Another renowned interpreter pays a visit to the school

On March 23, 2007 Dr. Kevin Lin - a Chief Interpreter of the British Foreign Office, an interpreter of Tony Blair, who has worked with most of the major contemporary Chinese political officials, who teaches translation techniques in Britain and who has opened an interpreting company and a consultancy (as I assume also in England) gave a lecture at Sun Yatsen Univeristy.
The auditorium was packed - those students who came by the announced time had to stand near the entrance very close to the pulpit hearkening to the prophecies of the interpreting guru (check out the young aspiring interpreter near the door in a fancy dress and a star on the forehead). We waited only for an extra 30 minutes before the lecture started, and - despite the Chair's promise that the talk would be in English, - the man said a sentence in Shakespearean and switched over to Chinese.

But I was blessed with a beautiful simultaneous interpreter by my side, so it was not only comfortable for me but also useful for her practice.

To our delight we found out that Kevin Lin comes from around Putian in Fujian - where he'd finished grammar school and from where he set out on his journey to interpreting and - consequently, - fame among those in the know. The anecdotes from his life and practical examples were actually more or less understandable to me in spite of my lame Chinese.

Kevin advertised his book Field Interpreting that the wild students rushed to have signed after the lecture, and even I lost my head for a moment and wanted to immediately purchase the Chinese-English folio. During the question time, (as it later turned out) my restless students sent a note to Kevin asking him to cut to the chase and finally show his skills, - to interpret 'live' something the only loawai in the room (i.e. myself) would be uttering from the stage. To the bursts of laughter I valiantly jumped forward and, deciding not to make a speech in Russian (would have been a hilarious stunt though), I asked the public whether they would like to see the interpreter of Blair (feels pretty nice to be interpreted by a person like that) do simultaneous or consecutive interpreting, -
and this very question was happily re-laid into fast Chinese, culminating in applause and cheerful hooting. Kevin did it easily and nicely, - a real pleasure to listen to a professional.






So if anyone wants to improve their Chinese-English interpreting skills, I am sure Kevin Lin would be happy to assist you in this honorable task.

Wo kao

我 。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。kao

A Laowai in Russia

When I was in Russia this winter I actually beheld snow for the first time in, like, 4 years, and was as excited as a child touching it and making snowballs and throwing them everywhere, all this with unconventional luster in my wild eyes behind the slightly fogged glasses and a wandering smile on my sensual lips. Exactly the reaction people who see it all every day have not. And dressed for the weather I was - to the best of my realization of it. A dress-style that caused my mom to chuckle. Yeah, she loves me, that's what I took her happy laugh for.
So I was walking along the street, throwing snowballs into the trees and making loads of steam form behind my hip scarf, which helpfully added to the romantic matt in my specs through which I was taking in the surrounding reality which in its turn glittered in the sun and engulfed me in that tasty and crisp nose-nipping chilly air. The sun was shining in the azure sky, the birds cheerfully chirped around, and the snow was crunching under my feet. The little square in front of the Central Park seemed especially picturesque to me and, heaping up my bags from the supermarket on the snow, I skillfully hoisted my phone/camera and started clicking away, giving birth to masterpieces:
Suddenly I heard something that didn't really quite register with me: "Hello! Hello-o". The reality rocked a trifle from side to side, shifting the awareness-borderline between being in China and - on the other hand - in Russia. I turned my head in the direction of what I thought was a phantom from my Chinese reality, only to see a bunch of 15-year old girls giggling and bunching up, whispering loudly something like "Uh, a foreigner? Must be a tourist... Hello! giggle-giggle".

Now - is it me becoming a foreigner in Russia or is it Russia getting more like China in the behavioral patterns of the people? Maybe it was my funny choice of clothes (which looked totally normal to me) and my taking photos of a totally common picture... Or is it me acquiring the air of a laowai, subconsciously causing everybody to giggle and shout 'hello!'?

But apart form that amusing incident it turned out to be quite a successful wintery winter with all the due characteristics:

Simultaneous Chinese <> English expert

Please meet Macro Dai - the first Chinese simultaneous interpreter I met in person. I heard such professionals exist, but are extremely rare due to the uttermost diffirences in the language structures and mind sets in which the Western and Asian cultures dwell. But here you go.We met in Shenzhen, in that unidentifyable weather pregnant with rain and pressing down on you with moist implications of the heat. My friend and I were treated by Mr. Dai to a tasty dinner and a most interesting conversation. Anyhow, it is always nice to talk with an intelligent person. Mr. Dai has been in the industry for 12 years and is now opening his own interpreting company - check www.macrointer.com. Interested parties are welcome to establish contacts and I think Macro and myself will be cooperating in the future.

Weather vicissitudes

Funny thing - I was in Russia for the winter vacation (some 50 odd days it was - so far the winner of the winter vacation length competition) and in the three weeks there the weather changed from around minus 30 C (minus 22 F) to zero (32F) and back about a couple times. I started missing the warm beaches of Zhuhai















with people sleeping right on the embankments,
and palm trees with weird acorn-coconuts,
















so just looking at the Zhuhai weather forecasts on the net made me happy, and when I came back to the South China's +20~27 C (68~80F) I never suspected what a climatic change I'd brought on my tail. In just a couple of days 27 degrees turned to meager 9 (48F). You see the pattern? Here's something to worry about.

UPD: In Moscow it is +8 and sunny on Thursday, almost like we have it in the subtropics.