Team Copy

The Team

The Team

Our collective Intelligence

Meet our Team

With the help of our partners from around the world, we are working to bring you a diverse array of languages to hear and learn. We are dedicated to the eco-intelligent design of the Lingua Bear™ toy, and to our mission of recording and helping to revitalize as many languages as possible, before they disappear.

It will take a conscious and continuous effort on many fronts to ensure their survival, and we are excited to make our contribution by providing a way to learn lesser-known languages while empowering their communities.

Lingua Bear Leadership

Board of Directors

Andrei Golub

Director
Andrei Golub was born in the Soviet Union and immigrated to the US in 1989. Presently, he is studying Public Administration at The Everegreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Before commencing this project, he studied languages and linguistics at the University of Utah, worked in Europe as a language teacher, and volunteered with Peace Corps in South America. He loves learning languages by living in other countries.

Dominique St Clair

Secretary
Dominique St. Clair co-facilitates meditation workshops all over the world. She joined the family business full-time in 2011 and has worked in The Netherlands, Ireland, India, Zimbabwe, Spain, Canada as well as all over the United States. She has volunteered countless hours of her time and paid the legal fees associated with acquiring our 501c3.

Mariessa Maughan

Treasurer
Mariessa Maughan participated in and funded the design process of the Lingua Bear toy. She is also the English speaker for the Guaraní character “Pitulí”. As treasurer, she has played an important role in developing our fundraising campaigns and accounting.

Talent Plus dedication Equals

Associates

Fernando Rubio

Language Acquisition Consultant
Fernando Rubio works at the University of Utah and is the Director of the UOnline Curriculum Enhancement and Innovation for Undergraduate Studies. He is also the Director of the Second Language Teaching and Research Center in the College of Humanities, where he is a professor of Spanish Linguistics and World Languages and Cultures.

Tatyana Platonova

Script Localization
Tatyana Evgenievna Platonova is our translation and localization expert, as well as the female speaker for the Moscow dialect. She is a longtime participant in the project and has played a key role in its development. During the initial stage of the project, she was responsible for sewing the Lingua Bear prototype.

Tamrika Khvtisiashvili

Language Revitalization Consultant
Tamrika Khvtisiashvili was most recently an English Language Fellow in Palestine, where she taught Linguistics and Intercultural Communication courses. Prior to that she was an assistant professor at Alfaisal University in Saudi Arabia, teaching various courses in Linguistics, Anthropology and directing the University Preparatory Program.

Afsheen Fatemi

Language Processing
The language coordinator manages all language processing operations and trains project managers. Afsheen has 15+ years in community organization and international relations and helped write our language processing manual.

Carroll Wallace

Copy Editor
Carroll is a firm believer in interdisciplinary education and the arts as a progressive and instrumental tool in society. Her work and on-going curiosity include: Expression. Language. Informal Education. Movement Arts. Innovation. History. Politics. Ethics. Acting. Think-Tanks. History. Writing. Music. Laughing. Performance Art. Research. Film. Viola. Knowledge Exchange.

Brad Vanderford

Business Advisor
Brad Vanderford has a background that combines venture capital, international economic development and management consulting to SMEs. Brad currently provides advisory services to impact investment funds, tech-enabled and impact-driven ventures, and other organizations engaged in international economic development.

Rose Jakub

Community Outreach
Rose of Tábááhí (Edge Water Clan), born for Tódich’ii’nii (Bitter Waters Clan) is working on the script for the Navajo (Diné) language and is an active member of the Lingua Bear board, as well as many other organizations in her community. She works for the Granite School District in Salt Lake City where she teaches Navajo and mentors students.

Aaron Garrett

Legal Counsel
Aaron is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Utah Nonprofit Legal Services. He graduated from the William & Mary Law School in 2009 and served as the Editor-in-Chief of the William & Mary Law Review. For the first four years of his legal career, Aaron worked for a commercial litigation boutique law firm.

Ryan Parrish

Digital Technologist
Ryan is a Utah native who’s drive runs in the vein of web development, political policy reform, and environmental sustainability. With over a decade of full stack development experience, he developed the virtual Lingua Bear and maintains this site and the Lingua Bear digital experience.

Celtic Engineering

Engineering
Sean O’Leary has 20+ years of experience and operates Celtic Engineering Solutions. He has designed a mock circulation system that flew on two space shuttle missions (STS-85 and STS-95), has developed pressure displays for use in medical research, and worked on various DARPA projects.

Peluches Alacrán

Manufacturing Lead
Alfredo González is a Mexican Congressman and the owner of Peluches Alacrán, the factory where the Lingua Bear toy is fitted with electronic components and sewn. They are based in Xonacatlán, Mexico, a community located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains west of Mexico City.

KNHO

Media Production
KNHO is a collective of filmmakers, photographers, designers and musicians based in Salt Lake City, and operated by Mike Eldredge (left). They helped us create our fundraising video pro bono and we plan on working with them on future projects.

be part of a Movement, Intern with Lingua Bear.


