It was peaceful gathering, protected by fake smiles and affected, sophisticated manners until I broke the tacit agreement of being docile recipient of the scholarship. In the office of Peace Nakajima Foundation, located in one of the most expensive districts in Tokyo, I was with other exchange students with different nationalities to have lunch with the chairman and the employees of the foundation. After having beautifully arranged sushi in paper box painted with some Japanese traditional arts, we were introduced to each other then we had some small talk. I was having a conversation with Taiwanese student when I got a blunt question from the chairman. “Tell me,” he asked, “Why do many Japanese people go to Korea for sightseeing nowadays?” I stopped talking with the student and answered to the chairman, “Maybe it’s because Yen is strong against the Korean currency now. Or it’s because of the huge boom of Korean soap operas in Japan.” As soon as he heard my answer, he shrugged a little bit then he said something dreadful to me. He said, “Well, well… In good old days, the only reason for going to South Korea was to be entertained by Korean Geishas, you know.”
I felt my stomach got clenched and twisted. I was overwhelmed with my bitterness, being froze, sitting helplessly next by the chairman. What could I do? I was too aware of my position as the recipient of the scholarship and the representative of my university. Yet I refused to bend over and reply to his remark. So I kept my silence. Silence is truly gold, especially when you can’t afford to use weapons of words. The whole office got silent and there was tension, until finally an employee dared to change the topic hastily. After the gathering, I slowly fell out of love with Japan and Japanese people. I already had had enough for I have encountered many Japanese like him and he was the worst. Even though it was painful, I realized the man who insulted me was actually a wake-up call for me. Thanks to him, now I’m no longer under the illusion that I could overcome the history of hatred and animosity somehow. That’s why I regard him important; After all, his remark served as the most powerful deterrent for my fantasy of happy ending with burying the hatchet. I quit studying japanese thereafter.
Interpreter, the best job for brave new world in 21st century
With this world becoming more and more flat, faster, and flexible, I believe there are many students, especially as the graduation day coming nearer and nearer, who are not so sure of what they are going to do in their future. For me, the best job is interpreter for two reasons. First, there is pleasure in interpretation for it is about dealing with the linguistic and cultural barriers. It is privilege for an interpreter to be able to help other people overcome those barriers. Not only the interpreters can enjoy the process of interpreting using their linguistic skills and knowledge, they have pride for their ability to enable communication between people. There is dignity and honor following this deep pleasure of being needed for the success of communication because communication is one of the greatest riches of the humankind.
Secondly, there are many benefits of networking with many people if you become an interpreter. The fact that interpreters have the opportunity of working with people of various profession; politicians, ambassadors, and other senior public figures that can provide the interpreter the chance of witnessing historical events and important meetings is an added bonus to this job. Interpreters can enjoy meeting with those people in various fields while sharing and learning new information from them as well. This will give interpreters many good opportunities to get involved with more important projects. Even though some say interpreting is boring because they just repeat the words other people say, I think interpreting is creative process because interpreter has to create the precise, succinct and simple expressions for the target language after analyzing the original message. For these reasons, I believe interpreter is one of the best jobs for the future for its all glamour and pleasures it can give.
1. What I like about this piece of writing is that it probably is one of your worst memories ever, but very special experience and it even made you stop studying Japanese! It was really interesting. Your main point seems to be the reason why you fell out love with Japan. I felt my stomach got clenched and twisted. I was overwhelmed with my bitterness, being froze, sitting helplessly next by the chairman. I like these lines because those sentences really show how you felt when you heard that outrageous comment from him. However, I’m not quite sure about a blunt question part. You mean that the question itself “Why do many Japanese people go to Korea for sightseeing nowadays?” was blunt or his intention was blunt? For the improvement, you can shorten the title(Falling out of Love with Japan something like this) and topic and concluding sentences can be clearly stated. Also, you can take out some details from the first paragraph(go straight to the point) and try to make one paragraph.
ReplyDelete2. What I like about this piece of writing is that I can feel your passion for you future job, interpreter. Your main point seems to be that you think the best job for you is an interpreter for two reasons. With this world becoming more and more flat, faster, and flexible, I believe there are many students, especially as the graduation day coming nearer and nearer, who are not so sure of what they are going to do in their future. This line is a bit long so you can divide it into two. First, there is pleasure in interpretation for it is about dealing with the linguistic and cultural barriers. I like this line because you mentioned not only linguistic part but also cultural thing, which is sometimes undervalued its importance. Also, I like how you define interpretation like this; I think interpreting is creative process because interpreter has to create the precise, succinct and simple expressions for the target language after analyzing the original message. For the improvement, maybe you can get rid of 21st century from the title. Again, about the length. I think your paragraph is perfect for an essay but maybe not for a paragraph writing. Try to avoid redundancy and make it brief then it would be much better because your story and content are impressive. Thank you.
The 1st paragraph
ReplyDeleteWhat I like the most is the way you use the words. You mean to make every descriptive part rather sophisticated and sometimes it raises the complexity. However, as I see, you know where the words fit to. I found the expression 'got clenched' a bit inappropriate because stomach usually 'clenches', not 'get clenched'. The beginning of this piece of writing is rather creative and interesting in a structural wise as you set an unclear sentence, which seemingly meant to attract the readers' attention. It confused me a while, but I found it very effective. But your topic sentence is 3 line-long. I wish you simplified it.
The 2nd paragraph
Not only your title, but also the introductory part of your piece borrowed the greatest hits of literature(Brave New World) and sociological essay(The World Is Flat). Because of your smart borrowing, I really enjoyed reading until I finished it. But you made your supporting sentences rather unnecessarily long and some are better done away like 'Interpreters can enjoy meeting with those people in various fields while sharing and learning new information from them as well'.
Anyway, you're such a brilliant! What kind of book do you usually read? Any recommendation? :)