Sean Song lives in the Washington DC area and he is a graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Southern California. He became a translator and subtitler while he was living in Los Angeles twenty years ago. He has translated thousands of movies and TV shows from English to Chinese and Chinese to English, including working with Ronny Yu, the director of the movie Fearless starring Jet Li, to create and translate its subtitles.
Sean describes his entry into the subtitling industry as follows: “Back in the early 2000s, I got an email from the international office of the University of Southern California about a post-production company that was recruiting Chinese translators and subtitlers. So I went to the interview and took a test. I scored very well. The recruiter told me that my translation was not only accurate but also did a great job adapting the original English structure and flowed so naturally in Chinese.”
Sean attributes this to his older sister who was a Chinese language and literature teacher in China and helped him to hone his skill in reading and writing the Chinese language from an early age. Translation is not only about understanding the source correctly but also conveying it beautifully into another language. Sean also attributes his language skills to his many years of studying and living in the United Kingdom and the United States. He also earned a doctoral degree from United Theological Seminary. Sean is certified as a Chinese translator by the American Translators Association (ATA), having passed an extremely competitive exam. According to the ATA Chronicle, the official ATA newsletter, “For 2004-2014, the overall pass rate was 15.45%. And for 2004-2014, the pass rate for English to Chinese was 13.41%.”
At Translation Boulevard, Sean has built a team of great Chinese translators with affordable prices to serve your various needs in the Chinese language, whatever challenges may arise. There is a lot of variety within the Chinese language, which can be confusing for translation buyers. There are different written forms, such as Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese, as well as different dialects including Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Fujianese (or Fukienese). If you have a rush project, communication with translators overseas can be challenging because of time-zone differences. Sean and his team have been able to help their clients with many complex projects and special situations. One client needed a US-based Chinese linguist who could speak Fujianese to transcribe and translate some court hearings. An additional consideration is that sometimes the end clients require the translator to have US citizenship. Another challenge is that some translation companies cannot find a single Chinese translator available in China during the two-week celebration of Chinese New Year. Sean has a dedicated team covering all Chinese variants and different localities to ensure non-stop service for your Chinese language needs. If you need translations into other Asian languages or other language families, we also have the resources and translators (including ATA-certified translators) to help you.
Sean values integrity in his work. A number of times, clients overpaid him without realizing it and Sean always alerted them immediately. Sean also treats his fellow translators well by offering reasonable pay and prompt payment. Sean and his company get 5-star reviews on a popular translator’s portal. One translator says, “Sean really is an outstanding guy. He’s very kind and patient, pays promptly, and is a pleasure to work with. I know that I am merely saying the same as everyone else, but it’s true! Recommended 100%.”
Sean always delivers what he promises to the client. The owner of the post-production company in Los Angeles who offered him the opportunity to work on Fearless said this about Sean: “I have had the pleasure of working with Sean over the past several years. Sean has provided excellent translations and has always delivered on time. There have been many occasions where the deadlines were next to impossible to meet, but Sean always came through. I’d work with Sean any time.” Another person who works in post-production said this about Sean: “I *highly* recommend Sean as a Chinese language translator for any purpose. He translated a Chinese language film for us with superb results.”
Sean loves to write and he is currently the author of six books with three more to be published in 2025. In his free time, he loves fishing, gardening, and skiing and traveling with his family. His daughter is a miracle baby and here is her special message. She insisted on saying something when she heard there was a chance to say something online about her daddy:
“Sometimes I don’t want to go to Chinese language school on the weekend. I asked my daddy why I have to learn Chinese since I live in America. He told me that I can help him to do translation from Chinese to English in the future if I learn Chinese well. It will also help me to have more opportunities to see things from different perspectives. Being able to read and write in Chinese will open new possibilities for me and I can also use my language skills to help others..”
Through his company Translation Boulevard, Sean offers translation into all variants of Chinese from English. He also has a team of native English speakers (some are of Chinese descent) who can translate accurately from all variants of Chinese into English. Translation Boulevard’s services include translation, subtitling, voice-over, transcription, transcreation, desktop publishing, and software and gaming localization.