Lost in translation

Translation is no easy job.

My boss at the VNU gave me a textbook of International Political Economy to translate into Vietnamese. At first, I thought: "I've read this. I've studied the subject. It shouldn't be too hard for me to translate it". And I was wrong. As it turned out, both of my English and Vietnamese are not good enough to do the job. And I obviously know little about the subject (Believe it or not, I might teach an introductory course on IPE in the fall for college students!!!).

That worries me. IPE is relatively new in Vietnam - so far it has only been taught at 2 universities nationwide. There is a huge shortage for textbooks, let alone good ones on the subject. So future Vietnamese IPE students might well have no choice but to read the textbook that I've translated. And they would find it boring, or worse, confusing. My boss would fire me for ruining the future of Vietnamese IPE. Oh boy.

The irrational part of me would say: Blame it on the chemo, since it is a perfect excuse for almost everything now. But the chemo can only make you tired, it cannot turn you into a bad translator. And the truth is: I am simply a bad translator.

So I guess that I have to spend time restudying both languages. And continuing this translation project might be the only way to do it.

The new me

To celebrate the end of the second round of chemo, I decided to go get a hair cut. You might think that it is such a waste of money, as I might lose my hair during the next rounds of treatment. But as I always say: looking good makes you feel good, so as long as I feel good, it doesn’t matter if it’s only a month, a week, or even a day.

My doctor agreed to let me leave the hospital for 2 hours to get a hair cut in the shopping mall opposite to the hospital (this is typically Singaporean by the way – you can find a shopping mall anywhere you go). So then wearing the hospital gown with a tube still hanging out on my chest, I got on a wheelchair, excitedly let my auntie push me toward a fancy - looking Korean hair salon

Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to present to you the new me. :)

The red headband

The other day I was going out with a friend and I wanted to wear this lovely green dress with a matching headband. But much to my disappointment, the green headband was nowhere to be found. The only thing I could find was an old red headband that I rarely wear. I was so frustrated – I wanted to wear that green dress, and I wanted a matching headband!

But as I took a second look at the red headband, I thought it wasn’t that bad, and all I had to do was to match it with a nice red dress.

I thought the lesson I learned from this was that I needed a better collection of headbands, but it seems like the red headband has taught me a lot more than that. I was frustrated when I couldn’t find my green headband to go with my green dress. Similarly, I was frustrated when I knew I couldn’t have a normal life like other people. To put it simply, I am often frustrated when I don’t get what I want.

But as the headband story tells me, life isn’t always about getting what I want. I was fine with a red headband and a red dress, even though it wasn’t what I wanted. I am going to be fine living a life different from those of people my age. As long as I live it in style.