JapanNewbie

Interpretation is Hard – Fate is sealed

Posted on 08. Mar, 2008 @ 3:54 pm by harvey in About Views: 275

Well,  things didn’t turn out as I hoped!

Actually, it’s funny.

In Japanese there is an expression that is extremely apporpiate now.

「大どんでん返し」(dai donden-gaeshi)

どんでん返し is when something totally unexpected happens, something so crazy that it is the OPPOSITE of what you would normally expect.

Anyway. This is crazy.

My wife was selected for the PeaceBoat translation position, but I wasn’t!

It’s crazy, because she was totally expecting not to pass. I however, thought I had a chance. I always knew that it would be harder for me to get through, because on the boat Japanese to English interpretation (my strong point) is needed less than English to Japanese… But with the double exam, and the follow-up call with the director… I really thought things were going well.

Oh well.

I didn’t get any clear reason as to why I wasn’t selected. Which, I’m not really surprised about. Japanese usually don’t specifically point out areas for improvement in people. Then again, if it were America I’m sure they would have simply only contacted those who were selected, and just used the lack of contact as a way to tell those who were not selected, “better luck next time”.

In fact, the letter I received was filled with  complements and how they had to make such a tough decision and yada yada yada.

So anyway. Blah. If our schedule works out, my wife will going going around the world on Peace Boat! And I guess I’ll have 3 months to do my thing, whatever my thing at that time happens to be.

Uncertainty! Gotta love it.

I’ll try this again when I get another 3 months of free time in my life…

I’m not too bummed though, so no one worry about me!

We now return to our regularly scheduled JapanNewbie blogging.

- Harvey