Get involved

Special Thanks!

Thank you for providing beautiful, royalty free imagery:

Iraitz Elguezabal Lejarcegui, Gayatri Malhotra, Jezael Melgoza, Corinne Kutz, @grandriver, Marvin Meyer, Hannah Wright, Jet Dela Cruz,

Tiago Celestino, Ultrash Ricco, Clovis Wood, Wim Van T Einde, & Afaf Azzahiri

Dmitri Smirnov

Dmitri has worked for many years as a Certified Public Accountant. He was certified in Ohio and is now retired, helping nonprofits with their accounting needs in Utah.

Andrei Golub

Andrei Golub was born in the Soviet Union and immigrated to the US in 1989. Before commencing this project, he studied languages and linguistics at the University of Utah, worked in Europe as a language teacher, and was a National Volunteer Advisory Committee member in Peace Corps Paraguay. He loves learning languages by living in the communities where they are spoken but understands that we don’t always have that luxury. He created Lingua Bear so that people could familiarize themselves with more than just the usual international languages and develop a vested interest in our collective cultural and linguistic preservation. His role involves guiding the design and production of the Lingua Bear toy as well as coordinating programming efforts for Lingua Bear.

“I value the expertise of our board and am looking for new members who can help us advance our efforts. I understand that our success has to do with empowering people to become advocates for their own linguistic and cultural heritage.”

 

Ryan Parrish

Ryan is a Utah native who’s drive runs in the vein of web development, political policy reform and environmental sustainability. With over a decade of full stack development experience, He personally built and maintained this site and the lingua bear digital experience.

I’m passionate about solving complex problems thru coding, design, art, user interaction, and innovation.

Mariessa Maughan

Mariessa Maughan participated in and partially funded the design process of the Lingua Bear toy. When one of our Guaraní speakers need an auxiliary speaker, she volunteered to record the English portion for this character. As treasurer, she has played an important role in developing our fundraising campaigns and accounting.

“I live and grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. I graduated from the University of Utah in 2008 with a B.S. in Mass Communications. A few of my passions are spending time with my friends, helping those in need, and traveling. I work at the John A. Moran Eye Center and abroad with their Outreach Medical Eye Camps to help restore vision to those who need it locally and internationally. I have traveled with them to the Navajo Nation, Tanzania, and Micronesia. Each time I visit another country I do my best to learn and correctly pronounce a few words in the local languages. I don’t always get it right, but the people usually help me and a little bit really does go a long way.”

Dominique St Clair

Dominique St. Clair co-facilitates meditation workshops all over the world. She joined the family business full-time in 2011 and has worked in The Netherlands, Ireland, India, Zimbabwe, Spain, Canada as well as all over the United States. She has volunteered countless hours of her time and paid the legal fees associated with acquiring our 501c3 nonprofit status.

Her appreciation for other cultures and her understanding of the value they bring to our collective intelligence began when she left her hometown in Utah for school in Hawaii. Through these firsthand experiences, she became viscerally aware of the importance of maintaining and nurturing the unique qualities embedded in our varying languages and traditions.

 

Rose Jakub

Rose created the script for the Navajo (Diné) language and is an active member of the Lingua Bear board as well as many organizations in her community. She works for the largest school district in Salt Lake City where she mentors and teaches Navajo, works at the Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake, and is a Navajo interpreter for the LDS conferences. In 2019 she received an Award for Outstanding Leadership from the state of Utah.

“I am a member of the Navajo Nation. We are called Diné “The People”. I am Tábááhí (Edge Water Clan), born for Tódich’ii’nii (Bitter Waters Clan). My paternal grandfather is of the Hashtł ‘izhnii (Mad Clan) and my maternal grandfather is Táchii’nii (Red Steek in the Water Clan). I was born in a small community called Chilchinbeto, in Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation—Navajo is my first language. I attended day school in my community up to the 3rd grade, and then went to boarding school in Kayenta, Arizona. In the 7th grade I began an LDS program in Snow Lake, Arizona, where I lived with a Mormon family and finished my undergraduate studies. I then served an LDS mission in Arizona and New Mexico, and after, worked for LDS Social Services on the Reservation. Later on, I attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and am now a translator for the LDS church as well as a mentor for our native American students in the Granite School District. I have two wonderful children, my daughter Shándíín and my son Denver. She lives in New York City and he lives here in Salt Lake City, Utah.”

Peter Golub

Peter Golub is an author and translator. His work can be found in Circumference, World Literature Today, and PEN America. He is the editor of the online project New Russian Poetry (www.jacket2.org) and a frequent contributor to Words Without Borders (www.wordswithoutborders.org). He is the recipient of the Pen USA Prize for Translation. He lives in Oakland, CA.  

Tatyana Platonova

Tatyana Evgenievna Platonova is a translator, consultant, and sound editor for Lingua Bear, as well as the female speaker for the Moscow dialect. She is a longtime participant in the project, and has played a key role in its development. During the initial stage of the project, she was responsible for sewing the Lingua Bear prototype.

