Tuesday, January 19, 2010
I received this email yesterday from YOG.
"Dear volunteers,
Thank you very much for your interest in joining our language team for the 1st ever Youth Olympic Games, to be held in Singapore, August 14-26.
With the help of one of our native Japanese speaking volunteers, we will call you Tuesday-Thrusday to conduct a phone interview. The volunteer is only available in the mornings, until 1pm. I hope you take five minutes of your morning to assess your proficiency of Japanese, before confirming as a language volunteer.
Thank you again for your interest in the Games and we look forward to speaking to you soon."
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And Tada! I received the phone call in the morning.
It was supposed to be a Q&A interview, but i ended up having to ask the interviewer to "Please repeat again" and "I don't understand." She was speaking faster than the speed of my Bunka teachers!
One of the questions was about why I applied to participate in YOG. I truly understood the question and I can easily convey my thoughts in English and Mandarin, but I was tongue-tied and couldn't immediately find the right words and grammar to answer in Japanese right away. So it was a very long "Erm....." , followed by some broken Japanese sentences, and then another long "Erm...", until the interviewer cut my agony and posted another question that I totally couldn't catch.
But it was really enjoyable. It's been 5 months since I last spoke a Japanese sentence, and this impromptu practice session, without the need to face the person directly, was truly good. I told her my Japanese isn't good, but she said it was ok. She asked me to look out for the email soon, and I take it as a rejection. Never mind, since I'm scheduled for another YOG briefing this Saturday.
Interestingly, this phone conversation rekindled my desire to power up my Japanese conversational ability. I'm glad my next Japanese class is starting this Sunday.
Hello to the new Enrichment Sundays once again.
人生是黑白的.
11:46 AM <3
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