Mission as a translator 3

Continues from Mission as a translator 2. 




Translator.

Finally after 3rd time of doing this work, I realized that a translator might be a 

physically demanding job. 

First time in 2008, I was more excited to learn the Shihan teacher course,

and also was excited to be able to stay in a hotel for 4 nights! It was like 

a vacation for me!

End of the Shihan course. First time to do the translation.

However, I developed a very high fever, 40.2c (105F) and ended up in a ER. Probably,

my brain was in shock by being used too much.

The second time in 2009, I was still excited from the past seminar and my adrenalin 

was going strong!  I even organized the entire seminar, did the translation, and we even

did a small talk show for people. 

I was just fine during the seminar and event.

A small talk show in Vancouver.

Although, every time when we finished seminar, I felt like I burnt out, and 

could not do anything for 2~3days.  I was a useless mom.

Did not do laundries, and a delivery pizza for dinner... 

2010 Vancouver seminar. 

In 2010, I travelled to Seattle, just to do translation. Other people were organizing

the seminar, so I could only focus on my duty as a translator. It seemed a lot 

easier for me, but again, I  ran down after the seminar ...

I thought,

"Translation is only 'talking'. I must be aging, because I get tired by only

talking !" 

By the way, the style of translation is not a simultaneous interpreting,

but consecutive interpreting.

 A person talk for one sentence, and interpreter translate the sentence. It takes a lot 

longer than simultaneous interpreting which translation happens while a person

is talking.  But consecutive interpreting can pass the information more correctly.

  

In Jikiden Reiki seminar, there are seminar participants who speaks English only, Japanese only, and also people who understand both English and Japanese. 

That means, during the lecture, Mr.Yamaguchi speaks in Japanese, and I translate in English.

English speakers ask some question, and I translate in Japanese for Mr.Yamaguchi.

Mr.Yamaguchi answers the question in Japanese, and I translate in English.

Japanese only speaker ask question in Japanese, and I translate in English

for other English speaking people.

Yamaguchi-sensei answer the question in Japanese, and I translate in English.

In my head, there are 4 times conversation going around, and I hardly have

time to grab water, because I do not want to miss any words, and constantly

thinking what is the best way to translate into English....

In addition, Japanese often have deep meaning in just one word.

For example,

"Itadakimasu" 

This is one single word we say before we eat meal. Nice and short.

But it translates 

”Thank you for the nature, Thank you for the farmer, thank you for the cook, 

thank you for the life in the food that gives us the life." 

Turns into a long sentence by explaining a deep meaning behind it.

There are so many Japanese word which can be done only one single word, but often

it turns into 3~4 sentences by translating into English and also explaining the cultural back ground of the word.  

My brain works in full speed !!!

I have never taken a proper "interpreter's course", so I have no idea what other

interpreters are experiencing.  Probably, they are all experiencing the similar situation.

Despite the physically demanding work, I still love doing this work!  It is such

a fulfilling duty !!!  Please do not stop asking question during the class !!! 

 Anyways, we had a Vancouver seminar in 2011, and that time, I leaned a lesson.

In a hard way. 

Usually, the semnar can be done in 4 days. But we started to offer teacher's course.

So entire seminar became 6 days, instead of 4 days.

In addition, there were many people who were wishing to learn Jikiden Reiki in

2011, so we did  2 sets of the seminar.

8~10hours/day for 6 days, one day break, and 8~10hours/day for 3 more days. 

2011 seminar. 

Well, I just about fainted.

Probably, my brain was over worked for 9 days.  I lost my ability to think,

I could not understand conversations, I have to really focus to stay in 

the conversation, and I couldn't even order pizza, because I could not

make any decision !!!

Eventually, I recovered from it, but I thought I should not do such a long seminar.

I learned a lesson.

In the following fall, I travelled to Halifax, just to do the translation part. It should be

easy for me, and I was feeling just fine during the 6 days seminar. 

However, on the way back from Halifax, I started to have a massive headache,

and I threw up in the airplane...

Why is this happening all the time for me? 

I blamed myself, and thought,

"Translation is talking. Am I too weak to do a translation? 

Don't I even have a stamina just for talking? Am I really aging?" 

　

But at the same time,

"Wait a minute.  Let me research about other translators job. How are they

doing at their job? "

I was curious to know about other translator's work and researched about them.

In Wikipedia 

　　”Simultaneous interpreter is a physically demanding job. It usually offered by 2~3 interpreters

         in shifts, as short as 15 minutes. " 

"What ? 2~3 people in shifts, as short as 15 minutes each???" 　

OK,OK. I am normal to get so tired. If there was a private question from participants

to Yamaguchi-sensei in a break time, lunch time, I am there to translate

the conversation.  That means, break time is not a break time. We continue to talk

for 8~10 hours a day. 

In my case, I am not doing the simultaneous interpreting, and it is not an international

governers meeting. But I found out that usual consecutive interpreting also offered in shifts by few translators. 

I felt relieved !  It's not me who is being too weak and whimpy! I am normal !

From the lesson that I learned, I made a small changes for the 2012 seminar.

Lesson 1 "Ask for help."