Born in 1960, Tatyana grew up in a family of Moscow intelligentsia. From an early age, Tatyana attended a music school, where she studied piano, and an advanced language school, where she studied German.

While completing her engineering degree at Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics, she met her future husband. Together they converted to Christianity, which was seen as backward and anti-communist by the Soviet government. The couple became involved in a dissident ecumenical underground, which published the samizdat periodical Prizyv (Appeal). The activities of the group were deemed illegal, and many of its members were incarcerated or institutionalized in psychiatric centers.

By 1988, she had three children and since the situation in the Soviet Union was becoming untenable, the family decided to emigrate. The process was lengthy, but in 1989, they were granted the right to emigrate to Israel; however, once in Austria, the family claimed refugee status. They spent the spring of that year in Italy until being officially accepted into the United States.

Soon after immigrating to SLC, Tatyana began working at the University of Utah as a teacher of Russian. Besides teaching, she has worked as a translator, interpreter, and localization expert for a variety of companies, including Novell, Intel, Siemens, etc. She was a Russian consultant for Ancestry.com and has compiled detailed family trees for a variety of people using archival research and in-depth genealogy. In 1999, she starred as Maria Vasilievna in the movie “The Old Woman” based on the novella by the Soviet avant-garde writer Daniil Kharms, Dir. D. Andersen.

She has worked as a translation editor for over 30 years, including the online anthology New Russian Poetry (Jacket2.org) and Andrei Sen-Senkov’s Anatomical Theater, which won the PEN USA Translation Prize in 2015.

 

Татьяна Евгеньевна Платонова – переводчик, консультант и звукорежиссёр проекта Lingua Bear, озвучившая медведицу с московским произношением. С первых дней проекта она играет одну из ключевых ролей в его создании и разработке. Ею были сшиты первые прототипы Lingua Bears.

Татьяна родилась в Москве в 1960 году в семье московских интеллигентов. Окончила музыкальную школу по классу фортепиано, специальную школу с углубленным изучением немецкого языка. Инженер связи.

После крещения вместе с мужем в 1980х годах они стали членами экуменической общины христианского подполья, публиковавшей самиздатский журнал «Призыв». В середине 1980х группа подверглась жестоким политическим репрессиям, в том числе и их семья.

В 1988 году семья с тремя малолетними детьми подала заявление на выезд из СССР. С израильской визой, в апреле 1989 года они вылетели из Москвы в Вену. В Вене Толстовский фонд взял семью под свою опеку как политических беженцев. Из Вены перебрались в Италию, а затем в США.

Вскоре по приезду Татьяна стала преподавать в Государственном университете Юты русский язык и другие предметы. Помимо преподавания Татьяна занималась переводом в самых разных областях, работала специалистом по локализации, в частности, в таких компаниях как Новелл, Интел, Сименс и др. В качестве консультанта компании Ancestry.com принимала участие в углубленных архивных и генеалогических исследованиях. В 1999 году снялась в роли Марии Васильевны в фильме «Старуха» по одноименной повести Даниила Хармса, реж. Д. Андерсен.

Более 30 лет Татьяна переводит и редактирует литературные произведения. Участвовала в работе над сборником новой русской поэзии online anthology New Russian Poetry (Jacket2.org), а также над изданием перевода книги Андрея Сен-Сенькова Anatomical Theater, который в 2015 году получил премию американского ПЕН-клуба за лучший перевод поэзии (PEN USA Translation Prize).

 

Fernando Rubio

Fernando Rubio works at the University of Utah and is the Director of the UOnline Curriculum Enhancement and Innovation for Undergraduate Studies. He is also the Director of the Second Language Teaching and Research Center in the College of Humanities, where he is also a Professor of World Languages and Cultures.

He is currently working on a project to study linguistic correlates of language proficiency. This project involves the development of a large-scale corpus of learner language that includes data from learners that have acquired a second language in different contexts.

“I have had the pleasure of knowing Andrei Golub for many years, since he was my student. He possesses a combination of skills and experiences that are unusual and difficult to find even in those who are many years his senior. He is trilingual in English, Russian, and Spanish and has knowledge of several other languages. He has also had a variety of international experiences that have given him a level of maturity well beyond his years. From an academic point of view, Andrei was an excellent student who obviously had a knack for languages. For one of my classes he produced a fine piece of research on second language acquisition and the effect of first language transfer of phonetics, syntax, and pragmatics. He had additional research experience in a phonetics course in which he was engaged in analysis of phonological features of the pronunciation of second language speakers of Spanish. Overall, I would characterize him as one of the strongest students that I have worked with over the course of my career.

Andrei has used his linguistic skills professionally as a language teacher and as a translator in multiple settings. But he is also a compassionate person who has put his skills to work for the good of others. Over the past few years, he has provided help to communities at home and abroad in the form of volunteer work. Perhaps the experience that had the most impact on Andrei was his work with Peace Corps in Paraguay between 2010 and 2012.

