Translators

To my great relief, I finally found work here in Japan. Hopefully this means my days as an unemployable pariah are over. Whew. (In the back of my mind I worry that this company will call and reneg on the offer...)

Anyhoo, despite everyone's assurances that I'm insane, I've decided to commute. The job is in Tokushima City which means well, A LOT o' drivin'! Though with the repeated emails and exclamations of "Really? You're going to drive? Are you sure?" from various sources, I'm starting to uneasily wonder if I've made the right choice. But all this is beside the point.

In order to take this job it means I can't do certain other jobs I had previously agreed to do. After some agonizing over what to do I, perhaps selfishly, decided I couldn't pass up the city job over 2 hours a week if I stayed here. So I hied myself over to the Board of Ed to discuss my options. It had been agreed we'd meet when the/an interpreter was available.

I arrived at the designated time to find that the interpreter had "retired." Whether this meant he/she was sick, sleeping, or had actually retired, I wasn't sure. The most important fact was, there was no one who could speak both English and Japanese. I was ushered in to sit down beside the computer where I sat and was served some green tea, that I drank in small sips. The supervisor sat beside me and turned on the computer. Once it was on, he showed me a translating program via the internet.

Let me tell you, translating words using a dictionary doesn't always work. Things get mixed up and literal translations sound just plain strange a lot of the time. The two of us sat there, typing like mad then clicking that magic button which transferred our words into Japanese or English. We spent equal amounts of time puzzling at what the other had written. One time, when I asked if a class time could be changed I got the response: "It is not easy to say because it is very crowded." When I obviously looked confused, he changed one kanji character and I got instead, "It is not easy to say, because there are many participants." Another mistranslation was: "We will by separately worry by this." (when I expressed concern over what would happen to the adult classes I was supposed to teach) It went on like this for close to an hour, with people periodically standing behind us to watch the fun.

In the meantime, on top of the tea, I was served black coffee. Seeing that all the others were drinking theirs black, and feeling rude if I asked for any sugar or cream, I proceeded to drink it black too. It was strong but I kept sipping it, hoping to get used to the taste. Hell, if they can drink it black then so can I! Between the tea and coffee I was also given some cookies to munch on. It was almost like being at a teahouse.

In the end, we got our respective points across though I still wonder if they think I'm an ungrateful b***h for ditching the classes they had set up for me. If they do, I'll never know it because people are unfailingly polite here.

All in all, an interesting day.