MAY 6, 26.. INTERPRETERS.. OUR HEAT WAVE..
What is “it”?
“It” is one’s Mental Acuity.
Mental Acuity is the sharpness, clarity, and speed of an individual’s cognitive processes. These include the ability to focus, think quickly, process information, and recall details. It represents high-level mental agility and efficient brain function, often described as being “sharp” or having “mental alertness”
When you have “Lost it”, you don’t realize that you have lost it.
But while you still “Have it”, as a direct function of the aging process, you are slowly losing your Mental Acuity, you know you are “Losing it.”
I still have enough Mental Acuity that I KNOW that I am repeating myself with the below words.
Patti and I try very hard to only select NATIONAL TODAY Holidays that we ourselves have experienced.
Yes Oh Yes! There are many, maybe most of the NATIONAL TODAY Holidays, that have very special meaning to someone. But, if Patti and I have no experience with a Holiday, we don’t select it for a Post.
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NATIONAL INTERPRETER APPRECIAION DAY..
I lived, and worked, full time in West Germany for four (4) years. I do not speak German. I traveled in many of the Countries in the European Continent where I had use of a translator. I have traveled in several countries in Asia where I was asked to address groups who weren’t fluent in English.
Even in India, where many people speak “English”, I had some challenges. Also in Mongolia. How about nine (9) months, by invitation, traveling and giving talks in Western (Siberia) Russia.
Get it? Got it? Good!
Patti was with me for several months in Russian Siberia. She was fascinated with the process.
I am going to focus on my 9 months speaking in Russian Siberia. I was given a primary Interpreter. His name was Mike, short for Mikhail. In each location, often a local person would chip in and do some translating.
Some observations. You and your interpreter become “joined at the hips”. For one thing, we shared rooms, we ate all of our meals together. Mike translated for Russian President Gorbachev in the United Nations!!
I soon learned that I could speak for a maximum of one (1) minute then I would stop for my Mike to speak. One can not “talk past one’s Interpreter’s ability to speak your message in another language.”
Get this!! My 30 to 45 second long talks would take Mike sometimes 4 to 5 minutes, talking non-stop, to translate my English into Russian.
Get this!! I had to stand there for 4 to 5 minutes remembering “where I left off” in my talk.” Then talk 30 to 45 seconds again.
Actually, after several months, Mike pretty well knew what I was going to say, but my one minute rule still applied.
It.. Is.. Very.. Challenging.. Trust.. Me..
Especially when a local Interpreter disagreed with, and debated with my man Mike, my words.
On last thing. Patti and I are still very much in touch via WhatsApp with several of our translators. Olga. Khoso. Deegi. Sergey. Bayar.
So me picking this NATIONAL TODAY Holiday is “Right Down My Alley”.
National Interpreter Appreciation Day is celebrated on May 6 this year.
It is always observed on the first Wednesday of May. There are about 6,500 languages in the world, and, naturally, no one person can learn them all.
A person who can speak more than five languages is rare and is called a polyglot. I ran across some 5 language interpreters and, let me assure you all, they are amazing people!
Interpreters never have it easy. They have to keep up with the communicators and make sure they pass clear and concise information in real-time.
I am now going to “leave it with you!”
To read more just click onto the below link..
https://nationaltoday.com/national-interpreter-appreciation-day/
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HEAT WAVE..
Our heat wave was yesterday, Tuesday, May the 5th.
48°F is far and away our warmest day so far since April the 16th when we got home to Anchorage.
It was so hot that (well for awhile, not too long) Patti and I opened our living room door for “some air”, .. and then Patti got under our large heating pad in the bedroom to take away the chill !!
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Cap and Patti
9 thoughts on “MAY 6, 26.. INTERPRETERS.. OUR HEAT WAVE..”
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“(O)pened your living room door for some fresh air..”. .??? How high do you have your thermostat set?
75°F is what our thermostat is set at. And we only had the “fresh air” for maybe 15 minutes when we closed the door. Smiles .. Cap and Patti
I sure appreciate the work of interpreters, and I had several occasions to observe their work in court, whether for my cases or for others.