My sense is that as a result of this experience, Andrei decided to put his creativity to work on this exciting and altruistic project called Lingua Bear. I have been familiar with it since its inception, and I am proud to see a former student embark on such a vital endeavor. I am even more impressed to see how unflappable Andrei has been in his desire to see the project come to fruition. I will just say that, as an educator, this is precisely what we hope that our students will do with the education that they have received. Andrei has been able to use his intellectual, managerial, and entrepreneurial skills to put together a project that has a chance to leave an indelible mark for future generations. Time will judge the ultimate success of this project as a tool to help preserve endangered languages. What is unquestionable though, is that our world is a better place when we are surrounded by people who dedicate their time, energy and resources to a selfless cause like Lingua Bear.”

 

 

Brad Vanderford

Brad Vanderford has a background that combines venture capital, international economic development and management consulting to SMEs.

Brad currently provides advisory services to impact investment funds, tech-enabled and impact-driven ventures and other organizations engaged in international economic development.

While earning his MBA at the University of Oxford, Brad led Oxford Seed Fund, where he made investments in high-growth tech startups affiliated with Oxford.

Prior to Oxford, Brad was the Director of International Expansion for Sinapis Group, a seed fund, accelerator and intermediary empowering entrepreneurs in frontier markets through training, management consulting & access to investment capital. Brad’s efforts helped catalyze $24M in investment and 2,500 new jobs while growing the organization from 22 entrepreneurs in one country to over 1,500 across four countries. He also managed Sinapis Capital’s portfolio of seed stage investments.

Brad began his career in the economic development sector of Peace Corps in Paraguay, where he served as an internal consultant to senior leadership of a financial services and agricultural cooperative with $25M in assets and where he also established several national entrepreneurship and youth leadership programs.

Brad received his MBA with a concentration in Finance from the University of Oxford and is a summa cum laude graduate in International Business, Entrepreneurial Management, and Marketing of the University of South Carolina, where he earned a BS in Business Administration and graduated with honors from South Carolina Honors College.

Tamrika Khvtisiashvili

Dr. Tamrika Khvtisiashvili was most recently an English Language Fellow in Palestine, where she taught Linguistics and Intercultural Communication courses. Prior to that she was an assistant professor at Alfaisal University in Saudi Arabia, teaching various courses in Linguistics, Anthropology and Directing University Preparatory Program. She received her Ph.D. in Theoretical Linguistics from the University of Utah. Her research interests vary from language teacher education, linguistics anthropology and intercultural communication. Her dissertation research was on linguistic documentation and revitalization practices of indigenous and endangered languages of the Caucasus.

Carroll Wallace

Carroll is a firm believer in interdisciplinary education and the arts as a progressive and instrumental tool in society. Her work and on-going curiosity include:

Expression. Language. Informal Education. Movement Arts. Innovation. History. Politics. Ethics. Acting. Think-Tanks. History. Writing. Music. Laughing. Performance Art. Research. Film. Development. Creativity. Studying. Sports. Viola. Knowledge Exchange. Arts & Sciences. Circus Arts.The Brain & Learning. Food. Innovation and Culture.

If you want to collaborate with her, you can contact her through our contact portal by including the text “Attention CWalla” in the subject line.

Sean O’Leary

Sean has 20+ years of experience and operates Celtic Engineering Solutions. He has designed a mock circulation system that flew on two space shuttle missions (STS-85 and STS-95), has developed pressure displays for use in medical research, and worked on various DARPA projects including Anti-RPG systems, HITL simulations of active armor and target recognition and noise rejection. He also helped develop an underground thermometer used in the mining industry.

For Lingua Bear, he formed a specialized team that included a programmer, a mechanical engineer, and himself, an electrical engineer. He was tasked with developing Lingua Bear’s circuitry and data logging system. With their help, we developed a functional prototype in collaboration with the various factories that are manufacturing the toy. We look forward to working with CES in order to ensure a highly functional and ecological product going forward.

Alfredo Gonzalez

Alfredo Gonzalez is a Mexican Congressman and the owner of Peluches Alacrán, the factory where the Lingua Bear toy is fitted with electronic components and sewn. They are based in Xonacatlán, Mexico, a community located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains west of Mexico City. This small though vibrant town has made a name for itself internationally in plush toy production, out-competing China in some toy exports.

He received his law degree from the University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo and completed his MBA at Mexico Valley University, Toluca Campus. He is the Congressional Representative for the LX legislature of The State of Mexico; President of the Legislative Commission for Economic, Industrial, Commercial and Mining Development; member of the Hydraulic Resources, Cultural Education, Science and Technology, Civil Protection, Limited Territories of the State of Mexico and Municipalities Commissions; and chairs the Administrative and Social Communications Committees.

HNHO Film

KNHO Film is a small production company based in Salt Lake City, owned and operated by Mike Eldredge. They helped us create our fundraising video pro bono and we plan on working with them on future projects.

