Workshop, so far, so good. We have 13 participants, from a pretty wild and wooly part of this country. They are all from one language group, and they are definitely more comfortable using their mother tongue than any other language. So we are having everything that we say translated into their language, which, of course, I can't speak! It's great to have it all translated, so people can understand everything they need to understand... but man, it makes the class go SLOW. Plus, I think the guy that is translating for me is, well, editorializing a bit as he goes! It sure would be nice to know what's going on more of the time, but, malesh, such is life in a foreign country. It is also very strange to make a joke... and have to wait 3 minutes to see if people think it was funny or not.
They are good guys, and all seem very eager to learn. We were doing lots of getting up and dancing this afternoon, though, because it was so hot in the conference room, and it's hard to keep people with you when it's hot and they have bellies full of beans and rice after lunch.
I was pretty proud of myself, because when we were doing introductions, Jackie got asked about her husband and children... so she had to go and tell them that she has no husband and no children. But at least she has grey hair and more wrinkles than I do, so that automatically gives her a bit more credibility... if I had had to admit to having no husband and no children, with my few (though slowly increasing) grey hairs and few (though slowly increasing) wrinkles, I would have very little credibility to stand up and teach these guys anything! So, I dodged the bullet, and will continue to dodge if it comes up again.
Of course, it's great to see my usual every day work colleagues again after my Christmas break. Only one of them, so far, has commented on how fat I had become at home. Unfortunately, he commented on it over and over again, on more than one occasion yesterday. Sigh. It's good to be home, isn't it?!
They are good guys, and all seem very eager to learn. We were doing lots of getting up and dancing this afternoon, though, because it was so hot in the conference room, and it's hard to keep people with you when it's hot and they have bellies full of beans and rice after lunch.
I was pretty proud of myself, because when we were doing introductions, Jackie got asked about her husband and children... so she had to go and tell them that she has no husband and no children. But at least she has grey hair and more wrinkles than I do, so that automatically gives her a bit more credibility... if I had had to admit to having no husband and no children, with my few (though slowly increasing) grey hairs and few (though slowly increasing) wrinkles, I would have very little credibility to stand up and teach these guys anything! So, I dodged the bullet, and will continue to dodge if it comes up again.
Of course, it's great to see my usual every day work colleagues again after my Christmas break. Only one of them, so far, has commented on how fat I had become at home. Unfortunately, he commented on it over and over again, on more than one occasion yesterday. Sigh. It's good to be home, isn't it?!
No comments:
Post a Comment