I asked about “man of war” to the guards for the beach.
They are the ones who work at the beach and have the first-hand experiences. He advised me to swim early in the morning, so that the risk of being stung by those jellyfish becomes very low. Later in the day, we will have more risks to face them. Once you get stung, it is very painful, which is more painful than the time being stung by bees! His explanation was so clear and sounds real, so I asked him whether he has been stung. He said Yes! (sounds like lots of times) Their work is to rescue people. When people get in trouble in the water, they have to jump in there. That seems to be the time when they got stung by jellyfish. I asked him questions like a child. Vinegar might help. He smiled when I asked whether peeing works (I watched in the TV show) . It seems to be a myth. Anti-jellyfish cream seems to be a myth as well. When those guards got stung, they lied down on the hot sandy beach for a while. From my experience, the sandy beach daytime gets really hot! I even had a hard time to just walk there barefoot. Oh, well, working in wild nature is tough. The sea is a place for all kinds of creatures. We need to have right knowledge and information, and be careful. I listen to all kinds of music when driving. I download my favorite music in my smartphone and listen through the car stereo.
When the music below comes out from the stereo and sounds in my car, I get embraced by some very deep feelings and moved to tears, which was not safe during driving! I should not drive with my teary eyes! https://youtu.be/SrMftm6Km3g This is an amazing music played with enthusiastic conducting, beautiful faces and voices! I practice singing at home. One of my repertoire was “Star-Spangled Banner”. I was often blasting at home. One day I joined a Zoom rehearsal by Director Susie of Kona Choral Society. I am not a “Zoom person”, and did not participate in the zoom rehearsal for a while, but this one was a special version for July 4th. I joined. I was overwhelmed. Susie let us sing so many patriotic songs including the military songs with explanation about those music. I was fascinated. I did not know much about “God Bless the U.S.A.” or “America The Beautiful” (which is one of my repertoire!) until that day. I was thrilled to know there are so many beautiful and uplifting patriotic music in this country. I love this country and care about the future of this county as well as the future of the whole world. Those music reminds me of various special feelings. I was wondering why there were nobody in the amazingly beautiful ocean on this beautiful day.
I was walking down and wondered whether another shark had appeared. I desperately wanted to swim in the water today. But I thought there should be a reason very rare people were in the ocean. I walked down to the beach, and found a sign put there saying, “MAN-OF-WAR” I did not know this English word. I stared at the picture of the board. It looked so scary. I asked a lady who was reading under the beach umbrella, “Hi, may I ask what MAN-OF-WAR means?” She told me. She was bitten by the jellyfish last week, and it was not pleasant! I really wanted to jump into the water. I prayed to my Guardian Spirit, and the answer was “No.” That was RIGHT. I checked the word after I came home. Portuguese man o' war is literally called “electric jellyfish” in Japanese! I asked my husband, and he said it is very dangerous and sometimes people could die by being stung by it! I am so glad I did not jump in there impulsively. I remember the scene of one of my favorite TV shows. In the show, one of main actresses was stung in the ocean and she had a very embrassing experiene after that. The memory of the show stopped me from jumping in the water. I kept flying to US mainland almost every month about this 7 years to support my boss’s communication with leaders in Washington DC and other places as an interpreter.
He has met with all kinds of amazing people. Those include opinion leaders in the US, US congressmen, senators, former Presidential candidates, white house officials, officials of executive branches, and so many others. Each time, I had some rough ideas what they would talk. However, it has been almost impossible to grasp what really happens in a real conversation. Conversation is alive. Each time 2 intelligent people or more meet from different fields, the conversation will be exciting. It sometimes goes deeper or it develops to various directions. This work has been really raising me up in communication skills, English abilities as well as Japanese abilities since my boss’s Japanese vocabulary is huge. Now, under this pandemic situation, we are all grounded and need to communicate remotely. Interpreting on the phone is way more difficult and needs intensive focus, since we cannot see each other’s face. I really have to focus whether the person at the another end agrees with or not by hearing their voice tones or way of expressing. I have been told that interpreting work is a spiritual work as well as the intellectual one. (to be continued) Thanks to my boss, Jay Aeba, who has been doing various projects, I have been interpreting for wide range of fields.
He is a Chairman of JCU. https://conservative.or.jp/index_en/ I have been translating for the talk between him and amazing people in the US. Some are high-profile figures and influential people. My boss’s talk is very logical. He is Japanese, and he talks in Japanese, but I feel like I am talking to an American person who talks logically and makes a point clearly. I remember I had a very hard time to translate while working for various projects in Japan before I started to work for Jay. I met many smart people in Japan, but sometimes it was hard to understand what they want to say. I remember my colleague and I had a hard time to interpret because the points the company workers were trying to make were not clear to us. One time, one colleague, who is Japanese and grew up in the US, finally told to one Japanese man, “I do not understand your Japanese!” It was a little harsh, but I was agreeing with her in my mind. Since my boss is very logical and clear on his points to argue, it makes my translation much easier. His Japanese vocabulary is very wide. He has deep and wide knowledge in so many fields. That has motivated me to read a lot, learn a lot, and get interested in all kinds so that I can interpret for him whatever field he goes into. I have been enjoying increasing my English vocabulary in the US. Living here and interacting with many people really helps me to understand how to make my point to American people and how to communicate more smoothly. Then, I sometimes get aware, “Oh, shoot, I need to catch up with trendy words in Japan too”. I remember I need to keep up high number of vocabulary in Japanese. So, I read Japanese books every day. This interpreting work helps me to make good base of both languages, and that helps me to do my creative work such as writing. |
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An Interpreter for JCU Archives
April 2021
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