Lost in Translation
Have you seen Lost in Translation? If not, go rent it, borrow it, buy it (really cheap over here), or go see it with a friend. The scenes of Bill Murray shooting the commercials are a good representation of my whole day. Only he had these short periods of translation and then found a pretty American blond to run around Tokyo. He gets told to “look at the camera” after the Japanese director makes a long soliloquy. You wouldn’t believe how often I listen to a long conversation to then be given an abbreviated translation, sorta like “He agreed.”Yesterday was another day of such frustration. I wanted to play golf, but after my last round last Sunday, I slightly aggravated my bad back again. So I decided to rest the back and get some repairs done around my apartment. Principally I had hoped to finally get my DSL Internet connection working. After hooking up last week, it worked only once more. I thought I had an appointment to get it repaired on Saturday, but no service crew ever came as expected.
So on Sunday, I was out for a long walk, and decided to stop in the China Telecom office where I had signed up for DSL. Only this time I had no interpreter. I should not have even stopped in. After an hour of back and forth attempts to get them to understand that my DSL was not working and that no service crew had come by, I finally was told to go back to my flat and call my apartment management. When I finally got back, several people came from my apartment complex to look at my computer, and concluded what I knew all along: China Telecom needed to come look at it!! THAT’S WHAT I WAS TRYING TO TELL THEM AT CHINA TELECOM MYSELF!!!!
Oh well, hopefully I will get DSL to work in my apartment someday! Until then, sorry if I’m not so responsive to emails.
See Lost in Translation! And think of me 24 hours a day!!
posted by A Bryson (formerly) in China @ 2:16 PM
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