Our Story
About MasaCa
MasaCa Translations LLC was established in 2000 by husband/wife team Masae and Carl Thomas Sullivan Sr—the business has gone on to become one of the industry’s most well-known and trusted Korean and Japanese language services providers. Masae is a native Japanese speaker with interpreter / translator certification and two MA degrees in applied linguistics.
Carl is a native English speaker with BA/MA degrees in Japanese/Korean; he is a retired Naval Cryptologic Officer (Commander), with decades of military intelligence experience, and was a Korean valedictorian graduate of the Defense Language Institute He is also an accomplished mountaineer, adventure traveler and a former certified wilderness medicine instructor. Both Masae and Carl served as Administrators (Presidents) of the Japanese Division, American Translators Association. The synergy from this powerful team resulted in MasaCa Translation Services becoming America’s top Korean/Japanese translation provider.
This tradition of synergy has passed on to MasaCa’s team members. Our team includes native speakers of Japanese, Korean and English who are all experienced translators--capable of thoroughly understanding the nuances of the source language and expressing those meanings accurately and effectively in the target language. MasaCa’s annual translation volume in the millions of words for over 2 decades attests to its success—we continue to strive to serve our ongoing clients and delighted to add new clients.
MasaCa Translation has a team of great translators both in Japanese and Korean.
Our translators are gutty warriors who are capable of dealing with large volumes with high accuracy in relatively short amounts of time. We also cover a wide range of genres, which include patents, legal, pharmaceuticals, business, and military.
Other Skills / Qualifications
Passed the First (most difficult) level of the EIKEN Examination for English Proficiency, and the Second Level of the Japanese Ministry of Education-sponsored Interpreting Test (Masae)
Passed the National Security Agency translator qualifying examination; consistently perfect 3/3 Defense Language Proficiency Test scores (Carl)
Active (review board-passed) American Translators Association members (Carl and Masae)
Certified Instructor of the traditional Japanese Koto instrument (Masae)
Prior certified emergency medical technician with 4 years ambulance crew experience; NASAR-certified advanced wilderness medicine instructor; combat lifesaving-certified (Carl)
Accomplished mountain climber; owner of MasaCa Adventure Tours business (Carl)
Head of interpreting, Soldier Hollow Cross Country Ski Venue, Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games 2002 (Carl)
Parents of 10 children, 13 grandchildren.
Experience
MASACA TRANSLATIONS, Freelance Translators/Interpreters, 2000-PRESENT (Masae/Carl)
Perform high-level translations for an extensive number of clients. Work on frequent assignment as translator evaluators. Members of Japan Association of Translators. Administrator (Carl, 2005-2007), Administrator (Masae, 2011-2013), Japanese Language Division of the American Translators Association; members of ATA’s Korean and Medical Divisions. Grader, Korean language division (Carl). Presenter (Carl) on Korean Patent Translations for the ATA’s Korean Division for 5 years running. Averaging several million word volume during past 8 years. Frequent assignment as military/geopolitical/business interpreter (Carl).
UNITED STATES NAVY, Reserve Information Operations Officer, Commander (0-5), 1988-2013 (Carl)
Intelligence community experience; TS/SI security clearance. East Asian regional expert. Former Unit Commanding Officer; regional operations officer. Deployed to Afghanistan as Information Effects Officer with specialty in Islam. Author of Navy Reserves’ National Language Training Plan; former Language Training Coordinator at the Navy’s Joint Language Training Center. Extensive background related to East Asia security issues. Frequent official Japanese interpreter for flag-level meetings/conferences/negotiations.
SNOW COLLEGE, Modern Language Department Chair, Associate Professor of Japanese, 1991-2007 (Carl)
Tenured faculty. Past President of Intermountain Teachers of Japanese; Utah Foreign Language Association Board Member. Utah Humanities Council lecturer on Japanese culture. Higher Education/Applied Linguistics Chair of ITESOL. Chair of college Curriculum Committee. Language acquisition researcher, presenter at numerous national academic conferences. Taught special projects course on technical translation, as well as Japanese, Korean and ESL courses.
MULTILING INTERNATIONAL, INC., Project Manager/In-House Translator, 1996-1997, 2000 (Masae)
Supervised translation assignments, ensured quality control, developed and maintained project glossaries.
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY, Teaching/Research Assistants, 1987-1988, 1996-2000 (Masae and Carl)
Conducted a number of instructional/language acquisition-related research projects. Taught ESL/Japanese courses. Selected and wrote instructional materials (grammar and culture segments) for use in a Japanese language interactive video course produced by Fujitsu Corporation/Nihon Television (Carl).
JAPANESE AMERICAN LANGUAGE INSTITUTE, Academic Director/Negotiator 1989-1991, 1997-1998 (Carl)
Regional school director; responsible for 2,500 students. Head of curriculum design, teacher training/supervision, client afterservice, and sales/contract negotiations within the Hokuriku, Japan region (clients included Kansai Electric, Nuclear Training Center, Toshiba, Hitachi, Matsushita Electric, Mitani Sangyo, NEC, etc.). Involved in CALL materials consulting, translation work. Marketed a proficiency-based language program to large corporations.
IWAMIZAWA CITY, HOKKAIDO, Official Interpreter, English Instructor, 1989-1995 (Masae)
Translated/interpreted in numerous official capacities. Taught high school English; owned/operated own large private English school.
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE, Korean Cryptologic Linguist, 1982-1988 (Carl)
Recognized translator/transcriber. Wrote training aids, functioned as a Korean-area specialist, and excelled as linguist trainer. Airborne qualified.
LDS CHURCH, Missionary in Japan, 1978-1980 (Carl)
Education
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY
Post Graduate Studies in Instructional Technology, 1999-2001 (Masae)
3.8 GPA (4.0 scale); completed all studies prior to dissertation. Extensive experience in research design/statistics, and application of technology to the classroom.
M.A. Degree in TESL, 1998 (Masae)
M.A. Degree in Second Language Acquisition/Japanese, 1992 (Carl)
4.0 GPA (4.0 scale). Translation training; extensive research experience.
HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
M.Ed. Degree in TEFL, 1995 (Masae)
UNIVERSIADE, SAPPORO
Special Interpreting/Translating Training Course Graduate, 1992 (Masae)
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
B.A. Degree in Asian Studies/Japanese, 1986 (Carl)
4.0 GPA (4.0 scale). Korean minor.
DEFENSE LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
Korean Basic Course Graduate, 1982 (Carl)
Commandant’s Award winner (valedictorian), 99% grade average.
FUJI WOMENS COLLEGE
B.A. Degree in English Literature, 1980 (Masae)