Interpreting

Well, I believe that I did a pretty good job today.  It did help that I did some research ahead of time on the Internet.  I did find that the information that I found on the Internet was a great deal more user-friendly than 20 years ago when I was trying to find out more about Buddhism and came away with a bunch of talk about Nirvana, but no real knowledge or understanding of Buddhism.  Some of the website that I found the most useful were: Buddhism in Thailand, Thai Buddhism, and An Interview with "Phra Frarang".

We went to pick up the monk today, and he brought along his assistant.  He has been in the States for 10 years and a monk for 20 years.  He is a Thai monk, but he lives in a temple run by the Laos people.  We ended up being the first speakers after introduction because we needed to leave shortly after 11am so that the monk could eat before noon.

Some of the words that were used by the monk, I was not able to directly translate into English, but I believe that I got the gist of what he was saying across to the audience.  My reading on the 227 tenets and the most important aspects of Buddhism helped me when the audience asked what some of the 227 tenets were.  The monk related the four most important tenets which were no lying, cheating, or stealing, no killing of animals, even insects, no sexual acts, and living your life peacefully with an open mind and heart.

The audience was from the Lifelong Learning Institute and consisted mostly of elderly members of the community, but also included the mayor, the fire chief, and members of city council.  The local newspaper people also attended.

The Buddhist expert members of the panel were a Jew turned Catholic turned Buddhist and a Catholic nun who had experiences in predominantly Buddhist countries in Asia.  I did not get to hear them speak, but would be interested to know if they agreed with me with regard to my translation of the monk's words.

Another Attempt of Interpreting

My Thai language skills are pretty good considering that I have never lived in the country for more that three and a half months at a time.  I can speak the main dialect and understand three different Thai dialects, the main one, the Northern (Phrae) dialect, and the Southern dialect.  I can also understand some Lao and Cambodian people because the languages are similar.

I have been called upon to interpret a few times.  I have done mostly volunteer work for family friends by going to the hospital for a circumcision and speaking to English classes at schools in Thailand.  I had one paid opportunity for a family friend who had clients in Thailand come to visit the US.  For me that was an enjoyable and easy opportunity because it was mostly conversational and just interpreting for the clients landmarks as we passed them.

This weekend, I am the substitute interpreter for a Buddhist monk who is going to be speaking about Buddhism near where a Buddhist temple is going to be built in Central Ohio.  He is going to be speaking to students at a school.  Now, schools and students, I am comfortable and have experience; Buddhism, not so much.  I know enough about it to know that it is a way of life, not particularly a religion.  My parents are Buddhist, and my mother is pretty religious, but she raised me on the basic tenet that if you do good, you will get good.  Her belief is that all religion is good, so when I married a Catholic and have two children that I am raising Catholic, it is not a big deal.

I think that I am going to have to do a crash course of reading up on Buddhism sometime between now and Saturday!