Frustrating work experience
I was disappointed and frustrated after yesterday. I took a couple days off work to do this translation work that would have paid great money. But I was sent home after working for just one hour. Even worse, it was because my translation skills were not good enough and I was not very helpful in the meeting they had.
To explain, Monday I finally got the details about the event I was supposed to translate for. I was flabbergasted when I heard the client for translation was Microsoft Japan and that I was to translate for the president of the company, an American, for two days of meetings at the biggest five star hotel in Beijing. There would be a many as 50 guests in the conference room.
I should have figured this was going to be extremely hard, but I still had confidence in my Japanese ability and I still hoped that I would be used for post-meeting lunches and dinners where the situation would be more relaxed and not very technical.
I also spent the couple days I had before the work started going over Microsoft Japan's corporate website as preparation. I even bought and watched a Japanese DVD so I could boost my listening skills a little bit and read one of my Japanese books.
But, when I got to the hotel, reality struck me like I had hit a wall. Simply to see all the fancy hotel, the well dressed and nice looking people walking around the hotel, I felt a little awkward. I didn't even have a suit jacket. I was just wearing a shirt and tie. I left all my suits in the US before coming to China. So I even felt I looked a little out of place. To make matters worse, I couldn't stop sweating and I got those armpit watermarks. I had to go to the bathroom and use a air-drier to dry out my shirt to make it look better. It was not a pretty scene.
Finally, I meet the president of Microsoft Japan, an American guy in maybe his 40s. I read he will be replaced by a Japanese guy next year. He just says "Hi", but I told him that I had just recently gotten this assignment and didn't get any materials to prepare and or know specifically what the meeting was for and felt under-prepared. In reflection, that may not have been the best thing to say. I wanted to manage their expectations, but how else better to get people to lose confidence in you if you tell them it was difficult for you to be fully prepared for this event. Its true that I felt under prepared because I didn't know anything about what the participants would discuss, or who would be speaking, but I think that immediately caused key people to lose some confidence in me by saying that. I do blame the agency that hired me for this assignment and MS Japan for not giving me any material or information to prepare with.
Basically, even in my own language its hard to know what people are talking about when you don't know what the subject is. I really felt like I was put into a situation that was extremely difficult to be successful in.
I sat behind the president and was responsible for telling him in English was his Japanese counterparts on the other side of the table were talking about. I think I did a decent job of doing that, despite the Japanese guys never slowing down to let me translate. But the worst part came when I tried to translate what the president said into Japanese. The Japanese guys seemed unhappy with my translation. Then, when one Japanese staff members of the Microsoft Japan stepped in to translate what the president had said when I slipped up in the translation, the president asked her to do all the translation for what he said. So I continued to translate into English what the Japanese were saying, but stopped translating what he said. I was both happy and upset with that. Happy, because that was no longer my responsibility and it seems that the Japanese found me incomprehensible, but upset because I felt my Japanese was not good enough.
After the meeting the president gave me a polite "good job" and left with his staff people. But before the next meeting I got a call from the agency saying that my services were no longer needed.
I have to console myself because that was a really difficult situation to walk into and be successful. But I also realize that my Japanese is not as sharp as it was four years ago, the last time I lived in Japan and did great work translating for meetings in Singapore for a week.
To explain, Monday I finally got the details about the event I was supposed to translate for. I was flabbergasted when I heard the client for translation was Microsoft Japan and that I was to translate for the president of the company, an American, for two days of meetings at the biggest five star hotel in Beijing. There would be a many as 50 guests in the conference room.
I should have figured this was going to be extremely hard, but I still had confidence in my Japanese ability and I still hoped that I would be used for post-meeting lunches and dinners where the situation would be more relaxed and not very technical.
I also spent the couple days I had before the work started going over Microsoft Japan's corporate website as preparation. I even bought and watched a Japanese DVD so I could boost my listening skills a little bit and read one of my Japanese books.
But, when I got to the hotel, reality struck me like I had hit a wall. Simply to see all the fancy hotel, the well dressed and nice looking people walking around the hotel, I felt a little awkward. I didn't even have a suit jacket. I was just wearing a shirt and tie. I left all my suits in the US before coming to China. So I even felt I looked a little out of place. To make matters worse, I couldn't stop sweating and I got those armpit watermarks. I had to go to the bathroom and use a air-drier to dry out my shirt to make it look better. It was not a pretty scene.
Finally, I meet the president of Microsoft Japan, an American guy in maybe his 40s. I read he will be replaced by a Japanese guy next year. He just says "Hi", but I told him that I had just recently gotten this assignment and didn't get any materials to prepare and or know specifically what the meeting was for and felt under-prepared. In reflection, that may not have been the best thing to say. I wanted to manage their expectations, but how else better to get people to lose confidence in you if you tell them it was difficult for you to be fully prepared for this event. Its true that I felt under prepared because I didn't know anything about what the participants would discuss, or who would be speaking, but I think that immediately caused key people to lose some confidence in me by saying that. I do blame the agency that hired me for this assignment and MS Japan for not giving me any material or information to prepare with.
Basically, even in my own language its hard to know what people are talking about when you don't know what the subject is. I really felt like I was put into a situation that was extremely difficult to be successful in.
I sat behind the president and was responsible for telling him in English was his Japanese counterparts on the other side of the table were talking about. I think I did a decent job of doing that, despite the Japanese guys never slowing down to let me translate. But the worst part came when I tried to translate what the president said into Japanese. The Japanese guys seemed unhappy with my translation. Then, when one Japanese staff members of the Microsoft Japan stepped in to translate what the president had said when I slipped up in the translation, the president asked her to do all the translation for what he said. So I continued to translate into English what the Japanese were saying, but stopped translating what he said. I was both happy and upset with that. Happy, because that was no longer my responsibility and it seems that the Japanese found me incomprehensible, but upset because I felt my Japanese was not good enough.
After the meeting the president gave me a polite "good job" and left with his staff people. But before the next meeting I got a call from the agency saying that my services were no longer needed.
I have to console myself because that was a really difficult situation to walk into and be successful. But I also realize that my Japanese is not as sharp as it was four years ago, the last time I lived in Japan and did great work translating for meetings in Singapore for a week.
posted by Mark at
7:40 AM
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