Meeting with the Translators

As soon as we arrived a the hotel on Sunday night, Mark setup a meeting with the translators. It was a musical chair sorts where we 10 were seated in seperate tables and the translators had one minute to know about us and vice versa. 8 girls and one guy, all recent college graduates from a nearby city called Hai Phong, with major in English. They had a very heavy Vietnamese accent and was tough to understand. Half of them had previous experience with other teams in Vietnam (mine was the 6th team in 2 years). The ones new had trouble understanding us.
For courtesy and style, I asked one of the new (which I came to know later)
translators "How are you?". She heard is as "How old are you?" and said "23". Followed it by a question back to me "What is your age?" :-D I had to really try hard to control my laughter!!!
It was a fun experience getting to know them like that - most of them had a simple upbringing and even simpler ambitions in life. They were looking forward to get a job as a translator, interpreter, tour guide, teacher - smaller ambitions and looking forward to achieve it.
Both our team and the translators were tensed on how the pairing will be and how are we going to manage. But today when I look back after 3 weeks, all that started well, ends well :-)

Post that introduction, Mark took us to a restaurant with the translators. We were hosting the translators for dinner. The entrance to the restaurant was littered with Tubs & flowing water. At first I didn't get what that was all about. On a closer inspection, realised that was all live sea food. All kinds of fish, crabs, squid, clams, oysters and everything you can imaging of. For me, the smell was revolting and my mind was like "Welcome to Vietnam!!!". I was waiting at the entrance for the last cab to arrive and I heard some fast footsteps behind me - one of the other Indians with me came running down - he couldn't bear the smell and wasn't happy with the choice of restaurant.
All said and done, it was a very lively and fun dinner. The translators helped place the food order. The food kept coming, coming, coming and coming... At this point, it is important to mention that 99% Vietnamese are skinny. But the amount of food (touch wood) the translators consumed didn't say so!!! How can they maintain their body like that and still be able eat so much!!! Consoled myself saying its their Genes :-D

Translator meeting - The girl in the pink dress is my translator Zum. She has done her Graduation with English as major. She is going to pursue higher studies in english.



Dinner with Translators: