On Wednesday, one of my friends contacted me through e-mail, asking me to work for two hours as an interpreter on Saturday. I took the offer without hesitation since I was quite desperate for money.
The visiting group from China comprised of a mayor of a medium-sized city and his secretary. Only 2 days out of 15-day trip were assigned for business meetings. Rest of stops were fairly fancy, including Niagara Falls, Hawaii, Las Vegas etc. That was why there are only two persons in the group. Perfect for me – the interpreter of the day!
The business meeting was arranged in the lobby of the hotel where the mayor had checked in. I arrived about 20 minutes early and shook hands with the mayor and his secretary. 5 minutes before the meeting, the other side arrived - a group of three people, all looking like from somewhere in the Middle East. And they looked strikingly familiar to me but I couldn’t remember where I knew them. Maybe the Iranian owners of the grocery store around corner? Anyway, after everyone sat down, I collected business cards from both sides and chose a couch between them so that both sides could talk through me.
"This is the Mayor of XXX, XXX Economic and Technologic Task Force, XXX Chair of Real Estate Reform Team, Chairman of XXX Education Reform Committee…” I started the talk by ceremoniously reading from the Mayor’s card. After introducing the mayor and the secretary, I stared at the Iranian’s card, realizing that I was looking at an incredibly long name with a few vowels. I struggled to sound out his name “This is ha…this is ma…ma…this is mamaharamahr.”
“Sorry for the long name, it is Mahrzamarih.” The Iranian corrected me politely with his thick accent.
“Ok,” I smiled apologetically and tried to mimic his sound, “This is ma…ma…mamaharamahr. Prisident of TCG International Inc.”
Following the introduction of the participants, the mayor deftly introduced his city, “xxx is a medium-sized city, with a population of 500,000. Under the wise leadership of Central Communist Party, xxx has achieved tremendous progress. Compared to 1985, coal production has increased 350% with a total output 354,000 tons….” I started getting really nervous because the numbers were most difficult parts in an interpretation. There was no way for me to remember all those numbers and, after awkwardly writing down first three numbers, I gave it up. I really did not want to ask him to clarify those numbers, which would surely ruin my professional reputation. But I had to show some competence, at least keep the talk going. So, without too much thinking, I started reciting fluently the numbers from my middle school text book, “China is a beautiful and big country. She covers 960,000 square kilometres. She has 56 ethnic groups….” I stole a glimpse at the Iranians who were smiling and nodding in acknowledgement.
After hearing the introduction of the mayor, the Iranian started his introductory part. But his accent was so strong, I barely understood him. It seemed that he went to somewhere in China with his daughter or doctor. I chose “doctor” because he looked pretty old. He also said he had “three” or “tree” business established in “other “or “mother” country. Hey, this is Canada, so I chose “tree” as his business that he had started in Iran. He went on saying that he loved Chinese “food” or “foot”, of which I thought he was talking about Chinese massage. Anyway, his part also went smoothly, until he also started talking numbers, which made me almost choked while taking a quick gulp of water. The Iranian said something like his business generated 400 units per month, or 400,000 units? I couldn’t make out which, but I chose larger number. Then I noticed the mayor straightened himself and watched me with great interest. I figured that he was probably thinking he had finally fished a big one and talking to an international business mogul.
Now, with both sides focusing their attention on my mouth, I was very nervous, my mouth dry, sweat trickling down on my cheeks, shirt totally drenched. But I simply couldn’t show I didn’t know what I was doing. So I soldered on, pretending calm and professional, nodding at both sides understandably now and then.
The ordeal went on for another half hour. Both to my horror and chagrin, I found the mayor growing increasingly excited and talkative. To sum up his talk and show off his knowledge, he quoted a poem from Tang Dynasty! This idiot didn’t know it was almost impossible to interpret poems. I did not even know their Chinese meaning! I thought I was totally cooked this time. Then I started thinking my innocent kids. I needed to take this money home, build my reputation and get good things like this keep coming, right? I determined I could not afford to let the mayor doubt my competence. I had to do something….
I needed to take my chance. So I gathered my thoughts, regained my composure, confidently looked around and started my interpretation: “Mayor Huang, has a lovely daughter, only four years old.”
“Aha,” Iranians listened attentively, partly because that was probably the most humane thing they had heard the whole morning and partly because that implied the end of this torturing meeting.
With all the attention on me, satisfied, I went on saying “Mayor Huang would like to read his daughter’s favorite song: Five little monkey jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped his head; four little monkey jumping on the bed…”
選擇“Disable on www.wenxuecity.com”
選擇“don't run on pages on this domain”