After graduating from film school in 2011, Mike quickly found himself working in the film industry as a DP and editor.  Since then Mike has developed his own unique style of filmmaking and has worked with a large number of brands and agencies including Nike, Wrangler, Utah Tourism, Boot Barn, Domo, SanMar, Uhaul, GoPro, and more.

“I believe we have an advantage over other film companies because everybody on our team is able to wear many hats and is skilled in all aspects of production. This allows us to produce high-quality content while keeping our crew small and extremely efficient.”

After years of working in the commercial world, in 2017 he completed an award-winning documentary called “500 Miles”, which tells the story of a veteran’s program meant to rehabilitate both veterans and horses—restoring their true sense of purpose and value.

Tony Hagedorn is First AC, Grip, and co-editor. Tony is a South Dakota native and his passion for film and photography stems from documenting his love of snowboarding and the outdoors. For the past two years, he has mentored under Mike Eldredge doing everything from pre-production to post-production. His strengths on set and in the office derive from a well-rounded Midwestern work ethic.

 

Aaron Garrett

Aaron is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Utah Nonprofit Legal Services. He graduated from the William & Mary Law School in 2009 and served as the Editor-in-Chief of the William & Mary Law Review. For the first four years of his legal career, Aaron worked for a commercial litigation boutique law firm. In 2013, he founded Aaron Garrett Law LLC to serve the needs of Utah’s nonprofit community and also those who were otherwise unable to afford an attorney. He graduated with a degree in Art History from the University of Southern California prior to attending law school.

Víctor Barreto Varela

Language: Guaraní (Paraguay)

Contribution: Target Language Speaker and English Language Speaker

Dialect Origin: Coronel Oviedo, Caaguazú, Paraguay

Male Character: Bernardino

Age During Recording: 33

 

Victor Barreto Varela has been living in Cincinnati, Ohio since 2015. He was born and raised in Coronel Oviedo, Paraguay. He speaks Spanish and Guarani natively and is refining his English. Victor worked with the NGO Centro Cristiano Asistencial Betel for 10 years before moving to the United States. There he taught computer classes and later became the director of marketing. In the U.S. he would like to run a business, but for now he is enjoying life with his wife and rescue dog.

Victor Barreto oiko hina Cincinnatipe, Ohio desde 2015. Ha’e onace ha okaku’a Coronel Oviedope, Paraguay. Ha’e oñe’e Español ha Guaranime ha oaprende hina Ingles. Victor ombapo vaekue ONG Centro Cristiano Asistencial Betel ndive por 10 años ova mboyve Estados Unidospe. Amoite ha’e ombo’e vaekue computación ha uperire omba’apo como director de marketing. Estados Unidospe ha’e ojapose ipropio negocio, ha ko’anga ha’e ovy’a hembireko ndive ha hymba jagua oje rescata va’ekue.

Mariessa Jean Maughan

Language: Guaraní (Paraguay)

Contribution: English Language Speaker

Dialect Origin: Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

Female Character: Pitulí

Age During Recording: 33

 
 
Mariessa Maughan participated in and partially funded the design process of the Lingua Bear toy. When one of our Guaraní speakers need an auxiliary speaker, she volunteered to record the English portion for this character. As treasurer, she has played an important role in developing our fundraising campaigns and accounting.

“I live and grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. I graduated from the University of Utah in 2008 with a B.S. in Mass Communications. A few of my passions are spending time with my friends, helping those in need, and traveling. I work at the John A. Moran Eye Center and abroad with their Outreach Medical Eye Camps to help restore vision to those who need it locally and internationally. I have traveled with them to the Navajo Nation, Tanzania, and Micronesia. Each time I visit another country I do my best to learn and correctly pronounce a few words in the local languages. I don’t always get it right, but the people usually help me and a little bit really does go a long way.”

 

Dulcina del Carmen Urunaga Segobia

Language: Guaraní (Paraguay)

Contribution: Target Language Speaker and Artist

Dialect Origin: San Pedro, Misiones, Paraguay/Villa Rica, Guairá, Paraguay

Female Character: Pitulí

Age During Recording: 15-20

 

“Hi, my name is Dulcina del Carmen Urunaga Segobia. I am from San Pedro district of San Miguel, Misiones, Paraguay, but I was born in Iturbe district of Villa Rica, Guairá, Paraguay on July 4th of 2000. I am an adopted daughter. My biological mother’s name is Celina Urungaga Segobia and my biological brothers and sisters from her are Walter 24 years old, Alicia 18 years old, Osvaldo 15 years old, Fabiola 8 years old, and me 17 years old. My adopted parents are Armin Sanabria and Liberada Esperanza Vallejos de Sanabria. My brothers and sisters from my adopted parents are Nilfa 33 years old, Pablina 30 years old, and Fatima 25 years old.

