Today two of our number decided they were too cool for school, and ditched as soon as our taxi arrived at VNU. At least one of their cooperating teachers (and possibly both) then ran around A2 looking for them all morning and we, the remainder, got to feel like shit all afternoon as our culture teachers asked repeatedly where they were and if they were okay and all we could do was look around awkwardly and tell them, essentially, that we can't respect our hosts and classmates and students enough to honor our commitments.
I am thoroughly disappointed.
But also pleasantly surprised by others who were just as upset by the sitch' as I was, which (let's be honest) doesn't happen very often, because I apparently have an odd sense of politeness.
Group drama aside, today was a good day. Andy and I worked with a third year honor's interpreting class for our morning. I knew this must be true to some extent before, but this class showed just how much like a GIANT game of telephone translation and interpretation can be. There are simply too many nuances that get added or left behind from one language to another for it to work perfectly.
The basic premise of this class was someone would tell a story in Vietnamese, then someone would translate it for us, then Andy and I would tell it to another student who had been outside when the story was first told (so our English was their first hearing) and finally that student would retranslate the story back into Vietnamese. So, yeah, giant game of telephone. Most of the time it came out okay, there was one story in particular that Andy and I had a lot of trouble remembering some details - particularly numbers - because it was very long and we were not always told everything in a logical order. When the student retelling our English story in Vietnamese finished, the original story teller was like "... Uh... No..." The teacher, who had just been listening, then explained where the mistakes had happened and what they could do better next time. It was a very interesting experience to be there.
They also make a distinction between "translating" (which is taught as a separate class) and "interpreting" (the class we attended). Translating is where you have a document and you translate word by word, or sentence by sentence, where as interpreting is when you are taking in spoken information in one language, processing it and saying the same information (or story) again in a different language. I think we choose not to make this distinction as often, because we like to imagine that an interpreter is just a translation conduit, but in reality, this is not the case. How can they be? It's the same as a 100% unbiased reporter; just not gonna happen. And I had never thought about or realized this until today when I saw the two used side by side.
This afternoon we gave reports on our three field trips during our culture class. The way the class was organized was very different than I had hoped/planned for, but really it was probably as much as I should have expected. Hopefully that will make more sense when I post my report, but in short, I'm having a bit more culture shock (culture confusion?) in Vietnam than I did in Thailand. It's not anything that disrupts my day, or makes it overly difficult to live here; it's more cultural differences that make me dislike studying here. While I'm sure some of this is me reading more into situations than I should, trying to observe and take in a foreign culture, I feel that some of my observations are valid. I also realize I'm being vague, but I'm still working on my paper where I'm exploring this idea. I'll post it soon though, (because I have to turn it in soon) and hopefully I will be better able to express this at that time.
This evening we are leaving for Sapa, the French-built and founded resort town. Excited. Must go pack!
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