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30-04-2014, 12:20 AM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
76959.1
MY FT SUPERIORS MADE DISPARAGING REMARKS ABOUT SINGAPOREANS IN FRONT OF ME
Post date:
28 Apr 2014 - 2:24pm
The headline "Singaporeans are being bullied in their own country" (http://therealsingapore.com/content/...ir-own-country (http://therealsingapore.com/content/singaporeans-are-being-bullied-their-own-country)) prompted me to relate another incident that happened when I was still working at my previous company, Kewill - which misled me and later replaced me with an FT too (http://therealsingapore.com/content/...former-company (http://therealsingapore.com/content/not-only-replaced-ft-also-misled-former-company)).
During an informal team dinner, the Dutch IT manager (who hired me) and the Japanese marketing lady (who interviewed me together with him) started disparaging Singapore(ans) in front of the rest of us: another Japanese logistics project manager, an Australian-born Japanese IT engineer, and me.
Being the only Singaporean around, I was outnumbered and felt so horrible about not being able to defend my fellow locals or say "then why don't you return to your country if you think it's better over there?" (especially since they could probably retort "well if we were there then would we have been around to hire you?").
Please do not boast that you would have spoken up if you were in my shoes unless you are posting your comment with a Facebook profile that shows NOT ONLY your real name (like mine displayed at the bottom of this letter), BUT ALSO your face and current employer (those who are only still students who have yet to enter the workforce do not count either), if you are claiming to be braver than me.
Although before I found a new job I did not want to risk making a prospective employer think that I was someone who would "badmouth" his former organisation (even by simply stating facts that actually should not need to be hidden), I have since been working in a huge MNC where my skills are valued so nevertheless, would you dare to complain about your previous employer and name it like I am doing now (above)?
My older post linked above did not describe how the company suddenly found fault with my translations when they wanted me to leave despite the director having complimented my job performance not long before that, but I would like to elaborate below.
First, that Japanese marketing lady who had told me I did well in the pre-employment language assessment came to my desk and "just wanted to offer some advice" to me (in front of everybody) to paraphrase more often rather than translate directly (which I hardly did), even though in fact her own translations were more like rewriting two different versions instead - surely some customers would find it odd how the numbers of key product features in point form differ between her Japanese and English brochures?
Next, the Head of Sales scolded me for not being able to explain "representative company" to her when instead she was the expert in business deals who was supposed to be aware of what exactly was meant by that term from a contractual or sales and marketing perspective.
Just for example, if a sentence reads "I will send you the relevant documents" in Japanese, my role as a translator is to simulate a message written in English, not act as a coordinator involved in the project to find out which documents were being referred to and list them down instead - in case of any dispute, who is to be held accountable if the originator subsequently insists "no the documents include this but not that"?
I thank my lucky stars that some organisations still appreciate me unlike the government, hope that other victimised Singaporeans make it in spite of this country's fucked-up policies, and know which party to vote against in the 2016 election.
Terence Lim
TRS Contributor
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?180590-My-ft-superiors-made-disparaging-remarks-about-singaporeans-in-front-of-me&goto=newpost).
76959.1
MY FT SUPERIORS MADE DISPARAGING REMARKS ABOUT SINGAPOREANS IN FRONT OF ME
Post date:
28 Apr 2014 - 2:24pm
The headline "Singaporeans are being bullied in their own country" (http://therealsingapore.com/content/...ir-own-country (http://therealsingapore.com/content/singaporeans-are-being-bullied-their-own-country)) prompted me to relate another incident that happened when I was still working at my previous company, Kewill - which misled me and later replaced me with an FT too (http://therealsingapore.com/content/...former-company (http://therealsingapore.com/content/not-only-replaced-ft-also-misled-former-company)).
During an informal team dinner, the Dutch IT manager (who hired me) and the Japanese marketing lady (who interviewed me together with him) started disparaging Singapore(ans) in front of the rest of us: another Japanese logistics project manager, an Australian-born Japanese IT engineer, and me.
Being the only Singaporean around, I was outnumbered and felt so horrible about not being able to defend my fellow locals or say "then why don't you return to your country if you think it's better over there?" (especially since they could probably retort "well if we were there then would we have been around to hire you?").
Please do not boast that you would have spoken up if you were in my shoes unless you are posting your comment with a Facebook profile that shows NOT ONLY your real name (like mine displayed at the bottom of this letter), BUT ALSO your face and current employer (those who are only still students who have yet to enter the workforce do not count either), if you are claiming to be braver than me.
Although before I found a new job I did not want to risk making a prospective employer think that I was someone who would "badmouth" his former organisation (even by simply stating facts that actually should not need to be hidden), I have since been working in a huge MNC where my skills are valued so nevertheless, would you dare to complain about your previous employer and name it like I am doing now (above)?
My older post linked above did not describe how the company suddenly found fault with my translations when they wanted me to leave despite the director having complimented my job performance not long before that, but I would like to elaborate below.
First, that Japanese marketing lady who had told me I did well in the pre-employment language assessment came to my desk and "just wanted to offer some advice" to me (in front of everybody) to paraphrase more often rather than translate directly (which I hardly did), even though in fact her own translations were more like rewriting two different versions instead - surely some customers would find it odd how the numbers of key product features in point form differ between her Japanese and English brochures?
Next, the Head of Sales scolded me for not being able to explain "representative company" to her when instead she was the expert in business deals who was supposed to be aware of what exactly was meant by that term from a contractual or sales and marketing perspective.
Just for example, if a sentence reads "I will send you the relevant documents" in Japanese, my role as a translator is to simulate a message written in English, not act as a coordinator involved in the project to find out which documents were being referred to and list them down instead - in case of any dispute, who is to be held accountable if the originator subsequently insists "no the documents include this but not that"?
I thank my lucky stars that some organisations still appreciate me unlike the government, hope that other victimised Singaporeans make it in spite of this country's fucked-up policies, and know which party to vote against in the 2016 election.
Terence Lim
TRS Contributor
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?180590-My-ft-superiors-made-disparaging-remarks-about-singaporeans-in-front-of-me&goto=newpost).