Bio on Sunny

Sunny is a court certified Mandarin interpreter in the State of California and federal court approved Mandarin interpreter.  She assists clients in civil, criminal, asylum, immigration, insurance and surrogacy cases.  She has worked on a number of noticeable cases in the past few years including high-end international bank fraud cases and patent litigation.  Sunny is also an experienced medical interpreter with over a dozen years of experience, assisting clients in various medical settings. 

 

In the past, Sunny taught at UCLA extension on the weekend where she helped aspiring interpretation students to learn the art of interpreting and to pass the rigorous state interpreter licensing examination.  She also taught at LA Institute of Translation and Interpretation.

 

Sunny is also a licensed independent life insurance agent in the state of California.  She has specialized knowledge in permanent life insurance and how they may be used as a financial tool to plan and achieve important life goals.  

 

Background

YongJia Johnston, known as Sunny by her family and friends, has been steeped in the Chinese and American cultures.  Born and raised in Beijing, China, Sunny immigrated to the United States as a teenager at the age of 15.  Sunny is passionate about languages and fascinated by words and their spoken power.


She received her master's degree in broadcast journalism from USC Annenberg.  She also holds a bachelor's degree from Pepperdine University in international business.   Sunny is a teacher and an accomplished voice over artist.  Her unique, fun and supportive teaching style and standard pronunciation in Mandarin Chinese is sought after by many large and private companies. 

 

Certification/Qualification

 - Federal court approved Mandarin interpreter for the U.S. District Court, Central District of California

- California court certified Mandarin interpreter- license #301304

- Registered with the Superior Court of California, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and San Diego Counties

- Experienced Chinese language instructor for college-level Chinese

- Web On-demand Chinese language instructor for Steven Academy 

 

Education/Training

Advanced Interpreter's Summer Training            Beijing, China              Aug.  2011

- Attended intensive summer training sponsored by the Translators Association of China and the     Monterey Institute of International Studies
USC Annenberg School for Communications      LA, California               2007-2009

-M.A. in broadcast journalism, emphasis on broadcast, print & online platforms

UCLA Extension                                                        LA, California              Aug.-Dec. 2003

- Studied legal interpreting & translation in English and Chinese

Pepperdine University                                            Malibu, California         1999-2003  

- B.S. in international business, emphasis in corporate, contract & real estate law

 

Work Highlights 2009-2022

 

2022 Highlights 

-- Continue to provide bi-weekly simultaneously interpreting for LifeWave Inc. throughout the year

-- Provided transcription and translation services to numerous clients

-- Approved as one of three interpreters for an immigration fraud case that is expected to have close to 100 depositions.

-- Continue to manage and operate a boutique translation agency, and increased language diversity to include Korean, Japanese and Tagalog in addition to Mandarin and Cantonese.

 

2021 Highlights

-- Provided virtual and hybrid depositions for various law firms. Familiar with all major online platforms and Exhibit Share.

-- Preferred interpreter for LifeWave Inc. for the company's monthly LifeWave Connect Webinars as well as corporate events

--Preferred interpreter for Deheng Law Offices.

 

2020 Highlights

-- Provided simultaneous interpreting for Illumina annual event at Hilton Bayfront San Diego

-- Provided simultaneous interpreting for Newulife annual conference at Civic Auditorium of Pasadena

-- Provided simultaneous interpreting at the Morgan Stanley Lunar New Year Event at Pasadena Langham

--Provided virtual simultaneous interpreting for LifeWave Live! Taiwan 2020 Conference
--
Provided consecutive and simultaneous interpreting on various platforms including Zoom, Cisco Jabber, RingCentral, LifeSize, Webex Meetings & Wechat, etc.

 

2019 Highlights 

-- Provided simultaneous interpreting for TCL’s 2019 CES Press Day event at CES 2019 Las Vegas

-- Provided simultaneous interpreting for a high-end meeting regarding an M&A matter with two Asia-based retailers.
-- Provided simultaneous interpreting for a dealer launch event in Palm Springs: Porsche Cars North America, Inc.

