Lost in Translation

In the last two weeks of September, there was an executive seminar for China Telecom and UTStarcom on campus. In order to ensure the quality of the program, the department needs some students to translate the lecture in class. I never thought that this job would be so stressful and exhausting. However, I don’t regret that I had this opportunity to work as an interpreter.

Before starting my job, I thought the consecutive interpretation should be piece of cake. Although the alum and the program manager told us that it’s not an easy task, I didn’t really pay attention to it. Come on! What I have in class everyday is actually the same process. I listen and interpret in mind simultaneously. Done! That’s my daily life. As a native Mandarin Chinese speaker, I shall have no problem. After reviewing all the slides, I went to the sessions with full confidence.

The seminar is to provide a series of strategic and marketing views for those executives. They are from different provinces in China. The tiles are from the general managers to the directors. Those top executives were very proactive and eager to learn from the classes. Our role is not only an interpreter but also a bridge between them and professors. The first session was Prof. Teagarden’s “BaFaBaFa”. The whole class was divided into two groups, about twenty each. I only needed to handle one group, given that we all played this game during the foundation week. I was quite relief. However, I underestimated the difficulty too early…

The second class I worked for was Prof. Ettenson’s “Brand Management”. His lecture was too interactive for me to catch up. Although I understood every single sentence he composed, it took me a while to get the corresponding message off the ground. As you know, there was no room for any hesitation or a pause in class. Sixty people stared at me and waited for me to say something. Their eyes were like full load of the laser shooting at me. I noticed that my hands were shaking. So was my voice. Too much information was stuck and overloaded in my head. I sweated like a water tap. That was ugly, I can ensure you.

Karin Zhang, Spring ’05, and Richard Yuan, Summer ’02, stepped in and helped me out. Thanks to both of them. Otherwise, I stood there and was hung there. After four hours of the translation, all I wanted was to sit in commons and to do nothing. Interpreting can be very exhausting. Now I totally understand why Karin and Richard explained and told us: don’t be too hard to yourself. There were so many times that my brain was blank. Besides, a lot of vocabularies in English have no similar ones in Chinese. Furthermore, the difference of the terminologies between Taiwan and Mainland confused some executives. They sometimes challenged and corrected me. For example, marketing can be directly translated as “Market operation and sales” in China but as “Marketing” in Taiwan. That made me even more nervous. I had no idea where or how I could start to prepare for the next session.

Short-term memory is essential and critical to get this job done. Since many professors forgot that the lectures needed to be translated, I sometimes had to stop them for going further. But you know, high power distance in Asia wouldn’t allow me do so. I had to force myself to stop them against my will. If they spoke too long, I already forgot what they said at the beginning. I could only translate the last two sentences. “Because this…that…blah, blah, blah…I really appreciate this and that” from a professor. I could only jump off “Thank you”.

Because of my hand writing, there was a very interesting discussion about the Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Some executives said that the Traditional Chinese is more beautiful and more understandable. Others told me that the Simplified Chinese is easier and faster. They braved in challenging the professors and brought up many issues and examples in class. Prof. Ram’s and Prof. Michel’s sessions were smoother for me since I get used to the consecutive interpretation. I also learned a lot from not only every professor but also those executives.

Each session started at 8 o’clock every morning. Normally, I began at 8 and didn’t finish until noon. After the lunch, another was on its way. Most likely, I would end up with from 3 hours to 8 hours a day. Meanwhile, I still had my classes, assignments, and team meetings during the break or the evening. When I managed to lie down, it was already the midnight. Some classmates thought that I was sick or something because I always looked so tired. A lot of my brain cells were killed. This job was far difficult from what I thought.

Of course, the experience was still very valuable to me. I reviewed many professors’ slides and translated their lectures. Hey! I got paid to learn everything again with different examples and insights. Those executives’ enthusiasm to new theories and management knowledge was very impressive. Their ages are from mid-30s to late-60s. I admire their ambition and dedication. If I were them, I could not have studied as hard as they have. It was very interesting to see the integration between Chinese and Western styles of the management. The dialogues between different mindsets and cultures enlighten me. After several sessions, they started to implement what they learned earlier. It was amazing to see their progress every day.

After two weeks, I realized that this experience was so unique and special. I had the opportunity to work with different professors and to interact with top executives from China Telecom and UTStarcom. The process was painful, but people said: No pain; no gain. Isn’t it? Thanks to Michael Shen and Prof. Teagarden. I really appreciate your patience and advices. There may be another seminar coming in November. Are you interested in? Don’t get lost in translation though.