Long post will be long.
Day 17
One sentence summary: Most awkward translating experience ever.
In the morning I translated for an adoptee-foster mother reunion. That reunion went well - everyone was happy to see each other, both parties were polite and pleasant, the foster mother and the adoptee both thanked me affectionately, they gave me a few pieces of Danish chocolate-covered almonds - and I felt happy knowing that I did some good to some people in the world.
The next translation appointment, however, was difficult.
The workers at Holt repeatedly told us to be careful with what to translate and what not to, as cultural differences and general lack of tact can cause people to say some potentially offensive or difficult things that could hurt feelings.
I could write for hours explaining exactly when went down, but given time constraints and privacy issues (and everyone's attention span), I have made it into list form. Here is the collection of "What NOT to say when you meet your long-lost children after decades".
1. Do not repeatedly express your frustration that you and your child (who has lived his/her life as a foreign citizen) have a language barrier. Of course you have a language barrier.
2. Do not nitpick about your child's religion (or lack thereof) and repeatedly say that he/she should be going to the (Protestant) church and believe in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
3. Do not be nosy and ask whether your child prefers Asian women or white women, and then comment that you think *country censored for privacy* has the best-looking ladies.
4. Do not ask repeatedly when your child is going to be married.
5. Do not repeatedly comment that your child is fat, and that the child should lose weight, and worry that the jewelry you got for him/her won't fit because he/she's too fat, and comment again that he/she's too fat. Do not, ESPECIALLY, speculate that he/she is fat because he/she had *issues censored for privacy*.
(That last part, oh my god. It was so offensive and heartless. How can people just SAY that and not realize that is such a horrible thing to say?!)
6. Do not play the blame game of who "abandoned" your child. Bottom line is, he/she was sent away regardless.
7. Do not attribute your child's talents and interests by citing dubious statistics, such as saying that children take after 70% of their mother's intelligence.
8. If you have a complicated family history, do not talk about things that could potentially hurt the child's feelings - actually, don't even talk about it amongst yourselves because I can't translate it, and the child kind of feels left alone in the dark when I cannot tell him/her what those long conversations are about becuase it's a sensitive matter.
So yes, it was the most awkward translating experience I ever had, and I shall refrain from saying anything further about it on the blog other than this list. It does make me realize what a tricky business translating is, and how much influence they wield in a situation when they choose to translate the other person's words at all, and what words they use when they do so.
Day 18:
One sentence summary: YJS has acupuncture.
Strictly speaking, I have not been all that well during my stay in Korea. I wasn't physically sick, but my skin and hair had been in horrible condition since the end of June, among other issues. It was clear that SOMETHING in me was off, even if it wasn't evident.
So before heading out to Coex Mall, we visited an Oriental medicine clinic near my aunt's place.
I have never went to an Oriental medicine clinic before - it smelled of the strong, but not entirely unpleasant scent of traditional herbal medicine.
The doctor took my pulse, asked about my symptoms as well as asking general health-related questions. He also pressed at my abdomen with his fingers to see where it hurt more. (the left side hurt more)
A while later, he came to the conclusion that I am naturally born with unstable flow of hormones and whatnot in my body (which appears to be hereditary, as my mother confirmed she is like that as well), and when it gets suceptible to excessive amounts of stress that my body cannot handle, it becomes even more unstable, which is causing all these problems as of now.
He also said that I have an "explosive" trait (hence my left abdomen hurt more when probed), meaning that I would blow up when I am very upset (which is true), but that I have not been properly getting rid of the stress due to my introverted personality.
Basically, the diagnosis was that stress was fucking me up.
(Yes, yes it has. But could it be that I am stressed to the point that my own body is turning against me? Clearly I need better coping mechanisms!)
I was prescribed some medicine which I'll take for the next three months (whee, I get to show you guys in Ann Arbor what it looks like, I guess) and meanwhile, they were going to give me some acupuncture to relieve the current problems I was having.
Because the left side of my body was affected, they put needles on my right hand, arm, abdomen, and leg.
Acupuncture didn't hurt all that much, actually. There was the initial sting when the needles go in your body, but it really just feels like being pricked by a needle, then a bit of dull, numb pain as if, you know, someone poked a needle in your body. To summarize, it wasn't all that bad.
They did something interesting with the needles on my abdomen, though - the nurse brought a machine with a bunch of dials and wires, and connected the wires to the needles on my abdomen. The machine, I assume, sent electricity through the wires (to the sound of the regular ticking of the machine). It felt as if my stomach was pulsating, like I had the heart located near my stomach instead of my chest. That was not a sensation that I expected my abdomen would ever feel.
So to sum it all up, the trip to the Oriental medicine clinic was an interesting experience. I know the whole thing with acupuncture and herbal medicine may seem shady to some, but personally, I feel that it isn't some huge fraud - it still persists even in modern times for a reason. I see it more as Eastern medicine and Western medicine picking up the same problems in the human body in different ways, kind of like two art students drawing a still life of the same apple, except one is painting it and the other is drawing with pencil. The pencil drawings are more line-detailed and paint has color, but in the end, they're still drawing the same apple. Each branch of medicine has different focus points and approaches, but in the end they still pinpoint and solve the same bodily ailments.
Day 19 (which was today) and onwards will move to the next post, as I need to sleep. Good night everyone!