I have lived with my adopted parents for 17 years. I go to school at the National High School of San Pedro, Misiones. I am currently in 11th grade. I like football, Paraguayan dance, as well as Computer Programming and Hydro Engineering—two things I would like to study once I finish High School. My favorite food is chicken Bori Bori and Yucca. My favorite colors are purple and fuchsia. I would like to visit the United States because I like English a lot and because I would like to get to know its customs and culture.

My dreams are to finish my two career studies, to find a good job so I can sustain my expenses by myself, have my own house, also to buy a red car, and to form a family and live happily. This is my dream that I know I will achieve with the help of God, my adopted parents who support me in everything, and most importantly through my own will.”

 

Maitei, che rera Dulcina del Carmen Urunaga Segobia. Che ha’e San Pedrogua tetã’i San Miguel, Misiones, Paraguay ha susu’a jati’i Iturbe tetã’i Villa Ricape, Guairá, Paraguay ha’e ara irundy jasypokõi ary 2000me. Che ha’e memby’anga. Che sy te’e ha’e hera Celina Urungaga Segobia ha che joke’y ha’e Wualter oguereko 24 ary, Alicia 18 ary, Osvaldo 15 ary, Fabiola 8 ary. Che taita anga ha’e Armin Sanabria ha Liberada Esperanza Vallejos de Sanabria. Che joke’y kuera che taitá anga rupi ha’e Nilfa oguereko 33 ary, Pablino 30 ary, ha Fatima 25 ary.

Ojapo 17 ary aiko’ha hendivekuéra che taita umia 17dive. Ha’yijo mbo’ehaope tetãgua San Pedrope agueraha 2do ary mbytegua. Che gusta pelota, ñembosarái, jeroky Paraguay ha che gusta avei informatica ha ingeniería hídrica—ambopaha vove ha’yijo che gusta ha’yijo umi mokõiveva. Che rembi’u ha’useveva ha’e ryguasu Vori Vori ha Mandi’õ. Che sa’y ahaihuva ha’e lila ha rosado pytãngy. Che ahasete poandu tetã Estados Unidospe aikuaa segui ingles ha avei aikuaáse costumbre ha cultura hetãmegua.

Te’e ha avei ajogua hagua petei che mb’ayrumivã pytavã ha auni hagua petei ogaygua ha aiko hagua torypé, pevá ha’e che asoñova che aikuaa ikatuna aguage tupá ñande jara pytyvõ rupi ha taita kuera rupive anga che pytyvova entero mba’epe ha iporãveva che añe ha’a rupi. Ingles ha’e cheve guãra petei tembipuru iporãva ikatuva aiporú añe’ẽhagua che mba’ãpohape meraẽva empresa ojeiporúva che aguarã igentekuéraeheve ha iñe’ere. Che asoña ambopahava umi mokoi ha’yijo, ikatu hagua amba’apo porã, ikatu hagua chejeheguindema ajejoko che rekotevé ha aguerahaka hagua che rogã.”

 

Tatyana Evgenievna Platonova

Language Package: Russian (Moscow)

Contribution: Target and English Language Speaker

Dialect Origin: Moscow, Moscow, Russia

Female Character: Tanya (Tatyana Mikhailovna) —Таня (Татьяна Михайловна)

Age During Recording: 59

 

Tatyana Evgenievna Platonova is a translator, consultant, and sound editor for Lingua Bear, as well as the female speaker for the Moscow dialect. She is a longtime participant in the project, and has played a key role in its development. During the initial stage of the project, she was responsible for sewing the Lingua Bear prototype.

Born in 1960, Tatyana grew up in a family of Moscow intelligentsia. From an early age, Tatyana attended a music school, where she studied piano, and an advanced language school, where she studied German.

While completing her engineering degree at Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics, she met her future husband. Together they converted to Christianity, which was seen as backward and anti-communist by the Soviet government. The couple became involved in a dissident ecumenical underground, which published the samizdat periodical Prizyv (Appeal). The activities of the group were deemed illegal, and many of its members were incarcerated or institutionalized in psychiatric centers.

By 1988, she had three children and since the situation in the Soviet Union was becoming untenable, the family decided to emigrate. The process was lengthy, but in 1989, they were granted the right to emigrate to Israel; however, once in Austria, the family claimed refugee status. They spent the spring of that year in Italy until being officially accepted into the United States.

Soon after immigrating to SLC, Tatyana began working at the University of Utah as a teacher of Russian. Besides teaching, she has worked as a translator, interpreter, and localization expert for a variety of companies, including Novell, Intel, Siemens, etc. She was a Russian consultant for Ancestry.com and has compiled detailed family trees for a variety of people using archival research and in-depth genealogy. In 1999, she starred as Maria Vasilievna in the movie “The Old Woman” based on the novella by the Soviet avant-garde writer Daniil Kharms, Dir. D. Andersen.

She has worked as a translation editor for over 30 years, including the online anthology New Russian Poetry (Jacket2.org) and Andrei Sen-Senkov’s Anatomical Theater, which won the PEN USA Translation Prize in 2015.

