I’ve been doing this over-the-phone Mandarin/English interpreting job for about 6 weeks now. The satisfatory points for me is only about 70%.

Sure all the clients I’ve been helped complimented on my customer service and linguistic skills, and always very much appreciated what I have done for them. Whether it’s to help them activating new credit cards, starting new electricity service, seeing doctors, reporting to the insurance company for car accidents, getting the police officer over to deal with an emergency… All and all, I did contribute a bit of myself to make their lives easier.

But, I just don’t feel like I can keep doing this job for any longer…

The super low hour pay is the majoy thing. $7.50 an hour is the most dreadful hour pay I’ve ever had in the U.S. (FYI, the lowest legal wage in San Franciso is $8.25 per hour). Oftentimes, I made fun of myself that I should find a cashier job at “Trader Joe’s” or “Whole Food”, at least I can get the 20% off employee discount buying groceries.

The 2nd thing is, I can’t really “interact” with people. One fun thing about teaching is you get to get direct feedback from students every day.That’s a big reward from teaching jobs, considering the low-paid, time-consuming and mind-exhuasting nature of teaching. The students acoomplishment is the biggest reward for teachers.

Anyway… I’m still searching for a better job. Meanwhile, I’ll keep serving limited-English-speaking Mandarin speakers, and keep learning from them.

After nearly 5 hours of practice within 1 week, I passed the test on the phone this afternoon. It was a great relief considering I was not with my best physical condition, and my mind went blank a few times during the test.

My testing supervisor was very nice to me. She said she saw my potential being a great on-line interpreter even though I didn’t do a good job today. And she gave me some great feedback and professional advice. Truly appreciate it.

I’ll start teaching Derby Mandarin on a weekly baiss startng this afternoon.

Spent 2 and half hours on the phone for the training course.

Had an interview with Dr. Fallon, the director of Beverly Hill institute this afternoon.

I have a great feeling that I will work very pleasantly there.

Today is my momentum.

After completing 2 phone interviews this morning, I got a physcial interview at Beverly Hill Lingual Institue tomorow. And later when I was preparing for lunch, I got a very late reply from San Francisco State University regarding my request about 3 months ago.

The good news is, Confucius Institute is recently open at UCLA, which is only about 20 minute bus ride from my place. If I ever consider pursing a Chinese teaching credential, that will be a good place to go.  

The 1st Confucius institute was open in Soul, Korea in 2004. Within 3 years, the Chinese Language office has promoted up to 120 institute around the world. Even though I’m from Taiwan, and always a strong advocate of traditional characters, I’m afraid that Taiwanese government has lost the battle of promoting Traditional character in this movement.

Done 2 phone interviews this morning.

The 1st

Went for an interview at Lindamood-Bell Laerning center this afternoon.

My mom-in-law hooked me up with my brother-in-law’s ex-step-sister Jamie (yeah… a bit too many hyphens here) for my job inquiry. It turned out Jamie doesn’t work on the recruitment side for the private schools in L.A. area; she places the students to their suitable schools. So, it’s on the other side of the system.

Anyway, she told me this website– carneysandoe.com–that most private schools in L.A. will list their openings there, so I tried to apply myself on their website. Gosh… It took me just a little shoter than posting on Monster.com.

Jamie also suggests me that I might consider persuing a teaching credential for my future career, since most schools (even private ones) in L.A. request their teachers have one.

Repost old blog entry on September 15, 2006

My Lovely Students

I have to continue our target lesson for this week: Asking and giving directions. So, I let my students listen to the following conversation on the tape:

A woman: Hi, I need some directions. Do you happen to know where the hospital is?

A guy on street: You bet! It’s on …..

OK, I let them listen to it a couple of times without any written handout at hand, and had the lights off. In the dark, they can have better sense to “hear” things. Then, we had a great discussion about what they heard.

• “Sandy” popped out first: “I sink the man say: ‘You back’, be-causi the woman want to hospital, her back is pain, so, it  ‘you back’.”
• “Leon” disagreed: “No, no, I think the guy is not good. He is kinda ‘bu` hao`’ (not good in Chinese), so, it is “You bad”…”
• “Xiao Hong” continued: “I think it’s “bed”, she want to go hospital a bed, tired, you know, sleep on bed…”

Anyway, I put all the possible answers on the whiteboard, along with the correct “You bet” to help them make a decision. It turned out, everyone thought “You back” make more sense in this dialogue… !$%^&*

When I announced the accurate answer and explained this colloquial expression to them, they all said “English is difficult!! Strange!!”.

BTW, Ben gave me a fresh fig grew in his backyard 2 days ago. A-Ling’ gave me some home-made dim-sum yesterday. Jenny brings me vegetarian food almost every day. Mostly fresh fruit salad. And she’s gonna bring me some vegetarian moon cake tomorrow. Don’t you just love them?