For me, it is usually hard thing to ask for help. But once I received helps, 

I felt so much gratitude from the help that were given to me. 

This is how people feel when I help others !  

Thank you so much for my friends who helped me at the seminar !!! 

Lesson 2 " Sit down when I need to." 

I felt impolite and rude by sitting beside my teacher who was standing and 

giving a lecture. 

But I had to keep my pace to be able to stay strong !!! 

Lesson 3 "Have a break, in a break time." 

Break time is for everyone, include me. 

Lesson 4 " After the seminar, take full 4 days rest and do nothing." 

I stick with my lessons and was able to solve the problem !!!

I did not faint, I did not lose my ability to think, I was able to get back to

the normal life after 4 days of resting. 

I was so happy !!! 

This duty is only once or twice a year, and I love, love, love to be able to

be a bridge between Japan and Canada.

Maybe I should take a proper translator training course.

Enough about a translation???

Mission as a translator 2

Continues from Mission as a translator.






Translator.


My old memory about a translator.
When Michael Jacson or Madonna visited Japan, there was always a lady standing
behind them and whispering to them.

They translate the conversation from Japanese to English, and English to Japanese.
I always thought,
"It is such a big responsibility as a translator.  There are many people watching
this show who understand both English and Japanese. If this translator made
a mistake, or did not translate any part of the conversation, there must be
some complains come to them..." 

That is my old memory.




My duty as a translator is only once or twice a year. Although, I always speak
in Japanese to my children in my house, however, the response from them
are always in English.

99% of the conversation with my husband is in English. There are few
sentences he uses in Japanese, "Arigato - thank you" "Itadaki masu - thank you
for the food" "Chotto Dake - just a little bit"

Also he uses Japanese words for the Japanese food, "Miso, Wakame, Konbu, Mirin,
Tenpura, Gohan" etc etc. 


Also, if my children don't seem to be understanding what I just said in Japanese,
I switched to English, so then they understand.

  Well, I regret a little bit about it. Because they are losing the ability to understand
Japanese, so I should have spoken only Japanese no matter what....  

Anyways, my mission as a translator came to me 3 years after I started to learn
Jikiden Reiki. (9 years after my arrival to Canada.)

I started to learn Jikiden Reiki in 2006. Back then, the Vancouver seminar was 
only offered in Japanese for Japanese people who live in Vancouver area.
The next year, 2007, was also in Japanese.


I asked my teacher, Mr.Yamaguchi,
"You are coming all the way from Japan to Vancouver, and only offering your seminar
in Japanese.  Why don't you offer your seminar in English?"

He said,
"I would love to do so, but I do not speak English, so we need a translator." 

I thought, 

”I speak both language in my house, and it wouldn't be so hard to
translate the subject that I already know. " 

and I told him,
"I would love to translate your seminar. I do not have any certificate as 
a translator, but I think I should be able to do it. " 

In 2008, we were able to offer the Jikiden Reiki seminar in English for the first time
in Vancouver !!!


I was so excited to myself and I almost wanted to tap my shoulder and said to me,
"You did it, Mari !" 

In 1999 summer, the only perfect sentence that I could say was

"Where is the bathroom?"

So you can imagine how much I was excited when I finished translating

the whole entire Jikiden Reiki seminar. 

To be continued ... 

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

Two languages, two bridges.

In 1999, when I came to Canada for the first time,  my brain ached.


With my experience, Brain-ache is very different than the headache.


It is like over-used-muscle that aches.  




I had to listen very carefully what people are saying in English, 
and I had to understand in Japanese.
Then I had to think of what to reply in Japanese and translated 
my thought into English.




By the time when I was ready to reply to the conversation, the subject 
had moved on and I missed the opportunity to speak up my opinion.


That was the beginning of my life in Canada, 1999.

My best friend was a electric dictionary !!!

Over the years, my brain started to think in English and my dream became all in English.




But I had the same brain-ache last week while I was translating between Japanese and English.

"I remember this pain, from 1999..."

My Reiki teacher came from Japan and offer his class.  As he does not speak English, I was there to translate the entire class.


That means,
His Japanese into English,

Japanese student's Japanese into English so then Canadian students will understand,

Canadian student's English into Japanese.

It is 4 times more conversation is happening in my head !
After few days, my head got used to the unusual activity, 
so the brain-ache was gone, phew!!!




Originally, I thought this would be easy for me as I speak both language at home, and I always translate for kids and my husband if they don't understand.




But when it comes to the class, it requires lot more focus, and also I hold responsibility that I can not miss any teaching contents that my teacher is giving to his students.

In 1999, I never thought that I would do translation for anyone as I had a very little English skill.




When I came to Canada, I wanted to be a "bridge" between Japan and Canada in some way, but I did not know what I could do to be a "bridge" with having a poor English skill.

In 11 years, I think I have been building two bridges!!!

One bridge is to teach Reiki, the Japanese treatment method, to Canadians.
Another bridge is to translate my teacher's class.




Both bridges are in on-going construction and I keep putting effort to make those bridges to be strong so then many people can go across without falling!




For people who went across those bridges, 

"Thank you for your trust! Please come back again to cross the bridge!!!"