Yukon Jay - 小祥

Now a Government Translator

After months and months of being frustrated over my lack of opportunities in attending closed door meetings with Asian mining & energy companies, I finally got my chance! Today Glen from a different Division within the Ministry asked me to help him out next week in a meeting with this big Chinese oil and gas company.

Since last year there's been a steady flow of foreign companies from China, Japan, Korea and India interested in BC's resources such as mining, oil and gas. And in all these meetings, I've been shut out... because it's "high profile" so they say. When you hear in the media about these emerging Asian countries and its bourgeoning economies, it is happening right in front of me! Talk about a perfect opportunity to bridge my geography major with my Asian Studies minor.

Of course there's a catch, I have to more or less translate. This is all confidential and I can't spurge on the details... essentially the issue is that Chinese are interested in an area northeast of BC and there's land-use rights with First Nations. The Chinese have poor English so negotiations have been a bit difficult... and Glen wants me to bridge this gap. Essentially, we want to know if they are still interested... hopefully yes because this project will generate a lot of revenue for the province.

In other meetings my supervisors have attended, the Chinese and Japanese always invite them out for lunch... especially the Japanese. So I've decided my measure of success at the meeting will not be by what's achieved and decided at the table... but whether I get invited to have lunch with them. If I get to dine at some fancy, high-class sushi or Chinese restaurant (located just below my office), then mission accomplished. :)