When I was sitting in my office watching a movie, our general manager walked past the window and called me out to his office, told me a customer would come along tomorrow. He reminded, “You should be clear we’ve worked in this field for twenty-something years, instead we are a new company just set up not long ago. We’ve sold our equipment to ten-twenty countries, such as Egypt, Cote Divoire, Ethiopia, Syria etc.. You must remember. The customer will take a translator (his assistant) along with him. She’ll do the translation. Your job is listen and complement what she doesn’t translate. We’ll go to pick up them at their hotel 9:00 am tomorrow.”
I went back to my office. Excited. It’s the first foreigner comes along since I graduated ten days ago. Closed the film. Planed to look up some information on the net. Imagined what will be useful tomorrow. Countries! Right. The G.M. just mentioned several countries, a majority of which I didn’t know how to say it in English. Had to look them up and learn them by heart.
I went to work at 7:45 this morning. 15 minutes later we set out for the hotel. On our way there, the G.M. repeated, “ You’d better tell him you’ve graduated for 3-4 years if he asked. And you did foreign trade before. If you say you just left school, he’ll be suspicious about your ability. You know, you look very young.” “Ok, I will.” I murmured, touch on my cheek. Is it good or not to have a baby-face?
We met at 9:00 am in a good-decorated comfortable hotel. A tall good-looking White, with a common dressed black thin lady translator. She’s a good translator. I confess. Admiring. The man spoke quite fast and had a Italian accent. It’s hard to follow, but only for me. You should have seen the girl translating quite well. As if it’s easy as pie for her.
On the way back, the man once spoke to me, “ Can you speak English?” “What?” I blurted. What a silly question I made? The girl translated for me. “Er, yes.” Felt unconfident. What a joke for a translator needing another one translate for her. It’s unpardonable even though I’m not professional.
All along the way I kept silent, sat elegantly, smiled. The man glanced me off and on, but what he got was the same. Later, our G.M. asked the girl when she graduated. She answered in 2004 and asked what about me. “ I, in 2005.” I lied, as the G.M. asked me to. But will a 3-year graduate perform like that?
After getting back, they firstly took a look at our products. Then had a seat in the boardroom to discuss the details. I served them a cup of water each. It’s really embarrass to sit beside and keep silent and smile. I’m not Mona Lisa. So I decided to sneak into my office and I did. I past across the small room and worried about the following. Afterwards, our sales manager knocked on my door asked me to sit outside with them. Oh God! What should I do? Just went ahead. Soon, they finished the discussion. The customer said they were going to another factory. Our G.M. persisted to get his car to take them . I felt awful, couldn’t stand it any more . Again, I quited the job, sneaked into the office, shut all outside.
We often hear people say vase. It refers to a beautiful woman in a film who often appears on the scene but seldom speak. Now I know quite well what they suffer, though I may be no beauty. What’s more, there’s still a job I have to do----apologize for my quit.
