Mission as a translator

I moved to Canada in 1999, August.

I was born in Montreal (but my family went back to Japan when I was 2 yrs old, so I have no memory nor English/French at all), my mother was graduated from a Christian school,

so she had many connection with missionaries and their friends. 

My hometown Nagasaki is famous for having old churches and also Sasebo-city has American Naval base, and I saw many Americans in the town especially in the weekends.

As you can see, I had many opportunity to meet people from foreign country, 

and I was not shy to communicate with them with my poor English.

I liked English in school, however, my English wasn't that good at all. 

When I decided to spend time in Canada for 1 year in 1999, I thought I had to be able to understand what people are saying in native English, so I started to learn 

English, a little bit differently than the school time which focuses on reading, writing and grammar, than hearing and speaking.

I started to watch the american TV show.  My favourite shows back then was Beverly Hills 90210, and Ally Mcbeal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iobphbe90Xs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vga4UZs6tpQ&feature=related

I recorded the show and watched in English first, even though I did not understand the story, watched it until the end. Then rewinded and watched the whole show again in Japanese.  Then rewinded again and watched in English after I understood the story.

I repeated over and over, and this was my way of preparing the trip to Canada.


However, I was not aware of the weak spot of this learning process. I was so happy
to be able to understand the native speaker's conversation, but once I came to
Canada and realized,

" I can not speak. "

I vaguely understood what people were speaking, but I could not say what I wanted
to say !!! 
By the time I understood the conversation, and trying to make the sentence to reply, 
the conversation moved on forward. I often just stayed quiet,
because I was just not fast enough to make the sentence in my head. 

The first 3 days in Canada, I had a brain-ache.  It was very obvious that it was not 
a normal headache, but brain really ached.  It was probably like the muscle sore after
the first day of the gym training. 

On top of this, I came to this rural town called Chilliwack, and there was no
Japanese in this town.  I did not have any chance to speak Japanese for 4 month,
other than the international phone with my sister for few times.

Finally, I made a Japanese friend who happened to visit Chilliwack,
but lived in Vancouver.  For the first time in 4 month, I went to Vancouver,
the big city (for me), and was in shock.


There were so many Japanese people. They could almost live without speaking English in Vancouver! Also I realized that I was losing my ability to speak Japanese !

Me : "What was the place where airplanes come and go?"
Friend : ",,, um. You mean, airport?"
Me : "Yeah, airport, airport! I almost forgot the word "airport"! "


In my head, 
" I did not speak Japanese for only 4 months, and I could forget the simple
word like "airport"???   My English isn't that great, and I am now losing my Japanese? "

"Where did my communication skill go??? " 

My first year in Canada went by really quick, and it has been almost 13 years since then.

Back then, I would never thought or imagined that I would take this responsibility 
that I now have occasionally .

It is a "translator" . 

To be continued