The Interpreter
by Alex Andy Phuong
An
altruistic interpreter was born in Pasadena while
his parents originated from Asia. This
helpful individual could never understand foreign
languages. In fact, he failed a
Spanish class while in college. Even
with that hardship, the interpreter began life
anew at a community college. It was
there that he graduated with an Associate of Arts
in English, and earned his first job there as an
ESL tutor.
All
of that success did not happen in just one day,
though. After all, Rome was not built
in a day. This interpreter used his
knowledge of language and literature to have a
dramatic impact on the lives of people he met in
college. One very special student, in
particular, asked for his help. This
Asian woman was horrible in English, but the
helpful interpreter used his compassionate nature
to help this damsel in distress graduate from
college as well. In fact, the
interpreter and the student both earned their
baccalaureates that same year in 2015. Graduation
day was very important to them because they would
not have walked across that iconic university
stage if they had never met.
A
year after the ceremony, the interpreter and his
special student spent a Saturday night together
at a library. The library had a free
screening of the film Lost in Translation. The
interpreter thought that he would enjoy the film
since it was an Oscar-nominated modern-day
classic. Once the film ended, he
turned his head to the student he had helped, and
asked for her opinion.
“I
don’t understand this movie.”
“I
don’t either.”
Oh
well, at least they both supported each other
even though they were not bilingual.
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