 

2018 Highlights

-- Designated interpreter for several prosecutors for ongoing federal investigations and proffer sessions

-- Interpreter for a patent infringement deposition involving a large Chinese telecommunications equipment company

 -- Translated lengthy exhibits for several cases -- Continue to manage a team of 10 Chinese interpreters in LA and provide medical and legal interpreting services to various agencies

 

2017 Highlights

-- Provided simultaneous interpreting for a pre-bankruptcy filing meeting with more than 800 Chinese investors on the phone lines

-- Interpreter for LA County Board of Supervisor’s meetings with several dozens of Chinese mobile home owners

 -- Managed a team of 14 Chinese interpreters in LA and provided medical and legal interpreting services to various agencies

 

2016 Highlights

- Hosted 20 surrogacy 101 webisodes on Surrogacyus.com

- Provided simultaneous interpreting for a week long Sotheby's annual art training program

- Interpreter for a TV legal show called Hot Bench

 

2015 Highlights

-  Provided simultaneous interpreting for a week long Sotheby's annual art training program 

 

2014 Highlights

- Interpreter for the Ellen Show for a one day live recording and field shoot

- Week long trial for a criminal case involving multiple Chinese witnesses

  

2013 Highlights

- Solo interpreter for a week-long international trial in British Virgin Islands

- Guest speaker at Southwestern Association of Forensic Document Examiners on the presentation "How to Analyze Chinese Written Characters"

- Interpreter for an on-going criminal investigation for credit card fraud over $500,000

- Movie subtitling supervisor/translator for 9 feature films

- Female Mandarin voice over artist for the Annie Taylor documentary

  

2012 Highlights

- Interpreter for Evergrande Real Estate Group marketing executive during his visit to RBC studio

- Interpreter for the plaintiff: Hitachi v. Top Victory Electronics/Vizio (patent infringement case)

- UCLA periodontal continuing education (Simultaneous)

- ISRI National Convention (Simultaneous)

- Featured on Career-day, a nationally syndicated program

- Translated marketing material for Pinkberry (a world renowned yogurt chain)

  

2011 Highlights

- Interpreter for the plaintiff in a federal lawsuit: HuaNan commercial bank v. HSBC involving 6       Taiwanese banks suing HSBC over $500 million

- Expert witness for the plaintiff in a divorce case involving two real estate appraisal reports in          Chinese

- Expert witness for the defendant in a divorce case involving a handwritten real estate gifting          document in Chinese

- Translated extensive legal, contractual & written correspondence for a lawsuit involving breach of contract for a wood import-export company

- Instructor for court interpreters for continuing education weekend seminar

 

2010 Highlights

CORT(A Warren Buffet Company) & Oursjia International Negotiation

- Business/language/consulting for CORT's international negotiation

- Conducted pre-meeting research and generated post-meeting executive memos

- Provided simultaneous and consecutive interpretation for top level CORT & Oursjia executives

- Sony Productions: Mandarin dialogue trainer for actress Jamie Chung in the recently released        feature film Premium Rush (Release Date: January 13, 2012)

- Translated a portion of the dialogue for movie script

 

2009 Highlights

- Steven Acadmy On-Demand College level Chinese language instructor

- Taught reading, writing, speaking and grammar in episodic format to web learners

 

Work Experience

 Sunshine Language & Services              President                                              Present
- Provide interpeting and translation serives to several large firms 

- Provide over-the-phone interpreting services to several surrogacy law firms and insurance            companies.

- Provide high quality voice over services in Chinese for large and small companies, specializing        Mandarin and Cantonese

- Language, cultural and negotiation consultation


Agency work                         Freelance Interpreter/Translator                          Present

- Retained by more than 20 interpretation agencies

- Provide quality interpretation and translation work in legal, medical and entertainment                    industries

- Provide genuine and professional voice over work for entertainment and PR agencies

- Voiced-over more than 20 commercial and corporate training videos

- Interpreted for Gong Li, an International A-list actress on the film Miami Vice

 

Legal and court work           Freelance State/Federal Court Interpreter          Present

- California Certified Court Mandarin Chinese interpreter for the Superior Courts of Los Angeles,    Riverside, San Bernardino & Ventura Counties

- Federally approved court interpreter

- Provide interpretation services for clients in civil, criminal, immigration, political asylum, traffic    court, etc.

- Provide interpretation services for private law firms and governmental agencies such as the            Federal Public Defender's Office in LA & Riverside

 

UCLA extension & LA Translations                 Instructor                                    2011-2013

- Teach court interpretation theories and ethics

- Teach interpretation skills in all three modes of interpretation: simultaneous, sight and                    consecutive

- Prepare students for the State certified court interpreter's exam