 

Татьяна Евгеньевна Платонова – переводчик, консультант и звукорежиссёр проекта Lingua Bear, озвучившая медведицу с московским произношением. С первых дней проекта она играет одну из ключевых ролей в его создании и разработке. Ею были сшиты первые прототипы Lingua Bears.

Татьяна родилась в Москве в 1960 году в семье московских интеллигентов. Окончила музыкальную школу по классу фортепиано, специальную школу с углубленным изучением немецкого языка. Инженер связи.

После крещения вместе с мужем в 1980х годах они стали членами экуменической общины христианского подполья, публиковавшей самиздатский журнал «Призыв». В середине 1980х группа подверглась жестоким политическим репрессиям, в том числе и их семья.

В 1988 году семья с тремя малолетними детьми подала заявление на выезд из СССР. С израильской визой, в апреле 1989 года они вылетели из Москвы в Вену. В Вене Толстовский фонд взял семью под свою опеку как политических беженцев. Из Вены перебрались в Италию, а затем в США.

Вскоре по приезду Татьяна стала преподавать в Государственном университете Юты русский язык и другие предметы. Помимо преподавания Татьяна занималась переводом в самых разных областях, работала специалистом по локализации, в частности, в таких компаниях как Новелл, Интел, Сименс и др. В качестве консультанта компании Ancestry.com принимала участие в углубленных архивных и генеалогических исследованиях. В 1999 году снялась в роли Марии Васильевны в фильме «Старуха» по одноименной повести Даниила Хармса, реж. Д. Андерсен.

Более 30 лет Татьяна переводит и редактирует литературные произведения. Участвовала в работе над сборником новой русской поэзии online anthology New Russian Poetry (Jacket2.org), а также над изданием перевода книги Андрея Сен-Сенькова Anatomical Theater, который в 2015 году получил премию американского ПЕН-клуба за лучший перевод поэзии (PEN USA Translation Prize).

 

Sonya and Olga Golub

Language: Russian (Moscow) 

Contribution: Artists

Dialect Origin: NA

Female Character: Tanya

Age During Recording: NA

 

Sonya Golub was born in Moscow, Russia, and emigrated to the United States with her parents when she was a month old. She often collaborates with her parents in artistic and scientific projects. Her father, Dmitry Golub, received his biophysics degree from Moscow Medical Institute. They often conduct experiments at home, where she is thriving in a supportive and creative environment that fosters her curiosity to learn. Today, she focuses on art and science, and among her favorite activities are reading, painting, and working with the microscope. She is 13 years old.

Olga Yakhnovskaya-Golub is a painter and teacher. She studied painting under some of Russia’s finest artists at the Stroganov Moscow State Academy of Arts and Industry. As a mother, she has encouraged Sonya’s creativity from an early age and helped her develop her proclivity for drawing and music. Together they have worked on many artistic projects, including art for Lingua Bear.

 

Соня Голуб родилась в Москве, в России, и эмигрировала в Соединенные Штаты вместе с родителями, в возрасте одного месяца. Она любит участвовать в художественных и научных проектах вместе с родителями. Ее отец — Дмитрий Голуб — закончил Московский медицинский институт по специальности биофизика. Члены семьи часто проводят дома различные эксперименты. Творческая среда поддерживает Соню и стимулирует ее любознательность. Сегодня она активно занимается искусством и наукой. Ее любимые занятия — чтение, рисование и работа с микроскопом. Соне 13 лет.

Ольга Яхновская-Голуб — художник и педагог; закончила Московскую государственную художественно-промышленную академию имени С. Г. Строганова, где обучалась живописи. Ольга с ранних лет поощряла творчество Сони, особенно ее склонность к рисованию и музыке. Вместе они работали над многими художественными проектами, в том числе над рисунками для Lingua Bear.

Andrei Golub

Language Package: Russian (Moscow)

Contribution: English Language Speaker

Dialect Origin: Salt Lake City, Utah

Male Character: Boris

Age During Recording: 36

 

“I was born in Moscow but have an accent when I speak Russian—I moved to the US when I was six years old and grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. We wanted to offer the public a more standard sample of the Moscow Russian dialect, and for that reason we selected Vladimir Alexandrovich. He grew up in Moscow and provides a great example of the dialect. I decided to play the role of auxiliary language speaker because he speaks English with a heavy accent.

Vladimir Alexandrovich Istomin

Language Package: Russian (Moscow)

Contribution: Target Language Speaker

Dialect Origin: Moscow, Moscow, Russia

Male Character: Boris Mikhailovich — Борис Михайлович

Age During Recording: 62

 

Born in Moscow August 6th (1957), Vladimir Istomin actively participated in the underground Moscow music scene since his days in high school when in the early 1970s he helped form Zodchie (The Architects)—an influential Russian prog rock group that was active until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. While in Moscow he played in a number of bands, including Molodtsy (The Good Fellas) and The Orange Drops. From 1982 to 1986, he worked for Moskontsert (the oldest and largest concert organization in Moscow), where he organized the group Ekipazh (Flight Crew) with Valery Obodzinsky, a renowned Soviet soloist. In the late 1980s, he and his son played with the Soviet pop group Laskovyi May. In 1990, the social unrest in Moscow and across Russia, led him and his family to emigrate abroad.

