensive number of brochures, event invitation cards, business cards and leaflets over a decade.
i am fully aware how important a colour scheme and fonts are for those who have splds.