Wow I just received some photos taken by Mathias, a professional photographer, who I met in Hennessy’s new product launching event last month. I was the interpreter for the media interview with Hennessy’s CEO and Mathias was their photographer.
After I opened the attachment and was amazed by the quality of the photos. Look great! Actually that was my first time that I met him and I was bold enough to ask him email me the photos with me inside:-) I know it must take him a long time to pick out those photos with me inside through thousands of photos he took that day. Not even to mention the time he spent on editing.
Here come the photos! Millions of thanks to Mathias! I will definitely recommend him to anyone who wants to hire a photographer!
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Hennessy Media Interview
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@Hangzhou Fuchun
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hennessy new limited cognac
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Dancing on the water
It was a business meeting between a western apparel company R and a textile company L in Zhejiang province. Top management of both sides attended this meeting to discuss possible ways to cooperate.
The general manager of L put forward an option, but the Chairman of R said “No” and explained that was not how they worked. Then the general manger of L smiled and explained the option again, and the Chairman of R waved his hand and said “No. No”. The general manager of L repeated his option for the third time and the chairman of R was somewhat annoyed. He raised his voice and reiterated his No for one more time.
At that moment, the Chairman of R said to me with a stern face: “Did you translate my words correctly?” I was frightened and saddened by his blame. I did translate both sides’ words correctly and felt that I was wronged. But this was my first time being an interpreter and at that time I was just a fresh graduate. I dared not to rebut. I just mumbled in an extremely low voice: “I translated your words correctly, but they insisted to repeat their idea.”
After another round of reiteration of their respective positions, the meeting ended in disagreement. I walked out of the meeting room with depression and frustration. Back at home, I complained to my roommate that I was wronged by the western chairman. I said: “He didn’t understand Chinese culture. In China, no doesn’t mean a real “no”. If a person says No to you, you can always find a way to make that person say yes, especially when a businessman deals with government officials. ”Then my roommate asked: “Did you tell that chairman about this cultural difference?”
I was enlightened by my roommate’s suggestion. I should have told both sides their different cultural meanings of the “No.” I should have told the western Chairman that “No” doesn’t mean a real “No” in China. The Chinese general manager thought the Western chairman does not really mean that option is not acceptable and hoped he might either reconcile to it or offer modification to it.” And I should have also told the Chinese general manager that the western Chairman’s “No” is a real No.
The big lesson I learned from my first-time interpreting experience is that as an interpreter, one needs to interpret both the content but also the underlying cultural meaning if there might be a misunderstanding resulting from the cultural differences.
