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More of the same...
Mar. 1st, 2007 09:26 pm...but at least I'm home now.
The time required to fly from Midland to Bush International and the time required to roll to a gate, get my bag, and then have the limo arrive to take me home was about the same, and as I sat in the back of the car headed home, it was all I could do not to erupt in a plaintive "Are we there, yet?"
The first thing this morning, the client gave the Russian participants a bound set of documents that represented answers to questions they had formulated a day or two ago (and which I had translated into English during - when else? - my breaks from interpreting). The handouts also included some supporting documents, though I can't tell you the relative proportions, as I apparently didn't rate a copy of the handout and never got a chance to really leaf through a copy.
The meeting lead suggested that, "to save time," I should just start to read the document - the relevant part of which must've been at least 15 pages long - out loud, translating extemperaneously from English to Russian.
At that point, I snapped. Hopefully, I did so diplomatically when I suggested that to translate all of the text would take quite a bit of time, that having me translate a document out loud was not a good use of my dwindling voice, but that I was more than willing to interpret anything anyone in the group was willing to say, as the pauses would allow me short respites between having to think and talk.
Dealing with my client will be interesting, as they put the onus of being the bad guy directly on my shoulders. (By "being the bad guy," I mean getting in the client's face with a strict 30-minute-on-30-minute-off schedule of interpreting work.) However, all of the "lessons learned" from this job should probably be committed to phosphor in its own post, and likely a private one, at that.
I just checked Google Earth to see where I have to be tomorrow morning at 8 am for the last day of the meeting. I am looking forward to it (being the last day).
Cheers...
The time required to fly from Midland to Bush International and the time required to roll to a gate, get my bag, and then have the limo arrive to take me home was about the same, and as I sat in the back of the car headed home, it was all I could do not to erupt in a plaintive "Are we there, yet?"
The first thing this morning, the client gave the Russian participants a bound set of documents that represented answers to questions they had formulated a day or two ago (and which I had translated into English during - when else? - my breaks from interpreting). The handouts also included some supporting documents, though I can't tell you the relative proportions, as I apparently didn't rate a copy of the handout and never got a chance to really leaf through a copy.
The meeting lead suggested that, "to save time," I should just start to read the document - the relevant part of which must've been at least 15 pages long - out loud, translating extemperaneously from English to Russian.
At that point, I snapped. Hopefully, I did so diplomatically when I suggested that to translate all of the text would take quite a bit of time, that having me translate a document out loud was not a good use of my dwindling voice, but that I was more than willing to interpret anything anyone in the group was willing to say, as the pauses would allow me short respites between having to think and talk.
Dealing with my client will be interesting, as they put the onus of being the bad guy directly on my shoulders. (By "being the bad guy," I mean getting in the client's face with a strict 30-minute-on-30-minute-off schedule of interpreting work.) However, all of the "lessons learned" from this job should probably be committed to phosphor in its own post, and likely a private one, at that.
I just checked Google Earth to see where I have to be tomorrow morning at 8 am for the last day of the meeting. I am looking forward to it (being the last day).
Cheers...
