Another Gig?

Monday June 25, 8:37 p.m.

Back on Friday, I took the bus down to Vic Park Station and then walked a bit south of the main street of Danforth Ave. to meet someone at the 2nd floor balcony of the Loblaws Superstore at about 2 p.m. Apparently an old friend of mine in Japan who I helped translate a rental agreement a few years ago decided to repay the favour by recommending me to another friend of his who is operating a small translation firm right here in Toronto.

The fellow was a pretty amiable fellow: kinda reminded me of a mix between Bill Murray and Bill Pullman. Before our meeting, we'd a few exchanges via e-mail. I wasn't too sure about whether I was capable enough to do professional translating, but he reassured me that I probably have the chops for it. But he made it quite clear to me that speed AND accuracy will be needed.

I did a test of sorts for him via a file containing five different short passages from different categories for me to translate into English from Japanese. So I spent a few hours on that on Saturday night...not too bad, but I do hope that I don't get a request to translate patent claims on chemical processes anytime soon.

I've been doing my fair share of substitute teaching lately but it's also nice to have another thing on the side.

Otsukaresama, Discovery

courtesy of Oregon Hiker
of Flickr

Tuesday April 17, 12:11 p.m.

Saw the final flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery this morning. Of course, CNN was right there when it landed at Dulles International.

I was still too young to remember the Apollo missions. I think I was barely four when the first moon landing took place in 1969 but I can't remember anything from that. The earliest I can remember is Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz linkups. But the shuttles I do remember. Right from when the first training shuttle Enterprise was unveiled in front of most of the cast from the original "Star Trek"series (interesting how Shatner wasn't there....wonder if they hated him back then, too.) and up to the very first launch of the Columbia in 1981. I distinctly remember waking up on the morning of April 12, and listening to ABC's Frank Reynolds, giddy as a boy on Xmas morning and just a couple of weeks after melting down on live TV during the Reagan assassination attempt, intoning the word "Go!"as the Columbia finally got off the ground.

Of course, the Columbia and the Challenger are gone now. But it was poignant seeing the oldest intact shuttle, Discovery, given its final ride to Washington for eternal display at the Smithsonian after 30 years of shuttle service. And I think there was the additional feeling of full circle since our very first views of a shuttle in the air was when we saw Enterprise piggybacking that 747. Our final view of Discovery was the same.

"Otsukaresama"is a daily expression used in Japan when someone leaves the office for the day. It literally means "You worked hard". It is basically the company conversational goodbye, but the term is still used especially when someone really did put the extra effort into something. I think both NASA and the remaining shuttles deserve that final greeting.

My only wish is that when the United States gets back into space exploration again, the next actual ship is called the Enterprise.

A Taste For Tests

by suhakri_hsu via Flickr

Tuesday January 17, 10:02 p.m.

It's nice to have that connection with Japan via NHK over here in Toronto. The news related on that annual custom involving thousands of third-year high school students all throughout the country: Examination Hell. Yup, they are studying, cramming, burning the midnight oil....and eating their way to pass the much dreaded exams for university.

Katsudon and Kit Kat are the big ticket items right now this month. Tonkatsu restaurants are probably seeing higher-than-average numbers of teens tracking through their doors while convenience stores are double-stocking their supply of one of America's famous chocolate bars. And why is that?

Well, it all has to do with puns. Over here, deep-fried pork cutlets on rice and Kit Kats would probably evoke emergency runs to a heart specialist eventually, but over there, they all have to do with WINNING (maybe Charlie Sheen could use them in his next tour of America). Katsu also happens to mean "to win"in Japanese, hence the superstitious value in katsudon. And Kit Kat pronounced in katakana sounds like kitto katsu :"surely win". Good luck food as well as comfort food. Not necessarily healthy food, but when these items could possibly warp probability fields in favour of Taro or Akiko to get to their desired institute of higher learning, why not?