10th International Convention Of Melaka Twin Cities II

The next morning after the registration, I sat at a corner outside the convention hall. While waiting for Emmy and KC, I continued to translate the last part of the second speech which I had not been able to finish before I left my house at 7am. My two colleagues who arrived a bit later were invited by other staff for breakfast on the same floor. They telephoned me to join them and passed me the coupon. My heavy dinner the previous night still had effect on my stomach, so I just took cereal with milk and a croissant.

After being fed with good food two times, we were finally required to "produce" in our kandang (cage for domestic animals in Malay), called by Emmy to describe the wooden booths specially built to cater to the interpreters.

From our kandang, we could see people who held important government posts in Melaka, ambassadors, mayors of city halls and city council from all over Asia or their representatives, speakers, heads of departments, agencies, federal and state members of the media and all the local and foreign participants who were gathered in the opening ceremony of this annual event.

Our main job there was to read the speeches by the Chief Minister (CM) of Melaka and the Mayor of Melaka Historic City council (MBMB) which we had translated into Mandarin, French, Spanish and Arabic respectively, while they were delivering their inaugural addresses in English. Non-English speaking participants who needed the simultaneous translation in any of these four languages and who had switched on their headphones would be listening to our voice through the microphone.

After the short opening ceremony, the CM of Melaka, ambassadors and city mayors proceeded to a reception and special meeting among them. We interpreters were supposed to follow these very very important people (VVIP) downstairs immediately but we preferred to spend a brief shooting time with the mascot of the forthcoming SUKMA XIII who was happy to pose with us in front of the camera.

The secretary of the event Sukhirah who was in charge of the interpreters was desperately looking for us, for the close door meeting had already started. So we quickly entered the Phoenix ballroom to settle down in our second kandang.

The first agenda was to revise the minutes of the meeting 2009. I had been carrying the hard copy with me since Monday morning but I had no time to even read the 12 pages once due to my heavy teaching load. Since I had not been instructed to work on the report, I selectively translated main outlines.

Next, the ambassadors and the city mayors gave their speech one by one and discussed on the topic "Heritage and Tourism". Our task became much more challenging as we had to interpret on the spot without any texts given in advance!

Sitting between Emmy and KC, I could hear Spanish on my left and Mandarin on my right for the same speech. Lack of experience, I was sometimes stuck in words when coming across names, unfamiliar vocabulary or accents. KC neither was used to improvising. Only Emmy seemed to cope with the situation very well for I kept hearing her voice in her mother tongue.

I had forgot to switch off my cell phone inside my handbag which suddenly rang! Thank God it was not loud. I promptly put it in a silent mode and wondered why Albert P had telephoned at that hour. Receiving no response from me, he sent an SMS "Paul was caught cheating in test by a teacher... Please help to counsel." In the midst of my "tough labour", I managed to speedily type a message to the symbolic father of the Calvary Care Home boys--"I'm now working as an interpreter for VVIP in an international convention. My life is also at stake!..."

One week earlier at MBMB, I had been told by Sukhirah that the Romanian ambassador was the one who requested a interpreter for the French language. Since, my worry was minimal knowing that he was after all not a French native speaker. Among the four interpreters, the colleague for Arabic was the first to step forward from the kandang to give simultaneous translation in English to all the participants while the Yemen ambassador presented his speech in Arabic. When it was the Romanian ambassador's turn, he spoke fluent English! I began to be confused about who actually needed my service. Anyway, it was a relief to me and from that moment onwards I simply imagined myself speaking French to the air.

When the meeting was over, I was quite exhausted though I had not made extreme effort. During the buffet lunch at Oasis Pool Side, my stomach was still not craving for food. I had a moderate meal consisting of salad, soup and fruit, which surprised Emmy who had witnessed the contrast of the quantity of my serving the previous night.

The real reason behind my apparently small appetite was that it was looking forward to the grander dinner later...

That afternoon, I alone stayed back to translate the two other speeches for the closing ceremony the next day. When the job was done at 5pm, then only did I walk out from the hotel to hang around at the nearby shopping malls.

The practice of "pay first, play later" was indeed a better option.