We got to know a young woman in Disneyland, Anaheim, California who was interpreter of American Sign Language for our young deaf friend. We had her assigned several times when meeting our upstate New York friends when the dad would come to the LA Marathon. Disneyland provides ASL interpreters for deaf guests.
Yes you have had the advantage of language interpreters during your travels, and how nice to stay in touch. They truly bring us all closer together. I certainly admire their skill.
Stay well and warm!
Kit
Awesome Kit. Thanks so very VERY MUCH for your excellent comment and for your support. Cap and Patti
This is a bit I copied from my Russia Journals. We were listening to a Russian lady lecture about the old and new leaders of Russia, when she told this story:
Perhaps it is Gorbachev she knows best also, though she seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of all Russian history. She worked for Gorbachev as his translator for three and a half years. She escorted him to the Berlin Wall when it was being torn down. Her anecdotes about Gorbachev the leader, Gorbachev the person, are mind-boggling. And, obviously, as his translator, she was in the midst of historic conversations, bore the pressure of translating spoken words into a different language and holding those words to the veracity of their intent.
On a certain night in 1991, she was pregnant with her second child. Extremely tired, she had finally gone to bed at 2 a.m. The telephone rang at 4 o’clock. On the line was her husband, who worked for the government. He said only, “Turn on the radio.”
“I said some not very nice words to him,” she confesses. He said, “Turn on the radio.” She protested some more, explaining she was exhausted. Again, he said, “Turn ON the radio.”
She did. News of the collapse of the Soviet Union filled her room. Her husband said he feared he would lose his job. Suddenly she heard a disembodied voice from a loudspeaker in his office: “Stop spreading rumors.”
Her husband laughed, a cynical, fatalistic sound. “What are you going to do? Kill me?” he said.
“If the need arises,” came from the loudspeaker. She did not hear from her husband for several days. He was okay.
Good thing she eventually DID hear from her husband again. We were extremely careful about what we said when we were in Russian Siberia Gullible. We were visitors and had no business commenting on their government. We WERE treated very well the entire time!!
Also my Interpreters were one-on-one translating my spoken words. They were NOT talking about history etc. Cap and Patti
Dear Cap and Patti,
The comments turned out to be no less interesting than the post about Translator’s Day itself! Your posts, Cap, are always incredibly informative and personalized. It is precisely because you and Patti have PERSONALLY PARTICIPATED in some “DAYS” that makes your posts incredibly attractive. We, the readers, may I suggest, are looking for a reflection of our personal experiences in what you and Patti are talking about in your posts.
So, about Translator’s Day… I’m very pleased that you’ve included me in this glorious cohort, Cap, but to be honest, working as a translator for you and Patti became a challenge for me!… I’m just a simple English teacher! An English teacher is FAR FROM BEING an English TRANSLATOR in Russia! I tried very hard! You made ALL this WAY to come from one continent to another! ALLAS! I went out of my way to make sure I didn’t miss the translation!…
The topic you came to Chita with was, by fate’s decision, directly related to my family!… I wanted not only not to let you down, but also to figure out for myself what’s going on in my family?.. How is it? Why?!.
You and Patti are incredible people! WITH absolutely DIVINE PATIENCE! With an open heart, ready to share not only your EXPERIENCES, but also your innermost thoughts. Thank you for that! Thank you for making the chance in my life to find out that all people on earth, no matter what country they come from, are people! And only professional positions force people to change, sometimes not for the better.…
Thank you, Cap, Patti, you’ve added a WONDERFUL HOLIDAY to my life! I love you! Be healthy!
Olga have you heard of an Australian man Paul Hogan that goes by Crocodile Dundee? Crocodile Dundee would say about your comment . “Now THAT’S a Post Mate!!”
Olga you did a great job of translating for Patti and me! As a translator, you just put into Russian what we said in English. Yes some words don’t translate well but you did a great job Olga. Yes sometimes the comments to a Post are as interesting as the Post itself. I don’t know where Sergei S got your name from to use as our translator but he sure did us a favor. Smiles Olga .. Cap and Patti
❤️