EAP Day 3: Interview

Day 3 dawned late for most students – but bright and early for myself. The morning was set aside for individual and small-group interviews, for students who had been able to schedule meetings with experts in their specific fields of research. Given our limited availability, I think most students were not able to complete such an interview, but a least one group was, and they needed my interpretation skills.

The interview was set up with a professor who is an expert in immigration matters. Two students who are focusing on immigration in Japan for their research were able to get in touch with him. We weren’t sure until we actually arrived at the institute if he would need interpretation, but it’s a good thing that my partner and I tagged along, because like Mr. Suzuki the day before, he did not speak a word of English.

(As a side note, we arrived at the location early, so decided to get some coffee at a cafe nearby. I was delighted by this cafe, because not only did they have an amazing chai latte – prepared the proper way, by boiling the tea leaves instead of just soaking them in hot water – they also had an art piece depicting scenes from the tiny rural town where I spent 3 years between 2012-2015. It was a nice surpise to see Amakusa pop up in the last place I expected! We also popped into a shrine across the street from the institute.)

I found interpreting this time easier than for Mr. Suzuki. Maybe it was the speaker himself, maybe it was that my audience was just two instead of twenty, maybe it was that I was whispering instead of doing consecutive interpretation, or maybe it was the subject matter (one that I do find very interesting). Either way, I enjoyed it. I spent most of the time whispering in English to one student, who speaks no Japanese, while my partner interpreted the students’ questions into Japanese. Whispering is tiring in general, and in this case it was almost two solid hours of it. It was a great experience. More than anything, it was great to feel like I was really contributing to the field research of the other students.