Родился в Москве 6 августа (1957), в центре на улице Шаболовка. Организовал первый рок бенд в школе в 1970г ‘Зодчие” В 1978 пригласили поработать в Группу “Молодцы”. В 1982 году организовал группу “Экипаж” в музыкальной организации МОСКОНЦЕРТ и совместно с поппулярным тогда певцом Валерием Ободзинским проработали до 1986 года. Потом я как гость программы а мой сын участник работали в группе Ласковый май 2 года. В 1990 году Я,мой одноклассник и мой сын Филипп организовали группу Orange drops. В это время в России начались волнения митинги погромы революция и мы уехали из россии.

Tatyana Golub

Tatyana Evgenievna Golub is a translator, consultant, and sound engineer for Lingua Bear, as well as the female speaker for the Moscow dialect. She is a longtime participant in the project, and has played a key role in its development. During the initial stage of the project, she was responsible for sewing the Lingua Bear prototype.

Born in 1960, Tatyana grew up in a family of Moscow intelligentsia. From an early age, Tatyana attended a music school, where she studied piano, and an advanced language school, where she studied German.

While completing her engineering degree at Moscow Tech, she met her future husband, Dmitry Golub. Together they converted to Christianity, which was seen as backward and anti-communist by the Soviet government. The couple became involved in a dissident ecumenical underground, which published the samizdat periodical Prizyv (Appeal). The activities of the group were deemed illegal, and many of its members were incarcerated or institutionalized in psychiatric centers.

By 1988, she had three children and since the situation in the Soviet Union was becoming untenable, the family decided to emigrate. The process was lengthy, but in 1989, they were granted the right to emigrate to Israel; however, once in Austria, the family claimed refugee status. They spent the spring of that year in Italy until being officially accepted into the United States.

Soon after immigrating to SLC, Tatyana and Dmitry began working at the University of Utah—he as a biomedical engineer and she as a teacher of Russian. Besides teaching, Tatyana has worked as a translator, interpreter, and localization expert for a variety of companies, including Novell, Intel, Siemens, etc. She was a Russian consultant for Ancestry.com and has compiled detailed family trees for a variety of people using archival research and in-depth genealogy. In 1999, she starred as Maria Vasilievna in the movie “The Old Woman” based on the novella by the Soviet avant-garde writer Daniil Kharms, Dir. D. Andersen.

She has worked as a translation editor for over 30 years, including the online anthology New Russian Poetry (Jacket2.org) and Andrei Sen-Senkov’s Anatomical Theater, which won the PEN USA Translation Prize in 2015.

 

Татьяна Евгеньевна Голуб – переводчик, консультант и звукорежиссёр проекта Lingua Bear, озвучившая медведицу с московским произношением. С первых дней проекта она играет одну из ключевых ролей в его создании и разработке. Ею были сшиты первые прототипы Lingua Bears.

Татьяна родилась в Москве в 1960 году в семье московских интеллигентов. Окончила музыкальную школу по классу фортепиано, специальную школу с углубленным изучением немецкого языка. Инженер связи.

После крещения вместе с мужем Дмитрием в 1980х годах они стали членами экуменической общины христианского подполья, публиковавшей самиздатский журнал «Призыв». В середине 1980х группа подверглась жестоким политическим репрессиям, в том числе и семья Голуб.

В 1988 году семья Голуб с тремя малолетними детьми подала заявление на выезд из СССР. С израильской визой, в апреле 1989 года они вылетели из Москвы в Вену. В Вене Толстовский фонд взял семью под свою опеку как политических беженцев. Из Вены Голуб перебрались в Италию, а затем в США.

Вскоре по приезду Дмитрий начал работать в Государственном университете Юты инженером по биомедицинскому оборудованию, а затем Татьяна стала преподавать там же русский язык и другие предметы. Помимо преподавания Татьяна занималась переводом в самых разных областях, работала специалистом по локализации, в частности, в таких компаниях как Новелл, Интел, Сименс и др. В качестве консультанта компании Ancestry.com принимала участие в углубленных архивных и генеалогических исследованиях. В 1999 году снялась в роли Марии Васильевны в фильме «Старуха» по одноименной повести Даниила Хармса, реж. Д. Андерсен.

Более 30 лет Татьяна переводит и редактирует литературные произведения. Участвовала в работе над сборником новой русской поэзии online anthology New Russian Poetry (Jacket2.org), а также над изданием перевода книги Андрея Сен-Сенькова Anatomical Theater, который в 2015 году получил премию американского ПЕН-клуба за лучший перевод поэзии (PEN USA Translation Prize).