I'm now almost ready to get started by training myself in interpreting. I insisted on having completed reading through a dictionary I regard as a mine of information before that training started. I did that because I thought I needed to know every word at least to a certain extent and I believed I'd be expected to know it. Now I must go on because I've decided to go to the next step of my plan though I still have some 120 pages left unread in the dictionary. This idea, however, a little frightens me, because I've no idea what will happen to me if I continue. Being an interpreter seems a very demanding task and it really is.
Some people like new challenges or they have to face them in their normal course of life. For me, new challenges are a hate-and-love thing. New challenges bring new opportunities, which is a reason why I have come to Beijing. But, new challenges might also mean that I can fail in trying to rise up to them. Oh, I got it! What I've writing about is: I am afraid of failures!
Come on, boy! Do not be afraid of that! You will have nothing to lose. And if any, they would be only opportunities that must open your mind to something you're not familiar with. After all, you have written translation jobs to fall back on!
And I did do some interpretations on several occasions, one of which was before an army of foreign ambassadors and their families at the Great Hall of the People and another of which was for an IMF official at a meeting with NDRC officers! Haha, at least, I've been there regardless of how I've done there as interpreter. I remember I was not at all afraid of speaking in front of all those people and the only thing I hated was that I felt so incapable and helpless because I was as a matter of fact unprepared for that job! Opportunities were there, but I missed them.
So, what I'm going to do is get prepared and seize opportunities when they come along my way.
